TERMS STARTING WITH
the action of divesting of a mask. Chiefly fig.
the act of hearing or attending; the state of hearing, or of being able to hear.
the act of passing or coming into a new habitat or place.
the act of rising to a higher level; ascent.
the act of separating or the state of being separated. division"s.
thea ::: n. --> A genus of plants found in China and Japan; the tea plant.
theandric ::: a. --> Relating to, or existing by, the union of divine and human operation in Christ, or the joint agency of the divine and human nature.
theanthropic ::: a. --> Alt. of Theanthropical
theanthropical ::: a. --> Partaking of, or combining, both divinity and humanity.
theanthropism ::: n. --> A state of being God and man.
The ascription of human atributes to the Deity, or to a polytheistic deity; anthropomorphism.
theanthropist ::: n. --> One who advocates, or believes in, theanthropism.
theanthropy ::: n. --> Theanthropism.
thearchic ::: a. --> Divinely sovereign or supreme.
thearchy ::: n. --> Government by God; divine sovereignty; theocracy.
theater ::: n. --> Alt. of Theatre
theatine ::: n. --> One of an order of Italian monks, established in 1524, expressly to oppose Reformation, and to raise the tone of piety among Roman Catholics. They hold no property, nor do they beg, but depend on what Providence sends. Their chief employment is preaching and giving religious instruction.
One of an order of nuns founded by Ursula Benincasa, who died in 1618.
theatin ::: n. --> Alt. of Theatine
theatral ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to a theater; theatrical.
theatre ::: a place of action; field of operations. theatres.
theatre ::: n. --> An edifice in which dramatic performances or spectacles are exhibited for the amusement of spectators; anciently uncovered, except the stage, but in modern times roofed.
Any room adapted to the exhibition of any performances before an assembly, as public lectures, scholastic exercises, anatomical demonstrations, surgical operations, etc.
That which resembles a theater in form, use, or the like; a place rising by steps or gradations, like the seats of a theater.
theatrical ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to a theater, or to the scenic representations; resembling the manner of dramatic performers; histrionic; hence, artificial; as, theatrical performances; theatrical gestures.
theatricals ::: n. pl. --> Dramatic performances; especially, those produced by amateurs.
theatric ::: a. --> Theatrical.
theave ::: n. --> A ewe lamb of the first year; also, a sheep three years old.
the awakened Yop-Shakii arises, if is often fcU like a snake uncoiling and standing up straight and lifting itself more and more upwards. When it meets the Divine Consciousness above, then the force of the Divine Consciousness can more easily descend into the body and be fell working there to change the nature.
thebaic ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to Thebes in Egypt; specifically, designating a version of the Bible preserved by the Copts, and esteemed of great value by biblical scholars. This version is also called the Sahidic version.
thebaid ::: n. --> A Latin epic poem by Statius about Thebes in Boeotia.
thebaine ::: n. --> A poisonous alkaloid, C19H21NO3, found in opium in small quantities, having a sharp, astringent taste, and a tetanic action resembling that of strychnine.
theban ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to Thebes. ::: n. --> A native or inhabitant of Thebes; also, a wise man.
the bed on which a person dies.
the bound feet,
thecae ::: pl. --> of Theca
thecal ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to a theca; as, a thecal abscess.
thecaphore ::: n. --> A surface or organ bearing a theca, or covered with thecae.
See Basigynium.
thecasporous ::: a. --> Having the spores in thecae, or cases.
the cherishing or pursuit of high or noble principles, purposes, goals, etc.
the condition of being sullied or tainted.
the condition of existing or remaining within.
the condition or fact of not achieving the desired end or ends. **failure"s, failures, world-failure"s.
the cosmological theory holding that the universe is expanding, based on the interpretation of the color shift in the spectra of all the galaxies as being the result of the Doppler effect and indicating that all galaxies are moving away from one another.
the crippled brain,
the Divine, the Creator.
thee ::: the objective form of thou.
the food and drink that are regularly served or consumed.
the gardener croons,
the godheads of the living Suns,
the hair in curlers,
the hands you
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 higher ranges of spiritual mind have to open upon our being and consciousness and also that which is beyond even spiritual mind must appear in us if we are to fulfil the divine possibility of our birth into cosmic existence. …The Life Divine
the horny sheath covering the toes or lower part of the foot of a mammal, such as a horse, ox, or deer. hoof-mark.
the house consecrated lo the Divine. The transformation must be integral, and integral therefore the rejection of all that with- stands it.
the human race; human beings collectively; mankind.
the Immanent.
the Immobile
the Infinite ::: **A designation of the Deity or the absolute Being; God. Infinite"s. ::: *
the invisible. ::: the unseen or spiritual world; the Deity. Invisible, Invisible"s.
the ionner progress into the external nature and life and helps the integrality ol the sadhana.
their a/ter-consequences on the waking state subsequent to the cessation of the trance.
the linguistic usage that is grammatical and natural to native speakers of a language.
the lost herds of the sun
the lower movements have definitely gone — it has then to com- plete the work of displacing them.
the main body of various other large vehicles, such as a tank, ship, or flying boat.
them and has to aci upon them as an Influence rather than by its sovereign right of direct action ; its direct action becomes normal and preponderant only at a high stage of development or by yoga. A perception of inith which is inherent in the deepest substance of the consciousness, a sense of the good, true, beautiful, the Divine, is its privilege.
theme ::: 1. A topic of discourse or discussion. 2. A unifying or dominant idea, motif, etc. 3. A principal melodic subject in a musical composition. themes.
the method of psychological therapy originated by Sigmund Freud in which free association, dream interpretation, and analysis of resistance and transference are used to explore repressed or unconscious impulses, anxieties, and internal conflicts, in order to free psychic energy for mature love and work.
themselves obscure, incoherent or tricky and it is dangerous to associate with them or to undergo any influence.
themselves to be on the right. It is only when one looks from above in a consciousness clear of ego that one sees all sides of a thing and also their real truth.
thence ::: 1. From that place. 2. From that source, fact or reason; therefore. 3. From that time; thenceforth.
theocracies ::: systems of government in which God or a deity is held to be the civil ruler; thearchy.
theodicies ::: systems of the vindication of God"s goodness and justice in the face of the existence of evil.
theol. (of the Deity) Indwelling or abiding in the universe, time, etc.
theorem ::: 1. A rule or law esp. one expressed by an equation or formula. 2. An idea that has been demonstrated as true or is assumed to be so demonstrable.
theoricians ::: those who hold theories; theorists.
theorised ::: Formed or construct theories about. (Sri Aurobindo also employs the word as an adj.)
theorised ::: formed or construct theories about. (Sri Aurobindo also employs the word as an adj.)
theory ::: 1. A set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena, especially one that has been repeatedly tested or is widely accepted and can be used to make predictions about natural phenomena. 2. An assumption based on limited information or knowledge; a conjecture. theory"s, theories.
the physical features of a place or region.
the power or faculty of hearing or listening.
the psychic and emotional energy associated with instinctual biological drives. world-libido"s.
the quality or condition of being humble; the opposite of pride or haughtiness.
the quality or condition of being various or varied; diversity.
the rhythm of the attack. If it could be got rid of, the rhythm also could be broken.
the satisfaction of its desire ; it is a mistake to think that it must be either that or else the vital, in order to escape from its
the self same; the very same.
these openings in one’s nature and ieam to close them perma- nently to such attacks or to throw out the intruders at once or as soon as possible. The recurrence is no proof of a funda- mental incapacity ; if one takes the right inner attitude, it can and will be overcome. One must have faith in the Master of our life and works, even if for a long time He conceals Himself, and then in His own right lime He will reveal His Presence.
the sex difficulty, then these dreams or discharges without dream can only be a rising up of old dormant impressions in the sub- conscient. Such risings often take place when the Force is work- ing in the subconscient to clear it. It is also just possible that the discharges may be due, especially when there are no dreams, to purely materia? causes, c.g. the pressure of undischar^d urine or faecal matter near the bladder. But in any case, the thing is not to be disturbed and to put a force or will on the sex-cenlre or sex organ for these things to cease. This can be done just before sleeping. Usually after a time, if done regularly, it has an effect. A calm general pressure of will or force on the physi- cal subconscient is to be put. The subconscient may be often obstinate in its continual persistence, but it can and does accom- modate itself quickly or slowly to the will of the conscious being.
the side of fteedom comes to be first evident and then, by unison with the Will which is above Nature, complete.
the sound produced by or as if by bits of metal striking together.
the state, condition, or fact of being compelling or of requiring immediate action; pressing importance; imperativeness.
the state, condition, or quality of being immediate.
the state of wandering from place to place; having no permanent home.
the state or condition of being unwilling, reluctant, or loath; reluctance; disinclination.
the state or quality of being fixed; stability. fixities.
the state, quality, or ideal of being just, impartial, and fair.
the strings on an apron, used for securing it around one"s person.tie to someone"s apron strings. To make or be dependent on or dominated by someone.
the subtle body, affecting the most material cells and making them conscious and blissful and wc shall sense directly the
the Supreme.
the text of a dramatic musical work, such as an opera.
the trait of lacking boldness and courage.
the true: That which is true; that which is the truth. the True.
the vital nature’s desires, demands, cravings, sensations, passions, selfishness, pride, arrogance, lust, greed, jealousy, envy, hosti- lity to the Truth, so that the true power and joy may pour from above into a calm, large, strong and consecrated vital being ; rejection of the physical nature’s stupidity, doubt, disbelief, obscurity, obstinacy, pettiness, laziness, unwillingness to change, tamas, so that the true stability of Light, Power, Ananda may establish itself in a body growing always more divine.
the whole of created or existing things regarded collectively; all things (including the earth, the heavens, and all the phenomena of space) considered as constituting a systematic whole, esp. as created or existing by Divine power; the whole world or creation; the cosmos. universe"s, universes.
they ::: “For Truth is wider, greater than her forms.
they ::: Sri Aurobindo: [ referring to the lines]:
The abdominal centre, svadhijihana, commanding the small vital movements, the little creeds, lusts, desires, the small sense- movements, governs the lower vital. (Colour ::: deep purple red ; petals ::: six.)
The action of the animal sex-energy in Nature is a device for a particular purpose in the economy of the matcriaJ creation in the Ignorance. But the vital excitement that accompanies it makes the most favourable opportuni^ and vibration in the atmosphere for the inrush of those vital forces and beings whose ' whole business is to prevent the descent of the suprarnentaJ Light.
The action of the subconscient is irrational, mechanical, repetitive. It does not listen to reason or the mental will. It is only by bringing the higher light and force into it that it can change.
The aim of supramental Yoga is to change into this supreme
The Animal browses in the sacred fence
The apara prakrti is Nature which manifests all these minds, lives and bodies.
The Apsaras then are the divine Hetairae of Paradise, beautiful singers and actresses whose beauty and art relieve the arduous and world-long struggle of the Gods against the forces that tend towards disruption by the Titans who would restore Matter to its original atomic condition or of dissolution by the sages and hermits who would make phenomena dissolve prematurely into the One who is above phenomena. They rose from the Ocean, says Valmiki, seeking who should choose them as brides, but neither the Gods nor the Titans accepted them, therefore are they said to be common or universal. The Harmony of Virtue
The artificers of Nature’s fall and pain
The ascent can only be achieved by a one-centred all-gather- ing upward aspiration of the soul and mind and life and body ; the descent can only come by a call of the whole being towards
The ascent is necessarily an effort, a working of Nature, an urge or nisus on her side to raise her lower parts by an evolu- tionary or revolutionary change, conversion or transformation into the divine reality and it may happen by a process and pro- gress or by a rapid miracle. The descent or self-revelalion of the
The awakening of the Kundalini Power is felt as a descending and an ascending current. There ore two main nerve-channels for the currents, one on each side of the central channel In the spine. The descending coirem Is the energy from the above coming down to touch the sleeping Power io the lowest nerve- centre at the bottom of (he spine ::: (he ascending current is the release of the energy going up from the awakened Kundalini.
The beauty and greatness by his genius wrought
The beginningless void was its artificer:
The bodily frame. That beauty is laid low
The bonsai tree
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 call and the aspiration are only first conditions ; there must be along with them and brought by their effective intensity an opening of all the being to the Divine and a total surrender.
The centre at the crown must be part of the sahasradala, the centre of communication direct between the individual being and the infinite consciousness above.
The centre between the eje-brows, ajnScakra, commanding
The centre of the physical mind or externalising mind is in the subtle body in the throat and connected strongly with the speech — but it acts by connection with the brain.
The centre of the psychic being is behind the centre of the emotional being ; it is the emotional that is nearest dynamically to the psychic and in most men it is through the emotional centre that the psychic can be most easily reached and through the psychicised emotion that it can be most easily e;tpressed.
The change then only will be that the inner self will watch all that without getting disturbed or bewildered, with a perfect equality, taVdng it as an inevitable part of Nature, inevitable at least so long as one does not withdraw to the Self out of Nature.
The change that is effected by the transition from mind to supermind is not only a revolution in knowledge or in our power for knowledge. If it is to be complete and stable, it must be a divine transmutation of our will too, our entotions, our sensa- tions, all our power of life and its forces, in the end even of the very substance and functioning of our body. Then only can it be said that the supermind is there ujwn earth, roofed in its very earth-substance and embodied in a new race of divinised crea- tures.
The child (when it does not mean the psychic being) is usually the symbol of something new-born in some part of the conscious- ness.
The condition of the souls that retire into the psychic world is entirely static, each withdraws into himself and is not inter- acting with the others. When they come out of their trance, they are ready to go down into a new life, but meanwhile they do not act upon the earth life. There are other beings, guardians of the psychic world, but they are concerned only with the psychic world itself and the return of the souls to reincarnation, not with the earth.
The conditions of the future birth arc determined fundamental- ly not during the stay in the psychic world but at the time of death — the psychic being then chooses what it should work out in the next appearance and the conditions arrange themselves accordingly.
The consciousness (higher) is alwa>’s there ; the body «s tamasic and obscure and the greater part of it Is subconscient.
The core of the inner surrender is trust and confidence in the
The course taken by the attacks is not indeed the same for all, but still they have strong family resemblance. One can even- tually overcome If one begins to realise the nature and source of these assaults and acquires the faculty of observing them, bearing, without being involved or absorbed into their gulf, finally becoming the witness of their phenomena and understanding them and refusing the mind's sanction even when the vital is still tossed in the whirl and the most outward physical mind still reflects the adverse suggestions. In the end, these attacks lose their power and fall away from the nature ; the recurrence becomes feeble, or has no power to last ; even, if the detach- ment is strong enough, they can be cut out very soon or at once.
The creation or manifestation is very vast and contains many planes and ^vorlds that existed before the evolution, all diHerent in character and with different kinds of beings. The fact of being prior to the evolution does not make them undifferentiated.
The crown centre open removes the difficulty of the lid bet- ween the ordinary mind and the higher consciousness above.
The daedal of her patterned arabesques,
The deeper the emotion, the more intense the Bhakti, the greater is the force for realisation and transformation. It is oftenest through intensity of emotion that the psychic being awakes and there is an opening of the inner doors to the Divine.
The descent of the peace is often one of the first major posi- tive experiences of the sadhana. In this state of peace the nor-
The difficulties in the nature alwas-s rise again and again till sou osetcome them ; they most be faced with both strength and patience.
The difficulty of the difficulties is self-created, a knot of the
The difficulty of its coming when you are at work is only at the beginning — afterwards when it is more settled one finds that one can carry on all the activities of life whether in the pervading silence itself or at least with that as the support and background.
The direct opening of the psychic centre is easy only when the ego-centricity is greatly diminished and also if there is a strong bhakti for the Mother. A spiritual humility and a sense of submission and dependence is necessary.
The direct power of mind-force or life-force upon matter can be extended to an almost illimitable decree. It must be remem- bered that Energy is fundamentally one in all the planes, only , taking more and more dense forms, so there is nothing a priori impossible in mind-energy or Jifc-cncrgy acting directly on mate- rial energy aird substance ; if they do they can make a material object do things or rather can do things with a material object which wiould be to that object in its ordinary poise 'or ‘law* unhabitual and therefore apparently impossible.
The Divine gives itself to those who give themselves without reserve, and in all their parts to the Divine. For them the calm, the light, the power, the bliss, the freedom, the wideness, the heights of knowledge, the seas of Ananda.
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
The Divine Grace is something not calculable, not bound by anything the intellect can fix as a condition, — though ordinarily some call, aspiration, intensity of the psychic being can awaken it, yet it acts sometimes without any apparent cause even of that kind.
The Divine in the beginning docs not impose himself — he asks for recognition, for acceptance. That is one reason why the mind must fall silent, not put tests, not make claims ; there must be room for the true intuition which recognises at once the true touch and accepts it.
The Divine Love, unlike the human, is deep and vast and silent ; one must become quiet and wide to be aware of it and reply to it. He must make it his whole object to be surrender- ed so that he may become a vessel and instrument — leaving it to the Divine Wisdom and Love to All him with what is needed.
The Divine reveals himself in the world around us when we look upon that with a spiritual desire of delight that seeks him in all things. There is often a sudden opening by which the veil of forms is itself turned Into a revelation. A universal spiri- tual Presence, a universal peace, a universal infinite Delight has manifested, immanent, embracing, aU-penetraling. This Presence by our love of It, our delight in it, our constant thought of It returns and grows upon us ; it becomes the thing that we see and all else is only its habitation, form and symbol. Even all that is most outward, the body, the form, the sound, "whatever our senses seize, are seen as this Presence ; they cease to be physical and are changed into a substance of spirit. This trans- formation means a transformation of our own inner conscious- ness ; we are taken by the surrounding Presence into itself and
The establishment of the supramental Truth upon earth.
The eternal bridegroom of the eternal bride.” Savitri, 10. 4. Satyavan’s.
The eternal bridegroom of the eternal bride.” Savitri, 10. 4.
The fear of death shows a vital weakness which is also contrary to a capacity for yoga. Equally, one who is under the domination of his passions, would find the yoga dilhcuU and, unless supported by a true inner call and a sincere and strong aspiration for the spiritual consciousness and union with the Divine, might very easily fall fatally and his effort come to nothing.
The feeling (not merely the idea or tbe aspiration) that all the life and the work are the Mother’s and a strong joy of the vital nature in this consecration and surrender. A consequent calm content and disappearance of egoistic attachment to the work and its personal results, but at the same time a peat joy in the work and in the use of the capacities for the divine purpose. , .
The feeling of all being conscious or alive comes when our own physical consciousness — and not the mind only — awakes out of its obscurity and becomes aware of the One in all things, the Divine everywhere.
The feelings tbemseives are of many kinds. The word feeling is often used for an emotion, and there can be psychic or spiri- tual emotions which are numbered among yogic experiences, such as a wave of Suddha bhakti or the rising of love towards the
The feeling that the Divine Force is working behind one s actions and leading at every moment.
The few minutes one passes in this rest are the real sleep which restores.
The field of vision, like every other field of activity of the human mind, is a mixed world and there is in it not only truth but much half-inith and error. For the rash and unwary to enter into it may bring confusion and misleading inspiration and false voices, and it is safer to have some sure guidance from those who know and have spiritual and psychic experience One must look at this field calmly and with discrimination, but to shut the gates and reject this or other supraphysical experiences is to limit oneself and arrest the inner development.
The final resolution of the intricacies of a plot, as of a drama or novel; solution, conclusion.
The first secings are only an outer friage — behind lie whole worlds of experience which fill what seems to the natural man gap between (he earththe E(emal and
The first seeings are only an outer fringe -- behind lie whole worlds of experience which fill what seems to the natural man gap between the earth-consciousness and the £temal and
The first thing is for the mind and also the higher vital to withdraw their consent altt^lher; if that is done, it becomes only a mechanical return from outside on the physical and final*
The force of the Divine is always there in silence as in action, inactive in silence, active In the manifestation.
The form deceives, the person is a mask;
The fotm of the ego has to be dissolved, it has not to be replaced by a bigger ego or another kind of ego. It has to be replaced by the true being which feels itself, though individual, yet one with all and one with the Divine.
The Free Dictionary defines artifice as:
The function of a Mantra is to create vibrations in the inner consciousness that will prepare it for the realisation of what the
The genera! Divine WII in Ihc universe is for ilic progressive manifestation in the unis'crse. But that is the genera! will — it admits the uithdrawa! of individual souls who are not ready to persevere in the world.
The gestures or movements of a classical drama of Japan, with music and dance performed in a highly stylised manner by elaborately dressed performers on an almost bare stage.
The ghost or spirit who turns up at seances js not the psychic being. What comes tlirough the medium is a mixture of the medium’s subconscient (using subconscient in the ordinary, not in the yogic sense) and that ot the sitters, vital sheaths left by the departed or perhaps occupied or used by some spirit or some vital being, the departed himself in his vital sheath or else something assumed for the occasion (but it is the vital part that communicates), elementals, spirits of the lowest vital physical world near earth etc. A horrible confusion for the most part — a hotch-potch of all sorts of things coming through a medium of
The gifts of the spirit crowding came to him;
The gifts of the spirit crowding came to him…
The Gods are Personalities and Powers of the dynamic
The Gods cannot be transformed, for they are typal and not evolutionary beings, they can come for conversion, that is to say, to ^ve up their own ideas and outlook on things and con- form themselves to the higher Will and Supramcntal Truth of the Divine.
The gods in (he ovcrmcntal plane have not many heads and arms ; this is a vital symbolism, it is not necessary in other planes.
The governing factors for us must be the spirit and the psychic being united with the Divine ; the occult laws and phenomena have to be known only as an instrumentation, not as the govern* ing principles. The occult is a vast field and complicated and not without its dangers. It need not be abandoned but it should not be given the first place.
The greatest mUan is one in which one is constantly aware of the Deity abiding in oneself, in everything in the world, holding all the world in him, identical with existence and yet supremely beyond the world — • but in the world too one sees, hears, feels nothing but him, so that the very senses bear witness to him alone.
The heart centre commanding the higher emotional being with the psychic deep behind it gov'ems the emotional being.
The heart centre, hrdpadma or andJiata, commanding the high- er emotional being with the psychic deep behind it, governs the emotional being. (Colour: golden pinV ; petals: twelve.)
The heart is the centre of the Iwing and commands the rest, as the psychic being or cahya pisruja is there.
The higher ranges of spiritual mind have to open upon our being and consciousness and also that which is beyond even spiritual mind must appear in us if we are to fulfil the divine possibility of our birth into cosmic existence. …The Life Divine
The hold of inertia always increases when the working of s3dhana comes down into the physical and subconscient. Before that the inertia is overpowered though not eradicated by the
The hostile forces are there in the world to maintain the
The hostiles when they cannot break the yoga by positive means, by positive temptations or vital outbreaks, are quite will- ing to do it negatively ; first by depression, then by refusal at once of ordinary life and of sadhana.
The human body has always been in the habit of answering to whatever forces choose to lay hands on it and illness is the price it pays for its inertia and ignorance. It has to leam to answer to the one Force alone, but that is not easy for it to leam.
The ideal attitude of the sadhaka towards Time is to have an endless patience as if he had all eternity for his fulfilment and yet to develop the energy that shall realise now and with an ever- increasing mastery and pressure of rapidity till it reaches the miraculous instantaneousness of the supreme divine Transforma- tion.
The ideal sadhaka in this kind is one who if required to live poorly can so live and no sense of want will affect him or inter- fere with the full inner play of the divine consciousaess, and If he is required to live richly, can so live and never for a moment fall into desire or attachment to his wealth or to the tbmss that he uses or servitude to self-indulgence or a weak bondage to the habits that the possession of ricBes creates.
The Imfjcnonal Brahnj.in is inactive, aloof, indifferent, not concerned with what happens in the universe. Whatever imper- sonal Truth or Light (here is, you have to find It, use it, do what you can with it.
The importance of Samadbi rests upon the truth that only a small part whether of world being or of our own being comes into our ken or into our action.
The impulse towards Itiya Is a creation of the mind, it is not the sole possible destiny of the soul. When the mind tries to abolish its own Ignorance, it finds no escape from it except by laya, because it supposes that there is no higher principle of cosmic experience beyond itself — beyond itself is only the pure
The Ineffable: *Sri Aurobindo: "It is this essential indeterminability of the Absolute that translates itself into our consciousness through the fundamental negating positives of our spiritual experience, the immobile immutable Self, the Nirguna Brahman, the Eternal without qualities, the pure featureless One Existence, the Impersonal, the Silence void of activities, the Non-being, the Ineffable and the Unknowable. On the other side it is the essence and source of all determinations, and this dynamic essentiality manifests to us through the fundamental affirming positives in which the Absolute equally meets us; for it is the Self that becomes all things, the Saguna Brahman, the Eternal with infinite qualities, the One who is the Many, the infinite Person who is the source and foundation of all persons and personalities, the Lord of creation, the Word, the Master of all works and action; it is that which being known all is known: these affirmatives correspond to those negatives. For it is not possible in a supramental cognition to split asunder the two sides of the One Existence, — even to speak of them as sides is excessive, for they are in each other, their co-existence or one-existence is eternal and their powers sustaining each other found the self-manifestation of the Infinite.” The Life Divine
The inner knowledge comes from within and above (whether from the Divine in the heart or from the Self above) and for it to come, the pride of the mind and vital in the surface mental ideas and their insistence on them must go.
The inner vision can sec the vibration of the forces which act through the object.
The inner vision does not come as easily to intellectuals as it docs to men with a strong life-power or the emotional and the imaginative.
The interviews were conducted over a period of more than fifteen years.
The Intuition is the first plane in which there is a real open* ing to the full possibility of realisation ; It U through it that one goes farther — first to the overmind and then to the supermlnd.
The Jiva is realised as the individual Self, Atman, the central being above the Nature, calm, untouched by the movements of
The Jupiier Press Private Lid, Madras-18.
The last stage of this perfection will come when you are com* pletely identified with the Divine Mother and feel yourself to be no longer another and separate being, hstwmeM, sen'ani or worker but truly a child and eternal portion of her conscious- ness and force. Always she will be in you and you in her ; it will be your constant, simple and natural experience that all your thought and seeing and action, your very breathing or moving come from her and are here. You will know and see and feel that you are a person and power formed by her out of herself, put out from her for the play and yet always safe in her, being of her being, consciousness of her consciousness, force of her force, ananda of her Ananda. When this condition is entire and her supramental energies can freely move you then you will be perfect in divine works; knowledge, will, action will become sure, simple, luminous, spontaneous, flawless, an outflow from the Supreme, a divine movement of the Eternal.
The leader of the journey, the captain of the march, the first and most ancient priest of our sacrifice is the Will. This Will is not the wish of the heart or the demand or preference of the mind to which we often give the name. It is that inmost, dominant and often veiled conscious force of our being and of all being, Tapas, Sbakti, Shraddha, that sovereignly determines our orientation and of which the intellect and the heart are more or less blind and automatic servants and instruments. The Self that is quiescent, at rest, vacant of things and happenings is n support and background to existence, a silent channel or a hypostasis of something Supreme ::: it is not itself the one entirely real existence, not itself the Supreme. The Eternal, the Supreme is the Lord and the all-originating Spirit. Superior to all activi- ties and not bound by any of them, it is the source, sanction, material, efficient power, master of all activities. All activities proceed from this supreme Self and are determined by it ; all are its operations, processes of its own conscious force and not ot something alien to Self, some power other than this Spirit.
The Lexicon has been published by the Savitri Foundation and is available worldwide. I believe that this companion volume is a fitting addition at its side.
The light outside means a touch or influence of the force indi- cated by the light. The light within means that it has penetrated or is established or frequently active in the nature itself. Light above means a force descending upon the mind. Light around means a general enveloping influence. -
The Lights one secs in concentration are the lights of various powers or forces and often lights that come down from the higher consciousness.
The lion with Durga on it is the ^mbol of the Divine Cons- ciousness acting through a divinised physical-vital and vital- emotional force.
The lower vital is not a part that listens to reason, **
The manifestation of a supraroental truth-consciousness Is therefore the capital reality that will make the divine life possible.
The mantra Om should lead towards the opening of the con- sciousness to the sight and feeling of the One Consciousness in all material things, in the inner being and in the supraphysical worlds, in the causal plane above now superconscient to us and, finally, the supreme liberated transcendence above all cosmic existence.
The mate of Wisdom and the spouse of Light,
The mental energies, the heart's emotions, the vital desires, the very physical being have to be compelled into the right attitude or trained to admit and answer to the right influences.
The merging of the little ego ia union with the Divine, puri- fication, surrender, the substitution of the Divine guidance for one’s own ignorant self-guidance based on one's personal Ideas and personal feelings is the aim of Karmajoga, the surrender of one's own will to the Divine Will.
The method of the Divine Manifestation is through calm and harmony, not through a catastrophic upheaval.
The mind, the vital, the physical consciousness (and even each part of these in all its movements) have one after the other to surrender separately, to give up ibeir own and to accept the way of the Divine.
The min d is a modified consciousness that puts forth a mental energy. A man can stand back in his mind-consciousness and watch the mental energy dtnng things, thinking, planning etc. ;
The Mother: “All sincere prayers are granted, but it may take some time to realise materially.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.**
The Mother : "An Avatar is an emanation of the Supreme Lord who assumes a human body on earth.” Works of the Mother, "On Thoughts and Aphorisms” Vol.10
The Mother : “An Avatar is an emanation of the Supreme Lord who assumes a human body on earth.” Works of the Mother,”On Thoughts and Aphorisms” Vol.10.
The Mother: "And this Vibration (which I feel and see) gives the feeling of a fire. That"s probably what the Vedic Rishis translated as the "Flame” – in the human consciousness, in man, in Matter. They always spoke of a "Flame.” It is indeed a vibration with the intensity of a higher fire. Mother"s Agenda 25 March 1964.
The Mother: “And this Vibration (which I feel and see) gives the feeling of a fire. That’s probably what the Vedic Rishis translated as the”Flame”—in the human consciousness, in man, in Matter. They always spoke of a”Flame.” It is indeed a vibration with the intensity of a higher fire. Mother’s Agenda 25 March 1964.
The Mother: “And ultimately, all form is a symbol. All forms: our form is a symbol—not a very brilliant one, I admit!
The Mother: "An ‘entity" is a personality or an individuality.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.**
The Mother: " A total self-giving to the Divine is the true purpose of existence.” On Thoughts and Aphorisms, MCW Vol. 10.*
The Mother: “ A total self-giving to the Divine is the true purpose of existence.” On Thoughts and Aphorisms, MCW Vol. 10.
The Mother: “Calm is self-possessed strength, quiet and conscious energy, mastery of the impulses, control over the unconscious reflexes.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 14.
The Mother: “Consciousness is the faculty of becoming aware of anything through identification. The Divine Consciousness is not only aware but knows and effects.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol.15.
The Mother: "Consciousness is indeed the creatrix of the universe, but love is its saviour. . . .” On Education, MCW Vol. 12.
The Mother: “Consciousness is indeed the creatrix of the universe, but love is its saviour….” On Education, MCW Vol. 12.
The Mother: “For, in human beings, here is a presence, the most marvellous Presence on earth, and except in a few very rare cases which I need not mention here, this presence lies asleep in the heart—not in the physical heart but the psychic centre—of all beings. And when this Splendour is manifested with enough purity, it will awaken in all beings the echo of his Presence.” Words of the Mother, MCW, Vol. 15.
The Mother: "For me poetry is beyond all philosophy and beyond all explanation.” On Education, MCW Vol. 12.
The Mother: “For me poetry is beyond all philosophy and beyond all explanation.” On Education, MCW Vol. 12.
The Mother: "Immortality is not a goal, it is not even a means. It will proceed naturally from the fact of living the Truth.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15. ::: *Immortality, immortalities, immortality"s.
The Mother: “Immortality is not a goal, it is not even a means. It will proceed naturally from the fact of living the Truth.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The Mother: “In the physical world, of all things it is beauty that expresses best the Divine. the physical world is the world of form and the perfection of form is beauty. Beauty interprets, expresses, manifests the Eternal. Its role is to put all manifested nature in contact with the Eternal through the perfection of form, through harmony and a sense of the ideal which uplifts and leads towards something higher. On Education, MCW Vol. 12.
The Mother is dealing with the Ignorance in the fields of the
The Mother: “Krishna represents both the universal Godhead and the immanent Godhead, he whom one can meet within one’s being and in all that constitutes the manifested world. And do you want to know why he is always represented as a child? It is because he is in constant progression. To the extent that the world is perfected, his play is also perfected—what was the play of yesterday will no longer be the play of tomorrow; his play will become more and more harmonious, benign and joyful to the extent that the world becomes capable of responding to it and enjoying it with the Divine.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The Mother: “Krishna represents both the universal Godhead and the immanent Godhead, he whom one can meet within one’s being and in all that constitutes the manifested world.
The Mother: "Man is the intermediary being between what is and what is to be realised.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15. ::: *man"s
The Mother: “Man is the intermediary being between what is and what is to be realised.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The Mother: “Of all the aspects of the Mother, Kali most powerfully expresses vibrant and active love, and despite her sometimes terrible aspect, she carries in herself the golden splendour of an all-powerful love.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The Mother: "OM is the signature of the Lord.” *Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The Mother: “OM is the signature of the Lord.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The Mother or myself send a force. If there is no openness, the force may be thrown back or returned (unless we put a great force which it is not always adwsablc to do) as from an obstruc- tion or resistance ::: if there is some openness, the result may be partial or slow ; if there is the full openness or receptivity, then the result may be immediate. Of course there are things that cannot be removed all at once, being an old part of the nature, but with receptivity these also can be more effectively and rapidly dealt with. Some people are so open that even by writing they get free before the book or letter reaches us.
The Mother: “Perfection is not a maximum or an extreme. It is an equilibrium and a harmonisation.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The Mother: "Perseverance is patience in action.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 14.
The Mother: “Progress is the sign of the divine influence in creation.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.**
The Mother: "Radha"s consciousness symbolises perfect attachment to the Divine.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The Mother: “Radha’s consciousness symbolises perfect attachment to the Divine.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The Mother: “Savitri [the poem] is a mantra for the transformation of the world.” Spoken to Udar. Savitri’s.
The Mother: “Savitri [the poem] is a mantra for the transformation of the world.” Spoken to Udar
The Mother: “Surrender is the decision taken to hand over the responsibility of your life to the Divine. Without this decision nothing is at all possible; if you do not surrender, the Yoga is entirely out of the question. Everything else comes naturally after it, for the whole process starts with surrender.” Questions and Answers, MCW Vol. 3.
The Mother: "That which can easily change its form is ‘plastic". Figuratively, it is suppleness, a capacity of adaptation to circumstances and necessities.” Questions and Answers, MCW Vol. 4.
The Mother: "The Avatar: the supreme Divine manifested in an earthly form — generally a human form — for a definite purpose.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.*
The Mother: “The Avatar: the supreme Divine manifested in an earthly form—generally a human form—for a definite purpose.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The Mother: "The certitude of the Victory gives an infinite patience with the maximum of energy.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.*
The Mother: “The certitude of the Victory gives an infinite patience with the maximum of energy.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The Mother: “The light is everywhere, the force is everywhere. And the world is so small.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The Mother: ‘There are four Asuras. Two have already been converted, and the other two, the Lord of Death and the Lord of Falsehood, made an attempt at conversion by taking on a physical body—they have been intimately associated with my life. The story of these Asuras would be very interesting to recount. . . the Lord of Death disappeared; he lost his physical body, and I don’t know what has become of him. As for the other, the Lord of Falsehood, the one who now rules over this earth, he tried hard to be converted but he found it disgusting!
The Mother: "The snake is not the symbol of power but of energy, and just as there are obscure and perverted energies, so too the snake can be the symbol of unregenerate and anti-divine forces.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.*
The Mother: “The snake is not the symbol of power but of energy, and just as there are obscure and perverted energies, so too the snake can be the symbol of unregenerate and anti-divine forces.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The Mother "The sun is the symbol of the Divine in the physical nature” Questions and Answers, MCW Vol. 3
The Mother”The sun is the symbol of the Divine in the physical nature” Questions and Answers, MCW Vol. 3
The Mother: “The true role of the mind is the formation and organization of action. The mind has a formative and organizing power, and it is that which puts the different elements of inspiration in order for action, for organizing action. And if it would only confine itself to that role, receiving inspirations—whether from above or from the mystic centre of the soul—and simply formulating the plan of action—in broad outline or in minute detail, for the smallest things of life or the great terrestrial organizations—it would amply fulfil its function. It is not an instrument of knowledge. But is can use knowledge for action, to organize action. It is an instrument of organization and formation, very powerful and very capable when it is well developed.” Questions and Answers 1956, MCW Vol. 8.
The Mother: "The Truth is something living, moving, expressing itself at each second, and it is one way of approaching the Supreme.” Collected Works of the Mother, Vol. 15.*
The Mother: “The Truth is something living, moving, expressing itself at each second, and it is one way of approaching the Supreme.” Collected Works of the Mother, Vol. 15.
The Mother: "The universe is a finite whole, but its content is infinite; the changes which occur in this infinity result from the action of Essence on substance, from the penetration, the permeation of quantity by quality, which brings about a constant and progressive organisation and reorganisation of the content of the universe.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.*
The Mother: “The universe is a finite whole, but its content is infinite; the changes which occur in this infinity result from the action of Essence on substance, from the penetration, the permeation of quantity by quality, which brings about a constant and progressive organisation and reorganisation of the content of the universe.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The Mother: “The vital is the dynamism of action. It is the seat of the will, of impulses, desires, revolts, etc.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The Mother (to a young person): "It is very simple, as you will see. 1) The Infinite is the inexhaustible storehouse of forces. The individual is a battery, a storage cell which runs down after use. Consecration is the wire that connects the individual battery to the infinite reserve of forces. Or 2) The Infinite is the river that flows without cease; the individual is the little pond that dries up slowly in the sun. Consecration is the canal that connects the river to the pond and prevents the pond from drying up.” Some Answers from the Mother, MCW *Vol. 16.
The Mother (to a young person): “It is very simple, as you will see. 1) The Infinite is the inexhaustible storehouse of forces. The individual is a battery, a storage cell which runs down after use. Consecration is the wire that connects the individual battery to the infinite reserve of forces. Or 2) The Infinite is the river that flows without cease; the individual is the little pond that dries up slowly in the sun. Consecration is the canal that connects the river to the pond and prevents the pond from drying up.” Some Answers from the Mother, MCW Vol. 16.
The Mother (to a young person): “It is very simple, as you will see. 1) The Infinite is the inexhaustible storehouse of forces. The individual is a battery, a storage cell which runs down after use. Consecration is the wire that connects the individual battery to the infinite reserve of forces. Or 2) The Infinite is the river that flows without cease; the individual is the little pond that dries up slowly in the sun. Consecration is the canal that connects the river to the pond and prevents the pond from drying up.” The Mother—Collected Works, Centenary Ed., Vol. 16—Some Answers from the Mother
The Mother: "To be humble means for the mind, the vital and the body never to forget that without the Divine they know nothing, are noting and can do nothing; with the Divine they are nothing but ignorance, chaos and impotence. The Divine alone is Truth, Life, Power, Love, Felicity.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 14.
The Mother: “To conquer the Adversary is not a small thing. One must have a greater power than his to vanquish him. But one can liberate oneself totally from his influence. And from the minute one is completely free from his influence, one’s self-giving can be total. And with the self-giving comes joy, long before the Adversary is truly vanquished and disappears.”
The Mother: “Transformation. The change by which all the elements and all the movements of the being become ready to manifest the supramental Truth.”
The Mother: “True art means the expression of beauty in the material world. In a world wholly converted, that is to say, expressing integrally the divine reality, art must serve as the revealer and teacher of this divine beauty in life.” On Education, MCW Vol. 12.**
The Mother: “True humility consists in knowing that the Supreme Consciousness, the Supreme Will alone exists and that the I is not.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 14.
The Mother: Unity does not come from any exterior disposition, but by becoming conscious of the eternal Oneness.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The Mother: "Will: power of consciousness turned towards effectuation.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 14.*
The Mother: “Will: power of consciousness turned towards effectuation.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 14.
The Mother: "Wisdom cannot be acquired except through union with the Divine Consciousness.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.*
The Mother: “Wisdom cannot be acquired except through union with the Divine Consciousness.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The Mother: “With the Divine’s Love is the power of Transformation. It has this power because it is for the sake of Transformation that it has given itself to the world and manifested everywhere. Not only into man but into all the atoms of Matter it has infused itself in order to bring the world back to the original Truth. The moment you open to it, you also receive its power of Transformation.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The more complete y-our faith, sincerity and surrender, the more will grace and protection be with you. And when the grace and protection of the Divine Mother arc with you, what is there lliat can touch you or whom need you fear? A little of it even will carry you through all diiliculties, obstacles and dangers ; surrounded by its full presence you can go securely on your way because it is hers, careless of all menace, unaffected by any hostility however powerful, whether from this world or from worlds invisible. Its touch can turn difficulties into oppor- tunities, failure into success and weakness into unfaltering strength. For the grace of the Divine Mother is the sanction of the Supreme and now or tomorrow its ciTect is sure, a thing decreed. Inevitable and irresistible.
The more complete your faith, sincerity and surrender, the mote will grace and protection be with you. And when the grace and protection of the Divine Mother are with you, what is there that can touch you or whom need you fear? A little of it even will carry you through all difficulties, obstacles and dangers ; surrounded by its full presence you can go securely on your way because it is hers, careless of all menace, unaffected by any hostility however powerful, whether from this world or from worlds invisible. Its touch can turn difficulties into oppor- tunities, failure into success and weakness into unfaltering strength.
The more intense the experiences that come, the higher the forces that descend, the greater become the possibilities of deviation and error. For the very intensity and the very height of the force excites and aggrandises the movements of the lower nature and raises up in it all opposing elements in their full force, but often in the dbguisc of truth, wearing a mask of plausible justification. There is needed a great patience, calm, sobriety, balance, an impersonal dciachmcnx and sincerity free from all taint of ego or personal human desire. There must be no attachment to any idea of one’s owm, to any experience, to any kind of imagination, mental building or vital demand ::: the light of discrimination must alx^i'ays play to detect those
The more intimate Yo^a of Bhakti resolves itself simply into these four movements, tlic desire of the Soul when it turns towards God and the straining of its emotion towards him, the pain of love and the divine return of love, the delight of love possessed and the play of that delight, and the eternal enjoy- ment of the divine Lover which is the heart of celestial bliss.
The more ways there are of the union, the better.
The most important thing for this purifiration of the heart is an absolute sincerity. No pretence with oneself, no conceal- ment from the Divine, or oneself, or the Guru, a straight look at one’s movements, a straight will to make them strai^t.
The most notable of these more powerful but rarer phenomena are those which attend the power of exterioration of our cons- ciousness for various lands of action otherwise and elsewhere than in the physical body, communication in the psychical body or some emanation or reproduction of it, oftenest, though by no means necessarily, during sleep or trance and the setting up of relations or communtcatioo by various means rvith the denizens of another plane of existence.
The mSidd/idra from which the Kundalin! rises is not in the physical body but in the subtle body ; so also are all the centres.
The musician and the poet stand for a truth, it is the truth of the expression of the Spirit through beauty.
The navel centre, nabhlpadma or manipura, commanding the larger life-forces and the passions and larger desire-movements, governs the larger vital. (Colour ::: violet ; petals ::: ten.)
The navel is the chief vital centre below the emotional ; there
The navel is the vital centre in the physical body but the natural scat of the vital is in the vital sheath of the subtle body, which sheath it pervades ; but for action through the gross body it is centred at the navel and below it.
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
Then the result of meditation can come through the work itself.
The neck and throat and the lower part of the face belong to the externalising mind, the physical mental. The forehead to the inner Mind. Above the head are the higher planes of Mind.
The need is to have an aspiration towards it, make the mind quiet so that what we call the opening is rendered possible. A quieted mind (not necessarily motionless or silent, though it is good if one can have that at will) and a persistent aspiration in the heart are the two main keys of the yoga.
The nerves are distributed all over the body, but the vital- physical action is concentrated in its origin between the Mula- dhara and the centre Just above It.
The nervous part of the being Is a portion of the vital — it is the vital-physicai, the life-force closely enmeshed in the reac- tions, desires, needs, sensations of the body.
Then from within a Power works on the outer to make it a conscious plastic instrument so that finally the inner and the outer may become fused into one.
The niyamas are equally a discipline of the mind by regular practices of which the highest -is meditation on the divine Being, and their object is to create a sattwic calm, purity and prepa- ration for concentration upon which the secure pursuance of the rest of the Yoga can be founded.
Then new-built Truth’s slain body by its art:
The normal allowance of sleep is said to be seven to eight hours except in advanced age when it is said to be less. If one takes less (five to six for instance) the body accommodates itself somehow, but if the control is taken off it immediately wants to make up for its lost arrears of the normal eight hours.
The old yogis call these two components retas and ojas.
The One is the fundamental tniih of existence.
The one thing that one has to be careful about is to see (hat they are genuine and sincere and that depends on one’s own
The opening is the same for all. U begins with an opening of mind and heart, then of the vital proper — when it reaches the lower vital and the physical the opening is complete.
The ordinary man is aware only of his surface self and quite unaware of all that is concealed by the surface. And yet what is on the surface, what we know or think W’c know of ourselves and even believe that that is all we are. Is only a small part of our being and far the larger part of us is below the surface.
The outer physical man is only an instrumental personality, and by himseif he cannot arrive at this union, — he can only get occasional touches, religious feelings, imperfect intimations. And even these come not from the outer consciousness but from what is wihin us.
The Overmind, therefore, does not and cannot possess the power to transform humanity into divine nature. For that, the Supramental is the sole effective agent. And what exactly differentiates our Yoga from attempts in the past to spiritualise life is that we know that the splendours of the Overmind are not the highest reality but only an intermediate step between the mind and the true Divine.
The overmind is the protective Double, a delegate of the
The overmind is the region of the gods, the beings of divine origin who have been charged with supervising, directing and organising the evolution of the universe; and more specifically, since the formation of the earth they have served as messengers and intermediaries to bring to the earth the aid of the higher regions and to preside over the formation of the mind and its progressive ascension. It is usually to the gods of the overmind that the prayers of the various religions are addressed. These religions most often choose, for various reasons, one of these gods and transform him for their personal use into the supreme God.
The overmind is the world of the gods.
The peace liberates from all dependence on outer contacts.
The personal effort has to be transformed progressively into a movement of the Divine Force. If you feel conscious of the
The personal effort required Is a triple labour of aspiration, rejection and surrender ; an aspiration vigilant, constant, un- ceasing — the mind’s will, the heart's seeking, the assent of the vital being, the will to open and make plastic the physical consciousness and nature ; rejection of the movements of the lower nature — rejection of the mind’s ideas, opinions, prefer- ences, habits, constructions, so that the true knowledge may find room in a silent mind, — rejection of the vital nature’s desires, demands, cravings, sensations, passions, selfishness, pride, arro- gance, lust, greed, jealousy, envy, hostility to the Truth, so that the true power and joy may pour from above into a calm, large, strong and consecrated vital being, — rejection of the physical nature’s stupidity, doubt, disbelief, obscurity, obstinacy, pettiness, laziness, unwillingness to change, tamas, so that the true stability of Light, Power, Ananda may establish itself in a body growing always more divine ; surrender of oneself and all one is and has and every plane of the consciousness and every movement to the Divine and the ShaUi.
The physical centre is also the sex-centre. The apex of it is at the end of the spine and It projects for\vard from there,— com- manding -the organ and its action.
The physical consciousness centre, mCtladhdra, commanding the physical consciousness and the' subconscienl, 'governs the physical down to the subconscienl. (Colour of the lotus ::: red ; number of petals ::: four.)
The physical consciousness is full of inertia ; it wants not to move but to be moved by whatever forces and that is its habit.
The physical mind is that which is fixed on physical objects and happenings, sees and understands these only, and deals with them according to their own nature, but can with difficulty respond to the higher forces. Left to itself, it Is skeptical of the existence of supra-physical things of which it has no direct experience and to which it can find no due ; even when it has spiritual experi- ences, it forgets them easily, loses (he impression and result and finds it difficult to believe. To enlighten the physical mind by the consciousness of the higher spiritual and Supramental planes is one object of this yoga, just as to enlighten it by the power of the higher vital and higher mental elements of the being is the greatest part of human self-development, civilisation and culture.
The physical nature is a thing of habits ; it is out of habit that it responds to the forces of illness ; one has to get into it the contrary habit of responding to the Divine Force only. This, of course, so long as a highest consciousness does not descend to which illness Is impossible.
The place of desire is below the heart in the centra! vital
The pleasure attached to it b a degradation and not a true form of the divine Ananda.
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
The power needed in yoga is the power to go through elTort, difficulty or trouble without getting fatigued, depressed, dis- couraged or impatient and without breaking off the effort or giwng up one’s aim or resolution.
The Power of the Divine that stands behind formation and creation '
The power to go through ctTort. difilculty or trouble without getting fatigued, depressed, discouraged or impatient and with- out breaking off the effort or giving up one's aim or resolution.
The power to receive the Divine Force and to feel its presence and the presence of the Mother in it and allow it to work, guid- ing one’s sight and will and action;
The power to say ‘NO’ is indispensable in life and- still more so in sadhana. It is the power of rejection put into speech.
The Prakrti b divided into the lower and the Ji/g/ter ::: the lower b the Prakrti of the Ignorance, the Prakrti of mind, life and matter separated in consdonsness from the Divine ; the higher b the Divine Prakrti of Sachchidananda with its mani-
The process of the integral yoga has three stages, not indeed sharply distingnlsbed or ^parate, but in a certain measure suc- cessive. There must be, first, the effort towards at least an initial and enabling self-transcendence and contact with the Divine ; next, the reception of that which transcends, that with which we have gained communion, into ourselves for the transformation of our whole conscious being ; fast, the utilisation of our trans- formed hiunanity as a divine centre in the world.
The process of the Kundalini awakened rising through the centres as also the purification of the centres is a Taniric know- ledge. In our yoga there is no willed process of the punfication and opening of the centres, no raising up of the Kundalini by a set process either. Another method is used, but stiff there is the ascent of the consciousness from and through the different fc\cls to join the higher consciousness above ; there is the open- ing of the centres and of the planes (mental, vital, physical) which these centres command ; there is also the descent which is the main key of the spiritual transformation.
The process of yoga is a tumiog of the human soul from the egoistic state of consciousness absorbed in outer appearances and attractions of things to a higher state .in which the Trans- cendent and Universal can pour itself into the individual mould and transform it.
The ps>-chic being refuses to be deceived by appearances. It
The psychical sight receives characteristically the images that arc formed in the subtle matter of the mental or psychical ether.
The psychic being gives true bhakti for God or for the Guru.
The psychic being is lomcd by the soul in its cvoJuUon, It supports the mind, vital, body, grows by their experiences, carries the nature from life to life. It is the psychic or co/iyo purufa.
The psychic being realises its oneness with the true being, the Jivatman, but it docs not change into it.
The psychic grows through a certain inner attitude behind the work and the adhara becomes open both to the psychic intui- tions and influences from within and to the descent from above.
The psychic has indeed the quality of peace— -but that is not its main character as it is of the &If or Atman. The psychic is the Divine element in the individual being and its characteristic power Is to turn everything towards the Divine, to bring a fire of purification, aspiration, devotion, true light of discernment, feeling, will, action, which transforms by degrees the whole nature.
The psychic is realised as the Purusha behind the heart. It Is not universalised like the Jivatman, but is the individual soul
The psychic knows that the Divine Is and affirms its knowledge against all appearances.
The psychic opening through the heart puts us primarily into connection with the individual Divine, the Divine in his inner relation with us ; it is especially the source of love and bhakti.
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.
The Rajayogic Pranayama purifies and clears- theaiervous system ; it enables us to circulate the vital energy equally through the body and direct it also where we will nccarding to need, and thus maintain a perfect health and soundness of the body and the vital being ; it gives us control of all the five habitual opera- tions of the vital energy in the system and at the same time breaks down the habitual divisions by which only the ordinary mechanical processes of the vitality arc possible (o the norma! life. It opens entirely the six centres of the psycho-physical system and brings Into (he waking consciousness the power of the awakened Shakti and the light of the unveiled Furusba on each of the as^nding planes. Cbupled with (be use of the mantra it brings the ^vine energy into the body and prepares for and facilitates that concentration in Samadbi which is the crown of the Rajayogic method.
The Raksasa is the supreme and thorough-going individualist, who believes life to be meant for hk own untrammelled self- fulfilment and self-assertion. A necessary element in humanity, he is particularly useful in revolutions. The Raksasa is not an altruist. If by satisfying himself he can satisfy others^ he is pleased ; but he does not make that his motive. ' If he has to trample on others to satisfy himself, be does so without compunc- tion.
The real object of this mental discipline is to draw away the mind from ic outward and the mental world into union with the divine Being. Therefore in the first three stages use has to be made of some mental means or support by which the mind accustomed to run about from object to object, shall fix on one alone, and that one must be something which represents the idea of the Divine. It is usually a name or a form or a mantra by which the thought can be feed io the sole knowledge or adora- tion of the Lord. By this concentration on the idea (he mind enters from the idea into its reality, into which h sinks silent, absorbed, unified. This is the traditional method. There are,
The real seat of the subconscient is below the body.
There arc conditions that have been laid down by a Supreme
There arc some who have the expansive tendency of the vital, others who have the concentrative. The latter are absorbed in their own intensity of endeavour and certainly they gather from that great force for progress and are saved the expense and loss of energy which frequently comes to the more communicative and also make themselves less open to reactions from others
There are different Krishna lights — - pale diamond blue, lavender blue, deep blue etc. It depends on the plane in which it manifests. There is one blue that is the higher mind, a deeper blue belongs to the mind — Krishna’s ligh\ in the mind.
There are some who often or almost invariably have the contact whenever they worship, the Deity may become living to them in the picture or other image they worship, may move and act through it ; others may feel him always present, outwardly, subtle- physically, abiding with them where they live or in the very room, but sometimes this is only for a period. Or they may feel the Presence with them, see it frequently in a body (but not materially except sometimes), feel its touch or embrace, converse with it constantly — that is also a kind of miian. The
There are special forces of the Light and there is a play of them according to needs. It can pour into the body, make every cell luminous, fix itself and surround on all sides in one luminous mass of Light.
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 are three steps ::: (1) in which the work brings you to a
There are two classes of thmgs that happen in yoga, realisa- tions and experiences. Realisations are the reception in the cons- ciousness and the establishment there of the fundamental truths of the Divine, of the Higher or Divine Nature, of the world- consciousness and the play of its forces, of one’s own self and real nature and the inner nature of things, the power of these things growing in one till they arc part of one’s inner life and existence, — as for instance, the realisation of the Divine Pre- sence, the Descent and settling of the higher Peace, Light, Force,
There are two words used in English to express the Indian idea of dhyana, * meditation ’ and ‘ contemplation ’. Meditation means properly the concentration of the mind on a single train of ideas which work out a single subject. Contemplation means regarding mentally a single object, image, idea so that the know- ledge about the object, image or idea may arise naturally in the mind by force of the concentration. Both these things are forms of dhyana, for the principle of dh)ona is mental concentration whether in thought, vision or knowledge. There are other forms of dhyana. You stand back from your thoughts, let them occur in your mind as they will and simply observe them and see what they are. This may be called concentration in self-observation.
The reason is that the nature of the consciousness is like that ; after a spell of wakefulness it feels the need of a little sleep.
There can be an action in the Silence, undisturbed even as the universal action goes on in the cosmic Silence.
There can be no firm foundation in sadhana without equality.
Therefore, while our effort is personal. Time appears as a resist- ance, for It presents to us all the obstruction of the forces that conflict with our own. When the divine working and the per- sonal are combined in our consciousness, It appears as a medium and condition. When the two become one, it appears as a servant and instrument.
There intervenes, third, uplifting our knowledge and effort into the domain of spiritual experience, the direct suggestion, example and influence of the Teacher — guru. Last comes the instru- mentality of Time — kala ; for in all things there is a cycle of thtit action and a period of the dWine movement.
There is after death a period In which one passes through the vital world and lives there for a time, it is only the first part of this transit that can be dangerous or painful ; in the rest one vsorks out, under certain surroundings, the remnant of the vital desires which one had in the body. As soon as one is tired of these and able to go beyond, the vital sheath is dropped and the soul, after a time needed to get rid of some mental survivals, passes into a state of rest in the psychic world and remains there till the next life on earth.
There is also a happy emptiness with the sense of something
There is also the intervention of the psychic ; if the psychic being is sufficiently awake and active to intervene each time you are going to speak at random and say “No”, then the change becomes more easy.
There is also the way -of the psychic, — when the psychic being comes out in its inherent power, its consecration, adoration, love of the Divine, self-^ving, surrendei and imposes these on the mind, vital and physical consciousness and compels them to turn all their movements Godward. If the psychic is strong and master throughout, then there is no or little subjective suffering and the objective cannot affect either the sou! or the other parts of the consciousness the way is sunlit and a great joy and sweetness are the note of the whole sadhana.
There is an intuWon of Time which is not of the mind and when it plays is always accurate to the very minute and if need be to the very second.
There is a Purusha within who can dictate to the nature what it sbail admit or e.vrJude, bur its will is a strong, quiet wjJJ ; if one gets perturbed or a^tated over the difficulties, then the will of the Purusha cannot act effectively as it would otherwise.
There is a vital plane (self-existent) above the material uni- verse which we see ; there is a mental plane (self-existent) above the vital and material. These three together, — mental, vital, physical — arc called the triple universe of the lower hemisphere.
There is a whole range or many inexhaustible * life
There is the danger that he may become the instrument of some apparently brilliant but ignorant formation ; for these inter* mediate planes arc full of little Gods or strong Daityas or smaller beings who want to create, to materialise something or to enforce a mental and vital formation in the earth life and are eager to use or influence or even possess the thought and will of the sadhaka and make him (heir instrument for the purpose.
There is no condition more dangerous for the sex-imagination to come than lying in bed in a half-awake or else a relaxed inert condition unoccupied by any activity or any experience.
There is no necessity of losing consciousness when you medi- tate. It is the widening and change of the consciousness that is essential.
There is no sufTicient utility in fasting, since the higher energy and receptivity ought to come not by artificial or physical means but by intensity of the consciousness and strong will for the saclliana.
There is one Purusha ; its action is according to the position and need of the consciousness at the time.
There is one way by which it is possible to get rid of the per- verse habit ::: to establish a strong mental control and so get rid of the wrong movement. A resolute and persistent effort of will can enforce in the end the rejection of the desire and finally even of any roechanical habit of the movement upon this part of the nature also.
There is only one psychic being for each human being, but the beings of the higher planes, eg. the Gods of the Overmind can manifest in more than one human body at a time by send- ing different emanations into different bodies.
There is something in the body that accepts the illness and has certain reactions that makes this acceptance effective.
The religious life may be the first approach to the spiritual, but very often it Is only a turning about In a round of rites, cere- monies and practices or set ideas and forms without any issue.
The remedy is to think constantly of the Divine, not of one- self, to work, to act, do sadhana for the Divine ; not to consider how this or that affects me personally, not to claim anything, but to refer all to the Divine.
The remembrancer of the city of London is parliamentary solicitor to the corporation, and is bound to attend all courts of aldermen and common council when required. Pull. Laws & Cust. Lond. 122. from Black’s Law Dictionary.
The Remembrancer was originally one of certain subordinate officers of the English Exchequer. The office itself is of great antiquity, the holder having been termed remembrancer, memorator, rememorator, registrar, keeper of the register, despatcher of business. The Remembrancer compiled memorandum rolls and thus”reminded” the barons of the Exchequer of business pending.
There must be a desceat of the light not merely into the mind or part of it but into all the being down to the physical and below before a real Iransformatioo can take place. A-ligbt in the mind may spiritualise or otherwise change .the mind or part of it in one way or another, but it need not change the vital nature ; a light in the vital may purify and enlarge the vital movements or else silence and immobilise the vital being, but leave the body and the physical consciousness as it was, or even leave it inert or shake its balance. And the descent of Light is not enough, it must be the descent of the whole higher conscious- ness, its Peace, Power, Knowledge, Love, Ananda. Moreover the descent may be enough to liberate, but not to perfect, or it may be enough to make a great change in the inner being, while the outer remains an imperfect instrument, clumsy, sick or inexpressive. Finaliy, transfonnation eflected by the sadhana cannot be complete unless it is a supramenfalisafion of the being.
There must be a total and sincere surrender ; there must be an exclusive self-opening to the divine Power ; there must be a constant and integral choice of the Truth that is descending, a constant and integral rejection of the falsehood of the mental, vital and physical Powers and Appearances that still rule the earth-Naturc.
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
There should be full concentration in the work if it is to take the place of meditation.
There were at one time three clerks of the remembrance, styled King’s Remembrancer, Lord Treasurer’s Remembrancer and Remembrancer of First-Fruits. In England, the latter two offices have become extinct, that of remembrancer of first-fruits by the diversion of the fund (Queen Anne’s Bounty Act 1838), and that of Lord Treasurer’s Remembrancer on being merged in the office of King’s Remembrancer in 1833. By the Queen’s Remembrancer Act 1859 the office ceased to exist separately, and the queen’s remembrancer was required to be a master of the court of exchequer. The Judicature Act 1873 attached the office to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court of Judicature (Officers) Act 1879 transferred it to the central office of the Supreme Court. By section 8 of that Act, the king’s remembrancer is a master of the Supreme Court, and the office is usually filled by the senior master. The king’s remembrancer department of the central office is now amalgamated with the judgments and married women acknowledgments department. The king’s remembrancer still assists at certain ceremonial functions relics of the former importance of the office such as the nomination of sheriffs, the swearing-in of the Lord Mayor of the City of London, the Trial of the Pyx and the acknowledgments of homage for crown lands.
The right attitude is neither to worry always about the sex weakness and be obsessed by its importance so as to be in constant struggle and depression over it, nor to be too careless as to allow it to grow'. It is perhaps the most difficult of all to get rid of entirely ; one has to recogjise quietly its importance and its difficulty nod go quietly and steadily about the control of it.
The right way is to transform the sleep and not suppress it, and especially to learn how to become more and more conscious in sleep itself. If that is done, sleep changes into an inner mode of consciousness in which the sadhana can continue as much as in the waking state, and at the same time one is able to enter into other planes of consciousness than the physical and command an immense range of informative and utilisable experience.
The Romans regarded Jupiter as the equivalent of the Greek Zeus,[5] and in Latin literature and Roman art, the myths and iconography of Zeus are adapted under the name Iuppiter. In the Greek-influenced tradition, Jupiter was the brother of Neptune and Pluto. Each presided over one of the three realms of the universe: sky, the waters, and the underworld. The Italic Diespiter was also a sky god who manifested himself in the daylight, usually but not always identified with Jupiter.[6] Tinia is usually regarded as his Etruscan counterpart.[7] Wikipedia
The rough handling and careless breaking or waste and mis- use of physical things is a denial of the yogic consciousness and a great hindrance to the bringing down of the Pivine Truth to the materia! plane.
The sadhaka has to turn away entirely from the invasion of the vital and the physical by the sex-impulse — for, if he does not conquer the sex-impulse there can be no settling in the body of the divine consciousness and the divine Ananda.
The sadhana is a difficult one and time should not be grudged ; it is only in the last stages that a very great and constant rapidity of progress can be confidently expected
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
These alternations ace the result of the nature of human consciousness. One has to be prepared for them and pass
These and other phenomena create an indirect, a representa- tive range of psychical experience ; but the psychical sense has also the power of putting us in a more direct communication with earthly or supra-terrestrial beings through their psychical selves or their psychical bodies or even with things, for things also have a psychical reality and souls or presences supporting them which can communicate with our psychical consciousness.
These are perhaps the most salient definitions along with relevant poems by two great poets, Walt Whitman and William Wordsworth.
The sea with the sun over it is a plane of consciousness lit by the Truth.
The seeds of the old relations, their impressions, their memories remain suppressed in the subconscient and rise up whenever they can. It is only when these seeds arc pulled out and disappear
The Seer, the Thinker, the Self-existent who becomes everywhere has ordered perfectly all things from years sempiternal. Isha Upanishad. (1) The Life Divine
The Self or Atman being free and superior to birth and death, the experience of the Jivatman and its unity with the supreme
The Self that becomes all these forms of things is the K/w/ or universal Soul,
The Self that contains all these things involved in it is Prajna, the conscious Cause or ori^natly determining Soul.
The Self that creates all these forms is Hiranyagarbha, the
These means are quite unnecessary and besides, they may lead to a passive concentration in which one is open to all sorts of things and cannot choose the nght ones.
These powers and e.xperiences belong first, to the vital and mental planes above this physical in which we live, and are natural to the soul in the subtle body ; as the dependence on the phj’sical body decreases, these abnormal activities become possi-
These thought-waves, thought-seeds or thought-forms or what- ewr they axe, are of different values and come from different planes of consciousoess. The same tboughi-subsiancc can lake higher or lower vibrations according to the plane of conscious- ness through which the thoughts come in (c.g., thinking mind, vital mind, physical miad, subconscious mind) or the power of consciousness which catches them and pushes them into one man or another. Moreover, there is a stuS of mind in each mao and the incoming thought uses that for shaping itself or translating itself (transcribing we usually call it), but the stuff is finer or coarser, stronger or weaker etc., etc. in one mind than in another.
The seventh is sometimes or by some identified with the brain, but that is an error ::: the brain is only a channel of communi- cation situated between the*lhousand-petalled and the. fore-head centre. .The former is sometimes called the void centre, sunya, either because it is not -in the body, but in the apparent void above or because rising above the head, one enters first into the silence of the, self or spiritual being. ..
The sex-crergy utilised by Nature for the purpose of repro- duction is in its real nature a fundamental energy of life. It can be used not for the heightening but for a certain intensification of the vital-emotional life ; it can be controlled and diverted from the sex-purpose and used for aesthetic and artistic or other crea- tion and productiveness or preserved for heightening of the intel- lectual or other energies. Entirely controlled it can be turned into a force of spiritual energy also. This was well-known tn ancient India and was described as the conversation of retas into ojas by brahmacarya. Sex-energy misused turns to disorder and disintegration of the life-energy and its powers.
The sex-energy is a great power with two components in its physical basis, one ntcant for procreation and the process neces- sary for it, the other for feeding the general energies of the body, mind and vital, — also of the spiritual energies of the body.
The sexual desires show that the subconscient still retains the old impressions, movements and impulses ; make the conscious parts of the being entirely free and aspire and will for the higher consciousness to come fully into the subconscient so that even in sleep and dream something in you may be aware and on guard and reject these things when they try to take form at that time.
The sex-vampire eats up the other’s vital and gives nothing or very little.
The silence remains behind and there is the necessary action on
The sital is good when It is properly used ; it is a necessary instrument for action.
The sky as ether indicates also the infinite.
The solid cool block of peace pressing on the body and making it immobile is the descent of the higher consciousness, A deep, intense or massive substance of peace and sfiilncss is very com- monly the first of its powers that descends and many experience it in that way. At first it comes and stays only during medita- tion or, without the sense of physical iDertne.ss or immobility, a little while longer and afterwards it is lost ; but if the sadbana follows its normal course, it comes more and more, lasting longer and in the cod as an enduring deep peace and inner stillness and release becomes a normal character of the consciousness, the foundation indeed of a new consciousness, calm and liberated.
The soul, the psychic being, once having reached the human consciousness cannot go back to the inferior animal conscious-
The soul goes into rest to assimilate the essence of its past and prepare for a new life. It is this preparation that determines the circumstances of the new birth and guides it in its constitu- tion of a new personality and the choice of its materials.
The soul is a spark of the Divine which is not seated abose the manifested being, but comes down into the manifestation to support its evolution in the material world. It is at first an undifferentiated power of the divine consciousness containing all possibilities which have not yet taken form, but to which it is the function of evolution to give form. This spark is there In all living beings from the lowest to the highest.
The soul, on the contrary, is something. that comes down into birth and passes through death — although it does not itself die, for it is immortal — from one state to another, from the earth plane to other planes and back again to the earth'cxisteoce. ft goes on with this progression from life to life through an evolu- tion which leads it up to the human state and evolves through it all a being of itself which we call the psychic being that sup- ports the evolution and develops a physical, a vital, a mental human consciousness as its instruments of world-experience and of a disguised, imperfect, but growing self-expression. All this it does from behind a veil showing something of its divine self only in so far as the imperfection of the instrumental being will allow it. But a time comes when it is able to prepare to come out from behind the veil, take command and turn all the instru- mental nature towards a divine fulfilment. This is the beginning of the true spiritual life. The soul is able now to make itself ready for a higher evolution of manifested consciousness than the mental human — it can pass from the mental to the spiritual and through degrees of the spiritual to the supramental state. _ ,
The soul or psyche is immutable only^ in the sense that it contains all the possibilities of the Divine within it, but it has to evolve them and in its evolution it assumes the form of a developing ps3'cbic individual evolving in tbS manifestation the individual Prakriti and taking part Jn the evolution. It is the spark of the Divine J^re that grows behind the mind, vital and physical by means of the psychic being until h is able to transform the Prakriti of Ignorance into a Prakriti of Knowledge. This evolving psychic being is not therefore at any time all that the soul or essential psychic existence bears within it.
The soul supports the nature in its evolution through these grades, but is itself not any of these things.
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 spiritual element is the need of the being for contact, merging, union wth its own highest and uhole sell and source of being and consciousness and bliss, the Ditinc. These two are two sides of the same thing. The mind, vital, physical can be the supports and recipients of this lose, but they can be fully that only when they become remoulded in harmony with the psychic and spiritual elements of the being and no longer bring in the lower insistences of the ego.
The spiritual life, on the contrary, proceeds directly by a change of consciousness, a change from the ordinary consciousocss, ignorant and separated from its true self and from God, to a greater consciousness in which one finds one’s true being and comes first into direct and liviug contact and then into union with the Divine. ‘ ■ ’ j
The spiritual man who can guide human life towards its perfection is typified in the ancient Indian idea of the Rishi, one who has lived fully the life of man and found the word of the supra-intellectual, supramental, spiritual truth. He has risen above these lower limitations and can view all things from above, but also he is in sympathy with their effort and can view them from within; he has the complete inner knowledge and the higher surpassing knowledge. Therefore he can guide the world humanly as God guides it divinely, because like the Divine he is in the life of the world and yet above it.” The Human Cycle*
The spiritual man who can guide human life towards its perfection is typified in the ancient Indian idea of the Rishi, one who has lived fully the life of man and found the word of the supra-intellectual, supramental, spiritual truth. He has risen above these lower limitations and can view all things from above, but also he is in sympathy with their effort and can view them from within; he has the complete inner knowledge and the higher surpassing knowledge. Therefore he can guide the world humanly as God guides it divinely, because like the Divine he is in the life of the world and yet above it.” The Human Cycle
The state of grace ” is often prepared by a long tapasyii or purification in which nothing decisive seems to happen, only touches or glimpses or passing experiences at the most, and comes suddenly without warning. When it comes the fundamental difficulties can in a moment and generally do disappear.
The strongest attitude to take is to regard these things as what they really are ::: incursions of dark forces from outside taking advantage of certain openings in the physical mind or the vital part, but not a real part of oneself or spontaneous creation in one’s own nature. To create a confusion and darkness in the physical mind and to throw into it or awake in it mistaken ideas, dark thoughts, false impressions is a favourite method of these assailants, and if they can get the support of this mind from over-confidence in its own correctness or the natural rightness of its impressions and inferences, then they can have a field-day until the true mind reasserts itself and blows the clouds away.
The strong vital, when the will is there, can do it much more easily — its one central dtfliculty Is the pride of the ego and the attraction of its powers.
The sub-conscient has many more fears in it than those admit- ted or acknowledged by the waking consciousness.
The subconscient is a concealed and unexpected 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 miod>oature 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 (he physical nature..
The subconscient is a thing of habits and memories and repeals persistently or whenever it can old repressed 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.
The subconscient is full of inational habits.
The subconscient retains (he impression of all our past experi- ences of life and they can come up from there in dream forms ; most dreams in ordinary sleep arc foimaiions made from sub- conscient impressions. The habit of strong recurrence of the same things in our physical consciousness so that it is difScult to gel rid of its habits is largely due to a subconscient support.
The submind is always supplying associations from the past life or the earth life in general to experiences of the vital or other planes. One has to get rid of these intrusions in order to get at the tore experience.
The Sun in the yoga is (he symbol of the Supermind and the
The sun indicates Truth directly perceived in whatever plane it may be.
The sun is the light of the Truth, the Moon only reflects the light of the Truth.
The sun is the symbol of the concentrated light of Truth. The sun is the Truth from above, in the last resort the supramental
The sun means the formed Ught of the Divine Truth, the starry light is the same Light acting as a suffused
The Supermind is in its very essence a truth-consciousness, a consciousness always free from the Ignorance which is the foundation of our present natural or evolutionary existence and from which nature in us is trying to arrive at self-knowledge and world-knowledge and a right consciousness and the right use of our existence in the universe- The Supermind, because it is a truth-consciousness, has this knowledge inherent in it and this power of true existence ; its course is straight and can go direct to its aim, its field is wide and can even be made illimitable.
The supramental is the Truth-Consciousness and what it brings in its descent is the full truth of life, the full truth of consciousness in Matter.
The supramental is necessary for the transformation of terres- trial life and being, not for reaching the Self.
The surrender must be total and seize all the parts of the being. It is not enough that the psychic should respond and the higher mental accept or even the inner vital submit and the inner physical consciousness feel the influence. There must be in no part of the being,' even the most external, anything that makes a reserve, anything that hides behind doubts, confusions and subterfuges, anything that revolts or refuses.
The surrender must necessarily be progressive. No one can make the complete surrender from the beginning.
The surrender of the vital is always difficult because of the unwillingness of the forces of the universal vital Ignorance.
The thousand-petalled lotus on the top of the head.
The three giinas become purified and refined and changed into their divine equivalents ::: sativa becomes jyoti, the authentic spiri- tual light ; rajas becomes tapas, the tranquilly intense divine force ; toninj becomes soma, the divine quiet, rest, peace.
The throat centre, \iiuddha, commanding expression and all cxtemalisation of the mind movements and mental forces, governs the expressive and externalising mind, (Colour ::: grey ; petals ::: sixteen.)
The touch of grace, divine grace, coming directly or through the Guru is a special phenomenon having two sides to it, — the grace of the Guru or the Divine, in fact both together, on one side and a “ state of grace ” in the disciple on the other.
The true love for the Divine is a self-giving, free of demand, full of submission and surrender ; it makes no claim, imposes no condition, strikes no bargain, indulges in no violences of jealousy or pride or anger — for these things arc not in its composition. In return the Divine Mother also gives herself, but freely — and this represents itself in an inner giving — hei presence in your mind, your vital, your physical consciousness, her power recreating you in the divine nature, taking up aU the move'ments of your being and Erecting them towards perfection and fulfilment, her love enveloping you and carrying you in its arms Godwards.
The true thinking mind docs not belong to the physical, it is a separate power.
The Truth-Consciousness whether above or in the universe by which the Divine knows not only hts own essence and being but his manifestation also. The fundamental character is knowledge by identity, by that the Self is known, the Divine Sachchidananda is known, but also the truth of manifestation is known because this too is That, Mind is an Instrument of the Ignorance trying to know •— Supermind is the Knower possessing Knowledge, because one with it and the known, therefore seeing all things in the light of His own Truth, the light of their true self which is He. U is a dynamic and not only a siatic Power, not only a
The universe removed its coloured veil,
The Unmanifested Supreme is beyond all definition and description by mind or speech; no definition the mind can make, affirmative or negative, can be at all expressive of it or adequate.
The unseized miracle of self-born shapes
The upn'ord opening puts us into direct relation with the whole
The usual rule is that one should not speak of one’s experience to others except of course the Guru while the sadhana is going on because it wastes the experience, there is what they call k4aya • of the tapasyS. It is only long past experiences that they speak of and even that not too freely.
The vita! is the being behind the Force of Life ; in its outer form in the ignorance it generates the desire-soul which governs most men and which they mistake often for the soul. The vital as the desire-soul and desire-nature controls the consciousness to a large extent in most men because men are governed by desire.
The vital as the desire-soul and desire-nature controls the consciousness to a large extent in most men, because men are governed by desire.” Letters on Yoga
The vital beings (possessing men) take a delight In struggle and suffering and disorder; it is their natural atmosphere. They want besides to get the taste of the physical world without being under the obligation of taking on birth and developing the psychic being and evolving towards the Divine. They wish to remain what they are and yet amuse themselves svith the physical world and physical body,
The vital is good when it is properly used ; it is a necessary instrument for action.
The vital part of us normally exists after the dissolution of the body for some time and passes away into the vital piano where it remains til! the vital sheath dissolves. Afterwards it passes, if it is mentally evolved, in the mental sheath to some mental world and finally the psychic leaves its mental sheath also and goes to its place of rest. If the mental is strongly developed, then the mental part of us can remain ; so also can the vital, provided they are organised by and centred round the true psychic being — for they then share the immortality of the psychic. Otherwise the psychic draws mind and life into itself and enters into^an intematal quiescence.
The vital-physical is the vehicle of the nervous responses of our physical nature ::: it Is the field and Instrument of the smaller sensations, desires, reactions of all kinds to the Impacts of the outer physical and gross material life. This vital-physical part
The waking consciousness is no longer there, for all has been withdrawn within into the inner realms of which we are not aware when we are awake, though they exist ; for then all that is put behind a veil by the waking mind and nothing remains except the surface self and the outward world — much as the veil of the sunlight hides from us the vast worlds ^of the stars
The wall is indeed the wall of the ego which is based on the insistent identification of oneself with the outer personality and its movements. It is that identification which is the key-stone of the limitation and bondage from which the outer being su/Tcrs, prevenUng expansion, self-knowledge, spiritual freedom. But still the wall must not be prematurely broken down, because that may lead to a disruption or confusion or invasion of either part by the movements of the two separated worlds before they are ready to harmonise. A certain separation is necessary for some time after one has become aware of these two parts of the being as existing together. The force of the Yoga must be given time to make the necessary adjustments and openings, and to take the being inward and then from this inward poise to work on the outer nature.
The waves of colour mean a dynamic rush of forces and the star in such a context indicates the promise of the new thing that is to be formed.
The way to do this and the way to call down the higher powers is the same. It is to remain quiet at the time of meditation, not fighting with the mind or making mental efforts to pall down the Power or the Silence, but keeping only a .silent will and aspiration for them. If the mind is active, one has to learn to look at it, drawn back and not giving any sanction from within, until its habitual or mechanical activities begin to fall quiet for want of support from within. If it is too persistent, a steady rejection without strain or st/uggJe is the one thing to be done.
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
The will for Tapasya has in It a truth — it is the truth of the Spirit’s mastery over Its members.
The Word has its seed-sounds—suggesting the eternal syllable of the Veda, AUM.
The Word has its seed-sounds – suggesting the eternal syllable of the Veda, AUM. ::: Sri Aurobindo - A note on the Chhandogya Upanishad *
The word is Middle English (1325-75) and is of Anglo-French provenance. Some dictionaries give the first known use as the 15th century.
The work here is a field and an opportunity for the Karma- yoga part of the Integral yoga, for learning to w-ork in the true yogic way, dedication through service, practical selflessness, obedience, scrupulousness, dkciplioe, setting the Divine and the
The world of the Asuras is prior to the evolution, so are the worlds of the mental, vital or subtle-physical Devas — but these beings are different from each other. The great Gods belong to the Overmind plane ::: in the Supennind they are unified as aspects of the Divine, in the Overmind they appear as separate personali- ties. Any godhead can descend by emanation to the physical plane and associate himself with the evolution of a human being with whose line of manlfestion he is in affinity.
THE WRITINGS OF SRI AUROBINDO
They are in origin and essence permanent Emanations of the
They are one key (there are others) to contact with the other worlds or with the inner worlds and all that is there and these are regions of immense riches which far surpass the physical plane as it is at present. One enters into a larger, freer self and a larger, more pfastic world; of course indmrfual w/anr only give a contact, not an actual entrance, but the power of vision accompanied with the power of other subtle senses (hear- ing, touch, etc.) as it expands does give this entrance. These things have not the effect of a mere imagination but if fully fo * lowed out bring a constant growth of the being and the conscious- ness and its richness of experience and its scope.
They are one key (there are others) to contact with the other worlds or with the inner worlds and all that is there and these are regions of immense riches which far surpass the physical plane as it is at present. One enters into a larger, freer self and a larger, more plasdc world; of course individual visions only give a contact, not an actual entrance, but the power of vision accompanied with the power of other subtle semes (hear- ing, touch, etc.) as it expands does give this entrance. These things have not the effect of a mere imagination but if fully fol- lowed out bring a constant growth of the being and the conscious- ness and its richness of experience and its scope.
They then become, not abnormal and laboriously acquired j/ddkir, but simply the very nature and method of bis action, if he still continues to be active in the worId*existence.
They come from outside yourself and something replies from the subconscient which keeps for a long time all that the cons- cious being rejects. It is only in the later stages of the yoga that this subconscient part can be made conscious and liberated. It is the waking consciousness that you must keep free from sexual acts and sexual suggestions ::: if you do that, the subconscient part can be easily liberated afterwards.
They have been established in the earth-consciousness by evolu- tion — but they exist in themselves before the evolution, above the earth-consciousness and the material plane to which the earth belongs.
They only deflect the mind and open the gate to falsehoods.
They were his life’s pattern and his privilege.
The zero covers an immortal face.
The Zero is not a negative Void. It exceeds the farthest conception of the mind and strikes it as a blank though it is full in a way that is beyond human comprehension.” Readings in Savitri, Vol. I.
TERMS ANYWHERE
1. A distinctive and pervasive quality or character; air; atmosphere. 2. A subtle emanation from and enveloping living persons and things, viewed by mystics as consisting of the essence of the individual.
1. Situated at, in, or near the center. 2. Of basic importance; essential or principal.
1. The active opposition or mutual hostility of two opposing forces, physical or mental. 2. An opposing force, principle, or tendency.
1. The act, power or property of appealing, alluring, enticing or inviting. 2. A thing or feature which draws by appealing to desires, tastes, etc. 3. The action of a body or substance in drawing to itself, by some physical force, another to which it is not materially attached; the force thus exercised. attractions.
1. ‘The beginning and the end," originally of the divine Being. 2. The first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.
1. To bring into musical accord or harmony; to tune. 2. To bring into accord, harmony, or sympathetic relationship; adjust. attuned, attuning.
1. Touchstone; a very smooth, fine-grained, black or dark-coloured variety of quartz or jasper (also called basanite), used for testing the quality of gold and silver alloys by the colour of the streak produced by rubbing them upon it; a piece of such stone used for this purpose. 2. *fig.* That which serves to test or try the genuineness or value of anything; a test, criterion.
1. Where something originated or was nurtured in its early existence. 2. The place where something begins, where it springs into being.
abhorred ::: regarded with extreme repugnance, aversion or disgust; detested; loathed. abhorring.
able to be heard; heard or perceptible by the ear; loud enough to be heard.
a body of executive officials collectively entrusted with the execution and administration of laws.
abroad ::: 1. Broadly, widely, at large, over a broad or wide surface; widely apart, with the parts or limbs wide spread. 2. At large; freely moving about.
abrupt ::: 1. Characterized by sudden interruption or change; unannounced and unexpected; sudden, hasty. 2. Precipitous, steep. 3. Of strata: Suddenly cropping out and presenting their edges.
absence ::: the state of being away (from any place) or not being present; also the time of duration of such state.
absolute ::: adj. 1. Free from all imperfection or deficiency; complete, finished; perfect, consummate. 2. Of degree: Complete, entire; in the fullest sense. 3. Having ultimate power, governing totally; unlimited by a constitution or the concurrent authority of a parliament; arbitrary, despotic. 4. Existing without relation to any other being; self-existent; self-sufficing. 5. Capable of being thought or conceived by itself alone; unconditioned. 6. Considered independently of its being subjective or objective. n. 7. Something that is not dependent upon external conditions for existence or for its specific nature, size, etc. (opposed to relative). Absolute, Absolute"s, absolutes, absoluteness.
absolute reality ::: Sri Aurobindo: "I would myself say that bliss and oneness are the essential condition of the absolute reality, and love as the most characteristic dynamic power of bliss and oneness must support fundamentally and colour their activities; . . . .” Letters on Yoga
absolve ::: 1. To free from guilt, blame or their consequences; discharge (from obligations, liabilities, etc.). 2. To set free, release. 3. To clear off, discharge, acquit oneself of (a task, etc.); to perform completely, accomplish, finish. absolves, absolved.
abstract ::: adj. 1. Withdrawn or separated from matter, from material embodiment, from practice, or from particular examples; theoretical. 2. In the fine arts, characterized by lack of or freedom from representational qualities. n. 3. Something that concentrates in itself the essential qualities of anything more extensive or more general, or of several things; essence.
atheist ::: adj. Disbelieving or denying the existence of a supreme God.
abyss ::: 1. The great deep, the primal chaos; the ‘bowels of the earth", the supposed cavity of the lower world; the ‘infernal pit". 2. A bottomless gulf; any unfathomable or apparently unfathomable cavity or void space; a profound gulf, chasm, or void extending beneath. Abyss, abyss"s, abysses.
accent ::: 1. The way in which anything is said; pronunciation, tone, voice; sound, modulation or modification of the voice expressing feeling. 2. A mark indicating stress or some other distinction in pronunciation or value. accents.
acceptance ::: the act of assenting.
access ::: 1. The ability, right, or permission to approach, enter, speak with, or use; admittance. 2. A way or means of approach; an entrance, channel, passage, or doorway.
acclaimed ::: laid claim to, claimed; demanded as one"s own or one"s due; sought or asked for on the ground of right.
accord ::: agreement or harmonious correspondence of things or their properties, as of colours or tints. Of sounds: Agreement in pitch and tone; harmony.
::: "According to the nature and the circumstances the call will come.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
accountable ::: subject to the obligation to report, explain, or justify something; answerable, responsible.
account ::: n. 1. A record of debts and credits, applied to other things than money or trade. 2. A particular statement or narrative of an event or thing; a relation, report, or description. v. 3. To render an account or reckoning of; to give a satisfactory reason for, to give an explanation.
accurate ::: 1. Exact, precise, correct, as the result of care. 2. Free from error or defect; consistent with a standard, rule, or model; precise, exact.
accursed ::: lying under a curse or anathema; ill fated; doomed to perdition or misery.
aching ::: 1. Having the sensation of continuous or ever-recurring pain, throbbing painfully. 2. Full of or precipitating nostalgia, grief, loneliness, etc.
acknowledged ::: recognized the existence, truth or fact of; admitted as true, valid, or authoritative.
"A conscious being, no larger than a man"s thumb, stands in the centre of our self; he is master of the past and the present . . . he is today and he is tomorrow. — Katha Upanishad. (6)” The Life Divine - See *conscious being.
acrid ::: bitterly irritating to the feelings; of bitter and irritating temper or manner; sharp, biting, caustic.
action ::: 1. The process or condition of acting or doing (in the widest sense), the exertion of energy, influence, power or force. 2. A way or manner of moving. 3. A thing done, a deed**. action"s, actions, self-action.
"Action is a resultant of the energy of the being, but this energy is not of one sole kind; the Consciousness-Force of the Spirit manifests itself in many kinds of energies: there are inner activities of mind, activities of life, of desire, passion, impulse, character, activities of the senses and the body, a pursuit of truth and knowledge, a pursuit of beauty, a pursuit of ethical good or evil, a pursuit of power, love, joy, happiness, fortune, success, pleasure, life-satisfactions of all kinds, life-enlargement, a pursuit of individual or collective objects, a pursuit of the health, strength, capacity, satisfaction of the body.” The Life Divine*
active ::: originating or communicating action, exerting action upon others; acting of its own accord, spontaneous.
actual ::: in action or existence at the time; present, current, real. Actual"s.
adamant ::: n. 1. Any impenetrably or unyieldingly hard substance. 2. A legendary stone of impenetrable hardness, formerly sometimes identified with the diamond. adj. **3. Unshakeable, inflexible, utterly unyielding. 4. Incapable of being broken, dissolved, or penetrated; immovable, impregnable. adamantine.**
adjourned ::: deferred, postponed; held over to another time.
adoration ::: 1. The act of paying honour, as to a divine being; worship. 2. Reverent homage. 3. Fervent and devoted love. **adoration"s.*Sri Aurobindo: "Especially in love for the Divine or for one whom one feels to be divine, the Bhakta feels an intense reverence for the Loved, a sense of something of immense greatness, beauty or value and for himself a strong impression of his own comparative unworthiness and a passionate desire to grow into likeness with that which one adores.” Letters on Yoga*
adore ::: 1. To worship as a deity, to pay divine honours to. 2. To reverence or honour very highly; to regard with the utmost respect and affection. adores, adored, adoring, adorer, adorer"s.
adored ::: the One who is worshipped, (referring here to Krishna).
adorer ::: the One who worships, (referring here to Radha).
adventure ::: n. 1. Any novel or unexpected event in which one shares; an exciting or remarkable incident befalling any one. 2. The encountering of risks or participation in novel and exciting events; bold or daring activity, enterprise. adventure"s, world-adventure, world-adventure"s. *v. 3. To take the chance of; to commit to fortune; to undertake a thing of doubtful issue; to try, to chance, to venture into or upon. 4. To risk or hazard; stake. *adventuring.
adventurer ::: one who seeks adventures, or who engages in daring enterprises. (Sri Aurobindo also employs the word as an adj.) adventurers, Adventurers.
adversity ::: the condition of adverse fortune or fate; a state opposed to well-being or prosperity; misfortune, distress, trial, or affliction.
adytum ::: the innermost part of a temple; the secret shrine whence oracles were delivered; a most sacred or reserved part of any place of worship; hence, fig. a private or inner chamber, a sanctum.
aegis ::: originally the shield or breastplate of Zeus, or Athena. Currently, protection; support; sponsorship; auspices.
aeons ::: ages of the universe, immeasurable periods of time; the whole duration of the world, or of the universe; eternity. aeons", aeoned, million-aeoned, (employed as an adj. by Sri Aurobindo), aeon-rings.
aerial ::: 1. Having a light and graceful beauty; airy; ethereal; unsubstantial, intangible; hence, immaterial, ideal, imaginary. 2. Biol. Growing in the air.
aesthesis ::: the perception of the external world by the senses.
"Aesthesis therefore is of the very essence of poetry, as it is of all art. But it is not the sole element and aesthesis too is not confined to a reception of poetry and art; it extends to everything in the world: there is nothing we can sense, think or in any way experience to which there cannot be an aesthetic reaction of our conscious being. Ordinarily, we suppose that aesthesis is concerned with beauty, and that indeed is its most prominent concern: but it is concerned with many other things also. It is the universal Ananda that is the parent of aesthesis and the universal Ananda takes three major and original forms, beauty, love and delight, the delight of all existence, the delight in things, in all things.” Letters on Savitri
aesthete ::: a person who has or professes to have refined sensitivity toward the beauties of art or nature.
aesthetic ::: pertaining to a sense of the beautiful or pleasing; characterized by a love of beauty; tasteful, of refined taste.
"A fabulous tribe of wild, beastlike monsters, having the upper part of a human being and the lower part of a horse. They live in the woods or mountains of Elis, Arcadia, and Thessaly. They are representative of wild life, animal desires and barbarism. (M.I.) Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works.*
affinity ::: 1. Causal relationship or connexion (as flowing the one from the other, or having a common source). 2. A psychical or spiritual attraction believed by some sects to exist between persons.
afflatus ::: the miraculous communication of supernatural knowledge; hence also, the imparting of an over-mastering impulse, poetic or otherwise; inspiration. A creative inspiration, as that of a poet; a divine imparting of knowledge, thus it is often called divine afflatus.
afloat ::: 1. Floating or borne on the water; in a floating condition. 2. From the state of a ship or other body floating on the sea, having liberty of motion and buoyancy.
a game in which a blindfolded player tries to catch and identify one of the other players. The game has been around for at least 2000 years and probably longer. It is known to have been played in Greece about the time of the Roman Conquest.
agape ::: with the mouth wide open.
age ::: n. **1. A great period or stage of the history of the Earth. 2. Hist. Any great period or portion of human history distinguished by certain characters real or mythical, as the Golden Age, the Patriarchal Age, the Bronze Age, the Age of the Reformation, the Middle Ages, the Prehistoric Age. 3. A generation or a series of generations. 4. Advanced years; old age. age"s, ages, ages". v. 5.** To grow old; to become aged.
agencies ::: active powers or causes which have the power to produce an effect.
agent ::: n. **1. One who does the actual work of anything, as distinguished from the instigator or employer; hence, one who acts for another, a deputy, steward, factor, substitute, representative, or emissary. adj. 2. That which acts or exerts power. agents.**
aging ::: the process of growing old or maturing; showing signs of advancing age.
agony ::: 1. Anguish of mind, sore trouble or distress, a paroxysm of grief. 2. The convulsive throes, or pangs of death; the death struggle. 3. Extreme bodily suffering, such as to produce writhing or throes of the body. agonies.
agree ::: 1. To be in harmony or unison in opinions, feelings, conduct, etc.; to be in sympathy; to live or act together harmoniously; to have no causes of variance. 2. To give consent; assent (often followed by to). agreed.
agreement ::: a contract or other document delineating an arrangement that is accepted by all parties to a transaction. (Sri Aurobindo capitalizes the word.)
air ::: 1. The transparent, invisible, inodorous, and tasteless gaseous substance which envelopes the earth. 2. *Fig. With reference to its unsubstantial or impalpable nature. 3. Outward appearance, apparent character, manner, look, style: esp. in phrases like ‘an air of absurdity"; less commonly of a thing tangible, as ‘the air of a mansion". 4. Mien or gesture (expressive of a personal quality or emotion). *air"s.
aisle ::: a longitudinal division of an interior area, as in a church, separated from the main area by an arcade or divided by a row of pillars. aisles.
ajar ::: neither entirely open nor entirely shut; partly open.
akin ::: allied by nature; having the same properties; near in nature or character.
alacananda ::: "One of the four head streams of the river Ganga in the Himalayas. According to the Vaishnavas it is the terrestrial Ganga which Shiva received upon his head as it fell from heaven. The famous shrine of Badrinath is situated on the banks of this stream. (Dow.)” Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works
alarm ::: n. 1. A warning sound of any kind to give notice of danger, or to arouse or attract attention; esp. a loud and hurried peal rung out by a tocsin or alarm bell. v. 2. To arouse to a sense of danger, to excite the attention or suspicion of, to put on the alert; warn. 3. To strike with fear or apprehension of danger; to agitate or excite with sudden fear. alarmed, alarming.
alcoves ::: recessed spaces, as bowers in a garden; arched recesses or niches in the wall of any structure.
algebra ::: the branch of mathematics that deals with general statements of relations, utilizing letters and other symbols to represent specific sets of numbers, values, vectors, etc., in the description of such relations. 2. Any special system of notation adapted to the study of a special system of relationship.
alien ::: 1. Unlike one"s own; strange; not belonging to one; belonging to another person, place, or family. 2. Adverse; hostile. aliens.
"All birds of that region are relatives. But this is the bird of eternal Ananda, while the Hippogriff is the divinised Thought and the Bird of Fire is the Agni-bird, psychic and tapas. All that however is to mentalise too much and mentalising always takes most of the life out of spiritual things. That is why I say it can be seen but nothing said about it.” ::: "The question was: ‘In the mystical region, is the dragon bird any relation of your Bird of Fire with ‘gold-white wings" or your Hippogriff with ‘face lustred, pale-blue-lined"? And why do you write: ‘What to say about him? One can only see"?” Letters on Savitri
All these centres are in the middle of the body; they are supposed to be attached to the spinal cord; but in fact all these things are in the subtle body, suksma deha , though one has the feeling of their activities as if in the physical body when the consciousness is awake.” 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 conscious being is one and indivisible in itself, but in manifestation it becomes a complex rhythm, a scale of harmonies, a hierarchy of states or movements.” The Upanishads
allegiance ::: loyalty or devotion to some person, group, cause, or the like.
alley ::: a passage between buildings; hence, a narrow street, a lane; usually only wide enough for foot-passengers. blind alley*: one that is closed at the end, so as to be no thoroughfare; a cul de sac*.
allowed ::: 1. Permitted the occurrence or existence of. 2. Allotted, assigned, bestowed. allows.
all- ::: prefix: Wholly, altogether, infinitely. Since 1600, the number of these [combinations] has been enormously extended, all-** having become a possible prefix, in poetry at least, to almost any adjective of quality. all-affirming, All-Beautiful, All-Beautiful"s, All-Bliss, All-Blissful, All-causing, all-concealing, all-conquering, All-Conscient, All-Conscious, all-containing, All-containing, all-creating, all-defeating, All-Delight, all-discovering, all-embracing, all-fulfilling, all-harbouring, all-inhabiting, all-knowing, All-knowing, All-Knowledge, all-levelling, All-Life, All-love, All-Love, all-negating, all-powerful, all-revealing, All-ruler, all-ruling, all-seeing, All-seeing, all-seeking, all-shaping, all-supporting, all-sustaining, all-swallowing, All-Truth, All-vision, All-Wisdom, all-wise, All-Wise, all-witnessing, All-Wonderful, All-Wonderful"s.**
almighty ::: 1. *Orig. and in the strict sense used as an attribute of the Deity, and joined to God or other title. 2. Absol. The Almighty; a title of God. 3. All-powerful (in a general sense); omnipotent. Almighty"s, Almightiness, almightiness.
aloof ::: 1. At a distance; distant; hence, detached, unsympathetic. 2. Away at some distance (from), with a clear space intervening, apart. aloofness.
alpha and the Omega
already ::: 1. Core Meaning: an adverb indicating that something has happened before now. 2. Happened in the past before a particular time, or will have happened by or before a particular time in the future. 3. Unexpectedly early.
altar ::: 1. A block, pile, table, stand, mound, platform, or other elevated structure on which to place or sacrifice offerings to a deity. 2. With reference to the uses, customs, dedication, or peculiar sanctity of the altar. 3. A place consecrated to devotional observances. altar"s, altars, altar-burnings, mountain-altars.
alter ::: to make otherwise or different in some respect; to make some change in character, shape, condition, position, quantity, value, etc. without changing the thing itself for another; to modify, to change the appearance of. alters, altered, altering.
altruism ::: the principle or practice of unselfish concern for or devotion to the welfare of others (opposed to egoism ).
amateur ::: a person who engages in a study, sport, or other activity for pleasure rather than for financial benefit or professional reasons.
ambassadors ::: 1. Diplomatic officials of the highest rank. 2. Authorized messengers or representatives.
amber ::: a pale yellow, sometimes reddish or brownish, fossil resin of vegetable origin, translucent, brittle, and capable of gaining a negative electrical charge by friction and of being an excellent insulator. 2. The yellowish-brown colour of resin.
ambience ::: 1. The mood, character, quality, tone, atmosphere, etc., particularly of an environment or milieu. 2. That which surrounds or encompasses.
ambition ::: an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction, as power, honour, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment. ambitions.
ambrosia ("s) ::: something especially delicious or delightful to taste or smell, divinely sweet; in Classical Mythology, the food of the gods.
ambush ::: 1. An act or instance of lying concealed so as to attack by surprise. 2. The concealed position itself. ambushes.
amethyst ::: a purple or violet quartz; having the clear colour as of the precious stone. Sri Aurobindo uses the word as an adj."for Amethyst (the Mother)she has revealed that it has a power of protection” Huta
amid ::: in the middle of or centre of; surrounded by; among.
amidst ::: in the middle of; surrounded by; among; amidst is often used of things scattered about, or in the midst of others.
ample ::: fully sufficient or more than adequate for the purpose or need; plentiful; of adequate or more than adequate extent, size, or amount; large; spacious. ampler.
amusements ::: pleasurable pastimes of the mind or attention; mental diversions and enjoyments in lieu of more serious matters.
amuse ::: to hold the attention of (someone) pleasantly; entertain or divert in an enjoyable or cheerful manner. amused, amusing.
analyse ::: to examine carefully and in detail so as to identify causes, key factors, possible results; examine minutely and critically to determine the elements or essential features of. analysed.
ananke ::: "In Greek mythology, personification of compelling necessity or ultimate fate to which even the gods must yield.” *Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works
"Anarchism is likely to be the protest of the human soul against the tyranny of a bureaucratic Socialism.” Essays Divine and Human
". . . an Avatar is not at all bound to be a spiritual prophet — he is never in fact merely a prophet, he is a realiser, an establisher — not of outward things only, though he does realise something in the outward also, but, as I have said, of something essential and radical needed for the terrestrial evolution which is the evolution of the embodied spirit through successive stages towards the Divine.” Letters on Yoga
"An Avatar, roughly speaking, is one who is conscious of the presence and power of the Divine born in him or descended into him and governing from within his will and life and action; he feels identified inwardly with this divine power and presence.” Letters on Yoga
anthem ::: a song, as of praise, devotion, patriotism or gladness.
anchor ::: 1. Any of various devices dropped by a chain, cable, or rope to the bottom of a body of water for preventing or restricting the motion of a vessel or other floating object, typically having broad, hooklike arms that bury themselves in the bottom to provide a firm hold. 2. A person or thing that can be relied on for support, stability, or security; mainstay.
anchorite ::: withdrawn from the world; secluded.
ancient ::: 1. Of or in time long past or early in the world"s history. 2. Dating from a remote period; of great age; of early origin. 3. Being old in wisdom and experience; venerable. Ancient.
::: "And this bliss is not a supreme pleasure of the heart and sensations with the experience of pain and sorrow as its background, but a delight also self-existent and independent of objects and particular experiences, a self-delight which is the very nature, the very stuff, as it were, of a transcendent and infinite existence.” The Synthesis of Yoga
anew ::: 1. Over again; again; once more. 2. In a new form or manner different from the previous.
angel ::: 1. One of a class of spiritual beings; a celestial attendant of the Deity; a divine messenger of an order of spiritual beings superior to man in power. 2. A fallen or rebellious spirit once a spiritual attendant of the Divine. angel, Angels, **angels.
**Angel of the Way *Sri Aurobindo: "Love fulfilled does not exclude knowledge, but itself brings knowledge; and the completer the knowledge, the richer the possibility of love. ‘By Bhakti" says the Lord in the Gita ‘shall a man know Me in all my extent and greatness and as I am in the principles of my being, and when he has known Me in the principles of my being, then he enters into Me." Love without knowledge is a passionate and intense, but blind, crude, often dangerous thing, a great power, but also a stumbling-block; love, limited in knowledge, condemns itself in its fervour and often by its very fervour to narrowness; but love leading to perfect knowledge brings the infinite and absolute union. Such love is not inconsistent with, but rather throws itself with joy into divine works; for it loves God and is one with him in all his being, and therefore in all beings, and to work for the world is then to feel and fulfil multitudinously one"s love for God. This is the trinity of our powers, [work, knowledge, love] the union of all three in God to which we arrive when we start on our journey by the path of devotion with Love for the Angel of the Way to find in the ecstasy of the divine delight of the All-Lover"s being the fulfilment of ours, its secure home and blissful abiding-place and the centre of its universal radiation.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
animal ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The animal is a living laboratory in which Nature has, it is said, worked out man. Man himself may well be a thinking and living laboratory in whom and with whose conscious co-operation she wills to work out the superman, the god. Or shall we not say, rather, to manifest God?” *The Life Divine
animate ::: alive; possessing life , endowed with life. half-animate. half-animated. Giving the appearance of moving, of being alive.
animates ::: 1. Gives life to; makes alive; breathes life into. 2. To move or stir to action; motivate.
anklet ::: an ornamental circlet worn around the ankle; an ankle-ring. anklet-bells.
anniversary ::: the yearly recurrence of the date of a past event, esp. the celebration or commemoration of such a date.
announced ::: made known to the mind or senses. announcing.
another ::: adj. 1. Being one more or more of the same; further; additional. 2. Very similar to; of the same kind or category as. 3. Different; distinct; of a different period, place, or kind. pron. **4. A person other than oneself or the one specified. 5. One more; an additional one. another"s**.
anomalies ::: deviations from the common rule, type, arrangement, order, or form.
anomalous ::: deviating from or inconsistent with the common order, form, or rule; irregular; abnormal.
antagonist ::: one who is opposed to, struggles against, or competes with another; opponent, adversary. antagonists.
antechambers ::: 1. Chambers or rooms that serve as waiting rooms and entrances to larger rooms or apartments; anterooms. 2. Any areas that are entrances to other areas.
antithesis ::: opposition; contrast.
antinomy ::: opposition between one law, principle, rule, etc., and another.
antipodes ::: places diametrically opposite each other.
antique ::: 1. Of or belonging to the past. 2. Dating from a period long ago; ancient.
ape ::: 1. Any of a group of anthropoid primates characterized by long arms, a broad chest, and the absence of a tail; an animal of the monkey tribe. 2. An imitator, a mimic. apelike.
apex ::: 1. The tip, point, or vertex; summit. 2. Climax; peak; acme.
"A philosophy of change?(1) But what is change? In ordinary parlance change means passage from one condition to another and that would seem to imply passage from one status to another status. The shoot changes into a tree, passes from the status of shoot to the status of tree and there it stops; man passes from the status of young man to the status of old man and the only farther change possible to him is death or dissolution of his status. So it would seem that change is not something isolated which is the sole original and eternal reality, but it is something dependent on status, and if status were non-existent, change also could not exist. For we have to ask, when you speak of change as alone real, change of what, from what, to what? Without this ‘what" change could not be. ::: —Change is evidently the change of some form or state of existence from one condition to another condition.” Essays Divine and Human
a piece of plate armour partially or completely covering the front of the torso.
apotheosised ::: glorified; exalted; immortalized; deified.
apocalypse ::: 1. Any revelation or prophecy. 2. A prophetic revelation, esp. concerning a cataclysm in which the forces of good permanently triumph over the forces of evil.
appalled ::: filled or overcome with horror, consternation, or fear, resulting in the loss of courage in the face of something dreadful.
apparelled ::: adorned; covered; decorated; clothed. apparels.
appeal ::: 1. An earnest request for aid, support, sympathy, mercy, etc.; entreaty; petition; plea. 2. An application or proceeding for review by a higher tribunal. 3. The power or ability to attract, interest; attraction. appealed, appealing, sense-appeal.
appear ::: 1. To come into sight; become visible; come into view, as from a place or state of concealment, or from a distance; esp. of angels, spirits, visions. 2. To come into existence; be created. 3. To be clear to the understanding. 4. To seem or look to be. appears, appeared, appearing.
appearance ::: 1. The act or fact of coming forward into view ; becoming visible. 2. The state, condition, manner, or style in which a person or object appears; outward look or aspect. 3. Outward show or seeming; semblance. appearances.
appease ::: 1. To bring to a state of peace, quiet, ease, calm, or contentment; pacify; soothe. 2. To satisfy, allay, or relieve.
appeased ::: pacified, quieted, satisfied; soothed.
apprentice ::: a learner; novice; tyro; one who is learning the rudiments; a trainee. apprenticeship.
approach ::: v. 1. To come near or nearer to; draw near. 2. To come near to a person: i.e. into personal relations; into his presence or audience; or fig. within the range of his notice or attention. 3. To come near in quality, character, time, or condition; to be nearly equal. approaches, approached, approaching.* *n. 4. Any means of access or way of passage, avenue. 5. The act of drawing near. approaches.**
apsaras ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Apsaras are the most beautiful and romantic conception on the lesser plane of Hindu mythology. From the moment that they arose out of the waters of the milky Ocean, robed in ethereal raiment and heavenly adornment, waking melody from a million lyres, the beauty and light of them has transformed the world. They crowd in the sunbeams, they flash and gleam over heaven in the lightnings, they make the azure beauty of the sky; they are the light of sunrise and sunset and the haunting voices of forest and field. They dwell too in the life of the soul; for they are the ideal pursued by the poet through his lines, by the artist shaping his soul on his canvas, by the sculptor seeking a form in the marble; for the joy of their embrace the hero flings his life into the rushing torrent of battle; the sage, musing upon God, sees the shining of their limbs and falls from his white ideal. The delight of life, the beauty of things, the attraction of sensuous beauty, this is what the mystic and romantic side of the Hindu temperament strove to express in the Apsara. The original meaning is everywhere felt as a shining background, but most in the older allegories, especially the strange and romantic legend of Pururavas as we first have it in the Brahmanas and the Vishnoupurana.
apse ::: a usually semicircular or polygonal, often vaulted recess, especially the termination of the sanctuary end of a church.
arbiter ::: 1. One empowered to decide matters at issue; judge. 2. Having the sole or absolute power of judging or determining. arbiters.
arc ::: 1. Any unbroken part of the circumference of a circle or other curved line. 2. A luminous bridge formed in a gap between two electrodes. arcs.
arch ::: 1. An upwardly curved construction, for spanning an opening, consisting of a number of wedgelike stones, bricks, or the like, set with the narrower side toward the opening in such a way that forces on the arch are transmitted as vertical or oblique stresses on either side of the opening, either capable of bearing weight or merely ornamental; 2. Something bowed or curved; any bowlike part: the arch of the foot. 3. An arched roof, door; gateway; vault; fig. the heavens. arches.
arch- ::: a combining form that represents the outcome of archi- in words borrowed through Latin from Greek in the Old English period; it subsequently became a productive form added to nouns of any origin, which thus denote individuals or institutions directing or having authority over others of their class (archbishop; archdiocese; archpriest): principal. More recently, arch-1 has developed the senses "principal” (archenemy; archrival) or "prototypical” and thus exemplary or extreme (archconservative); nouns so formed are almost always pejorative. Arch-intelligence.
archangel ::: a chief or principal angel, the highest angel in rank. Archangel, Archangel"s.
archipelago ::: 1. Any sea, or body of water, in which there are numerous islands. 2. A large group or chain of islands.
architect ::: the deviser, maker, or creator of anything; one who builds up something, as, men are the architects of their own fortunes. Architect, architects.
architectonic ::: metaph. Of the systematic arrangement of knowledge.
architecture ::: 1. The profession of designing buildings and other artificial constructions and environments, usually with some regard to aesthetic effect. 2. The character or style of building. 3. Construction or structure generally. architectures.
archives ::: preserved historical records or documents, also the place where they are kept.
arcturus ::: a giant star in the constellation Boötes. It is the brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere and the fourth brightest star in the sky, with an apparent magnitude of 0.00; sometimes referring to the Great Bear itself.
a religious official among the Romans, whose duty it was to predict future events and advise upon the course of public business, in accordance with omens derived from the flight, singing, and feeding of birds. Hence extended to: A soothsayer, diviner, or prophet, generally; one that foresees and foretells the future. (Sri Aurobindo employs the word as an adjective.) augured.
arenas ::: central stages, rings, areas, or the like, used for sports or other forms of entertainment, surrounded by seats for spectators.
arise ::: 1. To get up from sleep or rest; to awaken; wake up. 2. To go up, come up, ascend on high, mount. Now only poet. **3. To come into being, action, or notice; originate; appear; spring up. 4. Of circumstances viewed as results: To spring, originate, or result from. 5. To rise from inaction, from the peaceful, quiet, or ordinary course of life. 6. To rise in violence or agitation, as the sea, the wind; to boil up as a fermenting fluid, the blood; so of the heart, wrath, etc. Now poet. 7. Of sounds: To come up aloud, or so as to be audible, to be heard aloud. arises, arising, arose, arisen. *(Sri Aurobindo also employs arisen as an adj.*)
aristocracy ::: the class to which a ruling body belongs, a patrician order; the collective body of those who form a privileged class; also used fig. of those who are superior.
arm ::: power; might; strength. (All other references are to arm(s) as a part of the body.) arm"s, arms.
arraigned ::: called (an accused person) before a court to answer the charge made against him or her by indictment, information, or complaint, or brought before a court to answer to an indictment; accused, charged with fault.
arrange ::: 1. To put into a specific order or relation; dispose. 2. To settle the order, manner, and circumstantial relations of (a thing to be done); to prepare or plan beforehand. arranged, arranging, self-arranged.
arrested ::: stopped, checked the course of, stayed, slowed down. arresting.
arrogant ::: 1. Having or displaying a sense of overbearing self-worth or self-importance. 2. Marked by or arising from a feeling or assumption of one"s superiority toward others.
"Art is a living harmony and beauty that must be expressed in all the movements of existence. This manifestation of beauty and harmony is part of the Divine realisation upon earth, perhaps even its greatest part.” Questions and Answers, MCW Vol. 3.
artist ::: 1. One who practises the creative arts; one who seeks to express the beautiful in visible form. 2. A follower of a manual art; an artificer, mechanic, craftsman, artisan. artists. (Sri Aurobindo often employs the word as an adj.)
art ::: v. archaic** A second person singular present indicative of be, now only poet., not in modern usage. All other references are to art as the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. Also, the class of objects subject to aesthetic criteria. art"s, arts, art-parades.
ascension ::: the act or process of ascending; upward movement. flame-ascensions.
ascent ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The ascent or the upward movement takes place when there is a sufficient aspiration from the being, i.e., from the various mental, vital and physical planes.” *Letters on Yoga
ascetic ::: one who dedicates his or her life to a pursuit of contemplative ideals, whether by seclusion or by abstinence from creature comforts, and practices extreme self-denial, rigorous self-discipline or self-mortification. ascetic"s, ascetics.
ashes ::: 1. Bodily remains, especially after cremation or decay. 2. Fig. Ruins; esp. the residue of something destroyed; remains.
aside ::: 1. On or to one"s side; to or at a short distance apart; away from some position or direction. 2. To or toward the side. 3. Out of one"s thoughts or mind. 4. In reserve; in a separate place, as for safekeeping; apart; away.
aspect ::: 1. Appearance to the eye or mind; look. 2. Nature; quality, character. 3. A way in which a thing may be viewed or regarded; interpretation; view. 4. Part; feature; phase. aspects.
asphodel ::: a genus of liliaceous plants with very attractive white, pink or yellow flowers, mostly natives of the south of Europe; by the poets made an immortal flower, and said to cover the Elysian (heavenly, paradisal) fields.
"Aspiration, call, prayer are forms of one and the same thing and are all effective; you can take the form that comes to you or is easiest to you.” Letters on Yoga
::: "Aspiration is to call the forces. When the forces have answered, there is a natural state of quiet receptivity concentrated but spontaneous.” 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
"A spiritual knowledge, moved to arrive at the true Self in us, must reject, as the traditional way of knowledge rejects, all misleading appearances. It must discover that the body is not our self, our foundation of existence; it is a sensible form of the Infinite.” The Synthesis of Yoga
assail ::: 1. To attack vigorously or violently; assault. 2. To impinge upon; make an impact on; beset. 3. To take upon oneself a difficult challenge with the intention of mastering it. assailed, assailing.
assemblage ::: a number of persons gathered together; a gathering, concourse. (Less formal than assembly.)
assembled ::: gathered together; brought together into one place, collected.
assembly ::: a group of people gathered together usually for a particular purpose. assemblies.
assessed ::: evaluated (a person or thing); estimated (the quality, value, or extent of), gauged or judged.
assuage ::: to mitigate, alleviate, soothe, relieve (physical or mental pain).
assured ::: 1. Made certain; guaranteed. 2. Certified, verified. 3. Made secure or certain; confirmed. 4. Confident, characterized by certainty or security; satisfied as to the truth of something. assuring.
astral ::: 1. Of, relating to, emanating from, or resembling the stars. 2. Of the spirit world [Greek astron star].
astray ::: 1. Away from the correct path or direction. 2. Away from the right or good, as in thought or behaviour; straying to or into wrong or evil ways.
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.
atavism ::: 1. The reappearance in an individual of characteristics of some remote ancestor that have been absent in intervening generations. 2. Reversion to an earlier type.
athlete ::: Sri Aurobindo employs the word as an adj. in the sense of athletic: Of the nature of, or befitting, one who is physically active, powerful, muscular, robust, agile.
athwart ::: 1. Across from side to side; crosswise or transversely; contrary to the proper or expected course; against; crosswise. 2. Of motion; from side to side.
atmosphere ::: 1. A surrounding or pervading mood, environment, or influence. 2. The air.
atom ::: 1. A unit of matter, the smallest unit of an element, having all the characteristics of that element and consisting of a dense, central, positively charged nucleus surrounded by a system of electrons. 2. The smallest component of an element having the chemical properties of the element. 3. An extremely small part, quantity, or amount. The smallest conceivable unit of an element or of anything. atom"s, atoms, atomic.
attack ::: the act of setting upon with violent force.; launching a physical assault (against) attacks.
attain ::: 1. To gain as an objective; achieve; reach, arrive at; accomplish. 2. To arrive at, as by virtue of persistence or the passage of time; To reach in the course of development. attained.
attempt ::: n. 1. An effort made to accomplish something. 2. The thing attempted, object aimed at, aim. attempts, half-attempts. v. 3. To make an effort at; try; undertake; seek. attempted, attempting.
authentic ::: not false or copied; genuine; real, original. authenticity.
aureole ::: the radiant circle of light depicted around the head; a glorifying halo.
auspice-hour ::: an auspice is any divine or prophetic token; a favourable sign or propitious circumstance, esp. an indication of a happy future. Sri Aurobindo combines the word ‘hour" with auspice to emphasize a special moment.
author ::: 1. An originator or creator, one who originates or gives existence to anything. 2. He who gives rise to or causes an action, event, circumstance, state, or condition of things. 3. The composer or writer of a treatise, play, poem, book, etc. authors.
authority ::: the power to enforce laws, exact obedience, command, determine, or judge.
autonomy ::: 1. Independence or freedom, as of the will or one"s actions. 2. Self-government. autonomies.
autumn ::: the season of the year between summer and winter, lasting from the autumnal equinox to the winter solstice and from September to December in the Northern Hemisphere; fall.
availed ::: to be of use, value, or advantage; to have the necessary force to accomplishment something.
avatars ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The word Avatar means a descent; it is a coming down of the Divine below the line which divides the divine from the human world or status.” *Essays on the Gita
**"Aware of his occult omnipotent source,Allured by the omniscient Ecstasy,He felt the invasion and the nameless joy.”
awe ::: an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or the like.
axis ::: 1. The pivot on which any matter turns. 2. A straight line about which a body or geometric object rotates or may be conceived to rotate.
azure ::: a light shade of blue resembling the colour of the clear sky in the daytime.
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
bathe ::: 1. To become immersed in or as if in liquid, as a bath or in other substances or elements. 2. To wash or pour over; suffuse or envelope, like sunshine. bathed, bathing.
bacchanal ::: a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity.
bacchant ::: n. **1. A priest or votary of Bacchus (the god of wine). 2. A drunken reveller. adj. 3. Inclined to revelry. Bacchant.**
background ::: n.** 1. The general scene or surface against which designs, patterns, or figures are represented or viewed. 2. Fig. The complex of physical, cultural, and psychological factors that serves as the environment of an event or experience; the set of conditions against which an occurrence is perceived. backgrounds. adj. 3.** Of, pertaining to, or serving as a background.
backward ::: 1. To, toward or into the past. 2. In or toward a past time. 3. Late in developing, behind; slow, esp. relating to time or progress. far-backward.
balance ::: n. **1. A state of equilibrium or equipoise; mental, psychological or emotional. 2. A weighing device, especially one consisting of a rigid beam horizontally suspended by a low-friction support at its center, with identical weighing pans hung at either end, one of which holds an unknown weight while the effective weight in the other is increased by known amounts until the beam is level and motionless. 3. An undecided or uncertain state in which issues are unresolved. v. 4. To have an equality or equivalence in weight, parts, etc.; be in equilibrium. adj. 5. Being in harmonious or proper arrangement or adjustment, proportion. 6. Mental steadiness or emotional stability; habit of calm behaviour, judgement. balanced, balancing.**
balcony ::: a platform that projects from the wall of a building and is surrounded by a railing, balustrade, or parapet.
balustrade ::: a rail and the row of balusters or posts that support it, as along the front of a gallery.
bank ::: 1. The slope of land adjoining a body of water, especially adjoining a river, lake, or channel. 2. A slope, as of a hill. 3. A long raised mass, esp. of earth. 4. A piled-up mass, as of snow or clouds. banks, cloud-bank.
bards ::: an ancient Celtic order of minstrel poets who composed and recited verses celebrating the legendary exploits of chieftains and heroes. 2. Poets, especially lyric poets.
barrels ::: large cylindrical containers, usually made of staves bound together with hoops, with a flat top and bottom of equal diameter.
barricade ::: a structure hastily set up across a route of access to obstruct the passage of an enemy.
barter ::: to trade goods or services without the exchange of money. bartered.
based ::: 1. Formed or established as a base. 2. Supported as a base. 3. Conceived as the fundamental principle or underlying concept.
basement ::: the substructure or foundation of a building usually below ground level.
base ::: n. 1. The fundamental principle or underlying concept of a system or theory; a basis, foundation. 2. A fundamental ingredient; a chief constituent. adj. 3. Having or showing a contemptible, mean-spirited, or selfish lack of human decency; morally low. base"s. baser.
battened ::: thrived and prospered, especially at another"s expense; grew fat. battening
battlefield ::: 1. The field or ground on which a battle is fought. 2. An area of contention, conflict, or hostile opposition. battlefields.
bay ::: the position or stand of an animal or fugitive that is forced to turn and resist pursuers because it is no longer possible to flee. (preceded by at).
baying ::: 1. Uttering a deep and prolonged bark as a dog in pursuit. 2. The chorus of barking raised by hounds in immediate conflict with a hunted animal. bayings
bays ::: bodies of water partially enclosed by land but with a wide mouth, affording access to the sea.
bazaar ::: a market consisting of a street lined with shops and stalls, especially one in the Orient.
bearing witness to, affirming the truth or genuineness of; testifying to, certifying, vouching for. attests.
beast ::: 1. An animal other than a human, especially a large four-footed mammal. 2. Fig. Animal nature as opposed to intellect or spirit. 3. A large wild animal. 4. A domesticated animal used by man. (Sri Aurobindo also employs the word as an adj.) beast"s, Beast"s, beasts, wild-beast. ::: —the Beast. Applied to the devil and evil spirits.
beasthood ::: the state or nature of a beast.
beating ::: n. 1. A throbbing or pulsation, as of the heart. beatings. adj. 2. Throbbings, pulsations.
beat ::: n. 1. A stroke or blow. 2. A regular sound or stroke. 3. The rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart. 4. A pulsating sound. 5. A forceful flapping of wings. beats, nerve-beat, hammer-beats, heart-beats, heart-beats", moment-beats, rhyme-beats. v. 6. To strike or pound with repeated blows. 7. To shape or break by repeated blows, as metal. 8. To sound in pulsations. 9. To throb rhythmically; pulsate, as the heart. 10. To flap, especially wings. 11. To strike with or as if with a series of violent blows, dash or pound repeatedly against, as waves, wind, etc. beats, beaten, beating. *adj. *sun-beat.
beauty ::: the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, colour, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else, (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest). Beauty, beauty"s, Beauty"s, beauty-drenched, earth-beauty"s.
"Beauty is Ananda taking form — but the form need not be a physical shape. One speaks of a beautiful thought, a beautiful act, a beautiful soul. What we speak of as beauty is Ananda in manifestation; beyond manifestation beauty loses itself in Ananda or, you may say, beauty and Ananda become indistinguishably one.” The Future Poetry
"Beauty is the way in which the physical expresses the Divine – but the principle and law of Beauty is something inward and spiritual and expresses itself through the form.” *The Future Poetry
"Beauty is not the same as Delight, but like love it is an expression, a form of Ananda, created by Ananda and composed of Ananda.” The Future Poetry
bed ::: 1. A piece or part forming a foundation or base; a stratum. 2. The grave. 3. A sleeping-place generally; any extemporized resting place. 4. A piece or area of ground in a garden or lawn in which plants are grown. beds.
bed-fellows ::: those who are closely associated or allied with one another.
bee-croon ::: the soft, soothing, low murmuring sound produced by bees.
beganst ::: a native English form of the verb, to begin, now only in formal and poetic usage.
behaviour ::: 1. Manner of behaving or conducting oneself. 2. The aggregate of the responses or reactions or movements made by an organism in any situation, or the manner in which a thing acts under such circumstances. behaviour"s.
behold ::: v. 1. To perceive by the visual faculty; see. beholds. Interj. **2.** Look; see.
being ::: 1. The state or quality of having existence. 2. The totality of all things that exist. 3. One"s basic or essential nature; self. 4. All the qualities constituting one that exists; the essence. 5. A person; human being. 6. The Divine, the Supreme; God. Being, being"s, Being"s, beings, Beings, beings", earth-being"s, earth-beings, fragment-being, non-being, non-being"s, Non-Being, Non-Being"s, world-being"s.
Sri Aurobindo: "Pure Being is the affirmation by the Unknowable of Itself as the free base of all cosmic existence.” *The Life Divine :::
"The Absolute manifests itself in two terms, a Being and a Becoming. The Being is the fundamental reality; the Becoming is an effectual reality: it is a dynamic power and result, a creative energy and working out of the Being, a constantly persistent yet mutable form, process, outcome of its immutable formless essence.” *The Life Divine
"What is original and eternal for ever in the Divine is the Being, what is developed in consciousness, conditions, forces, forms, etc., by the Divine Power is the Becoming. The eternal Divine is the Being; the universe in Time and all that is apparent in it is a Becoming.” Letters on Yoga
"Being and Becoming, One and Many are both true and are both the same thing: Being is one, Becomings are many; but this simply means that all Becomings are one Being who places Himself variously in the phenomenal movement of His consciousness.” The Upanishads :::
"Our whole apparent life has only a symbolic value & is good & necessary as a becoming; but all becoming has being for its goal & fulfilment & God is the only being.” *Essays Divine and Human
"Our being is a roughly constituted chaos into which we have to introduce the principle of a divine order.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
being, conscious ::: Sri Aurobindo: "We have to conceive one indivisible conscious being behind all our experiences. . . . That is our real self.” *The Life Divine
being, Master of ::: Sri Aurobindo: " Vamadeva goes on to say, "Let us give expression to this secret name of the clarity, — that is to say, let us bring out this Soma wine, this hidden delight of existence; let us hold it in this world-sacrifice by our surrenderings or submissions to Agni, the divine Will or Conscious-Power which is the Master of being.” The Secret of the Veda
belched ::: 1. Erupted or exploded. 2. Expelled gas noisily from the stomach through the mouth.
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.
believed in ::: was persuaded of the truth or existence of; had faith in the reliability, honesty, benevolence, etc. of.
belly ::: 1. The stomach. 2. The inside or interior cavity of something.
belong ::: 1. To be a part of or adjunct. 2. To be the property, attribute, or possession of. belongs.
belongings ::: possessions; things owned, either tangible or intangible.
belt ::: 1. Any encircling or transverse band, strip, or stripe characteristically distinguished from the surface it crosses. 2. An elongated region having distinctive properties or characteristics and long in proportion to its breadth. 3. A zone or district.
bench ::: 1. A long seat usually made of wood, for two or more persons. 2. A seat occupied by a person in an official capacity, esp. a judge. 3. Such a seat as a symbol of the office and dignity of an individual judge or the judiciary.
bend ::: 1. To assume a curved, crooked, or angular form or direction, esp. to bend the body; stoop. 2. Fig. To bow, esp. in reverence. 3. To turn or incline in a particular direction; be directed. bends.
bending ::: pulling back the string of (a bow or the like) in preparation for shooting.
benumbed ::: made (any part of the body) insensible, torpid, or powerless; made numb, deprived of sensation; stupefied or stunned, as by a blow or shock; now mostly used for the effects of cold.
bequeathed ::: disposed of (property, etc.) by last will; fig. handed down, passed on.
bestrides ::: towers over, dominates, as a victor over the fallen.
beyond ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The language of the Upanishad makes it strikingly clear that it is no metaphysical abstraction, no void Silence, no indeterminate Absolute which is offered to the soul that aspires, but rather the absolute of all that is possessed by it here in the relative world of its sojourning. All here in the mental is a growing light, consciousness and life; all there in the supramental is an infinite life, light and consciousness. That which is here shadowed, is there found; the incomplete here is there the fulfilled. The Beyond is not an annullation, but a transfiguration of all that we are here in our world of forms; it is sovran Mind of this mind, secret Life of this life, the absolute Sense which supports and justifies our limited senses.” The Upanishads *
bind ::: 1. To restrain or confine with or as if with ties. 2. To place (someone) under obligation; oblige. 3. To fasten together. Also fig. **binds, bound, binding.**
binding ::: n. **1. The covering within which the pages of a book are abound. adj. 2.* Fig.* Commanding adherence to a commitment, obligatory.
binding posts ::: stakes, stout poles, columns, or the like, that are set upright in or on the ground; (with prefixed word indicating special purpose).
bindst ::: a native English form of the verb, to bind, now only in formal and poetic usage.
biography ::: an account of a person"s life written, composed, or produced by another.
bird ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Bird in the Veda is the symbol, very frequently, of the soul liberated and upsoaring, at other times of energies so liberated and upsoaring, winging upwards towards the heights of our being, winging widely with a free flight, no longer involved in the ordinary limited movement or labouring gallop of the Life-energy, the Horse, Ashwa.” *The Secret of the Veda
birth ::: 1. The act or fact of being born. 2. Fig. The coming into existence of something; origin. Birth, birth"s, births.
"Birth is an assumption of a body by the spirit, death is the casting off [of] the body; there is nothing original in this birth, nothing final in this death. Before birth we were; after death we shall be. Nor are our birth and death a single episode without continuous meaning or sequel; it is one episode out of many, scenes of our drama of existence with its denouement far away in time.” Essays Divine and Human*
biting ::: wounding or lacerating with the teeth.
blade ::: the flat cutting part of a sharpened weapon or tool. blade"s.
blazon ::: the description or representation of a coat of arms or banner bearing the symbol of a coat of arms.
bleak ::: 1. Exposed to the elements; unsheltered and barren; desolate; cold and cutting; raw, windswept. 2. Offering little or no hope or encouragement.
blithe ::: joyous, merry, or gay in disposition; glad; cheerful.
blind ::: adj. 1. Unable to see; lacking the sense of sight; sightless. Also fig. 2. Unwilling or unable to perceive or understand. 3. Lacking all consciousness or awareness. 4. Not having or based on reason or intelligence; absolute and unquestioning. 5. Not characterized or determined by reason or control. 6. Purposeless; fortuitous, random. 7. Undiscriminating; heedless; reckless. 8. Enveloped in darkness; dark, dim, obscure. 9. Dense enough to form a screen. 10. Covered or concealed from sight; hidden from immediate view. 11. Having no openings or passages for light; (a window or door) walled up. blindest, half-blind. v. 12. To deprive of sight permanently or temporarily. 13. To make sightless momentarily; dazzle. blinded.* n. 14. A blind person, esp. as pl., those who are blind. 15. Fig.* Any thing or action intended to conceal one"s real intention; a pretence, a pretext; subterfuge.
blind alley ::: 1. A road, alley, etc. that is open only at one end. 2. A position or situation offering no hope of progress or improvement. 3. A situation in which no further progress can be made.
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.
blindfold ::: fig. With the awareness or clear thinking impaired, the mind blinded and without perception.
blinkers ::: leather side pieces attached to a horse"s bridle to prevent sideways vision.
blink ::: n. **1. A glance, often with half-shut eyes; a wink. v. 2. To close and open one or both of the eyes rapidly; shut the eyelids momentarily and involuntarily; to wink for an instant. 3. To shut the eyes to; to evade, shirk, pass by, ignore. blinks, blinked.**
blockade ::: 1. The isolating, closing off, or surrounding of a place. 2. Any obstruction of passage or progress.
block ::: n. 1. A solid piece of a hard substance, such as wood, stone, etc. having one or more flat sides. Also fig. 2. Something that obstructs; an obstacle. blocks. *v. 3. To impede, retard, prevent or obstruct the progress or achievement of (someone or something). Also fig.*
blood-glued ::: in reference to the bloody shirt that stuck to the body of the Centaur.
blood-lust ::: the desire for bloodshed.
bloom ::: n. **1. The flower of a plant. 2. Fig. A condition or time of vigour, freshness, and beauty; prime. 3. Fig. Glowing charm; delicate beauty. blooms. v. 4. To bear flowers; to blossom. Also fig. 5. To be in a healthy, glowing, or flourishing condition. 6. To flourish or grow. 7. To cause to flourish or grow; to flourish. Chiefly fig. blooms, bloomed.**
blossom ::: v. 1. To produce or yield flowers. 2. To flourish; develop. blossomed.* *n. 3. The flower of a plant. mango-blossoms.**
blunt ::: made less intense, lessened the strength of; weakened.
board ::: a sheet of wood, cardboard, paper, or other material on which some games are played.
bodiless ::: having no body, form, or substance; incorporeal. (Sri Aurobindo also employs the word as a n.) Bodiless.
bodily ::: 1. Physical as opposed to mental or spiritual. 2. Of, relating to, or belonging to the body or the physical nature of man.
body ::: 1. The entire material or physical structure of an organism, especially of a human or animal as differentiated from the soul. 2. The entire physical structure of a human being. 3. A mass of matter that is distinct from other masses. 4. Substance. 5. An agent or entity. 6. The mass of a thing. 7. A mass of matter that is distinct from other masses. 8. The largest or main part of anything; the foundation; central part. body"s, bodies.
"Body is the outward sign and lowest basis of the apparent division which Nature plunging into ignorance and self-nescience makes the starting-point for the recovery of unity by the individual soul, unity even in the midst of the most exaggerated forms of her multiple consciousness.” The Life Divine
bold ::: 1. Fearless and daring; courageous. 2. Clear and distinct to the eye.
boldness or daring without regard for conventional thought or other restrictions.
bond ::: 1. Something, such as a fetter, cord, or band, that binds, ties, or fastens things together. Also fig. 2. A duty, promise, or other obligation by which one is bound. 3. Something that binds one to a certain circumstance or line of behaviour. 4. A uniting force or tie; a link. 5. A binding agreement; a covenant. bonds.
bondage ::: 1. The state of one who is bound as a slave or serf. 2. A state of subjection to a force, power, or influence.
bondslave ::: a person in a state of slavery; one whose person and liberty are subjected to the authority of a master. bondslaves.
bordering ::: lying along or adjacent to the edge or border of something; adjoining.
borderland ::: an indeterminate region esp. the area between two worlds.
border ::: n. 1. A part that forms the outer edge of something. 2. The line or frontier area separating political divisions or geographic regions; a boundary. 3. A strip of ground, as that at the edge of a garden or walk, an edging. borders. v. 4. To form the boundary of; be contiguous to. fig. To confine. 5. To lie adjacent to another. bordered.
borrowed ::: taken from another source, appropriated; assumed; adopted or adapted for the present.
borrower ::: one who receives something or appropriates it from another source.
bosom ::: 1. The breast. 2. Something likened to the human breast, such as the bosom of the earth, the sea. 2. The breast, conceived of as the centre of feelings or emotions. 3. Centre of; heart of. bosom"s, bosoms, bosomed, white-bosomed.
boundary ::: something that indicates a border or limit, or the border or limit so indicated. boundary"s, boundaries.
bounded ::: having the limits or boundaries established. Also fig.
bound ::: going or intending to go towards; on the way to. heaven-bound.
bound ::: n. 1. A boundary; a limit. bounds, earth-bounds. *v. *2. To constitute the limit of; contain; enclose. bounds.
bowels ::: the interior of something.
bow ::: to bend (the head, knee, or body) to express greeting, consent, courtesy, acknowledgement, submission, or veneration. bows, bowed.
bow-twang (‘s) ::: the resonant sound produced when a tense string is sharply plucked or suddenly released.
"Brahma is the Eternal"s Personality of Existence; from him all is created, by his presence, by his power, by his impulse.” Essays Human and Divine
brahma ("s) ::: "Brahma is the nominative; the uninflected form of the word is brahman; it differs from brahman ‘the Eternal" only in gender.” *Glossary of Terms in Sri Aurobindo"s Writings
breathe ::: 1. To be alive; live. 2. To take air, oxygen, etc., into the lungs and expel it; inhale and exhale; respire. Also fig. 3. To control the outgoing breath in producing voice and speech sounds. 4. To utter, especially quietly. 5. To make apparent or manifest; express; suggest. 6. To exhale (something); emit. 7. To impart as if by breathing; instil. 8. To move gently or blow lightly, as air. breathes, breathed, breathing. ::: To breathe upon fig. To taint; corrupt.
breadth ::: 1. The measure or the second largest dimension of a plane or solid figure; width. 2. Freedom from narrowness or restraint; liberality. 3. Tolerance; broadmindedness. breadths.
breakers ::: 1. Those who break down barriers, etc. 2. Waves that crest and break on the shore or coast. breakers".
breaking-point ::: the point at which a condition or situation becomes critical.
break ::: v. 1. To destroy by or as if by shattering or crushing. 2. To force or make a way through (a barrier, etc.). 3. To vary or disrupt the uniformity or continuity of. 4. To overcome or put an end to. 5. To destroy or interrupt a regularity, uniformity, continuity, or arrangement of; interrupt. 6. To intrude upon; interrupt a conversation, etc. 7. To discontinue or sever an association, an agreement, or a relationship. **8. To overcome or wear down the spirit, strength, or resistance of. 9. (usually followed by in, into or out). 10. To filter or penetrate as sunlight into a room. 11. To come forth suddenly. 12. To utter suddenly; to express or start to express an emotion, mood, etc. 13. Said of waves, etc. when they dash against an obstacle, or topple over and become surf or broken water in the shallows. 14. To part the surface of water, as a ship or a jumping fish. breaks, broke, broken, breaking.* *n. 15.** An interruption or a disruption in continuity or regularity.
breast ::: 1. Each of two milk-secreting glandular organs on the chest of a woman; the human mammary gland. 2. The front of the body from the neck to the abdomen; chest. 3. Fig. The seat of the affection and emotion. 4. Fig. A source of nourishment. 5. Something likened to the human breast, as a surface, etc. breasts, breasts".
breath ::: 1. The air inhaled and exhaled in respiration. Also fig. 2. A momentary stirring of air, a slight gust. 3. Spirit or vitality; life. 4. The vapour, heat, or odour of exhaled air. Also fig. **5. A slight suggestion; hint; whisper. Breath,* *breath-fastened.**
breathing ::: the act or process of respiration.
bricks ::: blocks of clay hardened by drying in the sun or burning in a kiln, and used for building, paving, etc.
bride ::: 1. A woman who is about to be married or has recently been married. Also fig. 2. The divine creatrix. Bride, brides, earth-bride.
brief ::: a memorandum of points of fact or of law for use in conducting a case. (All other references are as: short lived, fleeting, transitory. briefer, brief-lived.)
bright ::: 1. Emitting or reflecting light readily or in large amounts; shining; radiant. 2. Magnificent; glorious. 3. Favourable or auspicious. 4. Fig. Characterized by happiness or gladness; full of promise and hope. 5. Distinct and clear to the mind, etc. 6. Intensely clear and vibrant in tone or quality. 7. Polished; glistening as with brilliant color. brighter, brightest, bright-hued, bright-pinioned, flame-bright, moon-bright, pearl-bright, sun-bright.
brightness ::: the state or quality of being bright, luminous.
brim ::: the rim or uppermost edge of a hollow container or natural basin, bowl, etc.
brimmed ::: referring to the upper edge or rim of anything hollow.
bringst ::: a native English form of the verb, to bring, now only in formal and poetic usage.
brink ::: 1. The upper edge of a steep or vertical slope, esp. the margin of land bordering a body of water. 2. Any extreme edge; verge. 3. A crucial or critical point, esp. of a situation or state beyond which success or catastrophe occurs.
broideries ::: embroidered needle-work designs in gold, silver, and other threads on cloth.
brooding ::: 1. *Fig. Protecting (young) by or as if by covering with the wings. *2. Meditating or dwelling deeply on a thought.
brow ::: 1. The part of the face from the eyes to the hairline. forehead. 2. The expression of the face; countenance. 3. The eyebrow. pl. **brows.**
-browed ::: adj. dark-browed, deep-browed, great-browed, Queen-browed. ::: rough-browed. [In this instance, -browed refers to the projecting edge of a cliff or hill.]
". . . the Absolute is not a void or negation. It is all that is here in Time and beyond Time.” The Upanishads*
the act of hearing or attending; the state of hearing, or of being able to hear.
the Divine, the Creator.
". . . the nervous envelope, the aura.” Letters on Yoga*
the power or faculty of hearing or listening.
the strings on an apron, used for securing it around one"s person.tie to someone"s apron strings. To make or be dependent on or dominated by someone.
bubbling ::: rising to or as if to the surface; emerging forth as with a gurgling sound.
building ::: 1. The act or action of constructing; erecting. Also fig. **2. **Something that is built, as for human habitation; a structure.
built ::: pt. and pp. of build. dream-built, high-built, low-built, mind-built, new-built. *adj. *built in. Constructed or included as an integral part of. adj. built-up. Built by the fastening together of several parts or enlarged by the addition of layers.
bundles ::: a group of objects held together, as by tying or wrapping; packages.
bureau ::: 1. A chest of drawers, especially a dresser for holding clothes, often with a desk top. 2. An office, usually of large organization, that is responsible for a specific duty such as administration, public business, etc.
buried ::: v. 1. Deposited or hid under ground; covered up with earth or other material. Also fig. **2. Plunged or sunk deep in, so as to be covered from view; put out of sight. adj. 3. Put in the ground or in a tomb; interred. 4. Consigned to a position of obscurity, inaccessibility, or inaction. 5.* Fig.* Consigned to oblivion, put out of the way, abandoned and forgotten.
burning ::: adj. 1. Aflame; on fire. Also fig. 2. Very bright; glowing; luminous. 3. Characterized by intense emotion; passionate. 4. Urgent or crucial. 5. Extremely hot; scorching. 6. Very hot. ever-burning.* *n. 7. The state, process, sensation, or effect of being on fire, burned, or subjected to intense heat. altar-burnings.**
"But great art is not satisfied with representing the intellectual truth of things, which is always their superficial or exterior truth; it seeks for a deeper and original truth which escapes the eye of the mere sense or the mere reason, the soul in them, the unseen reality which is not that of their form and process but of their spirit.” The Human Cycle etc.
butt ::: a person or thing that is the object of wit, ridicule, sarcasm, contempt.
bygone ::: well in the past; former.
bypaths ::: a little used path or track, esp. in the country.
byways ::: secondary or side path, road or way little travelled (as in the countryside).
cabbala ::: 1 A body of mystical Jewish teachings based on an interpretation of hidden meanings in the Hebrew Scriptures. Among its central doctrines are, all creation is an emanation from the Deity and the soul exists from eternity. 2. Any secret or occult doctrine or science. 3. "Esoteric system of interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures based on the assumption that every word, letter, number, and accent in them has an occult meaning. The system, oral at first, claimed great antiquity, but was really the product of the Middle Ages, arising in the 7th century and lasting into the 18th. It was popular chiefly among Jews, but spread to Christians as well. (Col. Enc.)” Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works
cathedral ::: 1. A large and important church of imposing architectural beauty. 2. Of, relating to, or resembling a cathedral.
cadence ::: 1. Balanced, rhythmic flow, as of poetry or oratory. 2. Music. A sequence of notes or chords that indicates the momentary or complete end of a composition, section, phrase, etc. 3. The flow or rhythm of events. 4. A recurrent rhythmical series; a flow, esp. the pattern in which something is experienced. 5. A slight falling in pitch of the voice in speaking or reading. cadences.
calledst ::: a native English form of the verb, to call, now only in formal and poetic usage.
callest ::: a native English form of the verb, to call, now only in formal and poetic usage.
calligraphy ::: 1. The art of fine handwriting. 2. An artistic and highly decorative form of handwriting, as with a great many flourishes.
call ::: Sri Aurobindo: "All Yoga is in its nature a new birth; it is a birth out of the ordinary, the mentalised material life of man into a higher spiritual consciousness and a greater and diviner being. No Yoga can be successfully undertaken and followed unless there is a strong awakening to the necessity of that larger spiritual existence. The soul that is called to this deep and vast inward change, may arrive in different ways to the initial departure. It may come to it by its own natural development which has been leading it unconsciously towards the awakening; it may reach it through the influence of a religion or the attraction of a philosophy; it may approach it by a slow illumination or leap to it by a sudden touch or shock; it may be pushed or led to it by the pressure of outward circumstances or by an inward necessity, by a single word that breaks the seals of the mind or by long reflection, by the distant example of one who has trod the path or by contact and daily influence. According to the nature and the circumstances the call will come.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
callst ::: a native English form of the verb, to call, now only in formal and poetic usage.
calm ::: n. 1. Serenity; tranquillity; peace. 2. Nearly or completely motionless as a condition of no wind. Calm, Calm"s, calms, calmness. adj. 3. Not excited or agitated; composed; tranquil; 4. Without rough motion; still or nearly still. calmer, calm-lipped, stone-calm. *adv. calmly.
Sri Aurobindo: "Calm is a still unmoved condition which no disturbance can affect — it is a less negative condition than quiet.” Letters on Yoga*
"Calm is a positive tranquillity which can exist in spite of superficial disturbances.” *Letters on Yoga
"Calm is a strong and positive quietude, firm and solid — ordinary quietude is mere negation, simply the absence of disturbance.” *Letters on Yoga
"But more powerful still is the giving up of the fruit of one"s works, because that immediately destroys all causes of disturbance and brings and preserves automatically an inner calm and peace, and calm and peace are the foundation on which all else becomes perfect and secure in possession by the tranquil spirit.” Essays on the Gita
The Mother: "Calm is self-possessed strength, quiet and conscious energy, mastery of the impulses, control over the unconscious reflexes.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 14*.
calyx ::: the outermost group of floral parts enclosing the bud and surrounding the base of a flower; the sepals.
camest ::: a native English form of the verb, to come, now only in formal and poetic usage.
camouflage ::: concealment by some means that alters or obscures the appearance.
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.
cam"st ::: a native English contracted form of the verb, to come, now only in formal and poetic usage.
cancel ::: 1. To annul, make void or invalidate. 2. To equalize or make up for; offset. 3. To cross out with lines or other markings, making something invalid. cancels, cancelled, cancelling, self-cancelling.
canopy ::: a high overarching covering, such as the sky.
canst ::: a native English form of the adverb can, now only in formal or poetic usage.
canto ::: one of the principal divisions of a long poem.
canvas ::: 1. A piece of such fabric on which a painting, especially an oil painting, is executed. 2. A painting executed on such fabric, esp. an oil painting. 3. The background against which events unfold. canvases, canvas-strips.
capable ::: having the capacity or ability; efficient and able.
capacity ::: 1. The ability to receive, hold, or absorb. 2. The power to learn or retain knowledge; mental ability.
cape ::: a sleeveless outer garment fastened at the throat and worn hanging over the shoulders.
capital ::: 1. A town or city that is the official seat of government in a political entity, such as a state or nation. 2. Wealth in the form of money or property.
capitol ::: 1. A building occupied by a state legislature. 2. A building that is the seat of government. Also fig.
captain ::: 1. One who commands, leads, or guides others. 2. The officer in command of a ship, an aircraft, or a spacecraft.
caravan ::: a company of travelers journeying together, as across a desert or through hostile territory. 2. A procession or train likened to a caravan. caravans.
carelessness ::: the quality of not being careful or taking pains; being negligent.
case ::: 1. A set of reasons or supporting facts; an argument. 2. The facts or evidence offered in support of a claim.
cased ::: sheathed, enclosed, covered or protected, contained within.
casket ::: a small and often ornate box for holding jewels or other valuables.
caste-mark ::: (In India) a mark, usually on the forehead, symbolising and identifying caste membership.
castle ::: lit. A large fortified building or group of buildings with thick walls, usually dominating the surrounding country. Fig. A stronghold, fortress.
cast ::: v. 1. To throw with force; hurl. 2. To form (liquid metal, for example) into a particular shape by pouring into a mould. Also fig. 3. To cause to fall upon something or in a certain direction; send forth. 4. To throw on the ground, as in wrestling. 5. To put or place, esp. hastily or forcibly. 6. To direct (the eye, a glance, etc.) 7. To throw (something) forth or off. 8. To bestow; confer. casts, casting.
caul ::: a portion of the amnion (A thin, tough, membranous sac) especially when it covers the head of a foetus at birth.
cause ::: 1. A person or thing that acts, happens, or exists in such a way that some specific thing happens as a result; the producer of an effect. 2. A basis for an action or response; a reason. 3. Grounds for action; motive; justification. 4. Good or sufficient reason. 5. The principle, ideal, goal, or movement to which a person or group is dedicated. Cause.
-causing ::: being the cause of; effecting, bringing about, producing, inducing, making. All-causing.
cave ::: 1. A hollow or natural passage under or into the earth, especially one with an opening to the surface. 2. A hollow in the side of a hill or cliff, or underground of any kind; a cavity. Cave, caves, death-cave, deep-caved, cave-heart.
ceiling ::: 1. An upper limit, especially as set by regulation. 2. The upper interior surface of a room.
celestial ::: 1. Of or relating to the sky or the heavens. 2. Of or relating to heaven; divine. 3. Heavenly; divine; spiritual. celestials", celestial-human.
cell ::: biology: The smallest structural unit of an organism that is capable of independent functioning, consisting of one or more nuclei, cytoplasm, and various organelles, all surrounded by a semipermeable cell membrane. cells.
centaur ::: greek Mythology, one of a race of monsters having the head, arms, and trunk of a man and the body and legs of a horse. centaur"s, Centaur, Centaur"s.** ::: *
centurion ::: the commander of a century (100 men) in the Roman army.
certainty ::: 1. The fact, quality, or state of being certain. 2. Something certain; an assured fact.
chain-work ::: handiwork in which parts are looped or woven together like the links of a chain.
chameleon ::: any of numerous Old World lizards of the family Chamaeleontidae, characterized by the ability to change the colour of their skin, very slow locomotion, and a projectile tongue.
chance ::: n. 1. The absence of any cause of events that can be predicted, understood, or controlled: often personified or treated as a positive agency. 2. The happening of events; the way in which things happen; fortune. 3. An opportune or favourable time; opportunity. 4. Fortune; luck; fate. Chance, chances. *adj.* 5. Not planned or expected; accidental. v. 6. To happen by chance; be the case by chance.** chanced.
changelessness ::: the quality of being unchangeable; having a marked tendency to remain unchanged.
change ::: v. 1. To make the form, nature, content, future course, etc. of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone. 2. To become different or undergo alteration. changes, changed, changing, ever-changing.* n. 3. The act or fact of changing; transformation or modification of anything. Change, changes, soul-change.
changings ::: the action, process, or result of altering or modifying things.
channel ::: n. **1. A course through which something may be transmitted or through which something may be moved or directed onward. 2. The bed of a stream or river, etc. v. 3. To direct or convey something through (or as through) a channel. channels.**
chant ::: n. **1. A short, simple series of syllables or words that are sung on or intoned to the same note or a limited range of notes. 2. A song or melody. v. 3. To sing, especially in the manner of a chant. chants, chanted, chanting, chantings.**
chaos ::: 1. The infinity of space or formless matter supposed to have preceded the existence of the ordered universe. 2. A condition, place, or state of great disorder or confusion. 3. A disorderly mass; a jumble. Chaos.
chapter ::: an important portion or division of anything, esp. of a book, treatise, or other literary work. chapter"s, Chapters.
characters ::: 1. The combination of qualities, features and traits that distinguishes one person, group, or thing from another. 2. The marks or symbols used in writing systems such as the letters of the alphabet.
charade ::: a game in which each syllable of a word, and then the whole word, is acted and the audience has to guess the word.
clauses, items, points, or particulars in a contract, treaty, or other formal agreement; conditions or stipulations in a contract.
"First, we affirm an Absolute as the origin and support and secret Reality of all things. The Absolute Reality is indefinable and ineffable by mental thought and mental language; it is self-existent and self-evident to itself, as all absolutes are self-evident, but our mental affirmatives and negatives, whether taken separatively or together, cannot limit or define it.” The Life Divine
"For each birth is a new start; it develops indeed from the past, but is not its mechanical continuation: rebirth is not a constant reiteration but a progression, it is the machinery of an evolutionary process.” The Life Divine
Heart-lotus — emotional centre. The psychic is behind it.
"Here we live in an organisation of mortal consciousness which takes the form of a transient world; there we are liberated into the harmonies of an infinite self-seeing which knows all world in the light of the eternal and immortal. The Beyond is our reality; that is our plenitude; that is the absolute satisfaction of our self-existence. It is immortality and it is ‘That Delight".” The Upanishads *beyond
"High beyond the Intelligence is the Great Self, beyond the Great Self is the Unmanifest, beyond the Unmanifest is the Conscious Being. There is nothing beyond the Being, — that is the extreme ultimate, that the supreme goal.” — Katha Upanishad. (4) (Sri Aurobindo"s translation) The Life Divine
**"I certainly won"t have ‘attracted" [in place of ‘allured"] — there is an enormous difference between the force of the two words and merely ‘attracted by the Ecstasy" would take away all my ecstasy in the line — nothing so tepid can be admitted. Neither do I want ‘thrill" [in place of ‘joy"] which gives a false colour — precisely it would mean that the ecstasy was already touching him with its intensity which is far from my intention.Your statement that ‘joy" is just another word for ‘ecstasy" is surprising. ‘Comfort", ‘pleasure", ‘joy", ‘bliss", ‘rapture", ‘ecstasy" would then be all equal and exactly synonymous terms and all distinction of shades and colours of words would disappear from literature. As well say that ‘flashlight" is just another word for ‘lightning" — or that glow, gleam, glitter, sheen, blaze are all equivalents which can be employed indifferently in the same place. One can feel allured to the supreme omniscient Ecstasy and feel a nameless joy touching one without that Joy becoming itself the supreme Ecstasy. I see no loss of expressiveness by the joy coming in as a vague nameless hint of the immeasurable superior Ecstasy.” Letters on Savitri*
"If birth is a becoming, death also is a becoming, not by any means a cessation. The body is abandoned, but the soul goes on its way, . . . .” Essays on the Gita
"I have said that the Avatar is one who comes to open the Way for humanity to a higher consciousness —. . . .” Letters on Yoga
"I may say that the opening upwards, the ascent into the Light and the subsequent descent into the ordinary consciousness and normal human life is very common as the first decisive experience in the practice of yoga and may very well happen even without the practice of yoga in those who are destined for the spiritual change, especially if there is a dissatisfaction somewhere with the ordinary life and a seeking for something more, greater or better.” Letters on Yoga*
". . . in the Avatar there is the special manifestation, the divine birth from above, the eternal and universal Godhead descended into a form of individual humanity, âtmânam srjâmi, and conscious not only behind the veil but in the outward nature.” Essays on the Gita
In the middle of the forehead — the Ajna Chakra — (will, vision, dynamic thought).
"In the subconscient knowledge or consciousness is involved in action, for action is the essence of Life.” The Life Divine
"In every particle, atom, molecule, cell of Matter there lives hidden and works unknown all the omniscience of the Eternal and all the omnipotence of the Infinite.” Essays Divine and Human*
" . . . insincerity is always an open door for the adversary. That means there is some secret sympathy with what is perverse. And that is what is serious.” Questions and Answers 1957-58, MCW Vol. 9.
inspiring mingled reverence and admiration; impressing the emotions or imagination as magnificent; majestic, stately, sublime, solemnly grand; venerable, revered; of supreme dignity.
"It is a call of the being for higher things — for the Divine, for all that belongs to the higher or Divine Consciousness.” Guidance
". . . [man"s] nature calls for a human intermediary so that he may feel the Divine in something entirely close to his own humanity and sensible in a human influence and example. This call is satisfied by the Divine manifest in a human appearance, the Incarnation, the Avatar. . . .” The Synthesis of Yoga
n. 1. The point, axis, or pivot about which a body rotates. 2. A point, area, or part that is approximately in the middle of a larger area or volume. 3. A person or thing that is a focus of interest or attention. 4. A point of origin. centre"s, centres. v. 5. To focus or bring together. 6. To move towards, mark, put, or be concentrated at or as at a centre. 7. centred. Brought together to a centre, concentrated.
positions or postures of the body appropriate to or expressive of an action, emotion.
"Pulling comes usually from a desire to get things for oneself — in aspiration there is a self-giving for the higher consciousness to descend and take possession — the more intense the call the greater the self-giving.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Atheism is the shadow or dark side of the highest perception of God.” *Essays Divine and Human
*Sri Aurobindo: "Action is the first power of life. Nature begins with force and its works which, once conscious in man, become will and its achievements; therefore it is that by turning his action Godwards the life of man best and most surely begins to become divine.” The Synthesis of Yoga
*(Sri Aurobindo: "And finally all is lifted up and taken into the supermind and made a part of the infinitely luminous consciousness, knowledge and experience of the supramental being, the Vijnana Purusha.” The Synthesis of Yoga*) ::: Angel of the House. The guardian spirit of the home.
*Sri Aurobindo: "Aspiration is a call to the Divine.” Letters on Yoga*
Sri Aurobindo: "Beauty is the special divine Manifestation in the physical as Truth is in the Mind, Love in the heart, Power in the vital.” *The Future Poetry
Sri Aurobindo: "Birth is the first spiritual mystery of the physical universe, death is the second which gives its double point of perplexity to the mystery of birth; for life, which would otherwise be a self-evident fact of existence, becomes itself a mystery by virtue of these two which seem to be its beginning and its end and yet in a thousand ways betray themselves as neither of these things, but rather intermediate stages in an occult processus of life.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "Brahma is the Power of the Divine that stands behind formation and the creation.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "By aesthesis is meant a reaction of the consciousness, mental and vital and even bodily, which receives a certain element in things, something that can be called their taste, Rasa, which, passing through the mind or sense or both, awakes a vital enjoyment of the taste, Bhoga, and this can again awaken us, awaken even the soul in us to something yet deeper and more fundamental than mere pleasure and enjoyment, to some form of the spirit"s delight of existence, Ananda.” *Letters on Savitri
Sri Aurobindo: "Chance is not *in this universe; the idea of illusion is itself an illusion. There was never illusion yet in the human mind that was not the concealing [?shape] and disfigurement of a truth.” Essays Divine and Human
Sri Aurobindo: ". . . for each individual is in himself the Eternal who has assumed name and form and supports through him the experiences of life turning on an ever-circling wheel of birth in the manifestation. The wheel is kept in motion by the desire of the individual, which becomes the effective cause of rebirth and by the mind"s turning away from the knowledge of the eternal self to the preoccupations of the temporal becoming.” The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: "For from the divine Bliss, the original Delight of existence, the Lord of Immortality comes pouring the wine of that Bliss, the mystic Soma, into these jars of mentalised living matter; eternal and beautiful, he enters into these sheaths of substance for the integral transformation of the being and nature.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "In the very atom there is a subconscious will and desire which must also be present in all atomic aggregates because they are present in the Force which constitutes the atom.” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "It might be said again that, even so, in Sachchidananda itself at least, above all worlds of manifestation, there could be nothing but the self-awareness of pure existence and consciousness and a pure delight of existence. Or, indeed, this triune being itself might well be only a trinity of original spiritual self-determinations of the Infinite; these too, like all determinations, would cease to exist in the ineffable Absolute. But our position is that these must be inherent truths of the supreme being; their utmost reality must be pre-existent in the Absolute even if they are ineffably other there than what they are in the spiritual mind"s highest possible experience. The Absolute is not a mystery of infinite blankness nor a supreme sum of negations; nothing can manifest that is not justified by some self-power of the original and omnipresent Reality.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "Matter, body is only a massed motion of force of conscious being employed as a starting-point for the variable relations of consciousness working through its power of sense.” *Essays on the Gita
**Sri Aurobindo: [referring to the following lines]
Sri Aurobindo: ” See God everywhere and be not frightened by masks. Believe that all falsehood is truth in the making or truth in the breaking, all failure an effectuality concealed, all weakness strength hiding itself from its own vision, all pain a secret & violent ecstasy. If thou believest firmly & unweariedly, in the end thou wilt see & experience the All-true, Almighty & All-blissful.” Essays Divine and Human*
Sri Aurobindo: "The anarchic is the true divine state of man in the end as in the beginning; but in between it would lead us straight to the devil and his kingdom.” Essays Divine and Human*
Sri Aurobindo: "The centres or Chakras are seven in number: ::: The thousand-petalled lotus on the top of the head.
*Sri Aurobindo: "The highest aim of the aesthetic being is to find the Divine through beauty; the highest Art is that which by an inspired use of significant and interpretative form unseals the doors of the spirit.” The Human Cycle etc.*
Sri Aurobindo: "The motion of the world works under the government of a perpetual stability. Change represents the constant shifting of apparent relations in an eternal Immutability.” The Upanishads
Sri Aurobindo: "This truth of Karma has been always recognised in the East in one form or else in another; but to the Buddhists belongs the credit of having given to it the clearest and fullest universal enunciation and the most insistent importance. In the West too the idea has constantly recurred, but in external, in fragmentary glimpses, as the recognition of a pragmatic truth of experience, and mostly as an ordered ethical law or fatality set over against the self-will and strength of man: but it was clouded over by other ideas inconsistent with any reign of law, vague ideas of some superior caprice or of some divine jealousy, — that was a notion of the Greeks, — a blind Fate or inscrutable Necessity, Ananke, or, later, the mysterious ways of an arbitrary, though no doubt an all-wise Providence.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga *Ananke"s.
Sri Aurobindo: "Very usually, altruism is only the sublimest form of selfishness.” *Essays Divine and Human
Sri Aurobindo: "We mean by the Absolute something greater than ourselves, greater than the cosmos which we live in, the supreme reality of that transcendent Being which we call God, something without which all that we see or are conscious of as existing, could not have been, could not for a moment remain in existence. Indian thought calls it Brahman, European thought the Absolute because it is a self-existent which is absolved of all bondage to relativities . . . The Absolute is for us the Ineffable.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "What the "void" feels as a clutch is felt by the Mother only as a reminding finger laid on her cheek. It is one advantage of the expression ‘as if" that it leaves the field open for such variation. It is intended to suggest without saying it that behind the sombre void is the face of a mother. The two other ‘as if"s have the same motive and I do not find them jarring upon me. The second is at a sufficient distance from the first and it is not obtrusive enough to prejudice the third which more nearly follows. . . .” Letters on Savitri
*Sri Aurobindo: "When there is some lowering or diminution of the consciousness or some impairing of it at one place or another, the Adversary — or the Censor — who is always on the watch presses with all his might wherever there is a weak point lying covered from your own view, and suddenly a wrong movement leaps up with unexpected force. Become conscious and cast out the possibility of its renewal, that is all that is to be done.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Yes: the purpose is to create a large luminous trailing repetitive movement like the flight of the Bird with its dragon tail of white fire.” *Letters on Savitri
Sri Aurobindo: "Yet all the time the universal forces are pouring into him without his knowing it. He is aware only of thoughts, feelings, etc., that rise to the surface and these he takes for his own. Really they come from outside in mind waves, vital waves, waves of feeling and sensation, etc., which take particular form in him and rise to the surface after they have got inside. But they do not get into his body at once. He carries about with him an environmental consciousness (called by the Theosophists the Aura) into which they first enter. If you can become conscious of this environmental self of yours, then you can catch the thought, passion, suggestion or force of illness and prevent it from entering into you. If things in you are thrown out, they often do not go altogether but take refuge in this environmental atmosphere and from there they try to get in again. Or they go to a distance outside but linger on the outskirts or even perhaps far off, waiting till they get an opportunity to attempt entrance.” *Letters on Yoga
"Stability and movement, we must remember, are only our psychological representations of the Absolute, even as are oneness and multitude. The Absolute is beyond stability and movement as it is beyond unity and multiplicity. But it takes its eternal poise in the one and the stable and whirls round itself infinitely, inconceivably, securely in the moving and multitudinous.” The Life Divine
Strength is all right for the strong — but aspiration and the Grace answering to it are not altogether myths; they are great realities of the spiritual life.” Letters on Yoga*
(Technically)** **Any of various birds of the family Paradisaeidae, native to New Guinea and adjacent islands, usually having brilliant plumage and long tail feathers in the male.
"The Absolute is beyond personality and beyond impersonality, and yet it is both the Impersonal and the supreme Person and all persons. The Absolute is beyond the distinction of unity and multiplicity, and yet it is the One and the innumerable Many in all the universes.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"The Absolute is in itself indefinable by reason, ineffable to the speech; it has to be approached through experience.” The Life Divine*
"The Atheist is God playing at hide & seek with Himself; . . . .” Essays Divine and Human*
"The Adversary will disappear only when he is no longer necessary in the world. And we know very well that he is necessary, as the touch-stone for gold: to know if it is pure. But if one is really sincere, the Adversary can"t even approach him any longer; and he doesn"t try it, because that would be courting his own destruction.” Questions and Answers 1955, MCW Vol. 7.
"The animal is a vital and sensational being; . . . .” The Synthesis of Yoga*Animal, animal"s, animals, animal-soul, half-animal.
The Apsaras then are the divine Hetairae of Paradise, beautiful singers and actresses whose beauty and art relieve the arduous and world-long struggle of the Gods against the forces that tend towards disruption by the Titans who would restore Matter to its original atomic condition or of dissolution by the sages and hermits who would make phenomena dissolve prematurely into the One who is above phenomena. They rose from the Ocean, says Valmiki, seeking who should choose them as brides, but neither the Gods nor the Titans accepted them, therefore are they said to be common or universal. The Harmony of Virtue
"The Avatar comes as the manifestation of the divine nature in the human nature, the apocalypse of its Christhood, Krishnahood, Buddhahood, in order that the human nature may by moulding its principle, thought, feeling, action, being on the lines of that Christhood, Krishnahood, Buddhahood transfigure itself into the divine. The law, the Dharma which the Avatar establishes is given for that purpose chiefly; the Christ, Krishna, Buddha stands in its centre as the gate, he makes through himself the way men shall follow.” Essays on the Gita
"The Avatar does not come as a thaumaturgic magician, but as the divine leader of humanity and the exemplar of a divine humanity. Even human sorrow and physical suffering he must assume and use so as to show, first, how that suffering may be a means of redemption, — as did Christ, — secondly, to show how, having been assumed by the divine soul in the human nature, it can also be overcome in the same nature, — as did Buddha. The rationalist who would have cried to Christ, ‘If thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross," or points out sagely that the Avatar was not divine because he died and died too by disease, — as a dog dieth, — knows not what he is saying: for he has missed the root of the whole matter. Even, the Avatar of sorrow and suffering must come before there can be the Avatar of divine joy; the human limitation must be assumed in order to show how it can be overcome; and the way and the extent of the overcoming, whether internal only or external also, depends upon the stage of the human advance; it must not be done by a non-human miracle.” Essays on the Gita
"The body is not only the necessary outer instrument of the physical part of action, but for the purposes of this life a base or pedestal also for all inner action.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"The call of God is imperative and cannot be weighed against any other considerations.” Essays on the Gita*
"The call, once decisive, stands; the thing that has been born cannot eventually be stifled. Even if the force of circumstances prevents a regular pursuit or a full practical self-consecration from the first, still the mind has taken its bent and persists and returns with an ever-increasing effect upon its leading preoccupation. There is an ineluctable persistence of the inner being, and against it circumstances are in the end powerless, and no weakness in the nature can for long be an obstacle.” The Synthesis of Yoga
::: "The Conscious Being, Purusha, is the Self as originator, witness, support and lord and enjoyer of the forms and works of Nature.” *The Life Divine
::: "The human vital and physical external nature resist to the very end, but if the soul has once heard the call, it arrives, sooner or later.” Letters on Yoga
"The Infinite creates and is Brahma.” The Renaissance in India ::: "Brahman is not only the cause and supporting power and indwelling principle of the universe, he is also its material and its sole material. Matter also is Brahman and it is nothing other than or different from Brahman.” The Life Divine*
"The inner Divinity is the eternal Avatar in man; the human manifestation is its sign and development in the external world.” Essays on the Gita
The Mother : "An Avatar is an emanation of the Supreme Lord who assumes a human body on earth.” Works of the Mother, "On Thoughts and Aphorisms” Vol.10
The Mother: "In the physical world, of all things it is beauty that expresses best the Divine. the physical world is the world of form and the perfection of form is beauty. Beauty interprets, expresses, manifests the Eternal. Its role is to put all manifested nature in contact with the Eternal through the perfection of form, through harmony and a sense of the ideal which uplifts and leads towards something higher. On Education, MCW Vol. 12.
The Mother: "The Avatar: the supreme Divine manifested in an earthly form — generally a human form — for a definite purpose.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.*
*The Mother: "To conquer the Adversary is not a small thing. One must have a greater power than his to vanquish him. But one can liberate oneself totally from his influence. And from the minute one is completely free from his influence, one"s self-giving can be total. And with the self-giving comes joy, long before the Adversary is truly vanquished and disappears.”
::: The Mother: "True art means the expression of beauty in the material world. In a world wholly converted, that is to say, expressing integrally the divine reality, art must serve as the revealer and teacher of this divine beauty in life.” On Education, MCW Vol. 12.
"There is no need of words in aspiration. It can be expressed or unexpressed in words.” Letters on Yoga
These notes were written apropos of Bergson"s ‘philosophy of change", ‘you" would refer to a proponent of this philosophy.
"The spiritual change is the established descent of the peace, light, knowledge, power, bliss from above, the awareness of the Self and the Divine and of a higher cosmic consciousness and the change of the whole consciousness to that.” Letters on Yoga
"The surface mental individuality is, in consequence, always ego-centric; even its altruism is an enlargement of its ego: . . . . ” The Life Divine*
"This body of ours is a symbol of our real being. . . .” Letters on Yoga ::: ". . . the body itself is only a constant act of consciousness of the spirit.” Essays on the Gita
"This universal aesthesis of beauty and delight does not ignore or fail to understand the differences and oppositions, the gradations, the harmony and disharmony obvious to the ordinary consciousness; but, first of all, it draws a Rasa from them and with that comes the enjoyment, Bhoga. and the touch or the mass of the Ananda. It sees that all things have their meaning, their value, their deeper or total significance which the mind does not see, for the mind is only concerned with a surface vision, surface contacts and its own surface reactions. When something expresses perfectly what it was meant to express, the completeness brings with it a sense of harmony, a sense of artistic perfection; it gives even to what is discordant a place in a system of cosmic concordances and the discords become part of a vast harmony, and wherever there is harmony, there is a sense of beauty. ” Letters on Savitri*
those who assist, guide, wait upon, accompany, give service or follow another to contribute to the fulfilment of a need or furtherance of an effort or purpose; subordinate companions.
to draw by appealing by the emotions or senses, by stimulating interest, or by exciting admiration; allure; invite. attracts, attracted, attracting.
"To find highest beauty is to find God; to reveal, to embody, to create, as we say, highest beauty is to bring out of our souls the living image and power of God.” The Human Cycle
transformed or transitioned from one state, condition, or phase to another.
"We are not the body, but the body is still something of ourselves. With realisation the erroneous identification ceases — in certain experiences the existence of the body is not felt at all. In the full realisation the body is within us, not we in it, it is an instrumental formation in our wider being, — our consciousness exceeds but also pervades it, — it can be dissolved without our ceasing to be the self.” Letters on Yoga
"We arrive then necessarily at this conclusion that human birth is a term at which the soul must arrive in a long succession of rebirths and that it has had for its previous and preparatory terms in the succession the lower forms of life upon earth; it has passed through the whole chain that life has strung in the physical universe on the basis of the body, the physical principle.” The Life Divine
"We imagine that the soul is in the body, almost a result and derivation from the body; even we so feel it: but it is the body that is in the soul and a result and derivation from the soul.” Essays on the Gita
"What we call Chance is a play of the possibilities of the Infinite; . . . .” Essays Divine and Human*
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1 Saint John Baptist de la Salle
1 Saint Jeanne de Chantal
1 Saint Jane Frances de Chantal
1 Saint Ignatius of Loyola
1 Saint Ignatius of Antioch
1 Saint Hildegard of Bingen
1 Saint Gregory the Great
1 Saint Gemma Galgani
1 Saint Francis of Assisi
1 Saint Francis
1 Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
1 Saint Catherine of Sweden
1 Saint Catherine of Siena
1 Saint Cajetan
1 Saint Bridget of Sweden
1 Saint Benedict of Nursia
1 Saint Bede the Venerable
1 Saint Basil the Great
1 Saint Basil of Caesarea
1 Saint Avitus of Vienna
1 Saint Ambrose of Milan
1 Saint Alphonsus Liguori
1 Saint Aloysius Gonzaga
1 R W Emerson
1 Rousseau
1 Roshi So
1 Rodney Collin
1 Robert Monroe
1 Robert Louis Stevenson
1 Robert Fritz
1 Robert Adams
1 Robert
1 Roald Dahl
1 R.M.Rilke
1 R.M. Drake
1 Rich Weaver
1 Richard Branson
1 Richard Bach
1 Revelation 7:2-3
1 Revelation 3:21-22
1 Revelation 21:27
1 René Descartes
1 Rembrandt
1 Quran
1 Pope St. Leo the Great
1 Pope St. John Paul II
1 Pope St. Gregory I
1 Pope John Paul II
1 Pindar
1 Philolaus
1 Philip K. Dick
1 Petrarca
1 Peter III. 8
1 Petalbae
1 Percy Bysshe Shelley
1 Pema Chodron
1 Parkinson's Law
1 Padampa Sangye
1 Pablo Picasso
1 Our Lady to Fr. Stefano Gobbi
1 Our Lady
1 Orson Welles
1 Orphic Precept
1 Orphic Hymns
1 Og Mandino
1 Nolini Kanta Gupta
1 Nikola Tesla
1 Nijo Yoshimoto
1 Nigerian Proverb
1 Nemoto
1 Neil Simon
1 Neil Gaiman
1 Naval Ravikant
1 Natsume Soseki
1 Native American Proverb
1 Nathaniel Branden
1 Narada Sutra
1 Napoleon Hill
1 Napoleon
1 Najwa Zebian
1 Myths of the Iife
1 Muammar Gaddafi?
1 M Scott Peck
1 Mother Teresa
1 Mother Mirra
1 Mortimer J Adler
1 more lasting thou than they.
1 Moliere
1 Mohandas Gandhi
1 Mitzu Suzuki
1 Ming Dao Deng
1 Milan Kundera
1 Michael Jordan
1 Melissa Etheridge
1 Meister Eckhart
1 Meister
1 Maya Angelou
1 Maxwell Maltz
1 Max Scheler
1 Mat-thew. XIX. 18
1 Matthew VII. 7
1 Matthew
1 Masanobu Fukuoka
1 Masaaki Hatsumi
1 Mary Shelley
1 Mary Oliver
1 Martin Luther King Jr.
1 Martin Heidegger
1 Mark V. 36
1 Marcus Tullius Cicero
1 Marcel Proust
1 Manly P Hall
1 Makeda
1 Major Kusanagi
1 Mahmoūd Shabestarī
1 Mahabharata
1 Luke V. 8
1 Ludwig Von Mises
1 Lowell
1 Louise Hay
1 Livy
1 Li Qingzhao
1 Lin Yutang
1 Lil Wayne
1 Lewis B Smedes
1 Let yourself dissolve.
1 Letter to the Corinthians
1 Let it all go
1 LeRoy Pollock
1 Leonardo da Vinci
1 Lebrun
1 Layman Pang
1 Laura Ingalls Wilder
1 Laozi
1 Lao Tzu
1 Lao-Tse-35
1 Lalla
1 Lalita-vistara
1 Kun Yu
1 Krishna Prem
1 Koun Yamada
1 Koran
1 Kodo sawaki
1 Kodo Sawaki
1 Kibir
1 ken-wilber
1 Katha-Upanishad
1 Kate Bush
1 Karl Popper
1 Karl Barth
1 Kaivaiya Upanishad
1 Kahlil Gibran
1 Judges VI. 14
1 J.R.R. Tolkien
1 J. R. R. Tolkien
1 Josh Billings
1 Jorge Luis Borge
1 Jon J. Muth
1 Jon Anderson
1 John. XIV. 21
1 John. XIII
1 John Trudell
1 John of the Cross
1 John Muir
1 John Maxwell
1 John III. 7
1 John Green
1 John F. Kennedy
1 John F Kennedy
1 John Donne
1 John Dee
1 John C. Maxwell
1 John Bailey
1 John Aske
1 Johann W. von Goethe
1 Job
1 Jnaneshwar
1 Jn. 6:51).
1 Jn. 6:51
1 J M Barrie
1 Jim Stovall
1 Jim Rohn
1 Jimi Hendrix
1 Jim Butcher
1 Jetsun Milarepa
1 Jean-Paul Sartre
1 Jean Klein
1 James V. Schall
1 James K Bowers
1 James Joyce
1 Jack Kerouac
1 I Thessalonians V. 16
1 it changes in the course of life.
1 Issa
1 Isaac Newton
1 Iris Murdoch
1 Irenaeus
1 Ingrid Bergman
1 II Timothy II. 22
1 Ignatius of Antioch
1 Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya
1 Hyman G Rickover
1 Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu
1 H P Lovecraft
1 Howard Gardner
1 Hokusai
1 Hippocrates
1 Herodotus
1 Hermes Trismegistus
1 Hermann Hesse
1 Herbert Spencer
1 Henry Vaughan
1 Henry Van Dyke
1 Henry Suso
1 Henri Bergson
1 Heinrich Heine
1 Hasidic Proverb
1 Hans Christian Andersen
1 Hakushu Kitahara
1 Hafiz
1 Guru Rinpoche
1 Guru Nanak
1 Guru Gobind Singh
1 Groucho Marx
1 grand are the sky and stars
1 Graham Greene
1 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
1 Goethe
1 Godard
1 Gilbert K. Chesterton
1 GG
1 Germany Kent
1 Gerald Jampolsky
1 George S. Patton
1 Georges Danton
1 George Santayana
1 George Sand
1 George R R Martin
1 George Harrison
1 George Gurdjieff -
1 George Gurdjieff
1 George Carlin
1 George Bernard Shaw
1 Gene Roddenberry
1 G.B. Shaw
1 Gabor Mate
1 From "Before I Am
1 Friedrich Von Hugel
1 Fred Rogers
1 Fred Astaire
1 Frank Zappa
1 Frank Lloyd Wright
1 Franklin D. Roosevelt
1 Frank Herbert
1 Francis Hutcheson
1 For source see: https://bit.ly/3cPHvYO
1 Fakhruddin Iraqi
1 Exodus XX.82
1 Etienne Gilson
1 Ernest Holmes
1 Eric Hoffer
1 Enomoto Seifu Jo
1 Emerson
1 Eisai
1 Egyptian Texts
1 Edwin Markham
1 Edward Schon
1 Edward Murphy
1 Edgar Cayce
1 Eckhart
1 Earl Nightingale
1 Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
1 Dzogchen Rinpoche
1 Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
1 D.T. Suzuki
1 D T Suzuki
1 Dr. Seuss
1 Dogen Zenji?
1 Dogen Zenji
1 Dogen 1200-1253
1 Dion Fortune
1 Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
1 Diane Von Furstenberg
1 Den Sutejo 1633-1698
1 Denise Morrison
1 Democritus
1 Delphic Inscription
1 David Viscott
1 David
1 Dakotsu Lida
1 Dakotsu Iida 1883-196
1 Daie
1 Czeslaw Milosz
1 C. S. Lewis
1 Colossians III. 9
1 C N Parkinson
1 Claude Debussy
1 Cinderella
1 Cicero
1 Chyo-ni 1703-1775
1 Chuck Close
1 Chuang-tzu
1 Chuang Tzu.
1 Choshu
1 Chinese Proverb
1 Charles Kimball
1 Charles Dickens
1 Cesar A Cruz
1 Catinat
1 Cassandra Clare
1 Carl Sandburg
1 Candace Cameron Bure
1 Calvin Coolidge
1 Butterfly Lao Tzu
1 Bukowski
1 Buddhist Texts
1 Buddhist Proverb
1 Buddhism
1 Bruno Bettelheim
1 Bruce Feirstein
1 Bony of flours
1 Bono
1 Black Elk
1 Binavi Badakhshan
1 Bill Wilson
1 Bill Campbell
1 Bill Bradley
1 Bha-ullah
1 be to other souls
1 Bertrand Russell
1 Bennett Cerf
1 Benedict
1 Bauvard
1 Basho
1 Barbara Max Hubbard
1 Bahaullah: the Seven Valleys
1 Baha-ulalh
1 Bahauddin
1 Ayn Rand
1 Avadhuta Gita
1 Auguste Rodin
1 Atli Bjorgvin Oddsson
1 Atisha
1 Atisa
1 Arthur Koestler
1 Archilochus
1 Archbishop Desmond Tutu
1 Antonio Porchia
1 Antoine the Healer
1 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
1 Anthony de Mello
1 Anne Sullivan
1 Anne Frank
1 Ancient Greek saying.
1 Anaxagoras
1 Anatole France
1 Ananta
1 Anandamayi Ma
1 Anacreon
1 Amir Khusrau
1 A Midsummer Night's Dream
1 Amelia Earhart
1 al-Razi?
1 Allen Klein
1 Allen Ginsberg
1 Al-Kalabadhi
1 Alice Walker
1 Alice Hoffman
1 Alfred Hitchcock
1 Alexis de Tocqueville
1 Alexander the Great
1 Aleister Crowley
1 Aldous Huxley
1 Alan Cohen
1 Alain de Botton
1 Akong Rinpoche
1 Ajahn Chah
1 Swami Vivekananda
1 Sri Aurobindo
1 Santoka Taneda
1 Saint Thomas Aquinas
1 Pythagoras
1 Paracelsus
1 Jetsun Milarepa
1 Aristophanes
1 African proverb
1 Aeschylus
1 Adlai E. Stevenson
1 A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
1 Abu Bakr
1 A. A. Milne
1 2nd century sermon
1 1 John 5:3-5
1 1 John :2:22
1 1 John 1:7)
1 02.14 - The World-Soul
NEW FULL DB (2.4M)
90 Christian Winther
74 Anonymous
25 Rumi
18 J K Rowling
17 Horace
13 Rick Riordan
11 Plato
11 Aesop
10 Ovid
9 Anne Sexton
8 Aristotle
7 W H Auden
7 Suzanne Collins
7 Laozi
7 Dave Matthews
6 William Shakespeare
6 Neil Gaiman
6 Katherine Applegate
6 John Green
6 Enid Blyton
1:In the Labyrinth. ~ Kate Bush, #KEYS
2:He is pure of all name. ~ The Bab, #KEYS
3:kindness protects him. ~ The Buddha, #KEYS
4:over the surrendered heart. ~ Rilke, #KEYS
5:The result justifies the deed. ~ Ovid #KEYS
6:Focus your eyes on the truth. ~ Dante, #KEYS
7:The Asker is the Answer. ~ Wei Wu Wei, #KEYS
8:I am the Boundless Sky. ~ Avadhuta Gita, #KEYS
9:If the wind blows, let it blow. ~ Ikkyu, #KEYS
10:The menu is not the meal." ~ Alan Watts, #KEYS
11:Attribute all to the Gods. ~ Archilochus, #KEYS
12:The answers will find you. ~ Jeff Foster, #KEYS
13:The simple joy of being." ~ Lewis Carroll, #KEYS
14:Be greatly aware of the present." ~ Buddha, #KEYS
15:The best is yet to be.
~ Robert Browning,#KEYS
16:Nature is the art of God. ~ Dante Alighieri, #KEYS
17:Only the doer learns. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
18:Sleep is the best meditation." ~ Dalai Lama, #KEYS
19:The word "He" diminishes Him. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #KEYS
20:By not dominating, the Master leads. ~ Laozi, #KEYS
21:Every day is the beginning of life." ~ Rilke, #KEYS
22:Never stray from the Way. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
23:Attend with the ear of your heart. ~ Benedict, #KEYS
24:Begin with the end in mind.
~ Stephen Covey,#KEYS
25:Doubt is the brother of shame. ~ Erik Erikson, #KEYS
26:is not always that of the soul. ~ George Sand, #KEYS
27:Love is the absence of judgment." ~ Dalai Lama, #KEYS
28:In the end, everything is simple. ~ Jean Gebser, #KEYS
29:Low aim, not failure, is the crime. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
30:Summoned or not, the god will come. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
31:The body and the mind. ~ Let yourself dissolve., #KEYS
32:The devil never repents.
~ Eliphas Levi, [T5],#KEYS
33:Will the mind find itself? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
34:A calm mind is the jewel of wisdom. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
35:And justify the ways of God to men. ~ John Milton, #KEYS
36:Beauty awakens the soul to act. ~ Dante Alighieri, #KEYS
37:Quiet the mind and the soul will speak." ~ Buddha, #KEYS
38:Silence is the most powerful scream
~ Anonymous,#KEYS
39:The hero can never be a relativist. ~ Rich Weaver, #KEYS
40:The Light it's there. It's always been there. ~ ?, #KEYS
41:True friends stab you in the front. ~ Oscar Wilde, #KEYS
42:All music is the blues. All of it. ~ George Carlin, #KEYS
43:As you are, so is the world. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
44:Every man is the son of his own works. ~ Cervantes, #KEYS
45:Find out who has bound you," said the Master., ~ ?, #KEYS
46:He who conceives the Truth, is born anew. ~ Vemana, #KEYS
47:ice melting
by the gate
an early moon ~ Issa,#KEYS
48:In the distance someone is singing. ~ Pablo Neruda, #KEYS
49:I purify earth and heaven by the Truth. ~ Rig Veda, #KEYS
50:Loved by the sun, loved by the sun. ~ Jon Anderson, #KEYS
51:St. Clement of Rom ~ Letter to the Corinthians, 44, #KEYS
52:Suffering is not a sign of failure
~ The Mother?,#KEYS
53:The unexamined life is not worth living ~ Socrates, #KEYS
54:Cheer up, the worst is yet to come. ~ Anne Sullivan, #KEYS
55:Chess is the gymnasium of the mind. ~ Blaise Pascal, #KEYS
56:Fiction is the truth inside the lie. ~ Stephen King, #KEYS
57:How do we sell the air? ~ John Trudell, Crazy Horse, #KEYS
58:Poverty is the mother of crime.
~ Marcus Aurelius,#KEYS
59:The hurt you embrace becomes joy. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
60:The unexamined life is not worth living. ~ Socrates, #KEYS
61:feel the stillness move. ~ Kabir, #KEYS
62:Go seek the wearer, not the cloak. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
63:He is all things and all things are one. ~ The Zohar, #KEYS
64:It's kind of fun to do the impossible. ~ Walt Disney, #KEYS
65:Joy is the simplest form of gratitude." ~ Karl Barth, #KEYS
66:Music is the silence between notes. ~ Claude Debussy, #KEYS
67:Only the impossible is worth doing. ~ Akong Rinpoche, #KEYS
68:The best way out is always through.
~ Robert Frost,#KEYS
69:The mind cannot seek the mind. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
70:The mind protected brings ease. ~ Dhammapada, Buddha, #KEYS
71:The past doesn't equal the future. ~ Anthony Robbins, #KEYS
72:Who teaches the soul if not God? ~ John of the Cross, #KEYS
73:And the world will live as one ~ John Lennon, Imagine, #KEYS
74:Courage is a sign of soul's nobility.
~ The Mother?,#KEYS
75:Even in the grave, all is not lost. ~ Edgar Allan Poe, #KEYS
76:Not why the addiction, but why the pain. ~ Gabor Mate, #KEYS
77:Peace is the only battle worth waging. ~ Albert Camus, #KEYS
78:See through the eyes of compassion. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
79:Sleep is the period without the mind. ~ Let it all go, #KEYS
80:The sun ariseth in his majesty. ~ William Shakespeare, #KEYS
81:This therefore is the highest state of man. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
82:Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup ~ Omar Khayyam, #KEYS
83:Books may well be the only true magic. ~ Alice Hoffman, #KEYS
84:Everywhere you turn, there is the face of God. ~ Quran, #KEYS
85:Falling leaves hide the path so quietly. ~ John Bailey, #KEYS
86:God bears with the wicked but not forever. ~ Cervantes, #KEYS
87:He who knows Brahman becomes Brahman. ~ The Upanishads, #KEYS
88:Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason. ~ Novalis, #KEYS
89:The good is that at which all things aim. ~ Aristotle?, #KEYS
90:The sea drinks the air and the sun the sea. ~ Anacreon, #KEYS
91:Time is the fire in which we burn." ~ Gene Roddenberry, #KEYS
92:Too much is the same as not enough. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
93:You are the universe experiencing itself. ~ Alan Watts, #KEYS
94:Humility is the forgetfulness of self. ~ Thomas Keating, #KEYS
95:so the nightbirds will start singing. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
96:The most dangerous moment comes with victory ~ Napoleon, #KEYS
97:The usefulness of the cup is its emptiness. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
98:A good example is the best sermon.
~ Benjamin Franklin,#KEYS
99:Beauty is the purgation of superfluities. ~ Michelangelo, #KEYS
100:Either you run the day, or the day runs you." ~ Jim Rohn, #KEYS
101:Prayer is the laying aside of thoughts. ~ The Philokalia, #KEYS
102:The end is important in all things. ~ Yamamoto Tsunetomo, #KEYS
103:The light of that greater invisible sun... ~ Jean Gebser, #KEYS
104:The most important hour is always the present. ~ Meister, #KEYS
105:The root of prayer is interior silence. ~ Thomas Keating, #KEYS
106:Up above, the air is so pure. ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #KEYS
107:Without the Name, there is no peace. ~ Guru Gobind Singh, #KEYS
108:Yet mindless, The spring comes again. ~ Ikkyu, 1394-1481, #KEYS
109:You don't seek the way. The way seeks you. ~ Kodo Sawaki, #KEYS
110:Accept everything just the way it is." ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
111:copying poetry
from the past
an old diary ~ Buson#KEYS
112:Suffering is when we resist the moment." ~ Kamal Ravikant, #KEYS
113:The fool wonders, the wise man asks." ~ Benjamin Disraeli, #KEYS
114:The very essence of romance is uncertainty. ~ Oscar Wilde, #KEYS
115:Walk into the void. ~ Chuang Tzu, #KEYS
116:About the arrival of sparrows. ~ Yamamura Bocho, 1884-1924, #KEYS
117:Be thine own palace, or the world's thy jail. ~ John Donne, #KEYS
118:Conquer yourself rather than the world." ~ René Descartes, #KEYS
119:Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts.
~ Blaise Pascal,#KEYS
120:Every step is on the path. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
121:I am myself the matter of my book.
~ Michel de Montaigne,#KEYS
122:Idleness is the heaviest of all oppressions. ~ Victor Hugo, #KEYS
123:in secret, between the shadow and the soul. ~ Pablo Neruda, #KEYS
124:Intuition is the whisper of the soul. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #KEYS
125:It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable." ~ Seneca, #KEYS
126:The fool wonders, the wise man asks.
~ Benjamin Disraeli,#KEYS
127:The mind: A beautiful servant, a dangerous master." ~ Osho, #KEYS
128:The question is not can you. It's will you." ~ Jim Stovall, #KEYS
129:The solution of every problem is another problem. ~ Goethe, #KEYS
130:The world can never own a man who wants nothing. ~ Wu Hsin, #KEYS
131:True love gives rise to the eyes of clarity. ~ Tenzin Deva, #KEYS
132:Who teaches the soul if not God? ~ Saint John of the Cross, #KEYS
133:You can only fight the way you practice ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
134:You shall become the person you are. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
135:A vice in the heart is an idol on the altar. ~ Saint Jerome, #KEYS
136:Don't document the problem, fix it. ~ Atli Bjorgvin Oddsson, #KEYS
137:Envy is the most savage form of hatred. ~ Basil of Caesarea, #KEYS
138:Everything in the world is purchased by labor. ~ David Hume, #KEYS
139:Get rid of the oppression of 'trying to be right'. ~ Ananta, #KEYS
140:Hope and fear cannot alter the seasons.
~ Chogyam Trungpa,#KEYS
141:If the truth shall kill them, let them die. ~ Immanuel Kant, #KEYS
142:Mary is the lily in God's garden. ~ Saint Bridget of Sweden, #KEYS
143:No one is suddenly made perfect. ~ Saint Bede the Venerable, #KEYS
144:No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place.
~ Zen Proverb,#KEYS
145:Only Union with the Friend can cure it. ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya, #KEYS
146:The greatest effort is not concerned with results." ~ Atisa, #KEYS
147:The only real laughter comes from despair.
~ Groucho Marx,#KEYS
148:The renewed soul is made doubly steadfast. ~ Egyptian Texts, #KEYS
149:The sleepy like to make excuses. ~ Saint Benedict of Nursia, #KEYS
150:The true method of knowledge is experiment. ~ William Blake, #KEYS
151:when you come to a fork in the road, take it
~ Yogi Berra,#KEYS
152:Activism is my rent for living on the planet. ~ Alice Walker, #KEYS
153:And simpler than the infancy of truth. ~ William Shakespeare, #KEYS
154:Awareness is the greatest agent for change." ~ Eckhart Tolle, #KEYS
155:He is the supreme Light hidden under every veil. ~ The Zohar, #KEYS
156:How can Syama stay away? . . ~ Sri Ramakrishna, THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA, #KEYS
157:I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.
~ Socrates,#KEYS
158:In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity." ~ Sun Tzu, #KEYS
159:into something better. ~ Mary Oliver, Sleeping In The Forest, #KEYS
160:Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom." ~ Francis Bacon, #KEYS
161:Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet. ~ Bob Marley, #KEYS
162:Step by step walk the thousand-mile road. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
163:The reverse side also has a reverse side. ~ Japanese Proverb, #KEYS
164:We love the things we love for what they are. ~ Robert Frost, #KEYS
165:Behind the cloud the sun is still shining." ~ Abraham Lincoln, #KEYS
166:Better to see the face than to hear the name.
~ Zen Proverb,#KEYS
167:Its profit lies in the practice. ~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, #KEYS
168:Never depart from the way of martial arts. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
169:Sincerity ::: Open and genuine; not deceitful
~ The Mother?,#KEYS
170:Stand guard at the portal of your mind. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
171:The darkest nights produce the brightest stars." ~ John Green, #KEYS
172:Then the grace of the Divine will lift you. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
173:The secret of getting ahead is getting started." ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
174:We teach ourselves; Zen merely points the way." ~ D.T. Suzuki, #KEYS
175:Both light and shadow are the dance of Love. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
176:Cut the mind at its root and rest in naked awareness. ~ Tilopa, #KEYS
177:Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.
~ Socrates,#KEYS
178:For the Departed Creature's sake That hovered there awhile ~ ?, #KEYS
179:It never troubles the wolf how many the sheep may be. ~ Virgil, #KEYS
180:Look for the divine in all things. ~ Plato, #KEYS
181:O Truth, come, manifest. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
182:The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms. ~ Socrates, #KEYS
183:The beginning of wisdom is to desire it. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #KEYS
184:The elect are those who dare; woe to the timid! ~ Eliphas Levi, #KEYS
185:The life so short, the craft so long to learn.
~ Hippocrates,#KEYS
186:The new idea either finds a champion or dies.
~ Edward Schon,#KEYS
187:The possession of wisdom leadeth to true happiness. ~ Porphyry, #KEYS
188:There is an advantage in the wisdom won from pain. ~ Aeschylus, #KEYS
189:The reverse side also has a reverse side.
~ Japanese Proverb,#KEYS
190:The road goes ever on and on.
~ J R R Tolkien, Bilbo Baggins,#KEYS
191:The sun is new each day. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
192:The two cannot be distinguished at all. ~ Jnaneshwar, Hinduism, #KEYS
193:This is the victory over the world - our faith. ~ 1 John 5:3-5, #KEYS
194:what you love will be yours for ever. ~ Pope St. Leo the Great, #KEYS
195:Within our impure mind the pure one is to be found." ~ Huineng, #KEYS
196:02.14 - The World-Soul, #KEYS
197:Becoming is the mode of activity of the uncreated God. ~ Hermes, #KEYS
198:Beings all over the universe are My children. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
199:Be yourself. The world worships the original." ~ Ingrid Bergman, #KEYS
200:Fall in love with the deep comfort of insecurity. ~ Jeff Foster, #KEYS
201:He who allows oppression shares the crime. ~ Desiderius Erasmus, #KEYS
202:If we have a good comrade, half the battle is won. ~ Henry Suso, #KEYS
203:If you forget yourself, you become the universe. ~ Hakuin Ekaku, #KEYS
204:Quotations every day of the year. ~ James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, #KEYS
205:The Being that is one, sages speak of in many terms. ~ Rig Veda, #KEYS
206:The light of the Sun is the pure energy of intellect. ~ Proclus, #KEYS
207:The most effective way to do it, is to do it." ~ Amelia Earhart, #KEYS
208:The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. ~ Socrates, #KEYS
209:The soul is healed by being with children." ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, #KEYS
210:The work never finishes; there is no end to this work. ~ Buddha, #KEYS
211:The worst prison would be a closed heart.
~ Pope John Paul II,#KEYS
212:Trust is the highest form of human motivation
~ Stephen Covey,#KEYS
213:What is called the world is only thought. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
214:Wherever you are is the entry point ~ Kabir, #KEYS
215:Words are truly the image of the soul." ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
216:Worshiping the teapot instead of drinking the tea. ~ Wei Wu Wei, #KEYS
217:A friend is what the heart needs all the time." ~ Henry Van Dyke, #KEYS
218:Go after the gardener, not after the garden. ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya, #KEYS
219:God does not fit in an occupied heart. ~ Saint John of the Cross, #KEYS
220:Ideology always paves the way toward atrocity. ~ Terence McKenna, #KEYS
221:If you forget yourself, you become the universe." ~ Hakuin Ekaku, #KEYS
222:In Silence, feel the stillness move. ~ Kabir, #KEYS
223:In the world of the Unity heaven and earth are one. ~ Baha-ullah, #KEYS
224:Mind creates the abyss, the heart crosses it. ~ Sri Nisargadatta, #KEYS
225:Music can change the world because it can change people." ~ Bono, #KEYS
226:The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.
~ Oscar Wilde,#KEYS
227:The thief left it behind: the moon at my window." ~ Taigu Ryokan, #KEYS
228:To attend to the moment is to attend to eternity.
~ The Kabala,#KEYS
229:To leave the figure or disfigure it. ~ A Midsummer Night's Dream, #KEYS
230:What is to give light must endure the burning.
~ Viktor Frankl,#KEYS
231:You choose the future with your actions each day." ~ James Clear, #KEYS
232:A minute's success pays the failure of years.
~ Robert Browning,#KEYS
233:Do you know that you're strong on the inside, too?" ~ Fred Rogers, #KEYS
234:Endure and you will conquer, The Lord is with you. ~ Mother Mirra, #KEYS
235:Eternity is in love with the productions of time. ~ William Blake, #KEYS
236:Faith is the union of God and the soul. ~ Saint John of the Cross, #KEYS
237:Focus on the smallest thing you can do right now." ~ Ryan Holiday, #KEYS
238:Grand is the seen, the light, to me ~ grand are the sky and stars, #KEYS
239:He is the breath inside the breath." ~ Kabir, #KEYS
240:Ideology always paves the way toward atrocity." ~ Terence McKenna, #KEYS
241:I live in the other world one that lies beyond the human. ~ Li Po, #KEYS
242:Love alone knows the secret of getting rich by giving. ~ Socrates, #KEYS
243:Next to love, balance is the most important thing." ~ John Wooden, #KEYS
244:Only the educated are free.
~ Epictetus,#KEYS
245:The best cure for the body is a quiet mind." ~ Napoleon Bonaparte, #KEYS
246:The concept of Presence manifests as Emptiness. ~ Jetsun Milarepa, #KEYS
247:The more you know, the less you understand. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.47, #KEYS
248:Unabidance in the ego, is abidance in the Self. ~ Ramesh Balsekar, #KEYS
249:When the flower blooms, the bees come uninvited. ~ Sri Ramakrishna #KEYS
250:A good half of the art of living is resilience." ~ Alain de Botton, #KEYS
251:At the crescent moon
the silence
enters my heart. ~ Chiyo-ni,#KEYS
252:Christ opened heaven for us in the humanity he assumed. ~ Irenaeus, #KEYS
253:God is a dark night to man in this life. ~ Saint John of the Cross, #KEYS
254:He who understands the wise is wise already. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
255:jealousy is
the death
of love ~ Ogawa,#KEYS
256:Let him that would move the world first move himself.
~ Socrates,#KEYS
257:Out of suffering have emerged the strongest Souls; ~ Kahlil Gibran, #KEYS
258:passing through the gate
I have become
a wanderer ~ Buson,#KEYS
259:Prayer is the oxygen of the soul. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcino, #KEYS
260:Self-suffering is the truest test of sincerity.
~ Mahatma Gandhi,#KEYS
261:Self-trust is the first secret of success.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson,#KEYS
262:Show the readers everything, tell them nothing. ~ Ernest Hemingway, #KEYS
263:Simplicity of heart is the way out of imagination. ~ Robert Burton, #KEYS
264:Tell the truth, or someone will tell it for you. ~ Stephanie Klein, #KEYS
265:The blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin ~ 1 John 1:7), #KEYS
266:The more we love our friends, the less we flatter them." ~ Moliere, #KEYS
267:The need to be right - the sign of a vulgar mind.
~ Albert Camus,#KEYS
268:The prisoner grows to love his chains. ~ Plato, #KEYS
269:a flower from
the winter rain
has blossomed ~ Matsuo Basho,#KEYS
270:Better to shun the bait than struggle in the snare. ~ William Blake, #KEYS
271:Dreams are the touchstones of our characters. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #KEYS
272:for You are the only one I want to see. ~ Hafiz, #KEYS
273:Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom. ~ Thomas Jefferson #KEYS
274:Life is the childhood of our immortality…" ~ Johann W. von Goethe, #KEYS
275:Opening to oneself fully is opening to the world. ~ Chogyam Trungpa, #KEYS
276:So is unable to see he unity of the Truth." ~ Mahmoūd Shabestarī, #KEYS
277:The enemy is lack of awareness, lack of presence. ~ Traleg Rinpoche, #KEYS
278:the final moment of her painful purification has come." ~ Our Lady , #KEYS
279:The heart has its reasons which reason knows not.
~ Blaise Pascal,#KEYS
280:The master is himself an animal and needs a master. ~ Immanuel Kant, #KEYS
281:The more we value things, the less we value ourselves." ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
282:The more you know, the less you need." ~ Yvon Chouinard (Patagonia), #KEYS
283:The only thing that could [be] would be thine own will
~ Petalbae,#KEYS
284:The right way to go easy is to forget the right way...." ~ Zhuangzi, #KEYS
285:The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
~ Bertrand Russell,#KEYS
286:The universe is a machine for the making of Gods.
~ Henri Bergson,#KEYS
287:The world’s thy ship and not thy home. ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #KEYS
288:We have art in order not to die of the truth. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
289:When you reach the top of the mountain, keep climbing.
~ Zen Koan,#KEYS
290:You don't seek the way. The way seeks you. ~ Kodo sawaki, 1880-1965, #KEYS
291:and with great affection. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
292:A painting is complete when it has the shadows of a god. ~ Rembrandt, #KEYS
293:How cool the sound of bell leaving the bell. ~ Yosa Buson, 1716-1784, #KEYS
294:I believe I can bring him back.
~ Lilly Wachowski, The Matrix, Neo,#KEYS
295:I sell mirrors in the city of the blind. ~ Kabir, #KEYS
296:Life is a journey. Time is a river. The door is ajar." ~ Jim Butcher, #KEYS
297:Logic chases truth up the tree of grammar. ~ Willard Van Orman Quine, #KEYS
298:Pray without ceasing. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Thessalonians, 1, 5:17, #KEYS
299:The childhood shows the man, As morning shows the day. ~ John Milton, #KEYS
300:The foe cannot be overcome except by steady endeavors. ~ Mahabharata, #KEYS
301:the most massive characters are seared with scars.
~ Khalil Gibran,#KEYS
302:The truest wisdom is a resolute determination." ~ Napoleon Bonaparte, #KEYS
303:Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
304:A joke is an epigram on the death of a feeling. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
305:A wise man's questions contain half the answer. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #KEYS
306:Books are the mirrors of the soul. ~ Virginia Woolf, Between the Acts, #KEYS
307:dreadful hour of the great apostasy." ~ Our Lady to Fr. Stefano Gobbi, #KEYS
308:During the night we must wait for the light. ~ Saint Francis de Sales, #KEYS
309:If it pleases the gods, so be it. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
310:It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
311:Oh snow, fall with The scent of apples! ~ Hakushu Kitahara, 1885-1942, #KEYS
312:One day the victory is certain. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
313:Poets are damned... but see with the eyes of angels. ~ Allen Ginsberg, #KEYS
314:Sometimes, simply by sitting, the soul collects wisdom. ~ Zen Proverb, #KEYS
315:The essence of God, if at all God has an essence, is Beauty. ~ Hermes, #KEYS
316:The man who knows how will always have a job.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson,#KEYS
317:The more real you get the more unreal the world gets. " ~ John Lennon, #KEYS
318:The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #KEYS
319:The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.
~ Leo Tolstoy,#KEYS
320:To lead the people, walk behind them. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
321:What we give to the poor, we lend to God. ~ Homer, #KEYS
322:wither-soever ye turn, there is the Presence of Allah. ~ Koran, 2:115, #KEYS
323:By words the mind is winged. ~ Aristophanes, #KEYS
324:Do not be amazed by the true dragon. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
325:Everything is ceremony in the wild garden of childhood. ~ Pablo Neruda, #KEYS
326:I never think of the future - it comes soon enough." ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
327:Initiative is doing the right thing without being told." ~ Victor Hugo, #KEYS
328:Its not what the vision is, its what the vision does.
~ Robert Fritz,#KEYS
329:Knowledge is the conformity of the object and the intellect ~ Averroes, #KEYS
330:Let us be silent, -- so we may hear the whisper of the gods. ~ Emerson, #KEYS
331:Life isn't as serious as the mind makes it out to be." ~ Eckhart Tolle, #KEYS
332:Prayer begins at the edge of emptiness. ~ Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, #KEYS
333:The Door is open. It is you who keep turning away. ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya, #KEYS
334:The essence of life is in remembering God. ~ Kabir, #KEYS
335:The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another. ~ George Eliot, #KEYS
336:The right people will always find you at the right time." ~ R.M. Drake, #KEYS
337:Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world." ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
338:Time is only an idea. There is only the Reality. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
339:War is the father of all things. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
340:Yes, His very splendour is the cause of His invisibility. ~ Baha-ullah, #KEYS
341:All is riddle, and the key to a riddle is another riddle. ~ R W Emerson, #KEYS
342:As you start to walk out on the way, the way appears. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
343:At the crescent moon the silence enters my heart. ~ Chiyo-ni, 1703-1775, #KEYS
344:determination or your dedication to the spiritual life. ~ Bhagavad Gita, #KEYS
345:Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes. ~ Oscar Wilde, #KEYS
346:Green grass- Between the blades The color of water. ~ Chyo-ni 1703-1775, #KEYS
347:Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to heaven. ~ Saint Pius X, #KEYS
348:Ignorance, the root and stem of every evil. ~ Plato, #KEYS
349:I lifted up my hands to find a lamp amidst the darkness. ~ Omar Khayyam, #KEYS
350:I'm just trying to think about the future and not be sad.
~ Elon Musk,#KEYS
351:It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
352:Not knowing how near the truth is, we seek it far away." ~ Hakuin Ekaku, #KEYS
353:Perfection is achieved only on the point of collapse.
~ C N Parkinson,#KEYS
354:Search for Jesus and in Him you'll find me. ~ Saint Terese of the Andes, #KEYS
355:Stay with the ancient Tao, Move with the present. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.14, #KEYS
356:The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it." ~ Richard Bach, #KEYS
357:The desire for wisdom leads us to the Eternal Kingdom. ~ Book of Wisdom, #KEYS
358:The disciple returned after a week and said, "No one has bound me." ~ ?, #KEYS
359:... the great apostasy everywhere." ~ Our Lady to Father Stefano Gobbi , #KEYS
360:The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph." ~ Thomas Paine, #KEYS
361:The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness." ~ Michel de Montaigne, #KEYS
362:The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
363:There is no reality except the one contained within us. ~ Hermann Hesse, #KEYS
364:There is nothing impossible to him who will try." ~ Alexander the Great, #KEYS
365:The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #KEYS
366:the unseen, can make the soul look upwards. ~ Plato, #KEYS
367:Those who are predestined receive the help of an Inner Guide. ~ TM, WM3, #KEYS
368:Through the abandonment of desire the Deathless is realized. ~ Buddhism, #KEYS
369:To Him Ramakrishna the World Teacher, my obeisance. ~ SWAMI ABHEDANANDA, #KEYS
370:Wisdom is the fruit of a balanced development. ~ Alfred North Whitehead #KEYS
371:Doing the mind guerrilla, Some call it magic ~ the search for the grail., #KEYS
372:God is Light. ~ John, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
373:His creation never had a beginning and will never have an end. ~ The Bab, #KEYS
374:If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything. ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
375:No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
376:Only a few arrive at nothing, because the way is long. ~ Antonio Porchia, #KEYS
377:Pray, lest ye enter into temptation. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Luke, 22:40, #KEYS
378:Psychological type is nothing static ~ it changes in the course of life., #KEYS
379:That is all the doing you have to worry about. ~ Saint Jeanne de Chantal, #KEYS
380:The answers are coming.
~ Lilly Wachowski, The Matrix, Morpheus to Neo,#KEYS
381:The climax of purity is the beginning of theology. ~ Saint John Klimakos, #KEYS
382:The more real you get, the more unreal everything else is. ~ John Lennon, #KEYS
383:the Most Beautiful Names." ~ ~ Binavi Badakhshan, (13th cent.) Sufi poet, #KEYS
384:The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness.
~ Michel de Montaigne,#KEYS
385:The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness." ~ Proverb, #KEYS
386:The Self is all. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
387:The solution to your problem is to see who has it. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
388:The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining. ~ John F Kennedy, #KEYS
389:The true hero is one who conquers his own anger and hatred. ~ Dalai Lama, #KEYS
390:The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. ~ Walt Disney, #KEYS
391:The world is won by those who let it go. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
392:Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy. ~ Anne Frank, #KEYS
393:Those whose hearts are pure are temples of the Holy Spirit. ~ Saint Lucy, #KEYS
394:To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides. ~ David Viscott, #KEYS
395:Touch the hole in your life, and there flowers will bloom. ~ Zen Proverb, #KEYS
396:Truly, those who are good people are thankful and grateful. ~ The Buddha, #KEYS
397:and the conflict is eternal between a man's self and God. ~ William Blake, #KEYS
398:An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind. ~ Mohandas Gandhi, #KEYS
399:Concentration is the root of all the higher abilities in man. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
400:Develop the tools, refine the tools, then dissolve the tools. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
401:Do not seek the truth, only cease to cherish your opinions." ~ Seng-ts'an, #KEYS
402:God is the answer to every question.
~ Hazrat Inayat Khan, [T5],#KEYS
403:In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. ~ Desiderius Erasmus, #KEYS
404:More words count less. Hold fast to the center. ~ Tao Te Ching, chapter 5, #KEYS
405:Move in harmony with the present moment." ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
406:Spring stir the clouds in the sky's tea bowl. ~ Tagami Kikusha, 1753-1826, #KEYS
407:The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil. ~ Cicero, #KEYS
408:The future is a race between education and catastrophe. ~ Claudio Naranjo, #KEYS
409:The great aim of education is not knowledge but action. ~ Herbert Spencer, #KEYS
410:The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes." ~ Frank Lloyd Wright, #KEYS
411:The measure of love is love without measure. ~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, #KEYS
412:Then I finally understood the unspoken meaning. ~ Taigu Ryokan, 1758-1831, #KEYS
413:The universe is comprised of sixes and fours. ~ Plato, #KEYS
414:Thoughts weaken the mind. Desires wither the heart. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.12, #KEYS
415:What's the difference between yes and no? ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
416:Ye are Gods. ~ Psalms, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
417:You are the sky. Everything else - it's just the weather ~ Pema Chödrön, #KEYS
418:and the heart to comprehend.. ~ Makeda, Queen of Sheba. For full poem see:, #KEYS
419:A sense of humour is the only divine quality of man. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #KEYS
420:Be who you really are and go the whole way ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
421:Confession of our faults is the next thing to innocence. ~ Publilius Syrus, #KEYS
422:Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens. ~ J.R.R. Tolkien, #KEYS
423:Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.
~ Pema Chodron,#KEYS
424:History of the world is but the biography of great men.
~ Thomas Carlyle,#KEYS
425:Kenosis: Christ emptied Himself
~ Anonymous, The Bible, Philippians, 2:7,#KEYS
426:My fear is my substance, and probably the best part of me.
~ Franz Kafka,#KEYS
427:Silence is the maturation of wisdom. ~ Maimonides, #KEYS
428:The bird of paradise lands only on the hand that does not grasp ~ Roshi So, #KEYS
429:The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
430:The past, the future, Snow light faintly glows. ~ Taneda Santoka 1882-1940, #KEYS
431:The seeing have the world in common. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
432:The thief left it behind; the moon at my window. ~ Taigu Ryokan, 1758-1831, #KEYS
433:To me He is the anguish of my heart. ~ SONG from GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA, #KEYS
434:To see things in the seed, that is genius. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
435:What is more magnificent than the beauty of God? ~ Saint Basil of Caesarea, #KEYS
436:When you cut into the present, the future leaks out. ~ William S Burroughs, #KEYS
437:With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt, #KEYS
438:A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men. ~ Anonymous, #KEYS
439:A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men." ~ Roald Dahl, #KEYS
440:All is living. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
441:and being inspired by the least of his virtues. ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux , #KEYS
442:At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.
~ Plato,#KEYS
443:Concentration is one of the happiest things in my life.
~ Haruki Murakami,#KEYS
444:For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business. ~ T S Eliot, #KEYS
445:He buries gold who hides the truth.
~ Pythagoras,#KEYS
446:How little known is the Merciful love of Jesus." ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #KEYS
447:I am near you. ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother I, #KEYS
448:I am not an Athenian, nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
~ Socrates,#KEYS
449:I had evoked - and the book was indeed all I had suspected. ~ H P Lovecraft, #KEYS
450:I have known uncertainty: a state unknown to the Greeks. ~ Jorge Luis Borge, #KEYS
451:In the gap between thoughts ~ Jetsun Milarepa, #KEYS
452:In the myriad universes of thought and creation, I alone Am. ~ Robert Adams, #KEYS
453:Listen, the next revolution is gonna be a revolution of ideas. ~ Bill Hicks, #KEYS
454:Many are called, but few are chosen. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Matthew, 22:14, #KEYS
455:Nothing in the entire universe is hidden. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
456:Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence." ~ Calvin Coolidge, #KEYS
457:Not how the world is, but that it is, is the mystery. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #KEYS
458:The artist belongs to his work, not the work to the artist. ~ Novalis, [T5], #KEYS
459:The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them. ~ Maya Angelou, #KEYS
460:The goal of a virtuous life is to become like God. ~ Saint Gregory of Nyssa, #KEYS
461:The memories we make with our family is everything." ~ Candace Cameron Bure, #KEYS
462:The one great art is that of making a complete human being of oneself. ~ GG, #KEYS
463:The person attempting to travel two roads at once will get nowhere. ~ Xunzi, #KEYS
464:The sound of water says what I think. ~ Chuang Tzu, #KEYS
465:We must always be disturbed by the truth. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
466:We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect. ~ Anaïs Nin, #KEYS
467:Wherever a person goes, his deeds, like a shadow, will follow. ~ The Buddha, #KEYS
468:Whoso seeketh with diligence, he shall find. ~ Bahaullah: the Seven Valleys, #KEYS
469:You are the sky. Everything else - it's just the weather." ~ Pema Chödrön, #KEYS
470:after the lightning
the sound of dew dripping
off of bamboo ~ Buson,#KEYS
471:Ants, fighting together, will vanquish the lion. ~ Saadi, #KEYS
472:Are you not the Self? Why trouble about other matters? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
473:Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. ~ Cesar A Cruz, #KEYS
474:Be faithful to the Divine and you will enjoy a constant peace. ~ MOTHER MIRA, #KEYS
475:Clean hands are better than full ones in the sight of God. ~ Publilius Syrus, #KEYS
476:Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
477:Doubting is the biggest insult to Divinity. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
478:Emptiness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities.
~ D T Suzuki,#KEYS
479:Go then, there are other worlds than these.
~ Stephen King, The Gunslinger,#KEYS
480:If the heart becomes hardened, the eye becomes dry. ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #KEYS
481:I see the world through Irish eyes, and they are smiling." ~ Denise Morrison, #KEYS
482:I want you to know that you deserve the best. You're beautiful." ~ Lil Wayne, #KEYS
483:Let us go singing as far as we go: the road will be less tedious.
~ Virgil,#KEYS
484:Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely. ~ Auguste Rodin, #KEYS
485:One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple. ~ Jack Kerouac, #KEYS
486:Paradox is simply the way nonduality looks to the mental level. ~ Ken Wilber, #KEYS
487:The fastest way to freedom is to feel your feelings." ~ Gita Bellin, Source:, #KEYS
488:The first and best victory is to conquer self.
~ Plato,#KEYS
489:The miserable have no other medicine. But only hope.
~ William Shakespeare,#KEYS
490:The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.
~ Hyman G Rickover,#KEYS
491:The New Man Jesus Christ is Son of man and Son of God. ~ Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
492:The punishment of desire is the agony of unfulfillment ~ Hermes Trismegistus, #KEYS
493:The self is in a fever; the self is forever changing, like a dream. ~ Buddha, #KEYS
494:The universe will reward you for taking risks on its behalf. ~ Shakti Gawain, #KEYS
495:What draws people to be friends is that they see the same truth. ~ C S Lewis, #KEYS
496:Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve." ~ Napoleon Hill, #KEYS
497:Where, except in uncreated light, can the darkness be drowned? ~ C. S. Lewis, #KEYS
498:Why does God allow evil in the world? To thicken the plot. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
499:All things end in the Tao, as rivers flow into the sea. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.32, #KEYS
500:a skeleton
in the fields of memory
stabs like a knife ~ Matsuo Basho,#KEYS
501:Cowardice, the dread of what will happen. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
502:Do not worry about the results, but be concerned with the process.
~ Nemoto,#KEYS
503:Fixation is the way to death. Fluidity is the way to life. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
504:Go to the root of it. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
505:Have confidence in your ability to make the best of anything." ~ Ryan Holiday, #KEYS
506:If you know the way broadly you will see it in everything. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
507:Life is like photography: use the negatives to develop positives.
~ Unknown,#KEYS
508:Mind wrestles with mind - our minds with the mind of the enemy." ~ Philokalia, #KEYS
509:Only the silence of the heart can cure the illness of the mind. ~ Sri Chinmoy, #KEYS
510: The fastest way to freedom is to feel your feelings." ~ Gita Bellin, Source:, #KEYS
511:The friend of silence comes close to God. ~ Saint John Climacus, (579-649 AD), #KEYS
512:The image of God throws a shadow that is just as great as itself. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
513:The memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed in time." ~ Marcus Aurelius, #KEYS
514:The old calendar fills me with gratitude like a song. ~ Yosa Buson, 1716-1783, #KEYS
515:The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
516:We just let it happen… and that's the beauty of this technique." ~ Bob Ross, #KEYS
517:And the need to win, drains his power. ~ Thomas Merton. "The Way Of Chuang Tzu, #KEYS
518:Be the master of your will and the slave of your conscience. ~ Hasidic Proverb, #KEYS
519:Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
520:Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth. ~ John F. Kennedy, #KEYS
521:Discipline must conform to the nature of things in their suchness. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
522:Don't wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it. ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
523:Empty yourself of everything. Let the mind become still. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.16, #KEYS
524:Grant me the sight Lord that I may see Thee who hast been with me always. ~ JB, #KEYS
525:Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. ~ Ernest Hemingway, #KEYS
526:I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night. ~ Sarah Williams, #KEYS
527:I have no disciple. I am the servant of the servant of Rama. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
528:I know what thou desirest and I'm with thee everywhere ~ The Corpus Hermeticum, #KEYS
529:It is the duty of the steward to induce higher centers to be present. ~ Robert, #KEYS
530:I want to know God's thoughts - the rest are mere details.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
531:Keep squeezing drops of the sun from your prayers. ~ Hafiz, #KEYS
532:My only prayer is to be firm in my determination in pursuing the truth. ~ Daie, #KEYS
533:Prepare your mind to receive the best that life has to offer." ~ Ernest Holmes, #KEYS
534:That is all the doing you have to worry about. ~ Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, #KEYS
535:The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness. ~ John Muir, #KEYS
536:The easy way seems hard. The highest Virtue seems empty. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.41, #KEYS
537:The essence of the Way is detachment." ~ Bodhidharma, #KEYS
538:The older I get, the surer I am that I'm not running the show. ~ Leonard Cohen, #KEYS
539:The path to success is to take massive, determined action.
~ Anthony Robbins,#KEYS
540:There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in." ~ Leonard Cohen, #KEYS
541:There is no suitable name for the eternal Tao. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
542:The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus." ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
543:The Way is in training... Do nothing which is not of value. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
544:The will is what man has as his unique possession. ~ Saint Joseph of Cupertino, #KEYS
545:We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains. ~ Li Po, #KEYS
546:Whatever happens on the earth-man must share the responsibility. ~ Jean Gebser, #KEYS
547:What is possible for individual man is impossible for the masses." ~ Gurdjieff, #KEYS
548:Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist." ~ 1 John :2:22, #KEYS
549:Be the person who gives energy, not the one who takes it away." ~ Bill Campbell, #KEYS
550:Books are the training weights of the mind. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
551:but few to take part in His fasting. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
552:Charm is getting the answer yes without asking a clear question. ~ Albert Camus, #KEYS
553:Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.
~ Socrates,#KEYS
554:Education: the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty. ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
555:Guard the threshold and prevent troops of fantasies from entering.
~ Petrarch,#KEYS
556:If the universe is meaningless, so is the statement that it is so. ~ Alan Watts, #KEYS
557:I love God: I have no time left In which to hate the devil. ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya, #KEYS
558:I much prefer people who rock the boat to people who jump out.
~ Orson Welles,#KEYS
559:I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.
~ Michelangelo,#KEYS
560:Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground." ~ Theodore Roosevelt, #KEYS
561:Life is the flight of the alone to the alone. ~ Plotinus, #KEYS
562:My longing for truth was a single prayer. ~ Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, #KEYS
563:One loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them." ~ Masanobu Fukuoka, #KEYS
564:One road leads home and a thousand roads lead into the wilderness. ~ C.S. Lewis, #KEYS
565:Set the mind right and not attempt to right the world. ~ Swami Ramakrishnananda, #KEYS
566:Silence is the answer, that is, silent presence is the answer." ~ Robert Burton, #KEYS
567:Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane. ~ Philip K. Dick, #KEYS
568:Stop loving yourself and you will love God. ~ Philokalia, Maximos the Confessor, #KEYS
569:The best is the enemy of the good. (Le mieux est lennemi du bien.)
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
570:The best way to cheer yourself is to cheer somebody else up." ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
571:The book of nature is written in the language of mathematics. ~ Galileo Galilei, #KEYS
572:The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise. ~ Tacitus #KEYS
573:The man was such an intellectual he was of almost no use. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
574:The moment we want to be something, we are no longer free. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #KEYS
575:The more we study, the more we discover our ignorance.
~ Percy Bysshe Shelley,#KEYS
576:The most common form of despair is not being who you are.
~ Soren Kierkegaard,#KEYS
577:The most valuable gift you can receive is an honest friend." ~ Stephen Richards, #KEYS
578:The path up and down is one and the same. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
579:There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.
~ Leonard Cohen,#KEYS
580:The secret of the enjoyment of pleasure is to know when to stop.
~ Alan Watts,#KEYS
581:The test of a man is: does he bear apples? Does he bear fruit? ~ Abraham Maslow, #KEYS
582:The unfolding of the bare human soul … that is what interests me. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
583:Those who the greatest awareness have the greatest nightmares. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #KEYS
584:Without them no one will see the Lord. ~ Saint Maximus the Confessor, (580-662), #KEYS
585:Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind. ~ Rudyard Kipling, #KEYS
586:You are, I think, an evening star, the fairest of all the stars. ~ Sappho, [T5], #KEYS
587:All is full of gods ~ Thales, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
588:Doubts will cease only when the non-self is put an end to. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
589:Forgiveness is not for the forgiven but for the sake of the forgiver…" ~ Anon., #KEYS
590:Forgiveness is the perfume which flowers give when trampled upon.
~ Mark Twain,#KEYS
591:He who returns from a journey is not the same as he who left." ~ Chinese Proverb, #KEYS
592:I blush, I burn, I shudder, while I pen the damnable atrocity. ~ Edgar Allan Poe, #KEYS
593:If you marry the dharma, realizations will be your children. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche, #KEYS
594:I quote others only in order the better to express myself. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #KEYS
595:Is there a single man who can see what the Sage cannot even conceive? ~ Tseu-tse, #KEYS
596:It is not enough to try, you must succeed. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
597:Man believes either in a God or in an idol. ~ Max Scheler, On the Eternal in Man, #KEYS
598:May the gratitude in my heart kiss all the universe. ~ Hafiz, #KEYS
599:No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.
~ Plato,#KEYS
600:Peace is the one condition of survival in this nuclear age. ~ Adlai E. Stevenson, #KEYS
601:Seek the real, the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
602:The complete woman tears you to pieces when she loves you. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
603:The disciples asked "Does being Enlightened " mean being right-intentioned?" ~ ?, #KEYS
604:The greatest forces lie in the region of the uncomprehended." ~ George MacDonald, #KEYS
605:There is no secret to balance. You just have to feel the waves." ~ Frank Herbert, #KEYS
606:The remedy against want is to moderate your desires. ~ Saadi, #KEYS
607:The Self is the Heart. The Heart is self-luminous. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi #KEYS
608:The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #KEYS
609:The whole is more than the sum of its parts. ~ Aristotle, #KEYS
610:The wind gives me Enough fallen leaves To make a fire. ~ Taigu Ryokan, 1758-1831, #KEYS
611:The wind gives me enough fallen leaves to make a fire. ~ Taigu Ryokan, 1758-1831, #KEYS
612:This bread, which I will give for the life of the world, is My flesh. ~ Jn. 6:51, #KEYS
613:We have all the answers. It is the questions we do not know. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, #KEYS
614:We were together. I forget the rest.
~ Walt Whitman,#KEYS
615:Whatever you do, think of the Glory of God as your main goal. ~ Saint John Bosco, #KEYS
616:What is the product of virtue? Tranquillity. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
617:Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind." ~ Rudyard Kipling, #KEYS
618:Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm." ~ Abraham Lincoln, #KEYS
619:Be thankful for your failures. They reveal the winning strategies." ~ James Clear, #KEYS
620:Do not forget the Mother's name. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
621:fitfully wander, when the wild leaves loosen. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, Day in Autumn, #KEYS
622:For he who leaps into the void owes no explanation to those who watch.
~ Godard,#KEYS
623:He is everywhere in the world and stands with all in His embrace. ~ Bhagavad Gita, #KEYS
624:I dream. Sometimes I think that's the only right thing to do.
~ Haruki Murakami,#KEYS
625:If you're not living on the edge you're taking up too much space." ~ Stephen Hunt, #KEYS
626:In the highest level a man has the look of knowing nothing . ~ Yamamoto Tsunetomo, #KEYS
627:My own thoughts are struggling against me. Why am I drawn to the bait? ~ Petrarca, #KEYS
628:Play reaches the habits most needed for intellectual growth.
~ Bruno Bettelheim,#KEYS
629:Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith." ~ Steve Jobs, #KEYS
630:Stillness - out of the rain, a butterfly roams into my room.
~ Enomoto Seifu Jo,#KEYS
631:The beginning is the most important part of the work. ~ Plato, #KEYS
632:The best of me when no longer visible." ~ Walt Whitman, #KEYS
633:The bravest people are the ones who don't mind looking like cowards. ~ T.H. White, #KEYS
634:The imagination is not a state: it is the human existence itself. ~ William Blake, #KEYS
635:The invincible weapon against all our enemies is humility. ~ Theophan the Recluse, #KEYS
636:Theology without practice is the theology of demons ~ Saint Maximus the Confessor, #KEYS
637:The phases of fire are craving and satiety. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
638:The process that goes on inside you is not apparent to you. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
639:There is nothing to fear. The Master will lead you by the hand. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
640:The Self is ever-present. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
641:The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
642:The sphinx was the riddle, not the riddler. - Maester Aemon
~ George R R Martin,#KEYS
643:The sun goes down
But evening light remains
In the leaves. ~ Nijo Yoshimoto,#KEYS
644:The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions. ~ Confucius, #KEYS
645:The unfolding of the bare human soul ... that is what interests me.
~ Bruce Lee,#KEYS
646:The Voice of Krishna can be heard only in silence." ~ Krishna Prem, (1898 -1965), #KEYS
647:Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. ~ George Santayana, #KEYS
648:Today is the eighth day of the month, tomorrow is the thirteenth.
~ Zen Proverb,#KEYS
649:To disregard [the angels] destroys the balance of the universe." ~ Etienne Gilson, #KEYS
650:To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
651:We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it to the full. ~ Marcel Proust, #KEYS
652:When the gods want to punish us, they grant our desires." ~ Ancient Greek saying., #KEYS
653:A First Sign of the Beginning of Understanding is the Wish to Die.
~ Franz Kafka,#KEYS
654:Distrust those in whom the desire to punish is strong ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
655:Every man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
656:Go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows. ~ Rilke, #KEYS
657:He is an eternal silence. ~ id, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
658:If you want to find God, hang out in the space between your thoughts. ~ Alan Cohen, #KEYS
659:In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #KEYS
660:Is it not the same distance to God everywhere? ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
661:Knowing others is wisdom; Knowing the self is enlightenment. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.33, #KEYS
662:Love is nothing but the brightness of God in men. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
663:Now gathering Now scattering Fireflies over the river. ~ Natsume Soseki, 1867-1916, #KEYS
664:Numberless are the worlds wonders, but none more wonderful than man.
~ Sophocles,#KEYS
665:Our words are a faithful index to the state of our souls. ~ Saint Francis de Sales, #KEYS
666:Remain with Me and you will find peace. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
667:The bright path seems dim. Going forward seems like retreat. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.41, #KEYS
668:The Earth would die
If the sun stopped kissing her. ~ Hafiz,#KEYS
669:The one great art is that of making a complete human being of oneself. ~ Gurdjieff, #KEYS
670:The problem with closed minded people is their mouth is always open." ~ Zig Ziglar, #KEYS
671:The real is ever as it is. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
672:There is neither Past nor Future. There is only the Present. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
673:The true state of things is not to be found in one direction alone. ~ Dogen Zenji?, #KEYS
674:The uplift of a fearless heart will help us over barriers." ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder, #KEYS
675:This bread, which I will give for the life of the world, is My flesh" ~ Jn. 6:51)., #KEYS
676:Truth is that of the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
677:We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
~ Oscar Wilde,#KEYS
678:work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion ~ Parkinson's Law, #KEYS
679:Beauty is the bait which with delight allures man to enlarge his kind.
~ Socrates,#KEYS
680:Do not despise the bottom rungs in the ascent to greatness. ~ Publilius Syrus, [T5], #KEYS
681:Get in my lobby. Were starting the case now.
~ Major Kusanagi, Ghost in the Shell,#KEYS
682:Have faith and go on. ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, #KEYS
683:If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough. ~ Meister Eckhart , #KEYS
684:In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.
~ Deepak Chopra,#KEYS
685:In truth there is no difference between the word of God and the world. ~ Baha-ulalh, #KEYS
686:Look after the present and the future will look after itself. ~ Swami Chinmayananda, #KEYS
687:Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
688:Saki, with the light of wine up-kindle the cup of ours. ~ Hafiz, #KEYS
689:Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, John, 17:17, #KEYS
690:The beginning is the most important part of the work.
~ Plato,#KEYS
691:The Consciousness within, purged of the mind, is felt as God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
692:The fates have given mankind a patient soul. ~ Homer, The Iliad, #KEYS
693:The golden rule is, to help those we love to escape from us." ~ Friedrich Von Hugel, #KEYS
694:The last pleasure in life is the sense of discharging our duty.
~ William Hazlitt,#KEYS
695:The light of Christ is an endless day that knows no night. ~ Saint Maximus of Turin, #KEYS
696:The love of books is among the choicest gifts of the gods. ~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle #KEYS
697:The morning breezes have secrets to tell; don't go back to sleep. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
698:The most dangerous people are those who have passion but lack wisdom - Haemin Sunim, #KEYS
699:The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again. ~ Charles Dickens, [T5], #KEYS
700:The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls. ~ Pablo Picasso, #KEYS
701:The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me. ~ Ayn Rand, #KEYS
702:The real Self is permanent. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
703:There is in the universe one power of infinite Thought. ~ Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, #KEYS
704:The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness." ~ Eric Hoffer, #KEYS
705:The way of letters- leave no trace. Yet the teaching is revealed. ~ Dogen 1200-1253, #KEYS
706:Thou art. ~ Delphic Inscription, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
707:To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
708:we will
always be
disturbed by the truth ~ Dogen Zenji,#KEYS
709:What is evil? Whatever springs from weakness. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist, #KEYS
710:All know the way, but few actually walk it." ~ Bodhidharma, #KEYS
711:And then forget that you are there. ~ Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu, #KEYS
712:As you are, so is the world. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
713:Blind obedience to authority is the greatest enemy of the truth.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
714:But in the end one needs more courage to live than to kill himself.
~ Albert Camus,#KEYS
715:Contentment in all circumstances is the mark of religious life. ~ Swami Vijnanananda, #KEYS
716:For all is full of God. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
717:Friendship is . . . the sort of love one can imagine between the angels. ~ C S Lewis, #KEYS
718:Give me the child for the first seven years and I will give you the man. ~ Aristotle? #KEYS
719:Having only wisdom and talent is the lowest tier of usefulness. ~ Yamamoto Tsunetomo, #KEYS
720:I and my Father are one. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, The Gospel According to John, 10:30, #KEYS
721:If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one." ~ Dolly Parton, #KEYS
722:I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy.
~ Franz Kafka,#KEYS
723:Judge by the truth. The truth is in the present. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
724:Knowledge belongs to the very essence of God, if at all God has an essence. ~ Hermes, #KEYS
725:Love as brothers. ~ Peter III. 8, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
726:Love like the light silently wrapping all. ~ Walt Whitman, #KEYS
727:Make intelligent use of the Muses as an aid to the soul. ~ Plato, #KEYS
728:My political views are those of the Our Father." ~ Saint Avitus of Vienna, (450-519), #KEYS
729:No matter which rooms one is in, there are many paths in the Infinite Building. ~ JB, #KEYS
730:Now is the time to be heroic.
~ The Mother, Agenda Vol 13,#KEYS
731:point of being poured out upon the entire world." ~ Our Lady to Father Stefano Gobbi, #KEYS
732:Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
~ Anonymous, The Bible, Psalms, 16:1,#KEYS
733:Quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. ~ Winston Churchill, #KEYS
734:Should you desire the great tranquility prepare to sweat white beads. ~ Hakuin Ekaku, #KEYS
735:Speak ye the truth. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
736:Tea is the elixir of life. ~ Eisai, Kissa Yojoki How to Stay Healthy by Drinking Tea, #KEYS
737:The end and the beginning both grow sweet when a god urges on a man's work. ~ Pindar, #KEYS
738:The eyes like sentinel occupy the highest place in the body. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, #KEYS
739:The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves. ~ William Shakespeare, #KEYS
740:The mind cannot kill itself. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
741:The Self alone is permanent. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
742:The Truth is realized in an instant; the Act is practiced step by step." ~ Seungsahn, #KEYS
743:Think no evil thoughts. ~ Kun Yu, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
744:Time management is a misnomer, the challenge is to manage ourselves. ~ Stephen Covey, #KEYS
745:We are in our Self. We are not in the world. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi #KEYS
746:Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.
~ Thomas Jefferson,#KEYS
747:Whenever you mow us down, we multiply; the blood of Christians is seed. ~ Tertullian, #KEYS
748:Wisdom denotes the pursuit of the best ends by the best means.
~ Francis Hutcheson,#KEYS
749:Curving back within myself I create again and again.
~ Anonymous, The Bhagavad Gita,#KEYS
750:Death is an evil; the gods have so judged; had it been good, they would die. ~ Sappho, #KEYS
751:Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune.
~ Arthur Schopenhauer,#KEYS
752:God and Nature are one. ~ Spinoza, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
753:Great men have the nature of a child. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
754:Have the fearless attitude of a hero, and the loving heart of a child." ~ Soyen Shaku, #KEYS
755:He is pure of all name. ~ The Bab, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
756:I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, John, 15:1, #KEYS
757:Individuals should be enabled to achieve the best that is in them.
~ Howard Gardner,#KEYS
758:Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
759:Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun." ~ Alan Watts, #KEYS
760:Music finds its way where the rays of the sun cannot penetrate.
~ Soren Kierkegaard,#KEYS
761:Nothing is impossible for one who is attentive. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
762:One should make his decisions within the space of seven breaths. ~ Yamamoto Tsunetomo, #KEYS
763:Pain is the breaking of the shell which encloses your understanding
~ Khalil Gibran,#KEYS
764:Real silence means there is actually nowhere else for the mind to go. ~ Anandamayi Ma, #KEYS
765:SILENCE is the best language. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
766:Speak well, act better. ~ Catinat, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
767:sunrise
is where
the Gods live ~ Kobayashi Issa,#KEYS
768:The adventure of awakening is among the most universal of human dramas. ~ ken-wilber, #KEYS
769:The body itself is a thought. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
770:The darkest place I've ever seen was inside me, and nothing scared me more. ~ Unknown, #KEYS
771:The knowledge of God is received in divine silence.
~ Saint John of the Cross, [T5],#KEYS
772:The personal life deeply lived always expands into truths beyond itself." ~ Anais Nin, #KEYS
773:The root of all desires is the one desire: to come home, to be at peace. ~ Jean Klein, #KEYS
774:The root of dissatisfaction: always looking for the next thing.
~ Dzogchen Rinpoche,#KEYS
775:The Self is ever the witness. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
776:The servant of God earns half a doctorate through illness. ~ Saint Ignatius of Loyola, #KEYS
777:The smallest fact is a window through which the infinite may be seen. ~ Aldous Huxley, #KEYS
778:Two people in love, alone, isolated from the world, that's beautiful. ~ Milan Kundera, #KEYS
779:Water satisfied them for a time, the Blood satiates you for eternity. ~ Saint Ambrose, #KEYS
780:What is the path? There is no path. On into the unknown. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
781:Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge. ~ Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, #KEYS
782:You don't look out there for God, something in the sky, you look in you. ~ Alan Watts, #KEYS
783:You must find the place inside yourself where nothing is impossible." ~ Deepak Chopra, #KEYS
784:Act as you speak. ~ Lalita-vistara, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
785:Alone the sage can recognize the sage. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
786:As a man thinketh in his heart so shall he be
~ Anonymous, The Bible, Proverbs, 23:7,#KEYS
787:But is there something where God used to be? ~ Iris Murdoch, The Message to the Planet, #KEYS
788:By the way, if anyone here is in advertising or marketing, kill yourself. ~ Bill Hicks, #KEYS
789:Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm.
~ Benjamin Disraeli,#KEYS
790:Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind. ~ Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man #KEYS
791:For now we see through a glass, darkly... ~ Anonymous, The Bible, 1 Corinthians, 13:12, #KEYS
792:Glory to Thee O Lord, victor over all obstacles. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
793:Guru is not the physical form. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
794:I don't mind what happens. That is the essence of inner freedom." ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #KEYS
795:In death he sees life. ~ Bha-ullah, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
796:It is man's natural sickness to believe that he possesses the truth.
~ Blaise Pascal,#KEYS
797:It is the consumers who make poor people rich and rich people poor. ~ Ludwig Von Mises, #KEYS
798:Just by being I'm here in the snow-fall. ~ Kobayashi Issa, #KEYS
799:Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.
~ Aristotle,#KEYS
800:Learning never exhausts the mind. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #KEYS
801:Love one another. ~ John. XIII, 14, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
802:Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.
~ Alan Watts,#KEYS
803:Not seeing desirable things prevents confusion of the heart. ~ Tao Te Ching, chapter 3, #KEYS
804:No want is the greatest bliss. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
805:Peace be unto you. ~ John. XIV. 21, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
806:Play is the most natural method of self-healing that childhood affords. ~ Erik Erikson, #KEYS
807:Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
~ Aristotle,#KEYS
808:Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #KEYS
809:Silence is the cross on which we must crucify our ego. ~ Saint Seraphim of Sarov, [T5], #KEYS
810:Sorrow is a form of Evil. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
811:The end of all wisdom is Love. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
812:The first thing you'll have to do, is the last thing you wished. ~ Edward Murphy, [T5], #KEYS
813:The Great Way is not difficult
for those who have no preferences.
~ Taoist proverb,#KEYS
814:The Heart is the only Reality. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
815:The less people know about your thoughts of God, the better for you. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
816:The mind cannot seek the mind. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
817:The mystery of God hugs you in its all- encompassing arms. ~ Saint Hildegard of Bingen, #KEYS
818:The only serious question in life is whether to kill yourself or not.
~ Albert Camus,#KEYS
819:The present is the only reality of wich a man can truly be deprived. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #KEYS
820:The responsibility of tolerance lies in those who have the wider vision. ~ T. S. Eliot, #KEYS
821:The secret of success is… to be fully awake to everything about you. ~ LeRoy Pollock, #KEYS
822:The treasures of the heart are most valuable of all. ~ Nichiren, #KEYS
823:They will create the viruses themselves and sell you the antidotes. ~ Muammar Gaddafi?, #KEYS
824:To love is to admire with the heart; to admire is to love with the mind.
~ T Gantier,#KEYS
825:until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God." ~ Revelation 7:2-3, #KEYS
826:Where the press is free, and everyone is able to read, all is safe. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #KEYS
827:Without music, life would be a mistake.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols,#KEYS
828:Writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold abyss of oneself.
~ Franz Kafka,#KEYS
829:Acceptive and at ease, distilling the present hour, whatever, wherever it is. ~ Whitman, #KEYS
830:All the historical books which contain no lies are extremely tedius.
~ Anatole France,#KEYS
831:Approach the enemy with the attitude of defeating him without delay. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
832:Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society. ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
833:Creation is only the projection into form of that which already exists. ~ Bhagavad Gita, #KEYS
834:Do not become caught in the teaching. You must be able to let it go." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #KEYS
835:For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love. ~ Carl Sagan, #KEYS
836:Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life." ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
837:He who is being carried does not realize how far the next town is…" ~ African proverb, #KEYS
838:I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things. ~ Vincent van Gogh, #KEYS
839:I am who I am and I have the need to be. ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, #KEYS
840:I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #KEYS
841:I'm afraid a boat so small would sink with the weight of all my sorrow.
~ Li Qingzhao,#KEYS
842:In a state without thoughts, without distraction, abandon the watcher. ~ Padampa Sangye, #KEYS
843:It is in the nature of things that joy arises in a person free from remorse.
~ Buddha,#KEYS
844:La tristesse durera toujours.[The sadness will last forever.] ~ Vincent van Gogh, #KEYS
845:Light of the moon moves west - flower's shadows creep eastward. ~ Yosa Buson, 1716-1783, #KEYS
846:Love is the actual form of God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
847:Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.
~ Plato,#KEYS
848:Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change." ~ Confucius, #KEYS
849:People come and go all the time; the world has always been in movement. ~ V. S. Naipaul, #KEYS
850:Still round the corner there may wait, a new road or a secret gate." ~ J. R. R. Tolkien, #KEYS
851:The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, #KEYS
852:The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success. ~ Bruce Feirstein #KEYS
853:The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless." ~ Alan Watts, #KEYS
854:The object of the intellect is being.
~ Meister Eckhart,#KEYS
855:The sage's rule of moral conduct has its principle in the hearts of all men. ~ Tseu-tse, #KEYS
856:The soul bound is man; free, it is God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
857:The words that enlighten the soul are more precious than jewels.
~ Hazrat Inayat Khan,#KEYS
858:Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out." ~ John Wooden, #KEYS
859:This Agenda... is my gift to those who love me.
~ The Mother,#KEYS
860:Though it be broken- broken again - still it's there; the moon on the water.
~ Choshu,#KEYS
861:Thou shalt not kill. ~ Exodus XX.82, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
862:Thyself vindicate thyself. ~ Seneca, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
863:Time is the coin of life. Only you can determine how it will be spent." ~ Carl Sandburg, #KEYS
864:To be full of light is the aim. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
865:To be still is not to think.
Know, and not think, is the word. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi,#KEYS
866:wildflower growing freely in the beauty and joy of each day." ~ Native American Proverb, #KEYS
867:Wisdom consists in speaking and acting the truth. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
868:You can do more with the grace of God than you think." ~ Saint John Baptist de la Salle, #KEYS
869:You put the small thief in prison, but the big thief lives in a palace. ~ Graham Greene, #KEYS
870:aware of life
passing like dew
they play in the sun ~ Ogawa,#KEYS
871:A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me. ~ Abraham Lincoln, #KEYS
872:Do not view mountains from the scale of human thought. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
873:Dostoevsky,the only psychologist from whom I've anything to learn. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
874:God is all and all is God. ~ Eckhart, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
875:If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.
~ Isaac Newton,#KEYS
876:Inspiration is for amateurs ~ the rest of us just show up and get to work. ~ Chuck Close, #KEYS
877:I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose. ~ Stephen King, #KEYS
878:I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't, I would die. ~ Isaac Asimov, #KEYS
879:Many live like angels in the midst of the world. Why not you?" ~ Saint Josemaria Escriva, #KEYS
880:Me, poor man, my library
Was dukedom large enough. ~ William Shakespeare, The Tempest#KEYS
881:No furniture is so charming as books. ~ Sydney Smith , A memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith #KEYS
882:No man liveth to himself. ~ St. Paul, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
883:One of the goals of education should be to teach that life is precious. ~ Abraham Maslow, #KEYS
884:Politics is the entertainment division of the military industrial complex. ~ Frank Zappa, #KEYS
885:Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee.
~ Michel de Montaigne,#KEYS
886:Return is the movement of the Tao. Yielding is the way of the Tao. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.40, #KEYS
887:Seek to be the purple thread in the long white gown. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
888:So, I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you. ~ Paulo Coelho, #KEYS
889:The greatness of the Great is the greatness of the Divine in him.
~ Nolini Kanta Gupta,#KEYS
890:The name of the Ancient and most Holy is unknowable to all and inaccessible. ~ The Zohar, #KEYS
891:The only way to see far is to see what is near...to see what is present. ~ Robert Burton, #KEYS
892:The sage knows himself. ~ Lao-Tse-35, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
893:The true icon of the divinity is his name. ~ Sergius Bulgakov, Icons and the Name of God, #KEYS
894:the uniting of man and God, the two sides of the transformation. Effort and Grace.
~ ?,#KEYS
895:The Universe is a unity. ~ Philolaus, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
896:The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #KEYS
897:The word 'innocence' means a mind that is incapable of being hurt." ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #KEYS
898:Those who seek the easy way do not seek the true way." ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
899:To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program. ~ Alan Perlis, #KEYS
900:Ye must be born again. ~ John III. 7, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
901:Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Job, 5 7, #KEYS
902:Yoga is the practice of tolerating the consequences of being yourself.
~ Bhagavad Gita,#KEYS
903:An evil enemy will burn his own nation to the ground... to rule over the ashes. ~ Sun Tzu, #KEYS
904:Cynicism, sadness or laughter is the magicians privilege.
~ Peter J Carroll, Liber Null,#KEYS
905:even the least part of it. ~ Basil of Caesarea, Exegetical Homilies On the Hexaemeron I.6, #KEYS
906:God is our name for the last generalization to which we can arrive. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
907:Go in this thy might. ~ Judges VI. 14, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
908:Have no vicious thoughts. ~ Confucius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
909:Ignorance is the softest pillow on which a man can rest his head.
~ Michel de Montaigne,#KEYS
910:I'm alone and nobody is in the mirror ~ Jorge Luis Borges, #KEYS
911:Indolence is a soil. ~ Buddhist Texts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
912:In your tremendous helplessness the whole existence suddenly starts helping you.
~ Osho,#KEYS
913:It is easy to believe we are each waves, and forget we are also the ocean." ~ Jon J. Muth, #KEYS
914:Look for the answer inside your question. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
915:Look within things. ~ Marcus Aurelius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
916:Man is a small universe. ~ Democritus, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
917:Mastering others requires force; Mastering the self needs strength. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.33, #KEYS
918:Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
~ Mark Twain,#KEYS
919:Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you're living?" ~ Bob Marley, #KEYS
920:Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
921:Perhaps the shortest and most powerful prayer in human language is help. ~ Thomas Keating, #KEYS
922:Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
~ Anonymous, The Bible, John, 17:17,#KEYS
923:Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet." ~ For source see: https://bit.ly/3cPHvYO, #KEYS
924:Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate. ~ J R R Tolkien, [T5], #KEYS
925:The best author will be the one who is ashamed to become a writer
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
926:The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long." ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
927:The formula 'Two and two make five' is not without its attractions.
~ Fyodor Dostoevsky,#KEYS
928:The gods are immortal men, and men are mortal gods. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
929:The habit of knowledge
is not human but devine. ~ Heraclitus,#KEYS
930:The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
931:The Universe is a unity. ~ Anaxagoras, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
932:The war against war is going to be no holiday excursion or camping party. ~ William James, #KEYS
933:We circle in the night and we are devoured by fire. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
934:We should be excited about the future and striving to go beyond the horizon." ~ Elon Musk, #KEYS
935:When you work, you are a flute that turns the whisper of hours into music ~ Khalil Gibran, #KEYS
936:Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle.' ~ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland, #KEYS
937:a cushion for the head..... ~ Hafiz, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
938:Although, the cricket's song has no words, still, it sounds like sorrow.
~ Izumi Shikibu,#KEYS
939:Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in." ~ Bill Bradley, #KEYS
940:and gives them a foretaste of the calm bliss of our heavenly home. ~ Saint Rose of Viterbo, #KEYS
941:And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, #KEYS
942:A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out." ~ Walter Winchell, #KEYS
943:Become what thou art. ~ Orphic Precept, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
944:Be ever engaged, so that whenever the devil calls he may find you occupied. ~ Saint Jerome, #KEYS
945:Beware the man of a single book. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
946:Give Me a moment of your life, I shall take care of your all lives.
~ Sanjay, The Mother,#KEYS
947:God is at home. We are in the far country. ~ Meister Eckhart, #KEYS
948:Good poetry ... makes the universe ... reveal its ... 'secret' ~ Hafiz, #KEYS
949:How joyful to look upon the awakened and to keep company with the wise. ~ Buddhist Proverb, #KEYS
950:I desire that they confess the union of Jesus with the Father. ~ Saint Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
951:If anything goes wrong, repeat OM, all will go well. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
952:Is not everything the work of God? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
953:I threw my cup away when I saw a child drinking from his hands at the trough.
~ Diogenes,#KEYS
954:It is better to be the child of God than king of the whole world. ~ Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, #KEYS
955:It is Itself that which was and that which is yet to be, the Eternal. ~ Kaivaiya Upanishad, #KEYS
956:It is like the eternal void : filled with eternal possibilities. ~ Tao Te Ching, chapter 4, #KEYS
957:It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor." ~ Seneca, #KEYS
958:It is the duty of every man to uphold the dignity of every woman." ~ Pope St. John Paul II, #KEYS
959:Let the past be past.
Concentrate only on the Eternal.
Blessings ~ The Mother,#KEYS
960:Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light. ~ John Milton, Paradise Lost, #KEYS
961:Lost in the woods Only the sound of a leaf Falling on my head. ~ Tagami Kikusha, 1753-1826, #KEYS
962:Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold." ~ Zelda Fitzgerald, #KEYS
963:On a night with dew the mountains seem like next door neighbors. ~ Dakotsu Lida, 1885-1962, #KEYS
964:Peace of mind is that mental condition in which you have accepted the worst." ~ Lin Yutang, #KEYS
965:Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.
~ Isaac Asimov,#KEYS
966:Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible." ~ Tony Robbins, #KEYS
967:The aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be victory but progress.
~ Karl Popper,#KEYS
968:The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt, #KEYS
969:The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #KEYS
970:The more you know, the more you know you don't know.
~ Aristotle,#KEYS
971:The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
972:The Self is the center of centers. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
973:The sun's light when he unfolds it
Depends on the organ that beholds it ~ William Blake,#KEYS
974:The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain." ~ Dolly Parton, #KEYS
975:This is what is hardest: to close the open hand because one loves.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
976:To pardon the oppressor is to deal harshly with the oppressed. ~ Saadi, #KEYS
977:To rank the effort above the prize may be called love. ~ Confucius, #KEYS
978:To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world." ~ Bill Wilson, #KEYS
979:to use this knowledge for the welfare of others." ~ "The Rosicrucian Manuscripts.", (2012), #KEYS
980:When the old plum tree blooms, the entire world blooms. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
981:Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory." ~ George S. Patton, #KEYS
982:All know the Way, but few actually walk it.
~ Bodhidharma, [T5],#KEYS
983:At the core of all well-founded belief lies belief that is unfounded. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #KEYS
984:dances the lightning of life. Can you say you won't die tomorrow? ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, #KEYS
985:Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.
~ William Butler Yeats,#KEYS
986:God is the source of love, the clear fountain of love that never runs dry. ~ Sunday Adelaja, #KEYS
987:Hard to animals, hard to men. ~ Proverb, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
988:How can the self not know the Self? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
989:In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer." ~ Albert Camus, #KEYS
990:It is the illusion of free will that creates the illusion of the ego. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
991:Let nothing hinder thee from praying always ... ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Ecclesiastes, 18:22, #KEYS
992:Never forget the lonely taste of the white dew.
~ Matsuo Basho,#KEYS
993:Nowhere at all - that's the nature of mind! ~ Tanatric Buddhist Woman Song, (8th - 11th c.), #KEYS
994:Set not thy heart upon riches. ~ Psalms, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
995:Silence is not confined to the tongue but concerns the heart and all the limbs." ~ Abu Bakr, #KEYS
996:Strive for the truth so that out from your soul a sun may rise. ~ Hafiz, #KEYS
997:The destiny of a person is determined by their efforts. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
998:The ego is a veil between humans and God.
~ Jalaluddin Rumi,#KEYS
999:The FOOL Has Said In His Heart:There is No God!" ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Psalms, 14:1, [T5], #KEYS
1000:The goal of life is not the drama being played, but the lesson that it offers. ~ SWAMI RAMA, #KEYS
1001:The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
1002:The mind is only a transient phase. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1003:The most important knowledge is that which guides the way you lead your life. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #KEYS
1004:The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.
~ Mother Teresa,#KEYS
1005:The poor have much to teach you. You have much to learn from them." ~ Saint Vincent de Paul, #KEYS
1006:The purpose of the work is to cast the enemy out of the pastures of the heart. ~ Philokalia, #KEYS
1007:The race of men is divine. ~ Pythagoras, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1008:The Self alone is and nothing else. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1009:The standard of success is whether you've pleased God. ~ A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, #KEYS
1010:The struggle of what one likes and what one dislikes is the disease of the mind." ~ Sengcan, #KEYS
1011:The winds of grace blow all the time. All we need to do is set our sails. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1012:The word "He" diminishes Him. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1013:Try to enjoy the great festival of life with other men! ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
1014:Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing." ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #KEYS
1015:Act well your given part; the choice rests not with you. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
1016:All a poet can do today is warn. That is why the true Poets must be truthful. ~ Wilfred Owen, #KEYS
1017:All in calmness - the earth with half-opened eyes moves into winter. ~ Dakotsu Iida 1883-196, #KEYS
1018:All life is Yoga.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, [T5],#KEYS
1019:All loves should be simply stepping stones to the love of God.
~ Plato,#KEYS
1020:A man is always devoted to something more tangible than a woman - the idea of her. ~ Bauvard, #KEYS
1021:Both light and shadow are the dance of Love. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1022:Both read the Bible day and night, but thou read black where I read white.
~ William Blake,#KEYS
1023:Cheerfulness prepares a glorious mind for all the noblest acts." ~ Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, #KEYS
1024:Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
1025:Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." ~ Will Rogers, #KEYS
1026:Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." ~ Leo Tolstoy, #KEYS
1027:Everything in the world was my Guru. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1028:First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
1029:Flee youthful lusts. ~ II Timothy II. 22, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1030:Follow my tracks in the sand that lead Beyond thought and space. ~ Hafiz, #KEYS
1031:For the thirst to possess your love,
Is worth my blood a hundred times. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi,#KEYS
1032:He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature. ~ Socrates, #KEYS
1033:Identification with the body is dvaita. Non-identification is advaita. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1034:If no one ever took risks - Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor." ~ Neil Simon, #KEYS
1035:In heaven fear is not. ~ Katha-Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1036:Is there anyone unaware of the Self? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1037:It is enough to pay attention to what is before one's eyes, that is, to the present. ~ Dante, #KEYS
1038:It is for love of him that I do not spare myself in preaching him. ~ Saint Gregory the Great, #KEYS
1039:It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.
~ Benjamin Franklin,#KEYS
1040:Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed.
~ Arthur Schopenhauer,#KEYS
1041:Let the Divine fill your thoughts with His Presence.
~ The Mother,#KEYS
1042:Morning glories - in the evening, they let us admire their buds. ~ Tagami Kikusha, 1753-1826, #KEYS
1043:Never underestimate the power you have to take your life in a new direction." ~ Germany Kent, #KEYS
1044:No man hath seen God at any time. ~ John, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1045:Now the soft-voiced gentle woman of my reverent worship has all but vanished. ~ Nikola Tesla, #KEYS
1046:One needs a vision of the promised land in order to have the strength to move. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #KEYS
1047:One should seek God among men. ~ Novalis, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1048:Only the like knows its like. ~ Porphyry, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1049:Preoccupation with one's weakness is the last form taken by self-importance. ~ Rodney Collin, #KEYS
1050:Take care of the kingdom of the heart, and the rest will come in addition. ~ Claudio Naranjo, #KEYS
1051:The absolute Brahman is realized in samadhi. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1052:The brave are always moral. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. V. 3), #KEYS
1053:The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.
~ Socrates,#KEYS
1054:The greater the power that deigns to serve you, the more honor it demands of you. ~ Socrates, #KEYS
1055:The greatest gift that you can give your teacher is doing your practice. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche, #KEYS
1056:The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any." ~ Fred Astaire, #KEYS
1057:The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet." ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #KEYS
1058:The path that leads to truth is littered with the bodies of the ignorant. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
1059:There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #KEYS
1060:The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times. ~ Paulo Coelho, #KEYS
1061:The Self is free from all qualities. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1062:The subject of one stage becomes the object of the subject of the next stage.
~ Ken Wilber,#KEYS
1063:The true measure of loving God is to love Him without measure." ~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, #KEYS
1064:Thou shalt not kill. ~ Mat-thew. XIX. 18, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1065:To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.
~ Henry David Thoreau, [T5],#KEYS
1066:To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.~ Lewis B Smedes, #KEYS
1067:To the blue lotus flower of Mother Syama's feet. . . . ~ SONG from GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA, #KEYS
1068:We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us now commit it to life.
~ Edwin Markham,#KEYS
1069:When you reach the end of your rope - tie a knot in it and hang on." ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt, #KEYS
1070:Wisdom is the daughter of experience.
~ Leonardo da Vinci,#KEYS
1071:Wisdom is the power to put our time and our knowledge to the proper use." ~ Thomas J. Watson, #KEYS
1072:Above all, respect thy sell. ~ Pythagoras, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1073:All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle. ~ Saint Francis, #KEYS
1074:Be not afraid, only believe. ~ Mark V. 36, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1075:Deliver us, O Allah, from the Sea of Names. ~ Ibn Arabi, [T5], #KEYS
1076:Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #KEYS
1077:Don't give up. Normally it is the last key on the ring which opens the door.
~ Paulo Coelho,#KEYS
1078:Faithfulness is the antidote to bitterness and confusion. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
1079:Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me. ~ Whitman, #KEYS
1080:God, Guru and the Self are identical. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1081:If any error occurs just once repeat my name maa maa.
~ The Mother,#KEYS
1082:If it can be destroyed by the Truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the Truth.
~ Carl Sagan,#KEYS
1083:I saw Eternity the other night Like a great ring of pure and endless light.
~ Henry Vaughan,#KEYS
1084:Love is strong as death. ~ Bony of flours, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1085:Making sure we know that autumn is here, a leaf from the empress tree. ~ Den Sutejo 1633-1698, #KEYS
1086:Mankind is poised midway between the gods and the beasts.
~ Plotinus,#KEYS
1087:Man, like a light in the night, is kindled and put out. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
1088:One must be deeply aware of the impermanence of the world." ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
1089:One who has seen the Lord is a changed being. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1090:Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry. ~ Cassandra Clare, #KEYS
1091:Only those will enter whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life." ~ Revelation 21:27, #KEYS
1092:Rejoice evermore. ~ I Thessalonians V. 16, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1093:Seek and ye, shall find. ~ Matthew VII. 7, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1094:Sometimes the title IS the story, and the rest is just an explanation. ~ James K Bowers, [T5], #KEYS
1095:Soon drunk, I watch my cap tumble in the wind, dance in love - a guest the moon invites." ~ ?, #KEYS
1096:Successful people do the things that unsuccessful people are unwilling to do." ~ John Maxwell, #KEYS
1097:That which is Bliss is also the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1098:The conquering of self is truly greater than were one to conquer many worlds.
~ Edgar Cayce,#KEYS
1099:The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #KEYS
1100:THE FUTURE EXISTS FIRST IN IMAGINATION, THEN IN WILL, THEN IN REALITY
~ Barbara Max Hubbard,#KEYS
1101:The knowledge of an effect depends on and involves the knowledge of a cause. ~ Baruch Spinoza, #KEYS
1102:The man least dependent upon the morrow goes to meet the morrow most cheerfully.
~ Epicurus,#KEYS
1103:the moon over
my hometown
brings tears ~ Kobayashi Issa,#KEYS
1104:The naked woman's body is a portion of eternity too great for the eye of man. ~ William Blake, #KEYS
1105:The purpose of thinking is to let the ideas die instead of us dying. ~ Alfred North Whitehead #KEYS
1106:The super-ego is that part of the personality which is soluble in alcohol
~ Arthur Koestler,#KEYS
1107:The tree is known by its fruit. ~ Matthew, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1108:The whole universe is a mere thought. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1109:Those who are not good to others are bad to themselves. ~ Saint Leo the Great, (Died: 461 AD), #KEYS
1110:To become what one is, one must have not the faintest idea what one is. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
1111:To set up what you like against what you dislike, this is the disease of the mind." ~ Sengcan, #KEYS
1112:Truly the sage is not other than God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1113:We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses. ~ Alan Perlis, #KEYS
1114:When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. ~ Jimi Hendrix, #KEYS
1115:when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk to bloom." ~ Anaïs Nin, #KEYS
1116:You're always with yourself, so you might as well enjoy the company." ~ Diane Von Furstenberg, #KEYS
1117:A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #KEYS
1118:A generous effort of the mind is expressed more gloriously in action than in words. ~ Petrarch, #KEYS
1119:All religions are precious pearls strung upon the golden thread of divinity. ~ Samael Aun Weor, #KEYS
1120:Be humble and peaceful, and Jesus will be with you. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
1121:Blessed are the pure in heart. ~ Luke V. 8, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1122:But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? ~ Job, 28:12, #KEYS
1123:Experiences are the chemicals of life with which the philosopher experiments.
~ Manly P Hall,#KEYS
1124:Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.
~ Henry Ford,#KEYS
1125:Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature! ~ G.B. Shaw, #KEYS
1126:For the saint there is no death. ~ Tolstoy, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1127:He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, 1 John, 4:8, [T5], #KEYS
1128:He who seeks not the Cross of Christ seeks not the glory of Christ." ~ Saint John of the Cross, #KEYS
1129:Holy silence allows us to hear the voice of God more clearly. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
1130:If you have devotion, the Buddha is always right in front of you. ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, #KEYS
1131:I know you're tired but come, this is the way. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1132:In the moment of crisis, the wise build bridges and the foolish build dams. ~ Nigerian Proverb, #KEYS
1133:Living On Earth May Be Expensive, But It Includes An Annual Free Trip Around The Sun." ~ Anon., #KEYS
1134:Love the truth and peace. ~ Zacharias VIII, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1135:Possess your souls in patience. ~ St. Paul, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1136:See this morning for the first time as a new-born child that has no name ~ Rabindranath Tagore, #KEYS
1137:The evildoer is the only slave. ~ Rousseau, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1138:The flower which is single need not envy the thorns that are numerous.
~ Rabindranath Tagore,#KEYS
1139:The goal of a virtuous life is to become like God. ~ Saint Gregory of Nyssa, On the Beatitudes, #KEYS
1140:The Guru is the mediator. He takes man to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1141:The most transformative experience has been the simple act of loving myself." ~ Kamal Ravikant, #KEYS
1142:The people must fight for their laws as for their walls. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
1143:The person who can bring the spirit of laughter into a room is indeed blessed." ~ Bennett Cerf, #KEYS
1144:The problem is not to find the answer, it's to face the answer ~ Terence McKenna, [T5], #KEYS
1145:The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr., #KEYS
1146:The real meaning of detachment is to be separated inwardly from what is unreal. ~ Al-Kalabadhi, #KEYS
1147:There is nothing in the desert and no man needs nothing. ~ David, Prometheus, Aliens: Covenant, #KEYS
1148:The sole difference between myself and a madman is the fact that I am not mad. ~ Salvador Dali, #KEYS
1149:... they all contributed to the work of the destruction." ~ Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich , #KEYS
1150:Time and space cannot affect the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1151:To be really sorry for one's errors is like opening the door of heaven.
~ Hazrat Inayat Khan,#KEYS
1152:We see into the life of things. ~ Wordsworth, 'Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey', #KEYS
1153:What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, #KEYS
1154:'"Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says to the churches."'" ~ Revelation 3:21-22, #KEYS
1155:Year after year/On the monkey's face/A monkey's mask ~ Matsuo Basho, #KEYS
1156:You must accept the truth from whatever source it comes. ~ Maimonides, #KEYS
1157:Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Psalms, 119:105, #KEYS
1158:A glimpse into the world proves that horror is nothing other than reality.
~ Alfred Hitchcock,#KEYS
1159:All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
1160:All men participate in the possibility of self-knowledge. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
1161:And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, #KEYS
1162:Any suggestion about Sadhana?
Patient aspiration.
~ The Mother,#KEYS
1163:As a matter of fact, the company of holy men makes the heart pure forever. ~ Swami Vijnanananda, #KEYS
1164:As the ancient myth makers knew, we are children equally of the earth and the sky. ~ Carl Sagan, #KEYS
1165:At this instant the disciple became liberated. ~ Anthony de Mello, 'One Minute Wisdom,", (1985), #KEYS
1166:Descending from the head to the Heart is the beginning of spiritual life. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1167:Empty is the argument of the philosopher which does not relieve any human suffering. ~ Epicurus, #KEYS
1168:Every moment this cup fills with vision. This is my wine. I drink the given moment. ~ Bahauddin, #KEYS
1169:God and the world are all in the Heart. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1170:Grace is within you. Grace is the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1171:Hridaya (Heart) is the alpha and omega. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1172:If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. ~ Carl Sagan, #KEYS
1173:I never found the companion that was (is) so companionable as solitude.
~ Henry David Thoreau,#KEYS
1174:In Thy delirious joy Thou dancest, clapping Thy hands together! ~ THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA, #KEYS
1175:It is in the darkness that one finds the light. ~ Meister Eckhart, #KEYS
1176:Leave the thought-free state to itself. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1177:Lie not one to another. ~ Colossians III. 9, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1178:Lose yourself wholly; and the more you lose, the more you will find. ~ Saint Catherine of Siena, #KEYS
1179:Love is Religion, and The Universe is The Book. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1180:Love is the one truth. ~ Antoine the Healer, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1181:Love light and not darkness. ~ Orphic Hymns, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1182:Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.
~ Helen Keller,#KEYS
1183:Never put off til tomorrow what can be done the day after tomorrow just as well.
~ Mark Twain,#KEYS
1184:People do not wander around and then find themselves at the top of Mount Everest." ~ Zig Ziglar, #KEYS
1185:People who never have any time on their hands are those who do the least. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
1186:Perhaps the greatest risk any of us will ever take is to be seen as we really are. ~ Cinderella, #KEYS
1187:Poets, like the blind, can see in the dark. ~ Jorge Luis Borges, #KEYS
1188:Practise love and only love. ~ Narada Sutra, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1189:Self-mastery is the greatest conquest, it is the basis of all enduring happiness. ~ MOTHER MIRA, #KEYS
1190:Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #KEYS
1191:Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.
~ Lowell,#KEYS
1192:The deeds you do may be the only sermon some people will hear today." ~ Saint Francis of Assisi, #KEYS
1193:The depth of learning is in direct relation to the intensity of the experience. ~ Robert Monroe, #KEYS
1194:The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.
~ Nathaniel Branden,#KEYS
1195:The love of God is the root and foundation of Plato's philosophy. ~ Simone Weil, 'God in Plato', #KEYS
1196:The most delightful surprise in life is to suddenly recognise your own worth.
~ Maxwell Maltz,#KEYS
1197:The practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something." ~ Koun Yamada, #KEYS
1198:The sun, though it passes through dirty places, yet remains as pure as before. ~ Francis Bacon , #KEYS
1199:The worst pain a man can suffer is to have insight into much and power over nothing ~ Herodotus, #KEYS
1200:We ascend to the heights of contemplation by the steps of the active life. ~ Pope St. Gregory I, #KEYS
1201:What exists in truth is the Self alone. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1202:What is the use of a realization that fails to reduce your disturbing emotions? ~ Guru Rinpoche, #KEYS
1203:What the caterpillar calls the end the rest of the world calls a butterfly. ~ Butterfly Lao Tzu, #KEYS
1204:You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of every moment of your life." ~ Whitman, #KEYS
1205:You think you are the mind, therefore you ask how it is to be controlled. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1206:All the snow melts - Everywhere the fragrance Of wild plum blossoms. ~ Tagami Kikusha, 1753-1826, #KEYS
1207:Although the cricket's song has no words, still it sounds like sorrow. ~ Izumi Shikibu, 976-1030, #KEYS
1208:And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, John, 1:16, #KEYS
1209:Beyond the sky where I have set the Sun, is He-Who-Speaks-Not: He knows all. ~ Myths of the Iife, #KEYS
1210:But when I know that the glass is already broken, every minute with it is precious. ~ Ajahn Chah, #KEYS
1211:Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger. ~ J R R Tolkien, #KEYS
1212:Do not torment your spirit.
Say the truth, always the truth. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina,#KEYS
1213:Doubt everything at least once, even the sentence "Two times two is four." ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
1214:Extreme longing is the surest way to God-vision. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1215:Faith first, knowledge afterwards. ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, #KEYS
1216:Gratitude is wine for the soul. Go on. Get drunk ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1217:How I long to see among dawn flowers, the face of God. ~ Matsuo Basho, #KEYS
1218:I am the number one Ninja and I have killed all the Shoguns in front of me.
~ Shaquille O'Neal,#KEYS
1219:I do not die, I go forth from Time. ~ Lebrun, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1220:If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life. ~ Wu-Men, #KEYS
1221:If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you. ~ Oscar Wilde, #KEYS
1222:I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
1223:Inside the treasury of the dharma eye a single grain of dust. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
1224:In the profound quiet, the immaculate comes into view; God disrobes. ~ Hafiz, #KEYS
1225:It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth." ~ Alexis de Tocqueville, #KEYS
1226:It is the mind that veils our happiness. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1227:It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little.
~ Diogenes,#KEYS
1228:Know then that the body is merely a garment. Go seek the wearer, not the cloak. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi #KEYS
1229:Liars are the cause of all the sins and crimes in the world. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
1230:on the water
the reflection
of a wanderer ~ Santoka Taneda,#KEYS
1231:... rending asunder the precious bond of their mutual Love." ~ Our Lady to Father Stefano Gobbi , #KEYS
1232:Shine out for thyself as thy own light. ~ id, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1233:Sorrow is the daughter of evil. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1234:The aim is to make the mind one-pointed. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1235:The Eternal is not born nor does it die. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1236:The eye could never see the sun,
If it had not a sun-like nature ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,#KEYS
1237:The greatest glory we can give to God is to do his will in everything. ~ Saint Alphonsus Liguori, #KEYS
1238:The path of Truth is narrower than the needle's eye and as sharp as a razor's edge. ~ SWAMI RAMA, #KEYS
1239:The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
~ Aristotle,#KEYS
1240:The ultimate truth of who you are is not 'I am this' or 'I am that', but 'I am'. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #KEYS
1241:Thinking comfortable thoughts with a friend in silence in the cool evening. ~ Hyakuchi 1749-1836, #KEYS
1242:Times change. The vices of your age are stylish today. ~ Aristophanes, #KEYS
1243:To say eternal is to say universal. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1244:To see things for what they are is to see with the eyes of the vastness itself." ~ Suzanne Segal, #KEYS
1245:What is cannot perish. ~ Apollonius of Tyana, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1246:Whilst all the winds with melody are ringing.... ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Unbound II.5, #KEYS
1247:You are not the mind. You are beyond it. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1248:You can never awaken using the same system that put you to sleep in the first place. ~ Gurdjieff, #KEYS
1249:You cannot by any means escape the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1250:You cannot see things till you know roughly what they are. ~ C S Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet, #KEYS
1251:You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, [T5], #KEYS
1252:You know, one of the tragedies of real life is that there is no background music. ~ Annie Proulx, #KEYS
1253:All beings are from all eternity. ~ Awaghosha, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1254:All that is one and one that is all. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1255:Always tell only the truth, and all the truth, and do so promptly right now. ~ Buckminster Fuller, #KEYS
1256:A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Psalms, 23:1, #KEYS
1257:At times the truth shines so brilliantly that we perceive it as clear as day." ~ Maimonides Guide, #KEYS
1258:Darkness,
Wet with
The sound of the waves. ~ Santoka Taneda,#KEYS
1259:Examine yourselves. ~ II Corinthians. XIII. 5, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1260:Faith is a dark night for man, but in this very way it gives him light. ~ Saint John of the Cross, #KEYS
1261:Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.
~ Rabindranath Tagore, [T5],#KEYS
1262:Fixity in the Self is your real nature. Remain as you are. That is the aim. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1263:Forget the years, forget distinctions. Leap into the boundless and make it your home." ~ Zhuangzi, #KEYS
1264:Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #KEYS
1265:God's invisible nature . . . is clearly perceived in the things that have been made ~ Rom. 1:20)., #KEYS
1266:Have the best day you can, today. Win the moment in front of you now. Win the day." ~ James Clear, #KEYS
1267:He who knows the secret of sound, knows the mystery of the whole universe.
~ Hazrat Inayat Khan,#KEYS
1268:Hold such in reputation. ~ Philippians II. 29, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1269:I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the peace. ~ Baruch Spinoza, #KEYS
1270:If thou lovest, God liveth in thee. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1271:If you are under control, you lose the danger of glimpsing an unknown realm." ~ Kazuaki Tanahashi, #KEYS
1272:I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know? ~ Ernest Hemingway, #KEYS
1273:In all circumstances be wakeful. ~ Baha-ullah, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1274:In looking out upon the world, we forget that the world is looking at itself. ~ Alan Wilson, [T5], #KEYS
1275:It [the Heart] is the center of the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1276:Just by being I'm here in the snow-fall. ~ Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1828, #KEYS
1277:Just stay at the center of the circle and let all things take their course. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.19, #KEYS
1278:Make a new beginning from today, assisted by the hand of God. ~ Philokalia, Barsanuphius and John, #KEYS
1279:Obey the nature of things (your own nature), and you will walk freely and undisturbed." ~ Sengcan, #KEYS
1280:See again the brighter ancient covered aboveworld streams and the worlds in which they live. ~ JB, #KEYS
1281:Soft winds, serene moon, I calmly read the true words of no letters. ~ Zenkei Shibayama 1894-1974, #KEYS
1282:Talented people almost always know full well the excellence that is in them." ~ Charlotte Brontë, #KEYS
1283:The biggest communities in which young people now reside are online communities. ~ Howard Gardner, #KEYS
1284:The essence of the highest teachings lies within a simple moment of awareness. ~ Khandro Rinpoche, #KEYS
1285:The Eucharist is the supreme proof of the love of Jesus. ~ Saint Peter Julian Eymard, (1811-1868), #KEYS
1286:The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it. ~ George Orwell, #KEYS
1287:The humble is the root of the noble. The low is the foundation of the high. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.39, #KEYS
1288:The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him. ~ Arthur Schopenauer, #KEYS
1289:The only offering you can make to God is your increasing awareness. ~ Lalla, trans. Coleman Barks #KEYS
1290:The right question is usually more important than the right answer.
~ Plato,#KEYS
1291:The "secret" to "luck" is sheer persistence. Don't make it harder than that." ~ Preethi Kasireddy, #KEYS
1292:The sound of the rain-drops also Has grown older.
~ Santoka Taneda,#KEYS
1293:Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.
~ Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,#KEYS
1294:To be outspoken is easy when you do not wait to speak the complete truth.
~ Rabindranath Tagore,#KEYS
1295:To find the Beloved, you must become the Beloved. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1296:Truth is above mind, it is in silence that one can enter into communication with it. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
1297:Turn ye from your evil ways. ~ Ezekiel XXXIII, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1298:We are tasting the taste of eternity this minute. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1299:We behold what we are, and we are what we behold.
~ Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, The Bhagavad Gita,#KEYS
1300:What is called the world is only thought. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1301:Whatsoever things were written afore time, were written for our learning. ~ Epistle to the Romans, #KEYS
1302:When one first seeks the truth, one separates oneself from it." ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
1303:A new day is coming, the magnificent day of radiant beauty when I return to myself. ~ Quetzalcoatl, #KEYS
1304:A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
1305:Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.
~ Nikola Tesla,#KEYS
1306:Be pure and free within, unentangled with any creature. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
1307:Be strong and of a good courage. ~ Joshua I. 9, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1308:Blessed is he whokeepeth himself pure. ~ Koran, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1309:Do not let the body be dragged along by mind nor be dragged along by the body." ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
1310:Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #KEYS
1311:Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.
~ Rabindranath Tagore,#KEYS
1312:Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. ~ Pablo Picasso, #KEYS
1313:Every man possesses the Buddha-nature. Do not demean yourselves. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
1314:Every one goes astray, but the least imprudent are they who repent the soonest.
~ Voltaire, [T5],#KEYS
1315:For the lowly may be pardoned out of mercy ~ but the mighty shall be mightily put to the test. ..., #KEYS
1316:For the wages of Sin is death. ~ Romans VI. 23, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1317:He who treads the path of love walks a thousand miles as if it were only one.
~ Japanese Proverb,#KEYS
1318:Human opinions are playthings. ~ Heraclitus 88, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1319:If He were apparent, He would not be. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1320:If someone looks perfect, then that is because you don't know the person very well. ~ Haemin Sunim, #KEYS
1321:If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
~ Abraham Maslow,#KEYS
1322:If you speak beautifully but behave badly, you become the worst of practitioners. ~ Padampa Sangye, #KEYS
1323:It is not the outer objects that entangle us. It is the inner clinging that entangles us. ~ Tilopa, #KEYS
1324:Man's first duty is to conquer fear. ~ Carlyle, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1325:Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one's own self.
~ Franz Kafka,#KEYS
1326:No effort is needed to remain as the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1327:No man can serve two masters. ~ Sankhya Karika, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1328:Quench not the spirit. ~ I Thessalonians V. 19, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1329:Remember that the devil has only one door by which to enter the soul: the will." ~ Saint Padre Pio, #KEYS
1330:Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb." ~ Revelation 7:9-10, #KEYS
1331:Seeing the world, the jnani sees the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1332: Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary." ~ Blaise Pascal, #KEYS
1333:Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary.
~ Blaise Pascal,#KEYS
1334:Sometimes there is nothing you can do but let it rain, and wait for the sunshine." ~ Ayush Jaiswal, #KEYS
1335:The body is transitory [and hence unreal]. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1336:The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Exodus, 14:14, #KEYS
1337:The Master is God Himself. Practice spiritual disciplines and you shall see Him. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
1338:The mercy of God, my son, is infinitely greater than your malice. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
1339:The mind vanishing, the Self shines forth. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1340:The mirror is not the same as its reflection. Being is not the same as appearing ~ Claudio Naranjo, #KEYS
1341:The moral meaning gives us the rule of daily life. ~ The anagogy shows us where we end our strife., #KEYS
1342:The righteous man is always active. ~ Chi-King, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1343:The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever." ~ Jacques Yves Cousteau, #KEYS
1344:The true creator is necessity, which is the mother of our invention.
~ Plato,#KEYS
1345:The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth." ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
1346:The while amazed between His Beauty and His Majesty I stood in silent ecstasy. ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya, #KEYS
1347:To be full of light is the aim. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talks, 70, #KEYS
1348:We all have the right to ask for Grace
~ Swami Vivekananda, [T6],#KEYS
1349:We have forgotten the age-old fact that God speaks chiefly through dreams and visions. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
1350:We must first live well if we are to philosophize well. ~ W Norris Clarke, The Universe as Journey, #KEYS
1351:We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it. ~ C S Lewis, #KEYS
1352:What is, is the Self. It is all-pervading. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1353:Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it." ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
1354:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Matthew, 6:21, #KEYS
1355:A library is the first step of a thousand journeys, portal to a thousand worlds. ~ Orson Scott Card, #KEYS
1356:Be content and live within your heart-deep inside - it is the only way to have peace. ~ MOTHER MIRA, #KEYS
1357:Be courteous, treat the other fellow as though he is as important as he thinks he is.
~ Anonymous,#KEYS
1358:Be thy own torch; rise up and become wise. ~ id, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1359:For the paradise behind... ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1360:For the two of us, home isn't a place. It is a person. And we are finally home. ~ Stephanie Perkins, #KEYS
1361:Have faith in the Lord's mercy and all can and will change.
~ The Mother,#KEYS
1362:I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Luke, 19:40, #KEYS
1363:It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Psalms, 118:8, #KEYS
1364:It is needful to watch over oneself. ~ Chu-King, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1365:I was no longer the centre of my life and therefore I could see God in everything. ~ Venerable Bede, #KEYS
1366:Leap and the net will appear. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
1367:Learn how to read the love letters send by the wind and rain, the snow and moon. ~ Ikkyu, 1394-1481, #KEYS
1368:Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world. ~ Voltaire, #KEYS
1369:Light dawns in the darkness for the upright; he is gracious, merciful, and righteous. ~ Psalm 112:4, #KEYS
1370:Never lie; for to lie is infamous. ~ Zendavesta, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1371:of the soul, of the soul." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1372:Only God can see what is in the bottom of our hearts; we are half-blind. ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #KEYS
1373:Only the annihilation of 'I' is Liberation. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1374:Patience is not simply the ability to wait - it's how we behave while we're waiting." ~ Joyce Meyer, #KEYS
1375:Purity and peace make men upright. ~ Lao-Tsu-Te, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1376:Reason is the foundation of all things. ~ Li-Ki, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1377:Sit immovably in the place where being superior or inferior to others doesn't matter. ~ Kodo Sawaki, #KEYS
1378:Teaching without words, performing without actions; that is the master's way. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.43, #KEYS
1379:The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.
~ Oscar Wilde,#KEYS
1380:The book which most deserved to be banned would be a catalog of banned books. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
1381:The fairest order in the world is a heap of random sweepings. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
1382:The genuine priest always feels something higher than compassion. ~ Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, #KEYS
1383:The hours of folly are measured by the clock; but of wisdom, no clock can measure." ~ William Blake, #KEYS
1384:The lamps are different, but the Light is the same. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1385:The more fear you confront and conquer, the greater the courage you will possess.
~ Chin-Ning Chu,#KEYS
1386:The name of human you cannot retain. ~ Saadi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1387:The purpose of study is preaching, and of preaching the salvation of souls. ~ Bl. Humbert of Romans, #KEYS
1388:The Real Self is continuous and unaffected. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1389:There is no better way to exercise the imagination than the study of the law. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
1390:There is no me, no you, no manifold world; All is the Self, and the Self alone. ~ The Avadhuta Gita, #KEYS
1391:The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules. ~ Gary Gygax, #KEYS
1392:The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places.
~ Ernest Hemingway,#KEYS
1393:The world is preparing for a big change.
Will you help? ~ The Mother,#KEYS
1394:To have wisdom is worth more than pearls. ~ Job, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1395:Truth was the only daughter of Time.
~ Leonardo da Vinci, ., 1152,#KEYS
1396:ubject thyself to thee. ~ Bhagavad Gita XII. 11, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1397:What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable? ~ John Green, #KEYS
1398:... When the Church and the world are one, then those days are at hand." ~ Saint Anthony the Abbot, #KEYS
1399:When the speech condemns a free press, you are hearing the words of a tyrant.
~ Thomas Jefferson?,#KEYS
1400:When the world pushes you to your knees, you are in the perfect position to pray. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1401:Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine." ~ Anthony J. D'Angelo, #KEYS
1402:Wisdom is a thing vast and grand. She demands all the time that one can consecrate to her. ~ Seneca, #KEYS
1403:Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
1404:All the ways of this world are as fickle and unstable as a sudden storm at sea. ~ Bede the Venerable, #KEYS
1405:All things come out of the one, and the one out of all things. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
1406:Be ye steadfast, immovable. ~ Corinthians XV. 58, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1407:Brothers, be good one unto another. ~ Baha-ullah, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1408:But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? (Luke 1:43) ~ Saint Elizabeth, #KEYS
1409:Chase realities not dreams." ~ Jay Gardner, "I Wish I Was the Person I'm Pretending to Be,", (2008)., #KEYS
1410:Do not cling to the experience of emptiness, and appearances will purify themselves. ~ Yeshe Tsogyal, #KEYS
1411:Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.15, #KEYS
1412:Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them." ~ Marcus Aurelius, #KEYS
1413:Even the slightest breach of God's laws will be taken into account. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
1414:Every man has in himself the most dangerous traitor of all. ~ Soren Kierkegaard, Works of Love, [T5], #KEYS
1415:Everyone who can speak the truth, yet speaks it not, will be judged by God… ~ Saint Justin Martyr., #KEYS
1416:Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God.
~ Blaise Pascal,#KEYS
1417:Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase. ~ Martin Luther King Jr., #KEYS
1418:First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald, #KEYS
1419:For most of my life, one of the persons most baffled by my own work was myself. ~ Benoît Mandelbrot, #KEYS
1420:God illumines the mind and shines within it. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1421:Going on a pilgrimage is like falling in love with the greenness of faraway grass. ~ Lalla 1320-1392, #KEYS
1422:Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
~ Ernest Hemingway, The Garden of Eden,#KEYS
1423:He is the wisest who seeks God. He is the most successful who has found God. ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, #KEYS
1424:He who receives Light from above, from the fountain of light, No other doctrine needs. ~ John Milton, #KEYS
1425:I am the mother of pure love and of science and of sacred hope. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Ecclesiastes, #KEYS
1426:If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
1427:In spite of the night the spiritual Light is there. ~ The Mother, CWM 15:68, #KEYS
1428:Love has circled the Ka'ba. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1429:May the Master protect you. He is looking after you; what should you be afraid of? ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
1430:None can be saved without being reborn. ~ Hennes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1431:No one is free that has not obtained the empire of their self. ~ Pythagoras, #KEYS
1432:Nurture your minds with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes.
~ Benjamin Disraeli,#KEYS
1433:One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful. ~ Sigmund Freud, #KEYS
1434:Only the hand that erases can write the true thing." ~ Meister Eckhart, #KEYS
1435:Suffering is the way for Realization of God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1436:The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence." ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #KEYS
1437:The biggest coward is a man who awakens a woman's love with no intention of loving her. ~ Bob Marley, #KEYS
1438:The fire divine burns indivisible and ineffable and fills all the abysses of the world. ~ Iamblichus, #KEYS
1439:The good man remains calm and serene. ~ Chi-king, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1440:The heart of man is, so to speak, the paradise of God." ~ Saint Alphonsus Marie Liguori, (1696-1787), #KEYS
1441:The heavy is the root of the light. The unmoved is the source of all movement. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.26, #KEYS
1442:The ignorant is a child. ~ Laws of Manu. II. 193, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1443:The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
~ Sophocles,#KEYS
1444:The lover of God will cry and weep until he finds rest in the Beloved's embrace. ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya, #KEYS
1445:The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible. ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
1446:The older I get, the more it looks like Plato was onto something.… ~ Jan Zwicky, A Ship from Delos, #KEYS
1447:The Self you seek to know is truly yourself. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1448:... The storm approaches—be on thy guard! I trust thou wilt stand firm!" ~ Venerable Anna Emmerich, #KEYS
1449:The vagaries of life though painful teach us not to cling to this floating world. ~ Ikkyu, 1394-1481, #KEYS
1450:The wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water molds itself to the pitcher. ~ Buddhist Proverb, #KEYS
1451:Thou belongest to the divine world. ~ Baha-ullah, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1452:Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings - always darker, emptier and simpler. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
1453:True happiness consists not in the multitude of friends - but in the worth and choice." ~ Ben Jonson, #KEYS
1454:True ideas do not change or develop, but remain as they are in the timeless 'present'. ~ Rene Guenon, #KEYS
1455:True knowledge does not grow old, so have declared the sages of all times. ~ Buddhist Canons in Pali, #KEYS
1456:Truth alone will endure, all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time.
~ Mahatma Gandhi,#KEYS
1457:Understanding is a three edged sword: your side, their side, and the truth. ~ J. Michael Straczynski, #KEYS
1458:Under the comb, the tangle and the straight path are the same. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
1459:We are in our Self. We are not in the world. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1460:We do not rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training. ~ Archilochus, #KEYS
1461:When the heart is at peace, "for" and "against" are forgotten. ~ Chuang Tzu, #KEYS
1462:When the right causes and conditions come together, anything can appear.
~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche,#KEYS
1463:When the world wearies, and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the Garden. ~ Minnie Aumonier, #KEYS
1464:Who are the true philosophers? Those whose passion is to love the truth. ~ Plato, #KEYS
1465:Why stand ye here all the day idle? ~ Matthew XX, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1466:Will is the soul of the universe. ~ Schopenhauer, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1467:With faith in the Divine Grace, all difficulties are solved.
~ The Mother,#KEYS
1468:Without injustices,
the name of justice
would mean what? ~ Heraclitus,#KEYS
1469:You carry all the ingredients to turn your existence into joy. Mix them. ~ Hafiz, #KEYS
1470:Your mind is the cycle of births and deaths. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1471:You shall confess your sins in the church and not go to your prayer with a bad conscience. ~ Didache, #KEYS
1472:You won't discover the limits of the soul, however far you go. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
1473:All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle. ~ St. Francis of Assisi, #KEYS
1474:A man needs a little madness, or else... he never dares cut the rope and be free. ~ Nikos Kazantzakis, #KEYS
1475:A monk asked Master Haryo, What is the way? Haryo said, An open-eyed man falling into the well.
~ ?,#KEYS
1476:And so the Apostle says that this mystical wisdom is revealed by the Holy Spirit. ~ Saint Bonaventure, #KEYS
1477:Be holy in every kind of action. ~ kihagavad Gita, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1478:Blessed is the man who can love every man equally. ~ Maximus the Confessor, Centuries on Charity 1.17, #KEYS
1479:But it must truly be development of the faith, not alteration of the faith. ~ Saint Vincent of Lerins, #KEYS
1480:Do not be trapped by the need to achieve anything. This way, you achieve everything." ~ Frank Herbert, #KEYS
1481:Duty is the demand of the hour. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
1482:Evil resides in the very gaze which perceives Evil all around itself. ~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, #KEYS
1483:Fear pleasure, it is the mother of grief. ~ Solon, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1484:For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Romans, 10:13, #KEYS
1485:Forsake your ignorance and live. ~ Proverbs IX. 6, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1486:He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
1487:Humility is the mark of a genuine disciple. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
1488:If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves." ~ Thomas A. Edison, #KEYS
1489:In the end, everyone must come to Arunachala. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1490:Just for today, be a little child. Know the world is safe. Know that you are loved." ~ Iyanla Vanzant, #KEYS
1491:Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
1492:Make the divine presence your destination. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #KEYS
1493:May my life be a continual prayer, a long act of love." ~ Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, (1880-1906), #KEYS
1494:No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.
~ Buddha,#KEYS
1495:Oh, Lord, nourish me not with love, but with the desire for love. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
1496:Receptivity is proportionate to self-giving. ~ The Mother, Some Answers, S10, #KEYS
1497:Role-playing isn't storytelling. If the dungeon master is directing it, it's not a game. ~ Gary Gygax, #KEYS
1498:Self-enquiry and Self-surrender are the same. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1499:Soul is one. Nature is one, life is one. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1500:So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald, #KEYS
*** WISDOM TROVE ***
1:Venus favors the bold. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 2:The gods favor the bold. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 3:Even the gods love jokes. ~ plato, @wisdomtrove 4:Habit had made the custom. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 5:I speak for the trees! ~ dr-seuss, @wisdomtrove 6:Hatched in the same nest. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 7:Love can tame the wildest. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 8:Self-help is the best help ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 9:The good is the beautiful. ~ plato, @wisdomtrove 10:The poetry of speech. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 11:The words can not return. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 12:The truth is ever best. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 13:Example is the best precept. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 14:God himself favors the brave. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 15:Leave the rest to the gods. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 16:The cautious seldom err. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 17:The gods have their own laws. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 18:The past is obdurate. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 19:The self is hateful. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 20:Worry divides the mind. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 21:A short absence is the safest. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 22:But let the good prevail. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 23:Carpe diem. (Seize the day.) ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 24:Equals make the best friends. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 25:Everyone honors the wise. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 26:The air is all softness. ~ john-keats, @wisdomtrove 27:The end excuses any evil. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 28:The gods have their own rules. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 29:The grammarians are arguing. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 30:The great god Pan is dead. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 31:The job is not the work. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 32:The result justifies the deed. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 33:The spirits run riot in youth. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 34:The way to do... is to be. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 35:To find is the thing. ~ pablo-picasso, @wisdomtrove 36:Woman is the masterpiece. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 37:Attack the enemy's strategy. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 38:Beauty is the gift of God. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 39:Defeat the enemies strategy. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 40:Even the old should learn. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 41:Find joy in the ordinary. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 42:I am sure the grapes are sour. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 43:Idleness ruins the constitution ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 44:I know I'm on the path. ~ esther-hicks, @wisdomtrove 45:Oh, the places you will go. ~ dr-seuss, @wisdomtrove 46:Rest is for the dead. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 47:Slow but steady wins the race. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 48:The menu is not the meal. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove 49:The same night awaits us all. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 50:The Universe adores me… ~ esther-hicks, @wisdomtrove 51:Treat the past as a school. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 52:All Thing Serve the Beam ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 53:Always examine the dice. ~ groucho-marx, @wisdomtrove 54:Excess weakens the spirits. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 55:In the end is my beginning. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 56:Let the poor man mind his tongue ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 57:Only the educated are free. ~ epictetus, @wisdomtrove 58:Put your shoulder to the wheel. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 59:Success is in the details. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 60:The brave venture anything. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 61:The devil is God's ape! ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 62:The less said the better. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 63:The life of men is painful. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 64:The monster nevers dies. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 65:The strong are so stupid. ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 66:.. they have the power. ~ napoleon-hill, @wisdomtrove 67:Be gentle with the earth. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 68:But the universe is infinite. ~ epicurus, @wisdomtrove 69:Delay not to seize the hour! ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 70:Fear is the mind-killer. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 71:Fortune and love favor the brave. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 72:Gold makes the ugly beautiful. ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 73:I accept the universe! ~ margaret-fuller, @wisdomtrove 74:Listen to the voices. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 75:Little by little does the trick. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 76:Make a good use of the present. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 77:Music is the 5th gospel. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 78:Safety lies in the middle course. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 79:The computer is a moron. ~ peter-drucker, @wisdomtrove 80:The end is in the beginning. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 81:The God knows when to smile. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 82:The great do not always prevail. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 83:The memory of a good deed lives. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 84:The mind alone can not be exiled. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 85:The more honor, the more danger. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 86:The root of war is fear. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 87:The Secret is within you. ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 88:the sleeper must awaken. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 89:The soul is here for its own joy. ~ rumi, @wisdomtrove 90:The world is no nursery. ~ sigmund-freud, @wisdomtrove 91:War is the trade of kings. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 92:You will be safest in the middle. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 93:April is the cruellest month. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 94:Change is the only constant. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 95:Don't long for the unripe grape. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 96:Drawing is the true test of art. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 97:Faith is the force of life. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 98:Fame is the thirst of youth. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 99:Fortune and love favour the brave. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 100:God enters through the wound. ~ carl-jung, @wisdomtrove 101:God is the same everywhere. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 102:Good-bye to the lies of the poets. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 103:Humble things become the humble. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 104:I am the Avatar of this Age! ~ meher-baba, @wisdomtrove 105:Nobody loses all the time. ~ e-e-cummings, @wisdomtrove 106:Rapidity is the essence of war. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 107:Tell the children the truth. ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 108:The act is judged of by the event. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 109:The best is the enemy of good. ~ voltaire, @wisdomtrove 110:The best of times is now. ~ oprah-winfrey, @wisdomtrove 111:The covetous are always in want. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 112:The devil has his elect. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 113:The end doesn't justify the means. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 114:The good befriend themselves. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 115:The greatest prayer is patience. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove 116:Time is generally the best doctor. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 117:Time's the thief of memory ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 118:Weigh the situation, then move. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 119:Against the bold, daring is unsafe. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 120:All men are the same age. ~ dorothy-parker, @wisdomtrove 121:A man perfect to the finger tips. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 122:And so the Universe ended. ~ douglas-adams, @wisdomtrove 123:Assassination's the fastest way. ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 124:Beauty is the flower of virtue. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 125:Celery, raw, Develops the jaw ~ ogden-nash, @wisdomtrove 126:Don't carry logs into the forest. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 127:Explore daily the will of God. ~ carl-jung, @wisdomtrove 128:I listen to the voices. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 129:Jazz is the music of the body. ~ anais-nin, @wisdomtrove 130:Love is the every only god. ~ e-e-cummings, @wisdomtrove 131:Modesty is the color of virtue. ~ diogenes, @wisdomtrove 132:My work is loving the world. ~ mary-oliver, @wisdomtrove 133:Order is the greatest grace. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 134:Pity melts the mind to love. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 135:Simple is the speech of truth. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 136:The absent are easily refuted. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 137:The best fighter is never angry. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 138:The bowl dispels corroding cares. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 139:The covetous man is ever in want. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 140:The cure for pain is in the pain. ~ rumi, @wisdomtrove 141:The end of man is action. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 142:The grand instructor, time. ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 143:The times they are a-changing. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 144:The winds are out of breath. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 145:The words of truth are simple. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 146:Time is the devourer of all things. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 147:Truth is the edict of God. ~ josh-billings, @wisdomtrove 148:Vanity is but the surface. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 149:Where the earth is, we are. ~ walt-whitman, @wisdomtrove 150:A greater liar than the Parthians. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 151:Always speak the truth. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 152:And then the world exploded. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 153:Ask the gods nothing excessive. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 154:Blushing is the color of virtue. ~ diogenes, @wisdomtrove 155:Breath is the king of mind. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 156:Change generally pleases the rich. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 157:Desire is the great equalizer. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 158:Do I dare disturb the universe? ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 159:Do not kick against the pricks. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 160:Fidelity is the sister of justice. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 161:History is the new poetry. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 162:I don't have all the answers. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 163:Its fun to do the unexpected. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 164:Know the enemy and know yourself. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 165:Live in the moment, simply be. ~ jean-klein, @wisdomtrove 166:Make way for the positive day. ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 167:My hat is in the ring. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 168:Now comes the mystery. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 169:Philosophy is the art of living. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 170:Pleasant words are the food of love. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 171:Relax into the present moment. ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove 172:Sincerity is the way of heaven. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 173:Success is the reward for toil. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 174:The brave find a home in every land. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 175:The end is where we start from. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 176:The fruit of faith is love. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 177:The heart cannot be contained. ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove 178:The naked truth is still taboo. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 179:The ocean is made of drops. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 180:The only way out is through. ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 181:The radio makes hideous sounds. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 182:The truth is always an abyss. ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove 183:The truth is in the details. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 184:The turtle couldn't help us. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 185:The tyrant is a child of pride. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 186:The ungovernable passion for wealth. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 187:The wisdom of our ancestors. ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 188:The wisest have the most authority. ~ plato, @wisdomtrove 189:The wisest of the wise may err. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 190:The wretched have no friends. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 191:Time is generally the best medicine. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 192:We learn from the things we suffer. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 193:We of the craft are all crazy. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 194:All eternity is in the moment. ~ mary-oliver, @wisdomtrove 195:Art is a leap into the dark. ~ pablo-picasso, @wisdomtrove 196:Charity opens the heart. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 197:courage is the gift of character ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 198:Do not be amazed by the true dragon. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove 199:Enough is abundance to the wise. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 200:History - the devil's scripture ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 201:If the art is concealed, it succeeds. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 202:I gave you the best of me. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 203:In the water I am beautiful. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 204:Irony is wasted on the stupid. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 205:Law is the ultimate science. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 206:Marvelous are the innocent. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 207:Misfortunes often sharpen the genius. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 208:Normality is the new eccentric. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove 209:Only the boring get bored ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 210:Pray to God and say the lines. ~ bette-davis, @wisdomtrove 211:Questions outlive the answers. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 212:Reality is inside the skull. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 213:Rest is the sweet sauce of labor. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 214:Science is the true theology. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 215:See the cat? See the cradle? ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 216:Take the road less travelled. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 217:The Art of War is self-explanatory ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 218:The danger lies in forgetting. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 219:The glory is for those who deserve. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 220:The language of truth is simple. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 221:The mob is the mother of tyrants. ~ diogenes, @wisdomtrove 222:The most important time is Now ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 223:The reward is found in the work. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 224:The road goes ever on and on ~ j-r-r-tolkien, @wisdomtrove 225:The same is thinking and being. ~ parmenides, @wisdomtrove 226:Too many cooks spoil the broth ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 227:Victory is the main object in war. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 228:Wherever you are is the entry point. ~ kabir, @wisdomtrove 229:Wisdom is the use of knowledge ~ dan-millman, @wisdomtrove 230:Christmas is the alcoholidays ~ sigmund-freud, @wisdomtrove 231:Common sense is the best prophet. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 232:Cultivate the habit of laughter. ~ og-mandino, @wisdomtrove 233:Do great in the small things. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 234:Doubt is the beginning of wisdom. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 235:Fortune befriends the bold. ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 236:Give the devil his due. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 237:God's way is still the best way. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 238:Going to the woods is going home. ~ john-muir, @wisdomtrove 239:Gratitude is the sign of noble souls. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 240:Habit is the nursery of errors. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 241:In the end you have only you. ~ leo-buscaglia, @wisdomtrove 242:Is not poetry the food of love? ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 243:It is a kingly act to help the fallen. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 244:Life is wasted on the living. ~ douglas-adams, @wisdomtrove 245:Love is the door to eternity. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 246:Love is the only gold. ~ alfred-lord-tennyson, @wisdomtrove 247:Money is the wise man's religion. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 248:Money pads the edges of things. ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 249:Nobody ever finds the one. ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 250:Obedience is the road to freedom. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 251:Only the wounded physician heals. ~ carl-jung, @wisdomtrove 252:Open the pod bay doors, Hal. ~ arthur-c-carke, @wisdomtrove 253:Out of the formless the forms appear. ~ mooji, @wisdomtrove 254:Plant no other tree before the vine. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 255:Poetry is the Devil's wine. ~ saint-augustine, @wisdomtrove 256:Reason is the enemy of faith. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 257:Results, are the name of the game. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 258:Sticking to it is the genius. ~ thomas-edison, @wisdomtrove 259:That tuneful nymph, the babbling Echo. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 260:The best is the cheapest. ~ benjamin-franklin, @wisdomtrove 261:The bold adventurer succeeds the best. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 262:The brain is drawn to bad news. ~ rick-hanson, @wisdomtrove 263:The burned hand teaches best. ~ j-r-r-tolkien, @wisdomtrove 264:The busy have no time for tears. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 265:The chase of gain is rich in hate ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 266:The childless escape much misery. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 267:The devil was the first democrat ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 268:The dew of compassion is a tear. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 269:The enemy of creativity is fear. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 270:The enemy of fear is creativity. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 271:The eye altering, alters all. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 272:The goal of all life is death ~ sigmund-freud, @wisdomtrove 273:The gods behold all righteous actions. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 274:The king is the man who can. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 275:The madman is a dreamer awake ~ sigmund-freud, @wisdomtrove 276:The object of power is power. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 277:The only way round is through. ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 278:The prayers of cowards fortune spurns. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 279:The reward of pain is experience. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 280:The sergeant is the Army. ~ dwight-eisenhower, @wisdomtrove 281:The true objective of war is peace. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 282:The unenvied man is not enviable. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 283:Time is the Mercy of Eternity ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 284:Time, time will heal the wound. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 285:To choose always the hardest. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 286:Two wives? That exceeds the custom. ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 287:Violence is not the way. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 288:War is the mother of everything. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 289:We are all alike, on the inside. ~ mark-twain, @wisdomtrove 290:We are gods in the chrysalis. ~ dale-carnegie, @wisdomtrove 291:We are the living devils. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 292:We ran as if to meet the moon. ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 293:Words are the voice of the heart. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 294:Your soul is the whole world. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 295:You will go most safely in the middle. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 296:A man is known by the company he keeps ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 297:A man is the origin of his action. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 298:Any day stands equal to the rest. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 299:art is the pulse of a nation. ~ gertrude-stein, @wisdomtrove 300:As we are - the world is. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 301:Beauty will save the world ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 302:Be open. And then the truth follows. ~ gangaji, @wisdomtrove 303:Boredom: the desire for desires. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 304:Difficulty is what wakes up the genius. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 305:Doubters will doubt to the end. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 306:Eternity is the Absolute present. ~ d-t-suzuki, @wisdomtrove 307:Even the worthy Homer sometimes nods. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 308:Faith is the yes of the heart. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 309:Fear no more, says the heart. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 310:Fills The air around with beauty. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 311:Giving is the secret of abundance. ~ sivananda, @wisdomtrove 312:Grief is the price of victory. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 313:Happiness is the reward of virtue. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 314:I have the knack of easing scruples. ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 315:I like you just the way you are. ~ fred-rogers, @wisdomtrove 316:In the beginning was the myth. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 317:I sin, but I'm not the devil. ~ marilyn-monroe, @wisdomtrove 318:It is ill to marry in the month of May. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 319:I will never be below the title. ~ bette-davis, @wisdomtrove 320:Kings are the slaves of history. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 321:Love is often the fruit of marriage. ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 322:Morality ends where the gun begins. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 323:Noon - is the Hinge of Day-. ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 324:Purity is the fruit of prayer. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 325:Quickness is the essence of the war. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 326:Take up the battle. Take it up. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 327:The answer is blowin' in the wind. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 328:The book you don't read won't help. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 329:The bourgeois are other people. ~ jules-renard, @wisdomtrove 330:The cure for grief is motion. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 331:The deeds of men never escape the gods. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 332:The dreamer is one with the dream. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 333:The ear is the avenue to the heart. ~ voltaire, @wisdomtrove 334:The eyes of my eyes are opened. ~ e-e-cummings, @wisdomtrove 335:The gods have become our diseases. ~ carl-jung, @wisdomtrove 336:The law is an ass, an idiot. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 337:The love of fame puts spurs to the mind ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 338:The only failure is not trying. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 339:The only thing constant is change ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 340:The only way around is through. ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 341:The open road still softly calls. ~ carl-sagan, @wisdomtrove 342:The people in my songs are all me. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 343:The sun's not yellow, its chicken! ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 344:The synonym of usury is ruin. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 345:The Universe is yielding to me… ~ esther-hicks, @wisdomtrove 346:Time is the scarcest resource. ~ peter-drucker, @wisdomtrove 347:Toleration is the best religion. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 348:We are all gathered to the same fold. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 349:We are gods in the chrysalis. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 350:What man speaks to the stars. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove 351:Action often precedes the feeling. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 352:After the rain cometh the fair weather. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 353:All the world loves a good loser. ~ kin-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 354:Art is the escape from personality. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 355:Beware the fury of a patient man. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 356:Beware the hobby that eats. ~ benjamin-franklin, @wisdomtrove 357:Bring me the sunset in a cup. ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 358:Calumny is only the noise of madmen. ~ diogenes, @wisdomtrove 359:Catch the beauty of the moment! ~ leo-buscaglia, @wisdomtrove 360:Competence is the enemy of change! ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 361:Death is the last limit of all things. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 362:Doubt is the origin of wisdom. ~ rene-descartes, @wisdomtrove 363:Empathy is the antidote to shame. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 364:Faith is under the left nipple. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 365:Farewell! I go to find the Sun! ~ j-r-r-tolkien, @wisdomtrove 366:Fatigue is the best pillow. ~ benjamin-franklin, @wisdomtrove 367:Fear first created the gods. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 368:Folly loves the martyrdom of fame. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 369:For the future. For the unborn. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 370:God loves the world through us. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 371:Habit: A shackle for the free. ~ ambrose-bierce, @wisdomtrove 372:Happiness is not the portion of man. ~ voltaire, @wisdomtrove 373:Honesty is the best policy. ~ benjamin-franklin, @wisdomtrove 374:Humor was the enemy of desire. ~ arthur-c-carke, @wisdomtrove 375:I know why the caged bird sings. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 376:Innovation is the only way to win. ~ steve-jobs, @wisdomtrove 377:I see before me the gladiator lie. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 378:It is useless attacking the insensible. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 379:Kill the king but spare the man. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 380:Labour is the source of every blessing. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 381:Let's make a dent in the universe. ~ steve-jobs, @wisdomtrove 382:Let the other person save face. ~ dale-carnegie, @wisdomtrove 383:Low aim, not failure, is the crime. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 384:Made happy music through the gloom. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 385:Meditate. Live purely. Quiet the mind. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove 386:Memory is the mother of all wisdom. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 387:Motion is the sign of life. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 388:Myriad laughter of the ocean waves. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 389:Never mistake the power of influence ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 390:No one loves the man whom he fears. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 391:Only the mind cannot be sent into exile. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 392:Resistance is the secret of joy! ~ alice-walker, @wisdomtrove 393:Rough Johnson, the great moralist. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 394:Seek the spirit, forget the form. ~ bulleh-shah, @wisdomtrove 395:Somebody was using the pencil. ~ dorothy-parker, @wisdomtrove 396:Song is the heroics of speech. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 397:Success consists in the climb. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 398:That queen of secrecy, the violet. ~ john-keats, @wisdomtrove 399:The actual well seen is ideal. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 400:the beauty of doing nothing ~ elizabeth-gilbert, @wisdomtrove 401:The big show is inside my head, ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 402:The cut worm forgives the plow. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 403:The envious will die, but envy never. ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 404:The expected always happens ~ benjamin-disraeli, @wisdomtrove 405:The fruit of Silence is Prayer. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 406:The future belongs to the free. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 407:The gods help them who help themselves. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 408:The gods see the deeds of the righteous. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 409:The Kingdom of God is Within You. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 410:The living moment is everything. ~ d-h-lawrence, @wisdomtrove 411:The nature of war is constant change. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 412:The object of powder is powder. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 413:The only shame is to have none. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 414:The only way to coast is downhill. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 415:The purpose of art is to stop time. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 416:The result proves the wisdom of the act. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 417:The rose is often found near the nettle. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 418:The soul is known by it's acts. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 419:The Truth An Offense But Not A Sin ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 420:The truth is lived, not taught. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 421:To the devil with false modesty. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 422:Trifles make the sum of life. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 423:Truth is the first of jewels. ~ margaret-fuller, @wisdomtrove 424:Use the occasion, for it passes swiftly. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 425:War is the father and king of all. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 426:What the wise seek is in themselves ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 427:When you walk in the mist, you get wet. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove 428:Wisdom is the health of the soul. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 429:Above all shadows rides the sun. ~ j-r-r-tolkien, @wisdomtrove 430:A burnt finger remember the fire. ~ alice-walker, @wisdomtrove 431:Adversity tests the sincerity of friends ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 432:All change is in the screen. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 433:All growth is a leap in the dark. ~ henry-miller, @wisdomtrove 434:Always invest for the long term. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 435:A pot a cook but the food nah nuff. ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 436:Asking is the beginning of receiving. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 437:Beauty would save the world. ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 438:Beware the man of a single book. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 439:Bureaucracy, the rule of nobody. ~ hannah-arendt, @wisdomtrove 440:But the silence spoke volumes. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 441:Consistency is the DNA of mastery ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 442:Dancing is the poetry of the foot. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 443:Don't join the book burners! ~ dwight-eisenhower, @wisdomtrove 444:Emotions are the curse of logic. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 445:Enthusiasm is the fever of reason. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 446:Everyone's quick to blame the alien. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 447:Fear is the fatal killer of desire. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 448:Fill high the cup with Samian wine! ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 449:Foppery is the egotism of clothes. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 450:Hate destroys the hater... ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 451:Hatred is the madness of the heart. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 452:Herb is the unification of mankind. ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 453:Here, or nowhere, is the thing we seek. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 454:Home is the definition of God. ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 455:Honesty's the best policy. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 456:How can I express the darkness? ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 457:Humanity is the equity of the heart. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 458:I am not the river I am the net. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 459:I keep my undies in the icebox! ~ marilyn-monroe, @wisdomtrove 460:I'm a holy man minus the holiness. ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 461:I'm sin, but I'm not the devil. ~ marilyn-monroe, @wisdomtrove 462:I'm the Ted Bundy of string theory. ~ sam-harris, @wisdomtrove 463:Intuition is seeing with the soul. ~ dean-koontz, @wisdomtrove 464:In war, truth is the first casualty. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 465:I see the cure is not worth the pain. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 466:I sell mirrors in the city of the blind. ~ kabir, @wisdomtrove 467:It's right to learn, even from the enemy. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 468:Laziness is the mother of all evils. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 469:Let us have the luxury of silence. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 470:Love is the absence of judgment. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 471:Love is the great conqueror of lust. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 472:Love the necessary hard work. ~ danielle-laporte, @wisdomtrove 473:Many friends are the key to happiness ~ epicurus, @wisdomtrove 474:May the Lord bless you real good. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 475:Music is the shorthand of emotion. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 476:My television is the tabernacle. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 477:Never mind the use& 478:No critic ever changed the world. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 479:No two people have the same reality ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove 480:OK, so what's the speed of dark? ~ steven-wright, @wisdomtrove 481:Poetry should only occupy the idle. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 482:Prolonged endurance tames the bold. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 483:Prosperity knits a man to the world. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 484:Renunciation is of the mind. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 485:Simplicity is the key to brilliance. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 486:Smile always - and live the smile! ~ edgar-cayce, @wisdomtrove 487:Solitude terrifies the soul at twenty. ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 488:Spare the soul that feels a deadly wound. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 489:Stand guard at the door of your mind. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 490:Strike while the iron is hot. ~ geoffrey-chaucer, @wisdomtrove 491:Success is the enemy of comedy. ~ jerry-seinfeld, @wisdomtrove 492:Take the best. Leave the rest. ~ richard-branson, @wisdomtrove 493:Tears at times have the weight of speech. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 494:Tell the truth and not the facts. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 495:The belly comes before the soul. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 496:The body cannot be the soul. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 497:The child endures all things. ~ maria-montessori, @wisdomtrove 498:The Christian is an idol breaker. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 499:The cross alone is our theology. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 500:The damaged loves the damaged. ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:All the literati keep ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
2:Alone into the alone. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
3:Alva Johnston. ~ The Paris Review, #NFDB
4:at the Secret ~ Gregory Zuckerman, #NFDB
5:because the hospital ~ K L Slater, #NFDB
6:Bench (on the green) ~ Sandy Hall, #NFDB
7:Bits in the ether. ~ James Gleick, #NFDB
8:Blood is the life. ~ Brian Lumley, #NFDB
9:But the girls are exiled. ~ Tijan, #NFDB
10:by the same craftsman ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
11:called the swap space ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
12:cap. The newspaper ~ John Grisham, #NFDB
13:Cut the shit, Riles. ~ Jaymin Eve, #NFDB
14:dance the pain ~ Sona Charaipotra, #NFDB
15:Dancing up the full moon ~ Sappho, #NFDB
16:Do Not Love the World ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
17:Egorova-the-mole ~ Jason Matthews, #NFDB
18:Embrace the Struggle. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
19:Even the Gods love jokes. ~ Plato, #NFDB
20:Even the gods love jokes. ~ Plato, #NFDB
21:Excuse us for the news, ~ Chuck D, #NFDB
22:Forget the past. ~ Nelson Mandela, #NFDB
23:for the LORD p knows ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
24:Fortune favors the bold ~ Ken Liu, #NFDB
25:Fuck the Russia ~ Khaled Hosseini, #NFDB
26:God, keep forever the ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
27:God put thorns around the ~ Rumi, #NFDB
28:go off the deep end ~ Enid Blyton, #NFDB
29:gunned the engine ~ Bella Forrest, #NFDB
30:Habit had made the custom. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
31:has the ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett, #NFDB
32:Haven't the faintest. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
33:He is pure of all name. ~ The Bab, #NFDB
34:he means. Isn’t the ~ J P Delaney, #NFDB
35:Here be the Dragons ~ April Henry, #NFDB
36:I am the greatest. ~ Muhammad Ali, #NFDB
37:I am the wilderness. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
38:If the doctors cure ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
39:I love the fast lane. ~ Eva Gabor, #NFDB
40:I missed the future. ~ John Green, #NFDB
41:I'm pain in the spoken form; ~ Ka, #NFDB
42:I’m the esclave. ~ Pepper Winters, #NFDB
43:in the soil. She ~ Anne Hillerman, #NFDB
44:I speak for the trees! ~ Dr Seuss, #NFDB
45:Is the truth not kind? ~ Tom King, #NFDB
46:I still taste the past. ~ Unknown, #NFDB
47:IV THE HO-HO WIZARD ~ Enid Blyton, #NFDB
48:Life goes on, brah! ~ The Beatles, #NFDB
49:Live in the opening where ~ Rumi, #NFDB
50:look for the good ~ Justin Bieber, #NFDB
51:Lord of the Muck. ~ Ottilie Weber, #NFDB
52:Mack, like the truck. ~ Lee Child, #NFDB
53:Mind the gap, Jack ~ Andrew Smith, #NFDB
54:numbers mean that the ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
55:on the drive over to ~ Gary Ponzo, #NFDB
56:on the winds of war. ~ Kate Quinn, #NFDB
57:perch on the wall ~ Julia Golding, #NFDB
58:Ruined by the truth ~ Lisa McMann, #NFDB
59:She looked across the room at , #NFDB
60:shut off the bike, ~ Faith Hunter, #NFDB
61:Sisters The Leaving ~ Maureen Lee, #NFDB
62:sixpence the richer ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
63:slowly the pale ~ Denise Levertov, #NFDB
64:Speak the truth. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
65:taste of the matted ~ Erin Hunter, #NFDB
66:that proved the ~ Margarita Engle, #NFDB
67:The Art of Animation ~ Ed Catmull, #NFDB
68:The autumn air is clear, ~ Li Bai, #NFDB
69:The baby is dead. ~ Le la Slimani, #NFDB
70:The belly has no ears. ~ Plutarch, #NFDB
71:The best is yet 2 b ! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
72:the boys began ~ Jonathan Renshaw, #NFDB
73:THE BOY WHO LIVED M ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
74:The branches of the ~ Martin Lake, #NFDB
75:The days are short, ~ John Updike, #NFDB
76:The die is cast.
- ~ Suetonius,#NFDB
77:the Enchanted Wood, ~ Enid Blyton, #NFDB
78:the ethereal plane ~ Scott Carney, #NFDB
79:The fact is, imagine. ~ Ali Smith, #NFDB
80:The fake seen tawdry. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
81:The fish are naked. ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
82:The god is the beautiful. ~ Plato, #NFDB
83:The gods are leaving. ~ Jos Rizal, #NFDB
84:the good part, ~ Karen McQuestion, #NFDB
85:The here-and-now mountain ~ Rumi, #NFDB
86:The Impact Equation, ~ Todd Henry, #NFDB
87:The important thing ~ Peter Weiss, #NFDB
88:The itch of scribbling. ~ Juvenal, #NFDB
89:The journey is the thing. ~ Homer, #NFDB
90:THE JUNGLE BOOK ~ Rudyard Kipling, #NFDB
91:The Last Unicorn ~ Peter S Beagle, #NFDB
92:The lover never despairs. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
93:THE MAGUS John Fowles ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
94:the man next to me. ~ Renee Rosen, #NFDB
95:the never ~ Stephen Harrod Buhner, #NFDB
96:the next time. ~ Michael Connelly, #NFDB
97:The pig says oink. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
98:The pleasantest ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
99:The queen lives. ~ Laura Thalassa, #NFDB
100:The rattling ~ Joe Clifford Faust, #NFDB
101:There they lay, the ~ D N Simmons, #NFDB
102:the right to be a god ~ S D Perry, #NFDB
103:The right to life. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
104:The Rosetta Stone, ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
105:The Sacred Hoop, ~ Gloria Steinem, #NFDB
106:The seat is empty. ~ Sarah Dalton, #NFDB
107:The song of canaries ~ Ogden Nash, #NFDB
108:The source of now is here. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
109:The stars are pears ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
110:The strong survive. ~ Ann Aguirre, #NFDB
111:The Sword of Rhiannon ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
112:THE THREE AMIGOS PLAN ~ C L Stone, #NFDB
113:THE UNBREAKABLE VOW ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
114:The Way is ever nameless. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
115:the way, they were ~ Willa Cather, #NFDB
116:The Way to do is to be. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
117:The world is a zoo ~ Edward Albee, #NFDB
118:Until the very end. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
119:Up the Faraway Tree ~ Enid Blyton, #NFDB
120:Use the hook, you ~ Steven Saylor, #NFDB
121:watch the world go by ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
122:We are the hollow men ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
123:What the hell. ~ Ernest Hemingway, #NFDB
124:Where’s the cannon? ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
125:Wine unlocks the breast. ~ Horace, #NFDB
126:Woman is the light of God. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
127:worth the candle. ~ Joseph Conrad, #NFDB
128:Wrap the turkey up ~ Adam Sandler, #NFDB
129:yet sprung up—for the ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
130:You’re the glue. ~ Megan McDonald, #NFDB
131:2 In the fourth form ~ Enid Blyton, #NFDB
132:All you need is love ~ The Beatles, #NFDB
133:And within the house ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
134:Atlanta is not the South. ~ Pimp C, #NFDB
135:B. Cory Kilvert ~ The Paris Review, #NFDB
136:Belief is the enemy. ~ John A Keel, #NFDB
137:BOOK SECOND—THE FALL ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
138:can smell the barn. ~ John Grisham, #NFDB
139:comes the one more ~ Bill O Reilly, #NFDB
140:Damn the Absolute! ~ William James, #NFDB
141:delivering the order. ~ Nick Trout, #NFDB
142:discouraged the ~ Malcolm Gladwell, #NFDB
143:EAT THE FISH, BITCH! ~ Tracy Letts, #NFDB
144:Every moment, the sunlight ~ Rumi, #NFDB
145:Every step is on the path. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
146:figure of the First. ~ Jean M Auel, #NFDB
147:fits of the sullens, ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
148:Fortune favors the Bold! ~ Terence, #NFDB
149:Fortune favors the bold. ~ Unknown, #NFDB
150:Fortune helps the brave. ~ Terence, #NFDB
151:Free the snow globes! ~ Libba Bray, #NFDB
152:Get the post, Harry. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
153:God is in the details! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
154:Grow with the flow ~ Timothy Leary, #NFDB
155:guru in the Ukraine, ~ Jim Butcher, #NFDB
156:Hatched in the same nest. ~ Horace, #NFDB
157:He is pure of all name. ~ The Bab, #NFDB
158:Hera!” Hera was the ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
159:Hera the cow queen, ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
160:How happy the lover, ~ John Dryden, #NFDB
161:hurts.” The leader ~ Kendra Elliot, #NFDB
162:I am the other. ~ G rard de Nerval, #NFDB
163:I choose the war ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
164:I knew the poor, ~ Hilda Doolittle, #NFDB
165:immediately on the ~ Sabrina Paige, #NFDB
166:Into the field of ~ Soseki Natsume, #NFDB
167:I open at the close. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
168:I've seen the needle ~ Neil Young, #NFDB
169:I write in the studio. ~ Macy Gray, #NFDB
170:Jasper eased the book ~ D M Pulley, #NFDB
171:Kerrick the weed. ~ Maria V Snyder, #NFDB
172:Let's test the waters... ~ Pusha T, #NFDB
173:Light is the shadow of god ~ Plato, #NFDB
174:Light up the darkness ~ Bob Marley, #NFDB
175:Limit the rules. ~ Jordan Peterson, #NFDB
176:Love can tame the wildest. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
177:Love is the way messengers ~ Rumi, #NFDB
178:Man, the mask of God, ~ Ken Wilber, #NFDB
179:nerds rule the world. ~ Penny Reid, #NFDB
180:Now comes the mystery ~ John Green, #NFDB
181:Now is the time to drink! ~ Horace, #NFDB
182:Numb is the new deep. ~ John Mayer, #NFDB
183:Of all the medicines ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
184:of the stream water. ~ Enid Blyton, #NFDB
185:Oh, fuck the paperwork ~ E L James, #NFDB
186:Only the nose knows ~ Muhammad Ali, #NFDB
187:On with the chase. ~ Gordon Korman, #NFDB
188:palace and the ~ Eugene H Peterson, #NFDB
189:Patience is the key to joy. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
190:Place a name upon the night ~ Enya, #NFDB
191:Portland—the ~ Robert Goldsborough, #NFDB
192:remains of one of the ~ A G Riddle, #NFDB
193:Respect the gender. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
194:Saved by the Sith. ~ Ilona Andrews, #NFDB
195:Seize the century. ~ Stewart Brand, #NFDB
196:Self-help is the best help ~ Aesop, #NFDB
197:she goes to the girls. ~ M K Eidem, #NFDB
198:Shout to the top! ~ Rebecca McNutt, #NFDB
199:Shut the front door! ~ Jaci Burton, #NFDB
200:So the dubbed conceit ~ Allen Tate, #NFDB
201:Speak the truth. ~ Donella Meadows, #NFDB
202:Tell him I took the cat ~ J D Robb, #NFDB
203:The allegory of blood. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
204:The Art of Asking, ~ Carmine Gallo, #NFDB
205:The Art of Discarding ~ Marie Kond, #NFDB
206:The Boy from Reactor 4 ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
207:The Carpenter Shop ~ Wendell Berry, #NFDB
208:the character of Herod ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
209:The Clan is on fire! ~ Erin Hunter, #NFDB
210:the coast, irregular ~ Jules Verne, #NFDB
211:The cool blade ~ Charles Tomlinson, #NFDB
212:the cutthroat world ~ John Grisham, #NFDB
213:The Denial of Death, ~ Mark Manson, #NFDB
214:The devil sucks. Amen. ~ T K Leigh, #NFDB
215:The forest hugged Aomori ~ Ken Liu, #NFDB
216:THE “GAMES” BEGIN ~ John Feinstein, #NFDB
217:The Geliebten Lakaien, ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
218:The good is the beautiful. ~ Plato, #NFDB
219:The Grammar Of Anarchy ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
220:The Hare in the Moon ~ Ruskin Bond, #NFDB
221:The heavy trees, ~ Wallace Stevens, #NFDB
222:The helmed Cherubim, ~ John Milton, #NFDB
223:The hour is come, that ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
224:The infamous they. ~ Jocko Willink, #NFDB
225:The key is to make it. ~ DJ Khaled, #NFDB
226:The Lark Ascending”; ~ Chloe Neill, #NFDB
227:The last cobwebs ~ Denise Levertov, #NFDB
228:the lighter to the ~ Fern Michaels, #NFDB
229:The Lord Will Provide. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
230:The Lost Starship ~ Vaughn Heppner, #NFDB
231:the Main Enemy. ~ Antonio J M ndez, #NFDB
232:the Meitivs ~ Julie Lythcott Haims, #NFDB
233:the Melbourne ~ Colleen McCullough, #NFDB
234:The Midnight Gang ~ David Walliams, #NFDB
235:The mind has no sex. ~ George Sand, #NFDB
236:the mind is a tyrant ~ Deb Caletti, #NFDB
237:THE MISCONCEPTION: ~ David McRaney, #NFDB
238:The North Wind and the Sun ~ Aesop, #NFDB
239:THE OLD COUNTRY, 1731 F ~ J R Ward, #NFDB
240:The only way up is up. ~ Greg Egan, #NFDB
241:The Ouellet Quints. ~ Louise Penny, #NFDB
242:The poetry of speech. ~ Lord Byron, #NFDB
243:The Projects List(s) ~ David Allen, #NFDB
244:the relations were of a ~ Kai Bird, #NFDB
245:The rose is a rose, ~ Robert Frost, #NFDB
246:The Sacrifice of Isaac ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
247:the slightest noise, ~ Mary Balogh, #NFDB
248:The staffed glowed. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
249:The sun. I hate the sun. ~ Sheamus, #NFDB
250:The Sword of Damocles, ~ Susan May, #NFDB
251:The teaching goes on ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
252:The thick plottens. ~ Lev Grossman, #NFDB
253:The true measure ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
254:The turtle moves ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
255:The universe ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
256:The wood was smooth, ~ Mary Burton, #NFDB
257:The words can not return. ~ Horace, #NFDB
258:The worst of misery ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
259:to decide the right ~ Josie Silver, #NFDB
260:touched the swollen ~ John Grisham, #NFDB
261:transference. The ~ Wilfred R Bion, #NFDB
262:Trust the process. ~ Tony Gaskins, #NFDB
263:vengeance was the Lord’s ~ E N Joy, #NFDB
264:walked back to the ~ Fern Michaels, #NFDB
265:Walk with the dead ~ Philip Larkin, #NFDB
266:What is the value of light ~ Mario, #NFDB
267:Who the fuck is Gladys? ~ K C Lynn, #NFDB
268:Women stood along the ~ Ted Dekker, #NFDB
269:Writing's in the nouns. ~ Lori Roy, #NFDB
270:13. THE UNDERWORLD ~ John Forrester, #NFDB
271:According to what the ~ Amira Hass, #NFDB
272:A flame in the dark ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
273:Africa is on the rise. ~ Bill Gates, #NFDB
274:All I am is in the way. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
275:all the soldiers ~ Robert Muchamore, #NFDB
276:All you need is love. ~ The Beatles, #NFDB
277:And the guelder rose ~ Jean Ingelow, #NFDB
278:away from the car. ~ Kate DiCamillo, #NFDB
279:babies over the years. ~ Tracy Rees, #NFDB
280:back up the ventilation ~ Lee Child, #NFDB
281:Be gentle with the young. ~ Juvenal, #NFDB
282:BISANTZ RAYMOND, The ~ Lisa Wingate, #NFDB
283:blew out a breath. The ~ Cari Quinn, #NFDB
284:Breaking the silence ~ Matsuo Basho, #NFDB
285:Bring on the kinky sex! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
286:Can't stop the signal ~ Joss Whedon, #NFDB
287:completing the programme. ~ Collins, #NFDB
288:crackle of the ~ Catherine Anderson, #NFDB
289:Death frees the beast. ~ Clive Owen, #NFDB
290:"Death is not the end." ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
291:Dickel on the rocks. ~ John Grisham, #NFDB
292:Don't face the facts. ~ Ruth Gordon, #NFDB
293:Do the hard thing ~ Shannon McKenna, #NFDB
294:Dream the dream onward. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
295:For the air of youth, ~ John Milton, #NFDB
296:Fortune Favors the Bold ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
297:Fortune favors the brave. ~ Terence, #NFDB
298:From the egg to the apple. ~ Horace, #NFDB
299:Fuck the roots. ~ Katharine Hepburn, #NFDB
300:God is in the details. ~ Kevin Kwan, #NFDB
301:God is in the truth. ~ Carol Tavris, #NFDB
302:God said, “Let the land ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
303:Heavy is the root of light. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
304:Help the Retarded. Two ~ Judy Blume, #NFDB
305:hotel as soon as the ~ Irene Hannon, #NFDB
306:I am the gaiaphage. ~ Michael Grant, #NFDB
307:I am the hero of Africa. ~ Idi Amin, #NFDB
308:I know all the critics. ~ Dana Hill, #NFDB
309:I live in the realm ~ Stevie Nicks, #NFDB
310:I love the word warm. ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
311:I met with the prisoner ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
312:I'm going to ride the wave. ~ Tweet, #NFDB
313:into the philosopher's ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
314:It’s all in the cock. ~ Celia Aaron, #NFDB
315:I want the white one ~ Sarah Dessen, #NFDB
316:Jesus, take the wheel. ~ Jaymin Eve, #NFDB
317:Late to the Party ~ Kirkus MacGowan, #NFDB
318:Light up the darkness. ~ Bob Marley, #NFDB
319:Lil Wayne is the man. ~ Layzie Bone, #NFDB
320:Love is all you need. ~ The Beatles, #NFDB
321:Make the world better. ~ Lucy Stone, #NFDB
322:Misdirect ALL the time. ~ Fred Kaps, #NFDB
323:Move with the movers. ~ Johnny Hunt, #NFDB
324:Mow the fuckers down. ~ Stephen Fry, #NFDB
325:Muriel Spark. If ~ The Paris Review, #NFDB
326:my poles into the ~ Cheryl Bradshaw, #NFDB
327:My soul had the flu. ~ Cara McKenna, #NFDB
328:normal’s the watchword ~ Rob Thomas, #NFDB
329:Now I see the light. ~ Kennedy Ryan, #NFDB
330:Oh, fuck the paperwork, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
331:Oh, fuck the paperwork. ~ E L James, #NFDB
332:ONE FOR THE MONEY ~ Janet Evanovich, #NFDB
333:out pulled the chair ~ Dannika Dark, #NFDB
334:Pass the dynamite. ~ Seanan McGuire, #NFDB
335:play hooky for the day, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
336:Pleasure is the bait of sin ~ Plato, #NFDB
337:REACH FOR THE STARS! ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
338:Red as the dawn. ~ Victoria Aveyard, #NFDB
339:Relish the hardship. ~ Jon Krakauer, #NFDB
340:Self-help is the best help. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
341:sprinkling of the blood ~ T D Jakes, #NFDB
342:Sssh says the ocean ~ Rolf Jacobsen, #NFDB
343:stopped by the door ~ John Sandford, #NFDB
344:Struck in the wet mire ~ Allen Tate, #NFDB
345:Swans in the winter air ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
346:Take down the walls ~ Lauren Oliver, #NFDB
347:Take Time by the forelock. ~ Thales, #NFDB
348:The bottom line: ~ Marcelo Gleiser, #NFDB
349:The casket is too small ~ Ker Dukey, #NFDB
350:The Chief nodded. He ~ Louise Penny, #NFDB
351:The class war is over. ~ Tony Blair, #NFDB
352:the crazy wants out ~ Anna Kendrick, #NFDB
353:The Dead travel fast. ~ Bram Stoker, #NFDB
354:The eagle flies alone ~ Soe Hok Gie, #NFDB
355:the emergency ~ Shilpi Somaya Gowda, #NFDB
356:The end of the world. ~ Lenore Look, #NFDB
357:the Ennui predator. ~ Ilona Andrews, #NFDB
358:The European dilemma is ~ Tony Judt, #NFDB
359:the future, Hugues ~ Danielle Steel, #NFDB
360:The girl on fire. ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
361:The God of Thunder has ~ Lois Lowry, #NFDB
362:The Gods have meant ~ Ruth St Denis, #NFDB
363:The habit-forming pain, ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
364:The Heart is like a candle, ~ Rumi, #NFDB
365:The hour draws near! ~ Ernest Cline, #NFDB
366:the Hunger Games. ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
367:The jewel in the crown ~ Wendy Mass, #NFDB
368:The key is: never fold. ~ DJ Khaled, #NFDB
369:The lady of situations. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
370:The last wandering ~ Jennifer Niven, #NFDB
371:The Levity Effect, ~ Gretchen Rubin, #NFDB
372:The List is Life. ~ Thomas Keneally, #NFDB
373:The Looming Tower. ~ Jeremy Scahill, #NFDB
374:The LORD will provide”; ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
375:The mind is a garden, ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
376:The moon sheds a tear. ~ Kyra Davis, #NFDB
377:The more - the merrier. ~ A A Milne, #NFDB
378:The most able seems clumsy. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
379:the mullioned windows ~ Kate Morton, #NFDB
380:the power of language ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
381:The public's not stupid. ~ Rita Ora, #NFDB
382:The Red Pyramid ~ Chris Grabenstein, #NFDB
383:The Relaxation Response ~ S J Scott, #NFDB
384:These are the lords ~ Eliza Haywood, #NFDB
385:The Self cannot leave You. ~ Mooji, #NFDB
386:“The Serpent's Egg” ~ Jake Baddeley, #NFDB
387:The silence is death. ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
388:The sky is white. ~ Diana Abu Jaber, #NFDB
389:The Sky’s the Limit ~ Penney Peirce, #NFDB
390:the spare bedroom? ~ Sarah Burleton, #NFDB
391:the spreading tree. ~ Sue Monk Kidd, #NFDB
392:The sun comes up again. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
393:The sun is a joke. ~ Nathanael West, #NFDB
394:The things I have ~ Hilda Doolittle, #NFDB
395:the tip of the iceberg. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
396:The truth has teeth. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
397:The truth is ever best. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
398:The Truth is the Truth. ~ Max Weber, #NFDB
399:The turtle moves. ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
400:The weaker mind reacts. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
401:The world is on fire. ~ John McCain, #NFDB
402:THIS IS THE SURPRISE. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
403:tidy. The walls ~ Martha Hall Kelly, #NFDB
404:To change the world ~ Dave Matthews, #NFDB
405:Twitter is the world. ~ Jack Dorsey, #NFDB
406:wanted the people who ~ Marie Force, #NFDB
407:We both played the game ~ Emma Hart, #NFDB
408:Weird is the new cool. ~ Kasie West, #NFDB
409:Welcome to the New Raw! ~ John Cena, #NFDB
410:We lost the crickets. ~ Eoin Colfer, #NFDB
411:We lost the skyline ~ Steven Wilson, #NFDB
412:We watched as the last ~ Judy Blume, #NFDB
413:What the hell happened ~ Sandi Lynn, #NFDB
414:Where's the cake? ~ Roshani Chokshi, #NFDB
415:Where the frig is it?” A ~ L T Ryan, #NFDB
416:Who watches the watchmen? ~ Juvenal, #NFDB
417:You are the honoured guest, ~ Rumi, #NFDB
418:ZANNA IN THE GARDEN ~ Chris d Lacey, #NFDB
419:achieved by the Roman ~ Tony Campolo, #NFDB
420:Algebraic to the limit! ~ Ryan North, #NFDB
421:A man polished to the nail. ~ Horace, #NFDB
422:And soon the dogs were ~ Anna Sewell, #NFDB
423:an ember in the ashes, ~ Sabaa Tahir, #NFDB
424:A shrug of the shoulders ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
425:A slave to the desire. ~ Celia Aaron, #NFDB
426:away, echoing off the ~ T J Brearton, #NFDB
427:Baseball is the life. ~ Steve Garvey, #NFDB
428:Bono? Who the hell is that? ~ Redman, #NFDB
429:breath and caught the ~ John le Carr, #NFDB
430:But he's the king! ~ Kristen Britain, #NFDB
431:by the photographer? ~ Kendra Elliot, #NFDB
432:Chigarid. The man who ~ John Berendt, #NFDB
433:Clarissa boarded the 747. ~ L T Ryan, #NFDB
434:Crazy: the new normal. ~ Rick Yancey, #NFDB
435:Crush the infamous thing! ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
436:Day after day the sun. ~ Zen proverb, #NFDB
437:D-Dub in the flesh. ~ Victoria Scott, #NFDB
438:Death from the skies! ~ Ransom Riggs, #NFDB
439:depth of the riches both ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
440:(Dinah was the cat.) ~ Lewis Carroll, #NFDB
441:Discovery is the joy. ~ Adam Haslett, #NFDB
442:Don't Fear the Reaper. ~ Rae Hachton, #NFDB
443:Don't go to the circus. ~ Angie Sage, #NFDB
444:Down the Rabbit-Hole ~ Lewis Carroll, #NFDB
445:Dreams shape the world ~ Neil Gaiman, #NFDB
446:drinks for the crowd. ~ Ronda Rousey, #NFDB
447:dug itself into the ~ Peter Lerangis, #NFDB
448:Earth's sweat, the sea. ~ Empedocles, #NFDB
449:elephant vanish from the ~ Karl Shaw, #NFDB
450:Eminem is the greatest, ever. ~ Akon, #NFDB
451:Every step is on the path. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
452:Example is the best precept. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
453:Facedown in the dirt. ~ Susan Stoker, #NFDB
454:Fiddler on the Roof, to ~ Wendy Mass, #NFDB
455:Firing the sunset gun ~ Walker Percy, #NFDB
456:FLIGHT OF THE FAT LADY ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
457:For the dreamers. ~ Samantha Shannon, #NFDB
458:For the love of rocks ~ Jenn Bennett, #NFDB
459:Fuck the begrudgers ~ Billy Connolly, #NFDB
460:God himself favors the brave. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
461:Go for the burn! Sweat! ~ Jane Fonda, #NFDB
462:going to the mattresses ~ Mario Puzo, #NFDB
463:Hairy and the Maidens. ~ Edie Claire, #NFDB
464:History – the new sex. ~ Jodi Taylor, #NFDB
465:I am the rich man's guru. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
466:I can play the radio. ~ Becky Aikman, #NFDB
467:I choose the labyrinth. ~ John Green, #NFDB
468:I hate the way my mother thinks. ~ M, #NFDB
469:I listen to the wind, ~ Cat Stevens, #NFDB
470:I'm all about the fans. ~ Phife Dawg, #NFDB
471:I'm only the messenger. ~ Aden Young, #NFDB
472:I'm on the edge with you ~ Lady Gaga, #NFDB
473:I put food on the table ~ Tom Waits, #NFDB
474:I shook up the world. ~ Muhammad Ali, #NFDB
475:Is it the Fourth? ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
476:It’s like the free puppy, ~ Gene Kim, #NFDB
477:It's not what the mind says. ~ Mooji, #NFDB
478:jokes about arks. The ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
479:Keep the Mach up! ~ Richard H Graham, #NFDB
480:Kitty Meets the Band ~ Carrie Vaughn, #NFDB
481:Lead me to the cross ~ Brooke Fraser, #NFDB
482:Leave the rest to the gods. ~ Horace, #NFDB
483:Let the revolution begin. ~ Ron Paul, #NFDB
484:Liberty is the chosen ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
485:Limit the rules. ~ Jordan B Peterson, #NFDB
486:Live in the layers, ~ Stanley Kunitz, #NFDB
487:Look at the cherry blossoms! ~ Ikkyu, #NFDB
488:look. The fireball ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
489:Love is the answer ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
490:Make the most of it. ~ Emilie Barnes, #NFDB
491:~ Mark Twain The Mysterious Stranger, #NFDB
492:me. They found me. The ~ Ian Fleming, #NFDB
493:My lamb likes the pain ~ Celia Aaron, #NFDB
494:No grief reaches the dead. ~ Sallust, #NFDB
495:no need of the quo Mars ~ Bob Marley, #NFDB
496:Of its own volition, the ~ G P Ching, #NFDB
497:Oh, the places you'll go! ~ Dr Seuss, #NFDB
498:Only the fakes survive. ~ John Lydon, #NFDB
499:On the Cancer Frontier, ~ Tom Brokaw, #NFDB
500:Open the bay doors, Hal, ~ Ryk Brown, #NFDB
501:play The Tempest, ~ Harold Schechter, #NFDB
502:Poor is the new black. ~ Erykah Badu, #NFDB
503:Put the pieces together. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
504:Question the bravery. ~ Jack Gilbert, #NFDB
505:Redd up the ship! ~ Mary Ann Shaffer, #NFDB
506:refusing the leave the ~ Megg Jensen, #NFDB
507:Remember the Ladies. ~ Abigail Adams, #NFDB
508:Remember the memories. ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
509:Retreating from the world ~ Guo Jun, #NFDB
510:Rick pushed the cart ~ Carolyn Brown, #NFDB
511:Ride of the Valkyries ~ Gayle Forman, #NFDB
512:riding in the back way. ~ Kat Martin, #NFDB
513:seeing the elephant. ~ Dave Grossman, #NFDB
514:Self is the gorgon. ~ G K Chesterton, #NFDB
515:shoulder. Though the ~ Laila Ibrahim, #NFDB
516:Silent Spring. It ~ The Paris Review, #NFDB
517:Sky is the Limit ~ A P J Abdul Kalam, #NFDB
518:Smee! Raise the Ladies! ~ Dave Barry, #NFDB
519:So the papyrus fortunes ~ Joan Holub, #NFDB
520:Take down the walls. ~ Lauren Oliver, #NFDB
521:Take the hidden paths. ~ Peter Thiel, #NFDB
522:That’s the city of Oops. ~ L R W Lee, #NFDB
523:The air’s okay,” Jake ~ Kathy Reichs, #NFDB
524:The Alexandria Quartet ~ Pamela Paul, #NFDB
525:the ancient mariner, ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
526:The API said:'Test ~ Joe Abercrombie, #NFDB
527:the bakery attack. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
528:THE BATTLE OF HOGWARTS ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
529:The beauty! The beauty! ~ Junot D az, #NFDB
530:The Biology of Belief ~ Wayne W Dyer, #NFDB
531:The bitch had to go down. ~ J R Ward, #NFDB
532:The bitch is dead now. ~ Ian Fleming, #NFDB
533:The blades shuddered. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
534:The blood is the life! ~ Bram Stoker, #NFDB
535:the car’s problems when ~ Adi Alsaid, #NFDB
536:The cautious seldom err. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
537:The Christos-image ~ Hilda Doolittle, #NFDB
538:the clock is ticking ~ Chinua Achebe, #NFDB
539:THE CROOKED MAN ~ Arthur Conan Doyle, #NFDB
540:The dead tell no lies. ~ John Gwynne, #NFDB
541:The dead walk among us. ~ Max Brooks, #NFDB
542:The deepest words ~ Antonio Machado, #NFDB
543:the discovery of speed. ~ Donna Leon, #NFDB
544:The Earth needs rebels! ~ David Icke, #NFDB
545:The Empire must fall. ~ Chuck Wendig, #NFDB
546:The Fearsome Threesome ~ C J Redwine, #NFDB
547:The fetters have burst ~ M D Lachlan, #NFDB
548:the fight continued in the ~ C J Box, #NFDB
549:The Flavour of France. ~ Nora Ephron, #NFDB
550:The game is afoot. ~ Janet Evanovich, #NFDB
551:The game is up ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
552:The gods have their own laws. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
553:...the Gods too love a joke. ~ Plato, #NFDB
554:The God-War is coming. ~ John Gwynne, #NFDB
555:The God Who Wasn’t There ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
556:The great image lacks shape. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
557:The hammer has fallen. ~ Larry Niven, #NFDB
558:The heart can do anything. ~ Moli re, #NFDB
559:the heavens rise. ~ Christopher Rice, #NFDB
560:The Imaginary Friend ~ Kelly Hashway, #NFDB
561:The Innovator’s Dilemma. ~ Eric Ries, #NFDB
562:The key holds the truth ~ Libba Bray, #NFDB
563:The kid is scary. ~ Orson Scott Card, #NFDB
564:The Law of One – You! ~ Rhonda Byrne, #NFDB
565:The life I'm living ~ David Bromberg, #NFDB
566:the Masked Man’s son, ~ Chris Colfer, #NFDB
567:The May-pole is up, ~ Robert Herrick, #NFDB
568:The message behind the words ~ Rumi, #NFDB
569:The Messeji has begun! ~ Aleron Kong, #NFDB
570:The moon has become a dancer ~ Rumi, #NFDB
571:The moon shines for you. ~ Lisa Loeb, #NFDB
572:The more the merrier. ~ John Heywood, #NFDB
573:The nymphs are departed. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
574:The only crime is pride. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
575:The only way out is in. ~ Junot D az, #NFDB
576:The only way out is in. ~ Junot Diaz, #NFDB
577:The past is just that. ~ B J Daniels, #NFDB
578:The past is obdurate. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
579:The past was read-only. ~ Ramez Naam, #NFDB
580:THE PLANTING OF THE TREE ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
581:The real risk is not ~ John Coltrane, #NFDB
582:the real world. ~ Christopher Golden, #NFDB
583:The sage knows himself. ~ Lao-Tse-35, #NFDB
584:The Seaman’s Practice, ~ Bill Bryson, #NFDB
585:The Silver Palate ~ Mary Kay Andrews, #NFDB
586:The spice must flow. ~ Frank Herbert, #NFDB
587:The Story of a Lie.” … ~ Nancy Horan, #NFDB
588:The structures of growth ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
589:The Thirty-nine Steps. ~ Lynne Olson, #NFDB
590:the Titanic disaster ~ Ken Rossignol, #NFDB
591:The Toys of a Lifetime ~ Roger Ebert, #NFDB
592:The truth is,’ I said, ~ Jodi Taylor, #NFDB
593:The Turn of the Screw. ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
594:The Universe is a unity. ~ Philolaus, #NFDB
595:THE VACATIONERS: A NOVEL ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
596:The Vampire Lestat here. ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
597:The wailing of broken hearts ~ Rumi, #NFDB
598:The war is in our souls. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
599:THE YELLOW FACE ~ Arthur Conan Doyle, #NFDB
600:time is dear and the ~ Jon L Bentley, #NFDB
601:Timing Is of the Essence ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
602:toward the Mount.4 ~ Dante Alighieri, #NFDB
603:Wanna light up the sky? ~ Calia Read, #NFDB
604:was working the cold up ~ Leif Enger, #NFDB
605:We gonna touch the sky. ~ Kanye West, #NFDB
606:Welcome to the team. ~ Toni Anderson, #NFDB
607:We let the weirdness in. ~ Kate Bush, #NFDB
608:We’ll meet the meat. ~ Douglas Adams, #NFDB
609:We saw the same sunset. ~ S E Hinton, #NFDB
610:What the above indicates ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
611:When the mind becomes extinguished ~, #NFDB
612:When they turn the sun ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
613:Who Stole the Tarts? ~ Lewis Carroll, #NFDB
614:Why is the world round? ~ Lee Majors, #NFDB
615:With the investigation, ~ Jaden Skye, #NFDB
616:Wood between the Worlds, ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
617:Worry divides the mind. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
618:you are the all of me ~ Jay Kristoff, #NFDB
619:You are the next of kin? ~ Mick Bose, #NFDB
620:2 days to the U.N. ~ Joel C Rosenberg, #NFDB
621:2Watch out for the dogs! ~ Tom Wright, #NFDB
622:about the timing. ~ Patricia Cornwell, #NFDB
623:Across the Wotter Tower ~ Bryan Chick, #NFDB
624:A day after the faire. ~ John Heywood, #NFDB
625:Alas for the seed of man. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
626:All pain is the same. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
627:America is not the world. ~ Morrissey, #NFDB
628:And to the rest of the world ~ Eminem, #NFDB
629:anything but the truth ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
630:are the crown of old men, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
631:Art destroys the life. ~ Irving Stone, #NFDB
632:A short absence is the safest. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
633:Beauty is the gift of God ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
634:Behold the Sea, ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
635:Best to expect the worst. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
636:Be the love you seek. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
637:Beyond all things is the sea ~ Seneca, #NFDB
638:But let the good prevail. ~ Aeschylus, #NFDB
639:By the favour of the heavens ~ Horace, #NFDB
640:Carpe diem. (Seize the day.) ~ Horace, #NFDB
641:Come out of the circle of time ~ Rumi, #NFDB
642:Come to the edge. ~ Christopher Logue, #NFDB
643:conferences. The table ~ Susan Isaacs, #NFDB
644:Cover the downside. ~ Richard Branson, #NFDB
645:dated to the ninth ~ Zecharia Sitchin, #NFDB
646:Death in the Clouds ~ Agatha Christie, #NFDB
647:deep well. Either the ~ Lewis Carroll, #NFDB
648:Dinah had all the class. ~ Lorna Luft, #NFDB
649:Don't waste the opportunity. ~ Horace, #NFDB
650:Dzhokhar, 19 at the time, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
651:Equals make the best friends. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
652:Eternity is the sun ~ Arthur Rimbaud, #NFDB
653:Even the lies were true. ~ Barry Lyga, #NFDB
654:Everyone honors the wise. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
655:Fire will save the Clan ~ Erin Hunter, #NFDB
656:Fortune favours the bold. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
657:from the flask. “I'm ~ Robert J Crane, #NFDB
658:Glow with the flow. ~ Jennifer Sodini, #NFDB
659:god bless the world ~ James Lee Burke, #NFDB
660:God loveth the clean. ~ Francis Bacon, #NFDB
661:Grind the faces of the poor. ~ Isaiah, #NFDB
662:Grow within the flow. ~ Timothy Leary, #NFDB
663:Haste is of the Devil. ~ Saint Jerome, #NFDB
664:He let in the light. ~ Gloria Steinem, #NFDB
665:her house. The mental ~ Kendra Elliot, #NFDB
666:Hermes, the Psychopomp. ~ Stephen Fry, #NFDB
667:He was the oldest son. ~ Steven Price, #NFDB
668:Honour the difficult. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
669:I am due at the page. ~ Julia Cameron, #NFDB
670:I am The Catalyst of Change ~ CM Punk, #NFDB
671:I Am The Mockingjay ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
672:I am the soul in limbo. ~ Andr Breton, #NFDB
673:I am the vampire Lestat. ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
674:I blame the lentils. ~ Beth Fantaskey, #NFDB
675:I dance like the wind. ~ Edward Albee, #NFDB
676:I follow the Way of Love, ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
677:If the accident will. ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
678:If you are wise, ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
679:I get high like the clouds ~ Styles P, #NFDB
680:I get so into the moment. ~ Dane Cook, #NFDB
681:I got the fear! ~ William S Burroughs, #NFDB
682:I'm a geek to the bone. ~ Jeff Dunham, #NFDB
683:I'm gay above the waist. ~ Pete Wentz, #NFDB
684:I'm like Demerol... ~ Cyhi the Prynce, #NFDB
685:In the beginning, God ... ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
686:In the name of peace ~ Nikki Giovanni, #NFDB
687:I paused, allowing the ~ Larry Brooks, #NFDB
688:I put the ick in magic. ~ Jim Butcher, #NFDB
689:I read the newspaper. ~ George W Bush, #NFDB
690:I shot the sheriff? ~ Beverly Jenkins, #NFDB
691:I sit in one of the dives ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
692:I toured with the Dead ~ M K Schiller, #NFDB
693:I travel all the time. ~ Guy Kawasaki, #NFDB
694:It's just the beginning ~ Lissa Price, #NFDB
695:It's sundown on the union ~ Bob Dylan, #NFDB
696:It's the old shell game. ~ Dan Rather, #NFDB
697:Jealousy blurs the focus. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
698:Joy is the best makeup. ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
699:Just let the good happen. ~ K Webster, #NFDB
700:Katie bar the door. ~ William Kennedy, #NFDB
701:Lágrima”—“Teardrop”—the ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
702:Let the madness begin. ~ Cameron Jace, #NFDB
703:Let us search the old highways. ~ H D, #NFDB
704:Life is for the living. ~ Woody Allen, #NFDB
705:Life is negotiation. The ~ Chris Voss, #NFDB
706:Listen to the whispers. ~ R J Palacio, #NFDB
707:LIVING FROM THE ANSWER ~ Gregg Braden, #NFDB
708:Love comes in at the eye. ~ W B Yeats, #NFDB
709:Love is fearless in the midst ~ Rumi, #NFDB
710:Manson the martyr. ~ Vincent Bugliosi, #NFDB
711:Man with the Muckrake ~ Edmund Morris, #NFDB
712:Never look a tulip in the eye. ~ Lulu, #NFDB
713:No gratitude from the wicked. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
714:Novelty is the new normal, ~ Amy Webb, #NFDB
715:No whining on the yacht. ~ Al Franken, #NFDB
716:Oh! blame not the bard. ~ Thomas More, #NFDB
717:One enemy at the time. ~ Sarah Dunant, #NFDB
718:Only the Gods are real. ~ Neil Gaiman, #NFDB
719:Only the good die young. ~ Billy Joel, #NFDB
720:others, the story losing ~ Ian W Toll, #NFDB
721:Oxytocin rocks the world. ~ Robin Lim, #NFDB
722:Paranoia, the destroyer. ~ Ray Davies, #NFDB
723:Peeves the poltergeist, ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
724:people over the years, ~ Robert Crais, #NFDB
725:Pigpen's on the move. ~ Katie McGarry, #NFDB
726:Piracy is the new radio. ~ Neil Young, #NFDB
727:please open the curtains ~ Sarah Kane, #NFDB
728:Practice like the Devil. ~ Doc Watson, #NFDB
729:Red as the dawn... ~ Victoria Aveyard, #NFDB
730:reward for the righteous. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
731:Rock me on the water ~ Jackson Browne, #NFDB
732:Run like the river. ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
733:should be—in the hands ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
734:Shut the door, Wales. ~ Beau Brummell, #NFDB
735:such is the Lord's Will. ~ The Mother, #NFDB
736:Take the money and run. ~ Woody Allen, #NFDB
737:tapped the side ~ Christopher Paolini, #NFDB
738:"That is the way it is." ~ Ajahn Chah, #NFDB
739:that the event would ~ Peter Robinson, #NFDB
740:The air is all softness. ~ John Keats, #NFDB
741:The best are everywhere ~ Jason Fried, #NFDB
742:THE BOY AND THE LADY ~ Nnedi Okorafor, #NFDB
743:The butt is a good option, ~ L J Shen, #NFDB
744:The Caddo Bayou Marina. ~ Emily March, #NFDB
745:The contour eludes me. ~ Paul Cezanne, #NFDB
746:The countryside they ~ Karl Schroeder, #NFDB
747:The covetous are poor givers. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
748:The Dark Ages never ended ~ Matt Haig, #NFDB
749:The dark has teeth. ~ Zoraida C rdova, #NFDB
750:The darkness is my birthright. ~ Nico, #NFDB
751:the dead can blame ~ Jennifer McMahon, #NFDB
752:The deal is the deal. ~ Leigh Bardugo, #NFDB
753:THE DOG AND THE SPARROW ~ Jacob Grimm, #NFDB
754:The door dilated. ~ Robert A Heinlein, #NFDB
755:The Earth is deep, ~ Orson Scott Card, #NFDB
756:The end excuses any evil. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
757:The final word is love. ~ Dorothy Day, #NFDB
758:The future is personal. ~ Bill Jensen, #NFDB
759:The gate is inside you. ~ S G Redling, #NFDB
760:The gods have their own rules. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
761:The grammarians are arguing. ~ Horace, #NFDB
762:The grand show is eternal ~ John Muir, #NFDB
763:The great god Pan is dead. ~ Plutarch, #NFDB
764:the guy had a hot date ~ Kathy Reichs, #NFDB
765:The heart is stupid. ~ Molly Ringwald, #NFDB
766:The horror had begun. ~ F Paul Wilson, #NFDB
767:The house is a factory. ~ Dave Eggers, #NFDB
768:The Illusion of Control ~ Russ Harris, #NFDB
769:The Innovator’s Dilemma, ~ Brad Stone, #NFDB
770:The Innovator’s Dilemma: ~ Brad Stone, #NFDB
771:The interior was made ~ Victor Methos, #NFDB
772:The job is not the work. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
773:THE JOURNALING CYCLE ~ Jocelyn K Glei, #NFDB
774:The Letters from No One ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
775:The LORD is in the right, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
776:The man read my thoughts. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
777:them concerning the ~ Joseph Smith Jr, #NFDB
778:THE NAVAL TREATY ~ Arthur Conan Doyle, #NFDB
779:The old Lena is dead, ~ Lauren Oliver, #NFDB
780:The only hope…is hope. ~ Laini Taylor, #NFDB
781:The past isn't real. ~ Nic Pizzolatto, #NFDB
782:The past isn’t real. ~ Nic Pizzolatto, #NFDB
783:The past is prologue! ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
784:The plan is the body ~ Robert Creeley, #NFDB
785:the pleasant scent of ~ Fern Michaels, #NFDB
786:The precious ordinary. I ~ Kent Haruf, #NFDB
787:The realtor was a tool. ~ Megan Crane, #NFDB
788:Therefore the Tao is great; ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
789:The reproduction of ~ Edgar Allan Poe, #NFDB
790:The result justifies the deed. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
791:the river spit me out. ~ Stuart Gibbs, #NFDB
792:THE SECOND DIALOGUE ~ George Berkeley, #NFDB
793:THE SIGN OF FOUR ~ Arthur Conan Doyle, #NFDB
794:the sky, settling in ~ William Landay, #NFDB
795:The small is easy to scatter. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
796:The spirits run riot in youth. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
797:The stairway is not ~ Denise Levertov, #NFDB
798:The status quo sucks. ~ George Carlin, #NFDB
799:The street gave way ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
800:The sun is new each day. ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
801:The sun still shines. ~ Sophie Scholl, #NFDB
802:The supreme assurance by ~ The Mother, #NFDB
803:THE TABLECLOTH OF TURIN ~ Ron Carlson, #NFDB
804:the Taker was a woman! ~ Leslie Wolfe, #NFDB
805:The tendency to cruelty ~ John Locke, #NFDB
806:The termites have got me. ~ Babe Ruth, #NFDB
807:The thing that surprised ~ Robin Cook, #NFDB
808:The thriknzdal, ~ Christopher Paolini, #NFDB
809:The tongue is sharper than a sword. ~, #NFDB
810:The Torus is my enemy! ~ Peter Sarnak, #NFDB
811:The truth has no agenda. ~ Glenn Beck, #NFDB
812:The Universe is a unity. ~ Anaxagoras, #NFDB
813:the Universe Works. ~ Johnny B Truant, #NFDB
814:The unknown is my compass ~ Ana s Nin, #NFDB
815:The usual stuff followed. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
816:The Valley of Origin. My ~ Mary Weber, #NFDB
817:The Way of All Flesh ~ Rebecca Skloot, #NFDB
818:The way of the sacred, ~ Jeremy Narby, #NFDB
819:The Way Out Is Through ~ Mark Epstein, #NFDB
820:The weight of wait. ~ Cameron Conaway, #NFDB
821:The whole world`s on fire. ~ Ted Cruz, #NFDB
822:The window is closing. ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
823:The wind’s in the West, ~ P L Travers, #NFDB
824:the winds of winter ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
825:The Woes of Mrs Weasley ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
826:The world is before you ~ James Joyce, #NFDB
827:The world is bleeding. ~ Tahereh Mafi, #NFDB
828:The World Is Not Enough ~ Ian Fleming, #NFDB
829:The world is screaming. ~ Rick Yancey, #NFDB
830:Time to toss the dice ~ Robert Jordan, #NFDB
831:To find is the thing. ~ Pablo Picasso, #NFDB
832:Took an arrow in the knee ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
833:To the Church in Pergamum ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
834:to the Forgotten District ~ Sara King, #NFDB
835:Touring is hard on the body. ~ Eminem, #NFDB
836:Trust the little voice ~ Jo Treggiari, #NFDB
837:Turn on the prudent ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
838:Ukraine's war of the pews ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
839:Upon the heath. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
840:We are the apocalypse. ~ Anne Tibbets, #NFDB
841:We eat the way we live. ~ Geneen Roth, #NFDB
842:We have the worst security! ~ CM Punk, #NFDB
843:What can 'scape the eye ~ John Milton, #NFDB
844:What strikes the oyster shell ~ Rumi, #NFDB
845:Who the fuck is King? ~ Elaine Levine, #NFDB
846:Why are the people starving?- ~ Laozi, #NFDB
847:Why not shatter the sky? ~ Elise Kova, #NFDB
848:Why speak of the use ~ Hayden Carruth, #NFDB
849:Woman is the masterpiece. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
850:Work is the best workout. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
851:You must worship the LORD ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
852:You're worth the risk. ~ Kennedy Ryan, #NFDB
853:You stay. The rest go. ~ Nora Sakavic, #NFDB
854:21. The Black Crystal ~ John Forrester, #NFDB
855:5. Keep to the middle. ~ Garr Reynolds, #NFDB
856:7: Sharpen the Saw). ~ Stephen R Covey, #NFDB
857:A bolt from the blue. ~ Daniel Handler, #NFDB
858:Action is the answer. ~ Steve Chandler, #NFDB
859:Ah, hell to the no, woman, ~ C D Reiss, #NFDB
860:Ajax the great Himself a host. ~ Homer, #NFDB
861:All men hate the nagging. ~ Kevin Hart, #NFDB
862:All men have need of the gods. ~ Homer, #NFDB
863:All part of the service. ~ Peter David, #NFDB
864:al-Qaeda, “the Guide. ~ Nabeel Qureshi, #NFDB
865:Although the more I learn, ~ T R Ragan, #NFDB
866:And I ate the cheesecake. ~ Jojo Moyes, #NFDB
867:and the doors to Mid-World, ~ Joe Hill, #NFDB
868:A novena to the darkness ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
869:Appreciate the moment. ~ Isamu Noguchi, #NFDB
870:Attack the enemy's strategy. ~ Sun Tzu, #NFDB
871:away with the flat of her ~ Jojo Moyes, #NFDB
872:Bea broke up the band. ~ Andrew Barger, #NFDB
873:Be gentle with the earth. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
874:Be kind to the living. ~ James McBride, #NFDB
875:Be, the money will come to you. ~ Sark, #NFDB
876:Better is the Enemy of Good ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
877:Black is the color ~ Alexandra Bracken, #NFDB
878:BOOK FIFTH.—THE DESCENT. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
879:Book of the Prophet Isaiah ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
880:Brainy's the new sexy. ~ Steven Moffat, #NFDB
881:branches of the trees. ~ Kendra Elliot, #NFDB
882:Bring forth the walnut! ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
883:but the going was slow. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
884:Cease to ask what the morrow ~ Horace, #NFDB
885:Changing on the Job. ~ Timothy Ferriss, #NFDB
886:Charles, I lost the bet. ~ Karl Malone, #NFDB
887:Christ on the crapper, ~ Philip K Dick, #NFDB
888:circling the green. She ~ Louise Penny, #NFDB
889:Dance the orange. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, #NFDB
890:Death's in the good-bye. ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
891:Deeds survive the doers. ~ Horace Mann, #NFDB
892:Defeat the enemies strategy. ~ Sun Tzu, #NFDB
893:Despise The Free Lunch ~ Robert Greene, #NFDB
894:doing with the puzzled ~ Douglas Adams, #NFDB
895:Do it for the fat lady! ~ J D Salinger, #NFDB
896:Don't bait the cougars. ~ Rachel Caine, #NFDB
897:Don't try to change the world. ~ Mooji, #NFDB
898:Don't waste the pretty ~ Greg Behrendt, #NFDB
899:Dwellers of the Deep. ~ Glenn G Thater, #NFDB
900:End justifies the means ~ Rafe Esquith, #NFDB
901:End of the First Book ~ Kate DiCamillo, #NFDB
902:enough to show the black ~ Donna Tartt, #NFDB
903:Even the old should learn. ~ Aeschylus, #NFDB
904:Even the wind had died. ~ Cynthia Hand, #NFDB
905:Every day can't be the best day ~ Slug, #NFDB
906:Everyone has got the fear ~ Thom Yorke, #NFDB
907:Fate loves the fearless. ~ Nina Levine, #NFDB
908:Fear is the devil to hide. ~ P D James, #NFDB
909:Find joy in the ordinary. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
910:Flowers in the Attic ~ Karin Slaughter, #NFDB
911:followed ir the man’s ~ Jeffrey Archer, #NFDB
912:For the success, ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
913:Fortune favors the bold. ~ R J Palacio, #NFDB
914:FORTUNE FAVORS THE BRAVE ~ Jules Verne, #NFDB
915:Get the hell out of my way! ~ Ayn Rand, #NFDB
916:God Sees the Good in You ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
917:Got the itch? - Jared ~ Martha Sweeney, #NFDB
918:Go wherever the facts lead. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
919:great is the art ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
920:Haste is from the Devil. ~ Idries Shah, #NFDB
921:Hate eats the hater ~ Ursula K Le Guin, #NFDB
922:He is the one for me. ~ Sawyer Bennett, #NFDB
923:He remembered the day. ~ Aleatha Romig, #NFDB
924:He’s over at the Norton’s ~ Lisa Regan, #NFDB
925:He wore the baseball cap ~ Sandra Hill, #NFDB
926:His brain had the bends. ~ Tim O Brien, #NFDB
927:Hope begins in the dark. ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
928:How cold the vacancy ~ Wallace Stevens, #NFDB
929:How the path was forged ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
930:I am sunlight slicing the dark. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
931:I am sure the grapes are sour. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
932:I am the dust in the sunlight, ~ Rumi, #NFDB
933:I am the mockingjay. ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
934:I am the soul in limbo. ~ Andre Breton, #NFDB
935:I come alive in the night time ~ Drake, #NFDB
936:Idleness ruins the constitution ~ Ovid, #NFDB
937:I don't play the tuba. ~ Lenny Kravitz, #NFDB
938:I grew up on the game. ~ Philip Rivers, #NFDB
939:I hated the man ~ William Kent Krueger, #NFDB
940:I hate the word sexy. ~ Ursula Andress, #NFDB
941:I like breaking the rules. ~ Lexa Doig, #NFDB
942:I love the dead... Frequently. ~ Necro, #NFDB
943:I love the young people. ~ Johnny Cash, #NFDB
944:I'm the best Manning. ~ Peyton Manning, #NFDB
945:I'm the goddamn Batman. ~ Frank Miller, #NFDB
946:I'm The Miz and I'm awesome! ~ The Miz, #NFDB
947:In the gap between thoughts ~ Milarepa, #NFDB
948:Invented the #hashtag. ~ Chris Messina, #NFDB
949:I put the "ic" in "Magic ~ Jim Butcher, #NFDB
950:It is the face of my soul. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
951:It may be years until the day ~ Feist, #NFDB
952:It’s snowing today. The ~ Tahereh Mafi, #NFDB
953:It's the Devil's way now, ~ Thom Yorke, #NFDB
954:It's the way of kings. ~ David Eddings, #NFDB
955:Jump or stay in the boat ~ Kami Garcia, #NFDB
956:Keep on the watch and pray ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
957:Kiss the sky with me, ~ Krista Ritchie, #NFDB
958:Let go into the mystery ~ Van Morrison, #NFDB
959:Let go of the thoughts, ~ Robert Adams, #NFDB
960:Live and Love the Fantasy ~ C E Wilson, #NFDB
961:Live the dream, Potato. ~ Miranda July, #NFDB
962:longer looking at the ~ Jeffrey Archer, #NFDB
963:Look you dead in the face ~ Rick Ross, #NFDB
964:Love makes you do the wacky ~ J D Robb, #NFDB
965:Love means to reach for the sky ~ Rumi, #NFDB
966:Loving you is the shit. ~ Avril Ashton, #NFDB
967:Managers serve the team, ~ Laszlo Bock, #NFDB
968:mediating efforts, the ~ Irvin D Yalom, #NFDB
969:Michael Cole is a visionary! ~ The Miz, #NFDB
970:MIDNIGHT AMONG THE WORMS ~ Ian Fleming, #NFDB
971:Must. Soothe. The hottie. ~ Linda Kage, #NFDB
972:Never tell me the odds! ~ George Lucas, #NFDB
973:Night falling on the city ~ David Gray, #NFDB
974:Now is the age of anxiety. ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
975:Of all crimes the worst ~ Robert Frost, #NFDB
976:Oh, the cleverness of me! ~ J M Barrie, #NFDB
977:One must use the night. ~ Tove Jansson, #NFDB
978:Only the paranoid survive. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
979:On the pavement ~ Vladimir Mayakovsky, #NFDB
980:O Truth, come, manifest. ~ The Mother, #NFDB
981:Pomp is contrary to the Tao. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
982:punches him the leg. ~ Victoria Ashley, #NFDB
983:Quiet IS the new loud. ~ Patrick Stump, #NFDB
984:Rachel The Huffington Post ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
985:Realism is the trend. ~ Benjamin Percy, #NFDB
986:Redefine the possible. ~ Stewart Brand, #NFDB
987:Red of the Dawn ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson, #NFDB
988:remove the speck from your ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
989:Rest is for the dead. ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
990:rubber. The Apollo kids ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
991:shadows among the trees. ~ Erin Hunter, #NFDB
992:Shadows told the truth, ~ Laini Taylor, #NFDB
993:She did it the hard way. ~ Bette Davis, #NFDB
994:Silence is the best reply to a fool. ~, #NFDB
995:Sleep is the new sex. ~ Gretchen Rubin, #NFDB
996:Slow and steady wins the race. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
997:Slow but steady wins the race. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
998:Spring is the Period ~ Emily Dickinson, #NFDB
999:Take the gentle path. ~ George Herbert, #NFDB
1000:that seemed the easiest to ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1001:THE 9/11 COMMISSION REPORT ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1002:The Ability to Calm Down ~ Mary Pipher, #NFDB
1003:The accursed hunger for gold. ~ Virgil, #NFDB
1004:The Asker is the Answer. ~ Wei Wu Wei, #NFDB
1005:the autonomy of syntax; ~ Noam Chomsky, #NFDB
1006:The Big Night, a movie ~ Cindy Chupack, #NFDB
1007:The British are so funny. ~ Rose Byrne, #NFDB
1008:The Bulletproof Diet ~ Vishen Lakhiani, #NFDB
1009:The cosmetic is cosmic. ~ Rem Koolhaas, #NFDB
1010:The Courage to Teach, ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
1011:The crime is the punishment. ~ Amos Oz, #NFDB
1012:The Dark Ages never ended. ~ Matt Haig, #NFDB
1013:the dark circles under her ~ J S Scott, #NFDB
1014:The day is conscious of itself. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1015:The dead boy floats by. ~ Andrew Pyper, #NFDB
1016:The descent into Hell is easy ~ Virgil, #NFDB
1017:The Devil is a woman. ~ Camille Paglia, #NFDB
1018:The die has been cast. ~ Courtney Cole, #NFDB
1019:The die has been cast. ~ Julius Caesar, #NFDB
1020:The Eagle has landed. ~ Neil Armstrong, #NFDB
1021:The Empire Never Ended ~ Philip K Dick, #NFDB
1022:the end of the world. ~ Jami Davenport, #NFDB
1023:The fact that I ~ Gustavo Perez Firmat, #NFDB
1024:The fake missed sincerity. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
1025:THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1026:THE FINAL PROBLEM ~ Arthur Conan Doyle, #NFDB
1027:The fish had kittens? ~ William Ritter, #NFDB
1028:The fool learns by suffering. ~ Hesiod, #NFDB
1029:the front porches to the ~ Sarah Price, #NFDB
1030:The future is disorder. ~ Tom Stoppard, #NFDB
1031:"The future is now." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1032:The going is the goal. ~ Horace Kallen, #NFDB
1033:The greatest wealth is health ~ Virgil, #NFDB
1034:the hat.’ He races off ~ Cathy Cassidy, #NFDB
1035:The heart breaks open. ~ Gail Caldwell, #NFDB
1036:The heart is an arrow. ~ Leigh Bardugo, #NFDB
1037:The illusion of our. ~ Cameron Conaway, #NFDB
1038:The image is an image. ~ Lenny Kravitz, #NFDB
1039:The internet lied to me? ~ Holly Smale, #NFDB
1040:The journey is its own reward. ~ Homer, #NFDB
1041:The journey is the reward ~ Steve Jobs, #NFDB
1042:THE KEEPER OF THE KEYS B ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
1043:The key is to have energy. ~ DJ Khaled, #NFDB
1044:The lectures you deliver ~ Edgar Guest, #NFDB
1045:The legs feed the wolf. ~ Kurt Russell, #NFDB
1046:The lens is a tyranny. ~ David Hockney, #NFDB
1047:The longest journey ~ Dag Hammarskjold, #NFDB
1048:The Long Telegram’. ~ Frederick Taylor, #NFDB
1049:The Lord saved my soul. ~ Steve Harvey, #NFDB
1050:The luck of Teela Brown. ~ Larry Niven, #NFDB
1051:The Madness of Mr Crouch ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
1052:The main idea is to win. ~ John McGraw, #NFDB
1053:The martyrdom of me. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
1054:The menu is not the meal. ~ Alan Watts, #NFDB
1055:the Mind of Man-- ~ William Wordsworth, #NFDB
1056:then. Then the miracle ~ Boyd Morrison, #NFDB
1057:The only crime is art. ~ Gerald Weaver, #NFDB
1058:The other bomb disappeared ~ Nick Cole, #NFDB
1059:THE PARTY PONIES INVADE ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1060:The path is the goal. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1061:The Potsdam Agreement ~ Neil MacGregor, #NFDB
1062:The process is the goal. ~ Geneen Roth, #NFDB
1063:the ranch to the south. ~ Scott McEwen, #NFDB
1064:The rat is always right. ~ B F Skinner, #NFDB
1065:The rent eats first. ~ Matthew Desmond, #NFDB
1066:The resistance exists. ~ Lauren Oliver, #NFDB
1067:The rigid tree will be felled. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1068:THE SALINAS VALLEY is ~ John Steinbeck, #NFDB
1069:The same night awaits us all. ~ Horace, #NFDB
1070:The Sea-chest ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #NFDB
1071:These are the good old days. ~ Unknown, #NFDB
1072:The sea? What's that? ~ Zlata Filipovi, #NFDB
1073:The Self is all. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
1074:The self is a smokescreen. ~ Kris Kidd, #NFDB
1075:The self requires a story. ~ Andr Gide, #NFDB
1076:The Sheik’s Jealous ~ Elizabeth Lennox, #NFDB
1077:The show must go on. ~ Freddie Mercury, #NFDB
1078:The sky itself reels with Love. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1079:The snobbish lost in laud. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
1080:The soul is not a soul, ~ John Ashbery, #NFDB
1081:The Soul unto itself ~ Emily Dickinson, #NFDB
1082:The stress stops here ~ Harry S Truman, #NFDB
1083:The "styles" are a lie. ~ Le Corbusier, #NFDB
1084:The sun is new each day. ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
1085:The thorny point ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1086:The Three Musketeers—as ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1087:The timely dew of sleep. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
1088:the Tony goes to 142 words ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1089:the trio stood watching ~ Jill Sanders, #NFDB
1090:THE TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
1091:The truth for sure, ~ Terence McKenna, #NFDB
1092:The truth is out there. ~ Chris Carter, #NFDB
1093:The War That Will End War. ~ H G Wells, #NFDB
1094:The world fascinates me. ~ Andy Warhol, #NFDB
1095:The world is as you are. ~ David Lynch, #NFDB
1096:The world keeps turnin' ~ Trevor Hall, #NFDB
1097:The world was FUBAR now. ~ Rick Yancey, #NFDB
1098:The world was waking up. ~ Mira Bartok, #NFDB
1099:The writer is all alone. ~ V S Naipaul, #NFDB
1100:Think only of the Divine. ~ The Mother, #NFDB
1101:Thirty spokes meet in the hub, ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1102:This is who the fuck I am. ~ Lady Gaga, #NFDB
1103:Time to the face the music, ~ J R Ward, #NFDB
1104:Treat the past as a school. ~ Jim Rohn, #NFDB
1105:tucked the flower into my ~ Tate James, #NFDB
1106:Urges. Mercy, the urges. ~ Kelly Moran, #NFDB
1107:Victory is in the battle. ~ Amy Harmon, #NFDB
1108:Wake the fuck up, people. ~ Vi Keeland, #NFDB
1109:Watch the fucking food! ~ Jamie Begley, #NFDB
1110:Water is the key to life, man. ~ Dessa, #NFDB
1111:We are the universe. ~ Jostein Gaarder, #NFDB
1112:Welcome to the kingdom ~ Tiffany Reisz, #NFDB
1113:What's the burn scale? ~ Rebecca Stead, #NFDB
1114:What's the news? ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1115:What the hell do I do now? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1116:When stuck, hit the road. ~ John Fante, #NFDB
1117:When the cow gives blood ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
1118:Where's the fun in that? ~ Ally Carter, #NFDB
1119:Who can judge the judge? ~ Kami Garcia, #NFDB
1120:Who the shit is Otis? ~ Caris O Malley, #NFDB
1121:Why do I want the money? ~ Jen Sincero, #NFDB
1122:wrapped the sheet around ~ Alexa Grace, #NFDB
1123:Yeah, that’s the way. ~ Gena Showalter, #NFDB
1124:You can't kill the truth. ~ Mira Grant, #NFDB
1125:You can't rewrite the past ~ Jay Asher, #NFDB
1126:You’re sick in the head. ~ J A Konrath, #NFDB
1127:You suppose you are the trouble ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1128:1 The Decembrists. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
1129:3 The arrival of Claudine ~ Enid Blyton, #NFDB
1130:6234th Solar Cycle The ~ Markus Heitz, #NFDB
1131:９と番線からの旅 The Journey from ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
1132:All the ladies love Leo. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1133:All the sea-gods are dead. ~ Allen Tate, #NFDB
1134:All Thing Serve the Beam ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1135:Always ask the turtle. ~ Gloria Steinem, #NFDB
1136:Always eat the bagel. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
1137:Always examine the dice. ~ Groucho Marx, #NFDB
1138:And out the door she flew ~ Don Freeman, #NFDB
1139:And the game begins anew. ~ Neil Gaiman, #NFDB
1140:Anger wounds the soul. ~ Linda Dobinson, #NFDB
1141:An open mind is the secret in ~ Seungri, #NFDB
1142:at the Virgin megastore. ~ Jason Pinter, #NFDB
1143:Ay, there’s the rub, ~ Genevieve Cogman, #NFDB
1144:Back to the future of print ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1145:Bad boys do get the girls. ~ Tom Felton, #NFDB
1146:because the Pirahã language ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1147:Being the survivor stinks. ~ Sara Gruen, #NFDB
1148:Believing is half the cure. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
1149:Be the love you seek. ~ Bryant H McGill, #NFDB
1150:Better is the enemy of good. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
1151:Beware the autumn people ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
1152:Beware the ides of March, ~ R J Palacio, #NFDB
1153:Bill Nye the Science Guy ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1154:Bless the Mess. ~ Sabrina Ward Harrison, #NFDB
1155:Bloom’ by the Paper Kites. ~ Jamie Beck, #NFDB
1156:body, this would be the day. ~ L T Ryan, #NFDB
1157:Boys are the cash of war. ~ John Ciardi, #NFDB
1158:But who guards the guardians? ~ Juvenal, #NFDB
1159:California sluts. The fact ~ Robin Cook, #NFDB
1160:can’t put the gun in ~ Michael Connelly, #NFDB
1161:Cinderella and the prince ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
1162:Crazy gets all the knives. ~ Mira Grant, #NFDB
1163:Death was not the end. ~ Maria V Snyder, #NFDB
1164:Do not keep the slanderer away, ~ Kabir, #NFDB
1165:Don't cross the boundaries. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1166:Don't fear the thunder ~ David Guenther, #NFDB
1167:Don't harsh the mellow. ~ Tymber Dalton, #NFDB
1168:Don't wait for the muse. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1169:enter at the exit ~ Trenton Lee Stewart, #NFDB
1170:Ethics are the secret of nations life ~, #NFDB
1171:Even the wise need wisdom. ~ Sara Evans, #NFDB
1172:Everyone leaves, in the end. ~ Tara Sim, #NFDB
1173:Excess weakens the spirits. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
1174:Feel the wrath of wheat! ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1175:Fish play in the water ~ Thinley Norbu, #NFDB
1176:Get busy on the possible ~ Regina Brett, #NFDB
1177:gifts according to the law: ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1178:Great is the art, ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1179:Guru is the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
1180:Halfway down the bar, ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
1181:Headquarters in the Saddle. ~ John Pope, #NFDB
1182:Her smile shames the sun ~ Harlan Coben, #NFDB
1183:He wears the rose ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1184:Home is where the heart is ~ John Green, #NFDB
1185:Hunger starts in the mind. ~ Jason Fung, #NFDB
1186:hunt nearby. The tree ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
1187:I am forever on the way ~ Maxine Greene, #NFDB
1188:I am king of the world! ~ James Cameron, #NFDB
1189:I am not the we of anyone ~ J M Coetzee, #NFDB
1190:I am the hero of my own story ~ Unknown, #NFDB
1191:I am the scourge of God ~ Peter Ackroyd, #NFDB
1192:If you can't smell the fragrance ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1193:I have gone to the forest ~ Knut Hamsun, #NFDB
1194:I love being in the studio. ~ Neil Finn, #NFDB
1195:I'm about being the best. ~ Frank Ocean, #NFDB
1196:I'm a woman of the '90s. ~ Faye Resnick, #NFDB
1197:I’m not in the mood to die. ~ C D Reiss, #NFDB
1198:I'm not the betting kind. ~ Terry Gross, #NFDB
1199:I'm still the king of me. ~ Sheryl Crow, #NFDB
1200:IM THE COW BOY OF AMERICA! ~ Gerard Way, #NFDB
1201:I'm the git in the family. ~ Clive Owen, #NFDB
1202:I'm the queen of the nerds. ~ Tori Amos, #NFDB
1203:I’m the Waiter, you know! ~ P L Travers, #NFDB
1204:I'm the white Mohammad Ali. ~ John Cena, #NFDB
1205:I'm waiting for the king to arrive ~ JR, #NFDB
1206:In the deserts of the heart ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
1207:In the end is my beginning. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
1208:In the Han Dynasty, Xiang ~ Li Ka shing, #NFDB
1209:In the sun I feel as one. ~ Kurt Cobain, #NFDB
1210:I paint the walls with his blood. ~ DMX, #NFDB
1211:I profess the religion of love, ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1212:I see a city in the desert lies ~ Sting, #NFDB
1213:I think music all the time. ~ Roy Ayers, #NFDB
1214:I trained in the theatre. ~ Danny Boyle, #NFDB
1215:It's all about the money. ~ Joe Jackson, #NFDB
1216:It's all in the mind. ~ George Harrison, #NFDB
1217:It's in the god's hands. ~ Janet Morris, #NFDB
1218:Its the shingaling, baby! ~ R J Palacio, #NFDB
1219:I will murder the world. ~ Marlon James, #NFDB
1220:James Micheners The Source, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1221:Jesus take the wheel ~ Carrie Underwood, #NFDB
1222:Joy is the best of wine. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
1223:Judea, in the time2 of King ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1224:Jump or stay in the boat. ~ Kami Garcia, #NFDB
1225:Keep your eye on the ball. ~ Ford Frick, #NFDB
1226:Keep your eye on the prey ~ Erin Hunter, #NFDB
1227:Law is the safest helmet. ~ Edward Coke, #NFDB
1228:Let Apella the Jew believe it. ~ Horace, #NFDB
1229:Let the experience begin! ~ Frank Gehry, #NFDB
1230:Let the losers worry about losin. ~ T I, #NFDB
1231:Let the poor man mind his tongue ~ Ovid, #NFDB
1232:life before the monster ~ Ellen Hopkins, #NFDB
1233:Life is lived on the edge. ~ Will Smith, #NFDB
1234:lights the stone bowl ~ Zoraida C rdova, #NFDB
1235:Listen to me brother! bring the ~ Kabir, #NFDB
1236:Love beyond the damage. ~ Henry Rollins, #NFDB
1237:Love is the unfamiliar Name ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
1238:Love it the way it is. ~ Thaddeus Golas, #NFDB
1239:Love makes the air light. ~ John Updike, #NFDB
1240:Love me, love the onesie. ~ Alexis Hall, #NFDB
1241:martyrs of the Antarctic. ~ Dan Simmons, #NFDB
1242:Maybe the rules are wrong! ~ Kiera Cass, #NFDB
1243:may the gods be with you ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1244:Meet the big while it is small. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1245:Mexico is the new China. ~ Donald Trump, #NFDB
1246:Mine was the shortest. ~ Joseph Delaney, #NFDB
1247:Mistaking the blonde for a ~ Ay e Kulin, #NFDB
1248:Mow the Lawn By ROGER COHEN ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1249:Muck held the whip hand. ~ Clive Barker, #NFDB
1250:Music, you see, is the key. ~ Morrissey, #NFDB
1251:nestled under the trees ~ John Flanagan, #NFDB
1252:Not I, but the city teaches. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
1253:Now the skies could fall ~ Lauryn Hill, #NFDB
1254:Number rules the universe. ~ Pythagoras, #NFDB
1255:Numbers rule the universe. ~ Pythagoras, #NFDB
1256:O Beloved, where is the Beloved? ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1257:One last time. The pizza ~ Nancy Naigle, #NFDB
1258:Only the educated are free. ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
1259:Only the moon was familiar ~ Lois Lowry, #NFDB
1260:Only the paranoid survive. ~ Andy Grove, #NFDB
1261:over the items and he tied ~ John Ringo, #NFDB
1262:over the moon’s. Jupiter lifts a ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1263:Pass the damn ham, please. ~ Harper Lee, #NFDB
1264:Perfect is the enemy of done. ~ Unknown, #NFDB
1265:pose the most direct threat ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1266:Power to the peaceful! ~ Michael Franti, #NFDB
1267:Put your shoulder to the wheel. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
1268:Quark!"--the Quarkbeast ~ Jasper Fforde, #NFDB
1269:Quick! To the Bat-Fax! ~ Bill Watterson, #NFDB
1270:Reality abides in the eyes. ~ Greg Iles, #NFDB
1271:Respect the sheep. ~ Sarah Rees Brennan, #NFDB
1272:Rime of the Ancient Mariner ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1273:Run with the hunted. ~ Charles Bukowski, #NFDB
1274:sails filled with the wind. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1275:Self-help is the best help. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1276:Sex is the great equalizer ~ Sasha Grey, #NFDB
1277:Shadows of the Apt ~ Adrian Tchaikovsky, #NFDB
1278:she committed the most ~ Tess Gerritsen, #NFDB
1279:She flicked off the TV. ~ Jeanne DuPrau, #NFDB
1280:Shut. The. Front. Door! ~ Rachel Hollis, #NFDB
1281:Skip the boring parts. ~ Elmore Leonard, #NFDB
1282:Speak with the language of love. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1283:Speech is the mirror of action. ~ Solon, #NFDB
1284:Stay away from the ropes ~ Muhammad Ali, #NFDB
1285:step out of the tub. ~ Karen MacInerney, #NFDB
1286:Strive for the Long Now ~ Jasper Fforde, #NFDB
1287:Strong at the broken places ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1288:Study the stars.—M. ~ Katherine Addison, #NFDB
1289:Tell the kind truth. ~ Patrick Lencioni, #NFDB
1290:tersely. Then the line ~ David Baldacci, #NFDB
1291:Thank God for the theater. ~ Raul Julia, #NFDB
1292:Thank you,” said the dog. ~ Neil Gaiman, #NFDB
1293:That’s the very thing that ~ Robyn Carr, #NFDB
1294:the Aleph-Null campaign. ~ Joe Haldeman, #NFDB
1295:The amber light came on. ~ Jos Saramago, #NFDB
1296:The applause of silence. ~ Alfred Jarry, #NFDB
1297:The atoms of Democritus ~ William Blake, #NFDB
1298:The Baths of Caracalla. ~ Tara Westover, #NFDB
1299:The beauty of darkness ~ Adrienne Rich, #NFDB
1300:The Best Is Yet To Be ~ Robert Browning, #NFDB
1301:the blue trouser suit, ~ Mario Giordano, #NFDB
1302:The brave venture anything. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
1303:The brazen throat of war. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
1304:the bridge of experience ~ Gregg Braden, #NFDB
1305:The brittle is easy to shatter. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1306:The Buddhist explanation ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
1307:The buffaloes are gone. ~ Carl Sandburg, #NFDB
1308:The Bulletproof Mind, ~ Gavin de Becker, #NFDB
1309:The. bus stopped again. ~ David A Adler, #NFDB
1310:The calm before the storm ~ Derek Landy, #NFDB
1311:The Celtics won the 2008 ~ Bill Simmons, #NFDB
1312:The choice of no choice. ~ Sarah Dessen, #NFDB
1313:The CM stands for Cole Miner. ~ CM Punk, #NFDB
1314:The color of truth is grey. ~ Andr Gide, #NFDB
1315:The common man is a fool. ~ H L Mencken, #NFDB
1316:The corners of her mouth ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
1317:The corner was just ahead. ~ Lois Lowry, #NFDB
1318:The crowd makes the ballgame. ~ Ty Cobb, #NFDB
1319:The dead have a presence. ~ Don DeLillo, #NFDB
1320:The demiurge is a hybrid ~ Alfred Kubin, #NFDB
1321:The devil is compromise. ~ Henrik Ibsen, #NFDB
1322:The devil is God's ape! ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
1323:the diary of a doctor who ~ Bram Stoker, #NFDB
1324:The dose makes the poison. ~ Paracelsus, #NFDB
1325:The effect of this simple ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
1326:The elder Miss Larkin ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
1327:The end is no process ~ Thomas Bernhard, #NFDB
1328:The first instinct is love. ~ Sean Penn, #NFDB
1329:THE FIRST TOWN IN AMERICA ~ Ron Chernow, #NFDB
1330:The fjord was frozen solid, ~ S M Reine, #NFDB
1331:The flowers are ravined ~ Charles Olson, #NFDB
1332:The french fry is my canvas. ~ Ray Kroc, #NFDB
1333:The future is unwritten. ~ Joe Strummer, #NFDB
1334:The game is afoot. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle, #NFDB
1335:The game's afoot! ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1336:THE “GLORI A SCOTT ~ Arthur Conan Doyle, #NFDB
1337:The good old days are now. ~ Tom Clancy, #NFDB
1338:The good sense of Colonel ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
1339:The greatest health is wealth. ~ Virgil, #NFDB
1340:The heart does not lie. ~ Marcel Proust, #NFDB
1341:The hero pays the price. ~ Lev Grossman, #NFDB
1342:The horror! The horror! ~ Joseph Conrad, #NFDB
1343:The horror, the horror. ~ Joseph Conrad, #NFDB
1344:the hustle for worthiness. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
1345:The Ileenium system? ~ Alan Dean Foster, #NFDB
1346:the keeper of skeletons. ~ Hadena James, #NFDB
1347:The Killer Inside Me ~ Dashiell Hammett, #NFDB
1348:The knowledge of my sin ~ Bayard Taylor, #NFDB
1349:The Last Argument of Kings. ~ Louis XIV, #NFDB
1350:The less said the better. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
1351:THE LETTERS FROM NO ONE T ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
1352:The life of men is painful. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
1353:The light of the Way seems dim. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1354:The literal heart of jesus ~ John Green, #NFDB
1355:The look of love alarms ~ William Blake, #NFDB
1356:The madness all over ~ Ernest Hemingway, #NFDB
1357:the mafia—then he let on. ~ Lee Strauss, #NFDB
1358:The main thing is to win. ~ John McGraw, #NFDB
1359:The Mind in the Making. ~ Dale Carnegie, #NFDB
1360:The Mockingjay lives. ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
1361:The monster nevers dies. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1362:The moon made me do it. ~ Cecelia Ahern, #NFDB
1363:The most amazing feeling I feel ~ Jay Z, #NFDB
1364:The most straight seems curved. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1365:The Mountain Summits Sleep
~ Alcman,#NFDB
1366:The moved and the shaken. ~ Peter Watts, #NFDB
1367:The night destroys the sun ~ Ryan Adams, #NFDB
1368:Then I stared at the blank ~ Cora Brent, #NFDB
1369:The only shame is the sin. ~ Aphra Behn, #NFDB
1370:The only truth is music. ~ Jack Kerouac, #NFDB
1371:The only way to measure a lover ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1372:"The ordinary is sacred." ~ Zen proverb, #NFDB
1373:The Ownership Quotient, ~ Philip Kotler, #NFDB
1374:The past cannot be cured. ~ Elizabeth I, #NFDB
1375:The past is prologue. ~ Kenneth C Davis, #NFDB
1376:The plan is not the goal. ~ John Scalzi, #NFDB
1377:The plot thickens. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle, #NFDB
1378:the Poor Men of Lyons, ~ Mark Kurlansky, #NFDB
1379:The power of a red dress. ~ Moira Young, #NFDB
1380:The privacy of pride. ~ Guy Gavriel Kay, #NFDB
1381:The purely Great ~ James Russell Lowell, #NFDB
1382:The purest white seems stained. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1383:The race of men is divine. ~ Pythagoras, #NFDB
1384:THE REIGATE PUZZLE ~ Arthur Conan Doyle, #NFDB
1385:the representative committee, ~ Lao She, #NFDB
1386:the right slit—and since ~ Brian Greene, #NFDB
1387:The river is overflowing. ~ Erin Hunter, #NFDB
1388:The rules have changed. ~ Aleatha Romig, #NFDB
1389:The sage acts by doing nothing. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1390:The same thought resonates. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
1391:The search is in the doing. ~ Joan Baez, #NFDB
1392:The sky isn't falling. ~ Thomas Leonard, #NFDB
1393:The sleeper dreamed. ~ Ursula K Le Guin, #NFDB
1394:the sleeper must awaken ~ Frank Herbert, #NFDB
1395:the solace of minutia, ~ Sandra Gulland, #NFDB
1396:The southern wind ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1397:The square root of nothing. ~ R D Laing, #NFDB
1398:The stage calls my name. ~ Keegan Allen, #NFDB
1399:The story is told of yourself. ~ Horace, #NFDB
1400:The strong are so stupid. ~ E M Forster, #NFDB
1401:The stronger always succeeds. ~ Plautus, #NFDB
1402:the sun has looked upon me. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1403:The sun is new every day ~ Janet Morris, #NFDB
1404:The Tao is told is not the Tao. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1405:The test of wanting is doing. ~ Unknown, #NFDB
1406:The tomb in Palestine ~ Wallace Stevens, #NFDB
1407:The truth is never cussing, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1408:The truth never set me free. ~ Paramore, #NFDB
1409:The twelve months... ~ George F R Ellis, #NFDB
1410:The union of our arms in ~ Harry Truman, #NFDB
1411:THE VALLEY OF FEAR ~ Arthur Conan Doyle, #NFDB
1412:The war never leaves ~ Victoria Aveyard, #NFDB
1413:The warrior is Here, Now. ~ Dan Millman, #NFDB
1414:the way it always did. ~ Amanda Hocking, #NFDB
1415:The wind knows everything, ~ Amy Harmon, #NFDB
1416:The winner stands alone. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1417:The word “He” diminishes Him. ~ Tolstoi, #NFDB
1418:The world is a deaf machine ~ Shaun Tan, #NFDB
1419:The world is my oyster. ~ Ani DiFranco, #NFDB
1420:The world is what it is. ~ Paul Russell, #NFDB
1421:The world needs heroes. ~ Marissa Meyer, #NFDB
1422:The world runs on luck. ~ Kevin Systrom, #NFDB
1423:They call me the trippy king. ~ Juicy J, #NFDB
1424:This is the greatest ~ Philippa Gregory, #NFDB
1425:Time is the only critic. ~ James M Cain, #NFDB
1426:To carry timber into the wood. ~ Horace, #NFDB
1427:town. In the back of his ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
1428:Under the harvest moon, ~ Carl Sandburg, #NFDB
1429:Unweaving the Rainbow ~ Richard Dawkins, #NFDB
1430:use the boy. use the boy. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
1431:valley of the clueless ~ Niall Ferguson, #NFDB
1432:Wakens the ferine strain. ~ Jack London, #NFDB
1433:We will finish the race. ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
1434:What good are the words? ~ Markus Zusak, #NFDB
1435:What the hell is an oboe? ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
1436:When he returned to the ~ Josephine Cox, #NFDB
1437:when I reached under the ~ Trace Conger, #NFDB
1438:When I say the word You, I mean ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1439:Wheres the damn food at ~ Joseph Stalin, #NFDB
1440:Where the hell is Nina? ~ Christa Faust, #NFDB
1441:Where the hell is Ralph? ~ Jandy Nelson, #NFDB
1442:who are the brain police? ~ Frank Zappa, #NFDB
1443:Who is the honest man? ~ George Herbert, #NFDB
1444:Who is the monster now? ~ Justin Cronin, #NFDB
1445:Who knows the end? What ~ H P Lovecraft, #NFDB
1446:(Wine is) the nurse of old age. ~ Galen, #NFDB
1447:Wisdom devours the weak. ~ Laird Barron, #NFDB
1448:with the card? Bill ~ Rachel Held Evans, #NFDB
1449:With the farming of a verse ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
1450:Wolves howled in the trees. ~ S M Reine, #NFDB
1451:working. They had the hood ~ Kat Martin, #NFDB
1452:Yielding is the way of the Tao. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1453:Your wig steers the gig. ~ Lord Buckley, #NFDB
1454:You smell like the woods. ~ Barry Lopez, #NFDB
1455:You will stir up the hornets. ~ Plautus, #NFDB
1456:123 ~ Granta The Magazine of New Writing, #NFDB
1457:2 e- --> Cu, the Cu2 ~ Chris McMullen, #NFDB
1458:30 The Father and I are one. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1459:A Dent in the Universe ~ Walter Isaacson, #NFDB
1460:again after tomorrow. The ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1461:A great leap in the dark ~ Thomas Hobbes, #NFDB
1462:Agriculture is the new golf ~ Ed McMahon, #NFDB
1463:All I'm about is just the pen. ~ Pusha T, #NFDB
1464:All the time it's a changing ~ Kate Bush, #NFDB
1465:All things serve the beam ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1466:Always consider the context. ~ Andy Hunt, #NFDB
1467:Always look to the positive. ~ Lia Davis, #NFDB
1468:among the walls of white. ~ Sejal Badani, #NFDB
1469:and the Daughter. ~ Donna Woolfolk Cross, #NFDB
1470:April is the cruelest month. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
1471:Are you taking the mickey? ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
1472:Asleep? All the morning? ~ Gillian Cross, #NFDB
1473:as the years had passed, ~ Justin Cronin, #NFDB
1474:At the Konya bus station, ~ Vendela Vida, #NFDB
1475:At the level of spirit, ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
1476:Baby Stanton is in the house. ~ T L Swan, #NFDB
1477:Baseball has all the money. ~ Brett Hull, #NFDB
1478:Beauty is the splendour of truth ~ Plato, #NFDB
1479:before. So the lesson is: ~ Wayne W Dyer, #NFDB
1480:Bergen, and Oldfield. The ~ James Ellroy, #NFDB
1481:Be the CEO of your life ~ Robin S Sharma, #NFDB
1482:Be the change you seek. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1483:Be the chief but never the lord. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1484:Be the patience you seek ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
1485:Be the person you wanna meet ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1486:Bhakti is Jnana Mata, i.e., ~ The Mother, #NFDB
1487:Birding to Change the World, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1488:Blood Will Rule the Forest ~ Erin Hunter, #NFDB
1489:blue bead on the wick, ~ Denise Levertov, #NFDB
1490:Bollocks to the rules! ~ William Golding, #NFDB
1491:BOOKS… "The Loom of Language ~ Malcolm X, #NFDB
1492:Boredom is for the selfish. ~ Patti Digh, #NFDB
1493:breath—the last thing ~ Elin Hilderbrand, #NFDB
1494:But the universe is infinite. ~ Epicurus, #NFDB
1495:By words the mind is winged. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
1496:calling the Soviet Union ~ Bill O Reilly, #NFDB
1497:Call it the Star Gate. ~ Arthur C Clarke, #NFDB
1498:came through the mail, ~ Janet Evanovich, #NFDB
1499:Change lives on the horizon. ~ T F Hodge, #NFDB
1500:CHAPTER XXIV THE BALL ~ Anthony Trollope, #NFDB
4303 Poetry
4292 Integral Yoga
681 Mysticism
545 Philosophy
431 Fiction
341 Occultism
196 Christianity
140 Yoga
116 Philsophy
114 Zen
104 Sufism
93 Psychology
68 Buddhism
40 Science
34 Hinduism
32 Kabbalah
28 Education
23 Mythology
20 Theosophy
16 Integral Theory
8 Cybernetics
6 Taoism
6 Baha i Faith
1 Thelema
1 Alchemy
2352 The Mother
1916 Sri Aurobindo
1384 Satprem
650 Nolini Kanta Gupta
400 Walt Whitman
379 William Wordsworth
374 William Butler Yeats
327 Percy Bysshe Shelley
251 Rabindranath Tagore
171 Aleister Crowley
162 John Keats
158 H P Lovecraft
158 Friedrich Schiller
129 Jalaluddin Rumi
125 Li Bai
118 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
116 Ralph Waldo Emerson
115 Rainer Maria Rilke
100 Kabir
98 Robert Browning
94 Friedrich Nietzsche
91 Carl Jung
81 Omar Khayyam
71 Edgar Allan Poe
70 Hsuan Chueh of Yung Chia
69 James George Frazer
68 Jorge Luis Borges
67 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
66 Plotinus
57 Sri Ramakrishna
49 Hafiz
44 Matsuo Basho
42 Anonymous
41 Taigu Ryokan
40 Swami Vivekananda
38 Lalla
37 Swami Krishnananda
36 Saint Teresa of Avila
35 Ibn Arabi
34 Saint Augustine of Hippo
34 Franz Bardon
33 Lucretius
33 A B Purani
32 Rabbi Moses Luzzatto
30 Saint John of Climacus
29 Hakim Sanai
29 Aldous Huxley
27 Kobayashi Issa
25 Rudolf Steiner
25 Aristotle
24 Farid ud-Din Attar
22 Vyasa
21 Ramprasad
21 Bulleh Shah
20 Mirabai
20 Abu-Said Abil-Kheir
18 Dogen
16 Solomon ibn Gabirol
15 Nirodbaran
14 Saint Hildegard von Bingen
14 Ovid
13 Mansur al-Hallaj
13 Baba Sheikh Farid
12 Yosa Buson
12 Swami Sivananda Saraswati
12 Plato
12 Peter J Carroll
12 Paul Richard
12 Muso Soseki
12 Ikkyu
11 Thomas Merton
11 Symeon the New Theologian
11 Sri Ramana Maharshi
11 Sarmad
11 Saint John of the Cross
11 Lewis Carroll
11 George Van Vrekhem
10 William Blake
10 Saint Francis of Assisi
10 Jetsun Milarepa
10 Jacopone da Todi
9 Wang Wei
9 Mechthild of Magdeburg
9 Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
9 Joseph Campbell
9 Fukuda Chiyo-ni
8 Yuan Mei
8 Saadi
8 Rabbi Abraham Abulafia
8 Norbert Wiener
7 Tao Chien
7 Shiwu (Stonehouse)
7 Saint Clare of Assisi
7 Jordan Peterson
7 Henry David Thoreau
7 Basava
7 Baha u llah
7 Alice Bailey
7 Alfred Tennyson
6 Thubten Chodron
6 Sun Buer
6 Ravidas
6 Namdev
6 Jayadeva
6 Chuang Tzu
6 Bokar Rinpoche
6 Allama Muhammad Iqbal
6 Al-Ghazali
5 Vidyapati
5 Shankara
5 Patanjali
5 Lu Tung Pin
5 Jakushitsu
5 Ibn Ata Illah
5 Hakuin
5 Guru Nanak
5 Boethius
4 Wumen Huikai
4 Izumi Shikibu
4 Dante Alighieri
4 Bodhidharma
3 Yeshe Tsogyal
3 Shih-te
3 Saint Therese of Lisieux
3 R Buckminster Fuller
3 Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
3 Po Chu-i
3 Naropa
3 Nachmanides
3 Moses de Leon
3 Masahide
3 Ken Wilber
3 Han-shan
3 Dadu Dayal
2 Yannai
2 Yamei
2 Theophan the Recluse
2 Surdas
2 Nukata
2 Michael Maier
2 Mahendranath Gupta
2 Kuan Han-Ching
2 Kahlil Gibran
2 Judah Halevi
2 Jorge Luis Borges
2 Jean Gebser
2 Italo Calvino
2 H. P. Lovecraft
2 Genpo Roshi
2 Eleazar ben Kallir
2 Dionysius the Areopagite
2 Chiao Jan
2 Catherine of Siena
2 Alexander Pope
997 Record of Yoga
380 Whitman - Poems
379 Wordsworth - Poems
374 Yeats - Poems
327 Shelley - Poems
312 Prayers And Meditations
275 On Thoughts And Aphorisms
238 Tagore - Poems
179 Agenda Vol 01
164 Agenda Vol 13
162 Keats - Poems
158 Schiller - Poems
158 Lovecraft - Poems
144 The Synthesis Of Yoga
125 Li Bai - Poems
124 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
119 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04
116 Emerson - Poems
115 Rilke - Poems
111 Agenda Vol 12
102 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02
102 Agenda Vol 08
100 Letters On Yoga III
98 Browning - Poems
98 Agenda Vol 09
97 Questions And Answers 1957-1958
95 Agenda Vol 10
91 Goethe - Poems
89 Agenda Vol 06
88 Agenda Vol 11
88 Agenda Vol 03
87 Agenda Vol 07
86 Collected Poems
86 Agenda Vol 04
85 Magick Without Tears
83 Agenda Vol 05
82 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
81 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01
78 Agenda Vol 02
74 Rumi - Poems
74 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05
70 Poe - Poems
69 The Golden Bough
69 Songs of Kabir
65 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07
60 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
56 The Life Divine
56 Questions And Answers 1950-1951
55 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
54 Liber ABA
52 Questions And Answers 1956
49 Savitri
49 Letters On Yoga IV
49 Letters On Yoga II
47 Letters On Poetry And Art
44 Basho - Poems
42 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 08
42 Borges - Poems
41 Ryokan - Poems
41 Questions And Answers 1953
41 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 06
39 Words Of Long Ago
38 Mysterium Coniunctionis
37 The Study and Practice of Yoga
37 Questions And Answers 1955
36 Questions And Answers 1929-1931
36 Hafiz - Poems
36 Crowley - Poems
35 Questions And Answers 1954
34 The Divine Comedy
33 Of The Nature Of Things
33 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
32 General Principles of Kabbalah
32 Essays Divine And Human
30 The Ladder of Divine Ascent
30 Essays On The Gita
29 The Perennial Philosophy
28 Words Of The Mother II
28 The Bible
27 Letters On Yoga I
27 Faust
27 Arabi - Poems
26 On Education
26 Labyrinths
25 Poetics
24 The Practice of Psycho therapy
24 The Human Cycle
22 Vishnu Purana
22 The Future of Man
22 City of God
22 Anonymous - Poems
21 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04
21 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 01
20 Initiation Into Hermetics
20 Bhakti-Yoga
19 The Way of Perfection
19 Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness
18 Let Me Explain
18 Dogen - Poems
17 On the Way to Supermanhood
15 Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo
15 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
15 Song of Myself
15 Isha Upanishad
14 The Secret Of The Veda
14 The Practice of Magical Evocation
14 The Phenomenon of Man
14 The Mother With Letters On The Mother
14 Some Answers From The Mother
14 Metamorphoses
14 Aion
13 Vedic and Philological Studies
13 Twilight of the Idols
13 Theosophy
13 The Confessions of Saint Augustine
13 Hymn of the Universe
12 Talks
12 Raja-Yoga
12 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 03
12 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 02
12 Liber Null
11 Preparing for the Miraculous
11 Kena and Other Upanishads
11 Dark Night of the Soul
10 The Problems of Philosophy
10 The Interior Castle or The Mansions
10 The Integral Yoga
10 Milarepa - Poems
10 Knowledge of the Higher Worlds
10 Amrita Gita
10 Alice in Wonderland
10 A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah
9 The Hero with a Thousand Faces
9 Hymns to the Mystic Fire
9 5.1.01 - Ilion
8 Words Of The Mother III
8 The Blue Cliff Records
8 Cybernetics
7 Writings In Bengali and Sanskrit
7 Words Of The Mother I
7 Walden
7 Maps of Meaning
7 A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
6 The Secret Doctrine
6 The Red Book Liber Novus
6 The Gateless Gate
6 The Alchemy of Happiness
6 Tara - The Feminine Divine
6 How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator
6 Chuang Tzu - Poems
5 Sefer Yetzirah The Book of Creation In Theory and Practice
5 Patanjali Yoga Sutras
4 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
4 Jerusalum
4 Huikai - Poems
4 Bodhidharma - Poems
4 Beating the Cloth Drum Letters of Zen Master Hakuin
3 The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
3 The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep
3 The Lotus Sutra
3 The Book of Certitude
3 Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking
3 Sex Ecology Spirituality
3 Naropa - Poems
3 Han-shan - Poems
3 Agenda Vol 1
2 The Prophet
2 The Ever-Present Origin
2 The Essentials of Education
2 The Castle of Crossed Destinies
2 Symposium
2 Selected Fictions
2 Notes On The Way
2 Mansur al-Hallaj - Poems
2 God Exists
2 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2E
00.00 - Publishers Note A, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
A Yoga of the Art of Life
O ther Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Publishers Note
--
the present volume consists of the first seven parts of the book the Yoga of Sri Aurobindo which has run into twelve parts, as it stands now; of these twelve, parts five to nine are based upon talks of the Mo ther (given by Her to the children of the Ashram). In this volume the later parts of the Talks (8 and 9) could not be included: they are to wait for a subsequent volume. the talks, originally in French, were spread over a number of years, ending in about 1960. We are pleased to note that the Government of India have given us a grant to meet the cost of publication of this volume.
13 January 1972
--
A Yoga of the Art of Life
00.00 - Publishers Note B, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
the present volume consists of five parts of the book Yoga of Sri Aurobindo which has now run into twelve parts. Of these five parts, eight and nine are based on talks of the Mo ther given by Her, in French, to the children of the Ashram.
We are pleased to note that the Government of India have given us a grant to meet the cost of publication of this volume.
13 January 1973
--
My love goes to thee..]
***
00.00 - Publishers Note, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
the Approach to Mysticism
O ther Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Publishers Note
--
We have pleasure in presenting the Second Volume of the Collected Works of Sri Nolini Kanta Gupta. the six books in this volume were originally published separately. the Essays are mainly concerned with Mysticism and Poetry.
We are happy to note that the Government of India have given to our Centre of Education a grant to meet the cost of publication of this volume.
the Mo ther has graciously permitted the use of her sketch of the author as a frontispiece to the book.
13 January 1971
--
[We ascend the ascending grades in our heart
and we sing the song of ascension.]
***
the Approach to Mysticism
0 0.01 - Introduction, #Agenda Vol 1, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
When we have passed beyond humanity, then we shall be the Man.
Sri Aurobindo
This AGENDA ... One day, ano ther species among men will pore over this fabulous document as over the tumultuous drama that must have surrounded the birth of the first man among the hostile hordes of a great, delirious Paleozoic. A first man is the dangerous contradiction of a certain simian logic, a threat to the established order that so genteelly ran about amid the high, indefeasible ferns - and to begin with, it does not even know that it is a man. It wonders, indeed, what it is. Even to itself it is strange, distressing. It does not even know how to climb trees any longer in its usual way
- and it is terribly disturbing for all those who still climb trees in the old, millennial way. Perhaps it is even a heresy. Unless it is some cerebral disorder? A first man in his little clearing had to have a great deal of courage. Even this little clearing was no longer so sure. A first man is a perpetual question. What am I, then, in the midst of all that? And where is my law? What is the law? And what if there were no more laws? ... It is terrifying. Ma thematics - out of order. Astronomy and biology, too, are beginning to respond to mysterious influences. A tiny point huddled in the center of the world's great clearing. But what is all this, what if I were 'mad'? And then, claws all around, a lot of claws against this uncommon creature. A first man ... is very much alone. He is quite unbearable for the pre-human 'reason.' And the surrounding tribes growled like red monkies in the twilight of Guiana.
One day, we were like this first man in the great, stridulant night of the Oyapock. Our heart was beating with the rediscovery of a very ancient mystery - suddenly, it was absolutely new to be a man amidst the diorite cascades and the pretty red and black coral snakes sli thering beneath the leaves. It was even more extraordinary to be a man than our old confirmed tribes, with their infallible equations and imprescriptible biologies, could ever have dreamed. It was an absolutely uncertain 'quantum' that delightfully eluded whatever one thought of it, including perhaps what even the scholars thought of it. It flowed o therwise, it felt o therwise. It lived in a kind of flawless continuity with the sap of the giant balata trees, the cry of the macaws and the scintillating water of a little fountain. It 'understood' in a very different way. To understand was to be in everything. Just a quiver, and one was in the skin of a little iguana in distress. the skin of the world was very vast.
To be a man after rediscovering a million years was mysteriously like being something still o ther than man, a strange, unfinished possibility that could also be all kinds of o ther things. It was not in the dictionary, it was fluid and boundless - it had become a man through habit, but in truth, it was formidably virgin, as if all the old laws belonged to laggard barbarians. then o ther moons began whirring through the skies to the cry of macaws at sunset, ano ther rhythm was born that was strangely in tune with the rhythm of all, making one single flow of the world, and there we went, lightly, as if the body had never had any weight o ther than that of our human thought; and the stars were so near, even the giant airplanes roaring overhead seemed vain artifices beneath smiling galaxies. A man was the overwhelming Possible. He was even the great discoverer of the Possible.
Never had this precarious invention had any o ther aim through millions of species than to discover that which surpassed his own species, perhaps the means to change his species - a light and lawless species. After rediscovering a million years in the great, rhythmic night, a man was still something to be invented. It was the invention of himself, where all was not yet said and done.
And then, and then ... a singular air, an incurable lightness, was beginning to fill his lungs. And what if we were a fable? And what are the means?
And what if this lightness itself were the means?
A great and solemn good riddance to all our barbarous solemnities.
Thus had we mused in the heart of our ancient forest while we were still hesitating between unlikely flakes of gold and a civilization that seemed to us quite toxic and obsolete, however ma thematical. But o ther ma thematics were flowing through our veins, an equation as yet unformed between this mammoth world and a little point replete with a light air and immense forebodings.
It was at this point that we met Mo ther, at this intersection of the anthropoid rediscovered and the 'something' that had set in motion this unfinished invention momentarily ensnared in a gilded machine. For nothing was finished, and nothing had been invented, really, that would instill peace and wideness in this heart of no species at all.
And what if man were not yet invented? What if he were not yet his own species?
A little white silhouette, twelve thousand miles away, solitary and frail amidst a spiritual horde which had once and for all decided that the meditating and miraculous yogi was the apogee of the species, was searching for the means, for the reality of this man who for a moment believes himself sovereign of the heavens or sovereign of a machine, but who is quite probably something completely different than his spiritual or material glories. Ano ther, a lighter air was throbbing in that breast, unburdened of its heavens and of its prehistoric machines. Ano ther Epic was beginning.
Would Matter and Spirit meet, then, in a third PHYSIOLOGICAL position that would perhaps be at last the position of Man rediscovered, the something that had for so long fought and suffered in quest of becoming its own species? She was the great Possible at the beginning of man. Mo ther is our fable come true. 'All is possible' was her first open sesame.
Yes, She was in the midst of a spiritual 'horde,' for the pioneer of a new species must always fight against the best of the old: the best is the obstacle, the snare that traps us in its old golden mire.
As for the worst, we know that it is the worst. But then we come to realize that the best is only the pretty muzzle of our worst, the same old beast defending itself, with all its claws out, with its sanctity or its electronic gadgets. Mo ther was there for something else.
'Something else' is ominous, perilous, disrupting - it is quite unbearable for all those who resemble the old beast. the story of the Pondicherry 'Ashram' is the story of an old clan ferociously clinging to its 'spiritual' privileges, as o thers clung to the muscles that had made them kings among the great apes. It is armed with all the piousness and all the reasonableness that had made logical man so 'infallible' among his less cerebral bro thers. the spiritual brain is probably the worst obstacle to the new species, as were the muscles of the old orangutan for this fragile stranger who no longer climbed so well in the trees and sat, pensive, at the center of a little, uncertain clearing.
there is nothing more pious than the old species. there is nothing more legal. Mo ther was searching for the path of the new species as much against all the virtues of the old as against all its vices or laws. For, in truth, 'Something Else' ... is something else.
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 Mo ther 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 smo ther 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.
She spoke to deaf ears. She was very alone in this 'ashram.' Little by little, the disciples fill up the place, then they say: it is ours. It is ' the Ashram.' We are ' the disciples.' In Pondicherry as in Rome as in Mecca. 'I do not want a religion! An end to religions!' She exclaimed. She struggled and fought in their midst - was She therefore to leave this Earth like one more saint or yogi, buried beneath haloes, the 'continuatrice' of a great spiritual lineage? She was seventy-six years old when we landed there, a knife in our belt and a ready curse on our lips.
She adored defiance and did not detest irreverence.
No, She was not the 'Mo ther of the Pondicherry Ashram.' then who was She? ... We discovered
Her step by step, as one discovers a forest, or ra ther as one fights with it, machete in hand - and then it melts, one loves, so sublime does it become. Mo ther grew beneath our skin like an adventure of life and death. For seven years we fought with Her. It was fascinating, detestable, powerful and sweet; we felt like screaming and biting, fleeing and always coming back: 'Ah! You won't catch me! If you think I came here to worship you, you're wrong!' And She laughed. She always laughed.
We had our bellyful of adventure at last: if you go astray in the forest, you get delightfully lost yet still with the same old skin on your back, whereas here, there is nothing left to get lost in! It is no longer just a matter of getting lost - you have to CHANGE your skin. Or die. Yes, change species.
Or become one more nauseating little worshipper - which was not on our program. 'We are the enemy of our own conception of the Divine,' She told us one day with her mischievous little smile.
the whole time - or for seven years, in any event - we fought with our conception of God and the
'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 toge ther. 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 o ther 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 o ther 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 Mo ther of the Ashram' ra ther like some spiritual super-director (endowed, albeit, with a disarming yet ever so provocative smile, as though
She were making fun of us, then loving us in secret), She told us, 'I have the feeling that ALL we have lived, ALL we have known, ALL we have done is a perfect illusion ... When I had the spiritual experience that material life is an illusion, personally I found that so marvelously beautiful and happy that it was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life, but now it is the entire spiritual structure as we have lived it that is becoming an illusion! - Not the same illusion, but an illusion far worse. And I am no baby: I have been here for forty-seven years now!' Yes, She was eighty-three years old then. And that day, we ceased being ' the enemy of our own conception of the Divine,' for this entire Divine was shattered to pieces - and we met Mo ther, at last. This mystery we call
Mo ther, for She never ceased being a mystery right to her ninety-fifth year, and to this day still, challenges us from the o ther side of a wall of invisibility and keeps us floundering fully in the mystery - with a smile. She always smiles. But the mystery is not solved.
Perhaps this AGENDA is really an endeavor to solve the mystery in the company of a certain
number of fraternal iconoclasts.
Where, then, was ' the Mo ther of the Ashram' in all this? What is even ' the Ashram,' if not a spiritual museum of the resistances to Something Else. they were always - and still today - reciting their catechism beneath a little flag: they are the owners of the new truth. But the new truth is laughing in their faces and leaving them high and dry at the edge of their little stagnant pond. they are under the illusion that Mo ther and Sri Aurobindo, twenty-seven or four years after their respective departures, could keep on repeating themselves - but then they would not be Mo ther and
Sri Aurobindo! they would be fossils. the truth is always on the move. It is with those who dare, who have courage, and above all the courage to shatter all the effigies, to de-mystify, and to go
TRULY to the conquest of the new. the 'new' is painful, discouraging, it resembles nothing we know! We cannot hoist the flag of an unconquered country - but this is what is so marvelous: it does not yet exist. We must MAKE IT EXIST. the adventure has not been carved out: it is to be carved out. Truth is not entrapped and fossilized, 'spiritualized': it is to be discovered. We are in a nothing that we must force to become a something. We are in the adventure of the new species. A new species is obviously contradictory to the old species and to the little flags of the alreadyknown. It has nothing in common with the spiritual summits of the old world, nor even with its abysms - which might be delightfully tempting for those who have had enough of the summits, but everything is the same, in black or white, it is fraternal above and below. SOMETHING ELSE is needed.
'Are you conscious of your ceils?' She asked us a short time after the little operation of spiritual demolition She had undergone. 'No? Well, become conscious of your cells, and you will see that it gives TERRESTRIAL results.' To become conscious of one's cells? ... It was a far more radical operation than crossing the Maroni with a machete in hand, for after all, trees and lianas can be cut, but what cannot be so easily uncovered are the grandfa ther and the grandmo ther and the whole atavistic pack, not to mention the animal and plant and mineral layers that form a teeming humus over this single pure little cell beneath its millennial genetic program. the grandfa thers and grandmo thers grow back again like crabgrass, along with all the old habits of being hungry, afraid, falling ill, fearing the worst, hoping for the best, which is still the best of an old mortal habit. All this is not uprooted nor entrapped as easily as celestial 'liberations,' which leave the teeming humus in peace and the body to its usual decomposition. She had come to hew a path through all that. She was the Ancient One of evolution who had come to make a new cleft in the old, tedious habit of being a man. She did not like tedious repetitions, She was the adventuress par excellence - the adventuress of the earth. She was wrenching out for man the great Possible that was already beating there, in his primeval clearing, which he believed he had momentarily trapped with a few machines.
She was uprooting a new Matter, free, free from the habit of inexorably being a man who repeats himself ad infinitum with a few improvements in the way of organ transplants or monetary exchanges. In fact, She was there to discover what would happen after materialism and after spiritualism, these prodigal twin bro thers. Because Materialism is dying in the West for the same reason that Spiritualism is dying in the East: it is the hour of the new species. Man needs to awaken, not only from his demons but also from his gods. A new Matter, yes, like a new Spirit, yes, because we still know nei ther one nor the o ther. It is the hour when Science, like Spirituality, at the end of their roads, must discover what Matter TRULY is, for it is really there that a Spirit as yet unknown to us is to be found. It is a time when all the 'isms' of the old species are dying: ' the age of
Capitalism and business is drawing to its close. But the age of Communism too will pass ... 'It is the hour of a pure little cell THAT WILL HAVE TERRESTRIAL REPERCUSSIONS, infinitely more radical than all our political and scientific or spiritualistic panaceas.
This fabulous discovery is the whole story of the AGENDA. What is the passage? How is the path to the new species hewed open? ... then suddenly, there, on the o ther side of this old millennial habit - a habit, nothing more than a habit! - of being like a man endowed with time and space and disease: an entire geometry, perfectly implacable and 'scientific' and medical; on the o ther side ... none of that at all! An illusion, a fantastic medical and scientific and genetic illusion:
death does not exist, time does not exist, disease does not exist, nor do 'scar' and 'far' - ano ther way of being IN A BODY. For so many millions of years we have lived in a habit and put our own thoughts of the world and of Matter into equations. No more laws! Matter is FREE. It can create a little lizard, a chipmunk or a parrot - but it has created enough parrots. Now it is SOMETHING
ELSE ... if we want it.
Mo ther is the story of the free Earth. Free from its spiritual and scientific parrots. Free from its little ashrams as well - for there is nothing more persistent than those particular parrots.
Day after day, for seventeen years, She sat with us to tell us of her impossible odyssey. Ah, how well we now understand why She needed such an 'outlaw' and an incorrigible heretic like us to comprehend a little bit of her impossible odyssey into 'nothing.' And how well we now understand her infinite patience with us, despite all our revolts, which ultimately were only the revolts of the old species against itself. the final revolt. 'It is not a revolt against the British government which any one can easily do. It is, in fact, a revolt against the whole universal Nature!' Sri Aurobindo had proclaimed fifty years earlier. She listened to our grievances, we went away and we returned. We wanted no more of it and we wanted still more. It was infernal and sublime, impossible and the sole possibility in this old, asphyxiating world. It was the only place one could go to in this barbedwired, mechanized world, where Cincinnati is just as crowded and polluted as Hong Kong. the new species is the last free place in the general Prison. It is the last hope for the earth. How we listened to her little faltering voice that seemed to return from afar, afar, after having crossed spaces and seas of the mind to let its little drops of pure, crystalline words fall upon us, words that make you see. We listened to the future, we touched the o ther thing. It was incomprehensible and yet filled with ano ther comprehension. It eluded us on all sides, and yet it was dazzlingly obvious. the 'o ther species' was really radically o ther, and yet it was vibrating within, absolutely recognizable, as if it were THAT we had been seeking from age to age, THAT we had been invoking through all our illuminations, one after ano ther, in thebes as in Eleusis as everywhere we have toiled and grieved in the skin of a man. It was for THAT we were here, for that supreme Possible in the skin of a man at last. And then her voice grew more and more frail, her breath began gasping as though She had to traverse greater and greater distances to meet us. She was so alone to beat against the walls of the old prison. Many claws were out all around. Oh, we would so quickly have cut ourself free from all this fiasco to fly away with Her into the world's future. She was so tiny, stooped over, as if crushed beneath the 'spiritual' burden that all the old surrounding species kept heaping upon her. they didn't believe, no. For them, She was ninety-five years old + so many days. Can someone become a new species all alone? they even grumbled at Her: they had had enough of this unbearable Ray that was bringing their sordid affairs into the daylight. the Ashram was slowly closing over Her. the old world wanted to make a new, golden little Church, nice and quiet. No, no one wanted TO
BECOME. To worship was so much easier. And then they bury you, solemnly, and the matter is settled - the case is closed: now, no one need bo ther any more except to print some photographic haloes for the pilgrims to this brisk little business. But they are mistaken. the real business will take place without them, the new species will fly up in their faces - it is already flying in the face of the earth, despite all its isms in black and white; it is exploding through all the pores of this battered old earth, which has had enough of shams - whe ther illusory little heavens or barbarous little machines.
It is the hour of the REAL Earth. It is the hour of the REAL man. We are all going there - if only we could know the path a little ...
This AGENDA is not even a path: it is a light little vibration that seizes you at any turning - and then, there it is, you are IN IT. 'Ano ther world in the world,' She said. One has to catch the light little vibration, one has to flow with it, in a nothing that is like the only something in the midst of this great debacle. At the beginning of things, when still nothing was FIXED, when there was not yet this habit of the pelican or the kangaroo or the chimpanzee or the XXth century biologist, there was a little pulsation that beat and beat - a delightful dizziness, a joy in the world's great adventure; a little never-imprisoned spark that has kept on beating from species to species, but as if it were always eluding us, as if it were always over there, over there - as if it were something to become,
something to be played forever as the one great game of the world; a who-knows-what that left this sprig of a pensive man in the middle of a clearing; a little 'something' that beats, beats, that keeps on breathing beneath every skin that has ever been put on it - like our deepest breath, our lightest air, our air of nothing - and it keeps on going, it keeps on going. We must catch the light little breath, the little pulsation of nothing. then suddenly, on the threshold of our clearing of concrete, our head starts spinning incurably, our eyes blink into something else, and all is different, and all seems surcharged with meaning and with life, as though we had never lived until that very minute.
then we have caught the tail of the Great Possible, we are upon the wayless way, radically in the new, and we flow with the little lizard, the pelican, the big man, we flow everywhere in a world that has lost its old separating skin and its little baggage of habits. We begin seeing o therwise, feeling o therwise. We have opened the gate into an inconceivable clearing. Just a light little vibration that carries you away. then we begin to understand how it CAN CHANGE, what the mechanism is - a light little mechanism and so miraculous that it looks like nothing. We begin feeling the wonder of a pure little cell, and that a sparkling of joy would be enough to turn the world inside out. We were living in a little thinking fishbowl, we were dying in an old, bottled habit. And then suddenly, all is different. the Earth is free! Who wants freedom?
It begins in a cell.
--
Mo ther is the joy of freedom.
Joyous Agenda!
00.01 - The Approach to Mysticism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
object:00.01 - the Approach to Mysticism
author class:Nolini Kanta Gupta
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O ther Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta the Approach to Mysticism
the Approach to Mysticism
Mysticism is not only a science but also, and in a greater degree, an art. To approach it merely as a science, as the modern mind attempts to do, is to move towards futility, if not to land in positive disaster. Sufficient stress is not laid on this aspect of the matter, although the very crux of the situation lies here. the mystic domain has to be apprehended not merely by the true mind and understanding but by the right temperament and character. Mysticism is not merely an object of knowledge, a problem for inquiry and solution, it is an end, an ideal that has to be achieved, a life that has to be lived. the mystics themselves have declared long ago with no uncertain or faltering voice: this cannot be attained by intelligence or much learning, it can be seized only by a purified and clear temperament.
the warning seems to have fallen, in the modern age, on unheeding ears. For the modern mind, being pre-eminently and uncompromisingly scientific, can entertain no doubt as to the perfect competency of science and the scientific method to seize and unveil any secret of Nature. If, it is argued, mysticism is a secret, if there is at all a truth and reality in it, then it is and must be amenable to the rules and regulations of science; for science is the revealer of Nature's secrecies.
But what is not recognised in this view of things is that there are secrecies and secrecies. the material secrecies of Nature are of one category, the mystic secrecies are of ano ther. the two are not only disparate but incommensurable. Any man with a mind and understanding of average culture can see and handle the 'scientific' forces, but not the mystic forces.
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. Ra ther 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; ra ther 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 ma thematical 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.
Fur thermore, being so, the mystic domain is of infinitely greater potency than the domain of intra-atomic forces. If one comes, all on a sudden, into contact with a force here without the necessary preparation to hold and handle it, he may get seriously bruised, morally and physically. the adventure into the mystic domain has its own toll of casualtiesone can lose the mind, one can lose one's body even and it is a very common experience among those who have tried the path. It is not in vain and merely as a poetic metaphor that the ancient seers have said
Kurasya dhr niit duratyay1
--
the mystic forces are not only of immense potency but of a definite moral disposition and character, that is to say, they are of immense potency ei ther for good or for evil. they are not mechanical and amoral forces like those that physical sciences deal with; they are forces of consciousness and they are conscious forces, they act with an aim and a purpose. the mystic forces are forces ei ther of light or of darkness, ei ther Divine or Titanic. And it is most often the powers of darkness that the naturally ignorant consciousness of man contacts when it seeks to cross the borderline without training or guidance, by the sheer arrogant self-sufficiency of mental scientific reason.
Ignorance, certainly, is not man's ideal conditionit leads to death and dissolution. But knowledge also can be equally disastrous if it is not of the right kind. the knowledge that is born of spiritual disobedience, inspired by the Dark ones, leads to the soul's fall and its calvary through pain and suffering on earth. the seeker of true enlightenment has got to make a distinction, learn to separate the true and the right from the false and the wrong, unmask the luring Mra say clearly and unfalteringly to the dark light of Luciferapage Satana, if he is to come out into the true light and comm and the right forces. the search for knowledge alone, knowledge for the sake of knowledge, the path of pure scientific inquiry and inquisitiveness, in relation to the mystic world, is a dangerous thing. For such a spirit serves only to encourage and enhance man's arrogance and in the end not only limits but warps and falsifies the knowledge itself. A knowledge based on and secured exclusively through the reason and mental light can go only so far as that faculty can be reasonably stretched and not infinitelyto stretch it to infinity means to snap it. This is the warning that Yajnavalkya gave to Gargi when the latter started renewing her question ad infinitum Yajnavalkya said, "If you do not stop, your head will fall off."
the mystic truth has to be approached through the heart. "In the heart is established the Truth," says the Upanishad: it is there that is seated eternally the soul, the real being, who appears no bigger than the thumb. Even if the mind is utilised as an instrument of knowledge, the heart must be there behind as the guide and inspiration. It is precisely because, as I have just mentioned, Gargi sought to shoot uplike "vaulting ambition that o'erleaps itself" of which Shakespeare speaksthrough the mind alone to the highest truth that Yajnavalkya had to pull her up and give the warning that she risked losing her head if she persisted in her questioning endlessly.
For true knowledge comes of, and means, identity of being. All o ther knowledge may be an apprehension of things but not comprehension. In the former, the knower stands apart from the object and so can envisage only the outskirts, the contour, the surface nature; the mind is capable of this alone. But comprehension means an embracing and penetration which is possible when the knower identifies himself with the object. And when we are so identified we not merely know the object, but becoming it in our consciousness, we love it and live it.
the mystic's knowledge is a part and a formation of his life. That is why it is a knowledge not abstract and remote but living and intimate and concrete. It is a knowledge that pulsates with delight: indeed it is the radiance that is shed by the purest and intensest joy. For this reason it may be that in approaching through the heart there is a chance of one's getting arrested there and not caring for the still higher, the solar lights; but this need not be so. In the heart there is a golden door leading to the deepest delights, but there is also a diamond door opening up into the skies of the brightest luminosities.
For it must be understood that the heart, the mystic heart, is not the external thing which is the seat of emotion or passion; it is the secret heart that is behind, the inner heartantarhdaya of the Upanishadwhich is the centre of the individual consciousness, where all the divergent lines of that consciousness meet and from where they take their rise. That is what the Upanishad means when it says that the heart has a hundred channels which feed the human vehicle. That is the source, the fount and origin, the very substance of the true personality. Mystic knowledge the true mystic knowledge which saves and fulfilsbegins with the awakening or the entrance into this real being. This being is pure and luminous and blissful and sovereignly real, because it is a portion, a spark of the Divine Consciousness and Nature: a contact and communion with it brings automatically into play the light and the truth that are its substance. At the same time it is an uprising flame that reaches out naturally to higher domains of consciousness and manifests them through its translucid dynamism.
the knowledge that is obtained without the heart's instrumentation or co-operation is liable to be what the Gita describes as Asuric. First of all, from the point of view of knowledge itself, it would be, as I have already said, egocentric, a product and agent of one's limited and isolated self, easily put at the service of desire and passion. This knowledge, whe ther rationalistic or occult, is, as it were, hard and dry in its constitution, and oftener than not, negative and destructivewi thering and blasting in its career like the desert simoom.
there are modes of knowledge that are occultand to that extent mystic and can be mastered by practices in which the heart has no share. But they have not the saving grace that comes by the touch of the Divine. they are not truly mystic the truly mystic belongs to the ultimate realities, the deepest and the highest, they, on the o ther hand, are transverse and tangential movements belonging to an intermediate region where light and obscurity are mixed up and even for the greater part the light is swallowed up in the obscurity or utilised by it.
the mystic's knowledge and experience is not only true and real: it is delightful and blissful. It has a supremely healing virtue. It brings a sovereign freedom and ease and peace to the mystic himself, but also to those around him, who come in contact with him. For truth and reality are made up of love and harmony, because truth is, in its essence, unity.
Sharp as a razor's edge, difficult of going, hard to traverse is that path!"
00.01 - The Mother on Savitri, #Sweet Mother - Harmonies of Light, #unset, #Zen
object:00.01 - the Mo ther on Savitri
alt:Savitri ( the Mo ther to Mona)
--
On the 18th January 1960; when a young sadhak met the Mo ther for a personal interview, She said to him: "I shall give you something special; be prepared." the next day, when he again met Her, She spoke in French first about how to kindle the psychic Flame and then in this connection started speaking about Sri Aurobindo`s great epic Savitri and continued to speak at length.
the sadhak, after returning from the Mo ther, wanted to note down immediately what She had said, but he could not do so because he felt a great hesitation due to his sense of incapacity to transcribe exactly the Mo ther`s own words.
After nearly seven years, however, he felt a strong urge to note down what the Mo ther had spoken; so in 1967 he wrote down from memory a report in French. the report was seen by the Mo ther and a few corrections were made by her. To ano ther sadhak who asked Her permission to read this report She wrote: "Years ago I have spoken at length about it [Savitri] to Mona Sarkar and he has noted in French what I said. Some time back I have seen what he has written and found it correct on the whole."(4.12.1967)
On a few o ther occasion also, the Mo ther had spoken to the same sadhak on the value of reading Savitri which he had noted down afterwards. these notes have been added at the end of the main report. A few members of the Ashram had privately read this report in French, but afterwards there were many requests for its English version. A translation was therefore made in November 1967. A proposal was made to the Mo ther in 1972 for its publication and it was submitted to Her for approval. the Mo ther wanted to check the translation before permitting its publication but could check only a portion of it.
Do you read Savitri?
--
You have read the whole poem?
Yes, Mo ther, I have read it twice.
--
It does not matter if you do not understand it - Savitri, read it always. You will see that every time you read it, something new will be revealed to you. Each time you will get a new glimpse, each time a new experience; things which were not there, things you did not understand arise and suddenly become clear. Always an unexpected vision comes up through the words and lines. Every time you try to read and understand, you will see that something is added, something which was hidden behind is revealed clearly and vividly. I tell you the very verses you have read once before, will appear to you in a different light each time you re-read them. This is what happens invariably. Always your experience is enriched, it is a revelation at each step.
But you must not read it as you read o ther books or newspapers. You must read with an empty head, a blank and vacant mind, without there being any o ther thought; you must concentrate much, remain empty, calm and open; then the words, rhythms, vibrations will penetrate directly to this white page, will put their stamp upon the brain, will explain themselves without your making any effort.
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.
It may then be said that Savitri is a revelation, it is a meditation, it is a quest of the Infinite, the Eternal. If it is read with this aspiration for Immortality, the reading itself will serve as a guide to Immortality. To read Savitri is indeed to practice Yoga, spiritual concentration; one can find there all that is needed to realise the Divine. Each step of Yoga is noted here, including the secret of all o ther Yogas. Surely, if one sincerely follows what is revealed here in each line one will reach finally the transformation of the Supramental Yoga. It is truly the infallible guide who never abandons you; its support is always there for him who wants to follow the path. Each verse of Savitri is like a revealed Mantra which surpasses all that man possessed by way of knowledge, and I repeat this, the words are expressed and arranged in such a way that the sonority of the rhythm leads you to the origin of sound, which is OM.
My child, yes, everything is there: mysticism, occultism, philosophy, the history of evolution, the history of man, of the gods, of creation, of Nature. How the universe was created, why, for what purpose, what destiny - all is there. You can find all the answers to all your questions there. Everything is explained, even the future of man and of the evolution, all that nobody yet knows. He has described it all in beautiful and clear words so that spiritual adventurers who wish to solve the mysteries of the world may understand it more easily. But this mystery is well hidden behind the words and lines and one must rise to the required level of true consciousness to discover it. All prophesies, all that is going to come is presented with the precise and wonderful clarity. Sri Aurobindo gives you here the key to find the Truth, to discover the Consciousness, to solve the problem of what the universe is. He has also indicated how to open the door of the Inconscience so that the light may penetrate there and transform it. He has shown the path, the way to liberate oneself from the ignorance and climb up to the superconscience; each stage, each plane of consciousness, how they can be scaled, how one can cross even the barrier of death and attain immortality. You will find the whole journey in detail, and as you go forward you can discover things altoge ther unknown to man. That is Savitri and much more yet. It is a real experience - reading Savitri. All the secrets that man possessed, He has revealed, - as well as all that awaits him in the future; all this is found in the depth of Savitri. But one must have the knowledge to discover it all, the experience of the planes of consciousness, the experience of the Supermind, even the experience of the conquest of Death. He has noted all the stages, marked each step in order to advance integrally in the integral Yoga.
All this is His own experience, and what is most surprising is that it is my own experience also. It is my sadhana which He has worked out. Each object, each event, each realisation, all the descriptions, even the colours are exactly what I saw and the words, phrases are also exactly what I heard. And all this before having read the book. I read Savitri many times afterwards, but earlier, when He was writing He used to read it to me. Every morning I used to hear Him read Savitri. During the night He would write and in the morning read it to me. And I observed something curious, that day after day the experiences He read out to me in the morning were those I had had the previous night, word by word. Yes, all the descriptions, the colours, the pictures I had seen, the words I had heard, all, all, I heard it all, put by Him into poetry, into miraculous poetry. Yes, they were exactly my experiences of the previous night which He read out to me the following morning. And it was not just one day by chance, but for days and days toge ther. And every time I used to compare what He said with my previous experiences and they were always the same. I repeat, it was not that I had told Him my experiences and that He had noted them down afterwards, no, He knew already what I had seen. It is my experiences He has presented at length and they were His experiences also. It is, moreover, the picture of Our joint adventure into the unknown or ra ther into the Supermind.
these are experiences lived by Him, realities, supracosmic truths. He experienced all these as one experiences joy or sorrow, physically. He walked in the darkness of inconscience, even in the neighborhood of death, endured the sufferings of perdition, and emerged from the mud, the world-misery to brea the the sovereign plenitude and enter the supreme Ananda. He crossed all these realms, went through the consequences, suffered and endured physically what one cannot imagine. Nobody till today has suffered like Him. He accepted suffering to transform suffering into the joy of union with the Supreme. It is something unique and incomparable in the history of the world. It is something that has never happened before, He is the first to have traced the path in the Unknown, so that we may be able to walk with certitude towards the Supermind. He has made the work easy for us. Savitri is His whole Yoga of transformation, and this Yoga appears now for the first time in the earth-consciousness.
And I think that man is not yet ready to receive it. It is too high and too vast for him. He cannot understand it, grasp it, for it is not by the mind that one can understand Savitri. One needs spiritual experiences in order to understand and assimilate it. the far ther one advances on the path of Yoga, the more does one assimilate and the better. No, it is something which will be appreciated only in the future, it is the poetry of tomorrow of which He has spoken in the Future Poetry. It is too subtle, too refined, - it is not in the mind or through the mind, it is in meditation that Savitri is revealed.
And men have the audacity to compare it with the work of Virgil or Homer and to find it inferior. they do not understand, they cannot understand. What do they know? Nothing at all. And it is useless to try to make them understand. Men will know what it is, but in a distant future. It is only the new race with a new consciousness which will be able to understand. I assure you there is nothing under the blue sky to compare with Savitri. It is the mystery of mysteries. It is a *super-epic,* it is super-literature, super-poetry, super-vision, it is a super-work even if one considers the number of lines He has written. No, these human words are not adequate to describe Savitri. Yes, one needs superlatives, hyperboles to describe it. It is a hyper-epic. No, words express nothing of what Savitri is, at least I do not find them. It is of immense value - spiritual value and all o ther values; it is eternal in its subject, and infinite in its appeal, miraculous in its mode and power of execution; it is a unique thing, the more you come into contact with it, the higher will you be uplifted. Ah, truly it is something! It is the most beautiful thing He has left for man, the highest possible. What is it? When will man know it? When is he going to lead a life of truth? When is he going to accept this in his life? This yet remains to be seen.
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 overwhelm 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
~ the Mo ther Sweet Mo ther the Mo ther to Mona Sarkar, [T0]
00.02 - Mystic Symbolism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
the Approach to Mysticism Upanishadic Symbolism
O ther Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Mystic Symbolism
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the Mystics all over the world and in all ages have clo thed their sayings in proverbs and parables, in figures and symbols. To speak in symbols seems to be in their very nature; it is their characteristic manner, their inevitable style. Let us see what is the reason behind it. But first who are the Mystics? they are those who are in touch with supra-sensual things, whose experiences are of a world different from the common physical world, the world of the mind and the senses.
these o ther worlds are constituted in o ther ways than ours. their contents are different and the laws that obtain there are also different. It would be a gross blunder to attempt a chart of any of these o ther systems, to use an Einsteinian term, with the measures and conventions of the system to which our external waking consciousness belongs. For, there " the sun shines not, nor the moon, nor the stars, nei ther these lightnings nor this fire." the difficulty is fur ther enhanced by the fact that there are very many unseen worlds and they all differ from the seen and from one ano ther in manner and degree. Thus, for example, the Upanishads speak of the swapna, the suupta, and the turya, domains beyond the jgrat which is that where the rational being with its mind and senses lives and moves. And there are o ther systems and o ther ways in which systems exist, and they are practically innumerable.
If, however, we have to speak of these o ther worlds, then, since we can speak only in the terms of this world, we have to use them in a different sense from those they usually bear; we must employ them as figures and symbols. Even then they may prove inadequate and misleading; so there are Mystics who are averse to all speech and expression they are mauni; in silence they experience the inexpressible and in silence they communicate it to the few who have the capacity to receive in silence.
But those who do speak, how do they choose their figures and symbols? What is their methodology? For it might be said, since the unseen and the seen differ out and out, it does not matter what forms or signs are taken from the latter; for any meaning and significance could be put into anything. But in reality, it does not so happen. For, although there is a great divergence between figures and symbols on the one hand and the things figured and symbolised on the o ther, still there is also some link, some common measure. And that is why we see not unoften the same or similar figures and symbols representing an identical experience in ages and countries far apart from each o ther.
We can make a distinction here between two types of expression which we have put toge ther indiscriminately, figures and symbols. Figures, we may say, are those that are constructed by the rational mind, the intellect; they are mere metaphors and similes and are not organically related to the thing experienced, but put round it as a robe that can be dropped or changed without affecting the experience itself. Thus, for example, when the Upanishad says, tmnam rathinam viddhi (Know that the soul is the master of the chariot who sits within it) or indriyi haynhu ( the senses, they say, are the horses), we have here only a comparison or analogy that is common and natural to the poetic manner. the particular figure or simile used is not inevitable to the idea or experience that it seeks to express, its part and parcel. On the o ther hand, take this Upanishadic perception: hirayamayena patrea satyasyphitam mukham ( the face of the Truth lies hidden under the golden orb). Here the symbol is not mere analogy or comparison, a figure; it is one with the very substance of the experience the two cannot be separated. Or when the Vedas speak of the kindling of the Fire, the rushing of the waters or the rise of the Dawn, the images though taken from the material world, are not used for the sake of mere comparison, but they are the embodiments, the living forms of truths experienced in ano ther world.
When a Mystic refers to the Solar Light or to the Fire the light, for example, that struck down Saul and transformed him into Saint Paul or the burning bush that visited Moses, it is not the physical or material object that he means and yet it is that in a way. It is the materialization of something that is fundamentally not material: some movement in an inner consciousness precipitates itself into the region of the senses and takes from out of the material the form commensurable with its nature that it finds there.
And there is such a commensurability or parallelism between the various levels of consciousness, in and through all the differences that separate them from one ano ther. Thus an object or a movement apprehended on the physical plane has a sort of line of re-echoing images extended in a series along the whole gradation of the inner planes; o therwise viewed, an object or movement in the innermost consciousness translates itself in varying modes from plane to plane down to the most material, where it appears in its grossest form as a concrete three-dimensional object or a mechanical movement. This parallelism or commensurability by virtue of which the different and divergent states of consciousness can portray or represent each o ther is the source of all symbolism.
A symbol symbolizes something for this reason that both possess in common a certain identical, at least similar, quality or rhythm or vibration, the symbol possessing it in a grosser or more apparent or sensuous form than the thing symbolized does. Sometimes it may happen that it is more than a certain quality or rhythm or vibration that is common between the two: the symbol in its entirety is the thing symbolized but thrown down on ano ther plane, it is the embodiment of the latter in a more concrete world. the light and the fire that Saint Paul and Moses saw appear to be of this kind.
Thus there is a great diversity of symbols. At the one end is the mere metaphor or simile or allegory ('figure', as we have called it) and at the o ther end is the symbol identical with the thing symbolized. And upon this inner character of the symbol depends also to a large extent its range and scope. there are symbols which are universal and intimately ingrained in the human consciousness itself. Mankind has used them in all ages and climes almost in the same sense and significance. there are o thers that are limited to peoples and ages. they are made out of forms that are of local and temporal interest and importance. their significances vary according to time and place. Finally, there are symbols which are true of the individual consciousness only; they depend on personal peculiarities and idiosyncrasies, on one's environment and upbringing and education.
Man being an embodied soul, his external consciousness (what the Upanishad calls jgrat) is the milieu in which his soul-experiences naturally manifest and find their play. It is the forms and movements of that consciousness which clo the and give a concrete habitation and name to perceptions on the subtler ranges of the inner existence. If the experiences on these planes are to be presented to the conscious memory and to the brain-mind and made communicable to o thers through speech, this is the inevitable and natural process. Symbols are a translation in mental and sensual (and vocal) terms of experiences that are beyond the mind and the sense and the speech and yet throw a kind of echoing vibrations upon these lesser levels.
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the Approach to Mysticism Upanishadic Symbolism
0 0.02 - Topographical Note, #Agenda Vol 1, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
From the time of Sri Aurobindo's departure (1950) until 1957, we have only a few notes and fragments or rare statements noted from memory. these are the only landmarks of this period, along with Mo ther's Questions and Answers from her talks at the Ashram Playground. A few of these conversations have been reproduced here insofar as they mark stages of the Supramental
Action.
From 1957, Mo ther received us twice a week in the office of Pavitra, the most senior of the
French disciples, on the second floor of the main Ashram building, on some pretext of work or o ther. She listened to our queries, spoke to us at length of yoga, occultism, her past experiences in
Algeria and in France or of her current experiences; and gradually, She opened the mind of the rebellious and materialistic Westerner that we were and made us understand the laws of the worlds, the play of forces, the working of past lives - especially this latter, which was an important factor in the difficulties with which we were struggling at that time and which periodically made us abscond.
Mo ther would be seated in this ra ther medieval-looking chair with its high, carved back, her feet on a little tabouret, while we sat on the floor, on a slightly faded carpet, conquered and seduced, revolted and never satisfied - but never theless, very interested. Treasures, never noted down, were lost until, with the cunning of the Sioux, we succeeded in making Mo ther consent to the presence of a tape recorder. But even then, and for a long time thereafter, She carefully made us erase or delete in our notes all that concerned Her ra ther too personally - sometimes we disobeyed Her.
But finally we were able to convince Her of the value inherent in keeping a chronicle of the route.
It was only in 1958 that we began having the first tape-recorded conversations, which, properly speaking, constitute Mo ther's Agenda. But even then, many of these conversations were lost or only partly noted down. Or else we considered that our own words should not figure in these notes and we carefully omitted all our questions - which was absurd. At that time, no one - nei ther Mo ther, nor ourself - knew that this was ' the Agenda' and that we were out to explore the 'Great Passage.'
Only gradually did we become aware of the true nature of these meetings. Fur thermore, we were constantly on the road, so much so that there are sizable gaps in the text. In fact, for seven years,
Mo ther was patiently preparing the instrument that would be able to traverse the adventure without breaking along the way.
From 1960, the Agenda took its final shape arid grew for thirteen years, until May 1973, filling thirteen volumes in all (some six thousand pages), with a change of setting in March 1962 at the time of the Great Turning in Mo ther's yoga when She permanently retired to her room upstairs, as had Sri Aurobindo in 1926. the interviews then took place high up in this large room carpeted in golden wool, like a ship's stateroom, amidst the rustling of the Copper Pod tree and the cawing of crows. Mo ther would sit in a low rosewood chair, her face turned towards Sri Aurobindo's tomb, as though She were wearing down the distance separating that world from our own. Her voice had become like that of a child, one could hear her laughter. She always laughed, this Mo ther. And then her long silences. Until the day the disciples closed her door on us. It was May 19, 1973. We did not want to believe it. She was alone, just as we were suddenly alone. Slowly, painfully, we had to discover the why of this rupture. We understood nothing of the jealousies of the old species, we did not yet realize that they were becoming the 'owners' of Mo ther - of the Ashram, of Auroville, of
Sri Aurobindo, of everything - and that the new world was going to be denatured into a new
Church. there and then, they made us understand why She had pulled us from our forest, one day, and chosen as her confidant an incurable rebel.
0 0.03 - 1951-1957. Notes and Fragments, #Agenda Vol 1, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
the lack of the earth's receptivity and the behavior of Sri Aurobindo's disciples 1 are largely responsible for what happened to his body. But one thing is certain: the great misfortune that has just beset us in no way affects the truth of his teaching. All he said is perfectly true and remains so.
Time and the course of events will make this abundantly clear.
00.03 - Upanishadic Symbolism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Mystic Symbolism the Beautiful in the Upanishads
O ther Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Upanishadic Symbolism
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A certain rationalistic critic divides the Upanishadic symbols into three categoriesthose that are rational and can be easily understood by the mind; those that are not understood by the mind and yet do not go against reason, having nothing inherently irrational in them and may be simply called non-rational; those that seem to be quite irrational, for they go frankly against all canons of logic and common sense. As an example of the last, the irrational type, the critic cites a story from the Chhndogya, which may be rendered thus:
there was an aspirant, a student who was seeking after knowledge. One day there appeared to him a white dog. Soon, o ther dogs followed and addressed their predecessor: "O Lord, sing to our Food, for we desire to eat." the white dog answered, "Come to me at dawn here in this very place." the aspirant waited. the dogs, like singer-priests, circled round in a ring. then they sat and cried aloud; they cried out," Om We eat and Om we drink, may the gods bring here our food."
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 o ther 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 o therwise. 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.
Now, as regards the interpretation of the story cited, should not a suspicion arise naturally at the very outset that the dog of the story is not a dog but represents something else? First, a significant epi thet is given to itwhite; secondly, although it asks for food, it says that Om is its food and Om is its drink. In the Vedas we have some references to dogs. Yama has twin dogs that "guard the path and have powerful vision." they are his messengers, " they move widely and delight in power and possess the vast strength." the Vedic Rishis pray to them for Power and Bliss and for the vision of the Sun1. there is also the Hound of Heaven, Sarama, who comes down and discovers the luminous cows stolen and hidden by the Panis in their dark caves; she is the path-finder for Indra, the deliverer.
My suggestion is that the dog is a symbol of the keen sight of Intuition, the unfailing perception of direct knowledge. With this clue the Upanishadic story becomes quite sensible and clear and not mere abracadabra. To the aspirant for Knowledge came first a purified power of direct understanding, an Intuition of fundamental value, and this brought o thers of the same species in its train. they were all linked toge ther organically that is the significance of the circle, and formed a rhythmic utterance and expression of the supreme truth (Om). It is also to be noted that they came and met at dawn to chant, the Truth. Dawn is the opening and awakening of the consciousness to truths that come from above and beyond.
It may be asked why the dog has been chosen as the symbol of Intuition. In the Vedas, the cow and the horse also play a large part; even the donkey and the frog have their own assigned roles. these objects are taken from the environment of ordinary life, and are those that are most familiar to the external consciousness, through which the inner experiences have to express themselves, if they are to be expressed at all. these material objects represent various kinds of forces and movements and subtle and occult and spiritual dynamisms. Strictly speaking, however, symbols are not chosen in a subtle or spiritual experience, that is to say, they are not arbitrarily selected and constructed by the conscious intelligence. they form part of a dramatization (to use a term of the Freudian psychology of dreams), a psychological alchemy, whose method and process and rationale are very obscure, which can be penetrated only by the vision of a third eye.
I. the Several Lights
the Brihadaranyaka speaks of several lights that man possesses, one in the absence of ano ther, for his illumination and guidance.
First of all, he has the Sun; it is the primary light by which he lives and moves. When the Sun sets, the Moon rises to replace it. When both the Sun and the Moon set, he has recourse to the Fire. And when the Fire, too, is extinguished, there comes the Word. In the end, when the Fire is quieted and the Word silenced, man is lighted by the Light of the Atman. This Atman is All-Knowledge; it is secreted within the life, within the heart: it is selfluminous Vijnamaya preu rdyantar jyoti..
the progression indicated by the order of succession points to a gradual withdrawal from the outer to the inner light, from the surface to the deep, from the obvious to the secret, from the actual and derivative to the real and original. We begin by the senses and move towards the Spirit.
the Sun is the first and the most immediate source of light that man has and needs. He is the presiding deity of our waking consciousness and has his seat in the eyecakusa ditya, ditya caku bhtvakii prviat. the eye is the representative of the senses; it is the sense par excellence. In truth, sense-perception is the initial light with which we have to guide us, it is the light with which we start on the way. A developed stage comes when the Sun sets for us, that is to say, when we retire from the senses and rise into the mind, whose divinity is the Moon. It is the mental knowledge, the light of reason and intelligence, of reflection and imagination that govern our consciousness. We have to proceed far ther and get beyond the mind, exceed the derivative light of the Moon. So when the Moon sets, the Fire is kindled. It is the light of the ardent and aspiring heart, the glow of an inner urge, the instincts and inspirations of our secret life-will. Here we come into touch with a source of knowledge and realization, a guidance more direct than the mind and much deeper than the sense-perception. Still this light partakes more of heat than of pure luminosity; it is, one may say, incandescent feeling, but not vision. We must probe deeper, mount higherreach heights and profundities that are serene and transparent. the Fire is to be quieted and silenced, says the Upanishad. then we come nearer, to the immediate vicinity of the Truth: an inner hearing opens, the direct voice of Truth the Wordreaches us to lead and guide. Even so, however, we have not come to the end of our journey; the Word of revelation is not the ultimate Light. the Word too is clothing, though a luminous clothinghiramayam ptram When this last veil dissolves and disappears, when utter silence, absolute calm and quietude reign in the entire consciousness, when no o ther lights trouble or distract our attention, there appears the Atman in its own body; we stand face to face with the source of all lights, the self of the Light, the light of the Self. We are that Light and we become that Light.
II. the Four Oblations
the Word has four breasts. the Gods feed on two, SWAHAKAR and VASHATKAR, men upon the third, HANTAKAR,and the Ancestor upon the fourth, SWADHA 2
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 Fa thers (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 o ther 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.
From the psychological standpoint, the four oblations are movements or reactions of consciousness in its urge towards the utterance and expression of Divine Truth. Like some o ther elements in the cosmic play, these also form a quartetcaturvyha and work toge ther for a common purpose in view of a perfect and all-round result.
Svh is the offering and invocation. One must dedicate everything to the Divine, cast all one has or does into the Fire of Aspiration that blazes up towards the Most High, and through the tongue of that one-pointed flame call on the Divinity.
In doing so, in invoking the Truth and consecrating oneself to it, one begins to ascend to it step by step; and each step means a tearing of ano ther veil and a fur ther opening of the I passage. This graded mounting is vaakra.
Hantakr is the appearance, the manifestation of the Divinity that which makes the worshipper cry in delight, "Hail!" It is the coming of the Dawnahanwhen the night has been traversed and the lid rent open, the appearance of the Divine to a human vision for the human consciousness to seize, almost in a human form.
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.
And in response they descend and approach and enter into the aspiring human soulthis descent and revelation and near and concrete presence of Divinity, this Hanta is man's food, for by it his consciousness is nourished.
This interchange, or mutual giving, the High Covenant between the Gods and Men, to which the Gita too refers
With this sacrifice nourish the Gods, that the Gods may nourish you; thus mutually nourishing ye shall obtain the highest felicity3 is the very secret of the cosmic play, the basis of the spiritual evolution in the universal existence.
the Gods are the formations or particularisations of the Truth-consciousness, the multiple individualisations of the One spirit. the Pitris are the Divine Fa thers, that is to say, souls that once laboured and realised here below, and now have passed beyond. they dwell in ano ther 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 o ther, 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 Fa thers and the Path of the Gods
One is an ideal in and of the world, the o ther is an ideal transcending the world. the Path of the Fa thers (Pityna) enjoins the right accomplishing of the dharma of Lifeit is the path of works, of Karma; it is the line of progressive evolution that, man follows through the experience of life after life on earth. the Path of the Gods (Devayna) runs above life's evolutionary course; it lifts man out of the terrestrial cycle and places him in a superior consciousness it is the path of knowledge, of Vidya.4 the Path of the Fa thers is the soul's sou thern or inferior orbit (dakiyana, aparrdha); the Path of the Gods is the nor thern or superior orbit (uttaryaa, parrdha) the former is also called the Lunar Path and the latter the Solar Path.5 For the moon represents the mind,6 and is therefore, an emblem that befits man so long as he is a mental being and pursues a dharma that is limited by the mind; the sun, on the o ther hand, is the knowledge and consciousness that is beyond the mindit is the eye of the Gods.7
Man has two aspects or natures; he dwells in two worlds. the first is the manifest world the world of the body, the life and the mind. the body has flowered into the mind through the life. the body gives the basis or the material, the life gives power and energy and the mind the directing knowledge. This triune world forms the humanity of man. But there is ano ther aspect hidden behind this apparent nature, there is ano ther world where man dwells in his submerged, larger and higher consciousness. To that his soul the Purusha in his heart only has access. It is the world where man's nature is transmuted into ano ther triune realitySat, Chit and Ananda.
the one, however, is not completely divorced from the o ther. the apparent, the inferior nature is only a preparation for the real, the superior nature. the Path of the Fa thers concerns itself with man as a mental being and seeks so to ordain and accomplish its duties and ideals as to lead him on to the Path of the Gods; the mind, the life, and the body consciousness should be so disciplined, educated, purified, they should develop along such a line and gradually rise to such a stage as to make them fit to receive the light which belongs to the higher level, so allowing the human soul imbedded in them to extricate itself and pass on to the Immortal Life.
And they who are thus lifted up into the Higher Orbit are freed from the bondage to the cycle of rebirth. they enjoy the supreme Liberation that is of the Spirit; and even when they descend into the Inferior Path, it is to work out as free agents, as vehicles of the Divine, a special purpose, to bring down something of the substance and nature of the Solar reality into the lower world, enlighten and elevate the lower, as far as it is allowed, into the higher.
IV. the Triple Agni
Agni is the divine spark in man, the flaming consciousness in the mortal which purifies and uplifts (pvaka) mortality into immortality. It is the god "seated in the secret heart, who is the possession of infinity and the foundation of existence," as Yama says to Nachiketas.8
Indeed, it was to this godhead that Nachiketas turned and he wanted to know of it and find it, when faith seized on his pure heart and he aspired for the higher spiritual life. the very opening hymn of the Rig Veda, too, is addressed to Agni, who is invoked as the vicar seated in the front of the sacrifice, the giver of the supreme gifts.
King Yama initiated Nachiketas into the mystery of Fire Worship and spoke of three fires that have to be kindled if one aspires to enter the heaven of immortality.
the three fires are named elsewhere Garhapatya, Dakshina, and Ahavaniya.9 they are the three tongues of the one central Agni, that dwells secreted in the hearth of the soul. they manifest as aspirations that flame up from the three fundamental levels of our being, the body, the life and the mind. For although the spiritual consciousness is the natural element of the soul and is gained in and through the soul, yet, in order that man may take possession of it and dwell in it consciously, in order that the soul's empire may be established, the external being too must respond to the soul's impact and yearn for its truth in the Spirit. the mind, the life and the body which are usually obstructions in the path, must discover the secret flame that is in them tooeach has his own portion of the Soul's Fireand mount on its ardent tongue towards the heights of the Spirit.
Garhapatya is the Fire in the body-consciousness, the fire of Earth, as it is sometimes called; Dakshina is the Fire of the moon or mind, and Ahavaniya that of life.10 the earthly fire is also the fire of the sun; the sun is the source of all earth's heat and symbolises at the same time the spiritual light manifested in the physical consciousness. the lunar fire is also the fire of the stars, the stars, mythologically, being the consorts or powers of the moon and they symbolise, in Yogic experience, the intuitive thoughts. the fire of the life-force has its symbol in lightning, electric energy being its vehicle.
Agni in the physical consciousness is calledghapati, for the body is the house in which the soul is lodged and he is its keeper, guardian and lord. the fire in the mental consciousness is called daki; for it is that which gives discernment, the power to discriminate between the truth and the falsehood, it is that which by the pressure of its heat and light cleaves the wrong away from the right. And the fire in the life-force is called havanya; for pra is not only the plane of hunger and desire, but also of power and dynamism, it is that which calls forth forces, brings them into' play and it is that which is to be invoked for the progression of the Sacrifice, for an onward march on the spiritual path.
Of the three fires one is the upholderhe who gives the firm foundation, the stable house where the Sacrifice is performed and Truth realised; the second is the Knower, often called in the Veda jtaved, who guides and directs; and the third the Doer, the effective Power, the driving Energyvaivnara.
V. the Five Great Elements
the five elements of the ancientsearth, water, fire, air and e ther or spaceare symbols taken from the physical world to represent o ther worlds that are in it and behind it. Each one is a principle that constitutes the fundamental nature of a particular plane of existence.
Earth represents the material world itself, Matter or existence in its most concrete, its grossest form. It is the basis of existence, the world that supports o ther worlds (dhar, dharitri), the first or the lowest of the several ranges of creation. In man it is his body. the principle here is that of stability, substantiality, firmness, consistency.
Water represents the next rung the vital world, the world life-force (pra). Physiologically also we know that water is the element forming three-fourths of the constituents of a living body and that dead and dry are synonymous terms; it is the medium in which the living cells dwell and through which they draw their sustenance. Water is the veritable sap of lifeit is the emblem of life itself. the principle it represents is that of movement, continuity, perpetuity.
Fire represents the Heart. It is that which gives the inner motive to the forces of life, it is the secret inspiration and aspiration that drive the movements of life. It is the heat of consciousness, the ardour of our central being that lives in the Truth and accepts nothing, nothing but the Truth. It is the pure and primal energy of our divine essence, driving ever upward and onward life's course of evolution.
Air is Mind, the world of thought, of conscious formation; it is where life-movements are taken up and given a shape or articulate formula for an organised expression. the forms here have not, however, the concrete rigidity of Matter, but are pliant and variable and fluidin fact, they are more in the nature of possibilities, ra ther than actualities. the Vedic Maruts are thought-gods, and lndra ( the Luminous Mind), their king, is called the Fashioner of perfect forms.
E ther or Space is the infinitude of the Spirit, the limitless Presence that dwells in and yet transcends the body, the life the heart and the mind.
VI. the Science of the Five Fires
the Science of the Five Agnis (Fires), as propounded by Pravahan, explains and illustrates the process of the birth of the body, the passage of the soul into earth existence. It describes the advent of the child, the building of the physical form of the human being. the process is conceived of as a sacrifice, the usual symbol with the Vedic Rishis for the expression of their vision and perception of universal processes of Nature, physical and psychological. Here, the child IS said to be the final fruit of the sacrifice, the different stages in the process being: (i) Soma, (ii) Rain, (iii) Food, (iv) Semen, (v) Child. Soma means Rasaphysically the principle of water, psychologically the 'principle of delightand symbolises and constitutes the very soul and substance of life. Now it is said that these five principles the fundamental and constituent elementsare born out of the sacrifice, through the oblation or offering to the five Agnis. the first Agni is Heaven or the Sky-God, and by offering to it one's faith and one's ardent desire, one calls into manifestation Soma or Rasa or Water, the basic principle of life. This water is next offered to the second Agni, the Rain-God, who sends down Rain. Rain, again, is offered to the third Agni, the Earth, who brings forth Food. Food is, in its turn, offered to the fourth Agni, the Fa ther or Male, who elaborates in himself the generating fluid.
Finally, this fluid is offered to the fifth Agni, the Mo ther or the Female, who delivers the Child.
the biological process, described in what may seem to be crude and mediaeval terms, really reflects or echoes a more subtle and psychological process. the images used form perhaps part of the current popular notion about the matter, but the esoteric sense goes beyond the outer symbols. the sky seems to be the far and tenuous region where the soul rests and awaits its next birthit is the region of Soma, the own Home of Bliss and Immortality. Now when the time or call comes, the soul stirs and journeys down that is the Rain. Next, it enters the earth atmosphere and clo thes itself with the earth consciousness. then it waits and calls for the formation of the material body, first by the contri bution of the fa ther and then by that of the mo ther; when these two unite and the material body is formed, the soul incarnates.
Apart from the question whe ther the biological phenomenon described is really a symbol and a cloak for ano ther order of reality, and even taking it at its face value, what is to be noted here is the idea of a cosmic cycle, and a cosmic cycle that proceeds through the principle of sacrifice. If it is asked what there is wonderful or particularly spiritual in this ra ther naf description of a very commonplace happening that gives it an honoured place in the Upanishads, the answer is that it is wonderful to see how the Upanishadic Rishi takes from an event its local, temporal and personal colour and incorporates it in a global movement, a cosmic cycle, as a limb of the Universal Brahman. the Upanishads contain passages which a puritanical mentality may perhaps describe as 'pornographic'; these have in fact been put by some on the Index expurgatorius. But the ancients saw these matters with o ther eyes and through ano ther consciousness.
We have, in modern times, a movement towards a more conscious and courageous, knowledge of things that were taboo to puritan ages. Not to shut one's eyes to the lower, darker and hidden strands of our nature, but to bring them out into the light of day and to face them is the best way of dealing with such elements, which o therwise, if they are repressed, exert an unhealthy influence on the mind and nature. the Upanishadic view runs on the same lines, but, with the unveiling and the natural and not merely naturalisticdelineation of these under-worlds (concerning sex and food), it endows them with a perspective sub specie aeternitatis. the sexual function, for example, is easily equated to the double movement of ascent and descent that is secreted in nature, or to the combined action of Purusha and Prakriti in the cosmic Play, or again to the hidden fount of Delight that holds and moves the universe. In this view there is nothing merely secular and profane, but all is woven into the cosmic spiritual whole; and man is taught to consider and to mould all his movementsof soul and mind and bodyin the light and rhythm of that integral Reality.11
the central secret of the transfigured consciousness lies, as we have already indicated, in the mystic rite or law of Sacrifice. It is the one basic, fundamental, universal Law that upholds and explains the cosmic movement, conformity to which brings to the thrice-bound human being release and freedom. Sacrifice consists essentially of two elements or processes: (i) the offering or self giving of the lower reality to the higher, and, as a consequence, an answering movement of (ii) the descent of the higher into the lower. the lower offered to the higher means the lower sublimated and integrated into the higher; and the descent of the higher into the lower means the incarnation of the former and the fulfilment of the latter. the Gita elaborates the same idea when it says that by Sacrifice men increase the gods and the gods increase men and by so increasing each o ther they attain the supreme Good. Nothing is, nothing is done, for its own sake, for an egocentric satisfaction; all, even movements relating to food and to sex should be dedicated to the Cosmic BeingVisva Purusha and that alone received which comes from Him.
VII. the Cosmic and the Transcendental
the Supreme Reality which is always called Brahman in the Upanishads, has to be known and experienced in two ways; for it has two fundamental aspects or modes of being. the Brahman is universal and it is transcendental. the Truth, satyam, the Upanishad says in its symbolic etymology, is 'This' (or, He) and 'That' (syat+tyat i.e. sat+tat). 'This' means the Universal Brahman: it is what is referred to when the Upanishad says:
Ivsyamidam sarvam: All this is for habitation by the Lord;
or,Sarvam khalvidam brahma: All this is indeed the Brahman;
or,Sa evedam sarvam: He is indeed all this;
--
or,Atmaivedam sarvam: the Self indeed is all this;
or again,Sarvamasmi: I am all.
theChhandyogya12 gives a whole typal scheme of this universal reality and explains how to realise it and what are the results of the experience. the Universal Brahman means the cosmic movement, the cyclic march of things and events taken in its global aspect. the typical movement that symbolises and epitomises the phenomenon, embodies the truth, is that of the sun. the movement consists of five stages which are called the fivefold sma Sma means the equal Brahman that is ever present in all, the Upanishad itself says deriving the word from sama It is Sma also because it is a rhythmic movement, a cadencea music of the spheres. And a rhythmic movement, in virtue of its being a wave, consists of these five stages: (i) the start, (ii) the rise, (iii) the peak, (iv) the decline and (v) the fall. Now the sun follows this curve and marks out the familiar divisions of the day: dawn, forenoon, noon, afternoon and sunset. Sometimes two o ther stages are added, one at each end, one of preparation and ano ther of final lapse the twilights with regard to the sun and then ,we have seven instead of five smas Like the Sun, the Fire that is to say, the sacrificial Firecan also be seen in its fivefold cyclic movement: (i) the lighting, (ii) the smoke, (iii) the flame, (iv) smouldering and finally (v) extinction the fuel as it is rubbed to produce the fire and the ashes may be added as the two supernumerary stages. Or again, we may take the cycle of five seasons or of the five worlds or of the deities that control these worlds. the living wealth of this earth is also symbolised in a quintetgoat and sheep and cattle and horse and finally man. Coming to the microcosm, we have in man the cycle of his five senses, basis of all knowledge and activity. For the macrocosm, to I bring out its vast extra-human complexity, the Upanishad refers to a quintet, each term of which is again a trinity: (i) the threefold Veda, the Divine Word that is the origin of creation, (ii) the three worlds or fieldsearth, air-belt or atmosphere and space, (iii) the three principles or deities ruling respectively these worldsFire, Air and Sun, (iv) their expressions, emanations or embodimentsstars and birds and light-rays, and finally, (v) the original inhabitants of these worldsto earth belong the reptiles, to the mid-region the Gandharvas and to heaven the ancient Fa thers.
Now, this is the All, the Universal. One has to realise it and possess in one's consciousness. And that can be done only in one way: one has to identify oneself with it, be one with it, become it. Thus by losing one's individuality one lives the life universal; the small lean separate life is enlarged and moulded in the rhythm of the Rich and the Vast. It is thus that man shares in the consciousness and energy that inspire and move and sustain the cosmos. the Upanishad most emphatically enjoins that one must not decry this cosmic godhead or deny any of its elements, not even such as are a taboo to the puritan mind. It is in and through an unimpaired global consciousness that one attains the All-Life and lives uninterruptedly and perennially: Sarvamanveti jyok jvati.
Still the Upanishad says this is not the final end. there is yet a higher status of reality and consciousness to which one has to rise. For beyond the Cosmos lies the Transcendent. the Upanishad expresses this truth and experience in various symbols. the cosmic reality, we have seen, is often conceived as a septenary, a unity of seven elements, principles and worlds. Fur ther to give it its full complex value, it is considered not as a simple septet, but a threefold heptad the whole gamut, as it were, consisting of 21 notes or syllables. the Upanishad says, this number does not exhaust the entire range; I for there is yet a 22nd place. This is the world beyond the Sun, griefless and deathless, the supreme Selfhood. the Veda I also sometimes speaks of the integral reality as being represented by the number 100 which is 99 + I; in o ther words, 99 represents the cosmic or universal, the unity being the reality beyond, the Transcendent.
Elsewhere the Upanishad describes more graphically this truth and the experience of it. It is said there that the sun has fivewe note the familiar fivemovements of rising and setting: (i) from East to West, (ii) from South to North, (iii) from West to East, (iv) from North to South and (v) from abovefrom the Zenithdownward. these are the five normal and apparent movements. But there is a sixth one; ra ther it is not a movement, but a status, where the sun nei ther rises nor sets, but is always visible fixed in the same position.
Some Western and Westernised scholars have tried to show that the phenomenon described here is an exclusively natural phenomenon, actually visible in the polar region where the sun never sets for six months and moves in a circle whose plane is parallel to the plane of the horizon on the summer solstice and is gradually inclined as the sun regresses towards the equinox (on which day just half the solar disc is visible above the horizon). the sun may be said there to move in the direction East-South-West-North and again East. Indeed the Upanishad mentions the positions of the sun in that order and gives a character to each successive station. the Ray from the East is red, symbolising the Rik, the Sou thern Ray is white, symbolising the Yajur, the Western Ray is black symbolising the Atharva. the natural phenomenon, however, might have been or might not have been before the mind's eye of the Rishi, but the symbolism, the esotericism of it is clear enough in the way the Rishi speaks of it. Also, apart from the first four movements (which it is already sufficiently difficult to identify completely with what is visible), the fifth movement, as a separate descending movement from above appears to be a foreign element in the context. And although, with regard to the sixth movement or status, the sun is visible as such exactly from the point of the North Pole for a while, the ring of the Rishi's utterance is unmistakably spiritual, it cannot but refer to a fact of inner consciousness that is at least what the physical fact conveys to the Rishi and what he seeks to convey and express primarily.
Now this is what is sought to be conveyed and expressed. the five movements of the sun here also are nothing but the five smas and they refer to the cycle of the Cosmic or Universal Brahman. the sixth status where all movements cease, where there is no rising and setting, no ebb and flow, no waxing and waning, where there is the immutable, the ever-same unity, is very evidently the Transcendental Brahman. It is That to which the Vedic Rishi refers when he prays for a constant and fixed vision of the eternal Sunjyok ca sryam drie.
It would be interesting to know what the five ranges or levels or movements of consciousness exactly are that make up the Universal Brahman described in this passage. It is the mystic knowledge, the Upanishad says, of the secret delight in thingsmadhuvidy. the five ranges are the five fundamental principles of delightimmortalities, the Veda would say that form the inner core of the pyramid of creation. they form a rising tier and are ruled respectively by the godsAgni, Indra, Varuna, Soma and Brahmawith their emanations and instrumental personalities the Vasus, the Rudras, the Adityas, the Maruts and the Sadhyas. We suggest that these refer to the five well-known levels of being, the modes or nodi of consciousness or something very much like them. the Upanishad speaks elsewhere of the five sheaths. the six Chakras of Tantric system lie in the same line. the first and the basic mode is the physical and the ascent from the physical: Agni and the Vasus are always intimately connected with the earth and - the earth-principles (it can be compared with the Muladhara of the Tantras). Next, second in the line of ascent is the Vital, the centre of power and dynamism of which the Rudras are the deities and Indra the presiding God (cf. Swadhishthana of the Tantras the navel centre). Indra, in the Vedas, has two aspects, one of knowledge and vision and the o ther of dynamic force and drive. In the first aspect he is more often considered as the Lord of the Mind, of the Luminous Mind. In the present passage, Indra is taken in his second aspect and instead of the Maruts with whom he is usually invoked has the Rudras as his agents and associates.
the third in the line of ascension is the region of Varuna and the Adityas, that is to say, of the large Mind and its lightsperhaps it can be connected with Tantric Ajnachakra. the fourth is the domain of Soma and the Marutsthis seems to be the inner heart, the fount of delight and keen and sweeping aspirations the Anahata of the Tantras. the fifth is the region of the crown of the head, the domain of Brahma and the Sadhyas: it is the Overmind status from where comes the descending inflatus, the creative Maya of Brahma. And when you go beyond, you pass into the ultimate status of the Sun, the reality absolute, the Transcendent which is indescribable, unseizable, indeterminate, indeterminable, incommensurable; and once there, one never returns, neverna ca punarvartate na ca punarvartate.
VIII. How Many Gods?
"How many Gods are there?" Yajnavalkya was once asked.13 the Rishi answered, they say there are three thousand and three of them, or three hundred and three, or again, thirty-three; it may be said too there are six or three or two or one and a half or one finally. Indeed as the Upanishad says elsewhere, it is the One Unique who wished to be many: and all the gods are the various glories (mahim) or emanations of the One Divine. the ancient of ancient Rishis had declared long long ago, in the earliest Veda, that there is one indivisible Reality, the seers name it in various ways.
In Yajnavalkya's enumeration, however, it is to be noted, first of all, that he stresses on the number three. the principle of triplicity is of very wide application: it permeates all fields of consciousness and is evidently based upon a fundamental fact of reality. It seems to embody a truth of syn thesis and comprehension, points to the order and harmony that reigns in the cosmos, the spheric music. the metaphysical, that is to say, the original principles that constitute existence are the well-known triplets: (i) the superior: Sat, Chit, Ananda; and (ii) the inferior: Body, Life and Mindthis being a reflection or translation or concretisation of the former. We can see also here how the dual principle comes in, the twin godhead or the two gods to which Yajnavalkya refers. the same principle is found in the conception of Ardhanarishwara, Male and Female, Purusha-Prakriti. the Upanishad says 14 yet again that the One original Purusha was not pleased at being alone, so for a companion he created out of himself the original Female. the dual principle signifies creation, the manifesting activity of the Reality. But what is this one and a half to which Yajnavalkya refers? It simply means that the o ther created out of the one is not a wholly separate, independent entity: it is not an integer by itself, as in the Manichean system, but that it is a portion, a fraction of the One. And in the end, in the ultimate analysis, or ra ther syn thesis, there is but one single undivided and indivisible unity. the thousands and hundreds, very often mentioned also in the Rig Veda, are not simply multiplications of the One, a graphic description of its many-sidedness; it indicates also the absolute fullness, the complete completeness (prasya pram) of the Reality. It includes and comprehends all and is a rounded totality, a full circle. the hundred-gated and the thousand-pillared cities of which the ancient Rishis chanted are formations and embodiments of consciousness human and divine, are realities whole and entire englobing all the layers and grades of consciousness.
Besides this metaphysics there is also an occult aspect in numerology of which Pythagoras was a well-known adept and in which the Vedic Rishis too seem to take special delight. the multiplication of numbers represents in a general way the principle of emanation. the One has divided and subdivided itself, but not in a haphazard way: it is not like the chaotic pulverisation of a piece of stone by hammer-blows. the process of division and subdivision follows a pattern almost as neat and methodical as a genealogical tree. That is to say, the emanations form a hierarchy. At the top, the apex of the pyramid, stands the one supreme Godhead. That Godhead is biune in respect of manifestation the Divine and his creative Power. This two-in-one reality may be considered, according to one view of creation, as dividing into three forms or aspects the well-known Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra of Hindu mythology. these may be termed the first or primary emanations.
Now, each one of them in its turn has its own emanations the eleven Rudriyas are familiar. these are secondary and there are tertiary and o ther graded emanations the last ones touch the earth and embody physico-vital forces. the lowest formations or beings can trace their origin to one or o ther of the primaries and their nature and function partake of or are an echo of their first ancestor.
Man, however, is an epitome of creation. He embraces and incarnates the entire gamut of consciousness and comprises in him all beings from the highest Divinity to the lowest jinn or elf. And yet each human being in his true personality is a lineal descendant of one or o ther typal aspect or original Personality of the one supreme Reality; and his individual character is all the more pronounced and well-defined the more organised and developed is the being. the psychic being in man is thus a direct descent, an immediate emanation along a definite line of devolution of the supreme consciousness. We may now understand and explain easily why one chooses a particular Ishta, an ideal god, what is the drive that pushes one to become a worshipper of Siva or Vishnu or any o ther deity. It is not any rational understanding, a weighing of pros and cons and then a resultant conclusion that leads one to choose a path of religion or spirituality. It is the soul's natural call to the God, the type of being and consciousness of which it is a spark, from which it has descended, it is the secret affinity the spiritual blood-relation as it were that determines the choice and adherence. And it is this that we name Faith. And the exclusiveness and violence and bitterness which attend such adherence and which go "by the "name of partisanship, sectarianism, fanaticism etc., a;e a deformation in the ignorance on the physico-vital plane of the secret loyalty to one's source and origin. Of course, the pattern or law is not so simple and rigid, but it gives a token or typal pattern. For it must not be forgotten that the supreme source or the original is one and indivisible and in the highest integration consciousness is global and not exclusive. And the human being that attains such a status is not bound or wholly limited to one particular formation: its personality is based on the truth of impersonality. And yet the two can go toge ther: an individual can be impersonal in consciousness and yet personal in becoming and true to type.
the number of gods depends on the level of consciousness on which we stand. On this material plane there are as many gods as there are bodies or individual forms (adhar). And on the supreme height there is only one God without a second. In between there are gradations of types and sub-types whose number and function vary according to the aspect of consciousness that reveals itself.
IX. Nachiketas' Three Boons
the three boons asked for by Nachiketas from Yama, Lord of Death, and granted to him have been interpreted in different ways. Here is one more attempt in the direction.
Nachiketas is the young aspiring human being still in the Ignorancenaciketa, meaning one without consciousness or knowledge. the three boons he asks for are in reference to the three fundamental modes of being and consciousness that are at the very basis, forming, as it were, the ground-plan of the integral reality. they are (i) the individual, (ii) the universal or cosmic and (iii) the transcendental.
the first boon regards the individual, that is to say, the individual identity and integrity. It asks for the maintenance of that individuality so that it may be saved from the dissolution that Death brings about. Death, of course, means the dissolution of the body, but it represents also dissolution pure and simple. Indeed death is a process which does not stop with the physical phenomenon, but continues even after; for with the body gone, the o ther elements of the individual organism, the vital and the mental too gradually fall off, fade and dissolve. Nachiketas wishes to secure from Death the safety and preservation of the earthly personality, the particular organisation of mind and vital based upon a recognisable physical frame. That is the first necessity for the aspiring mortalfor, it is said, the body is the first instrument for the working out of one's life ideal. But man's true personality, the real individuality lies beyond, beyond the body, beyond the life, beyond the mind, beyond the triple region that Death lords it over. That is the divine world, the Heaven of the immortals, beyond death and beyond sorrow and grief. It is the hearth secreted in the inner heart where burns the Divine Fire, the God of Life Everlasting. And this is the nodus that binds toge ther the threefold status of the manifested existence, the body, the life and the mind. This triplicity is the structure of name and form built out of the bricks of experience, the kiln, as it were, within which burns the Divine Agni, man's true soul. This soul can be reached only when one exceeds the bounds and limitations of the triple cord and experiences one's communion and identity with all souls and all existence. Agni is the secret divinity within, within the individual and within the world; he is the Immanent Divine, the cosmic godhead that holds toge ther and marshals all the elements and components, all the principles that make up the manifest universe. He it is that has entered into the world and created facets of his own reality in multiple forms: and it is he that lies secret in the human being as the immortal soul through all its adventure of life and death in the series of incarnations in terrestrial evolution. the adoration and realisation of this Immanent Divinity, the worship of Agni taught by Yama in the second boon, consists in the triple sacrifice, the triple work, the triple union in the triple status of the physical, the vital and the mental consciousness, the mastery of which leads one to the o ther shore, the abode of perennial existence where the human soul enjoys its eternity and unending continuity in cosmic life. therefore, Agni, the master of the psychic being, is called jtaveds, he who knows the births, all the transmigrations from life to life.
the third boon is the secret of secrets, for it is the knowledge and realisation of Transcendence that is sought here. Beyond the individual lies the universal; is there anything beyond the universal? the release of the individual into the cosmic existence gives him the griefless life eternal: can the cosmos be rolled up and flung into something beyond? What would be the nature of that thing? What is there outside creation, outside manifestation, outside Maya, to use a latter day term? Is there existence or non-existence (utter dissolution or extinctionDeath in his supreme and absolute status)? King Yama did not choose to answer immediately and even endeavoured to dissuade Nachiketas from pursuing the question over which people were confounded, as he said. Evidently it was a much discussed problem in those days. Buddha was asked the same question and he evaded it, saying that the pragmatic man should attend to practical and immediate realities and not, waste time and energy in discussing things ultimate and beyond that have hardly any relation to the present and the actual.
But Yama did answer and unveil the mystery and impart the supreme secret knowledge the knowledge of the Transcendent Brahman: it is out of the transcendent reality that the immanent deity takes his birth. Hence the Divine Fire, the Lord of creation and the Inner Mastersarvabhtntartm, antarymis called brahmajam, born of the Brahman. Yama teaches the process of transcendence. Apart from the knowledge and experience first of the individual and then of the cosmic Brahman, there is a definite line along which the human consciousness (or unconsciousness, as it is at present) is to ascend and evolve. the first step is to learn to distinguish between the Good and the Pleasurable (reya and preya). the line of pleasure leads to the external, the superficial, the false: while the o ther path leads towards the inner and the higher truth. So the second step is the gradual withdrawal of the consciousness from the physical and the sensual and even the mental preoccupation and focussing it upon what is certain and permanent. In the midst of the death-ridden consciousness in the heart of all that is unstable and fleetingone has to look for Agni, the eternal godhead, the Immortal in mortality, the Timeless in time through whom lies the passage to Immortality beyond Time.
Man has two souls corresponding to his double status. In the inferior, the soul looks downward and is involved in the current of Impermanence and Ignorance, it tastes of grief and sorrow and suffers death and dissolution: in the higher it looks upward and communes and joins with the Eternal ( the cosmic) and then with the Absolute ( the transcendent). the lower is a reflection of the higher, the higher comes down in a diminished and hence tarnished light. the message is that of deliverance, the deliverance and reintegration of the lower soul out of its bondage of worldly ignorant life into the freedom and immortality first of its higher and then of its highest status. It is true, however, that the Upanishad does not make a trenchant distinction between the cosmic and the transcendent and often it speaks of both in the same breath, as it were. For in fact they are realities involved in each o ther and interwoven. Indeed the triple status, including the Individual, forms one single totality and the three do not exclude or cancel each o ther; on the contrary, they combine and may be said to enhance each o ther's reality. the Transcendence expresses or deploys itself in the cosmoshe goes abroad,sa paryagt: and the cosmic individualises, concretises itself in the particular and the personal. the one single spiritual reality holds itself, aspects itself in a threefold manner.
the teaching of Yama in brief may be said to be the gospel of immortality and it consists of the knowledge of triple immortality. And who else can be the best teacher of immortality than Death himself, as Nachiketas pointedly said? the first immortality is that of the physical existence and consciousness, the preservation of the personal identity, the individual name and formthis being in itself as expression and embodiment and instrument of the Inner Reality. This inner reality enshrines the second immortality the eternity and continuity of the soul's life through its incarnations in time, the divine Agni lit for ever and ever growing in flaming consciousness. And the third and final immortality is in the being and consciousness beyond time, beyond all relativities, the absolute and self-existent delight.
Rig Veda, X. 14-11, 12.
--
the Gita, III-11.
Karma pitloka vidyay devoloka (jayy)Brihadaranyaka, 1.5.16.
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the secularisation of man's vital functions in modem ages has not been a success. It has made him more egocentric and blatantly hedonistic. From an occult point of view he has in this way subjected himself to the influences of dark and undesirable world-forces, has made an opening, to use an Indian symbolism, for Kali ( the Spirit of the Iron Age) to enter into him. the sex-force is an extremely potent agent, but it is extremely fluid and elusive and uncontrollable. It was for this reason that the ancients always sought to give it a proper mould, a right continent, a fixed and definite channel; the moderns, on the o ther hand, allow it to run free and play with it recklessly. the result has been, in the life of those born under such circumstances, a growing lack of poise and balance and a corresponding incidence of neuras thenia, hysteria and all abnormal pathological conditions.
Chhandyogya, II, III.
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Mystic Symbolism the Beautiful in the Upanishads
00.04 - The Beautiful in the Upanishads, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
object:00.04 - the Beautiful in the Upanishads
author class:Nolini Kanta Gupta
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Upanishadic Symbolism A Vedic Conception of the Poet
O ther Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta the Beautiful in the Upanishads
the Beautiful in the Upanishads
When the Rigveda says
idam reham Jyotim Jyoti gt
--
Lo! the supreme Light of lights is come, a varied
awakening is born, wide manifest
--
the white Mo ther comes reddening with the ruddy child; the dark Mo ther opens wide her chambers, the feeling and the expression of the beautiful raise no questioning; they are au thentic as well as evident. All will recognise at once t at we have here beautiful things said in a beautiful way. No less au thentic however is the sense of the beautiful that underlies these Upanishadic lines:
na tatra sryo bhti na candratrakam
--
there the sun shines not, nor the moon, nor the stars; these lightnings too there shine not; how then this fire! That shines and therefore all shine in its wake; by the sheen of That, all this shines.
Only, to some perhaps the beauty may not appear as evident and apparent. the Spirit of beauty that resides in the Upanishadic consciousness is more retiring and reticent. It dwells in its own privacy, in its own home, as it were, and therefore chooses to be bare and austere, simple and sheer. Beauty means usually the beauty of form, even if it be not always the decorative, ornamental and sumptuous form. the early Vedas aimed at the perfect form (surpaktnum), the faultless expression, the integral and complete embodiment; the gods they envisaged and invoked were gleaming powers carved out of harmony and beauty and figured close to our modes of apprehension (spyan). But the Upanishads came to lay stress upon what is beyond the form, what the eye cannot see nor the vision reflect:
na sandi tihati rpamasya
--
Its figure does not lie in the field of vision, none can see it with the eye
the form of a thing can be beautiful; but the formless too has its beauty. Indeed, the beauty of the formless, that is to say, the very sum and substance, the ultimate essence, the soul of beauty that is what suffuses, with in-ga thered colour and enthusiasm, the realisation and poetic creation of the Upanishadic seer. All the forms that are scattered abroad in their myriad manifest beauty hold within themselves a secret Beauty and are reflected or projected out of it. This veiled Name of Beauty can be compared to nothing on the phenomenal hemisphere of Nature; it has no adequate image or representation below:
na tasya pratimsti
it cannot be defined or figured in the terms of the phenomenal consciousness. In speaking of it, however, the Upanishads invariably and repeatedly refer to two attributes that characterise its fundamental nature. these two aspects have made such an impression upon the consciousness of the Upanishadic seer that his enthusiasm almost wholly plays about them and is centred on them. When he contemplates or communes with the Supreme Object, these seem to him to be the mark of its au thenticity, the seal of its high status and the reason of all the charm and magic it possesses. the first aspect or attri bute is that of light the brilliance, the solar effulgenceravituly-arpa the bright, clear, shadow less Light of lightsvirajam ubhram jyotim jyoti the second aspect is that of delight, the bliss, the immortality inherent in that wide effulgencenandarpam amtam yad vibhti.
And what else is the true character, the soul of beauty than light and delight? "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever." And a thing of joy is a thing of light. Joy is the radiance rippling over a thing of beauty. Beauty is always radiant: the charm, the loveliness of an object is but the glow of light that it emanates. And it would not be a very incorrect mensuration to measure the degree of beauty by the degree of light radiated. the diamond is not only a thing of value, but a thing of beauty also, because of the concentrated and undimmed light that it enshrines within itself. A dark, dull and dismal thing, devoid of interest and attraction becomes aes thetically precious and significant as soon as the artist presents it in terms of the values of light. the entire art of painting is nothing but the expression of beauty, in and through the modalities of light.
And where there is light, there is cheer and joy. Rasamaya and jyotirmayaare thus the two conjoint characteristics fundamental to the nature of the ultimate reality. Sometimes these two are named as the 'solar and the lunar aspect. the solar aspect refers obviously to the Light, that is to say, to the Truth; the lunar aspect refers to the rasa (Soma), to Immortality, to Beauty proper,
yatte suamam hdayam adhi candramasi ritam
--
O Lord of Immortality! Thy' heart of beauty that is sheltered in the moon
or, as the Prasna Upanishad has it,
rayireva candram.. mfirtireva rayi
the Moon means Delight... and Delight means the created form.
the perception of beauty in the Upanishadic consciousness is something elemental-of concentrated essence. It silhouettes the main contour, outlines the primordial gestures. Pregnant and pulsating with the burden of beauty, the mantra here reduces its external expression to a minimum. the body is bare and unadorned, and even in its nakedness, it has not the emphatic and vehement musculature of an athlete; ra ther it tends to be slim and slender and yet vibrant with the inner nervous vigour and glow. What can be more bare and brief and full to the brim of a self-ga thered luminous energy than, for example:
yat prena na praiti yena pra
--
In the Little there lies no happiness, the Vast alone is the Happiness. the Vast is the Immortality, the Little is the Mortality.
the rich and sensuous beauty luxuriating in high colour and ample decoration that one meets often in the creation of the earlier Vedic seers returned again, in a more chiselled and polished and stylised manner, in the classical poets. the Upanishads in this respect have a certain kinship with the early poets of the intervening ageVyasa and Valmiki. Upam KlidsasyaKalidasa revels in figures and images; they are profusely heaped on one ano ther and usually possess a complex and composite texture. Valmiki's images are simple and elemental, brief and instinct with a vast resonance, spare and full of power. the same brevity and simplicity, vibrant with an extraordinary power of evocation, are also characteristic of the Upanishadic mantra With Valmiki's
kamiva dupram
like the sky hard to cross over,
or,
--
fiery as the burning sun, full of forbearance like the earth,
can be compared, in respect of vivid and graphic terseness and pointedness and suggestive reverberation, the Upanishadic
vka iva stabdho divi tihatyeka
the One stands alone in the heaven motionless, like a tree against the sky,
or,
--
like these rivers that flowing journey towards the sea.
Art at its highest tends to become also the simplest and the most unconventional; and it is then the highest art, precisely because it does not aim at being artistic. the aes thetic motive is totally absent in the Upanishads; the sense of beauty is there, but it is attendant upon and involved in a deeper strand of consciousness. That consciousness seeks consciousness itself, the fullness of consciousness, the awareness and possession of the Truth and Reality, the one thing which, if known, gives the knowledge of all else. And this consciousness of the Truth is also Delight, the perfect Bliss, the Immortality where the whole universe resolves itself into its original state of rasa, that is to say, of essential and inalienable harmony and beauty.
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Upanishadic Symbolism A Vedic Conception of the Poet
00.05 - A Vedic Conception of the Poet, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
object:00.05 - A Vedic Conception of the Poet
author class:Nolini Kanta Gupta
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the Beautiful in the Upanishads Sri Aurobindo: the Age of Sri Aurobindo
O ther Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta A Vedic Conception of the Poet
A Vedic Conception of the Poet
'Kavi' is an invariable epi thet of the gods. the Vedas mean by this attribute to bring out a most fundamental character, an inalienable dharma of the heavenly host. All the gods are poets; and a human being can become a poet only in so far as he attains to the nature and status of a god. Who is then a kavi? the Poet is he who by his poetic power raises forms of beauty in heavenkavi kavitv divi rpam sajat.1Thus the essence of poetic power is to fashion divine Beauty, to reveal heavenly forms. What is this Heaven whose forms the Poet discovers and embodies? HeavenDyaushas a very definite connotation in the Veda. It means the luminous or divine Mind 2 the mind purified of its obscurity and limitations, due to subjection to the external senses, thus opening to the higher Light, receiving and recording faithfully the deeper and vaster movements and vibrations of the Truth, giving them a form, a perfect body of the right thought and the right word. Indra is the lord of this world and he can be approached only with an enkindled intelligence, ddhay man,3a faultless understanding, sumedh. He is the supreme Artisan of the poetic power,Tash, the maker of perfect forms, surpa ktnum.4 All the gods turn towards Indra and become gods and poets, attain their Great Names of Supreme Beauty.5 Indra is also the master of the senses, indriyas, who are his hosts. It is through this mind and the senses that the poetic creation has to be manifested. the mind spreads out wide the Poet's weaving;6 the poet is the priest who calls down and works out the right thinking in the sacrificial labour of creation.7 But that creation is made in and through the inner mind and the inner senses that are alive to the subtle formation of a vaster knowledge.8 the poet envisages the golden forms fashioned out of the very profundity of the consciousness.9 For the substance, the material on which the Poet works, is Truth. the seat of the Truth the poets guard, they uphold the supreme secret Names.10 the poet has the expressive utterance, the creative word; the poet is a poet by his poetic creation- the shape faultlessly wrought out that unveils and holds the Truth.11 the form of beauty is the body of the Truth.
the poet is a trinity in himself. A triune consciousness forms his personality. First of all, he is the Knower- the Seer of the Truth, kavaya satyadrara. He has the direct vision, the luminous intelligence, the immediate perception.12 A subtle and profound and penetrating consciousness is his,nigam, pracetas; his is the eye of the Sun,srya caku.13 He secures an increased being through his effulgent understanding.14 In the second place, the Poet is not only Seer but Doer; he is knower as well as creator. He has a dynamic knowledge and his vision itself is power, ncak;15 he is the Seer-Will,kavikratu.16 He has the blazing radiance of the Sun and is supremely potent in his self-Iuminousness.17 the Sun is the light and the energy of the Truth. Even like the Sun the Poet gives birth to the Truth, srya satyasava, satyya satyaprasavya. But the Poet as Power is not only the revealer or creator,savit, he is also the builder or fashioner,ta, and he is the organiser,vedh is personality. First of all, he is the Knower- the Seer of the Truth, kavaya satyadrara, of the Truth.18 As Savita he manifests the Truth, as Tashta he gives a perfected body and form to the Truth, and as Vedha he maintains the Truth in its dynamic working. the effective marshalling and organisation of the Truth is what is called Ritam, the Right; it is also called Dharma,19 the Law or the Rhythm, the ordered movement and invincible execution of the Truth. the Poet pursues the Path of the Right;20 it is he who lays out the Path for the march of the Truth, the progress of the Sacrifice.21 He is like a fast steed well-yoked, pressing forward;22 he is the charger that moves straight and unswerving and carries us beyond 23into the world of felicity.
Indeed delight is the third and the supremely intimate element of the poetic personality. Dear and delightful is the poet, dear and delightful his works, priya, priyi His hand is dripping with sweetness,kavir hi madhuhastya.24 the Poet-God shines in his pristine beauty and is showering delight.25 He is filled with utter ecstasy so that he may rise to the very source of the luminous Energy.26? Pure is the Divine Joy and it enters and purifies all forms as it moves to the seat of the Immortals.27Indeed this sparkling Delight is the Poet-Seer and it is that that brings forth the creative word, the utterance of Indra.28
the solar vision of the Poet encompasses in its might the wide Earth and Heaven, fuses them in supreme Delight in the womb of the Truth.29 the Earth is lifted up and given in marriage to Heaven in the home of Truth, for the creation and expression of the Truth in its varied beauty,cru citram.
the Poet creates forms of beauty in Heaven; but these forms are not made out of the void. It is the Earth that is raised to Heaven and transmuted into divine truth forms. the union of Earth and Heaven is the source of the Joy, the Ananda, that the Poet unseals and distributes. Heaven and Earth join and meet in the world of Delight; between them they press out Soma, the drink of the gods.
the Mind and the Body are held toge ther by means of the Life, the mid-world. the Divine Mind by raising the body-consciousness into itself ga thers 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.
On this Earth they hold everywhere in themselves all the secrets. they make Earth and Heaven move toge ther, so that they may realise their heroic strength. they measure them with their rhythmic measurings, they hold in their controlled grasp the vast and great twins, and unite them and establish between them the mid-world of Delight for the perfect poise.30
All the gods are poets their forms are perfect, surpa, suda, their Names full of beauty,cru devasya nma.31 This means also that the gods embody the different powers that constitute the poetic consciousness. Agni is the Seer-Will, the creative vision of the Poet the luminous energy born of an experience by identity with the Truth. Indra is the Idea-Form, the architectonic conception of the work or achievement. Mitra and Varuna are the large harmony, the vast cadence and sweep of movement. the Aswins, the Divine Riders, represent the intense zest of well-yoked Life-Energy. Soma is Rasa, Ananda, the Supreme Bliss and Delight.
the Vedic Poet is doubtless the poet of Life, the architect of Divinity in man, of Heaven upon earth. But what is true of Life is fundamentally true of Art tooat least true of the Art as it was conceived by the ancient seers and as it found expression at their hands.32
Rig Veda, X. 124. 7
the Secret of the Veda, by Sri Aurobindo
Rig Veda, III. 38. 1.
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the Vedic term Kavi means literally 'a seer', 'one who has the vision', as the word 'poet' means etymologically 'a doer', 'a creator'. I have combined the two senses to equate the terms and bring out the meaning involved in their more current acceptation.
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the Beautiful in the Upanishads Sri Aurobindo: the Age of Sri Aurobindo
0.00a - Introduction, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
TO the SECOND EDITION
It is ironic that a period of the most tremendous technological advancement known to recorded history should also be labeled the Age of Anxiety. Reams have been written about modern man's frenzied search for his soul-and, indeed, his doubt that he even has one at a time when, like castles built on sand, so many of his cherished theories, long mistaken for verities, are crumbling about his bewildered brain.
the age-old advice, "Know thyself," is more imperative than ever. the tempo of science has accelerated to such a degree that today's discoveries frequently make yesterday's equations obsolescent almost before they can be chalked up on a blackboard. Small wonder, then that every o ther hospital bed is occupied by a mental patient. Man was not constructed to spend his life at a crossroads, one of which leads he knows not where, and the o ther to threatened annihilation of his species.
In view of this situation it is doubly reassuring to know that, even in the midst of chaotic concepts and conditions there still remains a door through which man, individually, can enter into a vast store-house of knowledge, knowledge as dependable and immutable as the measured tread of Eternity.
For this reason I am especially pleased to be writing an introduction to a new edition of A Garden of Pomegranates. I feel that never, perhaps, was the need more urgent for just such a roadmap as the Qabalistic system provides. It should be equally useful to any who chooses to follow it, whe ther he be Jew, Christian or Buddhist, Deist, theosophist, agnostic or a theist.
the Qabalah is a trustworthy guide, leading to a comprehension both of the Universe and one's own Self. Sages have long taught that Man is a miniature of the Universe, containing within himself the diverse elements of that macrocosm of which he is the microcosm. Within the Qabalah is a glyph called the Tree of Life which is at once a symbolic map of the Universe in its major aspects, and also of its smaller counterpart, Man.
Manly P. Hall, in the Secret Teachings of All Ages, deplores the failure of modern science to "sense the profundity of these philosophical deductions of the ancients." Were they to do so, he says, they "would realize those who fabricated the structure of the Qabalah possessed a knowledge of the celestial plan comparable in every respect with that of the modern savant."
Fortunately many scientists in the field of psycho therapy are beginning to sense this correlation. In Francis G. Wickes' the Inner World of Choice reference is made to " the existence in every person of a galaxy of potentialities for growth marked by a succession of personalogical evolution and interaction with environments." She points out that man is not only an individual particle but "also a part of the human stream, governed by a Self greater than his own individual self."
the Book of the Law states simply, "Every man and every woman is a star." This is a startling thought for those who considered a star a heavenly body, but a declaration subject to proof by anyone who will venture into the realm of his own Unconscious. This realm, he will learn if he persists, is not hemmed in by the boundaries of his physical body but is one with the boundless reaches of outer space.
Those who, armed with the tools provided by the Qabalah, have made the journey within and crossed beyond the barriers of illusion, have returned with an impressive quantity of knowledge which conforms strictly to the definition of "science" in Winston's College Dictionary: "Science: a body of knowledge, general truths of particular facts, obtained and shown to be correct by accurate observation and thinking; knowledge condensed, arranged and systematized with reference to general truths and laws."
Over and over their findings have been confirmed, proving the Qabalah contains within it not only the elements of the science itself but the method with which to pursue it.
When planning to visit a foreign country, the wise traveler will first familiarize himself with its language. In studying music, chemistry or calculus, a specific terminology is essential to the understanding of each subject. So a new set of symbols is necessary when undertaking a study of the Universe, whe ther within or without. the Qabalah provides such a set in unexcelled fashion.
But the Qabalah is more. It also lays the foundation on which rests ano ther archaic science- Magic. Not to be confused with the conjurer's sleight-of-hand, Magic has been defined by Aleister Crowley as " the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will." Dion Fortune qualifies this nicely with an added clause, "changes in consciousness."
the Qabalah reveals the nature of certain physical and psychological phenomena. Once these are apprehended, understood and correlated, the student can use the principles of Magic to exercise control over life's conditions and circumstances not o therwise possible. In short. Magic provides the practical application of the theories supplied by the Qabalah.
It serves yet ano ther vital function. In addition to the advantages to be gained from its philosophical application, the ancients discovered a very practical use for the literal Qabalah.
Each letter of the Qabalistic alphabet has a number, color, many symbols and a Tarot card attributed to it. the Qabalah not only aids in an understanding of the Tarot, but teaches the student how to classify and organize all such ideas, numbers and symbols. Just as a knowledge of Latin will give insight into the meaning of an unfamiliar English word with a Latin root, so the knowledge of the Qabalah with the various attri butions to each character in its alphabet will enable the student to understand and correlate ideas and concepts which o therwise would have no apparent relation.
A simple example is the concept of the Trinity in the Christian religion. the student is frequently amazed to learn through a study of the Qabalah that Egyptian mythology followed a similar concept with its trinity of gods, Osiris the fa ther, Isis the virgin-mo ther, and Horus the son. the Qabalah indicates similar correspondences in the pan theon of Roman and Greek deities, proving the fa ther-mo ther (Holy Spirit) - son principles of deity are primordial archetypes of man's psyche, ra ther than being, as is frequently and erroneously supposed a development peculiar to the Christian era.
At this juncture let me call attention to one set of attri butions by Rittangelius usually found as an appendix attached to the Sepher Yetzirah. It lists a series of "Intelligences" for each one of the ten Sephiros and the twenty-two Paths of the Tree of Life. It seems to me, after prolonged meditation, that the common attri butions of these Intelligences is altoge ther arbitrary and lacking in serious meaning.
For example, Keser is called " the Admirable or the Hidden Intelligence; it is the Primal Glory, for no created being can attain to its essence." This seems perfectly all right; the meaning at first sight seems to fit the significance of Keser as the first emanation from Ain Soph. But there are half a dozen o ther similar attri butions that would have served equally well. For instance, it could have been called the "Occult Intelligence" usually attri buted to the seventh Path or Sephirah, for surely Keser is secret in a way to be said of no o ther Sephirah. And what about the "Absolute or Perfect Intelligence." That would have been even more explicit and appropriate, being applicable to Keser far more than to any o ther of the Paths. Similarly, there is one attri buted to the 16th Path and called " the Eternal or Triumphant Intelligence," so-called because it is the pleasure of the Glory, beyond which is no Glory like to it, and it is called also the Paradise prepared for the Righteous." Any of these several would have done equally well. Much is true of so many of the o ther attri butions in this particular area-that is the so-called Intelligences of the Sepher Yetzirah. I do not think that their use or current arbitrary usage stands up to serious examination or criticism.
A good many attri butions in o ther symbolic areas, I feel are subject to the same criticism. the Egyptian Gods have been used with a good deal of carelessness, and without sufficient explanation of motives in assigning them as I did. In a recent edition of Crowley's masterpiece Liber 777 (which au fond is less a reflection of Crowley's mind as a recent critic claimed than a tabulation of some of the material given piecemeal in the Golden Dawn knowledge lectures), he gives for the first time brief explanations of the motives for his attri butions. I too should have been far more explicit in the explanations I used in the case of some of the Gods whose names were used many times, most inadequately, where several paths were concerned. While it is true that the religious coloring of the Egyptian Gods differed from time to time during Egypt's turbulent history, none theless a word or two about just that one single point could have served a useful purpose.
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. Nei ther 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.
I felt this a long time ago, as I still do, but even more so. the only way to explain the partisan Jewish attitude demonstrated in some small sections of the book can readily be explained. I had been reading some writings of Arthur Edward Waite, and some of his pomposity and turgidity stuck to my mantle. I disliked his patronising Christian attitude, and so swung all the way over to the o ther side of the pendulum. Actually, nei ther faith is particularly important in this day and age. I must be careful never to read Waite again before embarking upon literary work of my own.
Much knowledge obtained by the ancients through the use of the Qabalah has been supported by discoveries of modern scientists- anthropologists, astronomers, psychiatrists, et al. Learned Qabalists for hundreds of years have been aware of what the psychiatrist has only discovered in the last few decades-that man's concept of himself, his deities and the Universe is a constantly evolving process, changing as man himself evolves on a higher spiral. But the roots of his concepts are buried in a race-consciousness that antedated Neanderthal man by uncounted aeons of time.
What Jung calls archetypal images constantly rise to the surface of man's awareness from the vast unconscious that is the common heritage of all mankind.
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 ra ther 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 o ther 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.
By the middle of 1926 I had become aware of the work of Aleister Crowley, for whom I have a tremendous respect. I studied as many of his writings as I could gain access to, making copious notes, and later acted for several years as his secretary, having joined him in Paris on October 12, 1928, a memorable day in my life.
All sorts of books have been written on the Qabalah, some poor, some few o thers extremely good. But I came to feel the need for what might be called a sort of Berlitz handbook, a concise but comprehensive introduction, studded with diagrams and tables of easily understood definitions and correspondences to simplify the student's grasp of so complicated and abstruse a subject.
During a short retirement in North Devon in 1931, I began to amalgamate my notes. It was out of these that A Garden of Pomegranates gradually emerged. I unashamedly admit that my book contains many direct plagiarisms from Crowley, Waite, Eliphas Levi, and D. H. Lawrence. I had incorporated numerous fragments from their works into my notebooks without citing individual references to the various sources from which I condensed my notes.
Prior to the closing down of the Mandrake Press in London about 1930-31, I was employed as company secretary for a while. Along with several Crowley books, the Mandrake Press published a lovely little monogram by D. H. Lawrence entitled "Apropos of Lady Chatterley's Lover." My own copy accompanied me on my travels for long years. Only recently did I discover that it had been lost. I hope that any one of my former patients who had borrowed it will see fit to return it to me forthwith.
the last chapter of A Garden deals with the Way of Return. It used almost entirely Crowley's concept of the Path as described in his superb essay "One Star in Sight." In addition to this, I borrowed extensively from Lawrence's Apropos. Somehow, they all fitted toge ther very nicely. In time, all these variegated notes were incorporated into the text without acknowledgment, an oversight which I now feel sure would be forgiven, since I was only twenty-four at the time.
Some modern Nature-worshippers and members of the newly-washed and redeemed witch-cult have complimented me on this closing chapter which I entitled ' the Ladder." I am pleased about this. For a very long time I was not at all familiar with the topic of witchcraft. I had avoided it entirely, not being attracted to its literature in any way. In fact, I only became slightly conversant with its theme and literature just a few years ago, after reading " the Anatomy of Eve" written by Dr. Leopold Stein, a Jungian analyst. In the middle of his study of four cases, he included a most informative chapter on the subject. This served to stimulate me to wider reading in that area.
In 1932, at the suggestion of Thomas Burke, the novelist, I submitted my manuscript to one of his publishers, Messrs. Constable in London. they were unable to use it, but made some encouraging comments and advised me to submit it to Riders. To my delight and surprise, Riders published it, and throughout the years the reaction it has had indicated o ther students found it also fulfilled their need for a condensed and simplified survey of such a vast subject as the Qabalah.
the importance of the book to me was and is five-fold. 1) It provided a yardstick by which to measure my personal progress in the understanding of the Qabalah. 2) therefore it can have an equivalent value to the modern student. 3) It serves as a theoretical introduction to the Qabalistic foundation of the magical work of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. 4) It throws considerable light on the occasionally obscure writings of Aleister Crowley. 5) It is dedicated to Crowley, who was the Ankh-af-na-Khonsu mentioned in the Book of the Law -a dedication which served both as a token of personal loyalty and devotion to Crowley, but was also a gesture of my spiritual independence from him.
In his profound investigation into the origins and basic nature of man, Robert Ardrey in African Genesis recently made a shocking statement. Although man has begun the conquest of outer space, the ignorance of his own nature, says Ardrey, "has become institutionalized, universalized and sanctified." He fur ther states that were a bro therhood of man to be formed today, "its only possible common bond would be ignorance of what man is."
Such a condition is both deplorable and appalling when the means are readily available for man to acquire a thorough understanding of himself-and in so doing, an understanding of his neighbor and the world in which he lives as well as the greater Universe of which each is a part.
May everyone who reads this new edition of A Garden of Pomegranates be encouraged and inspired to light his own candle of inner vision and begin his journey into the boundless space that lies within himself. then, through realization of his true identity, each student can become a lamp unto his own path. And more. Awareness of the Truth of his being will rip asunder the veil of unknowing that has heretofore enshrouded the star he already is, permitting the brilliance of his light to illumine the darkness of that part of the Universe in which he abides.
0.00a - Participants in the Evening Talks, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
object:0.00a - Participants in the Evening Talks
author class:A B Purani
--
Participants in the Evening Talks
Participants in the Evening Talks
FIRST PERIOD OF TALKS
--
To the Reader I
Use ctrl + Y to copy selected text in markdown format.
000 - Humans in Universe, #Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking, #R Buckminster Fuller, #Science
000.101 the combined land areas of Africa, Europe, and Asia embrace within
their perimeters the Mediterranean, Black, Caspian, Aral, China, Arabian, Red,
Baltic, and North seas: altoge ther their area was historically thought of only as a flat
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
world constitutes less than 17 percent of the subsequently-discovered-to-be-
spherical Planet Earth's surface. All the great empires of written history before A.D.
1500 lay well within that "known" flat world: it was and as yet remains the
spontaneous theater of popular historical conceptioning.
000.102 How did this pervading historical concept become outdated? What
changed the terrestrial conceptionings adopted by the leaders of the world's power
structures?
000.103 When the archaeologists' artifact-proven history of ma thematics opens
4,000 years ago in Babylon and Mesopotamia, it is already a very sophisticated
--
3,000 years ago the Greeks made fur ther magnificent contributions to geometry,
algebra, and calculation. then about 2,000 years ago the Roman Empire all but
obliterated ma thematics. A little more than 1,000 years ago Arabs and Hindus
traveling through North Africa began to restore some of the ancient ma thematics to
the westward-evolving culture. When al-Khwarizmi's original A.D. 800 treatise on
--
for his elucidation of the function of zero- the cipher-to be diffused into the
university systems of Europe .
000.104 the cipher made possible the positioning of numbers, which in turn
facilitated division and multiplication. Imagine trying to multiply or divide with
Roman numerals . . . impossible! the Renaissance began with the new calculating
facility introduced by the cipher. the cipher was not only an essential tool in the
work of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton, but it also brought about
Columbus' revised concepts of terrestrial navigation. It went on to instrument the
mechanical and leverage calculation capabilities of Leonardo; and in the art of shipdesign the cipher gave birth to structural and mechanical engineering, which made
possible the intertensioning and compressioning calculations of the ribbed structural
strength of a sailing vessel as well as that of its vast wind-energy-driven complex of
compression and tension spars, sails, and rigging-replacing the trial-and-error
guesswork that had previously been used in naval and land architecture. This
--
but it became known to, and then was employed by, only the world's richest
schemers, monarchs, nations, and pirate enterprisers. No o thers could afford to buy
--
through Gibraltar to explore the Atlantic, to sail around Africa, to reach the Orient
and the Pacific by water, and to circumnavigate the globe. Thus it became public
knowledge that the old open-edged, infinite world system had closed back on itself
in all circumferential directions to become a finite system: a closed sphere. the
monarchs and merchants realized that, within that closed system, whoever
commanded the line of most efficient high seas supply would become the masters
of world wealth. Ships could carry cargoes that overland caravans could not.
000.106 In 1600 the East India Company was founded as a private enterprise by
Queen Elizabeth and a small group of her intimates. the limited legal liability of
their enterprise was granted by royal decree, and its projects were thereafter
militarily sustained and protected by Great Britain's Royal Navy and colonial
troops. In England the East India Company College was established to train the
officers of the enterprise for their world-wide deployment; that college and its
handsome campus are still in operation as of 1979. the British Empire became the
first in history of which it could be said that the Sun never set.
000.107 As professor of economics at the East India Company College in 1810
Thomas Malthus became the first economic authority ever to receive in toto the
vital statistics of a world-embracing spherical empire. At the very end of the 18th
century Malthus published his documented thesis that humanity was multiplying its
numbers at a geometric (exponential) rate of gain while increasing life-support
production at only an arithmetic (linear) rate of gain. And since the Earth is a finite,
closed-system sphere, it apparently became scientifically manifest that there is a
fundamental inadequacy of life support on our planet. Until then all opinions on
such matters had been pure guesses.000.108 A third of a century after Malthus, Darwin attributed biological evolution
to survival of only the fittest species (and individuals within species). Though he
denied there was any economic significance in his theory of evolution, the
economists insisted that superior physical fitness obviously governed economic
survival as well. Karl Marx accepted the scientific viewpoints of both Malthus and
Darwin when he declared in effect that the working class is the fittest to .survive:
they know how to use the tools and to cultivate the fields- the wealthy are parasites.
This inaugurated the supranational concept of two world-wide political classes and
two competing theories of political organization.
000.109 As a consequence of the discoveries of Malthus and Darwin all the great
political ideologies have since adopted a prime philosophy that says: "You may not
like our political system, but we are convinced that we have the fairest, most
logical, and ingenious method of coping with the inherent inadequacy of terrestrial
life support, but since there are o thers who disagree diametrically about the best
method of coping, it can be determined only by force of arms which system is the
fittest to survive." Thus survival of the physically fittest became the basis for
national departments of defense with their priority of access to the most advanced
science and technology. the military took command of all the highest performance
materials, brains, instruments, and tools of production.
000.110 Mutually assumed survival-only-of- the-fittest is the reason why the
United States and the USSR have for the past 30 years appropriated 200 billion
dollars annually to buy ever more effective weapons of potential destruction. the
great political and industrial power structures have all become supranational
comprehensivists, while the people have been passport-chained to their respective
150 national preserves- the people have become educationally divided into
"specialists" for exploitation by the supranational powers who divide to conquer
and divide to keep conquered.
000.111 Up until the 20th century reality consisted of everything that humans
could see, smell, touch, and hear. then at the entry into the 20th century the
electron was discovered. A century after the time of Malthus much of science
became invisible with the introduction of an era of electronics, electromagnetics,
and atomics. these invisible micro- and macro-exploring cosmic instruments
provided for rearrangements of atomic interpositioning whose metallic alloying and
--
Universe outside the structural system (macrocosm) and all Universe inside the
structural system (microcosm). Newton's discovery of mass interattraction showed
that the interattraction force of atoms, planets, stars, or galaxies increases
exponentially as the interdistances decrease arithmetically, and vice versa: halve the
interdistance and make fourfold the interattractive integrity of the remotely bodied
structural system. That is the law of gravity. Symmetrical, noncontacting,
concentric interpositioning of already-symmetrical arrays of atoms produces
--
000.113 Gravity is the inwardly cohering force acting integratively on all systems.
Radiation is the outwardly disintegrating force acting divisively upon all systems.
000.114 All structural systems are comprised of tension and compression
--
000.115 Throughout the three million known years of the Stone Age humans
relied on gravity to hold their vertical stone walls toge ther until (as often happened)
they were shaken apart by earthquakes against which they had almost no tensionally
cohering resistance. Gravity pushed humanity's stone structures inward toward the
Earth's center. Humans had to build their structures on bedrock "shoes" to prevent
them from sinking vertically into Earth's center. Stone buildings could not float on
--
humans but not for floating heavy cargoes. Thus the high tensile strength of wood,
combined with the human discovery of the intertrussing principles of structuring
and the low overall displacement weights involved, made possible for humans to
design and fabricate air-enclosing wooden vessels whose structure and space
enclosure combined to produce highly successful wooden vessels of the sea that
could carry great cargoes.000.116 In the 1850s humans arrived at the mass production of steel, an alloy of
iron, carbon, and manganese having a tensile strength of 50,000 p.s.i. as well as a
compression-resisting capability of 50.000 p.s.i. Steel has the same compression-
resistance capability as masonry, but it also has a thousand times greater tensile
capability than masonry and five times the tensile or compressive strength of wood.
Steel brought mankind a structural-tension capability to match stone's previous
--
000.117 the technology of metallurgy began developing metal alloys of ever
higher strength-to-weight ratios. Out of this came aluminum production by the
opening of the 20th century-and aluminum alloys and stainless steel by the 1930s.
these new materials made it possible to design and build engine-powered all-metal
airplanes (structural vessels), which could pull themselves angularly above the
horizontal and ever more steeply aloft. With the advent of successively higher
strength-to-weight ratios of metal alloys and glass-reinforced plastic materials, ever
--
capability that they accomplished "vertol" jet plane flight and vertical space-vehicle
blastoffs. Since then human scientists developing ever greater strength per weight
of material have gone on to carry ever greater useful loads in vertical takeoff
--
000.118 As of the 1970s the human mind has developed a practical tensile
structuring capability of 600,000 p.s.i. the means of accomplishing this new and
overwhelming structural strength has become entirely invisible. Fully 99 percent of
--
how it came about or why it works. While humans cannot see the ever-lessening
interatomic proximity of atoms and electrons of electromagnetic events, they can
witness the ever more vertical takeoff-angle capabilities manifesting human
comprehension of the fundamental structuring principles and their military
developments and profitable commercial uses. But only vast money investments or
vast governments can afford to exploit the increased technical advantages.
000.119 Before the airplane humans said, "You cannot lift yourself by your
bootstraps." Today we are lifting ever lighter and stronger structural vessel "selves"by ever less effort of our scientific know-how bootstraps. No economist knows this.
It is the most highly classified of military and private enterprise secrets. Industry
now converts the ever-increasing work capacity per pound of materials invested
primarily to yield monetary profits for the government-subsidized private-enterprise
producers of weapons.
000.120 Now in the 1970s we can state an indisputable proposition of abundance
of which the world power structures do not yet have dawning awareness. We can
state that as a consequence of the myriad of more-with-less, invisible, technological
advances of the 20th century, and employing only well-proven technologies and
already mined and ever more copiously recirculating materials, it is now technically
--
fuels and atomic energy, since the retooled world industry and individual energy
needs will have become completely supplied by our combined harvests of
electromagnetic, photosyn thetic, chemical, and biological products of the daily
energy income initially produced by Sun and gravity. Industry, retooled from
weapons production to livingry production, will rehouse the deployed phases of
world-humans by single-family, air-deliverable, energy harvesting, only-rentable
dwelling machines. When humans are convergent, they will dwell in domed-over
moon-crater cities that will be energy-harvesting and -exporting centers ra ther than
--
000.122 All of the foregoing makes it possible to say that since we now know that
there is a sustainable abundance of life support and accommodation for all, it
--
through taxation and would have no way of putting meters between the people and
their directly received individual cosmic incomes. So too, private enterprise should
no more meter the energy than it meters the air. But all of Earthians' present power
structures-political, religious, or capitalist-would find their interests disastrouslythreatened by total human success. they are founded upon assumption of scarcity;
they are organized for and sustained by the problems imposed by the assumption of
fundamental inadequacies of life support.
000.124 Why does not the public itself demand realization of its option for a
revolution by design science? Less than one percent of humanity now knows that
the option exists; 99 percent of humanity cannot understand the ma thematical
language of science. the people who make up that 99 percent do not know that all
that science has ever found out is that the Universe consists of the most reliable
technology. they think of technology as something new; they regard it as
threatening both in terms of modern weaponry and as job-eliminating competition
for their life-sustaining opportunities to "earn a living." Ergo, humanity thinks it is
against technology and thinks itself averse to exercising its option.
000.125 the fact that 99 percent of humanity does not understand nature is the
prime reason for humanity's failure to exercise its option to attain universally
sustainable physical success on this planet. the prime barrier to humanity's
discovery and comprehension of nature is the obscurity of the ma thematical
language of science. Fortunately, however, nature is not using the strictly
imaginary, awkward, and unrealistic coordinate system adopted by and taught by
--
gaining nor losing any energy. Nature is not employing the three dimensional,
omniinterperpendicular, parallel frame of the XYZ axial coordinates of academic
science, nor is nature employing science's subsequently adopted
--
000.127 Nature is inherently eight-dimensional, and the first four of these
dimensions are the four planes of symmetry of the minimum structure of Universe-
the omnitriangulated, equi-vector-edge tetrahedron. In respect to the conceptual pre-
time-size tetrahedron's volume taken as unity 1, with its six unit-vector-edge
structure, the always conceptual-independent-of-size family of primitive, pre-time-
size, least complex polyhedra have the following exact volumes- the vector-
triangulated cube 3, the octahedron 4, the rhombic triacontahedron 5, and the
rhombic dodecahedron 6. When the size information is introduced, it occurs only asfrequency of modular subdivision of each unit vector structuring of the primitive
family's respective 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-tetravolumes. Frequency to the third
power, F 3 , values then multiply the primitive, already-four-dimensional volumetric
values. In physically realized time-size each has therefore 4 + 3 = 7 dimensions, but
since each system is inherently independent in Universe and therefore has
spinnability, one more dimensional factor is required, making a total of eight
--
000.1271 To define the everywhere-and-everywhen-transforming cosmic
environment of each and every system requires several more intercovarying system
dimensions-planetary, solar, galactic, intergalactic. Because of the six positive and
six negative degrees of freedom governing systems-within-systems
--
spontaneously attractive and can be used to teach all the world's people nature's
coordinating system-and can do so in time to make it possible for all humanity to
--
success, thereby eliminating forevermore all world politics and competition for the
right to live. the hydrogen atom does not have to compromise its function potential
by first "earning a living" before it can function directly as a hydrogen atom.
--
of whole systems unpredicted by any part of the system as considered only
separately. the eternally regenerative Universe is synergetic. Humans have been
included in this cosmic design as local Universe information-ga therers and local
problem-solvers in support of the integrity of the eternal, 100-percent-efficient, self-
regenerative system of Universe. In support of their cosmic functioning humans
were given their minds with which to discover and employ the generalized laws
governing all physical and metaphysical, omniinteraccommodative, ceaseless
--
000.130 At present 99 percent of humanity is misinformed in believing in the
Malthusian concept of the fundamental inadequacy of life support, and so they have
misused their minds to develop only personal and partisan advantages, intellectual
cunning, and selfishness. Intellectual cunning has concentrated on how to divorcemoney from true life-support wealth; second, cunning has learned how to make
money with money by making it scarce. As of the 1970s muscle, guns, and
intellectual cunning are ruling world affairs and keeping them competitive by
continuing the false premise of universal inadequacy of life support. If mind comes
into supreme power within a decade, humanity will exercise its option of a design
--
000.131 In complement with Synergetics 1 and 2 the posters at color plates 1-10
may clarify for everyone the few scientific conceptions and ma thematical tools
necessary for universal comprehension and individual use of nature's synergetic
--
Rudyard Kipling labored under the only-you-or-me philosophy, but he was inspired
by thoughts that it might some day be o therwise:
--
But each for the joy of working, and each in his
separate star,
Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of
Things as they are!"
- from When Earth's Last Picture Is Painted
0.00 - INTRODUCTION, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
IN COMMUNION WITH the DIVINE BELOVED
VEDANTA
--
the_MASTER"> the "EGO" OF the MASTER
SUMMARY OF the MASTER'S SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES
BRAHMO SAMAJ
--
INJURY TO the MASTER'S ARM
BEGINNING OF HIS ILLNESS
--
SRI RAMAKRISHNA, the God-man of modern India, was born at Kamarpukur. This village in the Hooghly District preserved during the last century the idyllic simplicity of the rural areas of Bengal. Situated far from the railway, it was untouched by the glamour of the city. It contained rice-fields, tall palms, royal banyans, a few lakes, and two cremation grounds. South of the village a stream took its leisurely course. A mango orchard dedicated by a neighbouring zemindar to the public use was frequented by the boys for their noonday sports. A highway passed through the village to the great temple of Jagannath at Puri, and the villagers, most of whom were farmers and craftsmen, entertained many passing holy men and pilgrims. the dull round of the rural life was broken by lively festivals, the observance of sacred days, religious singing, and o ther innocent pleasures.
About his parents Sri Ramakrishna once said: "My mo ther was the personification of rectitude and gentleness. She did not know much about the ways of the world; innocent of the art of concealment, she would say what was in her mind. People loved her for her open-heartedness. My fa ther, an orthodox brahmin, never accepted gifts from the sudras. He spent much of his time in worship and meditation, and in repeating God's name and chanting His glories. Whenever in his daily prayers he invoked the Goddess Gayatri, his chest flushed and tears rolled down his cheeks. He spent his leisure hours making garlands for the Family Deity, Raghuvir."
Khudiram Chattopadhyaya and Chandra Devi, the parents of Sri Ramakrishna, were married in 1799. At that time Khudiram was living in his ancestral village of Dereypore, not far from Kamarpukur. their first son, Ramkumar, was born in 1805, and their first daughter, Katyayani, in 1810. In 1814 Khudiram was ordered by his landlord to bear false witness in court against a neighbour. When he refused to do so, the landlord brought a false case against him and deprived him of his ancestral property. Thus dispossessed, he arrived, at the invitation of ano ther landlord, in the quiet village of Kamarpukur, where he was given a dwelling and about an acre of fertile land. the crops from this little property were enough to meet his family's simple needs. Here he lived in simplicity, dignity, and contentment.
Ten years after his coming to Kamarpukur, Khudiram made a pilgrimage on foot to Rameswar, at the sou thern extremity of India. Two years later was born his second son, whom he named Rameswar. Again in 1835, at the age of sixty, he made a pilgrimage, this time to Gaya. Here, from ancient times, Hindus have come from the four corners of India to discharge their duties to their departed ancestors by offering them food and drink at the sacred footprint of the Lord Vishnu. At this holy place Khudiram had a dream in which the Lord Vishnu promised to he born as his son. And Chandra Devi, too, in front of the Siva temple at Kamarpukur, had a vision indicating the birth of a divine child. Upon his return the husband found that she had conceived.
It was on February 18, 1836, that the child, to be known afterwards as Ramakrishna, was born. In memory of the dream at Gaya he was given the name of Gadadhar, the "Bearer of the Mace", an epi thet of Vishnu. Three years later a little sister was born.
--- BOYHOOD
Gadadhar grew up into a healthy and restless boy, full of fun and sweet mischief. He was intelligent and precocious and endowed with a prodigious memory. On his fa ther's lap he learnt by heart the names of his ancestors and the hymns to the gods and goddesses, and at the village school he was taught to read and write. But his greatest delight was to listen to recitations of stories from Hindu mythology and the epics. these he would afterwards recount from memory, to the great joy of the villagers. Painting he enjoyed; the art of moulding images of the gods and goddesses he learnt from the potters. But arithmetic was his great aversion.
At the age of six or seven Gadadhar had his first experience of spiritual ecstasy. One day in June or July, when he was walking along a narrow path between paddy-fields, eating the puffed rice that he carried in a basket, he looked up at the sky and saw a beautiful, dark thunder-cloud. As it spread, rapidly enveloping the whole sky, a flight of snow-white cranes passed in front of it. the beauty of the contrast overwhelmed the boy. He fell to the ground, unconscious, and the puffed rice went in all directions. Some villagers found him and carried him home in their arms. Gadadhar said later that in that state he had experienced an indescribable joy.
Gadadhar was seven years old when his fa ther died. This incident profoundly affected him. For the first time the boy realized that life on earth was impermanent. Unobserved by o thers, 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 mo ther 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.
At the age of nine Gadadhar was invested with the sacred thread. This ceremony conferred upon him the privileges of his brahmin lineage, including the worship of the Family Deity, Raghuvir, and imposed upon him the many strict disciplines of a brahmin's life. During the ceremony of investiture he shocked his relatives by accepting a meal cooked by his nurse, a sudra woman. His fa ther would never have dreamt of doing such a thing But in a playful mood Gadadhar had once promised this woman that he would eat her food, and now he fulfilled his plighted word. the woman had piety and religious sincerity, and these were more important to the boy than the conventions of society.
Gadadhar was now permitted to worship Raghuvir. Thus began his first training in meditation. He so gave his heart and soul to the worship that the stone image very soon appeared to him as the living Lord of the Universe. His tendency to lose himself in contemplation was first noticed at this time. Behind his boyish light-heartedness was seen a deepening of his spiritual nature.
About this time, on the Sivaratri night, consecrated to the worship of Siva, a dramatic performance was arranged. the principal actor, who was to play the part of Siva, suddenly fell ill, and Gadadhar was persuaded to act in his place. While friends were dressing him for the role of Siva — smearing his body with ashes, matting his locks, placing a trident in his hand and a string of rudraksha beads around his neck — the boy appeared to become absent-minded. He approached the stage with slow and measured step, supported by his friends. He looked the living image of Siva. the audience loudly applauded what it took to be his skill as an actor, but it was soon discovered that he was really lost in meditation. His countenance was radiant and tears flowed from his eyes. He was lost to the outer world. the effect of this scene on the audience was tremendous. the people felt blessed as by a vision of Siva Himself. the performance had to be stopped, and the boy's mood lasted till the following morning.
Gadadhar himself now organized a dramatic company with his young friends. the stage was set in the mango orchard. the themes were selected from the stories of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Gadadhar knew by heart almost all the roles, having heard them from professional actors. His favourite theme was the Vrindavan episode of Krishna's life, depicting those exquisite love-stories of Krishna and the milkmaids and the cowherd boys. Gadadhar would play the parts of Radha or Krishna and would often lose himself in the character he was portraying. His natural feminine grace heightened the dramatic effect. the mango orchard would ring with the loud kirtan of the boys. Lost in song and merry-making, Gadadhar became indifferent to the routine of school.
In 1849 Ramkumar, the eldest son, went to Calcutta to improve the financial condition of the family.
Gadadhar was on the threshold of youth. He had become the pet of the women of the village. they loved to hear him talk, sing, or recite from the holy books. they enjoyed his knack of imitating voices. their woman's instinct recognized the innate purity and guilelessness of this boy of clear skin, flowing hair, beaming eyes, smiling face, and inexhaustible fun. the pious elderly women looked upon him as Gopala, the Baby Krishna, and the younger ones saw in him the youthful Krishna of Vrindavan. He himself so idealized the love of the gopis for Krishna that he sometimes yearned to be born as a woman, if he must be born again, in order to be able to love Sri Krishna with all his heart and soul.
--- COMING TO CALCUTTA
At the age of sixteen Gadadhar was summoned to Calcutta by his elder bro ther Ramkumar, who wished assistance in his priestly duties. Ramkumar had opened a Sanskrit academy to supplement his income, and it was his intention gradually to turn his younger bro ther's mind to education. Gadadhar applied himself heart and soul to his new duty as family priest to a number of Calcutta families. His worship was very different from that of the professional priests. He spent hours decorating the images and singing hymns and devotional songs; he performed with love the o ther duties of his office. People were impressed with his ardour. But to his studies he paid scant attention.
Ramkumar did not at first oppose the ways of his temperamental bro ther. He wanted Gadadhar to become used to the conditions of city life. But one day he decided to warn the boy about his indifference to the world. After all, in the near future Gadadhar must, as a householder, earn his livelihood through the performance of his brahminical duties; and these required a thorough knowledge of Hindu law, astrology, and kindred subjects. He gently admonished Gadadhar and asked him to pay more attention to his studies. But the boy replied spiritedly: "Bro ther, what shall I do with a mere bread-winning education? I would ra ther acquire that wisdom which will illumine my heart and give me satisfaction for ever."
--- BREAD-WINNING EDUCATION
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 altoge ther 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.
Hindu society during the eighteenth century had been passing through a period of decadence. It was the twilight of the Mussalman rule. there were anarchy and confusion in all spheres. Superstitious practices dominated the religious life of the people. Rites and rituals passed for the essence of spirituality. Greedy priests became the custodians of heaven. True philosophy was supplanted by dogmatic opinions. the pundits took delight in vain polemics.
In 1757 English traders laid the foundation of British rule in India. Gradually the Government was systematized and lawlessness suppressed. the Hindus were much impressed by the military power and political acumen of the new rulers. In the wake of the merchants came the English educators, and social reformers, and Christian missionaries — all bearing a culture completely alien to the Hindu mind. In different parts of the country educational institutions were set up and Christian churches established. Hindu young men were offered the heady wine of the Western culture of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and they drank it to the very dregs.
the first effect of the draught on the educated Hindus was a complete effacement from their minds of the time-honoured beliefs and traditions of Hindu society. they came to believe that there was no transcendental Truth; the world perceived by the senses was all that existed. God and religion were illusions of the untutored mind. True knowledge could be derived only from the analysis of nature. So a theism and agnosticism became the fashion of the day. the youth of India, taught in English schools, took malicious delight in openly breaking the customs and traditions of their society. they would do away with the caste-system and remove the discriminatory laws about food. Social reform, the spread of secular education, widow remarriage, abolition of early marriage — they considered these the panacea for the degenerate condition of Hindu society.
the Christian missionaries gave the finishing touch to the process of transformation. they ridiculed as relics of a barbarous age the images and rituals of the Hindu religion. they tried to persuade India that the teachings of her saints and seers were the cause of her downfall, that her Vedas, Puranas, and o ther scriptures were filled with superstition. Christianity, they maintained, had given the white races position and power in this world and assurance of happiness in the next; therefore Christianity was the best of all religions. Many intelligent young Hindus became converted. the man in the street was confused. the majority of the educated grew materialistic in their mental outlook. Everyone living near Calcutta or the o ther strong-holds of Western culture, even those who attempted to cling to the orthodox traditions of Hindu society, became infected by the new uncertainties and the new beliefs.
But the soul of India was to be resuscitated through a spiritual awakening. We hear the first call of this renascence in the spirited retort of the young Gadadhar: "Bro ther, what shall I do with a mere bread-winning education?"
Ramkumar could hardly understand the import of his young bro ther's reply. He described in bright colours the happy and easy life of scholars in Calcutta society. But Gadadhar intuitively felt that the scholars, to use one of his own vivid illustrations, were like so many vultures, soaring high on the wings of their uninspired intellect, with their eyes fixed on the charnel-pit of greed and lust. So he stood firm and Ramkumar had to give way.
--- KALI TEMPLE AT DAKSHINESWAR
At that time there lived in Calcutta a rich widow named Rani Rasmani, belonging to the sudra caste, and known far and wide not only for her business ability, courage, and intelligence, but also for her largeness of heart, piety, and devotion to God. She was assisted in the management of her vast property by her son-in-law Mathur Mohan.
In 1847 the Rani purchased twenty acres of land at Dakshineswar, a village about four miles north of Calcutta. Here she created a temple garden and constructed several temples. Her Ishta, or Chosen Ideal, was the Divine Mo ther, Kali.
the temple garden stands directly on the east bank of the Ganges. the nor thern section of the land and a portion to the east contain an orchard, flower gardens, and two small reservoirs. the sou thern section is paved with brick and mortar. the visitor arriving by boat ascends the steps of an imposing bathing-ghat which leads to the chandni, a roofed terrace, on ei ther side of which stand in a row six temples of Siva. East of the terrace and the Siva temples is a large court, paved, rectangular in shape, and running north and south. Two temples stand in the centre of this court, the larger one, to the south and facing south, being dedicated to Kali, and the smaller one, facing the Ganges, to Radhakanta, that is, Krishna, the Consort of Radha. Nine domes with spires surmount the temple of Kali, and before it stands the spacious natmandir, or music hall, the terrace of which is sup- ported by stately pillars. At the northwest and southwest
corners of the temple compound are two nahabats, or music towers, from which music flows at different times of day, especially at sunup, noon, and sundown, when the worship is performed in the temples. Three sides of the paved courtyard — all except the west — are lined with rooms set apart for kitchens, store-rooms, dining-rooms, and quarters for the temple staff and guests. the chamber in the northwest angle, just beyond the last of the Siva temples, is of special interest to us; for here Sri Ramakrishna was to spend a considerable part of his life. To the west of this chamber is a semicircular porch overlooking the river. In front of the porch runs a foot-path, north and south, and beyond the path is a large garden and, below the garden, the Ganges. the orchard to the north of the buildings contains the Panchavati, the banyan, and the bel-tree, associated with Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual practices. Outside and to the north of the temple compound proper is the kuthi, or bungalow, used by members of Rani Rasmani's family visiting the garden. And north of the temple garden, separated from it by a high wall, is a powder-magazine belonging to the British Government.
--- SIVA
In the twelve Siva temples are installed the emblems of the Great God of renunciation in His various aspects, worshipped daily with proper rites. Siva requires few articles of worship. White flowers and bel-leaves and a little Ganges water offered with devotion are enough to satisfy the benign Deity and win from Him the boon of liberation.
--- RADHAKANTA
the temple of Radhakanta, also known as the temple of Vishnu, contains the images of Radha and Krishna, the symbol of union with God through ecstatic love. the two images stand on a pedestal facing the west. the floor is paved with marble. From the ceiling of the porch hang chandeliers protected from dust by coverings of red cloth. Canvas screens shield the images from the rays of the setting sun. Close to the threshold of the inner shrine is a small brass cup containing holy water. Devoted visitors reverently drink a few drops from the vessel.
--- KALI
the main temple is dedicated to Kali, the Divine Mo ther, here worshipped as Bhavatarini, the Saviour of the Universe. the floor of this temple also is paved with marble. the basalt image of the Mo ther, dressed in gorgeous gold brocade, stands on a white marble image of the prostrate body of Her Divine Consort, Siva, the symbol of the Absolute. On the feet of the Goddess are, among o ther ornaments, anklets of gold. Her arms are decked with jewelled ornaments of gold. She wears necklaces of gold and pearls, a golden garland of human heads, and a girdle of human arms. She wears a golden crown, golden ear-rings, and a golden nose-ring with a pearl-drop. She has four arms. the lower left hand holds a severed human head and the upper grips a blood-stained sabre. One right hand offers boons to Her children; the o ther allays their fear. the majesty of Her posture can hardly be described. It combines the terror of destruction with the reassurance of mo therly tenderness. For She is the Cosmic Power, the totality of the universe, a glorious harmony of the pairs of opposites. She deals out death, as She creates and preserves. She has three eyes, the third being the symbol of Divine Wisdom; they strike dismay into the wicked, yet pour out affection for Her devotees.
the whole symbolic world is represented in the temple garden — the Trinity of the Nature Mo ther (Kali), the Absolute (Siva), and Love (Radhakanta), the Arch spanning heaven and earth. the terrific Goddess of the Tantra, the soul-enthralling Flute-Player of the Bhagavata, and the Self-absorbed Absolute of the Vedas live toge ther, creating the greatest syn thesis of religions. All aspects of Reality are represented there. But of this divine household, Kali is the pivot, the sovereign Mistress. She is Prakriti, the Procreatrix, Nature, the Destroyer, the Creator. Nay, She is something greater and deeper still for those who have eyes to see. She is the Universal Mo ther, "my Mo ther" as Ramakrishna would say, the All-powerful, who reveals Herself to Her children under different aspects and Divine Incarnations, the Visible God, who leads the elect to the Invisible Reality; and if it so pleases Her, She takes away the last trace of ego from created beings and merges it in the consciousness of the Absolute, the undifferentiated God. Through Her grace " the finite ego loses itself in the illimitable Ego — Atman — Brahman". (Romain Holland, Prophets of the New India, p. 11.)
Rani Rasmani spent a fortune for the construction of the temple garden and ano ther fortune for its dedication ceremony, which took place on May 31, 1855.
Sri Ramakrishna — henceforth we shall call Gadadhar by this familiar name —1 came to the temple garden with his elder bro ther 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 fa ther 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 bro ther, 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. Fur ther, 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.
One day the priest of the Radhakanta temple accidentally dropped the image of Krishna on the floor, breaking one of its legs. the pundits advised the Rani to install a new image, since the worship of an image with a broken limb was against the scriptural injunctions. But the Rani was fond of the image, and she asked Sri Ramakrishna's opinion. In an abstracted mood, he said: "This solution is ridiculous. If a son-in-law of the Rani broke his leg, would she discard him and put ano ther in his place? Wouldn't she ra ther arrange for his treatment? Why should she not do the same thing in this case too? Let the image be repaired and worshipped as before." It was a simple, straightforward solution and was accepted by the Rani. Sri Ramakrishna himself mended the break. the priest was dismissed for his carelessness, and at Mathur Babu's earnest request Sri Ramakrishna accepted the office of priest in the Radhakanta temple.
^No definite information is available as to the origin of this name. Most probably it was given by Mathur Babu, as Ramlal, Sri Ramakrishna's nephew, has said, quoting the authority of his uncle himself.
^Hriday's mo ther was the daughter of Sri Ramakrishna's aunt (Khudiram's sister). Such a degree of relationship is termed in Bengal that of a "distant nephew".
--- SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS A PRIEST
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 fa ther, the ideal mo ther, 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 ba thed and clo thed 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 ba thes 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.
Ramkumar wanted Sri Ramakrishna to learn the intricate rituals of the worship of Kali. To become a priest of Kali one must undergo a special form of initiation from a qualified guru, and for Sri Ramakrishna a suitable brahmin was found. But no sooner did the brahmin speak the holy word in his ear than Sri Ramakrishna, overwhelmed with emotion, uttered a loud cry and plunged into deep concentration.
Mathur begged Sri Ramakrishna to take charge of the worship in the Kali temple. the young priest pleaded his incompetence and his ignorance of the scriptures. Mathur insisted that devotion and sincerity would more than compensate for any lack of formal knowledge and make the Divine Mo ther manifest Herself through the image. In the end, Sri Ramakrishna had to yield to Mathur's request. He became the priest of Kali.
In 1856 Ramkumar brea thed his last. Sri Ramakrishna had already witnessed more than one death in the family. He had come to realize how impermanent is life on earth. the more he was convinced of the transitory nature of worldly things, the more eager he became to realize God, the Fountain of Immortality.
--- the FIRST VISION OF KALI
And, indeed, he soon discovered what a strange Goddess he had chosen to serve. He became gradually enmeshed in the web of Her all-pervading presence. To the ignorant She is, to be sure, the image of destruction; but he found in Her the benign, all-loving Mo ther. Her neck is encircled with a garland of heads, and Her waist with a girdle of human arms, and two of Her hands hold weapons of death, and Her eyes dart a glance of fire; but, strangely enough, Ramakrishna felt in Her breath the soothing touch of tender love and saw in Her the Seed of Immortality. She stands on the bosom of Her Consort, Siva; it is because She is the Sakti, the Power, inseparable from the Absolute. She is surrounded by jackals and o ther unholy creatures, the denizens of the cremation ground. But is not the Ultimate Reality above holiness and unholiness? She appears to be reeling under the spell of wine. But who would create this mad world unless under the influence of a divine drunkenness? She is the highest symbol of all the forces of nature, the syn thesis of their antinomies, the Ultimate Divine in the form of woman. She now became to Sri Ramakrishna the only Reality, and the world became an unsubstantial shadow. Into Her worship he poured his soul. Before him She stood as the transparent portal to the shrine of Ineffable Reality.
the worship in the temple intensified Sri Ramakrishna's yearning for a living vision of the Mo ther of the Universe. He began to spend in meditation the time not actually employed in the temple service; and for this purpose he selected an extremely solitary place. A deep jungle, thick with underbrush and prickly plants, lay to the north of the temples. Used at one time as a burial ground, it was shunned by people even during the day-time for fear of ghosts. there Sri Ramakrishna began to spend the whole night in meditation, returning to his room only in the morning with eyes swollen as though from much weeping. While meditating, he would lay aside his cloth and his brahminical thread. Explaining this strange conduct, he once said to Hriday: "Don't you know that when one thinks of God one should be freed from all ties? From our very birth we have the eight fetters of hatred, shame, lineage, pride of good conduct, fear, secretiveness, caste, and grief. the sacred thread reminds me that I am a brahmin and therefore superior to all. When calling on the Mo ther one has to set aside all such ideas." Hriday thought his uncle was becoming insane.
As his love for God deepened, he began ei ther to forget or to drop the formalities of worship. Sitting before the image, he would spend hours singing the devotional songs of great devotees of the Mo ther, such as Kamalakanta and Ramprasad. Those rhapsodical songs, describing the direct vision of God, only intensified Sri Ramakrishna's longing. He felt the pangs of a child separated from its mo ther. Sometimes, in agony, he would rub his face against the ground and weep so bitterly that people, thinking he had lost his earthly mo ther, would sympathize with him in his grief. Sometimes, in moments of scepticism, he would cry: "Art Thou true, Mo ther, or is it all fiction — mere poetry without any reality? If Thou dost exist, why do I not see thee? Is religion a mere fantasy and art Thou only a figment of man's imagination?" Sometimes he would sit on the prayer carpet for two hours like an inert object. He began to behave in an abnormal manner
, most of the time unconscious of the world. He almost gave up food; and sleep left him altoge ther.
But he did not have to wait very long. He has thus described his first vision of the Mo ther: "I felt as if my heart were being squeezed like a wet towel. I was overpowered with a great restlessness and a fear that it might not be my lot to realize Her in this life. I could not bear the separation from Her any longer. Life seemed to be not worth living. Suddenly my glance fell on the sword that was kept in the Mo ther's temple. I determined to put an end to my life. When I jumped up like a madman and seized it, suddenly the blessed Mo ther revealed Herself. the buildings with their different parts, the temple, and everything else vanished from my sight, leaving no trace whatsoever, and in their stead I saw a limitless, infinite, effulgent Ocean of Consciousness. As far as the eye could see, the shining billows were madly rushing at me from all sides with a terrific noise, to swallow me up! I was panting for breath. I was caught in the rush
and collapsed, unconscious. What was happening in the outside world I did not know; but within me there was a steady flow of undiluted bliss, altoge ther new, and I felt the presence of the Divine Mo ther." On his lips when he regained consciousness of the world was the word "Mo ther".
--- GOD-INTOXICATED STATE
Yet this was only a foretaste of the intense experiences to come. the first glimpse of the Divine Mo ther made him the more eager for Her uninterrupted vision. He wanted to see Her both in meditation and with eyes open. But the Mo ther began to play a teasing game of hide-and-seek with him, intensifying both his joy and his suffering. Weeping bitterly during the moments of separation from Her, he would pass into a trance and then find Her standing before him, smiling, talking, consoling, bidding him be of good cheer, and instructing him. During this period of spiritual practice he had many uncommon experiences. When he sat to meditate, he would hear strange clicking sounds in the joints of his legs, as if someone were locking them up, one after the o ther, to keep him motionless; and at the conclusion of his meditation he would again hear the same sounds, this time unlocking them and leaving him free to move about. He would see flashes like a swarm of fire-flies floating before his eyes, or a sea of deep mist around him, with luminous waves of molten silver. Again, from a sea of translucent mist he would behold the Mo ther rising, first Her feet, then Her waist, body, face, and head, finally Her whole person; he would feel Her breath and hear Her voice. Worshipping in the temple, sometimes he would become exalted, sometimes he would remain motionless as stone, sometimes he would almost collapse from excessive emotion. Many of his actions, contrary to all tradition, seemed sacrilegious to the people. He would take a flower and touch it to his own head, body, and feet, and then offer it to the Goddess. Or, like a drunkard, he would reel to the throne of the Mo ther, touch Her chin by way of showing his affection for Her, and sing, talk, joke, laugh, and dance. Or he would take a morsel of food from the plate and hold it to Her mouth, begging Her to eat it, and would not be satisfied till he was convinced that She had really eaten. After the Mo ther had been put to sleep at night, from his own room he would hear Her ascending to the upper storey of the temple with the light steps of a happy girl, Her anklets jingling. then he would discover Her standing with flowing hair. Her black form silhouetted against the sky of the night, looking at the Ganges or at the distant lights of Calcutta.
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 Mo ther Herself. To Her he would pray: "I do not know what these things are. I am ignorant of mantras and the scriptures. Teach me, Mo ther, how to realize thee. Who else can help me? Art Thou not my only refuge and guide?" And the sustaining presence of the Mo ther 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 nor thern 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 Mo ther. He learnt to surrender himself completely to Her will and let Her direct him.
"O Mo ther," he would constantly pray, "I have taken refuge in thee. Teach me what to do and what to say. Thy will is paramount everywhere and is for the good of Thy children. Merge my will in Thy will and make me Thy instrument."
His visions became deeper and more intimate. He no longer had to meditate to behold the Divine Mo ther. Even while retaining consciousness of the outer world, he would see Her as tangibly as the temples, the trees, the river, and the men around him.
On a certain occasion Mathur Babu stealthily entered the temple to watch the worship. He was profoundly moved by the young priest's devotion and sincerity. He realized that Sri Ramakrishna had transformed the stone image into the living Goddess.
Sri Ramakrishna one day fed a cat with the food that was to be offered to Kali. This was too much for the manager of the temple garden, who considered himself responsible for the proper conduct of the worship. He reported Sri Ramakrishna's insane behaviour to Mathur Babu.
Sri Ramakrishna has described the incident: " the Divine Mo ther revealed to me in the Kali temple that it was She who had become everything. She showed me that everything was full of Consciousness. the image was Consciousness, the altar was Consciousness, the water-vessels were Consciousness, the door-sill was Consciousness, the marble floor was Consciousness — all was Consciousness. I found everything inside the room soaked, as it were, in Bliss — the Bliss of God. I saw a wicked man in front of the Kali temple; but in him also I saw the power of the Divine Mo ther vibrating. That was why I fed a cat with the food that was to be offered to the Divine Mo ther. I clearly perceived that all this was the Divine Mo ther — even the cat. the manager of the temple garden wrote to Mathur Babu saying that I was feeding the cat with the offering intended for the Divine Mo ther. But Mathur Babu had insight into the state of my mind. He wrote back to the manager: 'Let him do whatever he likes. You must not say anything to him.'"
One of the painful ailments from which Sri Ramakrishna suffered at this time was a burning sensation in his body, and he was cured by a strange vision. During worship in the temple, following the scriptural injunctions, he would imagine the presence of the "sinner" in himself and the destruction of this "sinner". One day he was meditating in the Panchavati, when he saw come out of him a red-eyed man of black complexion, reeling like a drunkard. Soon there emerged from him ano ther person, of serene countenance, wearing the ochre cloth of a sannyasi and carrying in his hand a trident. the second person attacked the first and killed him with the trident. thereafter Sri Ramakrishna was free of his pain.
About this time he began to worship God by assuming the attitude of a servant toward his master. He imitated the mood of Hanuman, the monkey chieftain of the Ramayana, the ideal servant of Rama and traditional model for this self-effacing form of devotion. When he meditated on Hanuman his movements and his way of life began to resemble those of a monkey. His eyes became restless. He lived on fruits and roots. With his cloth tied around his waist, a portion of it hanging in the form of a tail, he jumped from place to place instead of walking. And after a short while he was blessed with a vision of Sita, the divine consort of Rama, who entered his body and disappeared there with the words, "I bequeath to you my smile."
Mathur had faith in the sincerity of Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual zeal, but began now to doubt his sanity. He had watched him jumping about like a monkey. One day, when Rani Rasmani was listening to Sri Ramakrishna's singing in the temple, the young priest abruptly turned and slapped her. Apparently listening to his song, she had actually been thinking of a law-suit. She accepted the punishment as though the Divine Mo ther Herself had imposed it; but Mathur was distressed. He begged Sri Ramakrishna to keep his feelings under control and to heed the conventions of society. God Himself, he argued, follows laws. God never permitted, for instance, flowers of two colours to grow on the same stalk. the following day Sri Ramakrishna presented Mathur Babu with two hibiscus flowers growing on the same stalk, one red and one white.
Mathur and Rani Rasmani began to ascribe the mental ailment of Sri Ramakrishna in part, at least, to his observance of rigid continence. Thinking that a natural life would relax the tension of his nerves, they engineered a plan with two women of ill fame. But as soon as the women entered his room, Sri Ramakrishna beheld in them the manifestation of the Divine Mo ther of the Universe and went into samadhi uttering Her name.
--- HALADHARI
In 1858 there came to Dakshineswar a cousin of Sri Ramakrishna, Haladhari by name, who was to remain there about eight years. On account of Sri Ramakrishna's indifferent health, Mathur appointed this man to the office of priest in the Kali temple. He was a complex character, versed in the letter of the scriptures, but hardly aware of their spirit. He loved to participate in hair-splitting theological discussions and, by the measure of his own erudition, he proceeded to gauge Sri Ramakrishna. An orthodox brahmin, he thoroughly disapproved of his cousin's unorthodox actions, but he was not unimpressed by Sri Ramakrishna's purity of life, ecstatic love of God, and yearning for realization.
One day Haladhari upset Sri Ramakrishna with the statement that God is incomprehensible to the human mind. Sri Ramakrishna has described the great moment of doubt when he wondered whe ther his visions had really misled him: "With sobs I prayed to the Mo ther, 'Canst Thou have the heart to deceive me like this because I am a fool?' A stream of tears flowed from my eyes. Shortly afterwards I saw a volume of mist rising from the floor and filling the space before me. In the midst of it there appeared a face with flowing beard, calm, highly expressive, and fair. Fixing its gaze steadily upon me, it said solemnly, 'Remain in bhavamukha, on the threshold of relative consciousness.' This it repeated three times and then it gently disappeared in the mist, which itself dissolved. This vision reassured me."
A garbled report of Sri Ramakrishna's failing health, indifference to worldly life, and various abnormal activities reached Kamarpukur and filled the heart of his poor mo ther with anguish. At her repeated request he returned to his village for a change of air. But his boyhood friends did not interest him any more. A divine fever was consuming him. He spent a great part of the day and night in one of the cremation grounds, in meditation. the place reminded him of the impermanence of the human body, of human hopes and achievements. It also reminded him of Kali, the Goddess of destruction.
--- MARRIAGE AND AFTER
But in a few months his health showed improvement, and he recovered to some extent his natural buoyancy of spirit. His happy mo ther was encouraged to think it might be a good time to arrange his marriage. the boy was now twenty-three years old. A wife would bring him back to earth. And she was delighted when her son welcomed her suggestion. Perhaps he saw in it the finger of God.
Saradamani, a little girl of five, lived in the neighbouring village of Jayrambati. Even at this age she had been praying to God to make her character as stainless and fragrant as the white tuberose. Looking at the full moon, she would say: "O God, there are dark spots even on the moon. But make my character spotless." It was she who was selected as the bride for Sri Ramakrishna.
the marriage ceremony was duly performed. Such early marriage in India is in the nature of a betrothal, the marriage being consummated when the girl attains puberty. But in this case the marriage remained for ever unconsummated. Sri Ramakrishna lived at Kamarpukur about a year and a half and then returned to Dakshineswar.
Hardly had he crossed the threshold of the Kali temple when he found himself again in the whirlwind. His madness reappeared tenfold. the same meditation and prayer, the same ecstatic moods, the same burning sensation, the same weeping, the same sleeplessness, the same indifference to the body and the outside world, the same divine delirium. He subjected himself to fresh disciplines in order to eradicate greed and lust, the two great impediments to spiritual progress. With a rupee in one hand and some earth in the o ther, he would reflect on the comparative value of these two for the realization of God, and finding them equally worthless he would toss them, with equal indifference, into the Ganges. Women he regarded as the manifestations of the Divine Mo ther. Never even in a dream did he feel the impulses of lust. And to root out of his mind the idea of caste superiority, he cleaned a pariahs house with his long and neglected hair. When he would sit in meditation, birds would perch on his head and peck in his hair for grains of food. Snakes would crawl over his body, and nei ther would be aware of the o ther. Sleep left him altoge ther. Day and night, visions flitted before him. He saw the sannyasi who had previously killed the "sinner" in him again coming out of his body, threatening him with the trident, and ordering him to concentrate on God. Or the same sannyasi would visit distant places, following a luminous path, and bring him reports of what was happening there. Sri Ramakrishna used to say later that in the case of an advanced devotee the mind itself becomes the guru, living and moving like an embodied being.
Rani Rasmani, the foundress of the temple garden, passed away in 1861. After her death her son-in-law Mathur became the sole executor of the estate. He placed himself and his resources at the disposal of Sri Ramakrishna and began to look after his physical comfort. Sri Ramakrishna later spoke of him as one of his five "suppliers of stores" appointed by the Divine Mo ther. Whenever a desire arose in his mind, Mathur fulfilled it without hesitation.
--- the BRAHMANI
there came to Dakshineswar at this time a brahmin woman who was to play an important part in Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual unfoldment. Born in East Bengal, she was an adept in the Tantrik and Vaishnava methods of worship. She was slightly over fifty years of age, handsome, and garbed in the orange robe of a nun. Her sole possessions were a few books and two pieces of wearing-cloth.
Sri Ramakrishna welcomed the visitor with great respect, described to her his experiences and visions, and told her of people's belief that these were symptoms of madness. She listened to him attentively and said: "My son, everyone in this world is mad. Some are mad for money, some for creature comforts, some for name and fame; and you are mad for God." She assured him that he was passing through the almost unknown spiritual experience described in the scriptures as mahabhava, the most exalted rapture of divine love. She told him that this extreme exaltation had been described as manifesting itself through nineteen physical symptoms, including the shedding of tears, a tremor of the body, horripilation, perspiration, and a burning sensation. the Bhakti scriptures, she declared, had recorded only two instances of the experience, namely, those of Sri Radha and Sri Chaitanya.
Very soon a tender relationship sprang up between Sri Ramakrishna and the Brahmani, she looking upon him as the Baby Krishna, and he upon her as mo ther. Day after day she watched his ecstasy during the kirtan and meditation, his samadhi, his mad yearning; and she recognized in him a power to transmit spirituality to o thers. She came to the conclusion that such things were not possible for an ordinary devotee, not even for a highly developed soul. Only an Incarnation of God was capable of such spiritual manifestations. She proclaimed openly that Sri Ramakrishna, like Sri Chaitanya, was an Incarnation of God.
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 mo ther, 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
there, especially the officers of the temple garden, were struck dumb. Sri Rama- krishna said to Mathur, like a boy: "Just fancy, he too says so! Well, I am glad to learn that after all it is not a disease."
When, a few days later, Pundit Gauri arrived, ano ther 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?"
Gauri said: "I feel it in my heart and I have the scriptures on my side. I am ready to prove it to anyone who challenges me."
"Well," Sri Ramakrishna said, "it is you who say so; but, believe me, I know nothing about it."
Thus the insane priest was by verdict of the great scholars of the day proclaimed a Divine Incarnation. His visions were not the result of an over-heated brain; they had precedent in spiritual history. And how did the proclamation affect Sri Ramakrishna himself? He remained the simple child of the Mo ther that he had been since the first day of his life. Years later, when two of his householder disciples openly spoke of him as a Divine Incarnation and the matter was reported to him, he said with a touch of sarcasm: "Do they think they will enhance my glory that way? One of them is an actor on the stage and the o ther a physician. What do they know about Incarnations? Why, years ago pundits like Gauri and Vaishnavcharan declared me to be an Avatar. they were great scholars and knew what they said. But that did not make any change in my mind."
Sri Ramakrishna was a learner all his life. He often used to quote a proverb to his disciples: "Friend, the more I live the more I learn." When the excitement created by the Brahmani's declaration was over, he set himself to the task of practising spiritual disciplines according to the traditional methods laid down in the Tantra and Vaishnava scriptures. Hi therto he had pursued his spiritual ideal according to the promptings of his own mind and heart. Now he accepted the Brahmani as his guru and set foot on the traditional highways.
--- TANTRA
According to the Tantra, the Ultimate Reality is Chit, or Consciousness, which is identical with Sat, or Being, and with Ananda, or Bliss. This Ultimate Reality, Satchidananda, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, is identical with the Reality preached in the Vedas. And man is identical with this Reality; but under the influence of maya, or illusion, he has forgotten his true nature. He takes to be real a merely apparent world of subject and object, and this error is the cause of his bondage and suffering. the goal of spiritual discipline is the rediscovery of his true identity with the divine Reality.
For the achievement of this goal the Vedanta prescribes an austere negative method of discrimination and renunciation, which can be followed by only a few individuals endowed with sharp intelligence and unshakable will-power. But Tantra takes into consideration the natural weakness of human beings, their lower appetites, and their love for the concrete. It combines philosophy with rituals, meditation with ceremonies, renunciation with enjoyment. the underlying purpose is gradually to train the aspirant to meditate on his identity with the Ultimate.
the average man wishes to enjoy the material objects of the world. Tantra bids him enjoy these, but at the same time discover in them the presence of God. Mystical rites are prescribed by which, slowly, the sense-objects become spiritualized and sense attraction is transformed into a love of God. So the very "bonds" of man are turned into "releasers". the very poison that kills is transmuted into the elixir of life. Outward renunciation is not necessary. Thus the aim of Tantra is to sublimate bhoga, or enjoyment into yoga, or union with Consciousness. For, according to this philosophy, the world with all its manifestations is nothing but the sport of Siva and Sakti, the Absolute and Its inscrutable Power.
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 Mo ther of the Universe. the very basis of Tantra is the Mo therhood 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. Fur ther, 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 Mo ther. 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 Mo ther.
Sri Ramakrishna set himself to the task of practising the disciplines of Tantra; and at the bidding of the Divine Mo ther Herself he accepted the Brahmani as his guru. He performed profound and delicate ceremonies in the Panchavati and under the bel-tree at the nor thern 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 overwhelmed 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 beheld held everywhere manifest the power and beauty of the Mo ther; 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 mo ther, 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.
But the most remarkable experience during this period was the awakening of the Kundalini Sakti, the "Serpent Power". He actually saw the Power, at first lying asleep at the bottom of the spinal column, then waking up and ascending along the mystic Sushumna canal and through its six centres, or lotuses, to the Sahasrara, the thousand-petalled lotus in the top of the head. He fur ther saw that as the Kundalini went upward the different lotuses bloomed. And this phenomenon was accompanied by visions and trances. Later on he described to his disciples and devotees the various movements of the Kundalini: the fishlike, birdlike, monkeylike, and so on. the awaken- ing of the Kundalini is the beginning of spiritual consciousness, and its union with Siva in the Sahasrara, ending in samadhi, is the consummation of the Tantrik disciplines.
About this time it was revealed to him that in a short while many devotees would seek his guidance.
--
After completing the Tantrik sadhana Sri Ramakrishna followed the Brahmani in the disciplines of Vaishnavism. the Vaishnavas are worshippers of Vishnu, the "All-pervading", the Supreme God, who is also known as Hari and Narayana. Of Vishnu's various Incarnations the two with the largest number of followers are Rama and Krishna.
Vaishnavism is exclusively a religion of bhakti. Bhakti is intense love of God, attachment to Him alone; it is of the nature of bliss and bestows upon the lover immortality and liberation. God, according to Vaishnavism, cannot be realized through logic or reason; and, without bhakti, all penances, austerities and rites are futile. Man cannot realize God by self-exertion alone. For the vision of God His grace is absolutely necessary, and this grace is felt by the pure of heart. the mind is to be purified through bhakti. the pure mind then remains for ever immersed in the ecstasy of God-vision. It is the cultivation of this divine love that is the chief concern of the Vaishnava religion.
there are three kinds of formal devotion: tamasic, rajasic, and sattvic. If a person, while showing devotion, to God, is actuated by malevolence, arrogance, jealousy, or anger, then his devotion is tamasic, since it is influenced by tamas, the quality of inertia. If he worships God from a desire for fame or wealth, or from any o ther worldly ambition, then his devotion is rajasic, since it is influenced by rajas, the quality of activity. But if a person loves God without any thought of material gain, if he performs his duties to please God alone and maintains toward all created beings the attitude of friendship, then his devotion is called sattvic, since it is influenced by sattva, the quality of harmony. But the highest devotion transcends the three gunas, or qualities, being a spontaneous, uninterrupted inclination of the mind toward God, the Inner Soul of all beings; and it wells up in the heart of a true devotee as soon as he hears the name of God or mention of God's attributes. A devotee possessed of this love would not accept the happiness of heaven if it were offered him. His one desire is to love God under all conditions — in pleasure and pain, life and death, honour and dishonour, prosperity and adversity.
there are two stages of bhakti. the first is known as vaidhi-bhakti, or love of God qualified by scriptural injunctions. For the devotees of this stage are prescribed regular and methodical worship, hymns, prayers, the repetition of God's name, and the chanting of His glories. This lower bhakti in course of time matures into para-bhakti, or supreme devotion, known also as prema, the most intense form of divine love. Divine love is an end in itself. It exists potentially in all human hearts, but in the case of bound creatures it is misdirected to earthly objects.
To develop the devotee's love for God, Vaishnavism humanizes God. God is to be regarded as the devotee's Parent, Master, Friend, Child, Husband, or Swee theart, each succeeding relationship representing an intensification of love. these bhavas, or attitudes toward God, are known as santa, dasya, sakhya, vatsalya, and madhur. the rishis of the Vedas, Hanuman, the cow-herd boys of Vrindavan, Rama's mo ther Kausalya, and Radhika, Krishna's swee theart, exhibited, respectively, the most perfect examples of these forms. In the ascending scale the-glories of God are gradually forgotten and the devotee realizes more and more the intimacy of divine communion. Finally he regards himself as the mistress of his Beloved, and no artificial barrier remains to separate him from his Ideal. No social or moral obligation can bind to the earth his soaring spirit. He experiences perfect union with the Godhead. Unlike the Vedantist, who strives to transcend all varieties of the subject-object relationship, a devotee of the Vaishnava path wishes to retain both his own individuality and the personality of God. To him God is not an intangible Absolute, but the Purushottama, the Supreme Person.
While practising the discipline of the madhur bhava, the male devotee often regards himself as a woman, in order to develop the most intense form of love for Sri Krishna, the only purusha, or man, in the universe. This assumption of the attitude of the opposite sex has a deep psychological significance. It is a matter of common experience that an idea may be cultivated to such an intense degree that every idea alien to it is driven from the mind. This peculiarity of the mind may be utilized for the subjugation of the lower desires and the development of the spiritual nature. Now, the idea which is the basis of all desires and passions in a man is the conviction of his indissoluble association with a male body. If he can inoculate himself thoroughly with the idea that he is a woman, he can get rid of the desires peculiar to his male body. Again, the idea that he is a woman may in turn be made to give way to ano ther higher idea, namely, that he is nei ther man nor woman, but the Impersonal Spirit. the Impersonal Spirit alone can enjoy real communion with the Impersonal God. Hence the highest est realization of the Vaishnava draws close to the transcendental experience of the Vedantist.
A beautiful expression of the Vaishnava worship of God through love is to be found in the Vrindavan episode of the Bhagavata. the gopis, or milk-maids, of Vrindavan regarded the six-year-old Krishna as their Beloved. they sought no personal gain or happiness from this love. they surrendered to Krishna their bodies, minds, and souls. Of all the gopis, Radhika, or Radha, because of her intense love for Him, was the closest to Krishna. She manifested mahabhava and was united with her Beloved. This union represents, through sensuous language, a supersensuous experience.
Sri Chaitanya, also known as Gauranga, Gora, or Nimai, born in Bengal in 1485 and regarded as an Incarnation of God, is a great prophet of the Vaishnava religion. Chaitanya declared the chanting of God's name to be the most efficacious spiritual discipline for the Kaliyuga.
Sri Ramakrishna, as the monkey Hanuman, had already worshipped God as his Master. Through his devotion to Kali he had worshipped God as his Mo ther. He was now to take up the o ther relationships prescribed by the Vaishnava scriptures.
--- RAMLALA
About the year 1864 there came to Dakshineswar a wandering Vaishnava monk, Jatadhari, whose Ideal Deity was Rama. He always carried with him a small metal image of the Deity, which he called by the endearing name of Ramlala, the Boy Rama. Toward this little image he displayed the tender affection of Kausalya for her divine Son, Rama. As a result of lifelong spiritual practice he had actually found in the metal image the presence of his Ideal. Ramlala was no longer for him a metal image, but the living God. He devoted himself to nursing Rama, feeding Rama, playing with Rama, taking Rama for a walk, and bathing Rama. And he found that the image responded to his love.
Sri Ramakrishna, much impressed with his devotion, requested Jatadhari to spend a few days at Dakshineswar. Soon Ramlala became the favourite companion of Sri Ramakrishna too. Later on he described to the devotees how the little image would dance gracefully before him, jump on his back, insist on being taken in his arms, run to the fields in the sun, pluck flowers from the bushes, and play pranks like a naughty boy. A very sweet relationship sprang up between him and Ramlala, for whom he felt the love of a mo ther.
One day Jatadhari requested Sri Ramakrishna to keep the image and bade him adieu with tearful eyes. He declared that Ramlala had fulfilled his innermost prayer and that he now had no more need of formal worship. A few days later Sri Ramakrishna was blessed through Ramlala with a vision of Ramachandra, whereby he realized that the Rama of the Ramayana, the son of Dasaratha, pervades the whole universe as Spirit and Consciousness; that He is its Creator, Sustainer, and Destroyer; that, in still ano ther aspect, He is the transcendental Brahman, without form, attribute, or name.
While worshipping Ramlala as the Divine Child, Sri Ramakrishna's heart became filled with mo therly tenderness, and he began to regard himself as a woman. His speech and gestures changed. He began to move freely with the ladies of Mathur's family, who now looked upon him as one of their own sex. During this time he worshipped the Divine Mo ther as Her companion or handmaid.
--- IN COMMUNION WITH the DIVINE BELOVED
Sri Ramakrishna now devoted himself to scaling the most inaccessible and dizzy heights of dualistic worship, namely, the complete union with Sri Krishna as the Beloved of the heart. He regarded himself as one of the gopis of Vrindavan, mad with longing for her divine Swee theart. At his request Mathur provided him with woman's dress and jewelry. In this love-pursuit, food and drink were forgotten. Day and night he wept bitterly. the yearning turned into a mad frenzy; for the divine Krishna began to play with him the old tricks He had played with the gopis. He would tease and taunt, now and then revealing Himself, but always keeping at a distance. Sri Ramakrishna's anguish brought on a return of the old physical symptoms: the burning sensation, an oozing of blood through the pores, a loosening of the joints, and the stopping of physiological functions.
the Vaishnava scriptures advise one to propitiate Radha and obtain her grace in order to realize Sri Krishna. So the tortured devotee now turned his prayer to her. Within a short time he enjoyed her blessed vision. He saw and felt the figure of Radha disappearing into his own body.
He said later on: "It is impossible to describe the heavenly beauty and sweetness of Radha. Her very appearance showed that she had completely forgotten herself in her passionate attachment to Krishna. Her complexion was a light yellow."
Now one with Radha, he manifested the great ecstatic love, the mahabhava, which had found in her its fullest expression. Later Sri Ramakrishna said: " the manifestation in the same individual of the nineteen different kinds of emotion for God is called, in the books on bhakti, mahabhava. An ordinary man takes a whole lifetime to express even a single one of these. But in this body [meaning himself] there has been a complete manifestation of all nineteen."
the love of Radha is the precursor of the resplendent vision of Sri Krishna, and Sri Ramakrishna soon experienced that vision. the enchanting ing form of Krishna appeared to him and merged in his person. He became Krishna; he totally forgot his own individuality and the world; he saw Krishna in himself and in the universe. Thus he attained to the fulfilment of the worship of the Personal God. He drank from the fountain of Immortal Bliss. the agony of his heart vanished forever. He realized Amrita, Immortality, beyond the shadow of death.
One day, listening to a recitation of the Bhagavata on the verandah of the Radhakanta temple, he fell into a divine mood and saw the enchanting form of Krishna. He perceived the luminous rays issuing from Krishna's Lotus Feet in the form of a stout rope, which touched first the Bhagavata and then his own chest, connecting all three — God, the scripture, and the devotee. "After this vision", he used to say, "I came to realize that Bhagavan, Bhakta, and Bhagavata — God, Devotee, and Scripture — are in reality one and the same."
--- VEDANTA
the Brahmani was the enthusiastic teacher and astonished beholder of Sri Ramakrishna in his spiritual progress. She became proud of the achievements of her unique pupil. But the pupil himself was not permitted to rest; his destiny beckoned him forward. His Divine Mo ther would allow him no respite till he had left behind the entire realm of duality with its visions, experiences, and ecstatic dreams. But for the new ascent the old tender guides would not suffice. the Brahmani, on whom he had depended for, three years, saw her son escape from her to follow the command of a teacher with masculine strength, a sterner mien, a gnarled physique, and a virile voice. the new guru was a wandering monk, the sturdy Totapuri, whom Sri Ramakrishna learnt to address affectionately as Nangta, the "Naked One", because of his total renunciation of all earthly objects and attachments, including even a piece of wearing cloth.
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 o ther 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.
the path of the Vedantic discipline is the path of negation, "neti", in which, by stern determination, all that is unreal is both negated and renounced. It is the path of jnana, knowledge, the direct method of realizing the Absolute. After the negation of everything relative, including the discriminating ego itself, the aspirant merges in the One without a Second, in the bliss of nirvikalpa samadhi, where subject and object are alike dissolved. the soul goes beyond the realm of thought. the domain of duality is transcended. Maya is left behind with all its changes and modifications. the Real Man towers above the delusions of creation, preservation, and destruction. An avalanche of indescribable Bliss sweeps away all relative ideas of pain and pleasure, good and evil. there shines in the heart the glory of the Eternal Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. Knower, knowledge, and known are dissolved in the Ocean of one eternal Consciousness; love, lover, and beloved merge in the unbounded Sea of supreme Felicity; birth, growth, and death vanish in infinite Existence. All doubts and misgivings are quelled for ever; the oscillations of the mind are stopped; the momentum of past actions is exhausted. Breaking down the ridge-pole of the tabernacle in which the soul has made its abode for untold ages, stilling the body, calming the mind, drowning the ego, the sweet joy of Brahman wells up in that superconscious state. Space disappears into nothingness, time is swallowed in eternity, and causation becomes a dream of the past. Only Existence is. Ah! Who can describe what the soul then feels in its communion with the Self?
Even when man descends from this dizzy height, he is devoid of ideas of "I" and "mine"; he looks on the body as a mere shadow, an outer sheath encasing the soul. He does not dwell on the past, takes no thought for the future, and looks with indifference on the present. He surveys everything in the world with an eye of equality; he is no longer touched by the infinite variety of phenomena; he no longer reacts to pleasure and pain. He remains unmoved whe ther he — that is to say, his body — is worshipped by the good or tormented by the wicked; for he realizes that it is the one Brahman that manifests Itself through everything. the impact of such an experience devastates the body and mind. Consciousness becomes blasted, as it were, with an excess of Light. In the Vedanta books it is said that after the experience of nirvikalpa samadhi the body drops off like a dry leaf. Only those who are born with a special mission for the world can return
from this height to the valleys of normal life. they live and move in the world for the welfare of mankind. they are invested with a supreme spiritual power. A divine glory shines through them.
--- TOTAPURI
Totapuri arrived at the Dakshineswar temple garden toward the end of 1864. Perhaps born in the Punjab, he was the head of a monastery in that province of India and claimed leadership of seven hundred sannyasis. Trained from early youth in the disciplines of the Advaita Vedanta, he looked upon the world as an illusion. the gods and goddesses of the dualistic worship were to him mere fantasies of the deluded mind. Prayers, ceremonies, rites, and rituals had nothing to do with true religion, and about these he was utterly indifferent. Exercising self-exertion and unshakable will-power, he had liberated himself from attachment to the sense-objects of the relative universe. For forty years he had practised austere discipline on the bank of the sacred Narmada and had finally realized his identity with the Absolute. thenceforward he roamed in the world as an unfettered soul, a lion free from the cage. Clad in a loin-cloth, he spent his days under the canopy of the sky alike in storm and sunshine, feeding his body on the slender pittance of alms. He had been visiting the estuary of the Ganges. On his return journey along the bank of the sacred river, led by the inscrutable Divine Will, he stopped at Dakshineswar.
Totapuri, discovering at once that Sri Ramakrishna was prepared to be a student of Vedanta, asked to initiate him into its mysteries. With the permission of the Divine Mo ther, Sri Ramakrishna agreed to the proposal. But Totapuri explained that only a sannyasi could receive the teaching of Vedanta. Sri Ramakrishna agreed to renounce the world, but with the stipulation that the ceremony of his initiation into the monastic order be performed in secret, to spare the feelings of his old mo ther, who had been living with him at Dakshineswar.
On the appointed day, in the small hours of the morning, a fire was lighted in the Panchavati. Totapuri and Sri Ramakrishna sat before it. the flame played on their faces. "Ramakrishna was a small brown man with a short beard and beautiful eyes, long dark eyes, full of light, obliquely set and slightly veiled, never very wide open, but seeing half-closed a great distance both outwardly and inwardly. His mouth was open over his white teeth in a bewitching smile, at once affectionate and mischievous. Of medium height, he was thin to emaciation and extremely delicate. His temperament was high-strung, for he was supersensitive to all the winds of joy and sorrow, both moral and physical. He was indeed a living reflection of all that happened before the mirror of his eyes, a two-sided mirror, turned both out and in." (Romain Rolland, Prophets of the New India, pp. 38-9.) Facing him, the o ther rose like a rock. He was very tall and robust, a sturdy and tough oak. His constitution and mind were of iron. He was the strong leader of men.
In the burning flame before him Sri Ramakrishna performed the rituals of destroying his attachment to relatives, friends, body, mind, sense-organs, ego, and the world. the leaping flame swallowed it all, making the initiate free and pure. the sacred thread and the tuft of hair were consigned to the fire, completing his severance from caste, sex, and society. Last of all he burnt in that fire, with all that is holy as his witness, his desire for enjoyment here and hereafter. He uttered the sacred mantras giving assurance of safety and fearlessness to all beings, who were only manifestations of his own Self. the rites completed, the disciple received from the guru the loin-cloth and ochre robe, the emblems of his new life.
the teacher and the disciple repaired to the meditation room near by. Totapuri began to impart to Sri Ramakrishna the great truths of Vedanta.
"Brahman", he said, "is the only Reality, ever pure, ever illumined, ever free, beyond the limits of time, space, and causation. Though apparently divided by names and forms through the inscrutable power of maya, that enchantress who makes the impossible possible, Brahman is really One and undivided. When a seeker merges in the beatitude of samadhi, he does not perceive time and space or name and form, the offspring of maya. Whatever is within the domain of maya is unreal. Give it up. Destroy the prison-house of name and form and rush out of it with the strength of a lion. Dive deep in search of the Self and realize It through samadhi. You will find the world of name and form vanishing into void, and the puny ego dissolving in Brahman-Consciousness. You will realize your identity with Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute." Quoting the Upanishad, Totapuri said: "That knowledge is shallow by which one sees or hears or knows ano ther
. What is shallow is worthless and can never give real felicity. But the Knowledge by which one does not see ano ther or hear ano ther or know ano ther, which is beyond duality, is great, and through such Knowledge one attains the Infinite Bliss. How can the mind and senses grasp That which shines in the heart of all as the Eternal Subject?"
Totapuri asked the disciple to withdraw his mind from all objects of the relative world, including the gods and goddesses, and to concentrate on the Absolute. But the task was not easy even for Sri Ramakrishna. He found it impossible to take his mind beyond Kali, the Divine Mo ther of the Universe. "After the initiation", Sri Ramakrishna once said, describing the event, "Nangta began to teach me the various conclusions of the Advaita Vedanta and asked me to withdraw the mind completely from all objects and dive deep into the Atman. But in spite of all my attempts I could not altoge ther cross the realm of name and form and bring my mind to the unconditioned state. I had no difficulty in taking the mind from all the objects of the world. But the radiant and too familiar figure of the Blissful Mo ther, the Embodiment of the essence of Pure Consciousness, appeared before me as a living reality. Her bewitching smile prevented me from passing into the Great Beyond. Again and again I tried, but She stood in my way every time. In despair I said to Nangta: 'It is hopeless. I cannot raise my mind to the unconditioned state and come face to face with Atman.' He grew excited and sharply said: 'What? You can't do it? But you have to.' He cast his eyes around. Finding a piece of glass he took it up and stuck it between my eyebrows. 'Concentrate the mind on this point!' he thundered. then with stern determination I again sat to meditate. As soon as the gracious form of the Divine Mo ther appeared before me, I used my discrimination as a sword and with it clove Her in two. the last barrier fell. My spirit at once soared beyond the relative plane and I lost myself in samadhi."
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.
Totapuri had no idea of the struggles of ordinary men in the toils of passion and desire. Having maintained all through life the guilelessness of a child, he laughed at the idea of a man's being led astray by the senses. He was convinced that the world was maya and had only to be denounced to vanish for ever. A born non-dualist, he had no faith in a Personal God. He did not believe in the terrible aspect of Kali, much less in Her benign aspect. Music and the chanting of God's holy name were to him only so much nonsense. He ridiculed the spending of emotion on the worship of a Personal God.
--- KALI AND MAYA
Sri Ramakrishna, on the o ther hand, though fully aware, like his guru, that the world is an illusory appearance, instead of slighting maya, like an orthodox monist, acknowledged its power in the relative life. He was all love and reverence for maya, perceiving in it a mysterious and majestic expression of Divinity. To him maya itself was God, for everything was God. It was one of the faces of Brahman. What he had realized on the heights of the transcendental plane, he also found here below, everywhere about him, under the mysterious garb of names and forms. And this garb was a perfectly transparent sheath, through which he recognized the glory of the Divine Immanence. Maya, the mighty weaver of the garb, is none o ther than Kali, the Divine Mo ther. She is the primordial Divine Energy, Sakti, and She can no more be distinguished from the Supreme Brahman than can the power of burning be distinguished from fire. She projects the world and again withdraws it. She spins it as the spider spins its web. She is the Mo ther of the Universe, identical with the Brahman of Vedanta, and with the Atman of Yoga. As eternal Lawgiver, She makes and unmakes laws; it is by Her imperious will that karma yields its fruit. She ensnares men with illusion and again releases them from bondage with a look of Her benign eyes. She is the supreme Mistress of the cosmic play, and all objects, animate and inanimate, dance by Her will. Even those who realize the Absolute in nirvikalpa samadhi are under Her jurisdiction as long as they still live on the relative plane.
Thus, after nirvikalpa samadhi, Sri Ramakrishna realized maya in an altoge ther 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 Mo ther. 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 Mo ther 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 Mo ther 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.
--- TOTAPURI'S LESSON
From Sri Ramakrishna Totapuri had to learn the significance of Kali, the Great Fact of the relative world, and of maya, Her indescribable Power.
One day, when guru and disciple were engaged in an animated discussion about Vedanta, a servant of the temple garden came there and took a coal from the sacred fire that had been lighted by the great ascetic. He wanted it to light his tobacco. Totapuri flew into a rage and was about to beat the man. Sri Ramakrishna rocked with laughter. "What a shame!" he cried. "You are explaining to me the reality of Brahman and the illusoriness of the world; yet now you have so far forgotten yourself as to be about to beat a man in a fit of passion. the power of maya is indeed inscrutable!" Totapuri was embarrassed.
About this time Totapuri was suddenly laid up with a severe attack of dysentery. On account of this miserable illness he found it impossible to meditate. One night the pain became excruciating. He could no longer concentrate on Brahman. the body stood in the way. He became incensed with its demands. A free soul, he did not at all care for the body. So he determined to drown it in the Ganges. thereupon he walked into the river. But, lo! He walks to the o ther bank." (This version of the incident is taken from the biography of Sri Ramakrishna by Swami Saradananda, one of the Master's direct disciples.) Is there not enough water in the Ganges? Standing dumbfounded on the o ther bank he looks back across the water. the trees, the temples, the houses, are silhouetted against the sky. Suddenly, in one dazzling moment, he sees on all sides the presence of the Divine Mo ther. She is in everything; She is everything. She is in the water; She is on land. She is the body; She is the mind. She is pain; She is comfort. She is knowledge; She is ignorance. She is life; She is death. She is everything that one sees, hears, or imagines. She turns "yea" into "nay", and "nay" into "yea". Without Her grace no embodied being can go beyond Her realm. Man has no free will. He is not even free to die. Yet, again, beyond the body and mind She resides in Her Transcendental, Absolute aspect. She is the Brahman that Totapuri had been worshipping all his life.
Totapuri returned to Dakshineswar and spent the remaining hours of the night meditating on the Divine Mo ther. In the morning he went to the Kali temple with Sri Ramakrishna and prostrated himself before the image of the Mo ther. He now realized why he had spent eleven months at Dakshineswar. Bidding farewell to the disciple, he continued on his way, enlightened.
Sri Ramakrishna later described the significance of Totapuri's lessons:
"When I think of the Supreme Being as inactive — nei ther creating nor preserving nor destroying —, I call Him Brahman or Purusha, the Impersonal God. When I think of Him as active — creating, preserving, and destroying —, I call Him Sakti or Maya or Prakriti, the Personal God. But the distinction between them does not mean a difference. the Personal and the Impersonal are the same thing, like milk and its whiteness, the diamond and its lustre, the snake and its wriggling motion. It is impossible to conceive of the one without the o ther. the Divine Mo ther and Brahman are one."
After the departure of Totapuri, Sri Ramakrishna remained for six months in a state of absolute identity with Brahman. "For six months at a stretch", he said, "I remained in that state from which ordinary men can never return; generally the body falls off, after three weeks, like a sere leaf. I was not conscious of day and night. Flies would enter my mouth and nostrils just as they do a dead body's, but I did not feel them. My hair became matted with dust."
His body would not have survived but for the kindly attention of a monk who happened to be at Dakshineswar at that time and who somehow realized that for the good of humanity Sri Ramakrishna's body must be preserved. He tried various means, even physical violence, to recall the fleeing soul to the prison-house of the body, and during the resultant fleeting moments of consciousness he would push a few morsels of food down Sri Ramakrishna's throat. Presently Sri Ramakrishna received the command of the Divine Mo ther to remain on the threshold of relative consciousness. Soon there-after after he was afflicted with a serious attack of dysentery. Day and night the pain tortured him, and his mind gradually came down to the physical plane.
--- COMPANY OF HOLY MEN AND DEVOTEES
From now on Sri Ramakrishna began to seek the company of devotees and holy men. He had gone through the storm and stress of spiritual disciplines and visions. Now he realized an inner calmness and appeared to o thers as a normal person. But he could not bear the company of worldly people or listen to their talk. Fortunately the holy atmosphere of Dakshineswar and the liberality of Mathur attracted monks and holy men from all parts of the country. Sadhus of all denominations — monists and dualists, Vaishnavas and Vedantists, Saktas and worshippers of Rama — flocked there in ever increasing numbers. Ascetics and visionaries came to seek Sri Ramakrishna's advice. Vaishnavas had come during the period of his Vaishnava sadhana, and Tantriks when he practised the disciplines of Tantra. Vedantists began to arrive after the departure of Totapuri. In the room of Sri Ramakrishna, who was then in bed with dysentery, the Vedantists engaged in scriptural discussions, and, forgetting his own physical suffering, he solved their doubts by referring directly to his own experiences. Many of the visitors were genuine spiritual souls, the unseen pillars of Hinduism, and their spiritual lives were quickened in no small measure by the sage of Dakshineswar. Sri Ramakrishna in turn learnt from them anecdotes concerning the ways and the conduct of holy men, which he subsequently narrated to his devotees and disciples. At his request Mathur provided him with large stores of food-stuffs, clo thes, and so forth, for distribution among the wandering monks.
"Sri Ramakrishna had not read books, yet he possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of religions and religious philosophies. This he acquired from his contacts with innumerable holy men and scholars. He had a unique power of assimilation; through meditation he made this knowledge a part of his being. Once, when he was asked by a disciple about the source of his seemingly inexhaustible knowledge, he replied; "I have not read; but I have heard the learned. I have made a garland of their knowledge, wearing it round my neck, and I have given it as an offering at the feet of the Mo ther."
Sri Ramakrishna used to say that when the flower blooms the bees come to it for honey of their own accord. Now many souls began to visit Dakshineswar to satisfy their spiritual hunger. He, the devotee and aspirant, became the Master. Gauri, the great scholar who had been one of the first to proclaim Sri Ramakrishna an Incarnation of God, paid the Master a visit in 1870 and with the Master's blessings renounced the world. Narayan Shastri, ano ther great pundit, who had mastered the six systems of Hindu philosophy and had been offered a lucrative post by the Maharaja of Jaipur, met the Master and recognized in him one who had realized in life those ideals which he himself had encountered merely in books. Sri Ramakrishna initiated Narayan Shastri, at his earnest request, into the life of sannyas. Pundit Padmalochan, the court pundit of the Maharaja of Burdwan, well known for his scholarship in both the Vedanta and the Nyaya systems of philosophy, accepted the Master as an Incarnation of God. Krishnakishore, a Vedantist scholar, became devoted to the Master. And there arrived Viswanath Upadhyaya, who was to become a favourite devotee; Sri Ramakrishna always addressed him as "Captain". He was a high officer of the King of Nepal and had received the title of Colonel in recognition of his merit. A scholar of the Gita, the Bhagavata, and the Vedanta philosophy, he daily performed the worship of his Chosen Deity with great devotion. "I have read the Vedas and the o ther scriptures", he said. "I have also met a good many monks and devotees in different places. But it is in Sri Ramakrishna's presence that my spiritual yearnings have been fulfilled. To me he seems to be the embodiment of the truths of the scriptures."
the Knowledge of Brahman in nirvikalpa samadhi had convinced Sri Ramakrishna that the gods of the different religions are but so many readings of the Absolute, and that the Ultimate Reality could never be expressed by human tongue. He understood that all religions lead their devotees by differing paths to one and the same goal. Now he became eager to explore some of the alien religions; for with him understanding meant actual experience.
--- ISLAM
Toward the end of 1866 he began to practise the disciplines of Islam. Under the direction of his Mussalman guru he abandoned himself to his new sadhana. He dressed as a Mussalman and repeated the name of Allah. His prayers took the form of the Islamic devotions. He forgot the Hindu gods and goddesses — even Kali — and gave up visiting the temples. He took up his residence outside the temple precincts. After three days he saw the vision of a radiant figure, perhaps Mohammed. This figure gently approached him and finally lost himself in Sri Ramakrishna. Thus he realized the Mussalman God. thence he passed into communion with Brahman. the mighty river of Islam also led him back to the Ocean of the Absolute.
--- CHRISTIANITY
Eight years later, some time in November 1874, Sri Ramakrishna was seized with an irresistible desire to learn the truth of the Christian religion. He began to listen to readings from the Bible, by Sambhu Charan Mallick, a gentleman of Calcutta and a devotee of the Master. Sri Ramakrishna became fascinated by the life and teachings of Jesus. One day he was seated in the parlour of Jadu Mallick's garden house (This expression is used throughout to translate the Bengali word denoting a rich man's country house set in a garden.) at Dakshineswar, when his eyes became fixed on a painting of the Madonna and Child. Intently watching it, he became gradually overwhelmed with divine emotion. the figures in the picture took on life, and the rays of light emanating from them entered his soul. the effect of this experience was stronger than that of the vision of Mohammed. In dismay he cried out, "O Mo ther! What are You doing to me?" And, breaking through the barriers of creed and religion, he entered a new realm of ecstasy. Christ possessed his soul. For three days he did not set foot in the Kali temple. On the fourth day, in the afternoon, as he was walking in the Panchavati, he saw coming toward him a person with beautiful large eyes, serene countenance, and fair skin. As the two faced each o ther, a voice rang out in the depths of Sri Ramakrishna's soul: "Behold the Christ, who shed His heart's blood for the redemption of the world, who suffered a sea of anguish for love of men. It is He, the Master Yogi, who is in eternal union with God. It is Jesus, Love Incarnate." the Son of Man embraced the Son of the Divine Mo ther and merged in him. Sri Ramakrishna krishna realized his identity with Christ, as he had already realized his identity with Kali, Rama, Hanuman, Radha, Krishna, Brahman, and Mohammed. the Master went into samadhi and communed with the Brahman with attributes. Thus he experienced the truth that Christianity, too, was a path leading to God-Consciousness. Till the last moment of his life he believed that Christ was an Incarnation of God. But Christ, for him, was not the only Incarnation; there were o thers — Buddha, for instance, and Krishna.
--- ATTITUDE TOWARD DIFFERENT RELIGIONS
Sri Ramakrishna accepted the divinity of Buddha and used to point out the similarity of his teachings to those of the Upanishads. He also showed great respect for the Tirthankaras, who founded Jainism, and for the ten Gurus of Sikhism. But he did not speak of them as Divine Incarnations. He was heard to say that the Gurus of Sikhism were the reincarnations of King Janaka of ancient India. He kept in his room at Dakshineswar a small statue of Tirthankara Mahavira and a picture of Christ, before which incense was burnt morning and evening.
Without being formally initiated into their doctrines, Sri Ramakrishna thus realized the ideals of religions o ther than Hinduism. He did not need to follow any doctrine. All barriers were removed by his overwhelming love of God. So he became a Master who could speak with authority regarding the ideas and ideals of the various religions of the world. "I have practised", said he, "all religions — Hinduism, Islam, Christianity — and I have also followed the paths of the different Hindu sects. I have found that it is the same God toward whom all are directing their steps, though along different paths. You must try all beliefs and traverse all the different ways once. Wherever I look, I see men quarrelling in the name of religion — Hindus, Mohammedans, Brahmos, Vaishnavas, and the rest. But they never reflect that He who is called Krishna is also called Siva, and bears the name of the Primal Energy, Jesus, and Allah as well — the same Rama with a thousand names. A lake has several ghats. At one the Hindus take water in pitchers and call it 'jal'; at ano ther the Mussalmans take water in lea ther bags and call it pani'. At a third the Christians call it 'water'. Can we imagine that it is not 'jal', but only 'pani' or 'water'? How ridiculous! the substance is One under different names, and everyone is seeking the same substance; only climate, temperament, and name create differences. Let each man follow his own path. If he sincerely and ardently wishes to know God, peace be unto him! He will surely realize Him."
In 1867 Sri Ramakrishna returned to Kamarpukur to recuperate from the effect of his austerities. the peaceful countryside, the simple and artless companions of his boyhood, and the pure air did him much good. the villagers were happy to get back their playful, frank, witty, kind-hearted, and truthful Gadadhar, though they did not fail to notice the great change that had come over him during his years in Calcutta. His wife, Sarada Devi, now fourteen years old, soon arrived at Kamarpukur. Her spiritual development was much beyond her age and she was able to understand immediately her husband's state of mind. She became eager to learn from him about God and to live with him as his attendant. the Master accepted her cheerfully both as his disciple and as his spiritual companion. Referring to the experiences of these few days, she once said: "I used to feel always as if a pitcher full of bliss were placed in my heart. the joy was indescribable."
--- PILGRIMAGE
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 nor thern 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 ano ther 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 Mo ther. they are the Mo ther's tenants. You must spend the Mo ther'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 Mo ther 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.
Sri Ramakrishna visited Allahabad, at the confluence of the Ganges and the Jamuna, and then proceeded to Vrindavan and Mathura, hallowed by the legends, songs, and dramas about Krishna and the gopis. Here he had numerous visions and his heart overflowed with divine emotion. He wept and said: "O Krishna! Everything here is as it was in the olden days. You alone are absent." He visited the great woman saint, Gangamayi, regarded by Vaishnava devotees as the reincarnation of an intimate attendant of Radha. She was sixty years old and had frequent trances. She spoke of Sri Ramakrishna as an incarnation of Radha. With great difficulty he was persuaded to leave her.
On the return journey Mathur wanted to visit Gaya, but Sri Ramakrishna declined to go. He recalled his fa ther's vision at Gaya before his own birth and felt that in the temple of Vishnu he would become permanently absorbed in God. Mathur, honouring the Master's wish, returned with his party to Calcutta.
From Vrindavan the Master had brought a handful of dust. Part of this he scattered in the Panchavati; the rest he buried in the little hut where he had practised meditation. "Now this place", he said, "is as sacred as Vrindavan."
In 1870 the Master went on a pilgrimage to Nadia, the birth-place of Sri Chaitanya. As the boat by which he travelled approached the sand-bank close to Nadia, Sri Ramakrishna had a vision of the "two bro thers", Sri Chaitanya and his companion Nityananda, "bright as molten gold" and with haloes, rushing to greet him with uplifted hands. " there they come! there they come!" he cried. they entered his body and he went into a deep trance.
--- RELATION WITH HIS WIFE
In 1872 Sarada Devi paid her first visit to her husband at Dakshineswar. Four years earlier she had seen him at Kamarpukur and had tasted the bliss of his divine company. Since then she had become even more gentle, tender, introspective, serious, and unselfish. She had heard many rumours about her husband's insanity. People had shown her pity in her misfortune. the more she thought, the more she felt that her duty was to be with him, giving him, in whatever measure she could, a wife's devoted service. She was now eighteen years old. Accompanied by her fa ther, she arrived at Dakshineswar, having come on foot the distance of eighty miles. She had had an attack of fever on the way. When she arrived at the temple garden the Master said sorrowfully: "Ah! You have come too late. My Mathur is no longer here to look after you." Mathur had passed away the previous year.
the Master took up the duty of instructing his young wife, and this included everything from housekeeping to the Knowledge of Brahman. He taught her how to trim a lamp, how to behave toward people according to their differing temperaments, and how to conduct herself before visitors. He instructed her in the mysteries of spiritual life — prayer, meditation, japa, deep contemplation, and samadhi. the first lesson that Sarada Devi received was: "God is everybody's Beloved, just as the moon is dear to every child. Everyone has the same right to pray to Him. Out of His grace He reveals Himself to all who call upon Him. You too will see Him if you but pray to Him."
Totapuri, coming to know of the Master's marriage, had once remarked: "What does it matter? He alone is firmly established in the Knowledge of Brahman who can adhere to his spirit of discrimination and renunciation even while living with his wife. He alone has attained the supreme illumination who can look on man and woman alike as Brahman. A man with the idea of sex may be a good aspirant, but he is still far from the goal." Sri Ramakrishna and his wife lived toge ther at Dakshineswar, but their minds always soared above the worldly plane. A few months after Sarada Devi's arrival Sri Ramakrishna arranged, on an auspicious day, a special worship of Kali, the Divine Mo ther. Instead of an image of the Deity, he placed on the seat the living image, Sarada Devi herself. the worshipper and the worshipped went into deep samadhi and in the transcendental plane their souls were united. After several hours Sri Ramakrishna came down again to the relative plane, sang a hymn to the Great Goddess, and surrendered, at the feet of the living image, himself, his rosary, and the fruit of his life-long sadhana. This is known in Tantra as the Shorasi Puja, the "Adoration of Woman". Sri Ramakrishna realized the significance of the great statement of the Upanishad: "O Lord, Thou art the woman. Thou art the man; Thou art the boy. Thou art the girl; Thou art the old, tottering on their crutches. Thou pervadest the universe in its multiple forms."
By his marriage Sri Ramakrishna admitted the great value of marriage in man's spiritual evolution, and by adhering to his monastic vows he demonstrated the imperative necessity of self-control, purity, and continence, in the realization of God. By this unique spiritual relationship with his wife he proved that husband and wife can live toge ther as spiritual companions. Thus his life is a syn thesis of the ways of life of the householder and the monk.
--- the_MASTER"> the "EGO" OF the MASTER
In the nirvikalpa samadhi Sri Ramakrishna had realized that Brahman alone is real and the world illusory. By keeping his mind six months on the plane of the non-dual Brahman, he had attained to the state of the vijnani, the knower of Truth in a special and very rich sense, who sees Brahman not only in himself and in the transcendental Absolute, but in everything of the world. In this state of vijnana, sometimes, bereft of body-consciousness, he would regard himself as one with Brahman; sometimes, conscious of the dual world, he would regard himself as God's devotee, servant, or child. In order to enable the Master to work for the welfare of humanity, the Divine Mo ther had kept in him a trace of ego, which he described — according to his mood — as the "ego of Knowledge", the "ego of Devotion", the "ego of a child", or the "ego of a servant". In any case this ego of the Master, consumed by the fire of the Knowledge of Brahman, was an appearance only, like a burnt string. He often referred to this ego as the "ripe ego" in contrast with the ego of the bound soul, which he described as the "unripe" or "green" ego. the ego of the bound soul identifies itself with the body, relatives, possessions, and the world; but the "ripe ego", illumined by Divine Knowledge, knows the body, relatives, possessions, and the world to be unreal and establishes a relationship of love with God alone. Through this "ripe ego" Sri Ramakrishna dealt with the world and his wife. One day, while stroking his feet, Sarada Devi asked the Master, "What do you think of me?" Quick came the answer: " the Mo ther who is worshipped in the temple is the mo ther who has given birth to my body and is now living in the nahabat, and it is She again who is stroking my feet at this moment. Indeed, I always look on you as the personification of the Blissful Mo ther Kali."
Sarada Devi, in the company of her husband, had rare spiritual experiences. She said: "I have no words to describe my wonderful exaltation of spirit as I watched him in his different moods. Under the influence of divine emotion he would sometimes talk on abstruse subjects, sometimes laugh, sometimes weep, and sometimes become perfectly motionless in samadhi. This would continue throughout the night. there was such an extraordinary divine presence in him that now and then I would shake with fear and wonder how the night would pass. Months went by in this way. then one day he discovered that I had to keep awake the whole night lest, during my sleep, he should go into samadhi — for it might happen at any moment —, and so he asked me to sleep in the nahabat."
--- SUMMARY OF the MASTER'S SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES
We have now come to the end of Sri Ramakrishna's sadhana, the period of his spiritual discipline. As a result of his supersensuous experiences he reached certain conclusions regarding himself and spirituality in general. His conclusions about himself may be summarized as follows:
First, he was an Incarnation of God, a specially commissioned person, whose spiritual experiences were for the benefit of humanity. Whereas it takes an ordinary man a whole life's struggle to realize one or two phases of God, he had in a few years realized God in all His phases.
Second, he knew that he had always been a free soul, that the various disciplines through which he had passed were really not necessary for his own liberation but were solely for the benefit of o thers. Thus the terms liberation and bondage were not applicable to him. As long as there are beings who consider themselves bound. God must come down to earth as an Incarnation to free them from bondage, just as a magistrate must visit any part of his district in which there is trouble.
Third, he came to foresee the time of his death. His words with respect to this matter were literally fulfilled.
About spirituality in general the following were his conclusions: First, he was firmly convinced that all religions are true, that every doctrinal system represents a path to God. He had followed all the main paths and all had led him to the same goal. He was the first religious prophet recorded in history to preach the harmony of religions.
Second, the three great systems of thought known as Dualism, Qualified Non-dualism, and Absolute Non-dualism — Dvaita, Visishtadvaita, and Advaita — he perceived to represent three stages in man's progress toward the Ultimate Reality. they were not contradictory but complementary and suited to different temperaments. For the ordinary man with strong attachment to the senses, a dualistic form of religion, prescribing a certain amount of material support, such as music and o ther symbols, is useful. A man of God-realization transcends the idea of worldly duties, but the ordinary mortal must perform his duties, striving to be unattached and to surrender the results to God. the mind can comprehend and describe the range of thought and experience up to the Visishtadvaita, and no fur ther. the Advaita, the last word in spiritual experience, is something to be felt in samadhi. for it transcends mind and speech. From the highest standpoint, the Absolute and Its manifestation are equally real — the Lord's Name, His Abode, and the Lord Himself are of the same spiritual Essence. Everything is Spirit, the difference being only in form.
Third, Sri Ramakrishna realized the wish of the Divine Mo ther that through him She should found a new Order, consisting of those who would uphold the universal doctrines illustrated in his life.
Fourth, his spiritual insight told him that those who were having their last birth on the mortal plane of existence and those who had sincerely called on the Lord even once in their lives must come to him.
During this period Sri Ramakrishna suffered several bereavements. the first was the death of a nephew named Akshay. After the young man's death Sri Ramakrishna said: "Akshay died before my very eyes. But it did not affect me in the least. I stood by and watched a man die. It was like a sword being drawn from its scabbard. I enjoyed the scene, and laughed and sang and danced over it. they removed the body and cremated it. But the next day as I stood there (pointing to the sou theast verandah of his room), I felt a racking pain for the loss of Akshay, as if somebody were squeezing my heart like a wet towel. I wondered at it and thought that the Mo ther was teaching me a lesson. I was not much concerned even with my own body — much less with a relative. But if such was my pain at the loss of a nephew, how much more must be the grief of the householders at the loss of their near and dear ones!" In 1871 Mathur died, and some five years later Sambhu Mallick — who, after Mathur's passing away, had taken care of the Master's comfort. In 1873 died his elder bro ther Rameswar, and in 1876, his beloved mo ther. these bereavements left their imprint on the tender human heart of Sri Ramakrishna, albeit he had realized the immortality of the soul and the illusoriness of birth and death.
In March 1875, about a year before the death of his mo ther, the Master met Keshab Chandra Sen. the meeting was a momentous event for both Sri Ramakrishna and Keshab. Here the Master for the first time came into actual, contact with a worthy representative of modern India.
--- BRAHMO SAMAJ
Keshab was the leader of the Brahmo Samaj, one of the two great movements that, during the latter part of the nineteenth century, played an important part in shaping the course of the renascence of India. the founder of the Brahmo movement had been the great Raja Rammohan Roy (1774-1833). Though born in an orthodox brahmin family, Rammohan Roy had shown great sympathy for Islam and Christianity. He had gone to Tibet in search of the Buddhist mysteries. He had extracted from Christianity its ethical system, but had rejected the divinity of Christ as he had denied the Hindu Incarnations. the religion of Islam influenced him, to a great extent, in the formulation of his mono theistic doctrines. But he always went back to the Vedas for his spiritual inspiration. the Brahmo Samaj, which he founded in 1828, was dedicated to the "worship and adoration of the Eternal, the Unsearchable, the Immutable Being, who is the Author and Preserver of the Universe". the Samaj was open to all without distinction of colour, creed, caste, nation, or religion.
the real organizer of the Samaj was Devendranath Tagore (1817-1905), the fa ther of the poet Rabindranath. His physical and spiritual beauty, aristocratic aloofness, penetrating intellect, and poetic sensibility made him the foremost leader of the educated Bengalis. these addressed him by the respectful epi thet of Maharshi, the "Great Seer". the Maharshi was a Sanskrit scholar and, unlike Raja Rammohan Roy, drew his inspiration entirely from the Upanishads. He was an implacable enemy of image worship ship and also fought to stop the infiltration of Christian ideas into the Samaj. He gave the movement its faith and ritual. Under his influence the Brahmo Samaj professed One Self-existent Supreme Being who had created the universe out of nothing, the God of Truth, Infinite Wisdom, Goodness, and Power, the Eternal and Omnipotent, the One without a Second. Man should love Him and do His will, believe in Him and worship Him, and thus merit salvation in the world to come.
By far the ablest leader of the Brahmo movement was Keshab Chandra Sen (1838-1884). Unlike Raja Rammohan Roy and Devendranath Tagore, Keshab was born of a middle-class Bengali family and had been brought up in an English school. He did not know Sanskrit and very soon broke away from the popular Hindu religion. Even at an early age he came under the spell of Christ and professed to have experienced the special favour of John the Baptist, Christ, and St. Paul. When he strove to introduce Christ to the Brahmo Samaj, a rupture became inevitable with Devendranath. In 1868 Keshab broke with the older leader and founded the Brahmo Samaj of India, Devendra retaining leadership of the first Brahmo Samaj, now called the Adi Samaj.
Keshab possessed a complex nature. When passing through a great moral crisis, he spent much of his time in solitude and felt that he heard the voice of God, When a devotional form of worship was introduced into the Brahmo Samaj, he spent hours in singing kirtan with his followers. He visited England land in 1870 and impressed the English people with his musical voice, his simple English, and his spiritual fervour. He was entertained by Queen Victoria. Returning to India, he founded centres of the Brahmo Samaj in various parts of the country. Not unlike a professor of comparative religion in a European university, he began to discover, about the time of his first contact with Sri Ramakrishna, the harmony of religions. He became sympa thetic toward the Hindu gods and goddesses, explaining them in a liberal fashion. Fur ther, he believed that he was called by God to dictate to the world God's newly revealed law, the New Dispensation, the Navavidhan.
In 1878 a schism divided Keshab's Samaj. Some of his influential followers accused him of infringing the Brahmo principles by marrying his daughter to a wealthy man before she had attained the marriageable age approved by the Samaj. This group seceded and established the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, Keshab remaining the leader of the Navavidhan. Keshab now began to be drawn more and more toward the Christ ideal, though under the influence of Sri Ramakrishna his devotion to the Divine Mo ther also deepened. His mental oscillation between Christ and the Divine Mo ther of Hinduism found no position of rest. In Bengal and some o ther parts of India the Brahmo movement took the form of unitarian Christianity, scoffed at Hindu rituals, and preached a crusade against image worship. Influenced by Western culture, it declared the supremacy of reason, advocated the ideals of the French Revolution, abolished the caste-system among its own members, stood for the emancipation of women, agitated for the abolition of early marriage, sanctioned the remarriage of widows, and encouraged various educational and social-reform movements. the immediate effect of the Brahmo movement in Bengal was the checking of the proselytizing activities of the Christian missionaries. It also raised Indian culture in the estimation of its English masters. But it was an intellectual and eclectic religious ferment born of the necessity of the time. Unlike Hinduism, it was not founded on the deep inner experiences of sages and prophets. Its influence was confined to a comparatively few educated men and women of the country, and the vast masses of the Hindus remained outside it. It sounded monotonously only one of the notes in the rich gamut of the Eternal Religion of the Hindus.
--- ARYA SAMAJ
the o ther movement playing an important part in the nineteenth-century religious revival of India was the Arya Samaj. the Brahmo Samaj, essentially a movement of compromise with European culture, tacitly admitted the superiority of the West. But the founder of the Arya Samaj was a ' pugnacious Hindu sannyasi who accepted the challenge of Islam and Christianity and was resolved to combat all foreign influence in India. Swami Dayananda (1824-1883) launched this movement in Bombay in 1875, and soon its influence was felt throughout western India. the Swami was a great scholar of the Vedas, which he explained as being strictly mono theistic. He preached against the worship of images and re-established the ancient Vedic sacrificial rites. According to him the Vedas were the ultimate authority on religion, and he accepted every word of them as literally true. the Arya Samaj became a bulwark against the encroachments of Islam and Christianity, and its orthodox flavour appealed to many Hindu minds. It also assumed leadership in many movements of social reform. the caste-system became a target of its attack. Women it liberated from many of their social disabilities. the cause of education received from it a great impetus. It started agitation against early marriage and advocated the remarriage of Hindu widows. Its influence was strongest in the Punjab, the battle-ground of the Hindu and Islamic cultures. A new fighting attitude was introduced into the slumbering Hindu society. Unlike the Brahmo Samaj, the influence of the Arya Samaj was not confined to the intellectuals. It was a force that spread to the masses. It was a dogmatic movement intolerant of those who disagreed with its views, and it emphasized only one way, the Arya Samaj way, to the realization of Truth. Sri Ramakrishna met Swami Dayananda when the latter visited Bengal.
--- KESHAB CHANDRA SEN
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 o ther 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 Mo ther, 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 o ther 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 Mo therhood 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 o ther frequently, ei ther 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.
--- O theR BRAHMO LEADERS
Gradually o ther Brahmo leaders began to feel Sri Ramakrishna's influence. But they were by no means uncritical admirers of the Master. they particularly disapproved of his ascetic renunciation and condemnation of "woman and gold".1 they measured him according to their own ideals of the householder's life. Some could not understand his samadhi and described it as a nervous malady. Yet they could not resist his magnetic personality.
Among the Brahmo leaders who knew the Master closely were Pratap Chandra Mazumdar, Vijaykrishna Goswami, Trailokyanath Sannyal, and Shivanath Shastri.
Shivanath, one day, was greatly impressed by the Master's utter simplicity and abhorrence of praise. He was seated with Sri Ramakrishna in the latter's room when several rich men of Calcutta arrived. the Master left the room for a few minutes. In the mean time Hriday, his nephew, began to describe his samadhi to the visitors. the last few words caught the Master's ear as he entered the room. He said to Hriday: "What a mean-spirited fellow you must be to extol me thus before these rich men! You have seen their costly apparel and their gold watches and chains, and your object is to get from them as much money as you can. What do I care about what they think of me? (Turning to the gentlemen) No, my friends, what he has told you about me is not true. It was not love of God that made me absorbed in God and indifferent to external life. I became positively insane for some time. the sadhus who frequented this temple told me to practise many things. I tried to follow them, and the consequence was that my austerities drove me to insanity." This is a quotation from one of Shivanath's books. He took the Master's words literally and failed to see their real import.
Shivanath vehemently criticized the Master for his o ther-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.' Ano ther 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; o therwise 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 Mo therhood, helped to unfold it [God as our Mo ther] 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.
This contact with the educated and progressive Bengalis opened Sri Ramakrishna's eyes to a new realm of thought. Born and brought up in a simple village, without any formal education, and taught by the orthodox holy men of India in religious life, he had had no opportunity to study the influence of modernism on the thoughts and lives of the Hindus. He could not properly estimate the result of the impact of Western education on Indian culture. He was a Hindu of the Hindus, renunciation being to him the only means to the realization of God in life. From the Brahmos he learnt that the new generation of India made a compromise between God and the world. Educated young men were influenced more by the Western philosophers than by their own prophets. But Sri Ramakrishna was not dismayed, for he saw in this, too, the hand of God. And though he expounded to the Brahmos all his ideas about God and austere religious disciplines, yet he bade them accept from his teachings only as much as suited their tastes and temperaments.
^ the term "woman and gold", which has been used throughout in a collective sense, occurs again and again in the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna to designate the chief impediments to spiritual progress. This favourite expression of the Master, "kaminikanchan", has often been misconstrued. By it he meant only "lust and greed", the baneful influence of which retards the aspirant's spiritual growth. He used the word "kamini", or "woman", as a concrete term for the sex instinct when addressing his man devotees. He advised women, on the o ther hand, to shun "man". "Kanchan", or "gold", symbolizes greed, which is the o ther obstacle to spiritual life.
Sri Ramakrishna never taught his disciples to hate any woman, or womankind in general. This can be seen clearly by going through all his teachings under this head and judging them collectively. the Master looked on all women as so many images of the Divine Mo ther of the Universe. He paid the highest homage to womankind by accepting a woman as his guide while practising the very profound spiritual disciplines of Tantra. His wife, known and revered as the Holy Mo ther, was his constant companion and first disciple. At the end of his spiritual practice he literally worshipped his wife as the embodiment of the Goddess Kali, the Divine Mo ther. After his passing away the Holy Mo ther became the spiritual guide not only of a large number of householders, but also of many monastic members of the Ramakrishna Order.
--- the MASTER'S YEARNING FOR HIS OWN DEVOTEES
Contact with the Brahmos increased Sri Ramakrishna's longing to encounter aspirants who would be able to follow his teachings in their purest form. " there was no limit", he once declared, "to the longing I felt at that time. During the day-time I somehow managed to control it. the secular talk of the worldly-minded was galling to me, and I would look wistfully to the day when my own beloved companions would come. I hoped to find solace in conversing with them and relating to them my own realizations. Every little incident would remind me of them, and thoughts of them wholly engrossed me. I was already arranging in my mind what I should say to one and give to ano ther, and so on. But when the day would come to a close I would not be able to curb my feelings. the thought that ano ther day had gone by, and they had not come, oppressed me. When, during the evening service, the temples rang with the sound of bells and conch-shells, I would climb to the roof of the kuthi in the garden and, writhing in anguish of heart, cry at the top of my voice: 'Come, my children! Oh, where are you? I cannot bear to live without you.' A mo ther never longed so intensely for the sight of her child, nor a friend for his companions, nor a lover for his swee theart, as I longed for them. Oh, it was indescribable! Shortly after this period of yearning the devotees1 began to come."
In the year 1879 occasional writings about Sri Ramakrishna by the Brahmos, in the Brahmo magazines, began to attract his future disciples from the educated middle-class Bengalis, and they continued to come till 1884. But o thers, too, came, feeling the subtle power of his attraction. they were an ever shifting crowd of people of all castes and creeds: Hindus and Brahmos, Vaishnavas and Saktas, the educated with university degrees and the illiterate, old and young, maharajas and beggars, journalists and artists, pundits and devotees, philosophers and the worldly-minded, jnanis and yogis, men of action and men of faith, virtuous women and prostitutes, office-holders and vagabonds, philanthropists and self-seekers, dramatists and drunkards, builders-up and pullers-down. He gave to them all, without stint, from his illimitable store of realization. No one went away empty-handed. He taught them the lofty .knowledge of the Vedanta and the soul
-melting love of the Purana. Twenty hours out of twenty-four he would speak without out rest or respite. He gave to all his sympathy and enlightenment, and he touched them with that strange power of the soul which could not but melt even the most hardened. And people understood him according to their powers of comprehension.
^ the word is generally used in the text to denote one devoted to God, a worshipper of the Personal God, or a follower of the path of love. A devotee of Sri Ramakrishna is one who is devoted to Sri Ramakrishna and follows his teachings. the word "disciple", when used in connexion with Sri Ramakrishna, refers to one who had been initiated into spiritual life by Sri Ramakrishna and who regarded him as his guru.
--- the MASTER'S METHOD OF TEACHING
But he remained as ever the willing instrument in the hand of God, the child of the Divine Mo ther, totally untouched by the idea of being a teacher. He used to say that three ideas — that he was a guru, a fa ther, and a master — pricked his flesh like thorns. Yet he was an extraordinary teacher. He stirred his disciples' hearts more by a subtle influence than by actions or words. He never claimed to be the founder of a religion or the organizer of a sect. Yet he was a religious dynamo. He was the verifier of all religions and creeds. He was like an expert gardener, who prepares the soil and removes the weeds, knowing that the plants will grow because of the inherent power of the seeds, producing each its appropriate flowers and fruits. He never thrust his ideas on anybody. He understood people's limitations and worked on the principle that what is good for one may be bad for ano ther. He had the unusual power of knowing the devotees' minds, even their inmost souls, at the first sight. He accepted disciples with the full knowledge of their past tendencies and future possibilities. the life of evil did not frighten him, nor did religious squeamishness raise anybody in his estimation. He saw in everything the unerring finger of the Divine Mo ther. Even the light that leads astray was to him the light from God.
To those who became his intimate disciples the Master was a friend, companion, and playmate. Even the chores of religious discipline would be lightened in his presence. the devotees would be so inebriated with pure joy in his company that they would have no time to ask themselves whe ther he was an Incarnation, a perfect soul, or a yogi. His very presence was a great teaching; words were superfluous. In later years his disciples remarked that while they were with him they would regard him as a comrade, but afterwards would tremble to think of their frivolities in the presence of such a great person. they had convincing proof that the Master could, by his mere wish, kindle in their hearts the love of God and give them His vision.
Through all this fun and frolic, this merriment and frivolity, he always kept before them the shining ideal of God-Consciousness and the path of renunciation. He prescribed ascents steep or graded according to the powers of the climber. He permitted no compromise with the basic principles of purity. An aspirant had to keep his body, mind, senses, and soul unspotted; had to have a sincere love for God and an ever mounting spirit of yearning. the rest would be done by the Mo ther.
His disciples were of two kinds: the householders, and the young men, some of whom were later to become monks. there was also a small group of women devotees.
--- HOUSEHOLDER DEVOTEES
For the householders Sri Ramakrishna did not prescribe the hard path of total renunciation. He wanted them to discharge their obligations to their families. their renunciation was to be mental. Spiritual life could not be acquired by flying away from responsibilities. A married couple should live like bro ther and sister after the birth of one or two children, devoting their time to spiritual talk and contemplation. He encouraged the householders, saying that their life was, in a way, easier than that of the monk, since it was more advantageous to fight the enemy from inside a fortress than in an open field. He insisted, however, on their repairing into solitude every now and then to streng then their devotion and faith in God through prayer, japa, and meditation. He prescribed for them the companionship of sadhus. He asked them to perform their worldly duties with one hand, while holding to God with the o ther, and to pray to God to make their duties fewer and fewer so that in the end they might cling to Him with both hands. He would discourage in both the householders and the celibate youths any lukewarmness in their spiritual struggles. He would not ask them to follow indiscriminately the ideal of non-resistance, which ultimately makes a coward of the unwary.
--- FUTURE MONKS
But to the young men destined to be monks he pointed out the steep path of renunciation, both external and internal. they must take the vow of absolute continence and eschew all thought of greed and lust. By the practice of continence, aspirants develop a subtle nerve through which they understand the deeper mysteries of God. For them self-control is final, imperative, and absolute. the sannyasis are teachers of men, and their lives should be totally free from blemish. they must not even look at a picture which may awaken their animal passions. the Master selected his future monks from young men untouched by "woman and gold" and plastic enough to be cast in his spiritual mould. When teaching them the path of renunciation and discrimination, he would not allow the householders to be anywhere near them.
--- RAM AND MANOMOHAN
the first two householder devotees to come to Dakshineswar were Ramchandra Dutta and Manomohan Mitra. A medical practitioner and chemist, Ram was sceptical about God and religion and never enjoyed peace of soul. He wanted tangible proof of God's existence. the Master said to him: "God really" exists. You don't see the stars in the day-time, but that doesn't mean that the stars do not exist. there is butter in milk. But can anybody see it by merely looking at the milk? To get butter you must churn milk in a quiet and cool place. You cannot realize God by a mere wish; you must go through some mental disciplines." By degrees the Master awakened Ram's spirituality and the latter became one of his foremost lay disciples. It was Ram who introduced Narendranath to Sri Ramakrishna. Narendra was a relative of Ram.
Manomohan at first met with considerable opposition from his wife and o ther relatives, who resented his visits to Dakshineswar. But in the end the unselfish love of the Master triumphed over worldly affection. It was Manomohan who brought Rakhal to the Master.
--- SURENDRA
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 o ther educated young men of the time, he prided himself on his a theism 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 Mo ther 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 Mo ther to defray a great part of his expenses. Surendra's purse was always open for the Master's comfort.
--- KEDAR
Kedarnath Chatterji was endowed with a spiritual temperament and had tried various paths of religion, some not very commendable. When he met the Master at Dakshineswar he understood the true meaning of religion. It is said that the Master, weary of instructing devotees who were coming to him in great numbers for guidance, once prayed to the Goddess Kali: "Mo ther, I am tired of speaking to people. Please give power to Kedar, Girish, Ram, Vijay, and Mahendra to give them the preliminary instruction, so that just a little teaching from me will be enough." He was aware, however, of Kedar's lingering attachment to worldly things and often warned him about it.
--- HARISH
Harish, a young man in affluent circumstances, renounced his family and took shelter with the Master, who loved him for his sincerity, singleness of purpose, and quiet nature. He spent his leisure time in prayer and meditation, turning a deaf ear to the entreaties and threats of his relatives. Referring to his undisturbed peace of mind, the Master would say: "Real men are dead to the world though living. Look at Harish. He is an example." When one day the Master asked him to be a little kind to his wife, Harish said: "You must excuse me on this point. This is not the place to show kindness. If I try to be sympa thetic to her, there is a possibility of my forgetting the ideal and becoming entangled in the world."
--- BHAVANATH
Bhavanath Chatterji visited the Master while he was still in his teens. His parents and relatives regarded Sri Ramakrishna as an insane person and tried their utmost to prevent him from becoming intimate with the Master. But the young boy was very stubborn and often spent nights at Dakshineswar. He was greatly attached to Narendra, and the Master encouraged their friendship. the very sight of him often awakened Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual emotion.
--- BALARAM BOSE
Balaram Bose came of a wealthy Vaishnava family. From his youth he had shown a deep religious temperament and had devoted his time to meditation, prayer, and the study of the Vaishnava scriptures. He was very much impressed by Sri Ramakrishna even at their first meeting. He asked Sri Ramakrishna whe ther God really existed and, if so, whe ther a man could realize Him. the Master said: "God reveals Himself to the devotee who thinks of Him as his nearest and dearest. Because you do not draw response by praying to Him once, you must not conclude that He does not exist. Pray to God, thinking of Him as dearer than your very self. He is much attached to His devotees. He comes to a man even before He is sought. there is none more intimate and affectionate than God." Balaram had never before heard God spoken of in such forceful words; every one of the words seemed true to him. Under the Master's influence he outgrew the conventions of the Vaishnava worship and became one of the most beloved of the disciples. It was at his home that the Master slept whenever he spent a night in Calcutta.
--- MAHENDRA OR M.
Mahendranath Gupta, better known as "M.", arrived at Dakshineswar in March 1882. He belonged to the Brahmo Samaj and was headmaster of the Vidyasagar High School at Syambazar, Calcutta. At the very first sight the Master recognized him as one of his "marked" disciples. Mahendra recorded in his diary Sri Ramakrishna's conversations with his devotees. these are the first directly recorded words, in the spiritual history of the world, of a man recognized as belonging in the class of Buddha and Christ. the present volume is a translation of this diary. Mahendra was instrumental, through his personal contacts, in spreading the Master's message among many young and aspiring souls.
--- NAG MAHASHAY
Durgacharan Nag, also known as Nag Mahashay, was the ideal householder among the lay disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. He was the embodiment of the Master's ideal of life in the world, unstained by worldliness. In spite of his intense desire to become a sannyasi, Sri Ramakrishna asked him to live in the world in the spirit of a monk, and the disciple truly carried out this injunction. He was born of a poor family and even during his boyhood often sacrificed everything to lessen the sufferings of the needy. He had married at an early age and after his wife's death had married a second time to obey his fa ther's command. But he once said to his wife: "Love on the physical level never lasts. He is indeed blessed who can give his love to God with his whole heart. Even a little attachment to the body endures for several births. So do not be attached to this cage of bone and flesh. Take shelter at the feet of the Mo ther and think of Her alone. Thus your life here and hereafter will be ennobled." the Master spoke of him as a "blazing light". He received every word of Sri Ramakrishna in dead earnest. One day he heard the Master saying that it was difficult for doctors, lawyers, and brokers to make much progress in spirituality. Of doctors he said, "If the mind clings to the tiny drops of medicine, how can it conceive of the Infinite?" That was the end of Durgacharan's medical practice and he threw his chest of medicines into the Ganges. Sri Ramakrishna assured him that he would not lack simple food and clothing. He bade him serve holy men. On being asked where he would find real holy men, the Master said that the sadhus themselves would seek his company. No sannyasi could have lived a more austere life than Durgacharan.
--- GIRISH GHOSH
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 fa ther of the modem Bengali stage. Like o ther 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 whe ther it was evening, though the lamps were burning in the room. But their paths often crossed, and Girish could not avoid fur ther 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. Ano ther 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 o ther 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 streng thened Girish's resolution by allowing him to feel that he was absolutely free.
One day Girish felt depressed because he was unable to submit to any routine of spiritual discipline. In an exalted mood the Master said to him: "All right, give me your power of attorney. Henceforth I assume responsibility for you. You need not do anything." Girish heaved a sigh of relief. He felt happy to think that Sri Ramakrishna had assumed his spiritual responsibilities. But poor Girish could not then realize that He also, on his part, had to give up his freedom and make of himself a puppet in Sri Ramakrishna's hands. the Master began to discipline him according to this new attitude. One day Girish said about a trifling matter, "Yes, I shall do this." "No, no!" the Master corrected him. "You must not speak in that egotistic manner. You should say, 'God willing, I shall do it.'" Girish understood. thenceforth he tried to give up all idea of personal responsibility and surrender himself to the Divine Will. His mind began to dwell constantly on Sri Ramakrishna. This unconscious meditation in time chastened his turbulent spirit.
the householder devotees generally visited Sri Ramakrishna on Sunday afternoons and o ther holidays. Thus a bro therhood was gradually formed, and the Master encouraged their fraternal feeling. Now and then he would accept an invitation to a devotee's home, where o ther devotees would also be invited. Kirtan would be arranged and they would spend hours in dance and devotional music. the Master would go into trances or open his heart in religious discourses and in the narration of his own spiritual experiences. Many people who could not go to Dakshineswar participated in these meetings and felt blessed. Such an occasion would be concluded with a sumptuous feast.
But it was in the company of his younger devotees, pure souls yet unstained by the touch of worldliness, that Sri Ramakrishna took greatest joy. Among the young men who later embraced the householder's life were Narayan, Paitu, the younger Naren, Tejchandra, and Purna. these visited the Master sometimes against strong opposition from home.
--- PURNA
Purna was a lad of thirteen, whom Sri Ramakrishna described as an Isvarakoti, a soul born with special spiritual qualities. the Master said that Purna was the last of the group of brilliant devotees who, as he once had seen in a trance, would come to him for spiritual illumination. Purna said to Sri Ramakrishna during their second meeting, "You are God Himself incarnated in flesh and blood." Such words coming from a mere youngster proved of what stuff the boy was made.
--- MAHIMACHARAN AND PRATAP HAZRA
Mahimacharan and Pratap Hazra were two devotees outstanding for their pretentiousness and idiosyncrasies. But the Master showed them his unfailing love and kindness, though he was aware of their shortcomings. Mahimacharan Chakravarty had met the Master long before the arrival of the o ther disciples. He had had the intention of leading a spiritual life, but a strong desire to acquire name and fame was his weakness. He claimed to have been initiated by Totapuri and used to say that he had been following the path of knowledge according to his guru's instructions. He possessed a large library of English and Sanskrit books. But though he pretended to have read them, most of the leaves were uncut. the Master knew all his limitations, yet enjoyed listening to him recite from the Vedas and o ther scriptures. He would always exhort Mahima to meditate on the meaning of the scriptural texts and to practise spiritual discipline.
Pratap Hazra, a middle-aged man, hailed from a village near Kamarpukur. He was not altoge ther unresponsive to religious feelings. On a moment's impulse he had left his home, aged mo ther, wife, and children, and had found shelter in the temple garden at Dakshineswar, where he intended to lead a spiritual life. He loved to argue, and the Master often pointed him out as an example of barren argumentation. He was hypercritical of o thers and cherished an exaggerated notion of his own spiritual advancement. He was mischievous and often tried to upset the minds of the Master's young disciples, criticizing them for their happy and joyous life and asking them to devote their time to meditation. the Master teasingly compared Hazra to Jatila and Kutila, the two women who always created obstructions in Krishna's sport with the gopis, and said that Hazra lived at Dakshineswar to "thicken the plot" by adding complications.
--- SOME NOTED MEN
Sri Ramakrishna also became acquainted with a number of people whose scholarship or wealth entitled them everywhere to respect. He had met, a few years before, Devendranath Tagore, famous all over Bengal for his wealth, scholarship, saintly character, and social position. But the Master found him disappointing; for, whereas Sri Ramakrishna expected of a saint complete renunciation of the world, Devendranath combined with his saintliness a life of enjoyment. Sri Ramakrishna met the great poet Michael Madhusudan, who had embraced Christianity "for the sake of his stomach". To him the Master could not impart instruction, for the Divine Mo ther "pressed his tongue". In addition he met Maharaja Jatindra Mohan Tagore, a titled aristocrat of Bengal; Kristodas Pal, the editor, social reformer, and patriot; Iswar Vidyasagar, the noted philanthropist and educator; Pundit Shashadhar, a great champion of Hindu orthodoxy; Aswini Kumar Dutta, a headmaster, moralist, and leader of Indian Nationalism; and Bankim Chatterji, a deputy magistrate, novelist, and essayist, and one of the fashioners of modern Bengali prose. Sri Ramakrishna was not the man to be dazzled by outward show, glory, or eloquence. A pundit without discrimination he regarded as a mere straw. He would search people's hearts for the light of God, and if that was missing he would have nothing to do with them.
--- KRISTODAS PAL
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 o thers, 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 o thers? 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 o thers. A man should first be purged of all egotism. then alone will the Blissful Mo ther 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 soo the a guilty conscience. True charity, he taught, is the result of love of God — service to man in a spirit of worship.
--- MONASTIC DISCIPLES
the disciples whom the Master trained for monastic life were the following:
Narendranath Dutta (Swami Vivekananda)
--
the first of these young men to come to the Master was Latu. Born of obscure parents, in Behar, he came to Calcutta in search of work and was engaged by Ramchandra Dutta as house-boy. Learning of the saintly Sri Ramakrishna, he visited the Master at Dakshineswar and was deeply touched by his cordiality. When he was about to leave, the Master asked him to take some money and return home in a boat or carriage. But Latu declared he had a few pennies and jingled the coins in his pocket. Sri Ramakrishna later requested Ram to allow Latu to stay with him permanently. Under Sri Ramakrishna's guidance Latu made great progress in meditation and was blessed with ecstatic visions, but all the efforts of the Master to give him a smattering of education failed. Latu was very fond of kirtan and o ther devotional songs but remained all his life illiterate.
--- RAKHAL
Even before Rakhal's coming to Dakshineswar, the Master had had visions of him as his spiritual son and as a playmate of Krishna at Vrindavan. Rakhal was born of wealthy parents. During his childhood he developed wonderful spiritual traits and used to play at worshipping gods and goddesses. In his teens he was married to a sister of Manomohan Mitra, from whom he first heard of the Master. His fa ther objected to his association with Sri Ramakrishna but afterwards was reassured to find that many celebrated people were visitors at Dakshineswar. the relationship between the Master and this beloved disciple was that of mo ther and child. Sri Ramakrishna allowed Rakhal many liberties denied to o thers. But he would not hesitate to chastise the boy for improper actions. At one time Rakhal felt a childlike jealousy because he found that o ther boys were receiving the Master's affection. He soon got over it and realized his guru as the Guru of the whole universe. the Master was worried to hear of his marriage, but was relieved to find that his wife was a spiritual soul who would not be a hindrance to his progress.
--- the ELDER GOPAL
Gopal Sur of Sinthi came to Dakshineswar at a ra ther advanced age and was called the elder Gopal. He had lost his wife, and the Master assuaged his grief. Soon he renounced the world and devoted himself fully to meditation and prayer. Some years later Gopal gave the Master the ochre cloths with which the latter initiated several of his disciples into monastic life.
--- NARENDRA
To spread his message to the four corners of the earth Sri Ramakrishna needed a strong instrument. With his frail body and delicate limbs he could not make great journeys across wide spaces. And such an instrument was found in Narendranath Dutta, his beloved Naren, later known to the world as Swami Vivekananda. Even before meeting Narendranath, the Master had seen him in a vision as a sage, immersed in the meditation of the Absolute, who at Sri Ramakrishna's request had agreed to take human birth to assist him in his work.
Narendra was born in Calcutta on January 12, 1863, of an aristocratic kayastha family. His mo ther was steeped in the great Hindu epics, and his fa ther, a distinguished attorney of the Calcutta High Court, was an agnostic about religion, a friend of the poor, and a mocker at social conventions. Even in his boyhood and youth Narendra possessed great physical courage and presence of mind, a vivid imagination, deep power of thought, keen intelligence, an extraordinary memory, a love of truth, a passion for purity, a spirit of independence, and a tender heart. An expert musician, he also acquired proficiency in physics, astronomy, ma thematics, philosophy, history, and literature. He grew up into an extremely handsome young man. Even as a child he practised meditation and showed great power of concentration. Though free and passionate in word and action, he took the vow of austere religious chastity and never allowed the fire of purity to be extinguished by the slightest defilement of body or soul.
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?"
When they returned to the room and Narendra heard the Master speaking to o thers, he was surprised to find in his words an inner logic, a striking sincerity, and a convincing proof of his spiritual nature. In answer to Narendra's question, "Sir, have you seen God?" the Master said: "Yes, I have seen God. I have seen Him more tangibly than I see you. I have talked to Him more intimately than I am talking to you." Continuing, the Master said: "But, my child, who wants to see God? People shed jugs of tears for money, wife, and children. But if they would weep for God for only one day they would surely see Him." Narendra was amazed. these words he could not doubt. This was the first time he had ever heard a man saying that he had seen God. But he could not reconcile these words of the Master with the scene that had taken place on the verandah only a few minutes before. He concluded that Sri Ramakrishna was a monomaniac, and returned home ra ther puzzled in mind.
During his second visit, about a month later, suddenly, at the touch of the Master, Narendra felt overwhelmed and saw the walls of the room and everything around him whirling and vanishing. "What are you doing to me?" he cried in terror. "I have my fa ther and mo ther at home." He saw his own ego and the whole universe almost swallowed in a nameless void. With a laugh the Master easily restored him. Narendra thought he might have been hypnotized, but he could not understand how a monomaniac could cast a spell over the mind of a strong person like himself. He returned home more confused than ever, resolved to be henceforth on his guard before this strange man.
But during his third visit Narendra fared no better. This time, at the Master's touch, he lost consciousness entirely. While he was still in that state, Sri Ramakrishna questioned him concerning his spiritual antecedents and whereabouts, his mission in this world, and the duration of his mortal life. the answers confirmed what the Master himself had known and inferred. Among o ther things, he came to know that Narendra was a sage who had already attained perfection, and that the day he learnt his real nature he would give up his body in yoga, by an act of will.
A few more meetings completely removed from Narendra's mind the last traces of the notion that Sri Ramakrishna might be a monomaniac or wily hypnotist. His integrity, purity, renunciation, and unselfishness were beyond question. But Narendra could not accept a man, an imperfect mortal, as his guru. As a member of the Brahmo Samaj, he could not believe that a human intermediary was necessary between man and God. Moreover, he openly laughed at Sri Ramakrishna's visions as hallucinations. Yet in the secret chamber of his heart he bore a great love for the Master.
Sri Ramakrishna was grateful to the Divine Mo ther for sending him one who doubted his own realizations. Often he asked Narendra to test him as the money-changers test their coins. He laughed at Narendra's biting criticism of his spiritual experiences and samadhi. When at times Narendra's sharp words distressed him, the Divine Mo ther Herself would console him, saying: "Why do you listen to him? In a few days he will believe your every word." He could hardly bear Narendra's absences. Often he would weep bitterly for the sight of him. Sometimes Narendra would find the Master's love embarrassing; and one day he sharply scolded him, warning him that such infatuation would soon draw him down to the level of its object. the Master was distressed and prayed to the Divine Mo ther. then he said to Narendra: "You rogue, I won't listen to you any more. Mo ther says that I love you because I see God in you, and the day I no longer see God in you I shall not be able to bear even the sight of you."
the Master wanted to train Narendra in the teachings of the non-dualistic Vedanta philosophy. But Narendra, because of his Brahmo upbringing, considered it wholly blasphemous to look on man as one with his Creator. One day at the temple garden he laughingly said to a friend: "How silly! This jug is God! This cup is God! Whatever we see is God! And we too are God! Nothing could be more absurd." Sri Ramakrishna came out of his room and gently touched him. Spellbound, he immediately perceived that everything in the world was indeed God. A new universe opened around him. Returning home in a dazed state, he found there too that the food, the plate, the eater himself, the people around him, were all God. When he walked in the street, he saw that the cabs, the horses, the streams of people, the buildings, were all Brahman. He could hardly go about his day's business. His parents became anxious about him and thought him ill. And when the intensity of the experience abated a little, he saw the world as a dream. Walking in the public square, he would strike his head against the iron railings to know whe ther they were real. It took him a number of days to recover his normal self. He had a foretaste of the great experiences yet to come and realized that the words of the Vedanta were true.
At the beginning of 1884 Narendra's fa ther suddenly died of heart-failure, leaving the family in a state of utmost poverty. there were six or seven mouths to feed at home. Creditors were knocking at the door. Relatives who had accepted his fa ther's unstinted kindness now became enemies, some even bringing suit to deprive Narendra of his ancestral home. Actually starving and barefoot, Narendra searched for a job, but without success. He began to doubt whe ther anywhere in the world there was such a thing as unselfish sympathy. Two rich women made evil proposals to him and promised to put an end to his distress; but he refused them with contempt.
Narendra began to talk of his doubt of the very existence of God. His friends thought he had become an a theist, 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 Mo ther 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 ba thed in peace, and he slept serenely.
Narendra now realized that he had a spiritual mission to fulfil. He resolved to renounce the world, as his grandfa ther had renounced it, and he came to Sri Ramakrishna for his blessing. But even before he had opened his mouth, the Master knew what was in his mind and wept bitterly at the thought of separation. "I know you cannot lead a worldly life," he said, "but for my sake live in the world as long as I live."
One day, soon after, Narendra requested Sri Ramakrishna to pray to the Divine Mo ther to remove his poverty. Sri Ramakrishna bade him pray to Her himself, for She would certainly listen to his prayer. Narendra entered the shrine of Kali. As he stood before the image of the Mo ther, he beheld Her as a living Goddess, ready to give wisdom and liberation. Unable to ask Her for petty worldly things, he prayed only for knowledge and renunciation, love and liberation. the Master rebuked him for his failure to ask the Divine Mo ther to remove his poverty and sent him back to the temple. But Narendra, standing in Her presence, again forgot the purpose of his coming. Thrice he went to the temple at the bidding of the Master, and thrice he returned, having forgotten in Her presence why he had come. He was wondering about it when it suddenly flashed in his mind that this was all the work of Sri Ramakrishna; so now he asked the Master himself to remove his poverty, and was assured that his family would not lack simple food and clothing.
This was a very rich and significant experience for Narendra. It taught him that Sakti, the Divine Power, cannot be ignored in the world and that in the relative plane the need of worshipping a Personal God is imperative. Sri Ramakrishna was overjoyed with the conversion. the next day, sitting almost on Narendra's lap, he said to a devotee, pointing first to himself, then to Narendra: "I see I am this, and again that. Really I feel no difference. A stick floating in the Ganges seems to divide the water; But in reality the water is one. Do you see my point? Well, whatever is, is the Mo ther — isn't that so?" In later years Narendra would say: "Sri Ramakrishna was the only person who, from the time he met me, believed in me uniformly throughout. Even my mo ther and bro thers did not. It was his unwavering trust and love for me that bound me to him for ever. He alone knew how to love. Worldly people, only make a show of love for selfish ends.
--- TARAK
O thers destined to be monastic disciples of Sri Ramakrishna came to Dakshineswar. Taraknath Ghoshal had felt from his boyhood the noble desire to realize God. Keshab and the Brahmo Samaj had attracted him but proved inadequate. In 1882 he first met the Master at Ramchandra's house and was astonished to hear him talk about samadhi, a subject which always fascinated his mind. And that evening he actually saw a manifestation of that superconscious state in the Master. Tarak became a frequent visitor at Dakshineswar and received the Master's grace in abundance. the young boy often felt ecstatic fervour in meditation. He also wept profusely while meditating on God. Sri Ramakrishna said to him: "God favours those who can weep for Him. Tears shed for God wash away the sins of former births."
--- BABURAM
Baburam Ghosh came to Dakshineswar accompanied by Rakhal, his classmate. the Master, as was often his custom, examined the boy's physiognomy and was satisfied about his latent spirituality. At the age of eight Baburam had thought of leading a life of renunciation, in the company of a monk, in a hut shut out from the public view by a thick wall of trees. the very sight of the Panchavati awakened in his heart that dream of boyhood. Baburam was tender in body and soul. the Master used to say that he was pure to his very bones. One day Hazra in his usual mischievous fashion advised Baburam and some of the o ther young boys to ask Sri Ramakrishna for some spiritual powers and not waste their life in mere gaiety and merriment. the Master, scenting mischief, called Baburam to his side and said: "What can you ask of me? Isn't everything that I have already yours? Yes, everything I have earned in the shape of realizations is for the sake of you all. So get rid of the idea of begging, which alienates by creating a distance. Ra ther realize your kinship with me and gain the key to all the treasures.
--- NIRANJAN
Nitya Niranjan Sen was a disciple of heroic type. He came to the Master when he was eighteen years old. He was a medium for a group of spiritualists. During his first visit the Master said to him: "My boy, if you think always of ghosts you will become a ghost, and if you think of God you will become God. Now, which do you prefer?" Niranjan severed all connexions with the spiritualists. During his second visit the Master embraced him and said warmly: "Niranjan, my boy, the days are flitting away. When will you realize God? This life will be in vain if you do not realize Him. When will you devote your mind wholly to God?" Niranjan was surprised to see the Master's great anxiety for his spiritual welfare. He was a young man endowed with unusual spiritual parts. He felt disdain for worldly pleasures and was totally guileless, like a child. But he had a violent temper. One day, as he was coming in a country boat to Dakshineswar, some of his fellow passengers began to speak ill of the Master. Finding his protest futile, Niranjan began to rock the boat, threatening to sink it in mid stream. That silenced the offenders. When he reported the incident to the Master, he was rebuked for his inability to curb his anger.
--- JOGINDRA
Jogindranath, on the o ther 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 o ther 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 fa ther 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 mo ther he had had to yield, and he now believed that his spiritual future was doomed. So he kept himself away from the Master.
Sri Ramakrishna employed a ruse to bring Jogindra to him. As soon as the disciple entered the room, the Master rushed forward to meet the young man. Catching hold of the disciple's hand, he said: "What if you have married? Haven't I too married? What is there to be afraid of in that?" Touching his own chest he said: "If this [meaning himself] is propitious, then even a hundred thousand marriages cannot injure you. If you desire to lead a householder's life, then bring your wife here one day, and I shall see that she becomes a real companion in your spiritual progress. But if you want to lead a monastic life, then I shall eat up your attachment to the world." Jogin was dumbfounded at these words. He received new strength, and his spirit of renunciation was re-established.
--- SASHI AND SARAT
Sashi and Sarat were two cousins who came from a pious brahmin family of Calcutta. At an early age they had joined the Brahmo Samaj and had come under the influence of Keshab Sen. the Master said to them at their first meeting: "If bricks and tiles are burnt after the trade-mark has been stamped on them, they retain the mark for ever. Similarly, man should be stamped with God before entering the world. then he will not become attached to worldliness." Fully aware of the future course of their life, he asked them not to marry. the Master asked Sashi whe ther he believed in God with form or in God without form. Sashi replied that he was not even sure about the existence of God; so he could not speak one way or the o ther. This frank answer very much pleased the Master.
Sarat's soul longed for the all-embracing realization of the Godhead. When the Master inquired whe ther there was any particular form of God he wished to see, the boy replied that he would like to see God in all the living beings of the world. "But", the Master demurred, "that is the last word in realization. One cannot have it at the very outset." Sarat stated calmly: "I won't be satisfied with anything short of that. I shall trudge on along the path till I attain that blessed state." Sri Ramakrishna was very much pleased.
--- HARINATH
Harinath had led the austere life of a brahmachari even from his early boyhood — bathing in the Ganges every day, cooking his own meals, waking before sunrise, and reciting the Gita from memory before leaving bed. He found in the Master the embodiment of the Vedanta scriptures. Aspiring to be a follower of the ascetic Sankara, he cherished a great hatred for women. One day he said to the Master that he could not allow even small girls to come near him. the Master scolded him and said: "You are talking like a fool. Why should you hate women? they are the manifestations of the Divine Mo ther. Regard them as your own mo ther and you will never feel their evil influence. the more you hate them, the more you will fall into their snares." Hari said later that these words completely changed his attitude toward women.
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 syn thesis of the ideals of the Personal God and the Impersonal Truth.
--- GANGADHAR
Gangadhar, Harinath's friend, also led the life of a strict brahmachari, eating vegetarian food cooked by his own hands and devoting himself to the study of the scriptures. He met the Master in 1884 and soon became a member of his inner circle. the Master praised his ascetic habit and attributed it to the spiritual disciplines of his past life. Gangadhar became a close companion of Narendra.
--- HARIPRASANNA
Hariprasanna, a college student, visited the Master in the company of his friends Sashi and Sarat. Sri Ramakrishna showed him great favour by initiating him into spiritual life. As long as he lived, Hariprasanna remembered and observed the following drastic advice of the Master: "Even if a woman is pure as gold and rolls on the ground for love of God, it is dangerous for a monk ever to look at her."
--- KALI
Kaliprasad visited the Master toward the end of 1883. Given to the practice of meditation and the study of the scriptures. Kali was particularly interested in yoga. Feeling the need of a guru in spiritual life, he came to the Master and was accepted as a disciple. the young boy possessed a rational mind and often felt sceptical about the Personal God. the Master said to him: "Your doubts will soon disappear. O thers, too, have passed through such a state of mind. Look at Naren. He now weeps at the names of Radha and Krishna." Kali began to see visions of gods and goddesses. Very soon these disappeared and in meditation he experienced vastness, infinity, and the o ther attributes of the Impersonal Brahman.
--- SUBODH
Subodh visited the Master in 1885. At the very first meeting Sri Ramakrishna said to him: "You will succeed. Mo ther says so. Those whom She sends here will certainly attain spirituality." During the second meeting the Master wrote something on Subodh's tongue, stroked his body from the navel to the throat, and said, "Awake, Mo ther! Awake." He asked the boy to meditate. At once Subodh's latent spirituality was awakened. He felt a current rushing along the spinal column to the brain. Joy filled his soul.
--- SARADA AND TULASI
Two more young men, Sarada Prasanna and Tulasi, complete the small band of the Master's disciples later to embrace the life of the wandering monk. With the exception of the elder Gopal, all of them were in their teens or slightly over. they came from middle-class Bengali families, and most of them were students in school or college. their parents and relatives had envisaged for them bright worldly careers. they came to Sri Ramakrishna with pure bodies, vigorous minds, and uncontaminated souls. All were born with unusual spiritual attributes. Sri Ramakrishna accepted them, even at first sight, as his children, relatives, friends, and companions. His magic touch unfolded them. And later each according to his measure reflected the life of the Master, becoming a torch-bearer of his message across land and sea.
--- WOMAN DEVOTEES
With his woman devotees Sri Ramakrishna established a very sweet relationship. He himself embodied the tender traits of a woman: he had dwelt on the highest plane of Truth, where there is not even the slightest trace of sex; and his innate purity evoked only the noblest emotion in men and women alike. His woman devotees often said: "We seldom looked on Sri Ramakrishna as a member of the male sex. We regarded him as one of us. We never felt any constraint before him. He was our best confidant." they loved him as their child, their friend, and their teacher. In spiritual discipline he advised them to renounce lust and greed and especially warned them not to fall into the snares of men.
--- GOPAL MA
Unsurpassed among the woman devotees of the Master in the richness of her devotion and spiritual experiences was Aghoremani Devi, an orthodox brahmin woman. Widowed at an early age, she had dedicated herself completely to spiritual pursuits. Gopala, the Baby Krishna, was her Ideal Deity, whom she worshipped following the vatsalya attitude of the Vaishnava religion, regarding Him as her own child. Through Him she satisfied her unassuaged maternal love, cooking for Him, feeding Him, bathing Him, and putting Him to bed. This sweet intimacy with Gopala won her the sobriquet of Gopal Ma, or Gopala's Mo ther. For forty years she had lived on the bank of the Ganges in a small, bare room, her only companions being a threadbare copy of the Ramayana and a bag containing her rosary. At the age of sixty, in 1884, she visited Sri Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar. During the second visit, as soon as the Master saw her, he said: "Oh, you have come! Give me something to eat." With great hesitation she gave him some ordinary sweets that she had purchased for him on the way. the Master ate them with relish and asked her to bring him simple curries or sweets prepared by her own hands. Gopal Ma thought him a queer kind of monk, for, instead of talking of God, he always asked for food. She did not want to visit him again, but an irresistible attraction brought her back to the temple garden; She carried with her some simple curries that she had cooked herself.
One early morning at three o'clock, about a year later, Gopal Ma was about to finish her daily devotions, when she was startled to find Sri Ramakrishna sitting on her left, with his right hand clenched, like the hand of the image of Gopala. She was amazed and caught hold of the hand, whereupon the figure vanished and in its place appeared the real Gopala, her Ideal Deity. She cried aloud with joy. Gopala begged her for butter. She pleaded her poverty and gave Him some dry coconut candies. Gopala, sat on her lap, snatched away her rosary, jumped on her shoulders, and moved all about the room. As soon as the day broke she hastened to Dakshineswar like an insane woman. Of course Gopala accompanied her, resting His head on her shoulder. She clearly saw His tiny ruddy feet hanging over her breast. She entered Sri Ramakrishna's room. the Master had fallen into samadhi. Like a child, he sat on her lap, and she began to feed him with butter, cream, and o ther delicacies. After some time he regained consciousness and returned to his bed. But the mind of Gopala's Mo ther was still roaming in ano ther plane. She was steeped in bliss. She saw Gopala frequently entering the Master's body and again coming out of it. When she returned to her hut, still in a dazed condition, Gopala accompanied her.
She spent about two months in uninterrupted communion with God, the Baby Gopala never leaving her for a moment. then the intensity of her vision was lessened; had it not been, her body would have perished. the Master spoke highly of her exalted spiritual condition and said that such vision of God was a rare thing for ordinary mortals. the fun-loving Master one day confronted the critical Narendranath with this simple-minded woman. No two could have presented a more striking contrast. the Master knew of Narendra's lofty contempt for all visions, and he asked the old lady to narrate her experiences to Narendra. With great hesitation she told him her story. Now and then she interrupted her maternal chatter to ask Narendra: "My son, I am a poor ignorant woman. I don't understand anything. You are so learned. Now tell me if these visions of Gopala are true." As Narendra listened to the story he was profoundly moved. He said, "Yes, mo ther, they are quite true." Behind his cynicism Narendra, too, possessed a heart full of love and tenderness.
--- the MARCH OF EVENTS
In 1881 Hriday was dismissed from service in the Kali temple, for an act of indiscretion, and was ordered by the authorities never again to enter the garden. In a way the hand of the Divine Mo ther may be seen even in this. Having taken care of Sri Ramakrishna during the stormy days of his spiritual discipline, Hriday had come naturally to consider himself the sole guardian of his uncle. None could approach the Master without his knowledge. And he would be extremely jealous if Sri Ramakrishna paid attention to anyone else. Hriday's removal made it possible for the real devotees of the Master to approach him freely and live with him in the temple garden.
During the week-ends the householders, enjoying a respite from their office duties, visited the Master. the meetings on Sunday afternoons were of the nature of little festivals. Refreshments were often served. Professional musicians now and then sang devotional songs. the Master and the devotees sang and danced, Sri Ramakrishna frequently going into ecstatic moods. the happy memory of such a Sunday would linger long in the minds of the devotees. Those whom the Master wanted for special instruction he would ask to visit him on Tuesdays and Saturdays. these days were particularly auspicious for the worship of Kali.
the young disciples destined to be monks, Sri Ramakrishna invited on week-days, when the householders were not present. the training of the householders and of the future monks had to proceed along entirely different lines. Since M. generally visited the Master on week-ends, the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna does not contain much mention of the future monastic disciples.
Finally, there was a handful of fortunate disciples, householders as well as youngsters, who were privileged to spend nights with the Master in his room. they would see him get up early in the morning and walk up and down the room, singing in his sweet voice and tenderly communing with the Mo ther.
--- INJURY TO the MASTER'S ARM
One day, in January 1884, the Master was going toward the pine-grove when he went into a trance. He was alone. there was no one to support him or guide his footsteps. He fell to the ground and dislocated a bone in his left arm. This accident had a significant influence on his mind, the natural inclination of which was to soar above the consciousness of the body. the acute pain in the arm forced his mind to dwell on the body and on the world outside. But he saw even in this a divine purpose; for, with his mind compelled to dwell on the physical plane, he realized more than ever that he was an instrument in the hand of the Divine Mo ther, who had a mission to fulfil through his human body and mind. He also distinctly found that in the phenomenal world God manifests Himself, in an inscrutable way, through diverse human beings, both good and evil. Thus he would speak of God in the guise of the wicked, God in the guise of the pious. God in the guise of the hypocrite, God in the guise of the lewd. He began to take a special delight in watching the divine play in the relative world. Sometimes the sweet human relationship with God would appear to him more appealing than the all-effacing Knowledge of Brahman. Many a time he would pray: "Mo ther, don't make me unconscious through the Knowledge of Brahman. Don't give me Brahmajnana, Mo ther. Am I not Your child, and naturally timid? I must have my Mo ther. A million salutations to the Knowledge of Brahman! Give it to those who want it." Again he prayed: "O Mo ther let me remain in contact with men! Don't make me a dried-up ascetic. I want to enjoy Your sport in the world." He was able to taste this very rich divine experience and enjoy the love of God and the company of His devotees because his mind, on account of the injury to his arm, was forced to come down to the consciousness of the body. Again, he would make fun of people who proclaimed him as a Divine Incarnation, by pointing to his broken arm. He would say, "Have you ever heard of God breaking His arm?" It took the arm about five months to heal.
--- BEGINNING OF HIS ILLNESS
In April 1885 the Master's throat became inflamed. Prolonged conversation or absorption in samadhi, making the blood flow into the throat, would aggravate the pain. Yet when the annual Vaishnava festival was celebrated at Panihati, Sri Ramakrishna attended it against the doctor's advice. With a group of disciples he spent himself in music, dance, and ecstasy. the illness took a turn for the worse and was diagnosed as "clergyman's sore throat". the patient was cautioned against conversation and ecstasies. Though he followed the physician's directions regarding medicine and diet, he could nei ther control his trances nor withhold from seekers the solace of his advice. Sometimes, like a sulky child, he would complain to the Mo ther about the crowds, who gave him no rest day or night. He was overheard to say to Her; "Why do You bring here all these worthless people, who are like milk diluted with five times its own quantity of water? My eyes are almost destroyed with blowing the fire to dry up the water. My health is gone. It is beyond my strength. Do it Yourself, if You want it done. This (pointing to his own body) is but a perforated drum, and if you go on beating it day in and day out, how long will it last?"
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 nor thern 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.
--- SYAMPUKUR
In the beginning of September 1885 Sri Ramakrishna was moved to Syampukur. Here Narendra organized the young disciples to attend the Master day and night. At first they concealed the Master's illness from their guardians; but when it became more serious they remained with him almost constantly, sweeping aside the objections of their relatives and devoting themselves whole-heartedly to the nursing of their beloved guru. these young men, under the watchful eyes of the Master and the leadership of Narendra, became the antaranga bhaktas, the devotees of Sri Ramakrishna's inner circle. they were privileged to witness many manifestations of the Master's divine powers. Narendra received instructions regarding the propagation of his message after his death.
the Holy Mo ther — so Sarada Devi had come to be affectionately known by Sri Ramakrishna's devotees — was brought from Dakshineswar to look after the general cooking and to prepare the special diet of the patient. the dwelling space being extremely limited, she had to adapt herself to cramped conditions. At three o'clock in the morning she would finish her bath in the Ganges and then enter a small covered place on the roof, where she spent the whole day cooking and praying. After eleven at night, when the visitors went away, she would come down to her small bedroom on the first floor to enjoy a few hours' sleep. Thus she spent three months, working hard, sleeping little, and praying constantly for the Master's recovery.
At Syampukur the devotees led an intense life. their attendance on the Master was in itself a form of spiritual discipline. His mind was constantly soaring to an exalted plane of consciousness. Now and then they would catch the contagion of his spiritual fervour. they sought to divine the meaning of this illness of the Master, whom most of them had accepted as an Incarnation of God. One group, headed by Girish with his robust optimism and great power of imagination, believed that the illness was a mere pretext to serve a deeper purpose. the Master had willed his illness in order to bring the devotees toge ther and promote solidarity among them. As soon as this purpose was served, he would himself get rid of the disease. A second group thought that the Divine Mo ther, in whose hand the Master was an instrument, had brought about this illness to serve Her own mysterious ends. But the young rationalists, led by Narendra, refused to ascribe a
supernatural cause to a natural phenomenon. they believed that the Master's body, a material thing, was subject, like all o ther material things, to physical laws. Growth, development, decay, and death were laws of nature to which the Master's body could not but respond. But though holding differing views, they all believed that it was to him alone that they must look for the attainment of their spiritual goal.
In spite of the physician's efforts and the prayers and nursing of the devotees, the illness rapidly progressed. the pain sometimes appeared to be unbearable. the Master lived only on liquid food, and his frail body was becoming a mere skeleton. Yet his face always radiated joy, and he continued to welcome the visitors pouring in to receive his blessing. When certain zealous devotees tried to keep the visitors away, they were told by Girish, "You cannot succeed in it; he has been born for this very purpose — to sacrifice himself for the redemption of o thers."
the more the body was devastated by illness, the more it became the habitation of the Divine Spirit. Through its transparency the gods and goddesses began to shine with ever increasing luminosity. On the day of the Kali Puja the devotees clearly saw in him the manifestation of the Divine Mo ther.
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
When Sri Ramakrishna's illness showed signs of aggravation, the devotees, following the advice of Dr. Sarkar, rented a spacious garden house at Cossipore, in the nor thern suburbs of Calcutta. the Master was removed to this place on December 11, 1885.
It was at Cossipore that the curtain fell on the varied activities of the Master's life on the physical plane. His soul lingered in the body eight months more. It was the period of his great Passion, a constant crucifixion of the body and the triumphant revelation of the Soul. Here one sees the humanity and divinity of the Master passing and repassing across a thin border line. Every minute of those eight months was suffused with touching tenderness of heart and breath-taking elevation of spirit. Every word he uttered was full of pathos and sublimity.
It took the group only a few days to become adjusted to the new environment. the Holy Mo ther, assisted by Sri Ramakrishna's niece, Lakshmi Devi, and a few woman devotees, took charge of the cooking for the Master and his attendants. Surendra willingly bore the major portion of the expenses, o ther householders contributing according to their means. Twelve disciples were constant attendants of the Master: Narendra, Rakhal, Baburam, Niranjan, Jogin, Latu, Tarak, the-elder Gopal, Kali, Sashi, Sarat, and the younger Gopal. Sarada, Harish, Hari, Gangadhar, and Tulasi visited the Master from time to time and practised sadhana at home. Narendra, preparing for his law examination, brought his books to the garden house in order to continue his studies during the infrequent spare moments. He encouraged his bro ther disciples to intensify their meditation, scriptural studies, and o ther spiritual disciplines. they all forgot their relatives and their
worldly duties.
Among the attendants Sashi was the embodiment of service. He did not practise meditation, japa, or any of the o ther disciplines followed by his bro ther devotees. He was convinced that service to the guru was the only religion for him. He forgot food and rest and was ever ready at the Master's bedside.
Pundit Shashadhar one day suggested to the Master that the latter could remove the illness by concentrating his mind on the throat, the scriptures having declared that yogis had power to cure themselves in that way. the Master rebuked the pundit. "For a scholar like you to make such a proposal!" he said. "How can I withdraw the mind from the Lotus Feet of God and turn it to this worthless cage of flesh and blood?" "For our sake at least", begged Narendra and the o ther disciples. "But", replied Sri Ramakrishna, do you think I enjoy this suffering? I wish to recover, but that depends on the Mo ther."
NARENDRA: " then please pray to Her. She must listen to you."
--
A few hours later the Master said to Narendra: "I said to Her: 'Mo ther, I cannot swallow food because of my pain. Make it possible for me to eat a little.' She pointed you all out to me and said: 'What? You are eating enough through all these mouths. Isn't that so?' I was ashamed and could not utter ano ther word." This dashed all the hopes of the devotees for the Master's recovery.
"I shall make the whole thing public before I go", the Master had said some time before. On January 1, 1886, he felt better and came down to the garden for a little stroll. It was about three o'clock in the afternoon. Some thirty lay disciples were in the hall or sitting about under the trees. Sri Ramakrishna said to Girish, "Well, Girish, what have you seen in me, that you proclaim me before everybody as an Incarnation of God?" Girish was not the man to be taken by surprise. He knelt before the Master and said, with folded hands, "What can an insignificant person like myself say about the One whose glory even sages like Vyasa and Valmiki could not adequately measure?" the Master was profoundly moved. He said: "What more shall I say? I bless you all. Be illumined!" He fell into a spiritual mood. Hearing these words the devotees, one and all, became overwhelmed with emotion. they rushed to him and fell at his feet. He touched them all, and each received an appropriate benediction. Each of them, at the touch of the Master, experienced ineffable bliss. Some laughed, some wept, some sat down to meditate, some began to pray. Some saw light, some had visions of their Chosen Ideals, and some felt within their bodies the rush of spiritual power.
Narendra, consumed with a terrific fever for realization, complained to the Master that all the o thers had attained peace and that he alone was dissatisfied. the Master asked what he wanted. Narendra begged for samadhi, so that he might altoge ther forget the world for three or four days at a time. "You are a fool", the Master rebuked him. " there is a state even higher than that. Isn't it you who sing, 'All that exists art Thou'? First of all settle your family affairs and then come to me. You will experience a state even higher than samadhi."
the Master did not hide the fact that he wished to make Narendra his spiritual heir. Narendra was to continue the work after Sri Ramakrishna's passing. Sri Ramakrishna said to him: "I leave these young men in your charge. See that they develop their spirituality and do not return home." One day he asked the boys, in preparation for a monastic life, to beg their food from door to door without thought of caste. they hailed the Master's order and went out with begging-bowls. A few days later he gave the ochre cloth of the sannyasi to each of them, including Girish, who was now second to none in his spirit of renunciation. Thus the Master himself laid the foundation of the future Ramakrishna Order of monks.
Sri Ramakrishna was sinking day by day. His diet was reduced to a minimum and he found it almost impossible to swallow. He whispered to M.: "I am bearing all this cheerfully, for o therwise you would be weeping. If you all say that it is better that the body should go ra ther than suffer this torture, I am willing." the next morning he said to his depressed disciples seated near the bed: "Do you know what I see? I see that God alone has become everything. Men and animals are only frameworks covered with skin, and it is He who is moving through their heads and limbs. I see that it is God Himself who has become the block, the executioner, and the victim for the sacrifice.' He fainted with emotion. Regaining partial consciousness, he said: "Now I have no pain. I am very well." Looking at Latu he said: " there sits Latu resting his head on the palm of his hand. To me it is the Lord who is seated in that posture."
the words were tender and touching. Like a mo ther he caressed Narendra and Rakhal, gently stroking their faces. He said in a half whisper to M., "Had this body been allowed to last a little longer, many more souls would have been illumined." He paused a moment and then said: "But Mo ther has ordained o therwise. She will take me away lest, finding me guileless and foolish, people should take advantage of me and persuade me to bestow on them the rare gifts of spirituality." A few minutes later he touched his chest and said: "Here are two beings. One is She and the o ther is Her devotee. It is the latter who broke his arm, and it is he again who is now ill. Do you understand me?" After a pause he added: "Alas! To whom shall I tell all this? Who will understand me?" "Pain", he consoled them again, 'is unavoidable as long as there is a body. the Lord takes on the body for the sake of His devotees."
Yet one is not sure whe ther the Master's soul actually was tortured by this agonizing disease. At least during his moments of spiritual exaltation — which became almost constant during the closing days of his life on earth — he lost all consciousness of the body, of illness and suffering. One of his attendants (Latu, later known as Swami Adbhutananda.) said later on: "While Sri Ramakrishna lay sick he never actually suffered pain. He would often say: 'O mind! Forget the body, forget the sickness, and remain merged in Bliss.' No, he did not really suffer. At times he would be in a state when the thrill of joy was clearly manifested in his body. Even when he could not speak he would let us know in some way that there was no suffering, and this fact was clearly evident to all who watched him. People who did not understand him thought that his suffering was very great. What spiritual joy he transmitted to us at that time! Could such a thing have been possible if he had 'been suffering physically? It was during this period that he taught us again these truths: 'Brahman is always unattached. the three gunas are in It, but It is unaffected by them, just as the wind carries odour yet remains odourless.' 'Brahman is Infinite Being, Infinite Wisdom, Infinite Bliss. In It there exist no delusion, no misery, no disease, no death, no growth, no decay.' ' the Transcendental Being and the being within are one and the same. there is one indivisible Absolute Existence.'"
the Holy Mo ther secretly went to a Siva temple across the Ganges to intercede with the Deity for the Master's recovery. In a revelation she was told to prepare herself for the inevitable end.
One day when Narendra was on the ground floor, meditating, the Master was lying awake in his bed upstairs. In the depths of his meditation Narendra felt as though a lamp were burning at the back of his head. Suddenly he lost consciousness. It was the yearned-for, all-effacing experience of nirvikalpa samadhi, when the embodied soul realizes its unity with the Absolute. After a very long time he regained partial consciousness but was unable to find his body. He could see only his head. "Where is my body?" he cried. the elder Gopal entered the room and said, "Why, it is here, Naren!" But Narendra could not find it. Gopal, frightened, ran upstairs to the Master. Sri Ramakrishna only said: "Let him stay that way for a time. He has worried me long enough."
After ano ther long period Narendra regained full consciousness. Ba thed in peace, he went to the Master, who said: "Now the Mo ther has shown you everything. But this revelation will remain under lock and key, and I shall keep the key. When you have accomplished the Mo ther's work you will find the treasure again."
Some days later, Narendra being alone with the Master, Sri Ramakrishna looked at him and went into samadhi. Narendra felt the penetration of a subtle force and lost all outer consciousness. Regaining presently the normal mood, he found the Master weeping.
Sri Ramakrishna said to him: "Today I have given you my all and I am now only a poor fakir, possessing nothing. By this power you will do immense good in the world, and not until it is accomplished will you return." Henceforth the Master lived in the disciple.
Doubt, however, dies hard. After one or two days Narendra said to himself, "If in the midst of this racking physical pain he declares his Godhead, then only shall I accept him as an Incarnation of God." He was alone by the bedside of the Master. It was a passing thought, but the Master smiled. Ga thering his remaining strength, he distinctly said, "He who was Rama and Krishna is now, in this body, Ramakrishna — but not in your Vedantic sense." Narendra was stricken with shame.
--- MAHASAMADHI
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 ra ther 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 clo thes, 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.
While the devotees were returning to the garden house, carrying the urn with the sacred ashes, a calm resignation came to their souls and they cried, "Victory unto the Guru!"
the Holy Mo ther was weeping in her room, not for her husband, but because she felt that Mo ther Kali had left her. As she was about to put on the marks of a Hindu widow, in a moment of revelation she heard the words of faith, "I have only passed from one room to ano ther."
0.00 - Publishers Note C, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
the Greatness of the Great
O ther Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Publishers Note
--
the Fifth Volume concludes the first collected edition of the published works of Sri Nolini Kanta Gupta. His more recent as well as unpublished writings await publication.
the present volume consists of three books: Light of Lights, Eight Talks and Sweet Mo ther; there are also translations from Sanskrit, Pali, Bengali and French. these, along with the translations of the Dhammapada and Charyapada, have been mostly serialised in Ashram journals.
His original writings in French have also been included here. We are grateful to the Government of India for a grant towards meeting the cost of publication of this volume.
31 March 1974
--
[Lo, the Supreme Light of lights is come...]
Rig Veda, 1.113.1
--
the Greatness of the Great
0.00 - The Book of Lies Text, #The Book of Lies, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
object:0.00 - the Book of Lies Text
author class:Aleister Crowley
--
Sacred texts thelema
the BOOK OF LIES ------- Aliester Crowley
March 21st, 1992 e.v. key entry by Frater E.A.D.N., San Diego,
--
Pages in the original are marked thus at the bottom: [page number]
Comments and descriptions are also set off by ().
the BOOK OF LIES
Aliester Crowley
the BOOK OF LIES
WHICH IS ALSO FALSELY
--
the WANDERINGS OR FALSIFICATIONS
OF the ONE THOUGHT OF
FRATER PERDURABO
--
At the foot of thy stones, O Sea!
And I would that I could utter
the thoughts that arise in me!"
(OPPOSITE: Photo of FRATER PERDURABO on his ass.)
--
the number of the book is 333, as implying dis-
persion, so as to correspond with the title, "Breaks"
and "Lies".
However, the "one thought is itself untrue", and
therefore its falsifications are relatively true.
This book therefore consists of statements as nearly
true as is possible to human language.
the verse from Tennyson is inserted partly because
of the pun on the word "break"; partly because of the
reference to the meaning of this title page, as explained
above; partly because it is intensely amusing for
--
there is no joke or subtle meaning in the publisher's
imprint.
--
the BOOK OF LIES, first published in London
in 1913, Aleister Crowley's little master work, has
long been out of print. Its re-issue with the author's
own Commentary gives occasion for a few notes. We
--
passages which we find scattered about in the un-
published volumes of his "CONFESSIONS." He
--
"...None the less, I could point to some solid
achievement on the large scale, although it is com-
posed of more or less disconnected elements. I refer
to the BOOK OF LIES. In this there are 93 chapters:
we count as a chapter the two pages filled re-
respectively with a note of interrogation and a mark of
exclamation. the o ther chapters contain sometimes a
single word, more frequently from a half-dozen to
twenty paragraphs. the subject of each chapter is
determined more or less definitely by the Qabalistic
import of its number. Thus Chapter 25 gives a revised
ritual of the Pentagram; 72 is a rondel with the refrain
~Shemhamphorash', the Divine name of 72 letters;
77 Laylah, whose name adds to that number; and
80, the number of the letter Pe, referred to Mars, a
panegyric upon War. Sometimes the text is serious
and straightforward, sometimes its obscure oracles
demand deep knowledge of the Qabalah for inter-
pretation, o thers contain obscure allusions, play
--
to appreciate the full flavour; o thers again are
subtly ironical or cynical. At first sight the book is a
jumble of nonsense intended to insult the reader. It
requires infinite study, sympathy, intuition and
initiation. Given these I do not hesitate to claim that
in none o ther of my writings have I given so pro-
--
"...My association with Free Masonry was there-
fore destined to be more fertile that almost any o ther
--
be pertinent with regard to the question of secrecy.
It has become difficult for me to take this matter
very seriously. Knowing what the secret actually is,
I cannot attach much importance to artificial
mysteries. Again, though the secret itself is of such
tremendous import, and though it is so simple that
--
indiscriminately...I have found in practice that the
secret of the O.T.O. cannot be used unworthily...."
"It is interesting in this connection to recall how it
--
ALSO FALSELY CALLED BREAKS, the
WANDERINGS OR FALSIFICATION OF the
THOUGHT OF FRATER PERDURABO WHICH
--
these chapters bo thered me. I could not write it. I
invoked Dionysus with particular fervour, but still
--
my inclinations. In the midst of my disgust, the
spirit came over me, and I scribbled the chapter
down by the light of a farthing dip.. When I read it
over, I was as discontented as before, but I stuck it
into the book in a sort of anger at myself as a
deliberate act of spite towards my readers.
--
"Shortly after publication, the O.H.O. (Outer
Head of the O.T.O.) came to me. (At that time I did
not realise that there was anything in the O.T.O.
beyond a convenient compendium of the more
important truths of Free Masonry.) He said that since
I was acquainted with the supreme secret of the
Order, I must be allowed the IX {degree} and obligated in
regard to it. I protested that I knew no such secret.
He said `But you have printed it in the plainest
language'. I said that I could not have done so
because I did not know it. He went to the book-
shelves; taking out a copy of the BOOK OF LIES, he
pointed to a passage in the despised chapter. It
instantly flashed upon me. the entire symbolism not
only of Free Masonry but of many o ther traditions
--
the O.T.O. assumed its proper importance in my
mind. I understood that I held in my hands the key
to the future progress of humanity...."
the Commentary was written by Crowley prob-
ably around 1921. the student will find it very
helpful for the light it throws on many of its passages.
the Editors
[7]
--
the Ante Primal Triad which is
NOT-GOD
--
the First Triad which is GOD
I AM.
I utter the Word.
I hear the Word.
the Abyss
the Word is broken up.
there is Knowledge.
Knowledge is Relation.
these fragments are Creation.
the broken manifests Light. (2)
the Second Triad which is GOD
GOD the Fa ther and Mo ther is concealed in Genera-
tion.
GOD is concealed in the whirling energy of Nature.
GOD is manifest in ga thering: harmony: considera-
tion: the Mirror of the Sun and of the Heart.
the Third Triad
Bearing: preparing.
--
the Tenth Emanation
the world.
[10]
--
This chapter, numbered 0, corresponds to the Negative,
which is before Ke ther in the Qabalistic system.
the notes of interrogation and exclamation on the previous
pages are the o ther two veils.
the meaning of these symbols is fully explained in " the
Soldier and the Hunchback".
This chapter begins by the letter O, followed by a mark of
exclamation; its reference to the theogony of "Liber Legis" is
explained in the note, but it also refers to KTEIS PHALLOS
and SPERMA, and is the exclamation of wonder or ecstasy,
which is the ultimate nature of things.
NOTE
--
This is the negative Trinity; its three statements are, in an
ultimate sense, identical. they harmonise Being, Becoming,
Not-Being, the three possible modes of conceiving the universe.
the statement, Nothing is Not , technically equivalent to
Something Is, is fully explained in the essay called Berashith.
the rest of the chapter follows the Sephirotic system of the
Qabalah, and constitutes a sort of quintessential comment upon
--
Chokmah, Binah, in the First Triad; Daath, in the Abyss; Chesed,
Geburah, Tiphareth, in the Second Triad; Netzach, Hod and
Yesod in the Third Triad, and Malkuth in the Tenth Emanation.
It will be noticed that this cosmogony is very complete; the
manifestation even of God does not appear until Tiphareth; and
the universe itself not until Malkuth.
the chapter many therefore be considered as the most complete
treatise on existence ever written.
--
(2) the Unbroken, absorbing all, is called Darkness.
[11]
--
the SABBATH OF the GOAT
O! the heart of N.O.X. the Night of Pan.
{Pi-Alpha-Nu}: Duality: Energy: Death.
Death: Begetting: the supporters of O!
To beget is to die; to die is to beget.
Cast the Seed into the Field of Night.
Life and Death are two names of A.
--
Nei ther of these alone is enough.
[12]
--
the shape of the figure I suggests the Phallus; this
chapter is therefore called the Sabbath of the Goat, the
Witches' Sabbath, in which the Phallus is adored.
the chapter begins with a repetition of O! referred
to in the previous chapter. It is explained that this triad
lives in Night, the Night of Pan, which is mystically
called N.O.X., and this O is identified with the O in
this word. N is the Tarot symbol, Death; and the X
or Cross is the sign of the Phallus. For a fuller com-
mentary on Nox, see Liber VII, Chapter I.
Nox adds to 210, which symbolises the reduction of
duality to unity, and thence to negativity, and is thus
a hieroglyph of the Great Work.
the word Pan is then explained, {Pi}, the letter of
Mars, is a hieroglyph of two pillars, and therefore
suggest duality; A, by its shape, is the pentagram,
energy, and N, by its Tarot attribution, is death.
Nox is then fur ther explained, and it is shown that
the ultimate Trinity, O!, is supported, or fed, by the
process of death and begetting, which are the laws of
the universe.
the identity of these two is then explained.
the Student is then charged to understand the
spiritual importance of this physical procession in
--
It is then asserted that the ultimate letter A has two
names, or phases, Life and Death.
Line 7 balances line 5. It will be notice that the
phraseology of these two lines is so conceived that the
one contains the o ther more than itself.
Line 8 emphasises the importance of performing
both.
--
the CRY OF the HAWK
Hoor hath a secret fourfold name: it is Do What
--
Here is the Bread.
Here is the Blood.
Bring us through Temptation!
--
That Mine as Thine be the Crown of the Kingdom,
even now.
--
these ten words are four, the Name of the One.
[14]
--
the "Hawk" referred to is Horus.
the chapter begins with a comment on Liber Legis
III, 49.
--
identified with the four possible modes of conceiving the
universe; Horus unites these.
Follows a version of the "Lord's Prayer", suitable
to Horus. Compare this with the version in Chapter 44.
there are ten sections in this prayer, and, as the prayer
is attributed to Horus, they are called four, as above
explained; but it is only the name of Horus which is
fourfold; He himself is One.
This may be compared with the Qabalistic doctrine
of the Ten Sephiroth as an expression of Tetra-
grammaton (1 plus 2 plus 3 plus 4 = 10).
--
Mercurial; hence the words, the Cry of the Hawk, the
essential part of Mercury being his Voice; and the
number of the chapter, B, which is Beth the letter of
Mercury, the Magus of the Tarot, who has four
weapons, and it must be remembered that this card is
numbered 1, again connecting all these symbols with
the Phallus.
the essential weapon of Mercury is the Caduceus.
NOTE
--
the OYSTER
the Bro thers of A.'.A.'. are one with the Mo ther of
the Child.(4)
the Many is as adorable to the One as the One is to
the Many. This is the Love of these; creation-
parturition is the Bliss of the One; coition-
dissolution is the Bliss of the Many.
the All, thus interwoven of these, is Bliss.
Naught is beyond Bliss.
the Man delights in uniting with the Woman; the
Woman in parting from the Child.
the Bro thers of A.'.A.'. are Women: the Aspirants
to A.'.A.'. are Men.
--
Gimel is the High Priestess of the Tarot. This
chapter gives the initiated feminine point of view; it is
therefore called the Oyster, a symbol of the Yoni. In
Equinox X, the Temple of Solomon the King, it is
explained how Masters of the Temple, or Bro thers of
A.'.A.'. have changed the formula of their progress.
these two formulae, Solve et Coagula, are now ex-
plained, and the universe is exhibited as the interplay
between these two. This also explains the statement in
Liber Legis I, 28-30.
--
(4) they cause all men to worship it.
[17]
--
Soft and hollow, how thou dost overcome the hard
and full!
It dies, it gives itself; to thee is the fruit!
Be thou the Bride; thou shalt be the Mo ther here-
after.
To all impressions thus. Let them not overcome thee;
yet let them breed within thee. the least of the
impressions, come to its perfection, is Pan.
--
This child shall be the heir of Fate the Fa ther.
[18]
--
Daleth is the Empress of the Tarot, the letter of
Venus, and the title, Peaches, again refers to the Yoni.
the chapter is a counsel to accept all impressions;
it is the formula of the Scarlet woman; but no impression
must be allowed to dominate you, only to fructify you;
just as the artist, seeing an object, does not worship it,
but breeds a masterpiece from it. This process is
exhibited as one aspect of the Great Work. the last
two paragraphs may have some reference to the 13th
Aethyr (see the Vision and the Voice).
[19]
--
the BATTLE OF the ANTS
That is not which is.
the only Word is Silence.
the only Meaning of that Word is not.
Thoughts are false.
--
Alas! for the Kingdom wherein all these are at war.
[20]
--
He is the letter of Aries, a Martial sign; while the
title suggests war. the ants are chosen as small busy
objects.
Yet He, being a holy letter, raises the beginning of the
chapter to a contemplation of the Pentagram, con-
sidered as a glyph of the ultimate.
In line 1, Being is identified with Not-Being.
--
In line 3, the Logos is declared as the Negative.
Line 4 is ano ther phrasing of the familiar Hindu
statement, that that which can be thought is not true.
--
adumbration of the most daring thesis in this book-
Fa ther and Son are not really two, but one; their unity
being the Holy Ghost, the semen; the human form is a
non-essential accretion of this quintessence.
So far the chapter has followed the Sephiroth from
Ke ther to Chesed, and Chesed is united to the Supernal
Triad by virtue of its Phallic nature; for not only is
Amoun a Phallic God, and Jupiter the Fa ther of All,
but 4 is Daleth, Venus, and Chesed refers to water,
from which Venus sprang, and which is the symbol of
the Mo ther in the Tetragrammaton. See Chapter 0,
"God the Fa ther and Mo ther is concealed in genera-
tion".
But Chesed, in the lower sense, is conjoined to
Microprosopus. It is the true link between the greater
and lesser countenances, whereas Daath is the false.
Compare the doctrine of the higher and lower Manas in
theosophy.
the rest of the chapter therefor points out the duality,
and therefore the imperfection, of all the lower Sephiroth
in their essence.
[21]
--
the Word was uttered: the One exploded into one
thousand million worlds.
--
Of these the reasoner took six, and, preening, said:
This is the One and the All.
these six the Adept harmonised, and said: This is the
Heart of the One and the All.
these six were destroyed by the Master of the
Temple; and he spake not.
the Ash thereof was burnt up by the Magus into
the Word.
Of all this did the Ipsissimus know Nothing.
[22]
--
the account given of Creation is the same as that
familiar to students of the Christian tradition, the
Logos transforming the unity into the many.
We then see what different classes of people do with
the many.
the Rationalist takes the six Sephiroth of Micro-
prosopus in a crude state, and declares them to be the
universe. This folly is due to the pride of reason.
the Adept concentrates the Microcosm in Tiphareth,
recognising an Unity, even in the microcosm, but, qua
Adept, he can go no fur ther.
the Master of the Temple destroys all these illusions,
but remains silent. See the description of his functions
in the Equinox, Liber 418 and elsewhere.
In the next grade, the Word is re-formulated, for the
Magus in Chokmah, the Dyad, the Logos.
the Ipsissimus, in the highest grade of the A.'.A.'.,
is totally unconscious of this process, or, it might be
--
sense of the word, which is only intelligible in
Samasamadhi.
--
the DINOSAURS
None are they whose number is Six:(5) else were they
six indeed.
Seven(6) are these Six that live not in the City of the
Pyramids, under the Night of Pan.
there was Lao-tzu.
there was Siddartha.
there was Krishna.
there was Tahuti.
there was Mosheh.
there was Dionysus.(7)
there was Mahmud.
But the Seventh men called PERDURABO; for
enduring unto the End, at the End was Naught
to endure. (8)
--
of the Infinite who initiate periods. they are called
Dinosaurs because of their seeming to be terrible
devouring creatures. they are Masters of the Temple,
for their number is 6 (1 plus 2 plus 3), the mystic
number of Binah; but they are called "None", because
they have attained. If it were not so, they would be
called "six" in its bad sense of mere intellect.
they are called Seven, although they are Eight,
because Lao-tzu counts as nought, owing to the nature
of his doctrine. the reference to their "living not" is
to be found in Liber 418.
the word "Perdurabo" means "I will endure unto
the end". the allusion is explained in the note.
Siddartha, or Gotama, was the name of the last
Budda.
Krishna was the principal incarnation of the Indian
Vishnu, the preserver, the principal expounder of
Vedantism.
Tahuti, or Thoth, the Egyptian God of Wisdom.
Mosheh, Moses, the founder of the Hebrew system.
Dionysus, probably an ecstatic from the East.
Mahmud, Mohammed.
All these were men; their Godhead is the result of
mythopoeia.
--
(5) Masters of the Temple, whose grade has the
mystic number 6 (= 1 + 2 + 3).
(6) these are not eight, as apparent; for Lao-tzu
counts as 0.
(7) the legend of "Christ" is only a corruption and
perversion of o ther legends. Especially of Dionysus:
compare the account of Christ before Herod/Pilate in
the gospels, and of Dionysus before Pen theus in
" the Baccae".
(8) O, the last letter of Perdurabo, is Naught.
[25]
--
All that a man is or may be is hidden therein.
Bodily functions are parts of the machine; silent,
unless in dis-ease.
--
therefore is man only himself when lost to himself
in the Charioting.
[26]
--
Cheth is the Chariot in the Tarot. the Charioteer is
the bearer of the Holy Grail. All this should be studied
in Liber 418, the 12th Aethyr.
the chapter is called "Steeped Horsehair" because
of the mediaeval tradition that by steeping horsehair
a snake is produced, and the snake is the hieroplyphic
representation of semen, particularly in Gnostic and
--
the meaning of the chapter is quite clear; the whole
race-consciousness, that which is omnipotent, omnis-
cient, omnipresent, is hidden therein.
therefore, except in the case of an Adept, man only
rises to a glimmer of the universal consciousness, while,
in the orgasm, the mind is blotted out.
[27]
--
{Kappa-epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Eta theta}
the BRANKS
Being is the Noun; Form is the adjective.
Matter is the Noun; Motion is the Verb.
Wherefore hath Being clo thed itself with Form?
--
Answer not, O silent one! For theRE is no "where-
fore", no "because".
the name of THAT is not known; the Pronoun
interprets, that is , misinterprets, It.
--
Duality begat the Conjunction.
the Conditioned is Fa ther of the Preposition.
the Article also marketh Division; but the Inter-
jeciton is the sound that endeth in the Silence.
Destroy therefore the Eight Parts of Speech; the
Ninth is nigh unto Truth.
--
into the Silence.
Aum.
--
Teth is the Tarot trump, Strength, in which a woman
is represented closing the mouth of a lion.
This chapter is called " the Branks", an even more
powerful symbol, for it is the Scottish, and only known,
apparatus for closing the mouth of a woman.
the chapter is formally an attack upon the parts of
speech, the interjection, the meaningless utterance of
ecstasy, being the only thing worth saying; yet even this
is to be regarded as a lapse.
"Aum" represents the entering into the silence, as
will observed upon pronouncing it.
--
the Abyss of Hallucinations has Law and Reason;
but in Truth there is no bond between the Toys of
the Gods.
This Reason and Law is the Bond of the Great Lie.
Truth! Truth! Truth! crieth the Lord of the Abyss
of Hallucinations.
there is no silence in that Abyss: for all that men
call Silence is Its Speech.
--
joices therein.
[30]
--
there is no apparent connection between the number
of this chapter and its subject.
It does, however, refer to the key of the Tarot called
the Hermit, which represents him as cloaked.
Jod is the concealed Phallus as opposed to Tau, the
extended Phallus. This chapter should be studied in
the light of what is said in "Aha!" and in the Temple
of Solomon the King about the reason.
the universe is insane, the law of cause and effect
is an illusion, or so it appears in the Abyss, which is
thus identified with consciousness, the many, and both;
but within this is a secret unity which rejoices; this
--
the GLOW-WORM
Concerning the Holy Three-in-Naught.
Nuit, Hadit, Ra-Hoor-Khuit, are only to be under-
stood by the Master of the Temple.
they are above the Abyss, and contain all con-
tradiction in themselves.
Below them is a seeming duality of Chaos and
Babalon; these are called Fa ther and Mo ther, but
it is not so. they are called Bro ther and Sister,
but it is not so. they are called Husband and
Wife, but it is not so.
the reflection of All is Pan: the Night of Pan is the
Annihilation of the All.
Cast down through the Abyss is the Light, the Rosy
Cross, the rapture of Union that destroys, that is
the Way. the Rosy Cross is the Ambassador of Pan.
How infinite is the distance form This to That! Yet
All is Here and Now. Nor is there any there or then;
for all that is, what is it but a manifestation, that is,
--
Identity is perfect; therefore the w of Identity is
but a lie. For there is no subject, and there is no
predicate; nor is there the contradictory of ei ther
of these things.
Holy, Holy, Holy are these Truths that I utter,
knowing them to be but falsehoods, broken mirrors,
troubled waters; hide me, O our Lady, in Thy
Womb! for I may not endure the rapture.
In this utterance of falsehood upon falsehood, whose
--
Blessed, unutterably blessed, is this last of the
illusions; let me play the man, and thrust it from
me! Amen.
--
"a little light in the darkness", though there may be a
subtle reference to the nature of that light.
Eleven is the great number of Magick, and this
chapter indicates a supreme magical method; but it is
--
the first part of the chapter describes the universe
in its highest sense, down to Tiphareth; it is the new
and perfect cosmogony of Liber Legis.
--
they are really one; the essential unity of the supernal
Triad is here insisted upon.
--
of its manifested side. Those which are above the Abyss
are therefore said to live in the Night of Pan; they are
only reached by the annihilation of the All.
Thus, the Master of the Temple lives in the Night of
Pan.
Now, below the Abyss, the manifested part of the
Master of the temple, also reaches Samadhi, as the
way of Annihilation.
Paragraph 7 begins by a reflection produced by the
preceding exposition. This reflection is immediately
contradicted, the author being a Master of the Temple.
He thereupon enters into his Samadhi, and he piles
contradiction upon contradiction, and thus a higher
--
is exhausted, and, with the word Amen, he enters the
supreme state.
--
the DRAGON-FLIES
IO is the cry of the lower as OI of the higher.
In figures they are 1001;(9) in letters they are Joy.(10)
For when all is equilibrated, when all is beheld from
without all, there is joy, joy, joy that is but one
facet of a diamond, every o ther facet whereof is
--
the Dragon-Flies were chosen as symbols of joy,
because of the author's observation as a naturalist.
Paragraph 1 mere repeats Chapter 4 in quintessence;
1001, being 11{Sigma} (1-13), is a symbol of the complete
unity manifested as the many, for {Sigma} (1-13) gives the
whole course of numbers from the simple unity of 1
to the complex unity of 13, impregnated by the magical
11.
I may add a fur ther comment on the number 91.
13 (1 plus 3) is a higher form of 4. 4 is Amoun, the
God of generation, and 13 is 1, the Phallic unity.
Daleth is the Yoni. And 91 is AMN (Amen), a form
of the Phallus made complete through the intervention
of the Yoni. This again connects with the IO and OI
of paragraph 1, and of course IO is the rapture-cry of
the Greeks.
the whole chapter is, again, a comment on Liber
legis, 1, 28-30.
--
(9) 1001 = 11{Sigma}. the Petals of the Sahas-
raracakkra.
(10) JOY = 101, the Egg of Spirit in equilibrium
between the Pillars of the Temple.
[35]
--
O thou that settest out upon the Path, false is the
Phantom that thou seekest. When thou hast it
--
the Sodom-Apple.
Thus hast thou been lured along That Path, whose
terror else had driven thee far away.
O thou that stridest upon the middle of the Path, no
phantoms mock thee. For the stride's sake thou
stridest.
--
tion else had driven thee far away.
O thou that drawest toward the End of the Path,
effort is no more. Faster and faster dos thou fall;
--
For there is not Thou upon That Path: thou hast
become the Way.
[36]
--
studied the career of an Adept.
the Sodom-Apple is an uneatable fruit found in the
desert.
--
the Universe is the Practical Joke of the General
at the Expense of the Particular, quoth FRATER
PERDURABO, and laughed.
But those disciples nearest to him wept, seeing the
Universal Sorrow.
Those next to them laughed, seeing the Universal
Joke.
Below these certain disciples wept.
then certain laughed.
O thers next wept.
--
Last came those that wept because they could not
see the Joke, and those that laughed lest they
should be thought not to see the Joke, and thought
it safe to act like FRATER PERDURABO.
--
openly, He also at the same time wept secretly;
and in Himself He nei ther laughed nor wept.
--
the title, "Onion-Peelings", refers to the well-known
incident in "Peer Gynt".
the chapter resembles strongly Dupin's account of
how he was able to win at the game of guessing odd or
even. (See Poe's tale of " the Purloined Letter".)
--
advance towards a comprehension of the universe, one
changes radically one's point of view; nearly always it
--
this is the cause of most religious controversies.
Paragraph 1, however, is Frater Perdurabo's formula-
tion of his perception of the Universal Joke, also
described in Chapter 34. All individual existence is
tragic. Perception of this fact is the essence of comedy.
"Household Gods" is an attempt to write pure comedy.
--
At the end of the chapter it is, however, seen that to
the Master of the Temple the opposite perception occurs
simultaneously, and that he himself is beyond both of
these.
And in the last paragraph it is shown that he realises
the truth as beyond any statement of it.
[39]
--
the GUN-BARREL
Mighty and erect is this Will of mine, this Pyramid
--
have I burned the corpse of my desires.
Mighty and erect is this {Phi-alpha-lambda-lambda-omicron-sigma}
of my Will. the
seed thereof is That which I have borne within me
from Eternity; and it is lost within the Body of
Our Lady of the Stars.
I am not I; I am but an hollow tube to bring down
--
This is the Night wherein I am lost, the Love
through which I am no longer I.
--
the card 15 in the Tarot is " the Devil", the
mediaeval blind for Pan.
the title of the chapter refers to the Phallus, which
is here identified with the will. the Greek word
{Pi-upsilon-rho-alpha-mu-iota-sigma}
has the same number as {Phi-alpha-lambda-lambda-omicron-sigma}.
This chapter is quite clear, but one my remark in
the last paragraph a reference to the nature of Samadhi.
As man loses his personality in physical love, so
does the magician annihilate his divine personality in
that which is beyond.
the formula of Samadhi is the same, from the
lowest to the highest. the Rosy-Cross is the Universal
Key. But, as one proceeds, the Cross becomes greater,
until it is the Ace, the Rose, until it is the Word.
[41]
--
the STAG-BEETLE
Death implies change and individuality if thou be
THAT which hath no person, which is beyond the
changing, even beyond changelessness, what hast
--
the bird of individuality is ecstasy; so also is its
death.
In love the individuality is slain; who loves not love?
Love death therefore, and long eagerly for it.
Die Daily.
--
This seems a comment on the previous chapter; the
Stag-Beetle is a reference the Kheph-ra, the Egyptian
God of Midnight, who bears the Sun through the
Underworld; but it is called the Stag-Beetle to emphasise
his horns. Horns are the universal hieroglyph of energy,
particularly of Phallic energy.
the 16th key of the Tarot is " the Blasted Tower".
In this chapter death is regarded as a form of marriage.
--
belief, and suppose that in death they are united to the
Deity which they have cultivated during life. This is "a
consummation devoutly to be wished" (Shakespeare).
In the last paragraph the Master urges his pupils to
practise Samadhi every day.
--
the SWAN(11)
there is a Swan whose name is Ecstasy: it wingeth
from the Deserts of the North;it wingeth through
the blue; it wingeth over the fields of rice; at its
coming they push forth the green.
In all the Universe this Swan alone is motionless; it
seems to move, as the Sun seems to move; such
is the weakness of our sight.
O fool! criest thou?
Amen. Motion is relative: there is Nothing that is
still.
Against this Swan I shot an arrow; the white breast
poured forth blood. Men smote me; then, per-
ceiving that I was but a Pure Fool, they let me
pass.
Thus and not o therwise I came to the Temple of the
Graal.
--
This Swan is Aum. the chapter is inspired by
Frater P.'s memory of the wild swans he shot in the
Tali-Fu.
--
even Aum is impermanent. there is no meaning in the
word, stillness, so long as motion exists.
--
at rest, calculating the motions of all o ther points
relatively to it.
the penultimate paragraph shows the relations of
the Adept to mankind. their hate and contempt are
necessary steps to his acquisition of sovereignty over
them.
the story of the Gospel, and that of Parsifal, will
occur to the mind.
NOTE
--
Man returneth not again; the stream floweth not
uphill; the old life is no more; there is a new life
that is not his.
--
In the silence of a dewdrop is every tendency of his
soul, and of his mind, and of his body; it is the
Quintessence and the Elixir of his being. therein
are the forces that made him and his fa ther and his
fa ther's fa ther before him.
This is the Dew of Immortality.
Let this go free, even as It will; thou art not its
master, but the vehicle of It.
[46]
--
the 18th key of the Tarot refers to the Moon, which
was supposed to shed dew. the appropriateness of the
chapter title is obvious.
the chapter must be read in connection with
Chapters 1 and 16.
I the penultimate paragraph, Vindu is identified
with Amrita, and in the last paragraph the disciple is
charged to let it have its own way. It has a will of its
own, which is more in accordance with the Cosmic Will,
than that of the man who is its guardian and servant.
[47]
--
the LEOPARD AND the DEER
the spots of the leopard are the sunlight in the
glade; pursue thou the deer stealthily at thy
pleasure.
the dappling of the deer is the sunlight in the glade;
concealed from the leopard do thou feed at thy
pleasure.
Resemble all that surroundeth thee; yet be Thyself
-and take thy pleasure among the living.
This is that which is written-Lurk!-in the Book
of the Law.
[48]
--
19 is the last Trump, " the Sun', which is the
representative of god in the Macrocosm, as the Phallus
is in the Microcosm.
there is a certain universality and adaptability
among its secret power. the chapter is taken from
Rudyard Kiplin's "Just So Stories".
the Master urges his disciples to a certain holy
stealth, a concealment of the real purpose of their lives;
in this way making the best of both worlds. This counsels
a course of action hardly distinguishable from hypocrisy;
but the distinction is obvious to any clear thinker,
though not altoge ther so the Frater P.
[49]
--
the Universe is in equilibrium; therefore He that is
without it, though his force be but a fea ther, can
overturn the Universe.
Be not caught within that web, O child of Freedom!
Be not entangled in the universal lie, O child of
Truth!
--
Samson, the Hebrew Hercules, is said in the legend
to have pulled down the walls of a music-hall where he
was engaged, "to make sport for the Philistines",
destroying them and himself. Milton founds a poem on
this fable.
the first paragraph is a corollary of Newton's First
Law of Motion. the key to infinite power is to reach
the Bornless Beyond.
[51]
--
the BLIND WEBSTER
It is not necessary to understand; it is enough to
--
the god may be of clay: adore him; he becomes
GOD.
--
mo ther; we create in our own image, which is theirs.
Let us create therefore without fear; for we can
create nothing that is not GOD.
--
the 21st key of the Tarot is called " the Universe",
and refers to the letter Tau, the Phallus in manifesta-
tion; hence the title, " the Blind Webster".
the universe is conceived as Buddhists, on the one
hand, and Rationalists, on the o ther, would have us do;
fatal, and without intelligence. Even so, it may be
delightful to the creator.
the moral of this chapter is, therefore, and exposition
of the last paragraph of Chapter 18.
It is the critical spirit which is the Devil, and gives
rise to the appearance of evil.
[53]
--
the DESPOT
the waiters of the best eating-houses mock the whole
world; they estimate every client at his proper
value.
This I know certainly, because they always treat me
with profound respect. Thus they have flattered
me into praising them thus publicly.
Yet it is true; and they have this insight because
they serve, and because they can have no personal
interest in the affairs of those whom they serve.
An absolute monarch would be absolutely wise and
--
therefore the best king would be Pure Chance.
It is Pure Chance that rules the Universe; therefore,
and only therefore, life is good.
[54]
--
Comment would only mar the supreme simplicity
of this chapter.
--
Wide is the world and cold.
Get out.
--
But thou canst not get out by the way thou camest
in. the Way out is the WAY.
Get out.
--
then get O.
And so at last get OUT.
--
meaning "Get out". This chapter describes the Great
Work under the figure of a man ridding himself of all
his accidents.
He first leaves the life of comfort; then the world at
large; and, lastly, even the initiates.
In the fourth section is shown that there is no return
for one that has started on this path.
the word OUT is then analysed, and treated as a
noun.
Besides the explanation in the note, O is the Yoni;
T, the Lingam; and U, the Hierophant; the 5th card
of the Tarot, the Pentagram. It is thus practically
identical with IAO.
the rest of the chapter is clear, for the note.
NOTES
(12) O = {character?}, " the Devil of the Sabbath". U = 8,
the Hierophant or Redeemer. T = Strength, the Lion.
(13) T, manhood, the sign of the cross or phallus.
UT, the Holy Guardian Angel; UT, the first syllable
of Udgita, see the Upanishads. O, Nothing or Nuit.
[57]
--
the HAWK AND the BLINDWORM
This book would translate Beyond-Reason into the
words of Reason.
Explain thou snow to them of Andaman.
the slaves of reason call this book Abuse-of-
Language: they are right.
Language was made for men to eat and drink, make
love, do barter, die. the wealth of a language con-
sists in its Abstracts; the poorest tongues have
wealth of Concretes.
therefore have Adepts praised silence; at least it
does not mislead as speech does.
--
Yet, silence is but the negative side of Truth; the
positive side is beyond even silence.
--
And the laughter of the Death-rattle is akin.
[58]
--
the Hawk is the symbol of sight; the Blindworm, of
blindness. Those who are under the dominion of reason
are called blind.
In the last paragraph is reasserted the doctrine of
Chapters 1, 8, 16 and 18.
For the meaning of the word hriliu consult Liber 418.
[59]
--
the STAR RUBY
Facing East, in the centre, draw deep deep deep thy
breath, closing thy mouth with thy right fore-
finger prest against thy lower lip. then dashing
down the hand with a great sweep back and out,
expelling forcibly thy breath, cry: {Alpha-Pi-Omicron
--
With the same forefinger touch thy forehead, and
say {C?-Omicron-Iota}, thy member, and say {Omega-Phi-Alpha-
--
Tau-Omicron-C?}; then clasp
thine hands, locking the fingers, and cry {Iota-Alpha-Omega}.
Advance to the East. Imagine strongly a Pentagram.
aright, in thy forehead. Drawing the hands to the
eyes, fling it forth, making the sign of Horus, and
roar {Chi-Alpha-Omicron-C?}. Retire thine hand in the sign of Hoor
pa kraat.
Go round to the North and repeat; but scream
{Beta-Alpha-Beta-Alpha-Lambda-Omicron-Nu}.
Go round to the West and repeat; but say {Epsilon-Rho-Omega-C?}.
Go round to the South and repeat; but bellow
{Psi-Upsilon-Chi-Eta}.
Completing the circle widdershins, retire to the
centre, and raise thy voice in the Paian, with these
words {Iota-Omicron Pi-Alpha-Nu} with the signs of N.O.X.
Extend the arms in the form of a Tau, and say low
but clear: {Pi-Rho-Omicron Mu-Omicron-Upsilon Iota-Upsilon-
--
Repeat the Cross Qabalistic, as above, and end as
thou didst begin.
--
25 is the square of 5, and the Pentagram has the
red colour of Geburah.
the chapter is a new and more elaborate version of
the Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.
It would be improper to comment fur ther upon an
official ritual of the A.'.A.'.
NOTE
(14) the secret sense of these words is to be sought in
the numberation thereof.
[61]
--
the ELEPHANT AND the TORTOISE
the Absolute and the Conditioned toge ther make
the One Absolute.
the Second, who is the Fourth, the Demiurge, whom
all nations of Men call the First, is a lie grafted
upon a lie, a lie multiplied by a lie.
Fourfold is He, the Elephant upon whom the
Universe is poised: but the carapace of the
Tortoise supports and covers all.
This Tortoise is sixfold, the Holy Hexagram.(15)
these six and four are ten, 10, the One manifested
that returns into the Naught unmanifest.
the All-Mighty, the All-Ruler, the All-Knower, the
All-Fa ther, adored by all men and by me
--
the title of the chapter refers to the Hindu legend.
the first paragraph should be read in connection
with our previous remarks upon the number 91.
the number of the chapter, 26, is that of Tetra-
grammaton, the manifest creator, Jehovah.
He is called the Second in relation to that which is
above the Abyss, comprehended under the title of the
First.
But the vulgarians conceive of nothing beyond the
creator, and therefore call him the First.
He is really the Fourth, being in Chesed, and of
course his nature is fourfold. This Four is conceived
of as the Dyad multiplied by the Dyad; falsehood con-
firming falsehood.
--
the square within the hexagram, the universe enclosed
in the law of Lingam-Yoni.
the penultimate paragraph shows the redemption of
the universe by this law.
the figure 10, like the work IO, again suggest
Lingam-Yoni, besides the exclamation given in the
text.
the last paragraph curses the universe thus un-
redeemed.
the eleven initial A's in the last sentence are Magick
Pentagrams, emphasising this curse.
--
(15) In nature the Tortoise has 6 members at angels
of 60 Degrees.
--
the SORCERER
A Sorcerer by the power of his magick had subdued
all things to himself.
--
swiftly than the stars.
Would he eat, drink, and take his pleasure? there
was none that did not instantly obey his bidding.
In the whole system of ten million times ten million
spheres upon the two and twenty million planes he
had his desire.
--
This chapter gives the reverse of the medal; it is the
contrast to Chapter 15.
the Sorcerer is to be identified with the Bro ther of
the Left Hand Path.
[65]
--
the POLE-STAR
Love is all virtue, since the pleasure of love is but
love, and the pain of love is but love.
Love taketh no heed of that which is not and of that
--
the wings of love droop not with time, nor slacken
for life or for death.
--
then thou art not lost in love; speak not of love.
Love Alway Yieldeth: Love Alway Hardeneth.
--
This now introduces the principal character of this
book, Laylah, who is the ultimate feminine symbol, to
be interpreted on all planes.
--
beyond physical love. It is called the Pole-Star, because
Laylah is the one object of devotion to which the author
ever turns.
Note the introduction of the name of the Beloved in
acrostic in line 15.
--
the SOU theRN CROSS
Love, I love you! Night, night, cover us! Thou art
night, O my love; and there are no stars but thine
eyes.
--
Thou; let me be nei ther Thou nor I; let there be
love in night and night in love.
N.O.X. the night of Pan; and Laylah, the night
before His threshold!
--
Note that the word Laylah is the Arabic for "Night".
the author begins to identify the Beloved with the
N.O.X. previously spoken of.
the chapter is called " the Sou thern Cross", because,
on the physical plane, Laylah is an Australian.
[69]
--
sciousness the imperfection of waking.
Dreams are impurities in the circulation of the blood;
even so is consciousness a disorder of life.
--
Awake from dream, the truth is known:(16) awake
from waking, the Truth is- the Unknown.
[70]
--
and also with those previous chapters in which the
reason is attacked.
the allusion in the title is obvious.
This sum in proportion, dream: waking: : waking:
--
(16) I.e. the truth that he hath slept.
[71]
--
the GAROTTE
IT moves from motion into rest, and rests from rest
into motion. these IT does alway, for time is not.
So that IT does nei ther of these things. IT does
THAT one thing which we must express by two
--
For all these ideas express Relation; and IT, com-
prehending all Relation in ITS simplicity, is out of
--
one, O chosen of IT, to apprehend the discourse
of the MASTER; for thus thy reason shall at
last break down, as the fetter is struck from a
slave's throat.
--
the number 31 refers to the Hebrew word LA, which
means "not".
A new character is now introduce under the title of
IT, I being the secret, and T being the manifested,
phallus.
--
perhaps be defined as the Ultimate Reality.
IT is apparently a more exalted thing than THAT.
--
that method of destroying the reason by formulating
contradictions is definitely inculcated.
the reason is situated in Daath, which corresponds
the the throat in human anatomy. Hence the title of the
chapter, " the Garotte".
the idea is that, by forcing the mind to follow, and
as far as possible to realise, the language of Beyond
the Abyss, the student will succeed in bringing his
reason under control.
As soon as the reason is vanquished, the garotte is
removed; then the influence of the supernals (Ke ther,
Chokmah, Binah), no longer inhibited by Daath, can
descend upon Tiphareth, where the human will is
situated, and flood it with the ineffable light.
[73]
--
the MOUNTAINEER
Consciousness is a symptom of disease.
--
doeth itself through thee. Not until then is that
which is done well done.
--
from rock to rock of the moraine without ever
casting his eyes upon the ground.
[74]
--
This title is a mere reference to the metaphor of the
last paragraph of the chapter.
Frater P., as is well known, is a mountaineer.
--
It is a practical instruction, the gist of which is
easily to be apprehended by comparatively short practice
--
A mantra is not being properly said as long as the
man knows he is saying it. the same applies to all o ther
forms of Magick.
--
yea, a sharp sword is held therein.
This Eagle is burnt up in the Great Fire; yet not a
fea ther is scorched. This Eagle is swallowed up
in the Great Sea; yet not a fea ther is wetted. so
flieth He in the air, and lighteth upon the earth at
His pleasure.
--
the Grand Master of the Temple; and of the GOD
that is Ass-headed did he dare not speak.
--
33 is the number of the Last Degree of Masonry,
which was conferred upon Frater P. in the year 1900
of the vulgar era by Don Jesus de Medina-Sidonia in
the City of Mexico.
Baphomet is the mysterious name of the God of the
Templars.
the Eagle described in paragraph 1 is that of the
Templars.
--
Frater P. with a bird, which is master of the four
elements, and therefore of the name Tetragrammaton.
Jacobus Burgundus Molensis suffered martyrdom
in the City of Paris in the year 1314 of the vulgar era.
the secrets of his order were, however, not lost, and
are still being communicated to the worthy by his
successors, as is intimated by the last paragraph, which
implies knowledge of a secret worship, of which the
Grand Master did not speak.
the Eagle may be identified, though not too closely,
with the Hawk previously spoken of.
It is perhaps the Sun, the exoteric object of worship
of all sensible cults; it is not to be confused with o ther
objects of the mystic aviary, such as the swan, phoenix,
pelican, dove and so on.
--
(17) His initials I.B.M. are the initials of the Three
Pillars of the Temple, and add to 52, 13x4, BN, the
Son.
--
the SMOKING DOG(18)
Each act of man is the twist and double of an hare.
Love and death are the greyhounds that course him.
God bred the hounds and taketh His pleasure in the
sport.
This is the Comedy of Pan, that man should think
he hunteth, while those hounds hunt him.
This is the Tragedy of Man when facing Love and
Death he turns to bay. He is no more hare, but
--
there are no o ther comedies or tragedies.
Cease then to be the mockery of God; in savagery of
love and death live thou and die!
--
the title is explained in the note.
the chapter needs no explanation; it is a definite
point of view of life, and recommends a course of action
calculated to rob the creator of his cruel sport.
NOTE
--
which it was the origin. FRATER PERDURABO
perceived this truth, or ra ther the first half of it, comedy,
at breakfast at "Au Chien qui Fume".
--
Life is as ugly and necessary as the female body.
Death is as beautiful and necessary as the male
body.
the soul is beyond male and female as it is beyond
Life and Death.
Even as the Lingam and the Yoni are but diverse
developments of One Organ, so also are Life and
Death but two phases of One State. So also the
Absolute and the Conditioned are but forms of
THAT.
What do I love? there is no from, no being, to which
I do not give myself wholly up.
--
the last sentence of paragraph 4 also connects with
the first paragraph of Chapter 26.
the title "Venus of Milo" is an argument in support
of paragraphs 1 and 2, it being evident from this
statement that the female body becomes beautiful in so
far as it approximates to the male.
the female is to be regarded as having been separated
from the male, in order to reproduce the male in a
superior form, the absolute, and the conditions forming
the one absolute.
In the last two paragraphs there is a justification of
a practice which might be called sacred prostitution.
In the common practice of meditation the idea is to
reject all impressions, but here is an opposite practice,
--
a second's notice; o therwise, the practice would only
be ordinary mind-wandering.
--
the STAR SAPPHIRE
Let the Adept be armed with his Magick Rood [and
provided with his Mystic Rose].
In the centre, let him give the L.V.X. signs; or if
he know them, if he will and dare do them, and
can keep silent about them, the signs of N.O.X.
being the signs of Puer, Vir, Puella, Mulier. Omit
the sign I.R.
then let him advance to the East, and make the
Holy Hexagram, saying: PATER ET MATER
--
Let him go round to the South, make the Holy
Hexagram, and say: MATER ET FILIUS UNUS
--
Let him go round to the West, make the Holy
Hexagram, and say: FILIUS ET FILIA UNUS
--
Let him go round to the North, make the Holy
Hexagram, and then say: FILIA ET PATER
UNUS DEUS ARARITA.
Let him then return to the Centre, and so to the
Centre of All [making the ROSY CROSS as he
may know how] saying: ARARITA ARARITA
--
In this the Signs shall be those of Set Triumphant
and of Baphomet. Also shall Set appear in the
Circle. Let him drink of the Sacrament and let him
communicate the same.]
then let him say: OMNIA IN DUOS: DUO IN
UNUM: UNUS IN NIHIL: HAE NEC
--
Let him then repeat the signs of L.V.X. but not the
signs of N.O.X.; for it is not he that shall arise in
the Sign of Isis Rejoicing.
COMMENTARY ({Lambda-Sigma})
the Star Sapphire corresponds with the Star-Ruby
of Chapter 25; 36 being the square of 6, as 25 is of %.
This chapter gives the real and perfect Ritual of the
Hexagram.
--
official ritual of the A.'.A.'.
[83]
--
Thought is the shadow of the eclipse of Luna.
Samadhi is the shadow of the eclipse of Sol.
the moon and the earth are the non-ego and the
ego: the Sun is THAT.
Both eclipses are darkness; both are exceeding rare;
the Universe itself is Light.
[84]
--
Dragons are in the East supposed to cause eclipses
by devouring the luminaries.
there may be some significance in the chapter
number, which is that of Jechidah the highest unity of
the soul.
In this chapter, the idea is given that all limitation
and evil is an exceedingly rare accident; there can be
no night in the whole of the Solar System, except in rare
spots, where the shadow of a planet is cast by itself.
It is a serious misfortune that we happen to live in a
tiny corner of the system, where the darkness reaches such
a high figure as 50 per cent.
the same is true of moral and spiritual conditions.
[85]
--
This is the mystery.
Life!
Mind is the traitor.
Slay mind.
Let the corpse of mind lie unburied on the edge of
the Great Sea!
Death!
This is the mystery.
Tyle!
--
the LOOBY
Only loobies find excellence in these words.
It is thinkable that A is not-A; to reverse this is but
to revert to the normal.
Yet by forcing the brain to accept propositions of
which one set is absurdity, the o ther truism, a
new function of brain is established.
Vague and mysterious and all indefinite are the
contents of this new consciousness; yet they are
somehow vital. by use they become luminous.
Unreason becomes Experience.
This lifts the leaden-footed soul to the Experience
of THAT of which Reason is the blasphemy.
But without the Experience these words are the
Lies of a Looby.
Yet a Looby to thee, and a Booby to me, a Balassius
Ruby to GOD, may be!
--
the word Looby occurs in folklore, and was supposed
to be the author, at the time of writing this book, which
he did when he was far from any standard works of
--
Paragraphs 2-6 explain the method that was given
in Chapters 11 and 31. This method, however, occurs
throughout the book on numerous occasions, and even
in the chapter itself it is employed in the last paragraphs.
[89]
--
the HIMOG(19)
A red rose absorbs all colours but red; red is therefore
the one colour that it is not.
This Law, Reason, Time, Space, all Limitation blinds
us to the Truth.
All that we know of Man, Nature, God, is just that
which they are not; it is that which they throw off
as repungnant.
the HIMOG is only visible in so far as He is imperfect.
then are they all glorious who seem not to be glorious,
as the HIMOG is All-glorious Within?
It may be so.
How then distinguish the inglorious and perfect
HIMOG from the inglorious man of earth?
Distinguish not!
--
thinkable things are similarly blinds for the Unthinkable
Reality.
Classing in this manner all things as illusions, the
question arises as to the distinguishing between illusions;
how are we to tell whe ther a Holy Illuminated Man of
--
But these considerations are not to trouble such mind
as the Chela may possess; let him occupy himself,
ra ther, with the task of getting rid of his personality;
this, and not criticism of his holy Guru, should be the
occupation of his days and nights.
--
(19) HIMOG is a Notariqon of the words Holy
Illuminated Man of God.
--
In V.V.V.V.V. is the Great Work perfect.
therefore none is that pertaineth not to V.V.V.V.V.
In any may he manifest; yet in one hath he chosen
--
Seal of Authority to the Work of the A.'.A.'.
through the colleagues of FRATER PER-
DURABO.
But this concerns themselves and their administra-
tion; it concerneth none below the grade of
Exempt Adept, and such an one only by com-
--
Also, since below the Abyss Reason is Lord, let men
seek by experiment, and not by Questionings.
--
the title is only partially explained i the note; it
means that the statements in this chapter are to be
understood in the most ordinary and commonplace
way, without any mystical sense.
V.V.V.V.V. is the motto of a Master of the Temple
(or so much He disclosed to the Exempt Adepts),
referred to in Liber LXI. It is he who is responsible
for the whole of the development of the A,'.A.'. move-
ment which has been associated with the publication of
the EQUINOX; and His utterance is enshrined in
the sacred writings.
It is useless to enquire into His nature; to do so leads
--
when necessary, to the proper persons, though in no
case to anyone below the grade of Exempt Adept. the
person enquiring into such matters is politely requested
--
the number 41 is that of the Barren Mo ther.
NOTE
--
In the wind of the mind arises the turbulence
called I.
It breaks; down shower the barren thoughts.
All life is choked.
This desert is the Abyss wherein the Universe.
the Stars are but thistles in that waste.
Yet this desert is but one spot accursed in a world of
--
Now and again Travellers cross the desert; they come
from the Great Sea, and to the Great Sea they go.
As they go they spill water; one day they will irrigate
the desert, till it flower.
See! five footprints of a Camel! V.V.V.V.V.
--
This number 42 is the Great Number of the Curse. See Liber
418, Liber 500, and the essay on the Qabalah in the Temple of
Solomon the King. This number is said to be all hotch-potch and
accursed.
the chapter should be read most carefully in connection with
the 10th Aethyr. It is to that dramatic experience that it refers.
the mind is called "wind", because of its nature; as has been
frequently explained, the ideas and words are identical.
In this free-flowing, centreless material arises an eddy; a
--
the theory of the formation of the Ego is that of the Hindus,
whose Ahamkara is itself a function of the mind, whose ego it
creates. This Ego is entirely divine.
Zoroaster describes God as having the head of the Hawk, and
a spiral force. It will be difficult to understand this chapter with-
out some experience in the transvaluation of values, which occurs
throughout the whole of this book, in nearly every o ther sentence.
Transvaluation of values is only the moral aspect of the method
of contradiction.
the word "turbulence" is applied to the Ego to suggest the
French "tourbillion", whirlwind, the false Ego or dust-devil.
True life, the life, which has no consciousness of "I", is said to
be choked by this false ego, or ra ther by the thoughts which its
explosions produce. In paragraph 4 this is expanded to a
--
the Masters of the Temple are now introduced; they are
inhabitants, not of this desert; their abode is not this universe.
they come from the Great Sea, Binah, the City of the Pyramids.
V.V.V.V.V. is indicated as one of these travellers; He is
described as a camel, not because of the connotation of the French
form of this word, but because "camel" is in hebrew Gimel, and
Gimel is the path leading from Tiphareth to Ke ther, uniting
Microprosopus and Macroprosopus, i.e. performing the Great
Work.
the card Gimel in the Tarot is the High Priestess, the Lady of
Initiation; one might even say, the Holy Guardian Angel.
[95]
--
Black blood upon the altar! and the rustle of angel
wings above!
Black blood of the sweet fruit, the bruised, the
violated bloom-that setteth the Wheel a-spinning
in the spire.
Death is the veil of Life, and Life of Death; for both
are Gods.
--
a greater feast for Death!" in the BOOK OF
the LAW.
the blood is the life of the individual: offer then
blood!
--
the title of this chapter refers to a Hebrew legend,
that of the prophet who heard "a going in the mulberry
tops"; and to Browning's phrase, "a bruised, black-
--
In the World's Tragedy, Household Gods, the
Scorpion, and also the God-Eater, the reader may
study the efficacy of rape, and the sacrifice of blood, as
magical formulae. Blood and virginity have always
been the most acceptable offerings to all the gods, but
especially the Christian God.
In the last paragraph, the reason of this is explained;
it is because such sacrifices come under the Great Law
of the Rosy Cross, the giving-up of the individuality,
as has been explained as nauseam in previous chapters.
--
By " the wheel spinning in the spire" is meant the
manifestation of magical force, the spermatozoon in the
conical phallus. For wheels, see Chapter 78.
--
the MASS OF the PHOENIX
the Magician, his breast bare, stands before an altar
on which are his Burin, Bell, Thurible, and two
of the Cakes of Light. In the Sign of the Enterer he
reaches West across the Altar, and cries:
Hail Ra, that goest in Thy bark
Into the Caverns of the DarK!
He gives the sign of Silence, and takes the Bell, and
Fire, in his hands.
East of the Altar see me stand
With Light and Musick in mine hand!
He strikes Eleven times upon the Bell 3 3 3-5 5 5 5 5-
3 3 3 and places the Fire in the Thurible.
I strike the Bell: I light the flame:
I utter the mysterious Name.
ABRAHADABRA
He strikes Eleven times upon the Bell.
Now I begin to pray: Thou Child,
--
Here is the Bread; here is the Blood.
Bring me through midnight to the Sun!
Save me from Evil and from Good!
That Thy one crown of all the Ten.
Even now and here be mine. AMEN.
He puts the first Cake on the Fire of the Thurible.
I burn the Incense-cake, proclaim
these adorations of Thy name.
He makes them as in Liber Legis, and strikes again
Eleven times upon the Bell. With the Burin he then
makes upon his breast the proper sign.
[98]
--
Gashed with the sacramental sign!
He puts the second Cake to the wound.
I stanch the blood; the wager soaks
It up, and the high priest invokes!
He eats the second Cake.
This Bread I eat. This Oath I swear
--
" there is no grace: there is no guilt:
This is the Law: DO WHAT THOU WILT!"
He strikes Eleven times upon the Bell, and cries
ABRAHADABRA.
--
To do my pleasure on the earth
Among the legions of the living.
He goeth forth.
--
This is the special number of Horus; it is the Hebrew
blood, and the multiplication of the 4 by the 11, the
number of Magick, explains 4 in its finest sense. But
see in particular the accounts in Equinox I, vii of the
circumstances of the Equinox of the Gods.
the word "Phoenix" may be taken as including the
idea of "Pelican", the bird, which is fabled to feeds its
young from the blood of its own breast. Yet the two
ideas, though cognate, are not identical, and "Phoenix"
is the more accurate symbol.
This chapter is explained in Chapter 62.
--
ritual which has been accepted as official by the
A.'.A.'.
--
these two asses be set to grind corn.
May, might, must, should, probably, may be, we
--
able, almost certainly-poor hacks! let them be
turned out to grass!
--
"White is white" is the lash of the overseer: "white
is black" is the watchword of the slave. the Master
takes no heed.
the Chinese cannot help thinking that the octave has
5 notes.
the more necessary anything appears to my mind,
the more certain it is that I only assert a limitation.
I slept with Faith, and found a corpse in my arms on
--
and found her a virgin in the morning.
[100]
--
the title of this chapter is drawn from paragraph 7.
We now, for the first time, attack the question of
doubt.
"Th Soldier and the Hunchback" should be care-
fully studied in this connection. the attitude recom-
mended is scepticism, but a scepticism under control.
--
the best Popes have been A theists, but perhaps the
greatest of them once remarked, "Quantum nobis
prodest haec fabula Christi".
the ruler asserts facts as they are; the slave has there-
fore no option but to deny them passionately, in order
to express his discontent. Hence such absurdities as
--
the like. Similarly we find people asserting today that
woman is superior to man, and that all men are born
--
the Master (in technical language, the Magus) does
not concern himself with facts; he does not care whe ther
--
statement, a practical aspect of the fact that all truth
is relative, and in the last paragraph we see how
scepticism keeps the mind fresh, whereas faith dies in
the very sleep that it induces.
[101]
--
the cause of sorrow is the desire of the One to the
Many, or of the Many to the One. This also is the
cause of joy.
But the desire of one to ano ther is all of sorrow; its
birth is hunger, and its death satiety.
the desire of the moth for the star at least saves him
satiety.
Hunger thou, O man, for the infinite: be insatiable
even for the finite; thus at the End shalt thou
devour the finite, and become the infinite.
Be thou more greedy that the shark, more full of
yearning than the wind among the pines.
the weary pilgrim struggles on; the satiated pilgrim
stops.
the road winds uphill: all law, all nature must be
overcome.
--
the title of this chapter is best explained by a refer-
ence to Mistinguette and Mayol.
--
necessary even to discuss, whe ther the distinction of
their art is the cause, result, or concomitant of their
private peculiarities.
the fact remains that in vice, as in everything else,
some things satiate, o thers refresh. Any game in which
--
although in the beginning its fascination is so violent.
Witness the tremendous, but transitory, vogue of
ping-pong and diabolo. Those games in which per-
--
the lesson of the chapter is thus always to rise
hungry from a meal, always to violate on's own nature.
--
it has a real fur ther advantage, in destroying the
Sankharas, which, however "good" in themselves,
relatively to o ther Sankharas, are yet barriers upon the
Path; they are modifications of the Ego, and therefore
those things which bar it from the absolute.
[103]
--
Pratyhara gets rid of the Objective.
Dharana gets rid of the Subjective.
Dhyana gets rid of the Ego.
Samadhi gets rid of the Soul Impersonal.
Asana destroys the static body (Nama).
Pranayama destroys the dynamic body (Rupa).
Yama destroys the emotions. \ (Vedana).
Niyama destroys the passions. /
Dharana destroys the perceptions (Sanna).
Dhyana destroys the tendencies (Sankhara).
Samadhi destroys the consciousness (Vinnanam).
Homard a la thermidor destroys the digestion.
the last of these facts is the one of which I am most
certain.
--
the allusion in the title is not quite clear, though it
may be connected with the penultimate paragraph.
the chapter consists of two points of view from which
to regard Yoga, two odes upon a distant prospect of the
Temple of Madura, two Elegies on a mat of Kusha-
--
the penultimate paragraph is introduced by way of
repose. Cynicism is a great cure for over-study.
there is a great deal of cynicism in this book, in one
place and ano ther. It should be regarded as Angostura
Bitters, to brighten the flavour of a discourse which
were else too sweet. It prevents one from slopping over
--
the early bird catches the worm and the twelve-
year-old prostitute attracts the ambassador.
Neglect not the dawn-meditation!
the first plovers' eggs fetch the highest prices; the
flower of virginity is esteemed by the pandar.
Neglect not the dawn-meditation!
early to bed and early to rise
--
Brings him across the Abyss, they say.
Neglect not the dawn-meditation!
[106]
--
Seven are the veils of the dancing-girl in the harem
of IT.
Seven are the names, and seven are the lamps beside
Her bed.
--
In Her wine-cup are seven streams of the blood of
the Seven Spirits of God.
Seven are the heads of the BEAST whereon She
rideth.
the head of an Angel: the head of a Saint: the head
of a Poet: the head of An Adulterous Woman: the
head of a Man of Valour: the head of a Satyr:
and the head of a Lion-Serpent.
Seven letters hath Her holiest name; and it is
--
B A (Drawn upon this page is the
77 77 Sigil of BABALON.)
--
This is the Seal upon the Ring that is on the Fore-
finger of IT: and it is the Seal upon the Tombs of
them whom She hath slain.
Here is Wisdom. Let Him that hath Understanding
count the Number of Our Lady; for it is the
Number of a Woman; and Her Number is
--
49 is the square of 7.
7 is the passive and feminine number.
the chapter should be read in connection with Chapter 31
for IT now reappears.
the chapter heading, the Waratah, is a voluptuous scarlet
flower, common in Australia, and this connects the chapter
with Chapters 28 and 29; but this is only an allusion, for
the subject of the chapter is OUR LADY BABALON,
who is conceived as the feminine counterpart of IT.
This does not agree very well with the common or orthodox
theogony of Chapter 11; but it is to be explained by the
dithyrambic nature of the chapter.
In paragraph 3 NO MAN is of course NEMO, the
Master of the Temple, Liber 418 will explain most of the
allusions in this chapter.
In paragraphs 5 and 6 the author frankly identifies him-
self with the BEAST referred to in the book, and in the
Apocalypse, and in LIBER LEGIS. In paragraph 6 the
word "angel" may refer to his mission, and the word
"lion-serpent" to the sigil of his ascending decan. (Teth=
Snake=spermatozoon and Leo in the Zodiac, which like
Teth itself has the snake-form. theta first written {Sun} = Lingam-
Yoni and Sol.)
Paragraph 7 explains the theological difficulty referred
to above. there is only one symbol, but this symbol has
many names: of those names BABALON is the holiest.
It is the name referred to in Liber Legis, 1, 22.
It will be noticed that the figure, or sigil, of BABALON
is a seal upon a ring, and this ring is upon the forefinger
of IT. This identifies fur ther the symbol with itself.
It will be noticed that this seal, except for the absence of
a border, is the official seal of the A.'.A.'. Compare Chapter
3.
It is also said to be the seal upon the tombs of them that
she hath slain, that is, of the Masters of the Temple.
In connection with the number 49, see Liber 418, the
22nd Aethyr, as well as the usual authorities.
[109]
--
the VIGIL OF ST. HUBERT
In the forest God met the Stag-beetle. "Hold! Wor-
ship me!" quoth God. "For I am All-Great, All-
--
the forges of My smiths...."
"Yea, verily and Amen," said the Stag-beetle, "all
this do I believe, and that devoutly."
--
But the leaves of the forest rustled with the laughter
of the wind.
Said Wind and Wood: " they nei ther of them know
anything!"
--
the Stag-beetle must not be identified with the one
in Chapter 16. It is a merely literary touch.
the chapter is a resolution of the universe into
Tetragrammaton; God the macrocosm and the micro-
cosm beetle. Both imagine themselves to exist; both say
"you" and "I", and discuss their relative reality.
the things which really exist, the things which have
no Ego, and speak only in the third person, regard
these as ignorant, on account of their assumption of
Knowledge.
--
there lay some deepest certainty. O kill it! Slay the
snake!
the horn of the Doubt-Goat be exalted
Dive deeper, ever deeper, into the Abyss of Mind,
until thou unearth the fox THAT. On, hounds!
Yoicks! Tally-ho! Bring THAT to bay!
then, wind the Mort!
[112]
--
the number 51 means failure and pain, and its
subject is appropriately doubt.
the title of the chapter is borrowed from the health-
giving and fascinating sport of fox-hunting, which
--
Soldier and the Hunchback" of which it is in some sort
an epitome.
--
6 and 7 it will be noticed that the identification of the
Soldier with the Hunchback has reached such a pitch
that the symbols are interchanged, enthusiasm being
represented as the sinuous snake, scepticism as the
Goat of the Sabbath. In o ther words, a state is reached
in which destruction is as much joy as creation.
--
the BULL-BAITING
Fourscore and eleven books wrote I; in each did I
expound the GREAT WORK fully, from the
beginning even unto the End thereof.
then at last came certain men unto me, saying:
O Master! Expound thou the GREAT WORK
unto us, O Master!
--
from the Wrath that is fallen upon you?
O Babblers, Prattlers, Talkers, Loquacious Ones,
Tatlers, Chewers of the Red Rag that inflameth
Apis the Redeemer to fury, learn first what is
Work! and the GREAT WORK is not so far
beyond!
--
52 is BN, the number of the Son, Osiris-Apis, the
Redeemer, with whom the Master (Fra. P.) identifies
himself. he permits himself for a moment the pleasure
of feeling his wounds; and, turning upon his generation,
--
the fourscore-and-eleven books do not, we think,
refer to the ninety-one chapters of this little master-
piece, or even to the numerous volumes he has penned,
but ra ther to the fact that 91 is the number of Amen,
implying the completeness of his work.
In the last paragraph is a paranomasia. "To chew
the red rag" is a phrase for to talk aimlessly and per-
sistently, while it is notorious that a red cloth will excite
the rage of a bull.
[115]
--
the DOWSER
Once round the meadow. Bro ther, does the hazel
twig dip?
Twice round the orchard. Bro ther, does the hazel
twig dip?
Thrice round the paddock, Highly, lowly, wily, holy,
dip, dip, dip!
then neighed the horse in the paddock-and lo!
its wings.
For whoso findeth the SPRING beneath the earth
maketh the treaders-of-earth to course the heavens.
This SPRING is threefold; of water, but also of steel,
and of the seasons.
Also this PADDOCK is the Toad that hath the
jewel between his eyes-Aum Mani Padmen
--
the object of finding water or minerals, by means of the
vibrations of a hazel twig.
the meadow represents the flower of life; the orchard its
fruit.
the paddock, being reserved for animals, represents life
itself. That is to say, the secret spring of life is found in the
place of life, with the result that the horse, who represents
ordinary animal life, becomes the divine horse Pegasus.
In paragraph 6 we see this spring identified with the
phallus, for it is not only a source of water, but highly
elastic, while the reference to the seasons alludes to the well-
known lines of the late Lord Tennyson:
"In the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnished dove,
In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts
of love."
--
In paragraph 7 the place of life, the universe of animal
souls, is identified with the toad, which
"Ugly and venomous,
--
this jewel being the divine spark in man, and indeed in all
that "lives and moves and has its being". Note this phrase,
which is highly significant; the word "lives" excluding the
mineral kingdom, the word "moves" the vegetable kingdom,
and the phrase "has its being" the lower animals, including
woman.
This "toad" and "jewel" are fur ther identified with the
Lotus and jewel of the well-known Buddhist phrase and
this seems to suggest that this "toad" is the Yoni; the
suggestion is fur ther streng thened by the concluding phrase
in brackets, "Keep us from evil", since, although it is the
place of life, the means of grace, it may be ruinous.
[117]
--
All these sat on their haunches waiting the Report
of the Sojourner; for the WORD was lost.
This is the Report of the Sojourners: the WORD
was LOVE;(23) and its number is An Hundred and
--
then said each AMO;(24) for its number is An Hundred
and Eleven.
Each took the Trowel from his LAP,(25) whose number
is AN Hundred and Eleven.
Each called moreover on the Goddess NINA,(26) for
Her number is An Hundred and Eleven.
Yet with all this went the Work awry; for the
WORD OF the LAW IS { theta-Epsilon-Lambda-Eta-Mu-Alpha}.
[118]
--
the title of this chapter refers to the duty of the Tyler
in a blue lodge of Freemasons.
the numbers in paragraphs 1 to 3 are significant;
each Master-Mason is attended by 5 Fellow-Crafts,
and each Fellow-Craft by 3 Apprentices, as if the
Masters were sitting in pentagrams, and the Fellow-
Craftsmen in triangles. This may refer to the number of
manual signs in each of these degrees.
the moral of the chapter is apparently that the
mo ther-letter {Aleph} is an inadequate solution of the Great
Problem. {Aleph} is identified with the Yoni, for all the
symbols connected with it in this place are feminine,
--
the doctrine is therefore that Magick, in that highest
sense explained in the Book of the Law, is the truer
key.
--
(25) the trowel is shaped like a diamond or Yoni.
L=30, A=1, P=80=111
--
the DROOPING SUNFLOWER
the One Thought vanished; all my mind was torn to
rags: --- nay! nay! my head was mashed into
wood pulp, and thereon the Daily Newspaper was
printed.
--
here: I seek distraction there: but this is all my
truth, that I who love have lost; and how may I
--
O Mage! Sage! Gauge thy Wage, or in the Page of
Thine Age is written Rage!
--
Pounds in that Three Weeks in Paris!...Slash the
Breaks on thine arm with a pole-axe!
--
the number 55 refers to Malkuth, the ride; it
should then be read in connection with Chapters 28, 29,
49.
the "drooping sunflower" is the heart, which needs
the divine light.
Since Jivatma was separated from Paramatma, as
in paragraph 2, not only is the Divine Unity destroyed
but Daath, instead of being the Child of Chokmah and
Binah, becomes the Abyss, and the Qliphoth arise.
the only sense which abides is that of loss, and the
craving to retrieve it. In paragraph 3 it is seen that this
--
made proper arrangements to recover the original
position previous to making the divisions.
In paragraph 5 it is shown that this is because of
allowing enjoyment to cause forgetfulness of the really
important thing. Those who allow themselves to wallow
in Samadhi are sorry for it afterwards.
the last paragraph indicaed the precautions to be
taken to avoid this.
the number 90 is the last paragraph is not merely
fact, but symbolism; 90 being the number of Tzaddi,
the Star, looked at in its exoteric sense, as a naked
woman, playing by a stream, surrounded by birds and
butterflies. the pole-axe is recommended instead of
the usual razor, as a more vigorous weapon. One
cannot be too severe in checking any faltering in the
work, any digression from the Path.
[121]
--
times holy be OUR LADY of the STARS!
Holy, holy, holy, unto One Hundred and Fifty Six
times holy be OUR LADY that rideth upon the
BEAST!
Holy, holy, holy, unto the Number of Times
Necessary and Appropriate be OUR LADY
--
Yet holier than all these to me is LAYLAH, night
and death; for Her do I blaspheme alike the finite
and the the Infinite.
So wrote not FRATER PERDURABO, but the
Imp Crowley in his Name.
--
Years; or at least let him do Pranayama all the
way home-home? nay! but to the house of the
harlot whom he loveth not. For it is LAYLAH that
--
the number of the chapter refers to Liber Legis I, 24,
for paragraph 1 refers to Nuit. the "twins" in the
title are those mentioned in paragraph 5.
--
In paragraph 4 is the gist of the chapter, Laylah
being again introduced, as in Chapters 28, 29, 49 and
--
the exoteric blasphemy, it is hinted i the last
paragraph, may be an esoteric arcanum, for the Master
of the Temple is interested in Malkuth, as Malkuth is
in Binah; also "Malkuth is in Ke ther, and Ke ther in
Malkuth"; and, to the Ipsissimus, dissolution in the
body of Nuit and a visit to a bro thel may be identical.
--
the DUCK-BILLED PLATYPUS
Dirt is matter in the wrong place.
Thought is mind in the wrong place.
Matter is mind; so thought is dirt.
Thus argued he, the Wise One, not mindful that all
place is wrong.
For not until the PLACE is perfected by a T saith
he PLACET.
the Rose uncrucified droppeth its petals; without
the Rose the Cross is a dry stick.
Worship then the Rosy Cross, and the Mystery of
Two-in-One.
--
the title of the chapter suggest the two in one, since
the ornithorhynchus is both bird and beast; it is also
an Australian animal, like Laylah herself, and was
--
This chapter is an apology for the universe.
Paragraphs 1-3 repeat the familiar arguments
against reason in an epigrammatic form.
--
-we get the word "placet", meaning "it pleases".
Paragraphs 6 and 7 explain this fur ther; it is
necessary to separate things, in order that they might
rejoice in uniting. See Liber Legis I, 28-30, which is
paraphrased in the penultimate paragraph.
In the last paragraph this doctrine is interpreted
in common life by a paraphrase of the familiar and
beautiful proverb, "Absence makes the heart grow
fonder". (PS. I seem to get a subtle after-taste of
--
(It is to be observed that the philosopher having first
committed the syllogistic error quaternis terminorum,
in attempting to reduce the terms to three, staggers into
non distributia medii. It is possible that considerations
--
tion (?)) of the predicate may be taken as intervening,
but to do so would render the humour of the chapter too
subtle for the average reader in Oshkosh for whom
this book is evidently written.)
--
there is nothing movable or immovable under the
firmament of heaven on which I may write the
symbols of the secret of my soul.
Yea, though I were lowered by ropes into the
utmost Caverns and Vaults of Eternity, there is
no word to express even the first whisper of the
Initiator in mine ear: yea, I abhor birth, ululating
--
Agony! Agony! the Light within me breeds veils; the
song within be dumbness.
--
Immortal are the adepts; and ye hey die- they
die of SHAME unspeakable; they die as the
Gods die, for SORROW.
Wilt thou endure unto the End, O FRATER
PERDURABO, O Lamp in the Abyss? Thou hast
the Keystone of the Royal Arch; yet the
Apprentices, instead of making bricks, put the
straws in their hair, and think they are Jesus
Christ!
O sublime tragedy and comedy of the GREAT
WORK!
--
Officer in a Chapter of the Royal Arch Masons.
In this chapter the author, in a sort of raging
eloquence, bewails his impotence to express himself,
or to induce o thers to follow into the light. In para-
graph 1 he explains the sardonic laughter, for which he
is justly celebrated, as being in reality the expression of
this feeling.
Paragraph 2 is a reference to the Obligation of an
Entered Apprentice Mason.
Paragraph 3 refers to the Ceremony of Exaltation
in Royal Arch Masonry. the Initiate will be able to
discover the most formidable secret of that degree con-
cealed in the paragraph.
Paragraphs 4-6 express an anguish to which that of
--
In paragraph 7 the agony is broken up by the
sardonic or cynical laughter to which we have previously
--
And the final paragraph, in the words of the noblest
simplicity, praises the Great Work; rejoices in its
sublimity, in the supreme Art, in the intensity of the
passion and ecstasy which it brings forth. (Note that
the words "passion" and "ecstasy" may be taken as
symbolical of Yoni and Lingam.)
--
there is no help-but hotch pot!-in the skies
When Astacus sees Crab and Lobster rise.
--
Lacks the Amoeba's immortality.
What protoplasm gains in mobile mirth
Is loss of the stability of earth.
Matter and sense and mind have had their day:
Nature presents the bill, and all must pay.
If, as I am not, I were free to choose,
How Buddhahood would battle with the Booze!
My certainty that destiny is "good"
--
the title is a euphemism for homo sapiens.
the crab and the lobster are higher types of crustacae
than the crayfish.
the chapter is a short essay in poetic form on
Determinism. It hymns the great law of Equilibrium
and Compensation, but cynically criticises all philo-
sophers, hinting that their view of the universe depends
on their own circumstances. the sufferer from toothache
does not agree with Doctor Pangloss, that "all is for
the best in the best of all possible worlds". Nor does the
wealthiest of our Dukes complain to his cronies that
--
the WOUND OF AMFORTAS(27)
the Self-mastery of Percivale became the Self-
masturbatery of the Bourgeois.
Vir-tus has become "virture".
the qualities which have made a man, a race, a city,
a caste, must be thrown off; death is the penalty
of failure. As it is written: In the hour of success
sacrifice that which is dearest to thee unto the
Infernal Gods!
the Englishman lives upon the excrement of his
forefa thers.
All moral codes are worthless in themselves; yet in
every new code there is hope. Provided always that
the code is not changed because it is too hard, but
because if is fulfilled.
the dead dog floats with the stream; in puritan
France the best women are harlots; in vicious
England the best women are virgins.
If only the Archbishop of Canterbury were to go
make in the streets and beg his bread!
the new Christ, like the old, it the friend of publicans
and sinners; because his nature is ascetic.
--
is the one thing that he will not and cannot do!
[130]
--
the title is explained in the note.
the number of the chapter may refer to the letter
Samech ({Samech}), Temperence, in the Tarot.
I paragraph 1 the real chastity of Percivale or
Parsifal, a chastity which did not prevent his dipping
the point of the sacred lance into the Holy Grail, is
distinguished from its misinterpretation by modern
crapulence. the priests of the gods were carefully
chosen, and carefully trained to fulfill the sacrament of
fa therhood; the shame of sex consists in the usurpation
of its function by the unworthy. Sex is a sacrament.
the word virtus means " the quality of manhood".
Modern "virtue" is the negation of all such qualities.
In paragraph 3, however, we see the penalty of
conservatism; children must be weaned.
In the penultimate paragraph the words " the new
Christ" alluded to the author.
In the last paragraph we reach the sublime mystic
doctrine that whatever you have must be abandoned.
--
from the absolute is part of the content of that con-
sciousness.
--
wounded by his own spear, the spear that had made him
king.
--
the FOOL'S KNOT
O Fool! begetter of both I and Naught, resolve this
--
I Pay-Pe, the dissolution of the House of God-
for Pe comes after O-after Ayin that triumphs
--
OP-us, the Work! the OP-ening of the EYE!(30)
Thou Naughty Boy, thou openest the EYE OF
HORUS to the Blind Eye that weeps!(31) the Up-
right One in thine Uprightness rejoiceth-Death
--
the number of this chapter refers to the Hebrew word Ain, the negative and
Ani, 61.
the "fool" is the Fool of the Tarot, whose number is 0, but refers the the le
tter
--
A fool's knot is a kind of knot which, although it has the appearance of a kn
ot, is
--
the chapter consists of a series of complicated puns on 1 and I, with regard
to
their shape, sound, and that of the figures which resemble them in shape.
Paragraph 1 calls upon the Fool of the Tarot, who is to be referred to Ipsiss
imus,
to the pure fool, Parsifal, to resolve this problem.
the word Naught-y suggests not only that the problem is sexual, but does not
really
--
Paragraph 2 shows the Lingam and Yoni as, in conjunction, the foundation of
ecstasy (I)!), and of the complete symbol I A O.
the latter sentence of the paragraph unites the two meanings of giving up the
Lingam to the Yoni, and the Ego to the Absolute.
This idea, "I must give up", I owe, is naturally completed by I pay, and the
sound of the word "pay" suggest the Hebrew letter Pe (see Liber XVI), which
represents the final dissolution in Shivadarshana.
I Hebrew, the letter which follows O is P; i therefore follows Ayin, the Devi
of the Tarot.
AYIN is spelt O I N, thus replacing the A in A I N by an O, the letter of the
Devil, or Pan, the phallic God.
Now AIN means nothing, and thus the replacing of AIN by OIN means the
completion of the Yoni by the Lingam, which is followed by the complete dissolu
tion
symbolised in the letter P.
these letters, O P, are then seen to be the root of opus, the Latin word for
"work",
in this case, the Great Work. And they also begin the word "opening". I hindu
philosophy, it is said that Shiva, the Destroyer, is asleep, and that when he o
pens
his eye the universe is destroyed-ano ther synonym, therefore, for the accomplis
h-
ment of the Great Work. But the "eye" of Shiva is also his Lingam. Shiva is
himself the Mahalingam, which unites these symbolisms. the opening of the eye,
the ejaculation of the lingam, the destruction of the universe, the accomplishm
ent
of the Great Work-all these are different ways of saying the same thing.
the last paragraph is even obscurer to those unfamiliar to the masterpiece
referred to in the note; for the eye of Horus (see 777, Col.
XXI, line 10, " the blind
eye that weeps" is a poetic Arab name for the lingam).
the doctrine is that the Great Work should be accomplished without creating n
ew
Karma, for the letter N, the fish, the vesica, the womb, breeds, whereas the Ey
e of
--
Death implies resurrection; the illusion is reborn, as the Scy the of Death in
the
Tarot has a crosspiece. This is in connection with the Hindu doctrine, express
ed
in their injunction, "Fry your seeds". Act so as to balance your past Karma,
and create no new, so that, as it were, the books are balanced. WHile you have
ei ther a credit or a debit, you are still in account with the universe.
(N.B. Frater P. wrote this chapter-61-while dining with friends, in about a
minute and a half. That is how you must know the Qabalah.)
NOTE
--
(32) Death = Nun, the letter before O, means a fish, a symbol of Christ, and
also by its shape the Female principle
[133]
--
the Phoenix hat a Bell for Sound; Fire for Sight; a
Knife for Touch; two cakes, one for taste, the o ther
for smell.
He standeth before the Altar of the Universe at
Sunset, when Earth-life fades.
He summons the Universe, and crowns it with
MAGICK Light to replace the sun of natura light.
He prays unto, and give homage to, Ro-Hoor_khuit;
to Him he then sacrifices.
the first cake, burnt, illustrates the profit drawn
from the scheme of incarnation.
the second, mixt with his life's blood and eaten,
illustrates the use of the lower life to feed the
higher life.
He then takes the Oath and becomes free-un
conditioned- the Absolute.
Burning up i the Flame of his Prayer, and born
again- the Phoenix!
--
(33) Twig? = dost thou understand? Also the Phoenix
takes twigs to kindle the fire in which it burns itself.
[135]
--
"Where is the Mystic Grace?" sayest thou?
Who told thee, man, that LAYLAH is not Nuit, nd
I hadit?
I destroyed all things; they are reborn in o ther
shapes.
--
I am the Master of the Universe; then give me a
heap of straw in a hut, and LAYLAH naked!
--
This chapter returns to the subject of Laylah, and
to the subject already discussed in Chapters 3 and
o thers, particularly Chapter 56.
the title of the chapter refers to the old rime:
"See-saw, Margery Daw,
--
the word "see-saw" is significant, almost a comment
upon this chapter. To the Master of the Temple
opposite rules apply. His unity seeks the many, and
the many is again transmuted to the one. Solve et
Coagula.
--
GOD sent to me the angels DIN and DONI.
"An man of spunk," they urged, "would hardly
choose
--
"I eat these oysters and I drink this wine
Solely to drown this misery of mine.
"Yet the last height of consolation's cold:
Its pinnacle is-not to be consoled!
--
As to enable me to raise the wind.
"Put me in LAYLAH'S arms again: the Accurst,
Leaving me that. elsehow may do his worst."
--
Conceived their task was finished: they retired.
I turned upon my friend, and, breaking bounds,
--
64 is the number of Mercury, and of the intelligence
of that planet, Din and Doni.
Th moral of the chapter is that one wants liberty,
although one may not wish to exercise it: the author
would readily die in defence of the right of Englishmen
to play football, or of his own right not to play it.
--
action. He refuses to listen to the ostensible criticism of
the spirits, and explains his own position. their real
mission was to rouse him to confidence and action.
--
the flames of violet were become as tendrils of
smoke, as mist at sunset upon the marsh-lands.
"And in the midst of the moon-pool of silver was the
Lily of white and gold. In this Lily is all honey,
in this Lily that flowereth at the midnight. In
this Lily is all perfume; in this Lily is all music.
--
Thus the disciples that watched found a dead body
kneeling at the altar. Amen!
[140]
--
65 is the number of Adonai, the Holy Guardian
Angel; see Liber 65, Liber Konx Om Pax, and o ther
--
the chapter title means, "So may he pass away",
the blank obviously referring to N E M O.
the "moon-pool of silver" is the Path of Gimel,
leading from Tiphareth to Ke ther; the "flames of violet"
are the Ajna-Chakkra; the lily itself is Ke ther, the
lotus of the Sahasrara. "Lily" is spelt with a capital to
connect with Laylah.
--
the PRAYING MANTIS
"Say: God is One." This I obeyed: for a thousand
--
"Yea! the night shall cover all; the night shall cover
all."
--
66 is the number of Allah; the praying mantis is a
blasphemous grasshopper which caricatures the pious.
the chapter recurs to the subject of Laylah, whom
the author exalts above God, in continuation of the
reasonings given in Chapter 56 and 63. She is
identified with N.O.X. by the quotation from Liber 65.
NOTES
(34) Laylah is the Arabic for night.
(35) A L L H = 1 + 30 + 30 + 5 = 66. L + A + I
+ L + A + H = 77, which also gives MSL, the In-
fluence of the Highest, OZ, a goat, and so on.
[143]
--
yet I know that the clouds will ga ther closer for
the false clearing.
the mirage will fade; then will the desert be thirstier
than before.
O ye who dwell in the Dark Night of the Soul, beware
most of all of every herald of the Dawn!
O ye who dwell in the City of the Pyramids beneath
the Night of PAN, remember that ye shall see no
more light but That of the great fire that shall
consume your dust to ashes!
--
the Great Work. You may occupy yourself for a time
with o ther things, but you will only increase your
bitterness, rivet the chains still on your feet.
Paragraph 4 is a practical counsel to mystics not
to break up their dryness by relaxing their austerities.
the last paragraph will only be understood by
Masters of the Temple.
[145]
--
At four o'clock there is hardly anybody in Rumpel-
mayer's.
I have my choice of place and service; the babble of
the apes will begin soon enough.
"Pioneers, O Pioneers!"
Sat no Elijah under the Juniper-tree, and wept?
Was not Mohammed forsaken in Mecca, and Jesus
--
these prophets were sad at heart; but the chocolate
at Rumpelmayer's is great, and the Mousse Noix
is like Nepthys for perfection.
Also there are little meringues with cream and
chestnut-pulp, very velvety seductions.
--
Be not sad at heart, O prophet; the babble of the
apes will presently begin.
Nay, rejoice exceedingly; for after all the babble of
the apes the Silence of the Night.
[146]
--
Manna was a heavenly cake which, in the legend, fed
the Children of Israel in the Wilderness.
the author laments the failure of his mission to
mankind, but comforts himself with the following
reflections:
(1) He enjoys the advantages of solitude. (2) Previous
prophets encountered similar difficulties in con-
vincing their hearers. (3) their food was not equal to
that obtainable at Rumpelmayer's. (4) In a few days
--
succeed soon enough. (6) Death will remove the
nuisance of success.
--
the WAY TO SUCCEED-AND the WAY TO
SUCK EGGS!
This is the Holy Hexagram.
Plunge from the height, O God, and interlock with
Man!
Plunge from the height, O Man, and interlock with
Beast!
the Red Triangle is the descending tongue of grace;
the Blue Triangle is the ascending tongue of
prayer
This Interchange, the Double Gift of Tongues, the
Word of Double Power-ABRAHADABRA!-is
the sign of the GREAT WORK, for the GREAT
WORK is accomplished in Silence. And behold is
--
end, nourishes the worker, leaves no seed, is per-
fect in itself.
--
the key to the understanding of this chapter is given
in the number and the title, the former being intelligible
to all nations who employ Arabic figures, the latter
only to experts in deciphering English puns.
the chapter alludes to Levi's drawing of the Hexa-
gram, and is a criticism of, or improvement upon, it.
In the ordinary Hexagram, the Hexagram of nature,
the red triangle is upwards, like fire, and the blue
triangle downwards, like water. In the magical hexa-
gram this is revered; the descending red triangle is
that of Horus, a sign specially revealed by him per-
sonally, at the Equinox of the Gods. (It is the flame
desending upon the altar, and licking up the burnt
offering.) the blue triangle represents the aspiration,
since blue is the colour of devotion, and the triangle,
kinetically considered, is the symbol of directed force.
In the first three paragraphs this formation of the
hexagram is explained; it is a symbol of the mutual
separation of the Holy Guardian Angel and his client.
In the interlocking is indicated the completion of the
work.
--
what we have said above, and the scriptural image of
tongues is introduced.
In paragraph 5 the symbolism of tongues is fur ther
developed. Abrahadabra is our primal example of an
interlocked word. We assume that the reader has
thoroughly studied that word in Liber D., etc. the
sigil of Cancer links up this symbolism with the number
of the chapter.
the remaining paragraphs continue the Gallic
symbolism.
--
FRATER PERDURABO is of the Sanhedrim of the
Sabbath, say men; He is the Old Goat himself,
say women.
therefore do all adore him; the more they detest
him the more do they adore him.
Ay! let us offer the Obscene Kiss!
Let us seek the Mystery of the Gnarled Oak, and of
the Glacier Torrent!
To Him let us offer our babes! Around Him let
us dance in the mad moonlight!
But FRATER PERDURABO is nothing but AN
--
for the play of the Universe is the pleasure of
FRATER PERDURABO.
--
70 is the number of the letter Ain, the Devil in the
Tarot.
the chapter refers to the Witches' Sabbath, the
description of which in Payne Knight should be
carefully read before studying this chapter. All the
allusions will then be obvious, save those which we
proceed to not.
--
the "gnarled oak" and the "glacier torrent" refer
to the confessions made by many witches.
I paragraph 7 is seen the meaning of the chapter;
the obscene and distorted character of much of the
universe is a whim of the Creator.
[151]
--
For mind and body alike there is no purgative like
Pranayama, no purgative like Pranayama.
--
alike!- there is, there is, there is no purgative, no
purgative like Pranayama-Pranayama!-Prana-
yama! yea, for mind and body alike there is no
purgative, no purgative, no purgative (for mind
--
the title is due to the circumstances of the early
piety of Frater Perdurabo, who was frequently
refreshed by hearing the an thems in this chief of the
architectural glories of his Alma Mater.
--
the Universe were swallowed up in flame
-Shemhamphorash!
Nor deem that thou amid the cosmic crash
May find one thing of all those things the same!
the world has gone to everlasting smash.
No! if creation did possess an aim
--
there are three consecutive verses in the Pentateuch,
each containing 72 letters. If these be written beneath
each o ther, the middle verse bring reversed, i.e. as in
English, and divisions are then made vertically, 72
tri-lateral names are formed, the sum of which is
Tetragrammaton; this is the great and mysterious
Divided Name; by adding the terminations Yod He,
or Aleph Lamed, the names of 72 Angels are formed.
the Hebrews say that by uttering this Name the
universe is destroyed. This statement means the same
as that of the Hindus, that the effective utterance of
the name of Shiva would cause him to awake, and so
destroy the universe.
In Egyptian and Gnostic magick we meet with pylons
and Aeons, which only open on the utterance of the
proper word.
--
and practice; and the whole of Mantra-Yoga has been
built on this foundation.
Thoth, the god of Magick, is the inventor of speech;
Christ is the Logos.
Lines 1-4 are now clear.
In lines 507 we see the results of Shivadarshana. Do
not imagine that any single ides, however high, however
holy (or even however insignificant!!), can escape the
destruction.
the logician my say, "But white exists, and if
white is destroyed, it leaves black; yet black exists. So
--
the logician and his logic are alike involved in the
universal ruin.
Lines 8-11 indicate that this fact is the essential one
about Shivadarshana.
the title is explained by the intentionally blasphemous
puns and colloquialisms of lines 9 and 10.
--
the DEVIL, the OSTRICH, AND the
ORPHAN CHILD
Death rides the Camel of Initiation.(36)
Thou humped and stiff-necked one that groanest in
Thine Asana, death will relieve thee!
Bite not, Zelator dear, but bide! Ten days didst
--
Ay! all thine aspiration is to death: death is the
crown of all thine aspiration. Triple is the cord of
silver moonlight; it shall hang thee, O Holy One,
O Hanged Man, O Camel-Termination-of- the-
--
Could but Thy mo ther behold thee, O thou UNT!(37)
the Infinite Snake Ananta that surroundeth the
Universe is but the Coffin-Worm!
[156]
--
the Hebrew letter Gimel adds up to 73; it means a camel.
the title of the chapter is borrowed from the well-known lines of Rudyard
Kipling:
"But the commissariat camel, when all is said and done,
'E's a devil and an awstridge and an orphan-child in one."
Paragraph 1 may imply a dogma of death as the highest form of initiation.
Initiation is not a simple phenomenon. Any given initiation must take place
on several planes, and is not always conferred on all of these simultaneously.
Intellectual and moral perception of truth often, one might almost say usually,
--
Asana. there is perhaps a sardonic reference to rigor mortis, and certainly
one conceives the half-humorous attitude of the expert towards the beginner.
Paragraph 3 is a comment in the same tone of rough good nature. the word
Zelator is used because the Zelator of the A.'.A.'. has to pass an examination
in Asana before he becomes eligible for the grade of Practicus. the ten days
allude merely to the tradition about the camel, that he can go ten days without
water.
Paragraph 4 identifies the reward of initiation with death; it is a cessation
of all that we call life, in a way in which what we call death is not. 3, silv
--
and the moon, are all correspondences of Gimel, the letter of the Aspiration,
since gimel is the Path that leads from the Microcosm in tiphareth to the
Macrocosm in Ke ther.
the epi thets are far too complex to explain in detail, but Mem, the Hanged
man, has a close affinity for Gimel, as will be seen by a study of Liber 418.
Unt is not only the Hindustani for Camel, but the usual termination of the
third person plural of the present tense of Latin words of the Third and
Fourth Conjugations.
the reason for thus addresing the reader is that he has now transcended the
first and second persons. Cf. Liber LXV, Chapter III, vv. 21-24, and
--
"Some talk there was of thee and Me
there seemed; and then no more of thee and Me.")
the third person plural must be used, because he has now perceived himself
to be a bundle of impressions. For this is the point on the Path of Gimel when
he is actually crossing the Abyss; the student must consult the account of this
given in " the Temple of Solomon the King".
the Ego is but " the ghost of a non-Ego", the imaginary focus at which the
non-Ego becomes sensible.
Paragraph 5 expresses the wish of the Guru that his Chela may attain safely
to binah, the Mo ther.
Paragraph 6 whispers the ultimate and dread secret of initiation into his
ear, identifying the vastness of the Most Holy with the obscene worm that
gnaws the bowels of the damned.
NOTES
(36) Death is said by the Arabs to ride a Camel. the Path of Gimel (which
means a Camel) leads from Tiphareth to Ke ther, and its Tarot trump
is the "High Priestess".
(37) UNT, Hindustani for Camel. I.e. Would that BABALON might look
on thee with favour. [157]
74
--
the Hermit asked for love; worst bargain of all.
And now he has let his girl go to America, to have
--
Is there no end to this immortal ache
That haunts me, haunts me sleeping or awake?
--
the pain of consciousness, the curse of thought?
Even were I THAT, there still were one sore
spot-
the Abyss that stretches between THAT and
NOT.
Still, the first step is not so far away:-
the Mauretania sails on Saturday!
[158]
--
and poor Englishmen as the seat of the Bankruptcy
buildings.
Paragraphs 1-4 are in prose, the downward course,
and the rest of the chapter in poetry, the upward.
the first part shows the fall from Nought in four
steps; the second part, the return.
the details of this Hierarchy have already been
indicated in various chapters. It is quite conventional
--
Step 1, the illumination of Ain as Ain Soph Aour;
step 2, the concentration of Ain Soph Aour in Ke ther;
step 3, duality and the rest of it down to Malkuth;
step 4, the stooping of Malkuth to the Qliphoth, and
the consequent ruin of the Tree of Life.
Part 2 show the impossibility of stopping on the
Path of Adeptship.
the final couplet represents the first step upon the
Path, which must be taken even although the aspirant
is intellectually aware of the severity of the whole
course. You must give up the world for love, the
material for the moral idea, before that, in its turn, is
surrendered to the spiritual. And so on. This is a
Laylah-chapter, but in it Laylah figures as the mere
woman.
--
Spring beans and strawberries are in: goodbye to the
oyster!
--
This wavering is the root of all compromise, and so
of all good sense.
--
Emphasise gift, then man, then spend, then seventy
years, and lastly peace, and change the intonations
--each time reverse the meaning!
I would show you how; but-for the moment!
--I prefer to think of Laylah.
--
the title is explained in the note, but also alludes to
paragraph 1, the plover's egg being often contemporary
with the early strawberry.
Paragraph 1 means that change of diet is pleasant;
vanity pleases the mind; the idee fixe is a sign of
insanity. See paragraphs 4 and 5.
Paragraph 6 puts the question, " then is sanity or
insanity desirable?" the oak is weakened by the ivy
which clings around it, but perhaps the ivy keeps it
from going mad.
the next paragraph expresses the difficulty of
expressing thought in writing; it seems, on the face of
it, absurd that the the text of this book, composed as it is
of English, simple, austere, and terse, should need a
--
and myself would hardly have been at the pains to
write one. It was in response to the impassioned appeals
of many most worthy brethren that we have yielded up
--
Laylah is again the mere woman.
NOTE
(38) these eggs being speckled, resemble the wander-
ing mind referred to.
--
Ye shall surpass the planets in their courses.
How? Not by speed, nor strength, nor power to stay,
But by the Silence that succeeds the Neigh!
[162]
--
Phaeton was the charioteer of the Sun in Greek mythology.
At first sight the prose of this chapter, though there is only one dissyllabl
e in
--
Pyrrhonism and Agnosticism; O! = the system of Liber Legis. (See Chapter 0.)
Eye = Phallicism (cf. Chapters 61 and 70); I = Fichteanism; Hi! =
Transcendentalism; Y? = Scepticism, and the method of science. No denies
all these and closes the argument.
But all this is a glamour cast by Maya; the real meaning of the prose of this
chapter is as follows:
No, some negative conception beyond the IT spoken of in Chapters 31, 49
and elsewhere.
--
Perhaps, the flux of these.
O!, Nuit, Hadit, Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
Eye, the phallus in Ke ther.
I, the Ego in Chokmah.
Hi!, Binah, the feminine principle fertilised. (He by Yod.)
Y?, the Abyss.
No, the refusal to be content with any of this.
But all this is again only a glamour of Maya, as previously observed in the
text (Chapter 31). All this is true and false, and it is true and false to say
--
the prose of this chapter combines, and of course denies, all these meanings,
both singly and in combination. It is intended to stimulate thought to the
point where it explodes with violence and for ever.
A study of this chapter is probably the best short cut to Nibbana.
the thought of the Master in this chapter is exceptionally lofty.
That this is the true meaning, or ra ther use, of this chapter, is evident fro
the poetry.
the master salutes the previous paragraphs as horses which, although in
themselves worthless animals (without the epi thets), carry the Charioteer in th
path of the Sun. the question, How? Not by their own virtues, but by the
silence which results when they are all done with.
the word "neigh" is a pun on "nay", which refers to the negative conception
already postulated as beyond IT. the suggestion is, that there may be somethin
falsely described as silence, to represent absence-of-conception beyond that
--
the SUBLIME AND SUPREME SEPTENARY
IN ITS MATURE MAGICAL MANIFESTATION
--
77 is the number of Laylah (LAILAH), to whom this
chapter is wholly devoted.
the first section of the title is an analysis of 77 considered
as a mystic number.
7, the septenary; 11, the magical number; 77, the mani-
festation, therefore, of the septenary.
Through matter, because 77 is written in Hebrew Ayin
Zayin (OZ), and He-Goat, the symbol of matter, Capri-
cornus, the Devil of the Tarot; which is the picture of the
Goat of the Sabbath upon an altar, worshipped by two o ther
devils, male and female.
As will be seen from the photogravure inserted opposite
this chapter, Laylah is herself not devoid of "Devil", but,
--
the text need no comment, but it will be noticed that it is
much shorter that the title.
Now, the Devil of the Tarot is the Phallus, the Redeemer,
and Laylah symbolises redemption to Frater P. the
number 77, also, interpreted as in the title, is the redeeming
force.
the ratio of the length of title and text is the key to the
true meaning of the chapter, which is, that Redemption is
really as simple as it appears complex, that the names (or
veils) of truth are obscure and many, the Truth itself plain
and one; but that the latter must be reached through the
former. This chapter is therefore an apology, were one
needed, for the Book of Lies itself. In these few simple
words, it explains the necessity of the book, and offers it-
humbly, yet with confidence-as a means of redemption to
the world of sorrowing men.
the name with full-stops: L.A.Y.L.A.H. represents an
analysis of the name, which may be left to the ingenium of
the advanced practicus (see photograph).
[165]
--
the Great Wheel of Samsara.
the Wheel of the Law [Dhamma].
the Wheel of the Taro.
the Wheel of the Heavens.
the Wheel of Life.
All these Wheels be one; yet of all these the Wheel of
the TARO alone avails thee consciously.
Meditate long and broad and deep, O man, upon this
--
from the Fool unto the Ten of Coins.
then, when thou know'st the Wheel of Destiny
complete, mayst thou perceive THAT Will which
--
And lo! thou art past through the Abyss.
[166]
--
the number of this chapter is that of the cards of the
Tarot.
the title of this chapter is a pun of the phrase "weal
and woe". It means motion and rest. the moral is the
conventional mystic one; stop thought at its source!
--
the third refer to the universe as it is; but the wheel of
the Tarot is not only this, but represents equally the
Magickal Path.
This practice is therefore given by Frater P. to
his pupils; to treat the sequence of the cards as cause
and effect. thence, to discover the cause behind all
causes. Success in this practice qualifies for the grade
of Master of the Temple.
In the penultimate paragraph the bracketed passage
reminds the student that the universe is not to be
contemplated as a phenomenon in time.
--
the BAL BULLIER
Some men look into their minds into their memories,
and find naught but pain and shame.
these then proclaim " the Good Law" unto mankind.
these preach renunciation, "virtue", cowardice in
every form.
these whine eternally.
Smug, toothless, hairless Coote, debauch-emascu-
--
Nature is useless; but then how beautiful she is!
Nature is cruel; but I too am a Sadist.
the game goes on; it y have been too rough for
Buddha, but it's (if anything) too dull for me.
--
the title of this chapter is a place frequented by
Frater P. until it became respectable.
the chapter is a rebuke to those who can see nothing
but sorrow and evil in the universe.
the Buddhist analysis may be true, but not for
men of courage. the plea that "love is sorrow", because
its ecstasies are only transitory, is contemptible.
Paragraph 5. Coote is a blackmailer exposed by the
Equinox. the end of the paragraph refers to Catullus,
his famous epigram about the youth who turned his
uncle into Harpocrates. It is a subtle way for Frater P.
--
employ the remedy.
the last paragraph is a quotation. In Paris,
Negroes are much sought after by sportive ladies. This
is therefore presumably intended to assert that even
women may enjoy life sometimes.
the word "Sadist" is taken from the famous Marquis
de Sade, who gave supreme literary form to the joys of
torture.
--
the price of existence is eternal warfare.(39)
Speaking as an Irishman, I prefer to say: the price
of eternal warfare is existence.
And melancholy as existence is, the price is well
worth paying.
Is there is a Government? then I'm agin it! To Hell
with the bloody English!
"O FRATER PERDURABO, how unworthy are
these sentiments!"
"D'ye want a clip on the jaw?"(40)
[170]
--
Frater P. continues the subject of Chapter 79.
He pictures himself as a vigorous, reckless, almost
--
Jesus, to slink through existence to the tune of the Dead
March in Saul; no Cremerian Callus to warehouse his
--
Paragraph 2 gives the very struggle for life, which
disheartens modern thinkers, as a good enough reason for
--
Paragraph 5 expresses the sorrow of the modern
thinker, and paragraph 6 Frater P.'s suggestion for
--
(39) ISVD, the foundation scil. of the universe = 80
= P, the letter of Mars.
(40) P also means "a mouth".
--
I am not an Anarchist in your sense of the word:
your brain is too dense for any known explosive
--
I am not an Anarchist in your sense of the word:
fancy a Policeman let loose on Society!
While there exists the burgess, the hunting man, or
any man with ideals less than Shelley's and self-
--
Every "emancipator" has enslaved the free.
[172]
--
the title is the name of one of the authors of the affair
of the Haymarket, in Chicago. See Frank Harris,
" the Bomb".
--
in the employment of such feeble implements as bombs.
Nor does he agree even with the aim of the Anarchists,
since, although Anarchists themselves need no restraint,
not daring to drink cocoa, lest their animal passions
should be aroused (as Olivia Haddon assures my
--
the last bitter sentence is terribly true; the personal
liberty of the Russian is immensely greater than that of
the Englishman. the latest Radical devices for
securing freedom have turned nine out of ten English-
men into Slaves, obliged to report their movements to
the government like so many ticket-of-leave men.
the only solution of the Social Problem is the
creation of a class with the true patriarchal feeling,
and the manners and obligations of chivalry.
[173]
--
Witch-moon that turnest all the streams to blood,
I take this hazel rod, and stand, and swear
--
That rears its agony above the flood
Whose swollen mask mutters an a theist's prayer.
What oath may stand the shock of this offence:
" there is no I, no joy, no permanence"?
--
And all the leopards in thy woods that range,
And all the vampires in their boughs that glow,
Brooding on blood-thirst- these are not so strange
And fierce as life's unfailing shower. these die,
Yet time rebears them through eternity.
Hear then the Oath, with-moon of blood, dread
moon!
--
He that endureth even to the end
Hath sworn that Love's own corpse shall lie at noon
Even in the coffin of its hopes, and spend
All the force won by its old woe and stress
In now annihilating Nothingness.
--
the title of this chapter, and its two sub-titles, will
need no explanation to readers of the classics.
This poem, inspired by Jane Cheron, is as simple
--
the poet asks, in verse 1, How can we baffle the
Three Characteristics?
--
In verse 3, he offers the solution of the problem.
This is, to accept things as they are, and to turn
your whole energies to progress on the Path.
[175]
--
the BLIND PIG(41)
Many becomes two: two one: one Naught. What
--
What! shall the Adept give up his hermit life, and
go eating and drinking and making merry?
Ay! shall he not do so? he knows that the Many is
Naught; and having Naught, enjoys that Naught
even in the enjoyment of the Many.
For when Naught becomes Absolute Naught, it
becomes again the Many.
Any this Many and this Naught are identical; they
are not correlatives or phases of some one deeper
Absence-of-Idea; they are not aspects of some
fur ther Light: they are they!
Beware, O my bro ther, lest this chapter deceive
thee!
[176]
--
the title of this chapter refers to the Greek number,
PG being "Pig" without an "i".
the subject of the chapter is consequently corollary
to Chapters 79 and 80, the ethics of Adept life.
the Adept has performed the Great Work; He has
reduced the Many to Naught; as a consequence, he
is no longer afraid of the Many.
Paragraph 4. See berashith.
Paragraph 5, takes things for what they are; give up
interpreting, refining away, analysing. Be simple and
--
Paragraph 6. With this commentary there is no
fur ther danger, and the warning becomes superfluous.
NOTE
--
the AVALANCHE
Only through devotion to FRATER PERDURABO
--
How much more then should He devote Himself to
AIWASS for the understanding of the Holy Books
of { theta-Epsilon-Lambda-Eta-Mu-Alpha}?
Yet must he labour underground eternally. the
sun is not for him, nor the flowers, nor the voices
of the birds; for he is past beyond all these. Yea,
verily, oft-times he is weary; it is well that the
weight of the Karma of the Infinite is with him.
therefore is he glad indeed; for he hath finished the
WORK; and the reward concerneth him no whit.
[178]
--
This continues the subject of Chapter 83.
the title refers to the mental attitude of the Master;
the avalanche does not fall because it is tired of staying
on the mountain, or in order to crush the Alps below it,
or because that it feels that it needs exercise. Perfectly
unconscious, perfectly indifferent, it obeys the laws of
Cohesion and of Gravitation.
It is the sun and its own weight that loosen it.
So, also, is the act of the Adept. "Delivered from the
lust of result, he is every way perfect."
--
seeks to identify himself with the Intelligence that
communicates to him the Holy Books.
Paragraphs 3 and 4 are explained by the 13th
Aethyr and the title.
[179]
--
Yet these are often beautiful, and may be true within
the circle of the conditions of the speaker.
Any yet again! Do we not find that the most robust
of men express no thoughts at all? they eat, drink,
sleep, and copulate in silence.
What better proof of the fact that all thought is
dis-ease?
We are Strassburg geese; the tastiness of our talk
comes from the disorder of our bodies.
We like it; this only proves that our tastes also are
--
the chapter is perfectly simple and needs no com-
ment.
--
N. the Fire that twisteth itself and burneth like a
scorpion.
I, the unsullied ever-flowing water.
H. the interpenetrating Spirit, without and within.
Is not its name ABRAHADABRA?
I. the unsullied ever-flowing air.
L. the green fertile earth.
Fierce are the Fires of the Universe, and on their
daggers they hold aloft the bleeding heart of earth.
Upon the earth lies water, sensuous and sleepy.
Above the water hangs air; and above air, but also
below fire-and in all- the fabric of all being
--
the number 86 refers to Elohim, the name of the elemental
forces.
the title is the Sanskrit for That, in its sense of " the Existing".
This chapter is an attempt to replace Elohim by a more
satisfactory hieroglyph of the elements.
the best attribution of Elohim is Aleph, Air; Lamed, Earth;
He, Spirit; Yod, Fire; Mem, Water. But the order is not good;
Lamed is not satisfactory for Earth, and Yod too spiritualised a
--
Paragraphs 1-6. Out of Nothing, Nothing is made. the word
Nihil is taken to affirm that the universe is Nothing, and that is
now to be analysed. the order of the element is that of Jeheshua.
the elements are taken ra ther as in Nature; N is easily Fire,
since Mars is the ruler of Scorpio: the virginity of I suits Air
and Water, elements which in Magick are closely interwoven:
H, the letter of of breath, is suitable for Spirit; Abrahadabra is
called the name of Spirit, because it is cheth: L is Earth, green
and fertile, because Venus, the greenness, fertility, and earthiness
of things is the Lady of Libra, Lamed.
In paragraph 7 we turn to the so-called Jetziratic attribution
of Pentagrammaton, that followed by Dr. Dee, and by the Hindus,
Tibetans, Chinese and Japanese. Fire is the Foundation, the
central core, of things; above this forms a crust, tormented
from below, and upon this condenses the original steam. Around this
flows the air, created by Earth and Water through the action of
vegetation.
Such is the globe; but all this is a mere strain in the aethyr,
{Alpha-Iota- theta-Eta-Rho}. Here is a new Pentagrammaton, presumably suitable
for ano ther analysis of the elements; but after a different manner.
Alpha ({Alpha}) is Air; Rho ({Rho}) the Sun; these are the Spirit and the
Son of Christian theology. In the midst is the Fa ther, expressed
as Fa ther-and-Mo ther. I-H (Yod and He), Eta ({Eta}) being used
--
has been impregnated by the Spirit; it is the rough breathing and
not the soft. the centre of all is theta ({ theta}), which was originally
written as a point in a circle ({Sun}), the sublime hieroglyph of the
Sun in the Macrocosm, and in the Microcosm of the Lingam
in conjunction with the Yoni.
This word {Alpha-Iota- theta-Eta-Rho} (Aethyr) is therefore a perfect hierogly
ph
of the Cosmos in terms of Gnostic theology.
the reader should consult La Messe et ses Mysteres, par Jean
'Marie de V .... (Paris et Nancy, 1844), for a complete
demonstration of the incorporation of the Solar and Phallic
Mysteries in Christianity.
--
there is a dish of sharks' fins and of sea-slug, well set
in birds' nests...oh!
Also there is a souffle most exquisite of Chow-Chow.
these did I devise.
But I have never tasted anything to match the
(?)
--
This chapter is technically one of the Laylah chapters.
It means that, however great may be one's own
achievements the gifts from on high are still better.
the Sigil is taken from a Gnostic talisman, and
refers to the Sacrament.
[185]
--
then for the hardness of their hearts, and for the
softness of their heads, I taught them Magick.
But...alas!
--
But how much gold will you give me for the Secret
of Infinite Riches?
then said the foremost and most foolish; Master, it
is nothing; but here is an hundred thousand
--
the term "gold bricks" is borrowed from American
finance.
the chapter is a setting of an old story.
A man advertises that he could tell anyone how to
--
a post-card with these words: "Do as I do."
the word "sucker" is borrowed from American
finance.
the moral of the chapter is, that it is no good trying
to teach people who need to be taught.
--
I am annoyed about the number 89.
I shall avenge myself by writing nothing in this
--
Frater P. had been annoyed by a scurvy doctor, the
number of whose house was 89.
--
the Angel of the Lord of Despair and Cruelty.
Also "Silence" and "Shut Up".
the four meanings completely describe the chapter.)
[189]
--
in every land that is under the dominion of the
Sun, and I have sailed the seas from pole to pole.
Now do I lift up my voice and testify that all is
vanity on earth, except the love of a good woman,
and that good woman LAYLAH. And I testify
--
oft, and sojourned oft, in every heaven), except the
love of OUR LADY BABALON. And I testify
that beyond heaven and earth is the love of OUR
LADY NUIT.
--
and that my natural forces fail, therefore do I rise
up i my throne and call upon the END.
For I am youth eternal and force infinite.
ANd at the END is SHE that was LAYLAH, and
BABALON, and NUIT, being...
--
It is the unification of all symbols and all planes.
the End is expressible.
[191]
--
the HEIKLE
A. M. E. N.
--
the "Heikle" is to be distinguished from the
"Huckle", which latter is defined in the late Sir W.S.
Gilbert's "Prince Cherry-Top".
A clear definition of the Heikle might have been
obtained from Mr Oscar Eckenstein, 34 Greencroft
--
whiteness, appearing at the extreme end of great
blackness.
It is a good title for the last chapter of this book, and
it also symbolises the eventual coming out into the light
of his that has wandered long in the darkness.
91 is the numberation of Amen.
the chapter consists of an analysis of this word, but
gives no indication as to the result of this analysis, as
if to imply this: the final Mystery is always insoluble.
FINIS.
--
mentioned in the Commentary
the Soldier and the Hunchback ! and ? the Eqx.
I, i.
--
the Vision and the Voice (Liber 418). the Eqx.,
I, v. Reprint, Barstow, Cal., 1952, with Com-
--
Liber Legis. the Eqx., I, vii.
the Book of Thoth ( the Tarot). London, 1944.
AHA! the Eqx., I, iii.
the Temple of Solomon the King. the Eqx.
Household Gods. Pallanza, 1912.
Liber LXI vel Causae. the Eqx., III, i.
Liber 500. Unpublished.
the World's Tragedy. Paris, 1910.
the Scorpion. the Eqx., I, vi.
the God-Eater. London, 1903.
Liber XVI. the Eqx., I, vi.
777, London 1909. Reprint with Commentary,
--
Liber LXV. the Eqx., III, i.
Liber O (Liber VI). the Eqx., I, ii.
Konx Om Pax. London, 1907.
Book 4, part III, same as Magick in theory and
Practice. Paris, 1929.
--
1. the Sabbath of the Goat.
2. the Cry of the Hawk.
3. the Oyster.
4. Peaches.
5. the battle of the Ants.
6. Caviar.
7. the Dinosaurs.
8. Steeped Horsehair.
9. the Branks.
10. Windlestraws.
11. the Glow-Worm.
12. the Dragon-Flies.
13. Pilgrim-Talk.
--
15. the Gun-Barrel.
16. the Stag-Beetle.
17. the Swan.
18. Dewdrops.
19. the Leopard and the Deer.
20. Samson.
21. the Blind Webster.
22. the Despot.
23. Skidoo!
24. the Hawk and the blindworm.
25. the STAR RUBY.
26. the Elephant and the Tortoise.
27. the Sorcerer.
28. the Pole-Star.
29. the Sou thern Cross.
30. John-a-Dreams.
--
31. the Garotte.
32. the Mountaineer.
33. BAPHOMET.
34. the Smoking Dog.
35. Venus of Milo.
36. the STAR SAPPHIRE.
37. Dragons.
--
39. the Looby.
40. the HIMOG.
41. Corn Beef Hash.
--
44. the MASS OF the PHOENIX.
45. Chinese Music.
--
50. the Vigil of St. Hubert.
51. Terrier Work.
52. the Bull-Baiting.
53. the Dowser.
54. Eaves-Droppings.
55. the Drooping Sunflower.
56. Trouble with Twins.
57. the Duck-Billed Platypus.
58. Haggai-Howlings.
59. the Tailess Monkey.
60. the Wound of Amfortas.
61. the Fool's Knot.
62. Twig?
--
66. the Praying Mantis.
67. Sodom-Apples.
--
69. the Way to Succeed-and the Way to Suck
Eggs!
--
73. the Devil, the Ostrich, and the Orphan Child.
74. Carey Street.
--
77. the SUBLIME AND SUPREME SEPTEN-
ARY IN ITS MATURE MAGICAL MANI-
--
79. the Bal bullier.
80. Blackthorn.
--
83. the Blind Pig.
84. the Avalanche.
85. Borborygmi.
--
91. the Heikle.
0.00 - THE GOSPEL PREFACE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
object:0.00 - the GOSPEL PREFACE
subject class:Yoga
--
Translated from the Bengali by Swami Nikhilananda
Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission
--
IN the HISTORY of the arts, genius is a thing of very rare occurrence. Rarer still, however, are the competent reporters and recorders of that genius. the world has had many hundreds of admirable poets and philosophers; but of these hundreds only a very few have had the fortune to attract a Boswell or an Eckermann.
When we leave the field of art for that of spiritual religion, the scarcity of competent reporters becomes even more strongly marked. Of the day-to-day life of the great theocentric saints and contemplatives we know, in the great majority of cases, nothing whatever. Many, it is true, have recorded their doctrines in writing, and a few, such as St. Augustine, Suso and St. Teresa, have left us autobiographies of the greatest value.
But, all doctrinal writing is in some measure formal and impersonal, while the autobiographer tends to omit what he regards as trifling matters and suffers from the fur ther disadvantage of being unable to say how he strikes o ther people and in what way he affects their lives. Moreover, most saints have left nei ther writings nor self-portraits, and for knowledge of their lives, their characters and their teachings, we are forced to rely upon the records made by their disciples who, in most cases, have proved themselves singularly incompetent as reporters and biographers. Hence the special interest attaching to this enormously detailed account of the daily life and conversations of Sri Ramakrishna.
"M", as the author modestly styles himself, was peculiarly qualified for his task. To a reverent love for his master, to a deep and experiential knowledge of that master's teaching, he added a prodigious memory for the small happenings of each day and a happy gift for recording them in an interesting and realistic way. Making good use of his natural gifts and of the circumstances in which he found himself, "M" produced a book unique, so far as my knowledge goes, in the literature of hagiography. No o ther saint has had so able and indefatigable a Boswell. Never have the small events of a contemplative's daily life been described with such a wealth of intimate detail. Never have the casual and unstudied utterances of a great religious teacher been set down with so minute a fidelity. To Western readers, it is true, this fidelity and this wealth of detail are sometimes a trifle disconcerting; for the social, religious and intellectual frames of reference within which Sri Ramakrishna did his thinking and expressed his feelings were entirely Indian. But after the first few surprises and bewilderments, we begin to find something peculiarly stimulating and instructive about the very strangeness and, to our eyes, the eccentricity of the man revealed to us in "M's" narrative. What a scholastic philosopher would call the "accidents" of Ramakrishna's life were intensely Hindu and therefore, so far as we in the West are concerned, unfamiliar and hard to understand; its "essence", however, was intensely mystical and therefore universal. To read through these conversations in which mystical doctrine alternates with an unfamiliar kind of humour, and where discussions of the oddest aspects of Hindu mythology give place to the most profound and subtle utterances about the nature of Ultimate Reality, is in itself a liberal, education in humility, tolerance and suspense of judgment. We must be grateful to the translator for his excellent version of a book so curious and delightful as a biographical document, so precious, at the same time, for what it teaches us of the life of the spirit.
--------------------
--
the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna is the English translation of the Sri Sri Rmakrishna Kathmrita, the conversations of Sri Ramakrishna with his disciples, devotees, and visitors, recorded by Mahendranth Gupta, who wrote the book under the pseudonym of "M." the conversations in Bengali fill five volumes, the first of which was published in 1897 and the last shortly after M.'s death in 1932. Sri Ramakrishna Math, Madras, has published in two volumes an English translation of selected chapters from the monumental Bengali work. I have consulted these while preparing my translation.
M., one of the intimate disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, was present during all the conversations recorded in the main body of the book and noted them down in his diary.
they therefore have the value of almost stenographic records. In Appendix A are given several conversations which took place in the absence of M., but of which he received a first-hand record from persons concerned. the conversations will bring before the reader's mind an intimate picture of the Master's eventful life from March 1882 to April 24, 1886, only a few months before his passing away. During this period he came in contact chiefly with English-educated Benglis; from among them he selected his disciples and the bearers of his message, and with them he shared his rich spiritual experiences.
I have made a literal translation, omitting only a few pages of no particular interest to English-speaking readers. Often literary grace has been sacrificed for the sake of literal translation. No translation can do full justice to the original. This difficulty is all the more felt in the present work, whose contents are of a deep mystical nature and describe the inner experiences of a great seer. Human language is an altoge ther inadequate vehicle to express supersensuous perception. Sri Ramakrishna was almost illiterate. He never clo thed his thoughts in formal language. His words sought to convey his direct realization of Truth. His conversation was in a village patois. therein lies its charm. In order to explain to his listeners an abstruse philosophy, he, like Christ before him, used with telling effect homely parables and illustrations, culled from his observation of the daily life around him.
the reader will find mentioned in this work many visions and experiences that fall outside the ken of physical science and even psychology. With the development of modern knowledge the border line between the natural and the supernatural is ever shifting its position. Genuine mystical experiences are not as suspect now as they were half a century ago. the words of Sri Ramakrishna have already exerted a tremendous influence in the land of his birth. Savants of Europe have found in his words the ring of universal truth.
But these words were not the product of intellectual cogitation; they were rooted in direct experience. Hence, to students of religion, psychology, and physical science, these experiences of the Master are of immense value for the understanding of religious phenomena in general. No doubt Sri Ramakrishna was a Hindu of the Hindus; yet his experiences transcended the limits of the dogmas and creeds of Hinduism. Mystics of religions o ther than Hinduism will find in Sri Ramakrishna's experiences a corroboration of the experiences of their own prophets and seers. And this is very important today for the resuscitation of religious values. the sceptical reader may pass by the supernatural experiences; he will yet find in the book enough material to provoke his serious thought and solve many of his spiritual problems.
there are repetitions of teachings and parables in the book. I have kept them purposely. they have their charm and usefulness, repeated as they were in different settings. Repetition is unavoidable in a work of this kind. In the first place, different seekers come to a religious teacher with questions of more or less identical nature; hence the answers will be of more or less identical pattern. Besides, religious teachers of all times and climes have tried, by means of repetition, to hammer truths into the stony soil of the recalcitrant human mind. Finally, repetition does not seem tedious if the ideas repeated are dear to a man's heart.
I have thought it necessary to write a ra ther lengthy Introduction to the book. In it I have given the biography of the Master, descriptions of people who came in contact with him, short explanations of several systems of Indian religious thought intimately connected with Sri Ramakrishna's life, and o ther relevant matters which, I hope, will enable the reader better to understand and appreciate the unusual contents of this book. It is particularly important that the Western reader, unacquainted with Hindu religious thought, should first read carefully the introductory chapter, in order that he may fully enjoy these conversations. Many Indian terms and names have been retained in the book for want of suitable English equivalents. their meaning is given ei ther in the Glossary or in the foot-notes. the Glossary also gives explanations of a number of expressions unfamiliar to Western readers. the diacritical marks are explained under Notes on Pronunciation.
In the Introduction I have drawn much material from the Life of Sri Ramakrishna, published by the Advaita Ashrama, Myvati, India. I have also consulted the excellent article on Sri Ramakrishna by Swami Nirvednanda, in the second volume of the Cultural Heritage of India.
the book contains many songs sung ei ther by the Master or by the devotees. these form an important feature of the spiritual tradition of Bengal and were for the most part written by men of mystical experience. For giving the songs their present form I am grateful to Mr. John Moffitt, Jr.
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 o ther 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.
the life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna have redirected the thoughts of the denationalized Hindus to the spiritual ideals of their forefa thers. During the latter part of the nineteenth century his was the time-honoured role of the Saviour of the Eternal Religion of the Hindus. His teachings played an important part in liberalizing the minds of orthodox pundits and hermits. Even now he is the silent force that is moulding the spiritual destiny of India. His great disciple, Swami Vivekananda, was the first Hindu missionary to preach the message of Indian culture to the enlightened minds of Europe and America. the full consequence of Swami Vivekn and work is still in the womb of the future.
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!
- Sw mi Nikhilnanda
--
the Recorder of the Gospel
MAHENDRANTH GUPTA
In the life of the great Saviours and Prophets of the world it is often found that they are accompanied by souls of high spiritual potency who play a conspicuous part in the fur therance of their Master's mission. they become so integral a part of the life and work of these great ones that posterity can think of them only in mutual association. Such is the case with Sri Ramakrishna and M., whose diary has come to be known to the world as the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna in English and as Sri Rmakrishna Kathmrita in the original Bengali version.
Sri Mahendra Nath Gupta, familiary known to the readers of the Gospel by his pen name M., and to the devotees as Master Mahashay, was born on the 14th of July, 1854 as the son of Madhusudan Gupta, an officer of the Calcutta High Court, and his wife, Swarnamayi Devi. He had a brilliant scholastic career at Hare School and the Presidency College at Calcutta. the range of his studies included the best that both occidental and oriental learning had to offer. English literature, history, economics, western philosophy and law on the one hand, and Sanskrit literature and grammar, Darsanas, Puranas, Smritis, Jainism, Buddhism, astrology and Ayurveda on the o ther were the subjects in which he attained considerable proficiency.
He was an educationist all his life both in a spiritual and in a secular sense. After he passed out of College, he took up work as headmaster in a number of schools in succession Narail High School, City School, Ripon College School, Metropolitan School, Aryan School, Oriental School, Oriental Seminary and Model School. the causes of his migration from school to school were that he could not get on with some of the managements on grounds of principles and that often his spiritual mood drew him away to places of pilgrimage for long periods. He worked with some of the most noted public men of the time like Iswar Chandra Vidysgar and Surendranath Banerjee. the latter appointed him as a professor in the City and Ripon Colleges where he taught subjects like English, philosophy, history and economics. In his later days he took over the Morton School, and he spent his time in the staircase room of the third floor of it, administering the school and preaching the message of the Master. He was much respected in educational circles where he was usually referred to as Rector Mahashay. A teacher who had worked under him writes thus in warm appreciation of his teaching methods: "Only when I worked with him in school could I appreciate what a great educationist he was. He would come down to the level of his students when teaching, though he himself was so learned, so talented. Ordinarily teachers confine their instruction to what is given in books without much thought as to whe ther the student can accept it or not. But M., would first of all gauge how much the student could take in and by what means. He would employ aids to teaching like maps, pictures and diagrams, so that his students could learn by seeing. Thirty years ago (from 1953) when the question of imparting education through the medium of the mo ther tongue was being discussed, M. had already employed Bengali as the medium of instruction in the Morton School." (M the Apostle and the Evangelist by Swami Nityatmananda Part I. P. 15.)
Imparting secular education was, however, only his profession ; his main concern was with the spiritual regeneration of man a calling for which Destiny seems to have chosen him. From his childhood he was deeply pious, and he used to be moved very much by Sdhus, temples and Durga Puja celebrations. the piety and eloquence of the great Brahmo leader of the times, Keshab Chander Sen, elicited a powerful response from the impressionable mind of Mahendra Nath, as it did in the case of many an idealistic young man of Calcutta, and prepared him to receive the great Light that was to dawn on him with the coming of Sri Ramakrishna into his life.
This epoch-making event of his life came about in a very strange way. M. belonged to a joint family with several collateral members. Some ten years after he began his career as an educationist, bitter quarrels broke out among the members of the family, driving the sensitive M. to despair and utter despondency. He lost all interest in life and left home one night to go into the wide world with the idea of ending his life. At dead of night he took rest in his sister's house at Baranagar, and in the morning, accompanied by a nephew Siddheswar, he wandered from one garden to ano ther in Calcutta until Siddheswar brought him to the Temple Garden of Dakshineswar where Sri Ramakrishna was then living. After spending some time in the beautiful rose gardens there, he was directed to the room of the Paramahamsa, where the eventful meeting of the Master and the disciple took place on a blessed evening ( the exact date is not on record) on a Sunday in March 1882. As regards what took place on the occasion, the reader is referred to the opening section of the first chapter of the Gospel.
the Master, who divined the mood of desperation in M, his resolve to take leave of this 'play-field of deception', put new faith and hope into him by his gracious words of assurance: "God forbid! Why should you take leave of this world? Do you not feel blessed by discovering your Guru? By His grace, what is beyond all imagination or dreams can be easily achieved!" At these words the clouds of despair moved away from the horizon of M.'s mind, and the sunshine of a new hope revealed to him fresh vistas of meaning in life. Referring to this phase of his life, M. used to say, "Behold! where is the resolve to end life, and where, the discovery of God! That is, sorrow should be looked upon as a friend of man. God is all good." ( Ibid P.33.)
After this re-settlement, M's life revolved around the Master, though he continued his professional work as an educationist. During all holidays, including Sundays, he spent his time at Dakshineswar in the Master's company, and at times extended his stay to several days.
It did not take much time for M. to become very intimate with the Master, or for the Master to recognise in this disciple a divinely commissioned partner in the fulfilment of his spiritual mission. When M. was reading out the Chaitanya Bhagavata, the Master discovered that he had been, in a previous birth, a disciple and companion of the great Vaishnava Teacher, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and the Master even saw him 'with his naked eye' participating in the ecstatic mass-singing of the Lord's name under the leadership of that Divine personality. So the Master told M, "You are my own, of the same substance as the fa ther and the son," indicating thereby that M. was one of the chosen few and a part and parcel of his Divine mission.
there was an urge in M. to abandon the household life and become a Sannysin. When he communicated this idea to the Master, he forbade him saying," Mo ther has told me that you have to do a little of Her work you will have to teach Bhagavata, the word of God to humanity. the Mo ther keeps a Bhagavata Pandit with a bondage in the world!"
( Ibid P.36.)
An appropriate allusion indeed! Bhagavata, the great scripture that has given the word of Sri Krishna to mankind, was composed by the Sage Vysa under similar circumstances. When caught up in a mood of depression like that of M, Vysa was advised by the sage Nrada that he would gain peace of mind only qn composing a work exclusively devoted to the depiction of the Lord's glorious attributes and His teachings on Knowledge and Devotion, and the result was that the world got from Vysa the invaluable gift of the Bhagavata Purana depicting the life and teachings of Sri Krishna.
From the mental depression of the modem Vysa, the world has obtained the Kathmrita (Bengali Edition) the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna in English.
Sri Ramakrishna was a teacher for both the Orders of mankind, Sannysins and householders. His own life offered an ideal example for both, and he left behind disciples who followed the highest traditions he had set in respect of both these ways of life. M., along with Nag Mahashay, exemplified how a householder can rise to the highest level of sagehood. M. was married to Nikunja Devi, a distant relative of Keshab Chander Sen, even when he was reading at College, and he had four children, two sons and two daughters. the responsibility of the family, no doubt, made him dependent on his professional income, but the great devotee that he was, he never compromised with ideals and principles for this reason. Once when he was working as the headmaster in a school managed by the great Vidysgar, the results of the school at the public examination happened to be ra ther poor, and Vidysgar attri buted it to M's preoccupation with the Master and his consequent failure to attend adequately to the school work. M. at once resigned his post without any thought of the morrow. Within a fortnight the family was in poverty, and M. was one day pacing up and down the verandah of his house, musing how he would feed his children the next day. Just then a man came with a letter addressed to 'Mahendra Babu', and on opening it, M. found that it was a letter from his friend Sri Surendra Nath Banerjee, asking whe ther he would like to take up a professorship in the Ripon College. In this way three or four times he gave up the job that gave him the wherewithal to support the family, ei ther for upholding principles or for practising spiritual Sadhanas in holy places, without any consideration of the possible dire worldly consequences; but he was always able to get over these difficulties somehow, and the interests of his family never suffered. In spite of his disregard for worldly goods, he was, towards the latter part of his life, in a fairly flourishing condition as the proprietor of the Morton School which he developed into a noted educational institution in the city. the Lord has said in the Bhagavad Git that in the case of those who think of nothing except Him, He Himself would take up all their material and spiritual responsibilities. M. was an example of the truth of the Lord's promise.
Though his children received proper attention from him, his real family, both during the Master's lifetime and after, consisted of saints, devotees, Sannysins and spiritual aspirants. His life exemplifies the Master's teaching that an ideal householder must be like a good maidservant of a family, loving and caring properly for the children of the house, but knowing always that her real home and children are elsewhere. During the Master's lifetime he spent all his Sundays and o ther holidays with him and his devotees, and besides listening to the holy talks and devotional music, practised meditation both on the Personal and the Impersonal aspects of God under the direct guidance of the Master. In the pages of the Gospel the reader gets a picture of M.'s spiritual relationship with the Master how from a hazy belief in the Impersonal God of the Brahmos, he was step by step brought to accept both Personality and Impersonality as the two aspects of the same Non-dual Being, how he was convinced of the manifestation of that Being as Gods, Goddesses and as Incarnations, and how he was established in a life that was both of a Jnni and of a Bhakta. This Jnni-Bhakta outlook and way of living became so dominant a feature of his life that Swami Raghavananda, who was very closely associated with him during his last six years, remarks: "Among those who lived with M. in latter days, some felt that he always lived in this constant and conscious union with God even with open eyes (i.e., even in waking consciousness)." (Swami Raghavananda's article on M. in Prabuddha Bharata vol. XXXVII. P. 442.)
Besides undergoing spiritual disciplines at the feet of the Master, M. used to go to holy places during the Master's lifetime itself and afterwards too as a part of his Sdhan.
He was one of the earliest of the disciples to visit Kamarpukur, the birthplace of the Master, in the latter's lifetime itself; for he wished to practise contemplation on the Master's early life in its true original setting. His experience there is described as follows by Swami Nityatmananda: "By the grace of the Master, he saw the entire Kamarpukur as a holy place ba thed in an effulgent Light. Trees and creepers, beasts and birds and men all were made of effulgence. So he prostrated to all on the road. He saw a torn cat, which appeared to him luminous with the Light of Consciousness. Immediately he fell to the ground and saluted it" (M the Apostle and the Evangelist by Swami Nityatmananda vol. I. P. 40.) He had similar experience in Dakshineswar also. At the instance of the Master he also visited Puri, and in the words of Swami Nityatmananda, "with indomitable courage, M. embraced the image of Jagannath out of season."
the life of Sdhan and holy association that he started on at the feet of the Master, he continued all through his life. He has for this reason been most appropriately described as a Grihastha-Sannysi (householder-Sannysin). Though he was forbidden by the Master to become a Sannysin, his reverence for the Sannysa ideal was whole-hearted and was without any reservation. So after Sri Ramakrishna's passing away, while several of the Master's householder devotees considered the young Sannysin disciples of the Master as inexperienced and inconsequential, M. stood by them with the firm faith that the Master's life and message were going to be perpetuated only through them. Swami Vivekananda wrote from America in a letter to the inmates of the Math: "When Sri Thkur (Master) left the body, every one gave us up as a few unripe urchins. But M. and a few o thers did not leave us in the lurch. We cannot repay our debt to them." (Swami Raghavananda's article on M. in Prabuddha Bharata vol. XXX P. 442.)
M. spent his weekends and holidays with the monastic brethren who, after the Master's demise, had formed themselves into an Order with a Math at Baranagore, and participated in the intense life of devotion and meditation that they followed. At o ther times he would retire to Dakshineswar or some garden in the city and spend several days in spiritual practice taking simple self-cooked food. In order to feel that he was one with all mankind he often used to go out of his home at dead of night, and like a wandering Sannysin, sleep with the waifs on some open verandah or footpath on the road.
After the Master's demise, M. went on pilgrimage several times. He visited Banras, Vrindvan, Ayodhy and o ther places. At Banras he visited the famous Trailinga Swmi and fed him with sweets, and he had long conversations with Swami Bhaskarananda, one of the noted saintly and scholarly Sannysins of the time. In 1912 he went with the Holy Mo ther to Banras, and spent about a year in the company of Sannysins at Banras, Vrindvan, Hardwar, Hrishikesh and Swargashram. But he returned to Calcutta, as that city offered him the unique opportunity of associating himself with the places hallowed by the Master in his lifetime. Afterwards he does not seem to have gone to any far-off place, but stayed on in his room in the Morton School carrying on his spiritual ministry, speaking on the Master and his teachings to the large number of people who flocked to him after having read his famous Kathmrita known to English readers as the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.
This brings us to the circumstances that led to the writing and publication of this monumental work, which has made M. one of the immortals in hagiographic literature.
While many educated people heard Sri Ramakrishna's talks, it was given to this illustrious personage alone to leave a graphic and exact account of them for posterity, with details like date, hour, place, names and particulars about participants. Humanity owes this great book to the ingrained habit of diary-keeping with which M. was endowed.
Even as a boy of about thirteen, while he was a student in the 3rd class of the Hare School, he was in the habit of keeping a diary. "Today on rising," he wrote in his diary, "I greeted my fa ther and mo ther, prostrating on the ground before them" (Swami Nityatmananda's 'M the Apostle and the Evangelist' Part I. P 29.) At ano ther place he wrote, "Today, while on my way to school, I visited, as usual, the temples of Kli, the Mo ther at Tharitharia, and of Mo ther Sitala, and paid my obeisance to them." About twenty-five years after, when he met the Great Master in the spring of 1882, it was the same instinct of a born diary-writer that made him begin his book, 'unique in the literature of hagiography', with the memorable words: "When hearing the name of Hari or Rma once, you shed tears and your hair stands on end, then you may know for certain that you do not have to perform devotions such as Sandhya any more."
In addition to this instinct for diary-keeping, M. had great endowments contri buting to success in this line. Writes Swami Nityatmananda who lived in close association with M., in his book entitled M - the Apostle and Evangelist: "M.'s prodigious memory combined with his extraordinary power of imagination completely annihilated the distance of time and place for him. Even after the lapse of half a century he could always visualise vividly, scenes from the life of Sri Ramakrishna. Superb too was his power to portray pictures by words."
Besides the prompting of his inherent instinct, the main inducement for M. to keep this diary of his experiences at Dakshineswar was his desire to provide himself with a means for living in holy company at all times. Being a school teacher, he could be with the Master only on Sundays and o ther holidays, and it was on his diary that he depended for 'holy company' on o ther days. the devotional scriptures like the Bhagavata say that holy company is the first and most important means for the generation and growth of devotion. For, in such company man could hear talks on spiritual matters and listen to the glorification of Divine attri butes, charged with the fervour and conviction emanating from the hearts of great lovers of God. Such company is therefore the one certain means through which Sraddha (Faith), Rati (attachment to God) and Bhakti (loving devotion) are generated. the diary of his visits to Dakshineswar provided M. with material for re-living, through reading and contemplation, the holy company he had had earlier, even on days when he was not able to visit Dakshineswar. the wealth of details and the vivid description of men and things in the midst of which the sublime conversations are set, provide excellent material to re-live those experiences for any one with imaginative powers. It was observed by M.'s disciples and admirers that in later life also whenever he was free or alone, he would be pouring over his diary, transporting himself on the wings of imagination to the glorious days he spent at the feet of the Master.
During the Master's lifetime M. does not seem to have revealed the contents of his diary to any one. there is an unconfirmed tradition that when the Master saw him taking notes, he expressed apprehension at the possibility of his utilising these to publicise him like Keshab Sen; for the Great Master was so full of the spirit of renunciation and humility that he disliked being lionised. It must be for this reason that no one knew about this precious diary of M. for a decade until he brought out selections from it as a pamphlet in English in 1897 with the Holy Mo ther's blessings and permission. the Holy Mo ther, being very much pleased to hear parts of the diary read to her in Bengali, wrote to M.: "When I heard the Kathmrita, (Bengali name of the book) I felt as if it was he, the Master, who was saying all that." ( Ibid Part I. P 37.)
the two pamphlets in English entitled the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna appeared in October and November 1897. they drew the spontaneous acclamation of Swami Vivekananda, who wrote on 24th November of that year from Dehra Dun to M.:"Many many thanks for your second leaflet. It is indeed wonderful. the move is quite original, and never was the life of a Great Teacher brought before the public untarnished by the writer's mind, as you are doing. the language also is beyond all praise, so fresh, so pointed, and withal so plain and easy. I cannot express in adequate terms how I have enjoyed them. I am really in a transport when I read them. Strange, isn't it? Our Teacher and Lord was so original, and each one of us will have to be original or nothing.
I now understand why none of us attempted His life before. It has been reserved for you, this great work. He is with you evidently." ( Vednta Kesari Vol. XIX P. 141. Also given in the first edition of the Gospel published from Ramakrishna Math, Madras in 1911.)
And Swamiji added a post script to the letter: "Socratic dialogues are Plato all over you are entirely hidden. Moreover, the dramatic part is infinitely beautiful. Everybody likes it here or in the West." Indeed, in order to be unknown, Mahendranath had used the pen-name M., under which the book has been appearing till now. But so great a book cannot remain obscure for long, nor can its author remain unrecognised by the large public in these modern times. M. and his book came to be widely known very soon and to meet the growing demand, a full-sized book, Vol. I of the Gospel, translated by the author himself, was published in 1907 by the Brahmavadin Office, Madras. A second edition of it, revised by the author, was brought out by the Ramakrishna Math, Madras in December 1911, and subsequently a second part, containing new chapters from the original Bengali, was published by the same Math in 1922. the full English translation of the Gospel by Swami Nikhilananda appeared first in 1942.
In Bengali the book is published in five volumes, the first part having appeared in 1902
and the o thers in 1905, 1907, 1910 and 1932 respectively.
It looks as if M. was brought to the world by the Great Master to record his words and transmit them to posterity. Swami Sivananda, a direct disciple of the Master and the second President of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, says on this topic: "Whenever there was an interesting talk, the Master would call Master Mahashay if he was not in the room, and then draw his attention to the holy words spoken. We did not know then why the Master did so. Now we can realise that this action of the Master had an important significance, for it was reserved for Master Mahashay to give to the world at large the sayings of the Master." ( Vednta Kesari Vol. XIX P 141.) Thanks to M., we get, unlike in the case of the great teachers of the past, a faithful record with date, time, exact report of conversations, description of concerned men and places, references to contemporary events and personalities and a hundred o ther details for the last four years of the Master's life (1882-'86), so that no one can doubt the historicity of the Master and his teachings at any time in the future.
M. was, in every respect, a true missionary of Sri Ramakrishna right from his first acquaintance with him in 1882. As a school teacher, it was a practice with him to direct to the Master such of his students as had a true spiritual disposition. Though himself prohibited by the Master to take to monastic life, he encouraged all spiritually inclined young men he came across in his later life to join the monastic Order. Swami Vijnanananda, a direct Sannysin disciple of the Master and a President of the Ramakrishna Order, once remarked to M.: "By enquiry, I have come to the conclusion that eighty percent and more of the Sannysins have embraced the monastic life after reading the Kathmrita (Bengali name of the book) and coming in contact with you." ( M
the Apostle and the Evangelist by Swami Nityatmananda Part I, P 37.)
In 1905 he retired from the active life of a Professor and devoted his remaining twenty-seven years exclusively to the preaching of the life and message of the Great Master. He bought the Morton Institution from its original proprietors and shifted it to a commodious four-storeyed house at 50 Amherst Street, where it flourished under his management as one of the most efficient educational institutions in Calcutta. He generally occupied a staircase room at the top of it, cooking his own meal which consisted only of milk and rice without variation, and attended to all his personal needs himself. His dress also was the simplest possible. It was his conviction that limitation of personal wants to the minimum is an important aid to holy living. About one hour in the morning he would spend in inspecting the classes of the school, and then retire to his staircase room to pour over his diary and live in the divine atmosphere of the earthly days of the Great Master, unless devotees and admirers had already ga thered in his room seeking his holy company.
In appearance, M. looked a Vedic Rishi. Tall and stately in bearing, he had a strong and well-built body, an unusually broad chest, high forehead and arms extending to the knees. His complexion was fair and his prominent eyes were always tinged with the expression of the divine love that filled his heart. Adorned with a silvery beard that flowed luxuriantly down his chest, and a shining face radiating the serenity and gravity of holiness, M. was as imposing and majestic as he was handsome and engaging in appearance. Humorous, sweet-tongued and eloquent when situations required, this great Maharishi of our age lived only to sing the glory of Sri Ramakrishna day and night.
Though a very well versed scholar in the Upanishads, Git and the philosophies of the East and the West, all his discussions and teachings found their culmination in the life and the message of Sri Ramakrishna, in which he found the real explanation and illustration of all the scriptures. Both consciously and unconsciously, he was the teacher of the Kathmrita the nectarine words of the Great Master.
Though a much-sought-after spiritual guide, an educationist of repute, and a contemporary and close associate of illustrious personages like Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, Keshab Chander Sen and Iswar Chander Vidysgar, he was always moved by the noble humanity of a lover of God, which consists in respecting the personalities of all as receptacles of the Divine Spirit. So he taught without the consciousness of a teacher, and no bar of superiority stood in the way of his doing the humblest service to his students and devotees. "He was a commission of love," writes his close devotee, Swami Raghavananda, "and yet his soft and sweet words would pierce the stoniest heart, make the worldly-minded weep and repent and turn Godwards."
( Prabuddha Bharata Vol. XXXVII P 499.)
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 Mo ther 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.
had sent his devotees who used to keep company with him, to attend the special worship at Belur Math at night. After attending the service at the home shrine, he went through the proof of the Kathmrita for an hour. Suddenly he got a severe attack of neuralgic pain, from which he had been suffering now and then, of late. Before 6 a.m. in the early hours of 4th June 1932 he passed away, fully conscious and chanting: 'Gurudeva-Ma, Kole tule na-o (Take me in your arms! O Master! O Mo ther!!)'
SWMI TAPASYNANDA
0.00 - The Wellspring of Reality, #Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking, #R Buckminster Fuller, #Science
object:0.00 - the Wellspring of Reality
author class:R Buckminster Fuller
--
We are in an age that assumes the narrowing trends of specialization to be logical, natural, and desirable. Consequently, society expects all earnestly responsible communication to be crisply brief. Advancing science has now discovered that all the known cases of biological extinction have been caused by overspecialization, whose concentration of only selected genes sacrifices general adaptability. Thus the specialist's brief for pinpointing brevity is dubious. In the meantime, humanity has been deprived of comprehensive understanding. Specialization has bred feelings of isolation, futility, and confusion in individuals. It has also resulted in the individual's leaving responsibility for thinking and social action to o thers.
Specialization breeds biases that ultimately aggregate as international and ideological discord, which, in turn, leads to war.
We are not seeking a license to ramble wordily. We are intent only upon being adequately concise. General systems science discloses the existence of minimum sets of variable factors that uniquely govern each and every system. Lack of knowledge concerning all the factors and the failure to include them in our integral imposes false conclusions. Let us not make the error of inadequacy in examining our most comprehensive inventory of experience and thoughts regarding the evoluting affairs of all humanity.
there is an inherently minimum set of essential concepts and current information, cognizance of which could lead to our operating our planet Earth to the lasting satisfaction and health of all humanity. With this objective, we set out on our review of the spectrum of significant experiences and seek therein for the greatest meanings as well as for the family of generalized principles governing the realization of their optimum significance to humanity aboard our Sun circling planet Earth.
We must start with scientific fundamentals, and that means with the data of experiments and not with assumed axioms predicated only upon the misleading nature of that which only superficially seems to be obvious. It is the consensus of great scientists that science is the attempt to set in order the facts of experience.
Holding within their definition, we define Universe as the aggregate of allhumanity's consciously apprehended and communicated, nonsimultaneous, and only partially overlapping experiences. An aggregate of finites is finite. Universe is a finite but nonsimultaneously conceptual scenario.
the human brain is a physical mechanism for storing, retrieving, and re-storing again, each special-case experience. the experience is often a packaged concept.
Such packages consist of complexedly interrelated and not as-yet differentially analyzed phenomena which, as initially unit cognitions, are potentially re-experienceable. A rose, for instance, grows. has thorns, blossoms, and fragrance, but often is stored in the brain only under the single word-rose.
As Korzybski, the founder of general semantics, pointed out, the consequence of its single-tagging is that the rose becomes reflexively considered by man only as a red, white, or pink device for paying tribute to a beautiful girl, a thoughtful hostess, or last night's deceased acquaintance. the tagging of the complex biological process under the single title rose tends to detour human curiosity from fur ther differentiation of its integral organic operations as well as from consideration of its interecological functionings aboard our planet. We don't know what a rose is, nor what may be its essential and unique cosmic function. Thus for long have we inadvertently deferred potential discovery of the essential roles in Universe that are performed complementarily by many, if not most, of the phenomena we experience.
But, goaded by youth, we older ones are now taking second looks at almost everything. And that promises many ultimately favorable surprises. the oldsters do have vast experience banks not available to the youth. their memory banks, integrated and reviewed, may readily disclose generalized principles of eminent importance.
the word generalization in literature usually means covering too much territory too thinly to be persuasive, let alone convincing. In science, however, a generalization means a principle that has been found to hold true in every special case.
the principle of leverage is a scientific generalization. It makes no difference of what material ei ther the fulcrum or the lever consists-wood, steel, or reinforced concrete. Nor do the special-case sizes of the lever and fulcrum, or of the load pried at one end, or the work applied at the lever's o ther end in any way alter ei ther the principle or the ma thematical regularity of the ratios of physical work advantage that are provided at progressive fulcrum-to-load increments of distance outward from the fulcrum in the opposite direction along the lever's arm at which theoperating effort is applied.
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 o ther hand, exceptions that disqualify one or ano ther 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 fur ther 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 ano ther, 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 fur ther warring with o ther 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.
Only a comprehensive switch from the narrowing specialization and toward an evermore inclusive and refining comprehension by all humanity-regarding all the factors governing omnicontinuing life aboard our spaceship Earth-can bring about reorientation from the self-extinction-bound human trending, and do so within the critical time remaining before we have passed the point of chemical process irretrievability.
Quite clearly, our task is predominantly metaphysical, for it is how to get all of humanity to educate itself swiftly enough to generate spontaneous social behaviors that will avoid extinction.
Living upon the threshold between yesterday and tomorrow, which threshold we reflexively assumed in some long ago yesterday to constitute an eternal now, we are aware of the daily-occurring, vast multiplication of experience generated information by which we potentially may improve our understanding of our yesterdays' experiences and therefrom derive our most farsighted preparedness for successive tomorrows.
Anticipating, cooperating with, and employing the forces of nature can be accomplished only by the mind. the wisdom manifest in the omni-interorderliness of the family of generalized principles operative in Universe can be employed only by the highest integrity of engagement of the mind's metaphysical intuiting and formulating capabilities.
We are able to assert that this rationally coordinating system bridge has been established between science and the humanities because we have made adequate experimental testing of it in a computerized world-resource-use-exploration system, which by virtue of the proper inclusion of all the parameters-as guaranteed by the synergetic start with Universe and the progressive differentiation out of all the parts-has demonstrated a number of alternate ways in which it is eminently feasible not only to provide full life support for all humans but also to permit all humans' individual enjoyment of all the Earth without anyone profiting at the expense of ano ther and without any individuals interfering with o thers.
While it takes but meager search to discover that many well-known concepts are false, it takes considerable search and even more careful examination of one's own personal experiences and inadvertently spontaneous reflexing to discover that there are many popularly and even professionally unknown, yet none theless fundamental, concepts to hold true in all cases and that already have been discovered by o ther as yet obscure individuals. That is to say that many scientific generalizations have been discovered but have not come to the attention of what we call the educated world at large, thereafter to be incorporated tardily within the formal education processes, and even more tardily, in the ongoing political-economic affairs of everyday life. Knowledge of the existence and comprehensive significance of these as yet popularly unrecognized natural laws often is requisite to the solution of many of the as yet unsolved problems now confronting society. Lack of knowledge of the solution's existence often leaves humanity confounded when it need not be.
Intellectually advantaged with no more than the child's facile, lucid eagerness to understand constructively and usefully the major transformational events of our own times, it probably is synergetically advantageous to review swiftly the most comprehensive inventory of the most powerful human environment transforming events of our totally known and reasonably extended history. This is especially useful in winnowing out and understanding the most significant of the metaphysical revolutions now recognized as swiftly tending to reconstitute history. By such a comprehensively schematic review, we might identify also the unprecedented and possibly heretofore overlooked pivotal revolutionary events not only of today but also of those trending to be central to tomorrow's most cataclysmic changes.
It is synergetically reasonable to assume that relativistic evaluation of any of the separate drives of art, science, education, economics, and ideology, and their complexedly interacting trends within our own times, may be had only through the most comprehensive historical sweep of which we are capable.
there could be produced a synergetic understanding of humanity's cosmic functioning, which, until now, had been both undiscovered and unpredictable due to our deliberate and exclusive preoccupation only with the separate statistics of separate events. As a typical consequence of the latter, we observe our society's persistent increase of educational and employment specialization despite the already mentioned, well-documented scientific disclosure that the extinctions of biological species are always occasioned by overspecialization. Specialization's preoccupation with parts deliberately forfeits the opportunity to apprehend and comprehend what is provided exclusively by synergy.
Today's news consists of aggregates of fragments. Anyone who has taken part in any event that has subsequently appeared in the news is aware of the gross disparity between the actual and the reported events. the insistence by reporters upon having advance "releases" of what, for instance, convocation speakers are supposedly going to say but in fact have not yet said, automatically discredits the value of the largely prefabricated news. We also learn frequently of prefabricated and prevaricated events of a complex nature purportedly undertaken for purposes ei ther of suppressing or rigging the news, which in turn perverts humanity's tactical information resources. All history becomes suspect. Probably our most polluted resource is the tactical information to which humanity spontaneously reflexes.
Fur thermore, 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 ano ther'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 syn thesizing 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.
It is spontaneously inquisitive. It sorts out and endeavors to understand.
the overconcentration on details of hyperspecialization has also been responsible for the lack of recognition by science of its inherently mandatory responsibility to reorient all our educational curricula because of the synergetically disclosed, but popularly uncomprehended, significance of the 1956 Nobel Prize-winning discovery in physics of the experimental invalidation of the concept of "parity" by which science previously had misassumed that positive-negative complementations consisted exclusively of mirror-imaged behaviors of physical phenomena.
Science's self-assumed responsibility has been self-limited to disclosure to society only of the separate, supposedly physical (because separately weighable) atomic component isolations data. Synergetic integrity would require the scientists to announce that in reality what had been identified heretofore as physical is entirely metaphysical-because synergetically weightless. Metaphysical has been science's designation for all weightless phenomena such as thought. But science has made no experimental finding of any phenomena that can be described as a solid, or as continuous, or as a straight surface plane, or as a straight line, or as infinite anything. We are now synergetically forced to conclude that all phenomena are metaphysical; wherefore, as many have long suspected-like it or not-life is but a dream.Science has found no up or down directions of Universe, yet scientists are personally so ill-coordinated that they all still personally and sensorially see "solids" going up or down-as, for instance, they see the Sun "going down." Sensorially disconnected from their theoretically evolved information, scientists discern no need on their part to suggest any educational reforms to correct the misconceiving that science has tolerated for half a millennium.
Society depends upon its scientists for just such educational reform guidance.
Where else might society turn for advice? Unguided by science, society is allowed to go right on filling its childrens' brain banks with large inventories of competence-devastating misinformation. In order to emerge from its massive ignorance, society will probably have to rely exclusively upon its individuals' own minds to survey the pertinent experimental data-as do all great scientist-artists. This, in effect, is what the intuition of world-around youth is beginning to do. Mind can see that reality is evoluting into weightless metaphysics. the wellspring of reality is the family of weightless generalized principles.
It is essential to release humanity from the false fixations of yesterday, which seem now to bind it to a rationale of action leading only to extinction.
the youth of humanity all around our planet are intuitively revolting from all sovereignties and political ideologies. the youth of Earth are moving intuitively toward an utterly classless, raceless, omnicooperative, omniworld humanity.
Children freed of the ignorantly founded educational traditions and exposed only to their spontaneously summoned, computer-stored and -distributed outflow of reliable-opinion-purged, experimentally verified data, shall indeed lead society to its happy egress from all misinformedly conceived, fearfully and legally imposed, and physically enforced customs of yesterday. they can lead all humanity into omnisuccessful survival as well as entrance into an utterly new era of human experience in an as-yet and ever-will-be fundamentally mysterious Universe.
And whence will come the wealth with which we may undertake to lead world man into his new and validly hopeful life? From the wealth of the minds of world man-whence comes all wealth. Only mind can discover how to do so much with so little as forever to be able to sustain and physically satisfy all humanity.
0.00 - To the Reader, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
object:0.00 - To the Reader
author class:A B Purani
--
To the Reader
To the Reader
the reader is requested to note that Sri Aurobindo is not responsible for these records as he had no opportunity to see them. So, it is not as if Sri Aurobindo said exactly these things but that I remember him to have said them. All I can say is that I have tried to be as faithful in recording them as I was humanly capable. That does not minimise my personal responsibility which I fully accept.
A. B. PURANI
--
Participants in the Evening Talks
0.01f - FOREWARD, #The Phenomenon of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
subject class:Integral theory
class:chapter
--
upon us, when he is placed fairly and squarely within the frame-
work of phenomenon and appearance.
--
Seeing. We might say that the whole of life lies in that verb
if not ultimately, at least essentially. Fuller being is closer union :
such is the kernel and conclusion of this book. But let us empha-
sise the point : union increases only through an increase in con-
sciousness, that is to say in vision. And that, doubtless, is why the
history of the living world can be summarised as the elaboration
of ever more perfect eyes within a cosmos in which there is
always something more to be seen. After all, do we not judge
the perfection of an animal, or the supremacy of a thinking being,
by the penetration and syn thetic power of their gaze ? To try to
see more and better is not a matter of whim or curiosity or self-
indulgence. To see or to perish is the very condition laid upon
everything that makes up the universe, by reason of the mysterious
gift of existence. And this, in superior measure, is man's condition.
--
tedious subject ? Is it not precisely one of the attractions of science
that it rests our eyes by turning them away from man ?
Man has a double title, as the twofold centre of the world, to
impose himself on our effort to sec, as the key to the universe.
3i
--
Subjectively, first of all, we are inevitably the centre of
perspective of our own observation. In its early, naive stage,
--
phenomena in themselves, as they would take place in our
absence. Instinctively physicists and naturalists went to work as
though they could look down from a great height upon a world
which their consciousness could penetrate without being sub-
mitted to it or changing it. they are now beginning to realise
that even the most objective of their observations are steeped in
the conventions they adopted at the outset and by forms or
habits of thought developed in the course of the growth of
research ; so that, when they reach the end of their analyses they
cannot tell with any certainty whe ther the structure they have
reached is the essence of the matter they are studying, or the
reflection of their own thought. And at die same time they
realise that as the result of their discoveries, they are caught body
and soul to the network of relationships they thought to cast
upon things from outside : in fact they are caught in their own
net. A geologist would use the words metamorphism and
endomorphism. Object and subject marry and mutually trans-
form each o ther in the act of knowledge ; and from now on
man willy-nilly fmds his own image stamped on all he looks at.
--
fettered, to be obliged to carry with him everywhere the centre
of the landscape he is crossing. But what happens when chance
directs his steps to a point of vantage (a cross-roads, or intersecting
valleys) from which, not only his vision, but things themselves
radiate? In that event the subjective viewpoint coincides with
the way things are distributed objectively, and perception reaches
its apogee. the landscape lights up and yields its secrets. He sees.
That seems to be the privilege of man's knowledge.
It is not necessary to be a man to perceive surrounding things
and forces ' in the round '. All the animals have reached this point
as well as us. But it is peculiar to man to occupy a position in
--
nature at which the convergent lines are not only visual but
structural. the following pages will do no more than verify and
analyse this phenomenon. By virtue of the quality and the bio-
logical properties of thought, we find ourselves situated at a
singular point, at a ganglion which commands the whole fraction
of the cosmos that is at present within reach of our experience.
Man, the centre of perspective, is at the same time the centre of
construction of the universe. And by expediency no less than by
necessity, all science must be referred back to him. If to see is
really to become more, if vision is really fuller being, then we
should look closely at man in order to increase our capacity to
--
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
--
view of his own significance in the physical world. there is no
need to be surprised at this slow awakening. It often happens
that what stares us in the face is the most difficult to perceive.
the child has to learn to separate out the images which assail
the newly-opened retina. For man to discover man and take his
--
gradual acquisition, as we shall show, covers and punctuates the
whole history of the struggles of the mind :
A sense of spatial immensity, in greatness and smallness, dis-
--
the orbits of the objects which press round us ;
A sense of depth, pushing back laboriously through endless
--
of the past ;
A sense of number, discovering and grasping unflinchingly
--
in the slightest change in the universe ;
A sense of proportion, realising as best we can the difference
of physical scale which separates, both in rhythm and dimension,
--
the atom from the nebula, the infinitesimal from the immense ;
A sense of quality, or of novelty, enabling us to distinguish in
--
upsetting the physical unity of the world ;
A sense of movement, capable of perceiving the irresistible
developments hidden in extreme slowness extreme agitation
concealed beneath a veil of immobility the entirely new in-
sinuating itself into the heart of the monotonous repetition of the
same things ;
A sense, lastly, of the organic, discovering physical links and
structural unity under the superficial juxtaposition of successions
and collectivities.
Without these qualities to illuminate our vision, man will
remain indefinitely for us whatever is done to make us see
--
man effordessly to take the central position we prophesied the
momentary summit of an anthropogenesis which is itself the
crown of a cosmogencsis.
--
related to the universe.
thence stems the basic plan of this work : Pre-Life : Life :
Thought three events sketching in the past and determining for
the future (Survival) a single and continuing trajectory, the curve
of the phenomenon of man.
the phenomenon of man I stress this.
--
least partially) within the scope of the requirements and methods
of science ;
Secondly, to make plain that of all the facts offered to our
knowledge, none is more extraordinary or more illuminating ;
Thirdly, to stress the special character of the Essay I am pre-
senting.
--
about the degree of reality which I accord to the different parts of
the film I am projecting. When 1 try to picture the world before
the dawn of life, or life in the Palaeozoic era, I do not forget that
there would be a cosmic contradiction in imagining a man as
spectator of those phases which ran their course before the
appearance of thought on earth. I do not pretend to describe
them as they really were, but ra ther as we must picture them to
ourselves so that the world may be true for us at this moment.
What I depict is not the past in itself, but as it must appear to an
observer standing on the advanced peak where evolution has
placed us. It is a safe and modest method and yet, as we shall see,
--
visions of the future.
Even reduced to these humble proportions, the views I am
attempting to put forward here arc, of course, largely tentative
and personal. Yet inasmuch as they are based on arduous investi-
gation and sustained reflection, they give an idea, by means of
one example, of the way in which the problem of man presents
itself in science today.
--
pronounced individuality conceals from our eyes the whole to
which he belongs ; as we look at him our minds incline to break
--
the time has come to realise that an interpretation of the
universe even a positivist one remains unsatisfying unless it
--
covers the interior as well as the exterior of things ; mind as well
as matter. the true physics is that which will, one day, achieve
the inclusion of man in his wholeness in a coherent picture of the
world.
I hope I shall persuade the reader that such an attempt is
possible, and that the preservation of courage and the joy of
action in those of us who wish, and know how, to plumb the
depths of things, depend on it.
In fact I doubt whe ther there is a more decisive moment for
a thinking being than when the scales fall from his eyes and he
discovers that he is not an isolated unit lost in the cosmic solitudes,
and realises that a universal will to live converges and is hominised
--
In such a vision man is seen not as a static centre of the world
as he for long believed himself to be but as the axis and
leading shoot of evolution, which is something much finer.
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
the question which Arjuna asks Sri Krishna in the Gita (second chapter) occurs pertinently to many about all spiritual personalities: "What is the language of one whose understanding is poised? How does he speak, how sit, how walk?" Men want to know the outer signs of the inner attainment, the way in which a spiritual person differs outwardly from o ther men. But all the tests which the Gita enumerates are inner and therefore invisible to the outer view. It is true also that the inner or the spiritual is the essential and the outer derives its value and form from the inner. But the transformation about which Sri Aurobindo writes in his books has to take place in nature, because according to him the divine Reality has to manifest itself in nature. So, all the parts of nature including the physical and the external are to be transformed. In his own case the very physical became the transparent mould of the Spirit as a result of his intense Sadhana. This is borne out by the impression created on the minds of sensitive outsiders like Sj. K. M. Munshi who was deeply impressed by his radiating presence when he met him after nearly forty years.
the Evening Talks collected here may afford to the outside world a glimpse of his external personality and give the seeker some idea of its richness, its many-sidedness, its uniqueness. One can also form some notion of Sri Aurobindo's personality from the books in which the height, the universal sweep and clear vision of his integral ideal and thought can be seen. His writings are, in a sense, the best representative of his mental personality. the versatile nature of his genius, the penetrating power of his intellect, his extraordinary power of expression, his intense sincerity, his utter singleness of purpose all these can be easily felt by any earnest student of his works. He may discover even in the realm of mind that Sri Aurobindo brings the unlimited into the limited. Ano ther side of his dynamic personality is represented by the Ashram as an institution. But the outer, if one may use the phrase, the human side of his personality, is unknown to the outside world because from 1910 to 1950 a span of forty years he led a life of outer retirement. No doubt, many knew about his staying at Pondicherry and practising some kind of very special Yoga to the mystery of which they had no access. To some, perhaps, he was living a life of enviable solitude enjoying the luxury of a spiritual endeavour. Many regretted his retirement as a great loss to the world because they could not see any external activity on his part which could be regarded as 'public', 'altruistic' or 'beneficial'. Even some of his admirers thought that he was after some kind of personal salvation which would have very little significance for mankind in general. His outward non-participation in public life was construed by many as lack of love for humanity.
But those who knew him during the days of the national awakening from 1900 to 1910 could not have these doubts. And even these initial misunderstandings and false notions of o thers began to evaporate with the growth of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram from 1927 onwards. the large number of books published by the Ashram also tended to remove the idea of the o ther-worldliness of his Yoga and the absence of any good by it to mankind.
This period of outer retirement was one of intense Sadhana and of intellectual activity it was also one during which he acted on external events, though he was not dedicated outwardly to a public cause. About his own retirement he writes: "But this did not mean, as most people supposed, that he [Sri Aurobindo] had retired into some height of spiritual experience devoid of any fur ther interest in the world or in the fate of India. It could not mean that, for the very principle of his Yoga was not only to realise the Divine and attain to a complete spiritual consciousness, but also to take all life and all world activity into the scope of this spiritual consciousness and action and to base life on the Spirit and give it a spiritual meaning. In his retirement Sri Aurobindo kept a close watch on all that was happening in the world and in India and actively intervened, whenever necessary, but solely with a spiritual force and silent spiritual action; for it is part of the experience of those who have advanced in yoga that besides the ordinary forces and activities of the mind and life and body in Matter, there are o ther forces and powers that can and do act from behind and from above; there is also a spiritual dynamic power which can be possessed by those who are advanced in spiritual consciousness, though all do not care to possess or, possessing, to use it and this power is greater than any o ther and more effective. It was this force which, as soon as he attained to it, he used at first only in a limited field of personal work, but afterwards in a constant action upon the world forces."[1]
Twice he found it necessary to go out of his way to make public pronouncements on important world-issues, which shows distinctly that renunciation of life is not a part of his Yoga. " the first was in relation to the Second World War. At the beginning he did not actively concern himself with it, but when it appeared as if Hitler would crush all the forces opposed to him and Nazism dominate the world, he began to intervene."[2]
the second was with regard to Sir Stafford Cripps' proposal for the transfer of power to India.
Over and above Sadhana, writing work and rendering spiritual help to the world during his apparent retirement there were plenty of o ther 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.
Sri Aurobindo has explained the mystery of personality in some of his writings. Ordinarily by personality we mean something which can be described as "a pattern of being marked out by a settled combination of fixed qualities, a determined character.... In one view personality is regarded as a fixed structure of recognisable qualities expressing a power of being"; ano ther idea regards "personality as a flux of self-expressive or sensitive and responsive being.... But flux of nature and fixity of nature" which some call character "are two aspects of being nei ther of which, nor indeed both toge ther, can be a definition of personality.... But besides this flux and this fixity there is also a third and occult element, the Person behind of whom the personality is a self-expression; the Person puts forward the personality as his role, character, persona, in the present act of his long drama of manifested existence. But the Person is larger than his personality, and it may happen that this inner largeness overflows into the surface formation; the result is a self-expression of being which can no longer be described by fixed qualities, normalities of mood, exact lineaments, or marked out by structural limits."[4]
the gospel of the Supermind which Sri Aurobindo brought to man envisages a new level of consciousness beyond Mind. When this level is attained it imposes a complete and radical reintegration of the human personality. Sri Aurobindo was not merely the exponent but the embodiment of the new, dynamic truth of the Supermind. While exploring and sounding the tremendous possibilities of human personality in his intense spiritual Sadhana, he has shown us that practically there are no limits to its expansion and ascent. It can reach in its growth what appears to man at present as a 'divine' status. It goes without saying that this attainment is not an easy task; there are conditions to be fulfilled for the transformation from the human to the divine.
the Gita in its chapters on the Vibhuti and the Avatar takes in general the same position. It shows that the present formula of our nature, and therefore the mental personality of man, is not final. A Vibhuti embodies in a human manifestation a certain divine quality and thus demonstrates the possibility of overcoming the limits of ordinary human personality. the Vibhuti the embodiment of a divine quality or power, and the Avatar the divine incarnation, are not to be looked upon as supraphysical miracles thrown at humanity without regard to the process of evolution; they are, in fact, indications of human possibility, a sign that points to the goal of evolution.
In his Essays on the Gita, Sri Aurobindo says about the Avatar: "He may, on the o ther hand, descend as an incarnation of divine life, the divine personality and power in its characteristic action, for a mission ostensibly social, ethical and political, as is represented in the story of Rama or Krishna; but always then this descent becomes in the soul of the race a permanent power for the inner living and the spiritual rebirth."[5]
"He comes as the divine power and love which calls men to itself, so that they may take refuge in that and no longer in the insufficiency of their human wills and the strife of their human fear, wrath and passion, and liberated from all this unquiet and suffering may live in the calm and bliss of the Divine."[6]
" the Avatar comes to reveal the divine nature in man above this lower nature and to show what are the divine works, free, unegoistic, disinterested, impersonal, universal, full of the divine light, the divine power and the divine love. He comes as the divine personality which shall fill the consciousness of the human being and replace the limited egoistic personality, so that it shall be liberated out of ego into infinity and universality, out of birth into immortality."[7]
It is clear that Sri Aurobindo interpreted the traditional idea of the Vibhuti and the Avatar in terms of the evolutionary possibilities of man. But more directly he has worked out the idea of the 'gnostic individual' in his masterpiece the Life Divine. He says: "A supramental gnostic individual will be a spiritual Person, but not a personality in the sense of a pattern of being marked out by a settled combination of fixed qualities, a determined character; he cannot be that since he is a conscious expression of the universal and the transcendent." Describing the gnostic individual he says: "We feel ourselves in the presence of a light of consciousness, a potency, a sea of energy, can distinguish and describe its free waves of action and quality, but not fix itself; and yet there is an impression of personality, the presence of a powerful being, a strong, high or beautiful recognisable Someone, a Person, not a limited creature of Nature but a Self or Soul, a Purusha."[8]
One feels that he was describing the feeling of some of us, his disciples, with regard to him in his inimitable way.
This transformation of the human personality into the Divine perhaps even the mere connection of the human with the Divine is probably regarded as a chimera by the modern mind. To the modern mind it would appear as the apo theosis of a human personality which is against its idea of equality of men. Its difficulty is partly due to the notion that the Divine is unlimited and illimitable while a 'personality', however high and grand, seems to demand imposition, or assumption, of limitation. In this connection Sri Aurobindo said during an evening talk that no human manifestation can be illimitable and unlimited, but the manifestation in the limited should reflect the unlimited, the Transcendent Beyond.
This possibility of the human touching and manifesting the Divine has been realised during the course of human history whenever a great spiritual Light has appeared on earth. One of the purposes of this book is to show how Sri Aurobindo himself reflected the unlimited Beyond in his own self.
Greatness is magnetic and in a sense contagious. Wherever manifested, greatness is claimed by humanity as something that reveals the possibility of the race. the highest utility of greatness is not merely to attract us but to inspire us to follow it and rise to our own highest spiritual stature. To the majority of men Truth remains abstract, impersonal and far unless it is seen and felt concretely in a human personality. A man never knows a truth actively except through a person and by embodying it in his own personality. Some glimpse of the Truth-Consciousness which Sri Aurobindo embodied may be caught in these Evening Talks.
***
Participants in the Evening Talks II
0.01 - Letters from the Mother to Her Son, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
object:0.01 - Letters from the Mo ther to Her Son
author class: the Mo ther
--
Letters from the Mo ther to Her Son
Our community is growing more and more; we are nearly thirty
--
have become responsible for all this; I am at the centre of the
organisation, on the material as well as the spiritual side, and you
can easily imagine what it means. We already occupy five houses,
--
are coming from all parts of the world. With this expansion,
new activities are being created, new needs are arising which
--
I think I told you about our five houses; four of them are joined in
a single square block which is surrounded on all sides by streets
--
these houses and then, just recently, we have settled there, Sri
Aurobindo and myself, as well as five of the closest disciples.
We have joined the houses toge ther with openings in some
of the outer walls and outbuildings, so that I may walk freely in
our little realm without having to go out into the street - this is
ra ther nice. But I am busier than ever now, and I can say that at
--
It is true that for a long time I have not slept in the usual
sense of the word.1 That is to say, at no time do I fall into
Written in connection with a newspaper article in which it was stated that the Mo ther
had not slept for several months.
the inconscience which is the sign of ordinary sleep. But I do
give my body the rest it needs, that is, two or three hours of
lying down in a condition of absolute immobility in which the
whole being, mental, psychic, vital and physical, enters into a
--
and total immobility, while the consciousness remains perfectly
awake; or else I enter into an internal activity of one or more
states of being, an activity which constitutes the occult work
and which, needless to say, is also perfectly conscious. So I can
say, in all truth, that I never lose consciousness throughout the
twenty-four hours, which thus form an unbroken sequence, and
--
body the rest that it needs.
3 July 1927
In this letter I am sending you a few photographs of the Ashram
which will no doubt interest you since they will give you an idea,
however incomplete and imprecise, of the surroundings in which
I live; in any case they will give a very limited impression, for
the Ashram at present consists of seventeen houses inhabited by
--
you have received, in several instalments, the complete series
of the first thirteen; I had them mailed to you as they were
published.2
--
I shall not endeavour to reply to your opinion on the "conversations" although there are certain points which you do not seem
to have fully grasped; but I suppose that a second reading later
--
which eluded you at first glance. Moreover, these "conversations" make no claim to exhaust their subjects or even to deal
with them thoroughly. Ra ther they are hints whose purpose is
more pragmatic than didactic; they are a kind of moral stimulus
meant to goad and spur on those who are on the way. It is
true that in my answers many aspects of the question have been
neglected which could have been examined with interest - that
--
the Ashram is becoming a more and more interesting institution. We have now acquired our twenty-first house; the number
of paid workers of the Ashram (labourers and servants) has
reached sixty or sixty-five, and the number of Ashram members
(Sri Aurobindo's disciples living in Pondicherry) varies between
--
I have also received the Grande Revue3 and I read the article you
mention. I found it ra ther dull, but apart from that not too bad.
But the Mukerjee quoted there must have lived for many years
A literary monthly published in France until 1939.
--
as the two most popular figures in India. On the contrary it
is outside India that they are most popular; and for foreigners
these two men seem to be the only ones who represent Indian
genius. This is very far from the truth, and if they are so well
known in Western countries, it is probably because their stature
does not go beyond the understanding of the Western mind.
India has far greater geniuses than these and in the most
varied fields, scientific, literary, philosophic, spiritual. It is true
that the young people from Shantiniketan come out refined, but
without any force or energy for realisation. As for Gandhi's
young people, they may have more energy and power of action,
but they are imprisoned within the four walls of a few narrow
ideas and a limited mind.
I repeat, there is better, far better in India, but this India
does not care for international glory.
--
Just a word about your remark that having children is the only
way to perpetuate the human race. I have never denied this, but
I wish to add that there is nothing to fear in this respect; if it is
Nature's plan to perpetuate the human race, she will always find
as many people as she needs to carry out her plan. the earth
will surely never suffer from a dearth of men.
--
the things that are awaited... they alone can remedy the sorry
state of affairs you mention in your letter of October 9th; and
it is certainly not confined to the small states of central Europe.
What you have described is pretty much the state of the whole
world: disorder, confusion, wastage and misery.
--
headed! the final collapse, the general bankruptcy seems obvious enough... unless... there is always an "unless" in the history
of the earth; and always, when confusion and destruction seem
to have reached their climax, something happens and a new
balance is established which extends, for a few centuries more,
--
like things as they are. I do not believe, however, that they are
worse than they have been many times before. But I want them
to be different, I want them to be more harmonious and more
true. Oh, the horror of falsehood spread everywhere on earth,
ruling the world with its law of darkness! I believe that its reign
has lasted long enough; this is the master we must now refuse
to serve. This is the great, the only remedy.
3 November 1931
--
place of cure for the restless - even if one seeks diversions there
are none; on the o ther hand the sea is beautiful, the countryside
is vast and the town is very small: a five minute drive and you are
out of it; and, at the centre of it all, the Ashram is a condensation
of dynamic and active peace, so much so that all those who come
from outside feel as if they were in ano ther world. It is indeed
something of ano ther world, a world in which the inner life
governs the outer, a world where things get done, where work
is carried out not for a personal end but in a selfless way for
the realisation of an ideal. the life we lead here is as far from
ascetic abstinence as from an enervating comfort; simplicity is
--
is free to organise his life as he pleases, the discipline is reduced
to the minimum that is indispensable to organise the existence
of 110 to 120 people and to avoid movements that would be
detrimental to the achievement of our yogic aim.
What do you say to this? Isn't it tempting? Will you ever
have the time or the possibility to come here? Once you did let
me hope for a visit.
--
acquired four houses which I bought in my name to simplify the
legal technicalities; but it goes without saying that I do not own
them. I think I have already explained the situation to you and
I want to take advantage of this opportunity to remind you of
it. the Ashram with all its real estate and moveable property
belongs to Sri Aurobindo, it is his money that enables me to
meet the almost formidable expenses that it entails (our annual
budget averages one "lakh" of rupees, which at the present rate
of exchange corresponds approximately to 650,000 francs); and
--
of convenience for the papers and signatures, since it is I who
"manage" everything, but not because I really own them. You
will readily understand why I am telling you all this; it is so you
--
which is certainly not unfounded. In their ignorant unconsciousness men set moving forces they are not even aware of and soon
these forces get more and more out of their control and bring
about disastrous results. the earth seems to be shaken almost
entirely by a terrible fit of political and social epilepsy through
which the most dangerous forces of destruction do their work.
Even here, in this poor little nook, we have not escaped the
general malady. For three or four days the forces at work were
ugly and could justifiably cause anxiety, and a great confusion
--
was beginning to set in. I must say that under the circumstances
the Governor (Solmiac) showed great kindness and resolve at
--
ended quite well, considering the difficult circumstances. But
now more than 14,000 workers are out of work. the largest
factory is closed, no one knows for how long, and the o ther one
was burned down.
the sign of the times seems to be a complete lack of common
sense. But perhaps we see it this way simply because nearness
makes us see all the details. From a distance the details fade and
only the principal lines appear, giving a slightly more logical
aspect to circumstances.
It may be that life on earth has always been a chaos - whatever the Bible may say, the Light has not yet made its appearance.
Let us hope that it will not be long in coming.
--
want to dampen their enthusiasm. I had entitled it " the Central
Thought", but they found this a little too philosophical, so it has
been changed to " the Supreme Discovery".4 Ra ther pompous
--
assume both at the same time would be nearer to the truth.
Hitler was certainly bluffing, if that is what you call shouting
and making threats with the intention of intimidating those to
whom one is talking and obtaining as much as one can. Tactics
--
and diplomacy were used, but on the o ther hand, behind every
human will there are forces at work whose origin is not human
and which move consciously towards certain ends. the play of
these forces is very complex and generally eludes the human
consciousness; but for ease of explanation and understanding,
--
that work for the fulfilment of the Divine work upon earth,
and those that are opposed to this fulfilment. the former have
few conscious instruments at their disposal. It is true that in
this matter quality compensates by far for quantity. As for the
anti-divine forces they have only too many to choose from, and
always they find wills which they enslave and individuals whom
they turn into docile but nearly always unconscious puppets.
Hitler is a choice instrument for these anti-divine forces which
want violence, upheaval and war, for they know that these things
retard and hamper the action of the divine forces. That is why
disaster was very close even though no human government consciously wanted it. But at any cost there was to be no war and
that is why war has been avoided - for the time being.
22 October 1938
0.01 - Life and Yoga, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
the Conditions of the Syn thesis
Chapter I
--
HERE are two necessities of Nature's workings which seem always to intervene in the greater forms of human activity, whe ther these belong to our ordinary fields of movement or seek those exceptional spheres and fulfilments which appear to us high and divine. Every such form tends towards a harmonised complexity and totality which again breaks apart into various channels of special effort and tendency, only to unite once more in a larger and more puissant syn thesis. Secondly, development into forms is an imperative rule of effective manifestation; yet all truth and practice too strictly formulated becomes old and loses much, if not all, of its virtue; it must be constantly renovated by fresh streams of the spirit revivifying the dead or dying vehicle and changing it, if it is to acquire a new life. To be perpetually reborn is the condition of a material immortality. We are in an age, full of the throes of travail, when all forms of thought and activity that have in themselves any strong power of utility or any secret virtue of persistence are being subjected to a supreme test and given their opportunity of rebirth. the world today presents the aspect of a huge cauldron of Medea in which all things are being cast, shredded into pieces, experimented on, combined and recombined ei ther to perish and provide the scattered material of new forms or to emerge rejuvenated and changed for a fresh term of existence. Indian Yoga, in its essence a special action or formulation of certain great powers of Nature, itself specialised, divided and variously formulated, is potentially one of these dynamic elements of the future life of humanity. the child of immemorial ages, preserved by its vitality and truth into our modern times, it is now emerging from the secret schools and ascetic retreats in which it had taken refuge and is seeking its place in the future sum of living human powers and utilities. But it has first to rediscover itself, bring to the surface
the Conditions of the Syn thesis
the profoundest reason of its being in that general truth and that unceasing aim of Nature which it represents, and find by virtue of this new self-knowledge and self-appreciation its own recovered and larger syn thesis. Reorganising itself, it will enter more easily and powerfully into the reorganised life of the race which its processes claim to lead within into the most secret penetralia and upward to the highest altitudes of existence and personality.
In the right view both of life and of Yoga all life is ei ther consciously or subconsciously a Yoga. For we mean by this term a methodised effort towards self-perfection by the expression of the secret potentialities latent in the being and - highest condition of victory in that effort - a union of the human individual with the universal and transcendent Existence we see partially expressed in man and in the Cosmos. But all life, when we look behind its appearances, is a vast Yoga of Nature who attempts in the conscious and the subconscious to realise her perfection in an ever-increasing expression of her yet unrealised potentialities and to unite herself with her own divine reality. In man, her thinker, she for the first time upon this Earth devises selfconscious means and willed arrangements of activity by which this great purpose may be more swiftly and puissantly attained.
Yoga, as Swami Vivekananda has said, may be regarded as a means of compressing one's evolution into a single life or a few years or even a few months of bodily existence. A given system of Yoga, then, can be no more than a selection or a compression, into narrower but more energetic forms of intensity, of the general methods which are already being used loosely, largely, in a leisurely movement, with a profuser apparent waste of material and energy but with a more complete combination by the great
Mo ther in her vast upward labour. It is this view of Yoga that can alone form the basis for a sound and rational syn thesis of Yogic methods. For then Yoga ceases to appear something mystic and abnormal which has no relation to the ordinary processes of the World-Energy or the purpose she keeps in view in her two great movements of subjective and objective selffulfilment; it reveals itself ra ther as an intense and exceptional use of powers that she has already manifested or is progressively
Life and Yoga
--
Yogic methods have something of the same relation to the customary psychological workings of man as has the scientific handling of the force of electricity or of steam to their normal operations in Nature. And they, too, like the operations of Science, are formed upon a knowledge developed and confirmed by regular experiment, practical analysis and constant result. All
Rajayoga, for instance, depends on this perception and experience that our inner elements, combinations, functions, forces, can be separated or dissolved, can be new-combined and set to novel and formerly impossible workings or can be transformed and resolved into a new general syn thesis by fixed internal processes. Hathayoga similarly depends on this perception and experience that the vital forces and functions to which our life is normally subjected and whose ordinary operations seem set and indispensable, can be mastered and the operations changed or suspended with results that would o therwise be impossible and that seem miraculous to those who have not seized the rationale of their process. And if in some o ther of its forms this character of Yoga is less apparent, because they are more intuitive and less mechanical, nearer, like the Yoga of Devotion, to a supernal ecstasy or, like the Yoga of Knowledge, to a supernal infinity of consciousness and being, yet they too start from the use of some principal faculty in us by ways and for ends not contemplated in its everyday spontaneous workings. All methods grouped under the common name of Yoga are special psychological processes founded on a fixed truth of Nature and developing, out of normal functions, powers and results which were always latent but which her ordinary movements do not easily or do not often manifest.
But as in physical knowledge the multiplication of scientific processes has its disadvantages, as that tends, for instance, to develop a victorious artificiality which overwhelms our natural human life under a load of machinery and to purchase certain forms of freedom and mastery at the price of an increased servitude, so the preoccupation with Yogic processes and their exceptional results may have its disadvantages and losses. the
the Conditions of the Syn thesis
Yogin tends to draw away from the common existence and lose his hold upon it; he tends to purchase wealth of spirit by an impoverishment of his human activities, the inner freedom by an outer death. If he gains God, he loses life, or if he turns his efforts outward to conquer life, he is in danger of losing
God. therefore we see in India that a sharp incompatibility has been created between life in the world and spiritual growth and perfection, and although the tradition and ideal of a victorious harmony between the inner attraction and the outer demand remains, it is little or else very imperfectly exemplified. In fact, when a man turns his vision and energy inward and enters on the path of Yoga, he is popularly supposed to be lost inevitably to the great stream of our collective existence and the secular effort of humanity. So strongly has the idea prevailed, so much has it been emphasised by prevalent philosophies and religions that to escape from life is now commonly considered as not only the necessary condition, but the general object of Yoga. No syn thesis of Yoga can be satisfying which does not, in its aim, reunite God and Nature in a liberated and perfected human life or, in its method, not only permit but favour the harmony of our inner and outer activities and experiences in the divine consummation of both. For man is precisely that term and symbol of a higher Existence descended into the material world in which it is possible for the lower to transfigure itself and put on the nature of the higher and the higher to reveal itself in the forms of the lower. To avoid the life which is given him for the realisation of that possibility, can never be ei ther the indispensable condition or the whole and ultimate object of his supreme endeavour or of his most powerful means of self-fulfilment. It can only be a temporary necessity under certain conditions or a specialised extreme effort imposed on the individual so as to prepare a greater general possibility for the race. the true and full object and utility of Yoga can only be accomplished when the conscious
Yoga in man becomes, like the subconscious Yoga in Nature, outwardly conterminous with life itself and we can once more, looking out both on the path and the achievement, say in a more perfect and luminous sense: "All life is Yoga."
0.02 - II - The Home of the Guru, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
object:0.02 - II - the Home of the Guru
author class:A B Purani
--
Guru-griha-vsa staying in the home of the Guru is a very old Indian ideal maintained by seekers through the ages. the Aranyakas the ancient teachings in the forest-groves are perhaps the oldest records of the institution. It was not for education in the modern sense of the term that men went to live with the Guru; for the Guru is not a 'teacher'. the Guru is one who is 'enlightened', who is a seer, a Rishi, one who has the vision of and has lived the Truth. He has, thus, the knowledge of the goal of human life and has learnt true values in life by living the Truth. He can impart both these to the willing seeker. In ancient times seekers went to the Guru with many questions, difficulties and doubts but also with earnestness. their questions were preliminary to the quest.
the Master, the Guru, set at rest the puzzled human mind by his illuminating answers, perhaps even more by his silent consciousness, so that it might be able to pursue unhampered the path of realisation of the Truth. Those ancient discourses answer the mind of man today even across the ages. they have rightly acquired as everything of the past does a certain sanctity. But sometimes that very reverence prevents men from properly evaluating, and living in, the present. This happens when the mind instead of seeking the Spirit looks at the form. For instance, it is not necessary for such discourses that they take place in forest-groves in order to be highly spiritual. Wherever the Master is, there is Light. And guru-griha the house of the Master can be his private dwelling place. So much was this feeling a part of Sri Aurobindo's nature and so particular was he to maintain the personal character of his work that during the first few years after 1923 he did not like his house to be called an 'Ashram', as the word had acquired the sense of a public institution to the modern mind. But there was no doubt that the flower of Divinity had blossomed in him; and disciples, like bees seeking honey, came to him. It is no exaggeration to say that these Evening Talks were to the small company of disciples what the Aranyakas were to the ancient seekers. Seeking the Light, they came to the dwelling place of their Guru, the greatest seer of the age, and found it their spiritual home the home of their parents, for the Mo ther, his companion in the great mission, had come. And these spiritual parents bestowed upon the disciples freely of their Light, their Consciousness, their Power and their Grace. the modern reader may find that the form of these discourses differs from those of the past but it was bound to be so for the simple reason that the times have changed and the problems that puzzle the modern mind are so different. Even though the disciples may be very imperfect representations of what he aimed at in them, still they are his creations. It is in order to repay, in however infinitesimal a degree, the debt which we owe to him that the effort is made to partake of the joy of his company the Evening Talks with a larger public.
***
0.02 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To the sadhak in charge of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Building
Department during the 1930s and early 1940s.
Sin belongs to the world and not to yoga.
By his way of thinking, feeling, acting, each one emanates vibrations which constitute his own atmosphere and quite naturally
--
So long as you are capable of beating somebody, you open the
door to the possibility of being beaten yourself.
You are expecting those who are working with you to be geniuses. It is not quite fair.
I have seen your chit for washing soap. You got the last one on
the 22nd of March. This makes only 16 days, while a soap must
last 30 days. It is quite evident that your coolie is stealing the
soap, and I have no intention of providing him with washing
--
(This time I have sanctioned the soap.)
X has started a new notebook; but it seems to me that he had
not finished the previous one.
I do not see at all the need of changing the notebook every
month. Will you see if indeed the previous book is finished or
not, and act accordingly.
In future I will be obliged to ask for the finished notebook
before I can sanction a new one. That is to say, each time that
a notebook is to be renewed the finished notebook must be sent
up to me at the same time as the chit for the new one.
I do not see the need of leaving a blank page at the beginning.
Y is complaining that cement dust falls in the cattle-feed when
it is prepared on the verandah.
Perhaps this is what makes the bullocks ill. One of these
poor creatures has grown terribly thin. I saw it this morning.
--
(About increasing the size of a bathroom)
It seems to me quite sufficiently big. they have no intention of
using their bathroom as a ballroom, I suppose.
How is it that you have not spoken to me about the bakery
kneading table for two days? If it is not repaired at once, we
shall have no bread to eat. the work must be done immediately.
I am not feeling comfortable about the dining room. It is not by
merely saying: "nothing will happen" that an accident can be
avoided. Your mental formation may be strong, but the contrary
formation is at least as strong as yours - and we must never
tempt the adverse forces.
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
I ask you to discard all obstinacy and to be perfectly sincere.
--
Go and see honestly, carefully, all round the place; consider
that thirty people or so are taking their meals there and if anything happened what a horrible thing it would be - and, with
the sense of your full responsibility, come tomorrow morning,
--
that bench. the mason was not injured. the incident
reminded Z that 1:30 to 3:30 P.M. on Thursdays is
--
It is always better NOT to remember such superstitions. It is the
suggestion that acts in these cases - most often a suggestion
in the subconscient mind; but it is made stronger by becoming
conscious.
--
Four bats were found in the north end of the west
roofbeam. Two of them got drenched with solignum.2
What a pity! the bats eat the white ants!
14 June 1932
During the spraying of solignum the mason got a jet of
it in his eyes.
--
the lack of precaution is a part of the movement of hurry
and impatience.
--
our needs, She waits to be asked before granting them.
Not exact in all cases and especially not with everybody.
--
But in fact, there should be no reserve in our dealings
with Mo ther; all movements should be movements of
joy, including the movement of asking. As this is lacking,
Mo ther is training us by making us ask with joy.
It is not quite that. In each case there is, probably, a special
reason. What is constant is a difference of appreciation in the
urgency of the needs and the importance attached to their fulfilment. I attach also some value to the power of imagination,
adaptability, utilisation or invention developed by the necessity
of overcoming some material difficulty.
--
not to mention them ra ther than to be disillusioned.
Yes, so long as there are desires, no true intimacy can be
established.
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
(Regarding the misuse of "gris entretien", maintenance
grey paint) A stool used by the Mo ther has been painted
with "gris entretien". I had informed the stores not to
issue gris entretien except for Sri Aurobindo's room.
But who is responsible for having given the paint? Was not the
fact that the "gris entretien" must be kept for the doors and windows in Sri Aurobindo's room only, told to those in charge?(!)
Why was my stool at all painted with gris entretien? I did
not ask for the grey paint as far as I remember.
In this case the paint slipped out because it was asked
for Mo ther's stool.
A rule is a rule and I do not see why my stool escaped the rule,
unless a chit signed by me could be produced.
"To turn towards thee, unite with thee, live in thee and
for thee, is supreme happiness, unmixed joy, immutable
peace.... Why do men flee from these boons as though
they fear them?"3
I still wonder why and I can find no answer except that stupidity
rules the world.
25 June 1932
For the last few days, my mind has dwelt upon the scenes
and incidents of days long past. It takes pleasure in comparing how different I am now from what I was then.
Extract from the Mo ther's Prayers and Meditations, 18 June 1913.
It is good sometimes to look backwards for a confirmation of
--
one in the efforts towards the progress still to be made.
27 June 1932
On the outside cover of a notebook used by X, there
was a table of Rahukal, giving the inauspicious hours
for each day of the month. I have pasted a blank piece
of paper over it.
I pray for a gracious word from You to strike at the
root of this superstition.
Do you believe it is so easy to strike at the root of a stupidity?
Stupidities are always rooted deep down in the subconscient.
1 July 1932
"Every moment all the unforeseen, the unexpected, the
unknown is before us."4 What is the remedy?
Be plastic and vigilant, attentive and alert - receptive.
--
By the way, I have seen the painter sand-papering the salon table
and was horrified! He was rubbing violently and in any direction
with one or the o ther hand, while he was looking at anything
and everything except at what he was doing; poor table, what
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
"One single drop of Thy divine love can transform this
--
ignorance, O Thou the supreme healer, have pity on me.
Break this resistance which fills me with anguish.
--
I could give many explanations; the how and the why can easily
he described - but is it really necessary? This is not what heals.
Healing comes not from the head but from the heart.
To understand is good, but to will is better.
Self-love is the great obstacle.
Divine love is the great remedy.
20 July 1932
--
Weep if you like, but do not worry. After the rain the sun shines
more bright.
I am rolling in my bed in the hope of getting sleep.
Peace, peace, my child; do not torment yourself.
the sadhak's prayer is composed of extracts from several prayers of the Mo ther in
Prayers and Meditations,: paragraph one, 29 November 1913; two, 7 January 1914;
--
during the last four hours. I was stiff, I was burning with
heat, all was gloom.
--
asking me to quit the Ashram or at least to stop work
from tomorrow. Mo ther will say: this is the effect of
indulging himself so much in the morning! He deserves
to be kicked out. And so on.
--
By the way, I don't find that the Hostile Forces have much
imagination; they are always repeating the same old tricks! they
ought to be worn out by this time.
--
I open myself to thee and I would obey thee with an absolute
faithfulness.
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
True greatness, true superiority lies in kindness and goodwill.
--
as I am not dealing with everybody in the same way, and what
I can say to one I would not say to ano ther.
--
"To thee all the fervour of my adoration."7
It is adoration expressing itself in work - all the more precious.
31 July 1932
--
one with thee.
This thirst shall be quenched when this ("O Sweet Mo ther, I
become one with thee") is psychologically realised.
2 August 1932
--
asked me whe ther it was my belief that the cause for
sickness is always a revolt or wrong attitude. I said Yes.
--
not conscious that any revolt or wrong attitude was the
cause of the pain in his fingers.
the wrong attitude can be in the body consciousness itself (lack
of faith or of receptivity) and then it is very difficult to detect
as it does not correspond to any wrong thought or feeling, the
body consciousness being most often and in almost everybody
--
Is it good to talk about one's experiences, as in the above
conversation?
No general rule can be made for this, each case is different. the
important point is the attitude behind the talk. It is only what is
said as a pure and sincere offering on the altar of Divine Truth
that can have a real value.
--
this morning, as if to counteract the graveness I was
feeling.
--
reproach in what I was saying, because there was nothing of
the kind in my intention. I was giving expression to an amused
observation about the ways of the world and how it cannot but
misunderstand our own ways, we who are too sincerely seeking
for the Truth expression to be easily understood by ordinary
people. It is this seeking which gives the impression of hesitation,
uncertainty, unsuccessful attempts, etc.
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
"Grant that we may effectuate Thy Victory"8 if the
time has come... but it is for You to answer, O Sweet
--
It is by the concentration of our will and the intensity of our
aspiration that we can hasten the day of victory.
13 August 1932
--
As to my belief in the efficacy of prayer, I believe
in its efficacy only when it is addressed to the Mo ther.
I mean that Mo ther in that room who is there in flesh
and blood. If you refer your prayer to some unknown
--
in the waking consciousness?
the movement comes from a subconscient layer which is not
allowed to express itself in the daytime.
Is it because there is no mental control in the dream state
and hence the vital being is free to act as it likes?
Prayers and Meditations, 19 June 1914.
--
feel the joy of it. After concentrating like this for about
an hour, I felt fatigued and imperceptibly the concentration frittered away. What is the cause of this feeling of
fatigue? What is the difficulty in keeping such a concentration for all the 24 hours?
the physical being is always fatigued when it is asked to keep a
--
Which activity will most fully utilise all the energies?
the one that is done in the most perfect spirit of consecration.
20 August 1932
--
take one and a half months to finish the bathroom. I
said Yes. In fact, I expected it to be finished within a
--
correct; there may be some delays I cannot foresee. (2)
But why should I not say that according to my estimate,
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
It is good, it is indispensable that you should think that the work
will take only 30 days; o therwise it would extend over more than
--
I pray to Mo ther that there may be no unforeseen delays.
I hope so also - but I have seen that the work takes always
longer than your estimate and we are pushed on and on week
--
Mo ther, what is the proper attitude? If I hear suggestion
(1), I feel I am keeping a reserve. If I hear suggestion (2),
--
that the carpenter was going, not gone, and I calculated
that by the time I came out and closed the door, he
should be gone. So I replied, "Yes, Mo ther, the last man
has gone." And lo, there he is, arranging the polishing
stones! If I had drawn back for only a second before
--
Nothing to be uneasy about. the spontaneous answers of the external consciousness are always vague and somewhat incorrect.
It needs a great vigilance to correct that - and a very firm resolution too. This incident may be meant to raise in you the
resolution.
--
mild suggestions of vomiting, but they have stopped by
now.
--
when you can no more get into fits of anger without feeling the
results of it. You must, once for all, take the resolution - and
keep it: NEVER LOSE YOUR TEMPER.
--
To love the Divine is to be loved by Him.
2 November 1932
Because of the sudden rain we wanted to close the windows and
found, with some discomfort, that not a single one is closing
--
hope of closing them at all. they keep closed through goodwill, I
suppose, but this goodwill would certainly not stand any strong
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
Repairs are urgently needed. Tomorrow morning I shall
show you the state of affairs.
9 November 1932
--
X told me this morning, "Do you see the plaster
work done by Y? How nice it is! the work we have done
is not so nice." I replied: "I know at least one reason. It is
because you are not with the workmen all the time. This
morning you were missing from your post from 9:30 to
--
in his work, what can I do? It is true that the work suffers, but
he suffers still more, for no amount of meditation can replace
sincerity in the service of the Divine.
3 December 1932
--
"One must know how to soar in an immutable confidence; in the sure flight is perfect knowledge."9 I don't
understand this sentence. How can one soar? What is
--
It simply means to rise (soar into the air) above the ordinary
consciousness, into a higher consciousness from which one can
see things from above, and thus see them more profoundly.
9 December 1932
If you try to hide something from the Divine, you are sure to fall
flat on your nose, plop! like that...
--
Joy lies in having absolute trust in the Divine.
2 January 1933
Why, when you get into trouble, do you no longer ask for the
help of the Divine Grace? Yet you know from experience that
the result is unfailing and marvellous!
--
desire and a need for the work. So this is the method I
have adopted: When I think I need something (anything),
I wait. If the inconvenience caused by not having this
thing comes up again or increases, I ask for it.
then the desire gets exacerbated and the request is made with a
kind of sour rage.
--
there is still ano ther method, far more interesting than these
two: ask for nothing at all and see what happens.
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
Sweet Mo ther said, " there is still ano ther method." I
--
words to the letter. I started following Her advice. I
didn't ask for anything, even on April 1st,10 and that is
--
I am afraid that in trying too hard to stick to the "letter", you
have lost the "spirit". I was not referring to the things given at
the "stores", and I was most surprised to see that you did not
ask for anything on the first. You would do well to ask strictly
for the things you need.
5 April 1933
--
employed to clear the rubble at Ganapati House?
It is impossible to put a child of under eight to work. It would
--
We want to be faithful workers for the Great Victory.
26 June 1933
On the first of the month, the sadhaks received from the Ashram stores the material
items which they previously requested.
Sweet Mo ther,
--
back at the rate of Rs. 8 per month. I have already told
him that Mo ther approves nei ther of marriage - far less
--
Should we give him the money? If you think it is necessary,
I shall not say No.
--
the tape is not indispensable. But there is a dissatisfaction
somewhere in my being. I can't pinpoint this recalcitrant
spot. Is it my mind? Isn't it the mind that shows the
absurdity of this request?
It is a mental formation prompted by a desire of the vital,
which protests and rebels because it cannot be fulfilled. these
formations are autonomous entities. That is why, once they are
made, the conscious will loses nearly all control over them unless
a counter-formation is made to destroy them. Something like
this, for example: "I do not want to receive a measuring-tape.
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
Sweet Mo ther,
--
there any connection between the fact that I gave him
the job of making rods for X's embroidery frame without
first having spoken to You about it and the accident that
occurred later? When the blacksmith came to see me
after the accident I wondered whe ther there was any
connection, and when You said that You had doubts
--
for a frame without any exact knowledge of how the frame has
to be made) and they develop without harmony, in disorder and
confusion, sometimes producing the most unfortunate results as
in this case. I will explain: the idea of a big frame is excellent
but difficult to execute. If the desire had not been there insisting
on immediate realisation, the project could have been examined
carefully before being carried out and its execution would have
--
It is made of wood, and the plank you swing on is suspended
by strong ropes from rings fixed to a bar above. the supporting posts are securely set in the ground. I was thinking that
something similar could be made for the sieve.
19 September 1933
--
I have started examining the details of the work with
a critical eye and everything goes to prove that in reality I
--
Simply welcome the fact that you have become aware of a lack
of thoroughness, since this awareness allows you to make fur ther progress. Indeed, making progress, overcoming a difficulty,
learning something, seeing clearly into an element of unconsciousness - these are the things that make one truly happy.
22 September 1933
--
am scornful of o thers and therefore o thers treat me
scornfully? I try again and again, but I can't find any
--
in the influence of atmospheres. Each one has around him an
atmosphere made of the vibrations that come from his character,
his mood, his way of thinking, feeling, acting. these atmospheres
act and react on each o ther by contagion; the vibrations are
contagious; that is to say, we readily pick up the vibration of
someone we meet, especially if that vibration is at all strong. So
--
although, of course, it is not the only explanation!
30 October 1933
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
Sweet Mo ther,
--
heart towards You: "May this day bring me an opportunity to remain calm even in the face of provocation." It
was a very spontaneous prayer.
--
( the sadhak then related his heated conversation with
someone.) I regret having lost my temper while pronouncing these last sentences. I have noticed that even
when I am conscious, if I open my mouth I lose my selfcontrol. I get angrier and angrier from one sentence to
--
the conclusion is therefore obvious: it would be better not to
open your mouth. In certain cases, as in this one, it is wiser to
--
Regarding the partition-cupboard in Y's room: I
made the shelves of this cupboard out of small pieces
of wood. A large quantity of old planks were thus used
up. But Y expressed his dissatisfaction when he saw the
shelves.
--
It is the triumph of egoism. You may show this to them and add
that it is I who gave the order to make all possible use of the old
pieces of wood.
--
I forgot to enquire about an important point. Since the
vessels used for cooking are very large, the top of the fireplaces should not be much higher than ground level. This must
be checked while the kitchen is being repaired. the top of
the fire-places should not be more than fifty centimetres above
ground, so that the vessels can be raised and lowered without
danger.
--
me little time - not enough for a tour of all the centres.
What should I do, Sweet Mo ther? I call for Your help.
--
sentence and have faith in the divine help.
12 December 1933
--
make you aware of the hidden deformation. Is it all right,
Sweet Mo ther?
--
"Attila, King of the Huns in 434, devastated the cities of
Gaul but spared Lutetia after being diverted by Saint
Genevieve." I don't understand the phrase "diverted
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
by Saint Genevieve". Did Saint Genevieve divert Attila
--
Attila was compelled to spare Lutetia because of the occult
action of Saint Genevieve who, by the ardour of her prayers,
obtained the intervention of the Divine Grace. This prompted
Attila to alter the route of his troops, and so he gave the city a
wide berth.
--
I have had a pain in the right side of my chest and in
the left side of my back for the past three or four days.
I decided to be brave and not tell You about it, but the
pain has grown sharper since yesterday.
--
local French official. the conversation ends:)
Mr. Z: I have heard that Sri Aurobindo can communicate at a distance. Is it true?
--
Sadhak: Yes, if the o ther person is receptive. Suppose I have difficultes in my work. there is no way of
communicating with Mo ther. I can't find the solution.
I concentrate on Mo ther, ask Her to guide me and find
--
( the Mo ther underlined most of the remarks above
in red pencil.)
It would have been better not to say the things I have marked in
red pencil. This falls under the "powers" that it would be better
not to mention. Ei ther the person you are speaking to does
not understand at all and takes you for a fool suffering from
hallucinations, or else he understands and then gets frightened,
which is always dangerous.
--
putting a copy of the Conversations in the tray for Mr. Z.
27 March 1934
--
Does this imply that the report of your conversation with Mr. Z
is inaccurate? This is very serious - you should not put words
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
exactly as you heard them, and when you are not sure you must
say so.
--
A prayer: Teach me the unfailing way to receive from
Sweet Mo ther a healing and comforting kiss.
--
satisfied with knowing it is there?
16 April 1934
--
I appreciate this attitude and this effort. It proves the sincerity of
your aspiration. But I did not have that particular point in mind
--
It seems that the notice about the holidays has been circulated
only in French. I don't think you should do this, for it would
amount to imposing the study of French on all those who work
in the Building Department, which is impossible.
For instance, Y once asked me whe ther it was indispensable
to learn French and I told him No. O thers too are in the same
position. In my opinion you should add an English version to
--
Z has asked whe ther we could give double pay for the extra
working hour from six to seven in the evening. I have said Yes.
For surely you must know that in France all the extra hours in
the evening are paid double, and this seems reasonable.
--
discusses a play or the pronunciation of French.
As soon as the project is completely ready, when you have
worked everything out and can answer my questions, I shall
--
shall discuss the matter quietly. When will you learn not to lose
courage and confidence at the slightest setback, when things are
not, by my own doing, exactly as you had planned? I think it is
--
( the sadhak then gave several examples of difficulties
with his workers and work projects.)
All that you say is quite true and there are still many o ther
things you have not said, but which I know. the trouble might
be summed up thus:
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
1) Too many workers.
2) Too many different projects undertaken at the same time.
3) Lack of consciousness in some of the supervisors.
Naturally, No. 2 could be set right by increasing the number
of supervisors, provided, of course, that they are sincere and
honest, which would also be the remedy for No. 3. But perhaps
of all the remedies, this one (I mean being honest, sincere and
conscientious) is the most difficult to achieve.
Several times we have spoken in a general way about reducing the number of workers. I have always said Yes, and I would
be very happy to cut down expenses as much as possible.
But when we came to the details of carrying this out, we always found ourselves confronted with the same difficulty: whom
to dismiss? And according to your answers the difficulty seemed
insurmountable.
--
draft along the following lines:
" the ill-will of the local residents has obliged me to stop
buying houses; consequently there is no longer enough work
to keep all the workers busy. I am very sorry about this, but I
am obliged to part with a certain number of them (you give the
number), and since they have all been hardworking and faithful,
I am at even more of a loss to make a selection. therefore I
am giving them three weeks' advance notice: as of July 1st the
number of workmen will be reduced by... (give the exact figure).
That will give them time to look for work elsewhere. Those who
have found work should let us know."
Before displaying the notice you will speak to the workers
(masons, carpenters, painters, coolies, etc.) whom you positively
want to keep and tell them that the notice which is going to be
put up is not meant for them and that in any event we want
to retain their services, so they do not have to look for work
elsewhere. To avoid any possible misunderstanding, it would be
best if X or Y speaks to them in your presence.
And from July 1st we shall also have to think about reducing
--
This is what I see most clearly at the moment.
5 June 1934
--
All the pain I have felt till tonight comes from my
reservations with regard to Sweet Mo ther. Is my diagnosis correct? If so, how can I do away with these
reservations without seeming to contradict or embarrass
--
I am going to begin by telling you a very little story. then I shall
answer you.
You must have seen the new clock which is supposed to run
for six months. When it was first set going, it ran very fast. Z
--
which is used to leng then or shorten the pendulum. I looked
at the clock with my inner sight and told Z, "To make it go
slower, you have to shorten the pendulum." He looked at me
in bewilderment and explained that in mechanics the longer the
pendulum is, the slower the movement. (I knew that very well
- but this is not an ordinary pendulum since it works by rotary
--
He leng thened the pendulum and the clock started going even
faster. After observing it for a day, he agreed to shorten the
pendulum and now the clock is working perfectly all right.
I believe in the superiority of the inner vision over the outer
vision and this belief is based not merely on theoretical knowledge but on the thousands of examples I have come across in
the course of a life which is already long. Unfortunately I am
surrounded by people who, though they are here to practise
yoga, are still convinced that "a cat is a cat", as we commonly
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
for seeing and observing, on one's physical-mental knowledge
for judging and deciding, and that the laws of Nature are laws -
in o ther words, any exception to them is a miracle. This is false.
This is what is at the root of all the misunderstandings
and reservations. You already know, and I mention it only to
--
always conspire to justify these doubts, and this for a reason
which is very easy to understand: doubt veils the consciousness
and the subconscious sincerity, and into the action some small
factors creep in which may seem unimportant, but which are
just sufficient to alter all the factors of the problem and to bring
about the result that one had anticipated by doubting.
I have nothing else to add except this. When the question
of distempering X's rooms arose, I looked very carefully several
times with the inner eye and I saw this: brush the walls with a
metal brush so that whatever is loose falls off and cover the rest
with a thick layer of distemper which by its very thickness will be
enough to conceal any irregularities. the process was supposed
to be simple, rapid and fully satisfactory. I put forth all the
necessary force for it to become an effective formation charged
with the power of realisation, and I said that the work could
proceed, adding in a few words how it was to be done. (This was
long ago - the first time it was decided to distemper the walls
of X's apartment, perhaps more than a year ago.) My formation
was so living, so real, so active, that I made the mistake of
not reminding you about it before the work began. I have an
unfortunate tendency to believe that the consciousness of those
around me is, at least partially and in its limited working, similar
--
limits, I have the illusion that its nature is similar to mine, and
that is why there are many things I do not say, because to me they
are so obvious that it would be utterly pointless to mention them.
It is here that on your side a freedom of movement and speech
arising from an affectionate confidence must come in: if there is
something you are unsure of, you must ask me about it; if you
--
think you are receptive enough for the formation to act and fulfil
itself without my needing to speak about it, and in fact this often
happens - it is only when the mind and vital get in the way, for
one reason or ano ther, that the working becomes defective.
Read this carefully, study it, and when you come today I will
ask you to read it from the place I have marked with a red cross,
for I think it may be useful to everyone there. I shall probably
ask you to translate it into English, to make sure that you have
--
quenched, for the waters of love never run dry.
3 July 1934
Sleep well and rest yourself beneath the protective shade of my
blessing.
--
danger, it is because there is a hidden reason somewhere.
That is not exactly what I said. I said that a feeling of danger
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
the state of things, and that one should not say, "It is nothing"
--
While inspecting the stores I found that the principle
of keeping all materials without throwing anything away
is not above reproach. the good materials get spoiled
under a pile of useless things, because one cannot take
care of them.
If only the good materials had been kept, it would
have been easier to take care of them. Am I right, Sweet
Mo ther?
I think so. But more than anything, it is the lack of organisation
and order which causes all this waste. Certainly, if there is not
enough room to keep things in order and separate, the good
things on one side and the bad on the o ther, it is better to get rid
of the bad things. But this should be done with great care so as
not to go to the o ther extreme and throw away things that may
be useful.
--
X sent me a mason with a dismissal note this morning. Later, I learnt from X that the mason had laughed
when X told him he was not satisfied with the work he
had done. How should one determine a worker's fate in
--
be given some o ther work and advised to be polite in the future.
24 October 1934
--
I heard that one can know all the qualities of any
material by identification of consciousness. Is this true?
Is it possible? For example, if there are cracks in a roof,
I want to know the exact cause. How can I identify
myself with the roof? Is there a definite method? Is this
method easier and more certain than the mental process
of reasoning which is based on acquired experience?
In theory, it is true that everything can be known by identification, but in practice it is ra ther difficult to apply. the whole
process is based on the power of concentration. One has to
concentrate on the object to be known (in this case the roof)
until all the rest of the world disappears and the object alone
exists; then, by a slight movement of will, one can succeed at
identification. But it is not very easy to do and there are o ther
means of knowing besides reasoning - intuition, for example
--
I sing Your praises. I will never forget how You respond when one calls You with intensity, nor the marvel
of Your presence which changes the attitude of o thers
too.
--
for it is by calling me that the presence becomes effective.
15 December 1934
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
Sweet Mo ther,
I know that I was not obliged to give Y an explanation for my decision. In his expression, the question was
there, but I could easily have ignored it. Why did I show
--
Y's will is strong and he knows how to impose it on o thers. the
only solution is to have a will stronger than his and to use it
--
Listen to these two accounts of inner suggestions.
(Two instances are given.) From these two accounts You
will see that there were good grounds for the first suggestion, whereas the second one was importunate. How can
one distinguish between these two types of suggestions?
It is only by long experience, tested many times very carefully,
--
by the vibration that accompanies them.
12 January 1935
--
Remorse is of no use; you have to feel the joy of the possibility
of making fur ther progress.
--
fellow-worker.) I don't understand these two completely
different movements in me: (1) one which decides to
avoid all contact with X, direct or indirect, and (2) the
o ther which sees any harmonious dealings between us
--
It may be the contradiction between these two movements which
is the cause of the headache. No. 1 wants peace with a minimum
of effort. No. 2 wants to conquer the difficulty, not run away
from it. I suggest that for the time being you avoid contact with
X as far as possible. But if contact is established, beware of
--
(A fellow-worker violated the established work-procedure.) When I saw Y coming out of the workshop I was
struck by two suggestions: (1) If he has done something
--
must tell him that it is not right. I followed the second
suggestion.
--
What does "listening to the voice" mean? Is it like
listening to words that are pronounced? A ready-made
sentence, "Write down what is there in the estimate",
wanted to disturb my mind. I don't know where it came
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
from. Was it my own thought expressed in words, or was
it what is known as a "voice"? How can these things be
distinguished, Sweet Mo ther?
It was obviously an inner voice. One rarely hears the sound of
the words, but ra ther the message is expressed as words in the
mind or sometimes merely as a feeling in the heart.
23 May 1935
--
I have decided to adopt the following attitude towards Z. If I have any suggestion or remark to make
about the work, I shall do it very simply. If he accepts,
very good. If he doesn't, I shall keep silent, without arguing, and let him do as he likes. Is this attitude correct?
No, it is not correct - and I see that you have not understood the
implications of my remark the o ther day. If you see something
that should be done in a certain way, you should simply say:
--
In this way there can be no clash of personalities between
him and you. It is only a matter of obedience to me.
--
You have made me aware of the subconscious movements governing my action. Whenever a similar opportunity arises, will You please make me more and more
aware. Do not withdraw from me when You see me sad.
--
I aspire for the blessed day when the conflict, the
momentary lack of faith, will cease forever and You will
--
I am very happy about the way you have taken this matter.
When I speak to you so frankly, I am giving you a great proof
--
( the sadhak refused to remove some nails in the wall
of someone's room, and wrote to the Mo ther explaining
his decision.)
--
done for any of these personal considerations. the thing to be
done should be considered in itself, independent of all personal
questions. If the thing is right and good, one should do it. If not,
one should refrain from doing it.
--
did not have the power to dominate the o ther man's will.
So you should have the nails removed.
17 July 1935
--
Yesterday X asked me whe ther the nails in his wall
would be removed. In the absence of any definite orders
on this point I said, "Ask Mo ther." Later it was Sweet
Mo ther who decided not to have them removed.
Yes, I hoped that his will could be made to yield on this point,
because I thought it was absolutely true that removing the nails
would damage the wall. But it was only very relatively true,
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
and so the formation did not have a power of truth sufficient to
dissolve X's counter-formation. (This is true "occultism".)
I don't think I can be the judge to decide whe ther the
thing is good or not, because my vision is limited.
I never said that you should be the judge. I agree to be the judge
in all cases, because I recognise that it is very difficult to know
whe ther a thing is right and good, unless one can see the law of
Truth behind things.
If You had said to me, "Removing the nails is nothing, is
it?", I would have replied, "Nothing much." And if You
had said, "What! Removing the nails for nothing and
damaging the wall?", I would have replied, "Senseless."
This is not right. When I ask a question, I ask it in order to get exact and objective information. I have said this many times. I have
--
the case, and this is why I consult the people around me, because
they are able to move about. I do not want them to answer me
by echoing what they imagine - wrongly - to be what I think. I
want them to use their powers of observation and their technical
knowledge to give me as precise and exact information as they
can. And on that information I base my decision.
--
You wrote to me, "It is precisely because your refusal had no real cause that it did not have the power
to dominate the o ther man's will. So you should get the
nails removed." This is the sentence that upset me. Why
was there no real cause? Won't the holes spoil the wall?
It all depends on what you mean by spoil. I had understood
--
From what X wrote, I understood that the nails were loose
and that a little scraping and pulling would be enough to ease
them out. After averaging these two interpretations I saw that
the argument I gave X to make him accept the nails was not
true enough to have the power to overcome the hostility of his
attitude.
--
if someone you liked had asked you to remove the nails, you
would not have found it so difficult and you would not have put
it in the same way.
I thought that my refusal was ineffective because it was
--
When we are in the presence of hostile forces, only the purity of
an absolute truth can conquer them.
This is the argument, almost word for word, that upset
me, and I still haven't found the answer to this problem.
Enlighten me, Sweet Mo ther.
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
several times if necessary; ponder every word so that you understand exactly what I am saying and nothing else.
--
Always the same mistake - you think that I judge by what
people tell me! Whenever I am confronted with a fact, ei ther
directly or indirectly, I look and judge for myself without the
intervention of anyone's opinion.
--
In the case of the Arogya House cupboard, when Y told
me that he didn't want it painted I was surprised, and
--
someone else has said, for there is always a risk of creating
confusion and increasing the difficulties.
11 December 1936
--
are still not open. You must open them all, for I am there and I
am waiting.
--
Prayers and Meditations, 7 March 1914. the sadhak has substituted "my" for "our".
X has just written that he has recognised his mistake in having
given up the work and that he will return to work this morning.
So you should behave as if nothing had happened and welcome
--
be upset by such little things! What about the Yoga?
You must shake all that off and return to a better state of
--
I would like to take part in all the shuttering and
building work without offending anyone. How should I
go about it? How can I wash away the past?
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
Once and for all, wash away the feeling that you are "superior" to o thers - for no one is superior or inferior before the
Divine.
--
For the past few days, every time I meet X, he
wards me off. I looked inside myself to see if I have
--
I know nothing about the matter. X has not written to me.
But one thing is certain: you give far too much importance
to the way people treat you. This hypersensitivity is the cause of
most of the misunderstandings.
March 1939
--
with X, I have failed. I pray that you tell me in detail the
defects which prevent this achievement. I promise You
that I will make a sincere effort to get rid of them, and
with Your help I am sure to succeed.
I had dreamed that X and I would discuss both the
work in hand and the work to be done and exchange
opinions - I mean, just as Y and I speak toge ther. But
--
and the efforts I make to remain peaceful and calm seem
beyond my capacity.
I am afraid it is a lack of affinity in the vital and even in the
mind. these things are very difficult to overcome, for it requires
that both of you open yourselves to a higher consciousness. This
--
In the present conditions I think it would be better not to
persist in your attempt at friendly relations with him, for it only
--
As for the need to exchange your views and opinions about
the work, I am still not convinced of it. My impression is that
--
and you ought to have them since my blessings are with you.
10 October 1939
--
the disease: a narrow and egoistic ambition in the mind expressing itself as a strong vanity in the vital, thus distorting your
ideas of things and your reactions.
--
I am happy that you have seen the light, but it doesn't surprise
me; I was sure that one day you would understand.
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
Let the light of a luminous consciousness enter into you;
widen yourself into that vast consciousness so that every shadow
--
way, for I know the goodness of your heart.
My blessings are with you.
0.02 - The Three Steps of Nature, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:0.02 - the Three Steps of Nature
author class:Sri Aurobindo
--
E RECOGNISE then, in the past developments of
Yoga, a specialising and separative tendency which, like all things in Nature, had its justifying and even imperative utility and we seek a syn thesis of the specialised aims and methods which have, in consequence, come into being.
But in order that we may be wisely guided in our effort, we must know, first, the general principle and purpose underlying this separative impulse and, next, the particular utilities upon which the method of each school of Yoga is founded. For the general principle we must interrogate the universal workings of Nature herself, recognising in her no merely specious and illusive activity of a distorting Maya, but the cosmic energy and working of God Himself in His universal being formulating and inspired by a vast, an infinite and yet a minutely selective
Wisdom, prajna prasr.ta puran. of the Upanishad, Wisdom that went forth from the Eternal since the beginning. For the particular utilities we must cast a penetrative eye on the different methods of Yoga and distinguish among the mass of their details the governing idea which they serve and the radical force which gives birth and energy to their processes of effectuation.
Afterwards we may more easily find the one common principle and the one common power from which all derive their being and tendency, towards which all subconsciously move and in which, therefore, it is possible for all consciously to unite.
the progressive self-manifestation of Nature in man, termed in modern language his evolution, must necessarily depend upon three successive elements. there is that which is already evolved; there is that which, still imperfect, still partly fluid, is persistently in the stage of conscious evolution; and there is that which is to be evolved and may perhaps be already
10
the Conditions of the Syn thesis
displayed, if not constantly, then occasionally or with some regularity of recurrence, in primary formations or in o thers more developed and, it may well be, even in some, however rare, that are near to the highest possible realisation of our present humanity. For the march of Nature is not drilled to a regular and mechanical forward stepping. She reaches constantly beyond herself even at the cost of subsequent deplorable retreats.
She has rushes; she has splendid and mighty outbursts; she has immense realisations. She storms sometimes passionately forward hoping to take the kingdom of heaven by violence.
And these self-exceedings are the revelation of that in her which is most divine or else most diabolical, but in ei ther case the most puissant to bring her rapidly forward towards her goal.
That which Nature has evolved for us and has firmly founded is the bodily life. She has effected a certain combination and harmony of the two inferior but most fundamentally necessary elements of our action and progress upon earth, -
Matter, which, however the too e thereally spiritual may despise it, is our foundation and the first condition of all our energies and realisations, and the Life-Energy which is our means of existence in a material body and the basis there even of our mental and spiritual activities. She has successfully achieved a certain stability of her constant material movement which is at once sufficiently steady and durable and sufficiently pliable and mutable to provide a fit dwelling-place and instrument for the progressively manifesting god in humanity. This is what is meant by the fable in the Aitareya Upanishad which tells us that the gods rejected the animal forms successively offered to them by the Divine Self and only when man was produced, cried out, "This indeed is perfectly made," and consented to enter in. She has effected also a working compromise between the inertia of matter and the active Life that lives in and feeds on it, by which not only is vital existence sustained, but the fullest developments of mentality are rendered possible. This equilibrium constitutes the basic status of Nature in man and is termed in the language of Yoga his gross body composed
the Three Steps of Nature
--
of the material or food sheath and the nervous system or vital vehicle.1
If, then, this inferior equilibrium is the basis and first means of the higher movements which the universal Power contemplates and if it constitutes the vehicle in which the Divine here seeks to reveal Itself, if the Indian saying is true that the body is the instrument provided for the fulfilment of the right law of our nature, then any final recoil from the physical life must be a turning away from the completeness of the divine Wisdom and a renunciation of its aim in earthly manifestation. Such a refusal may be, owing to some secret law of their development, the right attitude for certain individuals, but never the aim intended for mankind. It can be, therefore, no integral Yoga which ignores the body or makes its annulment or its rejection indispensable to a perfect spirituality. Ra ther, the perfecting of the body also should be the last triumph of the Spirit and to make the bodily life also divine must be God's final seal upon His work in the universe. the obstacle which the physical presents to the spiritual is no argument for the rejection of the physical; for in the unseen providence of things our greatest difficulties are our best opportunities. A supreme difficulty is Nature's indication to us of a supreme conquest to be won and an ultimate problem to be solved; it is not a warning of an inextricable snare to be shunned or of an enemy too strong for us from whom we must flee.
Equally, the vital and nervous energies in us are there for a great utility; they too demand the divine realisation of their possibilities in our ultimate fulfilment. the great part assigned to this element in the universal scheme is powerfully emphasised by the catholic wisdom of the Upanishads. "As the spokes of a wheel in its nave, so in the Life-Energy is all established, the triple knowledge and the Sacrifice and the power of the strong and the purity of the wise. Under the control of the LifeEnergy is all this that is established in the triple heaven."2 It is therefore no integral Yoga that kills these vital energies, forces them into a nerveless quiescence or roots them out as the source
annakos.a and pran.akos.a.
--
the Conditions of the Syn thesis
of noxious activities. their purification, not their destruction, - their transformation, control and utilisation is the aim in view with which they have been created and developed in us.
If the bodily life is what Nature has firmly evolved for us as her base and first instrument, it is our mental life that she is evolving as her immediate next aim and superior instrument. This in her ordinary exaltations is the lofty preoccupying thought in her; this, except in her periods of exhaustion and recoil into a reposeful and recuperating obscurity, is her constant pursuit wherever she can get free from the trammels of her first vital and physical realisations. For here in man we have a distinction which is of the utmost importance. He has in him not a single mentality, but a double and a triple, the mind material and nervous, the pure intellectual mind which liberates itself from the illusions of the body and the senses, and a divine mind above intellect which in its turn liberates itself from the imperfect modes of the logically discriminative and imaginative reason. Mind in man is first emmeshed in the life of the body, where in the plant it is entirely involved and in animals always imprisoned. It accepts this life as not only the first but the whole condition of its activities and serves its needs as if they were the entire aim of existence. But the bodily life in man is a base, not the aim, his first condition and not his last determinant. In the just idea of the ancients man is essentially the thinker, the Manu, the mental being who leads the life and the body,3 not the animal who is led by them. the true human existence, therefore, only begins when the intellectual mentality emerges out of the material and we begin more and more to live in the mind independent of the nervous and physical obsession and in the measure of that liberty are able to accept rightly and rightly to use the life of the body. For freedom and not a skilful subjection is the true means of mastery. A free, not a compulsory acceptance of the conditions, the enlarged and sublimated conditions of our physical being, is the high human ideal. But beyond this intellectual mentality is the divine.
the mental life thus evolving in man is not, indeed, a
--
common possession. In actual appearance it would seem as if it were only developed to the fullest in individuals and as if there were great numbers and even the majority in whom it is ei ther a small and ill-organised part of their normal nature or not evolved at all or latent and not easily made active.
Certainly, the mental life is not a finished evolution of Nature; it is not yet firmly founded in the human animal. the sign is that the fine and full equilibrium of vitality and matter, the sane, robust, long-lived human body is ordinarily found only in races or classes of men who reject the effort of thought, its disturbances, its tensions, or think only with the material mind.
Civilised man has yet to establish an equilibrium between the fully active mind and the body; he does not normally possess it.
Indeed, the increasing effort towards a more intense mental life seems to create, frequently, an increasing disequilibrium of the human elements, so that it is possible for eminent scientists to describe genius as a form of insanity, a result of degeneration, a pathological morbidity of Nature. the phenomena which are used to justify this exaggeration, when taken not separately, but in connection with all o ther relevant data, point to a different truth. Genius is one attempt of the universal Energy to so quicken and intensify our intellectual powers that they shall be prepared for those more puissant, direct and rapid faculties which constitute the play of the supra-intellectual or divine mind. It is not, then, a freak, an inexplicable phenomenon, but a perfectly natural next step in the right line of her evolution.
She has harmonised the bodily life with the material mind, she is harmonising it with the play of the intellectual mentality; for that, although it tends to a depression of the full animal and vital vigour, need not produce active disturbances. And she is shooting yet beyond in the attempt to reach a still higher level.
Nor are the disturbances created by her process as great as is often represented. Some of them are the crude beginnings of new manifestations; o thers are an easily corrected movement of disintegration, often fruitful of fresh activities and always a small price to pay for the far-reaching results that she has in view.
We may perhaps, if we consider all the circumstances, come
14
the Conditions of the Syn thesis
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. Ei ther, 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.
Moreover the whole trend of modern thought and modern endeavour reveals itself to the observant eye as a large conscious effort of Nature in man to effect a general level of intellectual equipment, capacity and far ther possibility by universalising the opportunities which modern civilisation affords for the mental life. Even the preoccupation of the European intellect, the protagonist of this tendency, with material Nature and the externalities of existence is a necessary part of the effort. It seeks to prepare a sufficient basis in man's physical being and vital energies and in his material environment for his full mental possibilities. By the spread of education, by the advance of the backward races, by the elevation of depressed classes, by the multiplication of labour-saving appliances, by the movement
the Three Steps of Nature
--
towards ideal social and economic conditions, by the labour of Science towards an improved health, longevity and sound physique in civilised humanity, the sense and drift of this vast movement translates itself in easily intelligible signs. the right or at least the ultimate means may not always be employed, but their aim is the right preliminary aim, - a sound individual and social body and the satisfaction of the legitimate needs and demands of the material mind, sufficient ease, leisure, equal opportunity, so that the whole of mankind and no longer only the favoured race, class or individual may be free to develop the emotional and intellectual being to its full capacity. At present the material and economic aim may predominate, but always, behind, there works or there waits in reserve the higher and major impulse.
And when the preliminary conditions are satisfied, when the great endeavour has found its base, what will be the nature of that far ther possibility which the activities of the intellectual life must serve? If Mind is indeed Nature's highest term, then the entire development of the rational and imaginative intellect and the harmonious satisfaction of the emotions and sensibilities must be to themselves sufficient. But if, on the contrary, man is more than a reasoning and emotional animal, if beyond that which is being evolved, there is something that has to be evolved, then it may well be that the fullness of the mental life, the suppleness, flexibility and wide capacity of the intellect, the ordered richness of emotion and sensibility may be only a passage towards the development of a higher life and of more powerful faculties which are yet to manifest and to take possession of the lower instrument, just as mind itself has so taken possession of the body that the physical being no longer lives only for its own satisfaction but provides the foundation and the materials for a superior activity.
the assertion of a higher than the mental life is the whole foundation of Indian philosophy and its acquisition and organisation is the veritable object served by the methods of Yoga.
Mind is not the last term of evolution, not an ultimate aim, but, like body, an instrument. It is even so termed in the language of
16
the Conditions of the Syn thesis
Yoga, the inner instrument.4 And Indian tradition asserts that this which is to be manifested is not a new term in human experience, but has been developed before and has even governed humanity in certain periods of its development. In any case, in order to be known it must at one time have been partly developed.
And if since then Nature has sunk back from her achievement, the reason must always be found in some unrealised harmony, some insufficiency of the intellectual and material basis to which she has now returned, some over-specialisation of the higher to the detriment of the lower existence.
But what then constitutes this higher or highest existence to which our evolution is tending? In order to answer the question we have to deal with a class of supreme experiences, a class of unusual conceptions which it is difficult to represent accurately in any o ther language than the ancient Sanskrit tongue in which alone they have been to some extent systematised.
the only approximate terms in the English language have o ther associations and their use may lead to many and even serious inaccuracies. the terminology of Yoga recognises besides the status of our physical and vital being, termed the gross body and doubly composed of the food sheath and the vital vehicle, besides the status of our mental being, termed the subtle body and singly composed of the mind sheath or mental vehicle,5 a third, supreme and divine status of supra-mental being, termed the causal body and composed of a fourth and a fifth vehicle6 which are described as those of knowledge and bliss. But this knowledge is not a systematised result of mental questionings and reasonings, not a temporary arrangement of conclusions and opinions in the terms of the highest probability, but ra ther a pure self-existent and self-luminous Truth. And this bliss is not a supreme pleasure of the heart and sensations with the experience of pain and sorrow as its background, but a delight also selfexistent and independent of objects and particular experiences, a self-delight which is the very nature, the very stuff, as it were, of a transcendent and infinite existence.
antah.karan.a.
--
Do such psychological conceptions correspond to anything real and possible? All Yoga asserts them as its ultimate experience and supreme aim. they form the governing principles of our highest possible state of consciousness, our widest possible range of existence. there is, we say, a harmony of supreme faculties, corresponding roughly to the psychological faculties of revelation, inspiration and intuition, yet acting not in the intuitive reason or the divine mind, but on a still higher plane, which see Truth directly face to face, or ra ther live in the truth of things both universal and transcendent and are its formulation and luminous activity. And these faculties are the light of a conscious existence superseding the egoistic and itself both cosmic and transcendent, the nature of which is Bliss. these are obviously divine and, as man is at present apparently constituted, superhuman states of consciousness and activity. A trinity of transcendent existence, self-awareness and self-delight7 is, indeed, the metaphysical description of the supreme Atman, the self-formulation, to our awakened knowledge, of the Unknowable whe ther conceived as a pure Impersonality or as a cosmic Personality manifesting the universe. But in Yoga they are regarded also in their psychological aspects as states of subjective existence to which our waking consciousness is now alien, but which dwell in us in a superconscious plane and to which, therefore, we may always ascend.
For, as is indicated by the name, causal body (karan.a), as opposed to the two o thers which are instruments (karan.a), this crowning manifestation is also the source and effective power of all that in the actual evolution has preceded it. Our mental activities are, indeed, a derivation, selection and, so long as they are divided from the truth that is secretly their source, a deformation of the divine knowledge. Our sensations and emotions have the same relation to the Bliss, our vital forces and actions to the aspect of Will or Force assumed by the divine consciousness, our physical being to the pure essence of that Bliss and
Consciousness. the evolution which we observe and of which
saccidananda.
--
the Conditions of the Syn thesis
we are the terrestrial summit may be considered, in a sense, as an inverse manifestation, by which these supreme Powers in their unity and their diversity use, develop and perfect the imperfect substance and activities of Matter, of Life and of Mind so that they, the inferior modes, may express in mutable relativity an increasing harmony of the divine and eternal states from which they are born. If this be the truth of the universe, then the goal of evolution is also its cause, it is that which is immanent in its elements and out of them is liberated. But the liberation is surely imperfect if it is only an escape and there is no return upon the containing substance and activities to exalt and transform them.
the immanence itself would have no credible reason for being if it did not end in such a transfiguration. But if human mind can become capable of the glories of the divine Light, human emotion and sensibility can be transformed into the mould and assume the measure and movement of the supreme Bliss, human action not only represent but feel itself to be the motion of a divine and non-egoistic Force and the physical substance of our being sufficiently partake of the purity of the supernal essence, sufficiently unify plasticity and durable constancy to support and prolong these highest experiences and agencies, then all the long labour of Nature will end in a crowning justification and her evolutions reveal their profound significance.
So dazzling is even a glimpse of this supreme existence and so absorbing its attraction that, once seen, we feel readily justified in neglecting all else for its pursuit. Even, by an opposite exaggeration to that which sees all things in Mind and the mental life as an exclusive ideal, Mind comes to be regarded as an unworthy deformation and a supreme obstacle, the source of an illusory universe, a negation of the Truth and itself to be denied and all its works and results annulled if we desire the final liberation. But this is a half-truth which errs by regarding only the actual limitations of Mind and ignores its divine intention.
the ultimate knowledge is that which perceives and accepts God in the universe as well as beyond the universe; the integral Yoga is that which, having found the Transcendent, can return upon the universe and possess it, retaining the power freely to descend
the Three Steps of Nature
--
as well as ascend the great stair of existence. For if the eternal
Wisdom exists at all, the faculty of Mind also must have some high use and destiny. That use must depend on its place in the ascent and in the return and that destiny must be a fulfilment and transfiguration, not a rooting out or an annulling.
We perceive, then, these three steps in Nature, a bodily life which is the basis of our existence here in the material world, a mental life into which we emerge and by which we raise the bodily to higher uses and enlarge it into a greater completeness, and a divine existence which is at once the goal of the o ther two and returns upon them to liberate them into their highest possibilities. Regarding none of them as ei ther beyond our reach or below our nature and the destruction of none of them as essential to the ultimate attainment, we accept this liberation and fulfilment as part at least and a large and important part of the aim of Yoga.
0.03 - III - The Evening Sittings, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
object:0.03 - III - the Evening Sittings
author class:A B Purani
--
Sri Aurobindo was never a social man in the current sense of the term and definitely he was not a man of the crowd. This was due to his grave temperament, not to any feeling of superiority or to repulsion for men. At Baroda there was an Officers' Club which was patronised by the Maharajah and though Sri Aurobindo enrolled himself as a member he hardly went to the Club even on special occasions. He ra ther liked a small congenial circle of friends and spent most of his evenings with them whenever he was free and not occupied with his studies or o ther works. After Baroda when he went to Calcutta there was hardly any time in the storm and stress of revolutionary politics to permit him to lead a 'social life'. What little time he could spare from his incessant activities was spent in the house of Raja Subodh Mallick or at the Grey Street house. In the Karmayogin office he used to sit after the office hours till late chatting with a few persons or trying automatic writing. Strange dictations used to be received sometimes: one of them was the following: "Moni [Suresh Chakravarty] will bomb Sir Edward Grey when he will come as the Viceroy of India." In later years at Pondicherry there used to be a joke that Sir Edward took such a fright at the prospect of Moni's bombing him that he never came to India!
After Sri Aurobindo had come to Pondicherry from Chandernagore, he entered upon an intense period of Sadhana and for a few months he refused to receive anyone. After a time he used to sit down to talk in the evening and on some days tried automatic writing. Yogic Sadhan, a small book, was the result. In 1913 Sri Aurobindo moved to Rue Franois Martin No. 41 where he used to receive visitors at fixed times. This was generally in the morning between 9 and 10.30.
But, over and above newcomers, some local people and the few inmates of the house used to have informal talks with Sri Aurobindo in the evening. In the beginning the inmates used to go out for playing football, and during their absence known local individuals would come in and wait for Sri Aurobindo. Afterwards regular meditations began at about 4 p.m. in which practically all the inmates participated. After the meditation all of the members and those who were permitted shared in the evening sitting. This was a very informal ga thering depending entirely upon Sri Aurobindo's leisure.
When Sri Aurobindo and the Mo ther moved to No. 9 Rue de la Marine in 1922 the same routine of informal evening sittings after meditation continued. I came to Pondicherry for Sadhana in the beginning of 1923. I kept notes of the important talks I had with the four or five disciples who were already there. Besides, I used to take detailed notes of the Evening Talks which we all had with the Master. they were not intended by him to be noted down. I took them down because of the importance I felt about everything connected with him, no matter how insignificant to the outer view. I also felt that everything he did would acquire for those who would come to know his mission a very great significance.
As years passed the evening sittings went on changing their time and often those disciples who came from outside for a temporary stay for Sadhana were allowed to join them. And, as the number of sadhaks practising the Yoga increased, the evening sittings also became more full, and the small verandah upstairs in the main building was found insufficient. Members of the household would ga ther every day at the fixed time with some sense of expectancy and start chatting in low tones. Sri Aurobindo used to come last and it was after his coming that the session would really commence.
He came dressed as usual in dhoti, part of which was used by him to cover the upper part of his body. Very rarely he came out with chaddar or shawl and then it was "in deference to the climate" as he sometimes put it. At times for minutes he would be gazing at the sky from a small opening at the top of the grass-curtains that covered the verandah upstairs in No. 9, Rue de la Marine. How much were these sittings dependent on him may be ga thered from the fact that there were days when more than three-fourths of the time passed in complete silence without any outer suggestion from him, or there was only an abrupt "Yes" or "No" to all attempts at drawing him out in conversation. And even when he participated in the talk one always felt that his voice was that of one who does not let his whole being flow into his words; there was a reserve and what was left unsaid was perhaps more than what was spoken. What was spoken was what he felt necessary to speak.
Very often some news-item in the daily newspaper, town-gossip, or some interesting letter received ei ther by him or by a disciple, or a question from one of the ga thering, occasionally some remark or query from himself would set the ball rolling for the talk. the whole thing was so informal that one could never predict the turn the conversation would take. the whole house therefore was in a mood to enjoy the freshness and the delight of meeting the unexpected. there were peals of laughter and light talk, jokes and criticism which might be called personal, there was seriousness and earnestness in abundance.
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.
But there were occasions when he did give his independent, personal views on some problems, on events or o ther subjects. Even then it was never an authoritarian pronouncement. Most often it appeared to be a logically worked out and almost inevitable conclusion expressed quite impersonally though with firm and sincere conviction. This impersonality was such a prominent trait of his personality! Even in such matters as dispatching a letter or a telegram it would not be a command from him to a disciple to carry out the task. Most often during his usual passage to the dining room he would stop on the way, drop in on the company of four or five disciples and, holding out the letter or the telegram, would say in the most amiable and yet the most impersonal way: "I suppose this has to be sent." And it would be for someone in the group instantly to volunteer and take it. the expression he very often used was "It was done" or "It happened", not "I did."
From 1918 to 1922, we ga thered at No. 41, Rue Franois Martin, called the Guest House, upstairs, on a broad verandah into which four rooms opened and whose main piece of furniture was a small table 3' x 1' covered with a blue cotton cloth. That is where Sri Aurobindo used to sit in a hard wooden chair behind the table with a few chairs in front for the visitors or for the disciples.
From 1922 to 1926, No. 9, Rue de la Marine, where he and the Mo ther 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 Mo ther moved to No. 28, Rue Franois Martin, a house on the north-east of the same block as No. 9, Rue de la Marine.
then, on 23 November 1938, I got up at 2 o'clock to prepare hot water for the Mo ther's early bath because the 24th was Darshan day. Between 2.20 and 2.30 the Mo ther rang the bell. I ran up the staircase to be told about an accident that had happened to Sri Aurobindo's thigh and to be asked to fetch the doctor. This accident brought about a change in his complete retirement, and rendered him available to those who had to attend on him. This opened out a long period of 12 years during which his retirement was modified owing to circumstances, inner and outer, that made it possible for him to have direct physical contacts with the world outside.
the long period of the Second World War with all its vicissitudes passed through these years. It was a priceless experience to see how he devoted his energies to the task of saving humanity from the threatened reign of Nazism. It was a practical lesson of solid work done for humanity without any thought of return or reward, without even letting humanity know what he was doing for it! Thus he lived the Divine and showed us how the Divine cares for the world, how He comes down and works for man. I shall never forget how he who was at one time in his own words "not merely a non-co-operator but an enemy of British Imperialism" bestowed such anxious care on the health of Churchill, listening carefully to the health-bulletins! It was the work of the Divine, it was the Divine's work for the world.
there were no formal evening sittings during these years, but what appeared to me important in our informal talks was recorded and has been incorporated in this book.
[1] Sri Aurobindo and His Ashram, 1985, p. 22.
--
[3] His initials, in the Tamil manner, by which he was widely known.
[4] the Life Divine, Centenary Edition, pp. 994-5.
[5]Essays on the Gita, Cent. Ed., p. 161.
[6]Ibid., p. 166.
0.03 - Letters to My little smile, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To "My little smile", one of the first children admitted to the Sri
Aurobindo Ashram; she came at the age of fourteen. Little smile
worked for many years embroidering clo thes for the Mo ther and
later became one of her personal attendants. She began writing
to the Mo ther at the age of seventeen.
My dear little smile,
--
the condition you were in while embroidering the "Silence"
flower1 cannot return as it was before, for in this world things
never repeat themselves in exactly the same way - everything
changes and progresses. But the state of mental peace you have
known is nothing compared to the one - much deeper and
completer - which you will come to know.
You must keep your aspiration intact and your will to conquer all obstacles; you must have an unshakable faith in the
divine grace and the sure victory.
Sri Aurobindo is working for your transformation - how
can there be doubt that he will triumph!
With all my love.
--
Silence: the name given by the Mo ther to the Wild Passion-flower (passiflora incarnata).
why and understanding the deeper cause of your happiness and
confidence.
--
I may remove the anger from the consciousness of my "little
smile" and give her back the joy and peace I want her always to
have.
--
I have seen the sari embroidered by my little smile and I find it
very pretty, completely successful.
You should not listen to the criticism of people without taste
or sufficient education.
--
I accept the rupee and send to my dear little child, along with
my blessings, my congratulations for the manner in which she
has passed her French test.
--
Do not attach too much importance to all these things;
they are the imaginations of a child who knows nothing of
life, of its misery and ugliness. For life is not as it is portrayed
--
small, and it is only by identification with the Divine Consciousness that one can attain and preserve the true unchanging
happiness.
--
Consecration to the Divine is the secret of existence;
a perpetual renewal of force comes from communion
with the Infinite.
My dear little smile,
--
1) the Infinite is the inexhaustible storehouse of forces. the
individual is a battery, a storage cell which runs down after use.
Consecration is the wire that connects the individual battery to
the infinite reserve of forces.
--
2) the Infinite is the river that flows without cease; the
individual is the little pond that dries up slowly in the sun.
Consecration is the canal that connects the river to the pond
and prevents the pond from drying up.
With these two images, I think you will understand.
Tender love.
--
stories, as they are called, I feel a sort of dullness; then
I can't work, and even if I do I can't work fast. Today
I spent the whole day in this state of dullness because I
no longer imagine things as before.
--
shaking off the tamas and thus ridding you of the dullness.
But this is not the only way to get rid of it. Opening to the Light
and Consciousness from above and allowing them to replace the
tamas in the external consciousness, is a much better and surer
way.
--
and runs here and there like a madman.
the mind always runs about like a madman. the first step is to
detach one's consciousness from it and let it run by itself without
running with it. then it finds this less enjoyable and after some
time it becomes quieter.
--
and be able to correct them.
26 November 1932
--
You know that the doctor asked me to look after Y.
At the Ashram, I heard Z asking him something about Y
and I also heard the doctor talking to him. Afterwards
I asked the doctor, "Why do you speak to Z about Y?"
He said, "Z was asking me what happened to Y. He no
longer sees her at Pranam." then I replied, "But he has
nothing to do with her and it is not good to talk about
these things to people because they cannot do anything
for her." "Yes," the doctor said, "I understand that he
asked me about that just out of curiosity and I will say
--
Your reply to the doctor was very good and you are perfectly
right. One should never talk about o thers - it is always useless
- 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
patients, and the doctor ought to know better. I hope you are
not frightened by what happened to Y. Remain very calm, very
--
While You were playing the organ, I had the feeling
that the o thers were listening to the Mo ther playing the
organ for me, and it made me feel proud. I understood,
--
I don't know when all these bad things will leave me.
Take pity on me.
You must not exaggerate. Certainly there are movements of vanity - ra ther childish besides - but they are not the only ones.
I am quite sure that while you were listening to the music, you
could also feel the pure and simple joy of the music for its own
sake, and that when you are near me, you also feel the simple
and sincere joy of a child near to its mo ther.
the nature is complex, and always the true and the false,
the good and the bad are mixed toge ther. It is very useful to
see one's faults and weaknesses clearly, but one should not see
only them, for that too would be one-sided. One should also
be aware of what is good and true in the nature and give it all
one's attention, so that this good and true side can grow and
ultimately absorb the rest and transform the nature.
5 December 1932
--
naughty things to tell You. If there is something good, it
Series Three - To "My little smile"
is only that I work for You (Your sari): this is the only
thing I can call good.
--
end to the matter.
Today I worked for seven hours.
--
may think of them. And as soon as you tell me all the things that
are troubling you, you will see that they have disappeared and
you will feel free and happy.
--
for nine hours on the sari.
My dear little child,
You must not accept depression, never, and still less these
suggestions, so stupid and false, that I could ask you to go away!
--
suddenly the conversation stopped.
That is how I talk to people in my head; my mind
puts the thoughts it likes, as it likes, into someone's
mouth and this makes a noise in my head.
--
It is not so terrible - the mind likes to be busy with something
always, and making up stories (even when one knows that these
stories are not true) is one of the most innocent pursuits of
this restless mind. Of course, it must become calm and quiet
some day in order to receive the light from above; but in the
meantime, you may surely tell me all these stories. I find them
more amusing than silly and they interest me. So don't say: I
won't tell Mo ther this or that, but ra ther say: I shall tell her
--
How then can I continue my practice of writing to
You in this state of depression and discontent?
--
Be careful, child, do not open the door to depression, discouragement and revolt - this leads far, far away from consciousness and makes you sink into the depths of obscurity
where happiness can no longer enter. Your great strength was
--
you were exceptional. But you have followed the example of
o ther people, you have learned from them to be discontented,
rebellious, depressed, and now you have let your smile slip away,
--
all the divine forces were to concentrate on you, it would be in
vain - you would refuse to receive them.
there is only one remedy, and you must lose no time in
--
more the confident child you were, do not brood over your faults
and difficulties - it is your smile that will chase them away.
16 December 1932
--
what they say. And I feel as if this noise has been going on
all night. It is like a bazaar, there is a lot of noise because
people are all talking at once and one can understand
--
In your sleep you are becoming conscious of the noises that the
mechanical thoughts of the most material mind make in their
own domain.
--
him?" But what is the advantage of thinking afterwards!
Series Three - To "My little smile"
--
one has done; for at a distance, removed from the action, one
sees more clearly and better understands what ought or ought
--
If You want these imaginations to remain in me, let
them remain, but if You don't want that, root them out.
Once again, do not worry; what should disappear will disappear;
--
I think this is the last thing I shall write to You.
I should like to stop writing now, as I am feeling very
--
If I had known before that these things are so difficult, I
should never have wished to come here. Mo ther, I wish
--
I do not know, Mo ther, why I have written all these
things. Mo ther, please do not be angry with me, I have
--
You wrote this one day in my notebook. But all the
things I have written about to You up to now have not
disappeared. Perhaps they are all good! And perhaps this
revolt, discontent, discouragement and bad temper are
good too. Because they have remained in me, they have
not disappeared. And the smile and working regularly
and having confidence - all of these are bad perhaps.
Because I see that they have disappeared, at least for the
present.
And if there is nothing bad in me, why are we taking
so much trouble? It would be better to remain quiet because "what should disappear will disappear; only what
--
Mo ther, I know that You will not like all these things
I have written, but what can I do? I have to write all this
--
away? then why should I have to listen to the advice of
o thers?
--
notebook: "And as soon as you tell me all the things
that are troubling you, you will see that they have disappeared and you will feel free and happy."
So I tell You that even this revolt and this bad temper
--
Of all things these are the worst.
I think I have told You all the things that are troubling
me.
It is not enough to tell them, you must want them to disappear.
Mo ther, today I am sad. I don't know why but I even
--
please. Will You not save me from them?
With all my will I want to save you, but you must allow me to
do so. To revolt is to reject the Divine Love and only the Divine
Love has the power to save.
28 December 1932
--
In the psychological domain, only the patients who do not want
to recover, do not recover. Perhaps it is the same for physical
diseases?
--
Psychological diseases are diseases of the thoughts and feelings,
such as depression, revolt, sadness, etc. Physical diseases are
those of the body.
6 January 1933
--
When with all my will I am working for the disappearance
of suffering from the world, how could I want, much less like,
one of my children to suffer! It would be monstrous.
--
For the past two days I have felt a great despair and
sadness - so much that I think if it goes on for a few
--
help thinking that if I remain in this condition all the time
and if I can't ever be happy, it will soon be impossible
for me to live. During these two days, in this sadness
and despair, I had the idea of committing suicide. (Don't
be afraid, I won't commit suicide; I am only telling You
--
there are thieves in the subtle world just as in the outer world.
But you must close to them the doors of your thoughts and
feelings as carefully as a prudent man bolts the doors of his
house.
--
them ( the thieves of the vital world), because it is when you are
depressed that they are best able to rob you. You must not listen
to them - you must reject the wicked suggestions and become
yourself once again, that is to say, my "little smile".
--
I did not mean anything by not writing "my child" on the
little note I sent you this afternoon. I was in a big hurry and
I wrote as few words as possible. Of course I miss the time
Series Three - To "My little smile"
when you were truly the eternal little smile, spontaneously and
effortlessly, when you felt satisfied with your work, happy to
--
smile which was a pleasure to see? I don't ask the question in
order to get an answer from you, for I think that I know it; it
--
Now there is only one way open, the way of progress - since
it is impossible to go backward, you must go forward and
--
I write (in order, as You said, to keep the contact with
You)?
--
got up, washed and dressed, then I ate my breakfast and started
working at such and such a time, etc. etc.). You can tell me
all the people you met and whom you spoke to, what you told
them, etc. It will be a very good exercise in French and at the
same time will create a fur ther intimacy between us.
--
dressed, then went to collect my notebook from X's
window (I always go there). then at about 6:30 I
drank my phoscao, then started work at 6:45. At 7:30
I went for Pranam, then at 7:45 I started work again.
At 9:30 I went to Y's house to get some work for
Z, then sat down again to work until 11:30. then I
ate my lunch and rested for ten minutes. At 12:00 I
--
from 12:00 to 8:00. I have finished embroidering the
crown.
--
Mo ther, I always write to You about the same things:
sleep, work and talk. Mo ther, do You like reading the
same thing every day?
Why not, my little smile? You can learn to say the same things
in different ways; this is an excellent exercise to learn how
to write and mould your style. It seems that at the moment
Series Three - To "My little smile"
--
That is quite a big word! It is said that hate is the reverse of love;
at any rate it is a dangerous sentiment which leaves you always
at the mercy of the one you hate: to hate means that you are still
attached; the true attitude is one of complete indifference.
27 January 1933
--
Next time I see You, I shall explain how embroiderers fix the sari on the frame. the frame has to be as big
as the sari.
Mo ther, couldn't I have a big frame like that, to
embroider the saris really nicely?
If I give you such a big frame, we shall have to build a room to
fit the frame in!
13 February 1933
To pray with the body: to do one's work as an offering to the Divine. the Mo ther has
written: "To work for the Divine is to pray with the body." Words of the Mo ther - II,
CWM, Vol. 14, p. 299.
--
I worked on the sari for ten hours. I think I shall
finish this sari before 24th April.
--
This is good, my little smile; balance of the being is based upon
regular work.
--
Did you notice the date today - 3.3.33?
Do you know that this happens only once in eleven years?
Eleven years ago, in 1922, in the month of February, it was possible to write 2.2.22 and eleven years from now, in the month
of April, it will be possible to write 4.4.44, and so on. It is
--
"Supramental beauty in the physical"3 - what does
it mean? All these things - all the arts, the beautiful
the Mo ther's name for a light golden-orange Hibiscus.
--
work we do for the Divine - are they expressions of
supramental beauty in the physical?
No, all that is only the manifestation of a universal harmony
which lies, as it were, at the very heart of creation. But the
supramental beauty is something much higher and more perfect;
it is a beauty untainted by any ugliness and it does not need the
proximity of ugliness in order to look beautiful.
When the supramental forces descend into Matter in order
to manifest, this perfect beauty will express itself quite naturally
--
do not wear them very often.
9 March 1933
--
This morning You gave me a flower which signifies "Consciousness turned towards the supramental
Light".4 What does this mean? I don't understand.
--
It means the consciousness that is not filled with the activities and influences of ordinary life, but is concentrated in an
aspiration towards the divine light, force, knowledge, joy.
Now do you understand?
--
the original and which the copy, and it may very well be that
the copy is even more beautiful than the original. You saw that
I was wearing the gown this evening when I went for a walk on
the terrace.
--
Mo ther, for the past two days I have been feeling a
little tired, my hands have become a bit slow.
--
Yes, X told me today that the frame would be completely ready this evening.
Today I worked nine hours on the blouse.
Little smile, you must not go on working to the point of fatigue.
10 June 1933
--
the Japanese cover the walls of their rooms with embroidered curtains.
You are right; nothing is better than to realise our most beautiful
--
Mo ther, do You know, it is I who ironed these two
blouses without spoiling them? This is the first time I
have ironed a blouse. Mo ther, give me a "bravo" for
this. Tomorrow I am going to start on the o ther grey
blouse.
--
literally filled with admiration. It is magnificent - the birds are
so beautiful and so very alive; I found their little heads with the
lovely little silver crests very beautiful, far more beautiful than
in the original drawing. the little diamonds are also very fine,
and in silver on the sari they will be magnificent. Where did you
do the ironing? It is good that you are learning.
21 June 1933
--
This morning I cut a chemise for You - it is the first
time I ever cut a chemise. X is going to stitch it and when
it is ready, You will wear it and then tell me if it is well
cut or not. Because if it is well cut, I can cut o ther things
--
Since this morning I have some pain in the pupil of
my left eye.
--
would be the end of your beautiful embroideries! When you
have pain, close your eyes for a few minutes and cover them
with the palms of your hands (without pressing). You will find
this very restful.
--
I think all the trouble I took for X was in vain. I
spent nearly two hours this evening making her understand how to write things very clearly. But in vain.
the trouble one takes like this for someone is never in vain. the
result may not appear immediately, but one day or ano ther a
--
After seeing You go up to the terrace, I go and have
my meal. then I return home and write my letter to You,
and then sometimes I wash our clo thes (X's and mine;
sometimes X washes them). then I walk for an hour,
then I usually prepare my lesson and go to bed.
--
sew with the sewing machine until 10:15. then I worked
with the sewing machine until 11:45; then I did a bit of
lesson and at 12:30 I went to bed.
Today I worked on the blouse for three hours.
You must not get into the habit of going to bed late like that.
It is not good - you will quickly spoil your eyesight, and that
would be the end of your beautiful embroideries. the nerves
also get tired and then one no longer has the sure hand or the
precise movement, one loses one's patience and calm and the
work one does is no longer neat and trim; everything becomes
--
any kind of perfection. I don't think this is the result you want
to obtain!
--
I have started fixing the sari on the embroidery frame
and tomorrow this work will be finished. Afterwards I
shall start the embroidery.
I have nothing else to write to You. the only news I
have to give You is about my work.
--
Today also I was busy fixing the sari on the frame,
but I saw that the sari was not quite straight. So now
I have only to undo this work - which took me three
--
child all day with the marvellous playthings my Mo ther
has given me to play with all day. I don't know how to
--
Mo ther, I think the sari You wore today is my finest
embroidery, don't You think so?
--
I am working on the grey sari. What else? What can
I write to You?
Just a word is enough to keep the contact, and when you have
something interesting to tell me, you must do so.
--
think of not increasing my work unnecessarily; there are not
many like you.
--
You did quite the right thing!
A great promise came from above for you yesterday6, the
promise that you will be delivered from all your difficulties and
--
After the Darshan I was quiet and happy. At the
Ashram I saw X and Y and we talked toge ther happily.
--
for a long time" and so on. then X also said, "This time
I also spent a little more time, two or three minutes."
--
of me. I thought X would sit on one side and Y on the
o ther. But then Z came and sat down beside me. I told
her to sit somewhere else and she got angry with me.
--
angry with me, they did not sit with me. I was very hurt
because they did not sit with me.
Do not torment yourself, my little smile; all this has come to
teach you that on these occasions, after having had the joy of
receiving Sri Aurobindo's blessing, it is better to remain concentrated and to keep one's joy locked inside oneself ra ther than to
throw it out by mixing and talking with o thers. the experiences
November 24th, a Darshan day. On the three (later four) Darshan days each year,
the sadhaks went before Sri Aurobindo and the Mo ther to receive their blessings.
Series Three - To "My little smile"
we talk about evaporate and we lose the benefit they could have
brought us.
--
answer her and I show her the work to be done.
Mo ther, I want Your presence and I try to keep it at
--
but my lips refused; they didn't want to smile.
Mo ther, is it good or bad not to be able to speak like
--
resisting them. How then can I ever be happy?
You must not worry - it does not help towards the realisation
of the promises; and also you must be patient. In this physical
world, things take time to get realised.
--
words that I couldn't read. I asked X to read them;
then he said, "You are the Mo ther's child, not Sri Aurobindo's." (It was just a joke, because I can read Your
handwriting but not Sri Aurobindo's.)
Don't you believe that when one is a child of the Mo ther,
one is at the same time a child of Sri Aurobindo, and viceversa?
16 December 1933
--
Yesterday and today I worked all day on the "iris"
sari. I love to work for You. Mo ther, I don't know what
--
"Good day", the customary French greeting.
Series Three - To "My little smile"
--
Today also I worked all day on the "iris" sari; I
won't tell You how many hours I work because if I
--
do they signify?
"Aristocracy of beauty". It is a noble flower which stands upright on its stalk. Its form has been stylised in the fleur-de-lis,
emblem of the kings of France.
23 December 1933
--
Today also I worked all day on the blouse.
All my affection for my hardworking little smile.
--
What can I write? Today I worked on the sari.
What can I say? - that I am always with you in your work and
--
Yesterday while ironing the blouse I scorched it in a
few places.
--
I shall always be with you, my dear little child, in the struggle
and in the victory.
13 January 1934
--
Today I worked on the sari for nine hours.
then the work must be proceeding very fast. You have a marvellous capacity for work, my dear little child.
18 January 1934
--
Today also I worked all day on the sari. Sometimes
I become a naughty child, don't I, Mo ther?
--
I know that there are beautiful things in my little
heart. there are bad things too, as You know, Mo ther
- I have told You about them.
But this little heart is full of love. Mo ther, we are
going to burn all the bad things in this little heart. then
in my heart there will only be a very, very sweet love for
You alone.
--
true. the beautiful things are far stronger than the ugly ones
and they will surely win the victory. I am with you always, in
the struggle and in the victory.
29 January 1934
--
This morning X showed me the pink blouse she has
embroidered with silver thread. This blouse is very, very
beautiful. the sari too will be the most beautiful one in
Your collection of saris embroidered by us.
--
the Mo ther's name for the Tiger-claw plant, Heliconia metallica.
I have seen this blouse, I find that the bird-of-paradise
sari is nothing compared to the one X is preparing.
That is not true; each has its own particular beauty and style.
--
Her blouse is truly the most beautiful one.
I cannot say whe ther it is the most beautiful or not. Each of
the embroidered saris has its own beauty; but it is true that this
--
Mo ther, why are these silly things in me? I don't want
them. they have been in me long enough. Now I don't
want them. I shall not rest until You come into my heart
and live there eternally.
My Mo ther, give me purity and constancy in my
--
Certain conditions in us (and pride is one of them) automatically
invite blows from the surrounding circumstances. And it is up
to us to utilise these blows to make fur ther progress.
You are right in wanting all this pettiness and stupidity to
--
I hope that this new month will bring you the realisation you
desire: a happy calm, an invariable peace, a luminous silence.
--
these things are sure to be there.
You will not have to go far to seize me, for I am already in your
heart and as soon as your eyes are opened you will see me there;
turn your faculty of feeling inward instead of letting it project
--
so) as you feel the cold and the heat.
2 February 1934
--
know how to open my eyes; they are always open except
when I sleep.
I am speaking of your inner eyes, not the physical ones.
"Turn your faculty of feeling inward instead of letting it
--
I mean that instead of living in the perceptions of the senseorgans, which are exclusively occupied with outward things,
you should concentrate in the inner being, which has a life
independent of the senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch).
3 February 1934
--
Why didn't You return the letter to me ( the one You
wrote to me) after I sent it to You this morning with my
--
you in my arms, ba the you in my love and wipe away even the
Series Three - To "My little smile"
memory of this unfortunate incident. I kept the letter to show it
to Sri Aurobindo along with your letter of this morning. I am
--
to hide something from me. When you started crying under the
pressure I was putting on you in meditation to calm the restlessness of your mind and vital, I thought that it might relieve you
to tell me the cause of your sorrow, and when you didn't reply,
I simply asked whe ther you wanted to speak, so as not to insist
--
My dear child, this is certainly a most unexpected way of interpreting this vision. I hadn't given it that meaning at all. the
images in these visions are always symbolic and should be taken
as such.
the rocks represent the material nature, hard and inflexible
yet concealing in itself the stream of life. Because of the resistance
of matter, this stream of life is freed only with difficulty and can
hardly emerge into the light. But with a little concentration and
insistence, the resistance of matter lessens and the life-forces are
freed. This image applies to almost everyone, but in this case
--
I dyed the big ten-yard piece. But it was not successful:
the dyeing is irregular: some places are dark and some
--
My dear child, I didn't reply at once because I wanted to see the
cloth first. there are irregularities, of course, but it seems to me
that they can be put right.
I don't think it would be good to dye it again. It would become too dark. But we can take the irregularities as movements
of water and underline them with a fine gold thread; then it will
look as if it were done deliberately and it will be even lovelier.
--
Now I don 't feel like doing the fishes. I shall do
them in five years.
I would ra ther start on the green sari with gold and
silver dragons, for 21 February 1935 - if You ask someone to do the drawing. Because the green cloth and the
gold and silver thread are all ready.
I am disappointed, I cannot do the fishes now.
Series Three - To "My little smile"
You can ask X if he would like to draw the dragons for you.
7 September 1934
--
difficult to reason with them. Now if you want me to tell you
what I think, it is this: Y has taken a lot of trouble and made
--
utilising the irregularities of the dyeing to make a sari far more
beautiful than we had thought, and yet without considering you
--
would have to ask X to go to the trouble of making ano ther
drawing, and if by chance ano ther difficulty crops up, this little
--
told you to ask him for the drawing yourself. He has just today
sent me the design of the crown with fishes. It is very, very pretty.
And if you want my opinion, I suggest that you first take up the
crown - it will set you going on the sari itself; and you will
see that everything will be all right, completely all right. I am
sending you the design of the crown.
With my love.
--
sort of fear, as if someone were there or someone might
come. I shut my eyes and after a moment, in my sleep,
I felt a sort of fear. I opened my eyes, looked at the sky,
and then closed my eyes again. I saw something like a
cloud coming slowly and I opened my eyes...
--
you or you have an unpleasant feeling, you must call me and the
thing will disappear. When you are awake, surely you are not
--
am proud of the beautiful things my dear children make for me
and I wear them with affection and joy.
My blessings and my love are always with you.
--
You told me that there is something closed in me
which isn't open to You and this is why, even when I
--
already there) I do not feel it. What is it that is closed?
My heart? Or something else? I don't understand all this.
--
I know of only one way: to give oneself - a complete consecration to the Divine. the more one gives oneself, the more
one opens; the more one opens, the more one receives; and in
the intimacy of this self-giving one can become conscious of the
inner Presence and the joy it brings.
Tender love from your mo ther.
--
happy experiences that I feel so poor; I feel then that I
do not yet have in me what I should have.
--
told You the o ther day) because I know that if one can
always keep that silence and peace one never feels poor
--
was for You; in all the work I did, this feeling of "doing
it for You" was always with me.
--
Are you aware of any cause for this change? Surely there is
one. Besides, these days when the Ashram is full of visitors,9
there is a great confusion which often brings a clouding of
--
but simply aspire with calm and perseverance for the light to
reappear. My love is always with you to help you go through
--
Yes, I think I know the cause of this change. Isn't
it the desire to be admired by people - ego? Or is it
something else? If You know, You will let me know. I
--
Yes, my dear little child, you have indeed found the cause; and
weren't you a little annoyed that I didn't wear your embroidered
saris all these days? It is certainly not because I dislike wearing
them - quite the contrary. But they are ra ther heavy and warm
and I prefer to keep them for wearing between November and
January - at that time there are many visitors because of the
vacations and I shall then wear the embroidered saris with the
greatest pleasure since the season is a bit cooler.
It is true that you must get rid of these ignorant and petty
movements; but at the same time, you may be sure that I appreciate and love your work immensely. I have great admiration for
your embroidery, and for you, great love.
--
Must go on smiling, smiling still more when the difficulties come. Smiles are like rays of the sun, they dissolve the
clouds... And if you want the radical remedy it lies in this:
frankness, be absolutely frank; tell me fully all that is going
on in you, and soon the cure will come, a complete and happy
cure.
--
not angry, but I had not the slightest intention of looking angry.
I only looked straight into your soul, trying to reestablish
--
belittle the Divine's love, because without it nothing is worth
living for.
--
being hurt by the stones on the way.
With my love and blessings that her aspiration may be
0.03 - The Threefold Life, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:0.03 - the Threefold Life
author class:Sri Aurobindo
--
NATURE, then, is an evolution or progressive self-manifestation of an eternal and secret existence, with three successive forms as her three steps of ascent. And we have consequently as the condition of all our activities these three mutually interdependent possibilities, the bodily life, the mental existence and the veiled spiritual being which is in the involution the cause of the o thers and in the evolution their result. Preserving and perfecting the physical, fulfilling the mental, it is Nature's aim and it should be ours to unveil in the perfected body and mind the transcendent activities of the Spirit. As the mental life does not abrogate but works for the elevation and better utilisation of the bodily existence, so too the spiritual should not abrogate but transfigure our intellectual, emotional, aes thetic and vital activities.
For man, the head of terrestrial Nature, the sole earthly frame in which her full evolution is possible, is a triple birth. He has been given a living frame in which the body is the vessel and life the dynamic means of a divine manifestation. His activity is centred in a progressive mind which aims at perfecting itself as well as the house in which it dwells and the means of life that it uses, and is capable of awaking by a progressive self-realisation to its own true nature as a form of the Spirit. He culminates in what he always really was, the illumined and beatific spirit which is intended at last to irradiate life and mind with its now concealed splendours.
Since this is the plan of the divine Energy in humanity, the whole method and aim of our existence must work by the interaction of these three elements in the being. As a result of their separate formulation in Nature, man has open to him a choice between three kinds of life, the ordinary material existence, a life of mental activity and progress and the unchanging spiritual beatitude. But he can, as he progresses, combine these three forms, resolve their discords into a harmonious rhythm and so create in himself the whole godhead, the perfect Man.
In ordinary Nature they have each their own characteristic and governing impulse.
the characteristic energy of bodily Life is not so much in progress as in persistence, not so much in individual selfenlargement as in self-repetition. there is, indeed, in physical Nature a progression from type to type, from the vegetable to the animal, from the animal to man; for even in inanimate Matter Mind is at work. But once a type is marked off physically, the chief immediate preoccupation of the terrestrial Mo ther seems to be to keep it in being by a constant reproduction. For Life always seeks immortality; but since individual form is impermanent and only the idea of a form is permanent in the consciousness that creates the universe, - for there it does not perish, - such constant reproduction is the only possible material immortality.
Self-preservation, self-repetition, self-multiplication are necessarily, then, the predominant instincts of all material existence.
Material life seems ever to move in a fixed cycle.
the characteristic energy of pure Mind is change, and the more our mentality acquires elevation and organisation, the more this law of Mind assumes the aspect of a continual enlargement, improvement and better arrangement of its gains and so of a continual passage from a smaller and simpler to a larger and more complex perfection. For Mind, unlike bodily life, is infinite in its field, elastic in its expansion, easily variable in its formations. Change, then, self-enlargement and selfimprovement are its proper instincts. Mind too moves in cycles, but these are ever-enlarging spirals. Its faith is perfectibility, its watchword is progress.
the characteristic law of Spirit is self-existent perfection and immutable infinity. It possesses always and in its own right the immortality which is the aim of Life and the perfection which is the goal of Mind. the attainment of the eternal and the realisation of that which is the same in all things and beyond all things, equally blissful in universe and outside it, untouched by the imperfections and limitations of the forms and activities in which it dwells, are the glory of the spiritual life.
In each of these forms Nature acts both individually and collectively; for the Eternal affirms Himself equally in the single form and in the group-existence, whe ther family, clan and nation or groupings dependent on less physical principles or the supreme group of all, our collective humanity. Man also may seek his own individual good from any or all of these spheres of activity, or identify himself in them with the collectivity and live for it, or, rising to a truer perception of this complex universe, harmonise the individual realisation with the collective aim. For as it is the right relation of the soul with the Supreme, while it is in the universe, nei ther to assert egoistically its separate being nor to blot itself out in the Indefinable, but to realise its unity with the Divine and the world and unite them in the individual, so the right relation of the individual with the collectivity is nei ther to pursue egoistically his own material or mental progress or spiritual salvation without regard to his fellows, nor for the sake of the community to suppress or maim his proper development, but to sum up in himself all its best and completest possibilities and pour them out by thought, action and all o ther means on his surroundings so that the whole race may approach nearer to the attainment of its supreme personalities.
It follows that the object of the material life must be to fulfil, above all things, the vital aim of Nature. the whole aim of the material man is to live, to pass from birth to death with as much comfort or enjoyment as may be on the way, but anyhow to live.
He can subordinate this aim, but only to physical Nature's o ther instincts, the reproduction of the individual and the conservation of the type in the family, class or community. Self, domesticity, the accustomed order of the society and of the nation are the constituents of the material existence. Its immense importance in the economy of Nature is self-evident, and commensurate is the importance of the human type which represents it. He assures her of the safety of the framework she has made and of the orderly continuance and conservation of her past gains.
But by that very utility such men and the life they lead are condemned to be limited, irrationally conservative and earthbound. the customary routine, the customary institutions, the inherited or habitual forms of thought, - these things are the life-breath of their nostrils. they admit and jealously defend the changes compelled by the progressive mind in the past, but combat with equal zeal the changes that are being made by it in the present. For to the material man the living progressive thinker is an ideologue, dreamer or madman. the old Semites who stoned the living prophets and adored their memories when dead, were the very incarnation of this instinctive and unintelligent principle in Nature. In the ancient Indian distinction between the once born and the twice born, it is to this material man that the former description can be applied. He does Nature's inferior works; he assures the basis for her higher activities; but not to him easily are opened the glories of her second birth.
Yet he admits so much of spirituality as has been enforced on his customary ideas by the great religious outbursts of the past and he makes in his scheme of society a place, venerable though not often effective, for the priest or the learned theologian who can be trusted to provide him with a safe and ordinary spiritual pabulum. But to the man who would assert for himself the liberty of spiritual experience and the spiritual life, he assigns, if he admits him at all, not the vestment of the priest but the robe of the Sannyasin. Outside society let him exercise his dangerous freedom. So he may even serve as a human lightning-rod receiving the electricity of the Spirit and turning it away from the social edifice.
Never theless it is possible to make the material man and his life moderately progressive by imprinting on the material mind the custom of progress, the habit of conscious change, the fixed idea of progression as a law of life. the creation by this means of progressive societies in Europe is one of the greatest triumphs of Mind over Matter. But the physical nature has its revenge; for the progress made tends to be of the grosser and more outward kind and its attempts at a higher or a more rapid movement bring about great wearinesses, swift exhaustions, startling recoils.
It is possible also to give the material man and his life a moderate spirituality by accustoming him to regard in a religious spirit all the institutions of life and its customary activities. the creation of such spiritualised communities in the East has been one of the greatest triumphs of Spirit over Matter. Yet here, too, there is a defect; for this often tends only to the creation of a religious temperament, the most outward form of spirituality.
Its higher manifestations, even the most splendid and puissant, ei ther merely increase the number of souls drawn out of social life and so impoverish it or disturb the society for a while by a momentary elevation. the truth is that nei ther the mental effort nor the spiritual impulse can suffice, divorced from each o ther, to overcome the immense resistance of material Nature.
She demands their alliance in a complete effort before she will suffer a complete change in humanity. But, usually, these two great agents are unwilling to make to each o ther the necessary concessions.
the mental life concentrates on the aes thetic, the ethical and the intellectual activities. Essential mentality is idealistic and a seeker after perfection. the subtle self, the brilliant Atman,1 is ever a dreamer. A dream of perfect beauty, perfect conduct, perfect Truth, whe ther seeking new forms of the Eternal or revitalising the old, is the very soul of pure mentality. But it knows not how to deal with the resistance of Matter. there it is hampered and inefficient, works by bungling experiments and has ei ther to withdraw from the struggle or submit to the grey actuality. Or else, by studying the material life and accepting the conditions of the contest, it may succeed, but only in imposing temporarily some artificial system which infinite Nature ei ther rends and casts aside or disfigures out of recognition or by withdrawing her assent leaves as the corpse of a dead ideal. Few and far between have been those realisations of the dreamer in Man which the world has gladly accepted, looks back to with a fond memory and seeks, in its elements, to cherish.
1 Who dwells in Dream, the inly conscious, the enjoyer of abstractions, the Brilliant.
Mandukya Upanishad 4.
When the gulf between actual life and the temperament of the thinker is too great, we see as the result a sort of withdrawing of the Mind from life in order to act with a greater freedom in its own sphere. the poet living among his brilliant visions, the artist absorbed in his art, the philosopher thinking out the problems of the intellect in his solitary chamber, the scientist, the scholar caring only for their studies and their experiments, were often in former days, are even now not unoften the Sannyasins of the intellect. To the work they have done for humanity, all its past bears record.
But such seclusion is justified only by some special activity.
Mind finds fully its force and action only when it casts itself upon life and accepts equally its possibilities and its resistances as the means of a greater self-perfection. In the struggle with the difficulties of the material world the ethical development of the individual is firmly shaped and the great schools of conduct are formed; by contact with the facts of life Art attains to vitality, Thought assures its abstractions, the generalisations of the philosopher base themselves on a stable foundation of science and experience.
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 whe ther 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.
But if it is often difficult for the mental life to accommodate itself to the dully resistant material activity, how much more difficult must it seem for the spiritual existence to live on in a world that appears full not of the Truth but of every lie and illusion, not of Love and Beauty but of an encompassing discord and ugliness, not of the Law of Truth but of victorious selfishness and sin? therefore the spiritual life tends easily in the saint and Sannyasin to withdraw from the material existence and reject it ei ther wholly and physically or in the spirit. It sees this world as the kingdom of evil or of ignorance and the eternal and divine ei ther in a far-off heaven or beyond where there is no world and no life. It separates itself inwardly, if not also physically, from the world's impurities; it asserts the spiritual reality in a spotless isolation. This withdrawal renders an invaluable service to the material life itself by forcing it to regard and even to bow down to something that is the direct negation of its own petty ideals, sordid cares and egoistic self-content.
But the work in the world of so supreme a power as spiritual force cannot be thus limited. the spiritual life also can return upon the material and use it as a means of its own greater fullness. Refusing to be blinded by the dualities, the appearances, it can seek in all appearances whatsoever the vision of the same Lord, the same eternal Truth, Beauty, Love, Delight. the
Vedantic formula of the Self in all things, all things in the Self and all things as becomings of the Self is the key to this richer and all-embracing Yoga.
2 the Unified, in whom conscious thought is concentrated, who is all delight and enjoyer of delight, the Wise. . . . He is the Lord of all, the Omniscient, the inner Guide.
Mandukya Upanishad 5, 6.
But the spiritual life, like the mental, may thus make use of this outward existence for the benefit of the individual with a perfect indifference to any collective uplifting of the merely symbolic world which it uses. Since the Eternal is for ever the same in all things and all things the same to the Eternal, since the exact mode of action and the result are of no importance compared with the working out in oneself of the one great realisation, this spiritual indifference accepts no matter what environment, no matter what action, dispassionately, prepared to retire as soon as its own supreme end is realised. It is so that many have understood the ideal of the Gita. Or else the inner love and bliss may pour itself out on the world in good deeds, in service, in compassion, the inner Truth in the giving of knowledge, without therefore attempting the transformation of a world which must by its inalienable nature remain a battlefield of the dualities, of sin and virtue, of truth and error, of joy and suffering.
But if Progress also is one of the chief terms of worldexistence and a progressive manifestation of the Divine the true sense of Nature, this limitation also is invalid. It is possible for the spiritual life in the world, and it is its real mission, to change the material life into its own image, the image of the Divine. therefore, besides the great solitaries who have sought and attained their self-liberation, we have the great spiritual teachers who have also liberated o thers and, supreme of all, the great dynamic souls who, feeling themselves stronger in the might of the Spirit than all the forces of the material life banded toge ther, have thrown themselves upon the world, grappled with it in a loving wrestle and striven to compel its consent to its own transfiguration. Ordinarily, the effort is concentrated on a mental and moral change in humanity, but it may extend itself also to the alteration of the forms of our life and its institutions so that they too may be a better mould for the inpourings of the Spirit. these attempts have been the supreme landmarks in the progressive development of human ideals and the divine preparation of the race. Every one of them, whatever its outward results, has left Earth more capable of Heaven and quickened in its tardy movements the evolutionary Yoga of Nature.
In India, for the last thousand years and more, the spiritual life and the material have existed side by side to the exclusion of the progressive mind. Spirituality has made terms for itself with Matter by renouncing the attempt at general progress. It has obtained from society the right of free spiritual development for all who assume some distinctive symbol, such as the garb of the Sannyasin, the recognition of that life as man's goal and those who live it as worthy of an absolute reverence, and the casting of society itself into such a religious mould that its most customary acts should be accompanied by a formal reminder of the spiritual symbolism of life and its ultimate destination. On the o ther hand, there was conceded to society the right of inertia and immobile self-conservation. the concession destroyed much of the value of the terms. the religious mould being fixed, the formal reminder tended to become a routine and to lose its living sense. the constant attempts to change the mould by new sects and religions ended only in a new routine or a modification of the old; for the saving element of the free and active mind had been exiled. the material life, handed over to the Ignorance, the purposeless and endless duality, became a leaden and dolorous yoke from which flight was the only escape.
the schools of Indian Yoga lent themselves to the compromise. Individual perfection or liberation was made the aim, seclusion of some kind from the ordinary activities the condition, the renunciation of life the culmination. the teacher gave his knowledge only to a small circle of disciples. Or if a wider movement was attempted, it was still the release of the individual soul that remained the aim. the pact with an immobile society was, for the most part, observed.
the utility of the compromise in the then actual state of the world cannot be doubted. It secured in India a society which lent itself to the preservation and the worship of spirituality, a country apart in which as in a fortress the highest spiritual ideal could maintain itself in its most absolute purity unoverpowered by the siege of the forces around it. But it was a compromise, not an absolute victory. the material life lost the divine impulse to growth, the spiritual preserved by isolation its height and purity, but sacrificed its full power and serviceableness to the world. therefore, in the divine Providence the country of the Yogins and the Sannyasins has been forced into a strict and imperative contact with the very element it had rejected, the element of the progressive Mind, so that it might recover what was now wanting to it.
We have to recognise once more that the individual exists not in himself alone but in the collectivity and that individual perfection and liberation are not the whole sense of God's intention in the world. the free use of our liberty includes also the liberation of o thers and of mankind; the perfect utility of our perfection is, having realised in ourselves the divine symbol, to reproduce, multiply and ultimately universalise it in o thers.
therefore from a concrete view of human life in its threefold potentialities we come to the same conclusion that we had drawn from an observation of Nature in her general workings and the three steps of her evolution. And we begin to perceive a complete aim for our syn thesis of Yoga.
Spirit is the crown of universal existence; Matter is its basis; Mind is the link between the two. Spirit is that which is eternal; Mind and Matter are its workings. Spirit is that which is concealed and has to be revealed; mind and body are the means by which it seeks to reveal itself. Spirit is the image of the Lord of the Yoga; mind and body are the means He has provided for reproducing that image in phenomenal existence. All Nature is an attempt at a progressive revelation of the concealed Truth, a more and more successful reproduction of the divine image.
But what Nature aims at for the mass in a slow evolution, Yoga effects for the individual by a rapid revolution. It works by a quickening of all her energies, a sublimation of all her faculties. While she develops the spiritual life with difficulty and has constantly to fall back from it for the sake of her lower realisations, the sublimated force, the concentrated method of Yoga can attain directly and carry with it the perfection of the mind and even, if she will, the perfection of the body. Nature seeks the Divine in her own symbols: Yoga goes beyond Nature to the Lord of Nature, beyond universe to the Transcendent and can return with the transcendent light and power, with the fiat of the Omnipotent.
But their aim is one in the end. the generalisation of Yoga in humanity must be the last victory of Nature over her own delays and concealments. Even as now by the progressive mind in Science she seeks to make all mankind fit for the full development of the mental life, so by Yoga must she inevitably seek to make all mankind fit for the higher evolution, the second birth, the spiritual existence. And as the mental life uses and perfects the material, so will the spiritual use and perfect the material and the mental existence as the instruments of a divine self-expression.
the ages when that is accomplished, are the legendary Satya or Krita3 Yugas, the ages of the Truth manifested in the symbol, of the great work done when Nature in mankind, illumined, satisfied and blissful, rests in the culmination of her endeavour.
It is for man to know her meaning, no longer misunderstanding, vilifying or misusing the universal Mo ther and to aspire always by her mightiest means to her highest ideal.
3 Satya means Truth; Krita, effected or completed.
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previous chapter: 0.02 - the Three Steps of Nature
next chapter: 0.04 - the Systems of Yoga
0.04 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To the sadhak in charge of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram's cows,
bullocks and carts during the 1930s.1
Special new ropes for the bullocks have been prepared
by the milkman. When the bullocks are working, it may
be safer to use those ropes. As soon as the work is over,
the ropes will be removed. Those ropes are not tight;
they are loose, so it is no hardship to the bullocks.
Pray sanction them.
I thought they have strongly refused to have the ropes put upon
them. the ropes may not be tight, but most probably they will
spoil the nose of the bullocks. there again it seems to me that it
is a matter of training.
--
I beg to submit some facts for your gracious consideration. the weakest and smallest of the bullocks used by
X's cart-men are carrying more than 600 Dem of sand.
How can you speak of that! Do you know how the cart-men
here kill their bullocks in a few months or in even less time?
11 May 1932
--
Tomorrow is a holiday. the day after, these repairs can be made
to the cart.
As there will be a big crowd tomorrow in town, you will
have to be very careful when taking to and bringing back the
bullocks from the Agricultural Garden.
13 July 1932
the coolie did not come last night. He simply put the
feeding tubs before the bullocks and went away. He is
not working satisfactorily. He does not keep things clean.
As there is no better man I am trying to get on with
him.
the bullocks seem to like this man and this is the most important
point.
--
No wonder that Ojas2 gave some trouble. these bullocks are
quite intelligent enough to feel the change of people. This new
man is not an expert and moreover he has something of a brute
--
not like his way of dealing with the bullocks.
I object strongly to his way of twisting the tails of the beasts.
If somebody twisted one of his limbs like that, what would he
--
I have watched the thing from the roof, and saw with the inner
sight also. there is absolutely no doubt about what is happening
and once more I shall try to make you understand it.
the bullocks are not mischievous. On the contrary, they are
very good and peaceful creatures, but very sensitive - unusually
--
o ther bullocks so closely). the truth is that they dislike and distrust the present driver, and not without reason. When they were
working under the previous one they were happy and cheerful
and worked well. Since this one is driving them they are sad and
dejected and work reluctantly. I see no solution but to change
--
the proposal to frighten them in order to master them is
unacceptable. Some kind of submission can thus be obtained
perhaps, but of the worst kind. the beasts lose more and more
confidence and joy and peace and finally their strength and even
their health goes.
What is the use of being a sadhak if, as soon as we act, we
act like the ignorant ordinary man?
I can tell you this to finish with the subject, that from the
roof I concentrated the power on the bullocks ordering them to
yield and obey and I found them quite receptive. To use a quiet,
steady, unwavering conscious will, that is the way, the only true
way really effective and worthy of an aspirant for Divine Life.
--
I do not find the new man better than the previous one. He is far
too nervous and restless. If he could be a little more quiet and
peaceful in dealing with the bullocks they would surely work
much more willingly.
--
I think that Chakki work3 is very disgusting for the bullocks;
it brings down their vitality because of that, and makes them
become old very soon. That is why I do not wish them to be
given that work.
--
Saturday the 14th is cattle festival day. Generally in all
the places, many things are observed on that day. Horns
--
Yes, the necklace is nice, you can put it on; but no painting of
the horns; it is so ugly! And I think you must be careful not to
take out Ra in the street that day as usually children run after
the calves and frighten them very much; they even hurt them
sometimes.
--
Is not 19 trips too much for the bullocks? It seems to me that
they are not getting much rest.
--
What is this? If the cart-man made a mistake or misbehaved
with the bullocks, I must know and will tolerate none of theSE
MYSTERIES.
--
I will explain what happened. X was with the cart, but as
he himself says, he was fully merged in solving a problem
of chess play. So till the cart was turned over and touched
the ground, he did not know.
--
I am sorry to submit to thee the following about X. For
no reason he has beaten Ra with the back of his sandal in
her shed at 5.10 p.m. I saw it from Ba's shed. He removed
--
cuttings, beside the feeding tub. Ra did not take the feed
as he wanted her to. This was her mistake. When I ran
--
close attention. I would like to know from the doctor if it would
not be good for Tej to let him move freely in a pasture for some
--
work. This question must be put clearly to the doctor asking for
A bullock.
a precise answer. It is well known now, that there is no better
cure for illnesses, whatever they are, than air and sun.
1 February 1934
I thought there would be no objection from the Municipality or o thers to fixing rings on foot-path walls to tie
the cows. I wanted to have one ring fixed.
All this is absolutely forbidden by the Municipal rules, and if
any of these things were done by us it was a great mistake and I
intend that it should never be renewed.
--
the boy X who was working in the Building Department
was dismissed some two days back, not for the crime
of theft but for some rash dragging of a cart and thus
causing some slight hurt to a dog. So may I keep him as
--
dog is likely to do the same with the cow and calf.
This boy has been dismissed by my orders and will not be
given work in the Ashram.
A man who is cruel with beasts is worse than a beast.
0.04 - The Systems of Yoga, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:0.04 - the Systems of Yoga
author class:Sri Aurobindo
--
HESE relations between the different psychological divisions of the human being and these various utilities and objects of effort founded on them, such as we have seen them in our brief survey of the natural evolution, we shall find repeated in the fundamental principles and methods of the different schools of Yoga. And if we seek to combine and harmonise their central practices and their predominant aims, we shall find that the basis provided by Nature is still our natural basis and the condition of their syn thesis.
In one respect Yoga exceeds the normal operation of cosmic
Nature and climbs beyond her. For the aim of the Universal
Mo ther is to embrace the Divine in her own play and creations and there to realise It. But in the highest flights of Yoga she reaches beyond herself and realises the Divine in Itself exceeding the universe and even standing apart from the cosmic play.
therefore by some it is supposed that this is not only the highest but also the one true or exclusively preferable object of Yoga.
Yet it is always through something which she has formed in her evolution that Nature thus overpasses her evolution. It is the individual heart that by sublimating its highest and purest emotions attains to the transcendent Bliss or the ineffable Nirvana, the individual mind that by converting its ordinary functionings into a knowledge beyond mentality knows its oneness with the
Ineffable and merges its separate existence in that transcendent unity. And always it is the individual, the Self conditioned in its experience by Nature and working through her formations, that attains to the Self unconditioned, free and transcendent.
In practice three conceptions are necessary before there can be any possibility of Yoga; there must be, as it were, three consenting parties to the effort, - God, Nature and the human soul or, in more abstract language, the Transcendental, the Universal
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the Conditions of the Syn thesis
and the Individual. If the individual and Nature are left to themselves, the one is bound to the o ther and unable to exceed appreciably her lingering march. Something transcendent is needed, free from her and greater, which will act upon us and her, attracting us upward to Itself and securing from her by good grace or by force her consent to the individual ascension.
It is this truth which makes necessary to every philosophy of Yoga the conception of the Ishwara, Lord, supreme Soul or supreme Self, towards whom the effort is directed and who gives the illuminating touch and the strength to attain. Equally true is the complementary idea so often enforced by the Yoga of devotion that as the Transcendent is necessary to the individual and sought after by him, so also the individual is necessary in a sense to the Transcendent and sought after by It. If the
Bhakta seeks and yearns after Bhagavan, Bhagavan also seeks and yearns after the Bhakta.1 there can be no Yoga of knowledge without a human seeker of the knowledge, the supreme subject of knowledge and the divine use by the individual of the universal faculties of knowledge; no Yoga of devotion without the human God-lover, the supreme object of love and delight and the divine use by the individual of the universal faculties of spiritual, emotional and aes thetic enjoyment; no Yoga of works without the human worker, the supreme Will, Master of all works and sacrifices, and the divine use by the individual of the universal faculties of power and action. However Monistic may be our intellectual conception of the highest truth of things, in practice we are compelled to accept this omnipresent Trinity.
For the contact of the human and individual consciousness with the divine is the very essence of Yoga. Yoga is the union of that which has become separated in the play of the universe with its own true self, origin and universality. the contact may take place at any point of the complex and intricately organised consciousness which we call our personality. It may be effected in the physical through the body; in the vital through the action of
Bhakta, the devotee or lover of God; Bhagavan, God, the Lord of Love and Delight.
the third term of the trinity is Bhagavat, the divine revelation of Love.
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those functionings which determine the state and the experiences of our nervous being; through the mentality, whe ther by means of the emotional heart, the active will or the understanding mind, or more largely by a general conversion of the mental consciousness in all its activities. It may equally be accomplished through a direct awakening to the universal or transcendent Truth and
Bliss by the conversion of the central ego in the mind. And according to the point of contact that we choose will be the type of the Yoga that we practise.
For if, leaving aside the complexities of their particular processes, we fix our regard on the central principle of the chief schools of Yoga still prevalent in India, we find that they arrange themselves in an ascending order which starts from the lowest rung of the ladder, the body, and ascends to the direct contact between the individual soul and the transcendent and universal
Self. Hathayoga selects the body and the vital functionings as its instruments of perfection and realisation; its concern is with the gross body. Rajayoga selects the mental being in its different parts as its lever-power; it concentrates on the subtle body. the triple Path of Works, of Love and of Knowledge uses some part of the mental being, will, heart or intellect as a starting-point and seeks by its conversion to arrive at the liberating Truth,
Beatitude and Infinity which are the nature of the spiritual life.
Its method is a direct commerce between the human Purusha in the individual body and the divine Purusha who dwells in every body and yet transcends all form and name.
Hathayoga aims at the conquest of the life and the body whose combination in the food sheath and the vital vehicle constitutes, as we have seen, the gross body and whose equilibrium is the foundation of all Nature's workings in the human being. the equilibrium established by Nature is sufficient for the normal egoistic life; it is insufficient for the purpose of the Hathayogin.
For it is calculated on the amount of vital or dynamic force necessary to drive the physical engine during the normal span of human life and to perform more or less adequately the various workings demanded of it by the individual life inhabiting this frame and the world-environment by which it is conditioned.
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the Conditions of the Syn thesis
Hathayoga therefore seeks to rectify Nature and establish ano ther equilibrium by which the physical frame will be able to sustain the inrush of an increasing vital or dynamic force of
Prana indefinite, almost infinite in its quantity or intensity. In
Nature the equilibrium is based upon the individualisation of a limited quantity and force of the Prana; more than that the individual is by personal and hereditary habit unable to bear, use or control. In Hathayoga, the equilibrium opens a door to the universalisation of the individual vitality by admitting into the body, containing, using and controlling a much less fixed and limited action of the universal energy.
the chief processes of Hathayoga are asana and pran.ayama.
By its numerous asanas or fixed postures it first cures the body of that restlessness which is a sign of its inability to contain without working them off in action and movement the vital forces poured into it from the universal Life-Ocean, gives to it an extraordinary health, force and suppleness and seeks to liberate it from the habits by which it is subjected to ordinary physical
Nature and kept within the narrow bounds of her normal operations. In the ancient tradition of Hathayoga it has always been supposed that this conquest could be pushed so far even as to conquer to a great extent the force of gravitation. By various subsidiary but elaborate processes the Hathayogin next contrives to keep the body free from all impurities and the nervous system unclogged for those exercises of respiration which are his most important instruments. these are called pran.ayama, the control of the breath or vital power; for breathing is the chief physical functioning of the vital forces. Pranayama, for the Hathayogin, serves a double purpose. First, it completes the perfection of the body. the vitality is liberated from many of the ordinary necessities of physical Nature; robust health, prolonged youth, often an extraordinary longevity are attained.
On the o ther hand, Pranayama awakens the coiled-up serpent of the Pranic dynamism in the vital sheath and opens to the Yogin fields of consciousness, ranges of experience, abnormal faculties denied to the ordinary human life while it puissantly intensifies such normal powers and faculties as he already possesses.
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--
these advantages can be far ther secured and emphasised by o ther subsidiary processes open to the Hathayogin.
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 ei ther impracticable or is extraordinarily restricted. If in return for this loss we gain ano ther life in ano ther world within, the mental, the dynamic, these results could have been acquired through o ther systems, through Rajayoga, through Tantra, by much less laborious methods and held on much less exacting terms. On the o ther 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 ei ther 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
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the Conditions of the Syn thesis
the powers of disorder. the preliminary movement of Rajayoga is a careful self-discipline by which good habits of mind are substituted for the lawless movements that indulge the lower nervous being. By the practice of truth, by renunciation of all forms of egoistic seeking, by abstention from injury to o thers, by purity, by constant meditation and inclination to the divine
Purusha who is the true lord of the mental kingdom, a pure, glad, clear state of mind and heart is established.
This is the first step only. Afterwards, the ordinary activities of the mind and sense must be entirely quieted in order that the soul may be free to ascend to higher states of consciousness and acquire the foundation for a perfect freedom and self-mastery.
But Rajayoga does not forget that the disabilities of the ordinary mind proceed largely from its subjection to the reactions of the nervous system and the body. It adopts therefore from the Hathayogic system its devices of asana and pran.ayama, but reduces their multiple and elaborate forms in each case to one simplest and most directly effective process sufficient for its own immediate object. Thus it gets rid of the Hathayogic complexity and cumbrousness while it utilises the swift and powerful efficacy of its methods for the control of the body and the vital functions and for the awakening of that internal dynamism, full of a latent supernormal faculty, typified in Yogic terminology by the kun.d.alin, the coiled and sleeping serpent of Energy within. This done, the system proceeds to the perfect quieting of the restless mind and its elevation to a higher plane through concentration of mental force by the successive stages which lead to the utmost inner concentration or inga thered state of the consciousness which is called Samadhi.
By Samadhi, in which the mind acquires the capacity of withdrawing from its limited waking activities into freer and higher states of consciousness, Rajayoga serves a double purpose. It compasses a pure mental action liberated from the confusions of the outer consciousness and passes thence to the higher supra-mental planes on which the individual soul enters into its true spiritual existence. But also it acquires the capacity of that free and concentrated energising of consciousness on
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its object which our philosophy asserts as the primary cosmic energy and the method of divine action upon the world. By this capacity the Yogin, already possessed of the highest supracosmic knowledge and experience in the state of trance, is able in the waking state to acquire directly whatever knowledge and exercise whatever mastery may be useful or necessary to his activities in the objective world. For the ancient system of
Rajayoga aimed not only at Swarajya, self-rule or subjective empire, the entire control by the subjective consciousness of all the states and activities proper to its own domain, but included
Samrajya as well, outward empire, the control by the subjective consciousness of its outer activities and environment.
We perceive that as Hathayoga, dealing with the life and body, aims at the supernormal perfection of the physical life and its capacities and goes beyond it into the domain of the mental life, so Rajayoga, operating with the mind, aims at a supernormal perfection and enlargement of the capacities of the mental life and goes beyond it into the domain of the spiritual existence.
But the weakness of the system lies in its excessive reliance on abnormal states of trance. This limitation leads first to a certain aloofness from the physical life which is our foundation and the sphere into which we have to bring our mental and spiritual gains. Especially is the spiritual life, in this system, too much associated with the state of Samadhi. Our object is to make the spiritual life and its experiences fully active and fully utilisable in the waking state and even in the normal use of the functions.
But in Rajayoga it tends to withdraw into a subliminal plane at the back of our normal experiences instead of descending and possessing our whole existence.
the triple Path of devotion, knowledge and works attempts the province which Rajayoga leaves unoccupied. It differs from
Rajayoga in that it does not occupy itself with the elaborate training of the whole mental system as the condition of perfection, but seizes on certain central principles, the intellect, the heart, the will, and seeks to convert their normal operations by turning them away from their ordinary and external preoccupations and activities and concentrating them on the Divine. It
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the Conditions of the Syn thesis
differs also in this, - and here from the point of view of an integral Yoga there seems to be a defect, - that it is indifferent to mental and bodily perfection and aims only at purity as a condition of the divine realisation. A second defect is that as actually practised it chooses one of the three parallel paths exclusively and almost in antagonism to the o thers instead of effecting a syn thetic harmony of the intellect, the heart and the will in an integral divine realisation.
the Path of Knowledge aims at the realisation of the unique and supreme Self. It proceeds by the method of intellectual reflection, vicara, to right discrimination, viveka. It observes and distinguishes the different elements of our apparent or phenomenal being and rejecting identification with each of them arrives at their exclusion and separation in one common term as constituents of Prakriti, of phenomenal Nature, creations of
Maya, the phenomenal consciousness. So it is able to arrive at its right identification with the pure and unique Self which is not mutable or perishable, not determinable by any phenomenon or combination of phenomena. From this point the path, as ordinarily followed, leads to the rejection of the phenomenal worlds from the consciousness as an illusion and the final immergence without return of the individual soul in the Supreme.
But this exclusive consummation is not the sole or inevitable result of the Path of Knowledge. For, followed more largely and with a less individual aim, the method of Knowledge may lead to an active conquest of the cosmic existence for the Divine no less than to a transcendence. the point of this departure is the realisation of the supreme Self not only in one's own being but in all beings and, finally, the realisation of even the phenomenal aspects of the world as a play of the divine consciousness and not something entirely alien to its true nature. And on the basis of this realisation a yet fur ther enlargement is possible, the conversion of all forms of knowledge, however mundane, into activities of the divine consciousness utilisable for the perception of the one and unique Object of knowledge both in itself and through the play of its forms and symbols. Such a method might well lead to the elevation of the whole range of human intellect
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and perception to the divine level, to its spiritualisation and to the justification of the cosmic travail of knowledge in humanity.
the Path of Devotion aims at the enjoyment of the supreme
Love and Bliss and utilises normally the conception of the supreme Lord in His personality as the divine Lover and enjoyer of the universe. the world is then realised as a play of the
Lord, with our human life as its final stage, pursued through the different phases of self-concealment and self-revelation. the principle of Bhakti Yoga is to utilise all the normal relations of human life into which emotion enters and apply them no longer to transient worldly relations, but to the joy of the All-Loving, the All-Beautiful and the All-Blissful. Worship and meditation are used only for the preparation and increase of intensity of the divine relationship. And this Yoga is catholic in its use of all emotional relations, so that even enmity and opposition to God, considered as an intense, impatient and perverse form of Love, is conceived as a possible means of realisation and salvation.
This path, too, as ordinarily practised, leads away from worldexistence to an absorption, of ano ther kind than the Monist's, in the Transcendent and Supra-cosmic.
But, here too, the exclusive result is not inevitable. the Yoga itself provides a first corrective by not confining the play of divine love to the relation between the supreme Soul and the individual, but extending it to a common feeling and mutual worship between the devotees themselves united in the same realisation of the supreme Love and Bliss. It provides a yet more general corrective in the realisation of the divine object of Love in all beings not only human but animal, easily extended to all forms whatsoever. We can see how this larger application of the Yoga of
Devotion may be so used as to lead to the elevation of the whole range of human emotion, sensation and aes thetic perception to the divine level, its spiritualisation and the justification of the cosmic labour towards love and joy in our humanity.
the Path of Works aims at the dedication of every human activity to the supreme Will. It begins by the renunciation of all egoistic aim for our works, all pursuit of action for an interested aim or for the sake of a worldly result. By this renunciation it so
40
the Conditions of the Syn thesis
purifies the mind and the will that we become easily conscious of the great universal Energy as the true doer of all our actions and the Lord of that Energy as their ruler and director with the individual as only a mask, an excuse, an instrument or, more positively, a conscious centre of action and phenomenal relation. the choice and direction of the act is more and more consciously left to this supreme Will and this universal Energy.
To That our works as well as the results of our works are finally abandoned. the object is the release of the soul from its bondage to appearances and to the reaction of phenomenal activities.
Karmayoga is used, like the o ther paths, to lead to liberation from phenomenal existence and a departure into the Supreme.
But here too the exclusive result is not inevitable. the end of the path may be, equally, a perception of the Divine in all energies, in all happenings, in all activities, and a free and unegoistic participation of the soul in the cosmic action. So followed it will lead to the elevation of all human will and activity to the divine level, its spiritualisation and the justification of the cosmic labour towards freedom, power and perfection in the human being.
We can see also that in the integral view of things these three paths are one. Divine Love should normally lead to the perfect knowledge of the Beloved by perfect intimacy, thus becoming a path of Knowledge, and to divine service, thus becoming a path of Works. So also should perfect Knowledge lead to perfect
Love and Joy and a full acceptance of the works of That which is known; dedicated Works to the entire love of the Master of the Sacrifice and the deepest knowledge of His ways and His being. It is in this triple path that we come most readily to the absolute knowledge, love and service of the One in all beings and in the entire cosmic manifestation.
0.05 - Letters to a Child, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To one of the first children admitted to the Sri Aurobindo
Ashram; he came at the age of ten. Interested as a youth in
music, painting and poetry, he later became a teacher of music
in the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education. He
began writing to the Mo ther at the age of twelve.
Always do with pleasure the work you have to do.
Work done with joy is work done well.
--
When you have a desire you are governed by the thing you
desire; it takes possession of your mind and your life, and you
become a slave. If you have greed for food you are no longer the
master of food, it is the food that masters you.
22 August 1932
--
no interest in doing anything. Now I feel that after the
music lesson, the good things that were developing in me
have been broken to pieces. Is it true?
All these feelings - this uneasiness, this tiredness, these impressions of broken progress - come from the vital, which rebels
because its desires and preferences are not satisfied. All that has
--
a worse state than before. there is something wrong in
my mind. Also, I feel bad everywhere. Tell me what I
--
not in the least displeased with you. Did I look very serious
tonight? If it is so, it was because I was thinking of the stupidity
Series Five - To a Child
and blindness of this poor world, but there was surely nothing
concerning you.
--
Yesterday I told you that "we" had painted an envelope. By "we" I mean that there is me and you. I feel
that it is not I who am working, so I say "we". I am
--
deal of progress? I like the envelopes that both of us are painting
toge ther very much, and that is one more proof that we are doing
them toge ther, because they are nearly always just as I thought
they should be. the small one you sent this morning is very fine
and the choice of colours is excellent.
Affectionately.
--
I do not want the vulgar joy of the world. Take me
into your heart. Take me into your arms.
--
Peace be with you, my child, the peace of Certitude and of
confidence in my love which never leaves you.
--
you, because they become jealous and their jealousy creates a
bad atmosphere which falls back on you and brings back the
difficulty to you; because you spoke, you opened yourself and
--
Make me peaceful. Give me the taste of your divine
presence.
--
Do not distress yourself, it is the result of these last few days of
sickness. It will pass - but you must eat well regularly and sleep
--
becoming a true Yogi if that be his aspiration. And the more this
man realises his true being, the more he will become my very
dear child.
That is why, now, when the will that is expressing itself is
the will of the lower nature, I cannot satisfy all its whims, for
that would be the worst thing I could do for you.
True love is the love that wants, to the exclusion of all else,
the highest good for the loved one. This is the love that I have
and want to have for you.
--
Yes, Peace, Light, Force and Bliss are always with you in the
Consciousness that is constantly by your side, bringing you the
solicitude of my love.
--
Yes, you are and will be more and more a child of the Light.
No obscurity must be allowed to manifest through you.
--
the paintings are fine, they are like Japanese ones. As for
the "plane" from which they come, it is surely the subtle physical, where the memory of all the conceptions and works of art
realised on earth is stored.
--
Very good - then you must acquire energy, and after all, it is
not so difficult, especially here where you are as if ba thed in a
--
Learn to drink from the eternal source; it contains everything.
With my love.
--
No, all is not sad and gloomy, nei ther the trees nor the sky
nor the sea; everything is full of the divine Presence and is only
too glad to speak of it to you. Shake off this childish depression
and contemplate the Sun that is rising in your heart!
28 April 1934
--
You don 't love me at all. Is this the way that one
loves one's child?
--
Certainly I do not love you in the way you conceive of as
love; and I do see how it could be o therwise. You first have to
realise the Divine Consciousness - only then will you be able to
know what true love is.
--
and turned in on yourself. the whole thing is to choose your
relationships well. You must choose to enter into relation only
with those whose contact does not veil my presence. This is the
important point which should never be forgotten. All that leads
--
you closer to me and gives you the perception and joy of my
presence is good. You should judge things in the light of this
rule. You will see that it will help you to protect yourself from
--
you are a little attentive you will very clearly feel the warmth of
my arms around your shoulders.
--
sleep longer, take some exercise in the open air, etc.
Affectionately.
--
Peace, peace, my little child, the sweet peace of inner silence and
outer calm. May it always be with you.
--
You see, my child, the unfortunate thing is that you are too preoccupied with yourself. At your age I was exclusively occupied
with my studies - finding things out, learning, understanding,
--
grateful to her for having taught me the discipline and the necessity of self-forgetfulness through concentration on what one
is doing.
I have told you this because the anxiety you speak of comes
from the fact that you are far too concerned about yourself. It
would be better for you to pay more attention to what you are
--
mind, which is still very uncultivated, and to learn the elements
of knowledge which are indispensable to a man if he does not
--
I am telling you these things with all my affection, and I
hope that you will understand them.
Your mo ther who loves you.
--
of my presence and receive and use the force that I am pouring
into you to enable you to overcome all difficulties.
--
Carefully keep this bliss, this repose, this assurance of Victory; they are more precious than all the riches of this world,
and they will keep you very close to me.
Love from your mo ther.
--
Only spiritual force has the power to impose peace on the
vital, for if peace is not imposed on it by a power greater than
its own, the vital will never accept it.
So you must open yourself to the spiritual force and allow it
to work in you; then you will more and more dwell in constant
peace and joy.
--
I have no doubt that you will become aware of it if you forget the
Series Five - To a Child
--
It is by inner identification that the true closeness can come.
I am always with you in all love.
--
You will no longer revolt when you understand that it is the
most useless and foolish of all things; and when you give up this
--
For you I want consciousness, knowledge, artistic capacity, selfmastery in peace and perfect equality, and the happiness that is
the result of spiritual realisation. Is this too grand and vast a
--
how to discipline themselves.
Always with you in all love.
--
I am your true mo ther who will give birth in you to the true
being, the being who is free, peaceful, strong and happy always,
independently of all circumstances.
--
keep them to yourself; o therwise, if you show them, all the force
that I put into them evaporates.
11 August 1934
--
I want to be like the lion on the envelope I am
sending you this evening.
--
Your lions are superb. How quiet they are in their strength.
A strong being is always quiet. It is weakness that causes restlessness. I am sending you (on my envelope, but in reality too)
--
a perfect realisation and in the Divine's omnipotence to achieve
it. the Force and Consciousness are always with you, as well as
all my love.
--
Purify me. Dispel the shadows. I will not revolt any
more.
--
I have been informed from the dining-room that you did
not eat ei ther yesterday evening or the whole day today. Why? If
you are sick, you must be taken care of. I shall send the doctor
to you. But if you are not sick, you must eat; if you do not eat
--
intelligence, and then?
It grieves me when you do not eat regularly. Do you want
--
am going to the dining-room. My mo ther, I want to be
good. Everything has gone now. I want to be your little
--
had your meal yesterday evening and that all the clouds have
gone. Now you must not allow them to come back and for that
the best thing is to remain always cradled in my arms, protected
--
disappear; they are indeed ugly, mean and ignorant things that
stop all progress.
My force is with you to conquer these things. And my love
never leaves you.
--
Always, always I am with you and the quieter and happier
you are, the more you will feel it.
With all my love.
--
have no doubt that you can acquire these qualities.
With you always.
--
I envelop you always in peace and force, but most of the
time you close yourself and refuse what I give you.
--
your mind clean of all these bad thoughts which are harmful to
you.
--
Forgive the faults I have committed. Give me peace.
Remain always in my heart.
--
Don't you think it is high time for you to develop these
qualities, which are absolutely indispensable if you want to do
--
Mo ther, which part in me is like this? Is it the heart, the
vital, or is it something very superficial and insignificant?
--
because it does not have a sound balance of health. the best
cure is plenty of open-air exercise and abundant food.
--
the slightest. This part of the vital must learn to become stronger
and more enduring.
--
For three days I have been feeling sad in the evening.
This morning I felt sad too. I don't know exactly why it
comes. For two days I felt a great joy, but now the joy
has gone. When will all these things go away?
My dear child,
You must not worry about these alternations. When the
psychic being comes to the surface, it brings its own joy with
it; but when the mind or the vital comes, then the joy seems to
withdraw, though it is always there, behind, ready to manifest
again. But above all you must not believe the suggestions of incapacity and failure; they come from an adverse source and ought
not to be given any credence. Certainly there are difficulties on
the path, but with perseverance the victory is sure.
Love from your mo ther.
--
within myself, not just now but over the past two years,
I find nothing. Sometimes I feel: "Why all these efforts?
they will be fruitless." You told me to open my heart
--
made progress. the progress is undeniable even though it may
not be apparent. Certainly the path of yoga is a very difficult
one, and you should not expect to reap its fruits after only three
--
You say that you are often depressed. It is the vital being
that gets depressed when its desires are not satisfied.
--
of them.
Love from your mo ther.
--
that? Is there any special reason? Will you tell me one
thing: why are you now so far away from me?
--
marry would you have to leave the Ashram.
But you know that I never advise anyone to marry; it is a
--
now and then it is good that I remind you that you are free and
that it is for you to make the decision; that's all.
I don't feel that you are far from me; for me you are always
--
feeling which does not conform to the truth.
Love from your mo ther.
--
playing: "Garuda", and the palace and river. What do
they mean?
the palace and river were the image of a moment from one of
your past lives.
--
with outspread wings is the vehicle of Vishnu, the destroyer of
serpents. He seemed to be standing behind you to protect and
--
the moon is the symbol of the spiritual light, one in its origin,
multiple in its manifestation. there is only one moon and yet
each reflection of the moon is different. This is what I wanted
to say in a poetic form.
--
opened to many influences and that is why it is difficult for them
to be steady.
But with discrimination one can distinguish the bad from
the good influences and reject persistently the bad ones.
Love from your mo ther.
--
and can only be solved with much endurance in the will and
much patience.
For on the one hand you want to consecrate yourself to the
Divine and take your place in the divine life in the making.
On the o ther hand you want the satisfactions of ordinary life
and the pleasures of the vital - without considering, however,
that these pleasures can only be obtained through much struggle
and effort and that always they go hand in hand with worry and
suffering.
On the first path, there is no question of personal incapacity,
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
lower animal consciousness.
--
know what my path is, then who does?
My dear child,
I know very well what the true life for you is, and what
your destiny is. But it is you who must become aware of it
--
I feel completely suffocated. the struggle has become fiercer. How many days must I go on like this?
My dear child,
Do not lose heart and do not be impatient; these things take
a long time to disappear. You know, don't you, that our force,
--
Keep your interest in the work - this too will help you to
pass through the difficult moments.
Love from your mo ther.
--
me, but I cannot receive them. I am not asking you to
tell me what to do - you have told me to be patient
--
It has stopped now. Is there some inner preparation
at work and is it waiting for the descent of a higher
inspiration?
--
round and round in the same forms; something new had to
come.
--
says that there is no doubt about your poetic capacity. Today's
poem is very good. But when you try to write every day, it
becomes more and more mental and you lose contact with the
Series Five - To a Child
--
feel that the inspiration is there.
20 July 1938
--
leave the Ashram? I want to go forward - not to revolt
against you, no, not at all. But I want to be sure of my
--
of the strength to leave. I am and will always be in your heart; so
you are sure to find me there if you enter into it deeply enough.
Love from your mo ther.
--
(In October 1938, at the age of eighteen, the sadhak left
the Ashram for a period of eight years. the following
letters were written while he was away.)
--
I have just received your letter of the 25th and I am glad to
know you have recovered at last.
You tell me in your letter: "Mo ther, I do not want the world,
not because I am afraid of my duty but because I want you." I
--
are meant for the Ashram life, it is necessary that the spiritual
life and all the discipline it entails - in short, the search for and
realisation of the Divine - must be the most important thing to
you, the only thing worth living for.
For this feeling of wanting me can mislead you. Are you
sure it is the Divine in me that you want? When you come back
here and cannot see me (for, since Sri Aurobindo's accident, I am
--
once again that you are giving up all the pleasures that ordinary
life can give, without getting anything much in exchange?
Of course, if you want to lead the spiritual life at any cost,
that is ano ther thing. But in that case, you will have to rely on
--
Go to Lucknow, learn all you can there, and then you will
be able to consider the problem and make a definite decision
concerning your future.
--
If you are so eager to come to the Ashram, you can come.
But I must warn you about two things:
--
become very restricted in the present war conditions.
(2) You will live here, as all of us, night and day under the
constant threat of a sudden bombardment.
If you do not mind these two dangers, you can come.
With my love and blessings.
--
(In April 1946, the sadhak returned to the Ashram,
where he has remained ever since. the following letters
were written after his return.)
--
Accept my gratitude for having shown me the true
path. Give me the strength to reject everything that
comes from outside. May your will be done.
My love and blessings are with you to guide you on the way.
4 June 1946
--
being. Give me the power to give myself completely to
you. Stay with me always.
--
the more I look into myself, the more discouraged
I am, and I don't know whe ther there is any chance of
my making any progress. It seems that all the obscurities
and falsehoods are rising up on every side, inside and
outside, and want to swallow me up. there are times
when I cannot distinguish truth from falsehood and I
am then on the verge of losing my mind.
Still, there is something in me which says very
weakly that all will be well; but this voice is so feeble
--
I shall fail. On the o ther hand, I have nei ther the inclination nor the capacity for the ordinary life. And I
know that I shall never be able to leave this life. This is
my situation right now. the struggle is getting more and
more acute, and worst of all I cannot lie to you. What
--
can; do not yield to the temptation to give up the struggle and let
yourself fall into darkness. Persist, and one day you will realise
that I am close to you to console you and help you, and then the
hardest part will be over.
--
Sincerity demands of each one that he express only the truth
of his being.
--
the Mo ther underlined the words "all will be well" and wrote beside them: "This is
the voice of truth, the one you must listen to."
Series Five - To a Child
--
It is the very first proposition that is wrong, I am not displeased
with you - so all that follows cannot be correct.
I will be very pleased to know the real cause of your
discontent and shall try my best to remove it. I cannot
--
there is no real cause because there is no discontent. Your pain
is quite gratuitous, so you would [do] better [to] get rid of it
--
please pardon them for I am human. Please pardon me
for what I have done and let me know what mistakes I
--
is quite false and imaginary - it may be the result of a bad
conscience, but you must learn once and for all that whatever
--
"He who chooses the Infinite has been chosen by the Infinite."
Never forget this promise of Sri Aurobindo and keep
courage in spite of all difficulties. You are sure to reach the goal,
and the more you keep confidence, the quicker it will come.
With my love and blessings.
--
between 1932 and 1938 during the sadhak's first stay in
the Ashram.)
--
grace will always be with you and never fail you. Moreover, there
is no reason to believe that you will not succeed in this life; on the
contrary, I see in you the signs of a vocation. And since you have
resolved to be patient, the difficulties will surely be overcome.
Love from your mo ther.
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.
--
I shall be so happy when all the clouds and shadows
are dissolved. I want a new life.
--
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
--
Will and energy can be cultivated just as the muscles are:
by exercise. You must exercise your will to be patient and your
--
progress. the sincerity of the aspiration is the assurance of the
victory.
--
painting. Give me a strong energy. I want the inner and
outer silence - peace in all my being, from the innermost
part to the outermost. Peace, peace in all my being. I
cannot express this in proper words and it is becoming
--
I don't find your expression melodramatic and there is nothing
to pardon. I know that it is from lack of energy that you cannot
paint. But I can give you all the energy needed; you have only
to open yourself and receive and you will see that the source is
inexhaustible. It is the same thing for peace and for all the true
things you can aspire for.
--
your life. As soon as you have understood the need for this,
everything will become easier - and you will at last be able to
acquire the peace you need so much.
I am always with you in this effort and aspiration.
--
that it isn't necessary to make the vital peaceful?
I did not answer because what I say seems to have no effect. If
you would express clearly, in a precise way, the nature of the
revolt, it would help you very much to get rid of it, because it is
--
a way of opening yourself which allows the light to enter into
the obscurity and illumine it.
--
It is the same tiredness as that of the muscles when they do not
work enough. Inactivity is just as tiring as over-activity. Not to
--
not the master of the house.
Mo ther,
--
And when Sri Aurobindo tells you something, the first thing
to do, and the most important if you want to conquer the
difficulty, is to obey.
--
This craving for strong experiences belongs to the vital; it
is a very frequent tendency in those whose vital is insufficiently
developed and seeks violent sensations in the hope of escaping
from its heaviness and inertia. But it is an ignorant movement,
for violent sensations can never be a remedy; on the contrary,
they increase the confusion and obscurity.
the only remedy lies in opening to the higher forces in
order to let them do in the vital their work of organisation and
classification, of light and peace.
Love from your mo ther who is always there ready to help
you.
--
and that you aspire to overcome the weaknesses. When they
come, you should not think that I am displeased, but on the
contrary that I am always with you, supporting you, protecting
--
the peace is there in the depths of your heart; concentrate there
and you will find it.
--
force, and the immutable joy that comes from a constant contact
with the Light.
With all my love.
--
Yes, it is good to stay in my arms; there you will find the peace
you aspire for so much, and also a repose from which the true
energies come.
--
you are the greatest power. My mo ther, take me into
your heart, dissolve the obstacles.
My dear child,
--
no obstacles - we shall dispel them all.
With all my love.
--
Take me into your heart. No, no, I don't want these
miserable falsehoods. Take me into your heart.
--
run away from there? You must remain quiet in my arms if you
want me to be able to help you.
--
inside yourself without exterior sound and thinking of me at the
same time:
--
pleased with the result.
My love and blessings.
--
the peace is upon you; allow it to penetrate you, and in the
peace you will find the light, and the light will bring you the
knowledge.
--
How happy I shall be the day when you always feel strong
and happy in all circumstances.
0.05 - The Synthesis of the Systems, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:0.05 - the Syn thesis of the Systems
author class:Sri Aurobindo
--
the Syn thesis of the Systems
Y the very nature of the principal Yogic schools, each covering in its operations a part of the complex human integer and attempting to bring out its highest possibilities, it will appear that a syn thesis of all of them largely conceived and applied might well result in an integral Yoga. But they are so disparate in their tendencies, so highly specialised and elaborated in their forms, so long confirmed in the mutual opposition of their ideas and methods that we do not easily find how we can arrive at their right union.
An undiscriminating combination in block would not be a syn thesis, but a confusion. Nor would a successive practice of each of them in turn be easy in the short span of our human life and with our limited energies, to say nothing of the waste of labour implied in so cumbrous a process. Sometimes, indeed,
Hathayoga and Rajayoga are thus successively practised. And in a recent unique example, in the life of Ramakrishna Paramhansa, we see a colossal spiritual capacity first driving straight to the divine realisation, taking, as it were, the kingdom of heaven by violence, and then seizing upon one Yogic method after ano ther and extracting the substance out of it with an incredible rapidity, always to return to the heart of the whole matter, the realisation and possession of God by the power of love, by the extension of inborn spirituality into various experience and by the spontaneous play of an intuitive knowledge. Such an example cannot be generalised. Its object also was special and temporal, to exemplify in the great and decisive experience of a master-soul the truth, now most necessary to humanity, towards which a world long divided into jarring sects and schools is with difficulty labouring, that all sects are forms and fragments of a single integral truth and all disciplines labour in their different ways towards one supreme experience. To know, be and possess
42
the Conditions of the Syn thesis
the Divine is the one thing needful and it includes or leads up to all the rest; towards this sole good we have to drive and this attained, all the rest that the divine Will chooses for us, all necessary form and manifestation, will be added.
the syn thesis we propose cannot, then, be arrived at ei ther by combination in mass or by successive practice. It must therefore be effected by neglecting the forms and outsides of the
Yogic disciplines and seizing ra ther on some central principle common to all which will include and utilise in the right place and proportion their particular principles, and on some central dynamic force which is the common secret of their divergent methods and capable therefore of organising a natural selection and combination of their varied energies and different utilities.
This was the aim which we set before ourselves at first when we entered upon our comparative examination of the methods of
Nature and the methods of Yoga and we now return to it with the possibility of hazarding some definite solution.
We observe, first, that there still exists in India a remarkable
Yogic system which is in its nature syn thetical and starts from a great central principle of Nature, a great dynamic force of
--
This system is the way of the Tantra. Owing to certain of its developments Tantra has fallen into discredit with those who are not Tantrics; and especially owing to the developments of its left-hand path, the Vama Marga, which not content with exceeding the duality of virtue and sin and instead of replacing them by spontaneous rightness of action seemed, sometimes, to make a method of self-indulgence, a method of unrestrained social immorality. Never theless, in its origin, Tantra was a great and puissant system founded upon ideas which were at least partially true. Even its twofold division into the right-hand and left-hand paths, Dakshina Marga and Vama Marga, started from a certain profound perception. In the ancient symbolic sense of the words Dakshina and Vama, it was the distinction between the way of Knowledge and the way of Ananda, - Nature in man liberating itself by right discrimination in power and practice of its own energies, elements and potentialities and Nature in man
the Syn thesis of the Systems
43
liberating itself by joyous acceptance in power and practice of its own energies, elements and potentialities. But in both paths there was in the end an obscuration of principles, a deformation of symbols and a fall.
If, however, we leave aside, here also, the actual methods and practices and seek for the central principle, we find, first, that Tantra expressly differentiates itself from the Vedic methods of Yoga. In a sense, all the schools we have hi therto examined are Vedantic in their principle; their force is in knowledge, their method is knowledge, though it is not always discernment by the intellect, but may be, instead, the knowledge of the heart expressed in love and faith or a knowledge in the will working out through action. In all of them the lord of the Yoga is the Purusha, the Conscious Soul that knows, observes, attracts, governs. But in Tantra it is ra ther Prakriti, the Nature-Soul, the Energy, the
Will-in-Power executive in the universe. It was by learning and applying the intimate secrets of this Will-in-Power, its method, its Tantra, that the Tantric Yogin pursued the aims of his discipline, - mastery, perfection, liberation, beatitude. Instead of drawing back from manifested Nature and its difficulties, he confronted them, seized and conquered. But in the end, as is the general tendency of Prakriti, Tantric Yoga largely lost its principle in its machinery and became a thing of formulae and occult mechanism still powerful when rightly used but fallen from the clarity of their original intention.
We have in this central Tantric conception one side of the truth, the worship of the Energy, the Shakti, as the sole effective force for all attainment. We get the o ther extreme in the Vedantic conception of the Shakti as a power of Illusion and in the search after the silent inactive Purusha as the means of liberation from the deceptions created by the active Energy. But in the integral conception the Conscious Soul is the Lord, the Nature-Soul is his executive Energy. Purusha is of the nature of Sat, the being of conscious self-existence pure and infinite; Shakti or Prakriti is of the nature of Chit, - it is power of the Purusha's self-conscious existence, pure and infinite. the relation of the two exists between the poles of rest and action. When the Energy is absorbed
44
the Conditions of the Syn thesis
in the bliss of conscious self-existence, there is rest; when the
Purusha pours itself out in the action of its Energy, there is action, creation and the enjoyment or Ananda of becoming. But if Ananda is the creator and begetter of all becoming, its method is Tapas or force of the Purusha's consciousness dwelling upon its own infinite potentiality in existence and producing from it truths of conception or real Ideas, vijnana, which, proceeding from an omniscient and omnipotent Self-existence, have the surety of their own fulfilment and contain in themselves the nature and law of their own becoming in the terms of mind, life and matter. the eventual omnipotence of Tapas and the infallible fulfilment of the Idea are the very foundation of all
Yoga. In man we render these terms by Will and Faith, - a will that is eventually self-effective because it is of the substance of
Knowledge and a faith that is the reflex in the lower consciousness of a Truth or real Idea yet unrealised in the manifestation.
It is this self-certainty of the Idea which is meant by the Gita when it says, yo yac-chraddhah. sa eva sah., "whatever is a man's faith or the sure Idea in him, that he becomes."
We see, then, what from the psychological point of view,
- and Yoga is nothing but practical psychology, - is the conception of Nature from which we have to start. It is the selffulfilment of the Purusha through his Energy. But the movement of Nature is twofold, higher and lower, or, as we may choose to term it, divine and undivine. the distinction exists indeed for practical purposes only; for there is nothing that is not divine, and in a larger view it is as meaningless, verbally, as the distinction between natural and supernatural, for all things that are are natural. All things are in Nature and all things are in God.
But, for practical purposes, there is a real distinction. the lower
Nature, that which we know and are and must remain so long as the faith in us is not changed, acts through limitation and division, is of the nature of Ignorance and culminates in the life of the ego; but the higher Nature, that to which we aspire, acts by unification and transcendence of limitation, is of the nature of Knowledge and culminates in the life divine. the passage from the lower to the higher is the aim of Yoga; and this passage
the Syn thesis of the Systems
45
may effect itself by the rejection of the lower and escape into the higher, - the ordinary view-point, - or by the transformation of the lower and its elevation to the higher Nature. It is this, ra ther, that must be the aim of an integral Yoga.
But in ei ther case it is always through something in the lower that we must rise into the higher existence, and the schools of
Yoga each select their own point of departure or their own gate of escape. they specialise certain activities of the lower
Prakriti and turn them towards the Divine. But the normal action of Nature in us is an integral movement in which the full complexity of all our elements is affected by and affects all our environments. the whole of life is the Yoga of Nature. the
Yoga that we seek must also be an integral action of Nature, and the whole difference between the Yogin and the natural man will be this, that the Yogin seeks to substitute in himself for the integral action of the lower Nature working in and by ego and division the integral action of the higher Nature working in and by God and unity. If indeed our aim be only an escape from the world to God, syn thesis is unnecessary and a waste of time; for then our sole practical aim must be to find out one path out of the thousand that lead to God, one shortest possible of short cuts, and not to linger exploring different paths that end in the same goal. But if our aim be a transformation of our integral being into the terms of God-existence, it is then that a syn thesis becomes necessary.
the method we have to pursue, then, is to put our whole conscious being into relation and contact with the Divine and to call Him in to transform our entire being into His. Thus in a sense
God Himself, the real Person in us, becomes the sadhaka of the sadhana1 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
Sadhana, the practice by which perfection, siddhi, is attained; sadhaka, the Yogin who seeks by that practice the siddhi.
46
the Conditions of the Syn thesis
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 sadhana. It requires a colossal faith, an absolute courage and above all an unflinching patience. For it implies three stages of which only the last can be wholly blissful or rapid, - the attempt of the ego to enter into contact with the Divine, the wide, full and therefore laborious preparation of the whole lower Nature by the divine working to receive and become the higher Nature, and the eventual transformation. In fact, however, the divine
Strength, often unobserved and behind the veil, substitutes itself for our weakness and supports us through all our failings of faith, courage and patience. It "makes the blind to see and the lame to stride over the hills." the intellect becomes aware of a Law that beneficently insists and a succour that upholds; the heart speaks of a Master of all things and Friend of man or a universal Mo ther 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
the Syn thesis of the Systems
47
yet some kind of Shastra or scientific method of the syn thetic
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 element or action in the harmony of the divine Nature. We begin to understand what the Vedic Rishis meant when they spoke of the human forefa thers 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 o ther it becomes swift and self-conscious 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 ga thering up and concentration of the movements dispersed and loosely combined in the lower evolution.
An integral method and an integral result. 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
48
the Conditions of the Syn thesis
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 and identification of the individual being in all its parts with the Divine, sayujya-mukti, by which it can become free2 even in its separation, even in the duality; not only the salokya-mukti by which the whole conscious existence dwells in the same status of being as the Divine, in the state of
Sachchidananda; but also the acquisition of the divine nature by the transformation of this lower being into the human image of the Divine, sadharmya-mukti, and the complete and final release of all, the liberation of the consciousness from the transitory mould of the ego and its unification with the One Being, universal both in the world and the individual and transcendentally one both in the world and beyond all universe.
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. An integral purity which shall enable on the one hand the perfect reflection of the divine
Being in ourselves and on the o ther the perfect outpouring of its
Truth and Law in us in the terms of life and through the right
As the Jivanmukta, who is entirely free even without dissolution of the bodily life in a final Samadhi.
the Syn thesis of the Systems
49
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 Ananda of all that is in the world seen as symbols of the Divine and the Ananda 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.
Perfection includes perfection of mind and body, so that the highest results of Rajayoga and Hathayoga should be contained in the widest formula of the syn thesis finally to be effected by mankind. At any rate a full development of the general mental and physical faculties and experiences attainable by humanity through Yoga must be included in the scope of the integral method. Nor would these have any raison d'etre unless employed for an integral mental and physical life. Such a mental and physical life would be in its nature a translation of the spiritual existence into its right mental and physical values. Thus we would arrive at a syn thesis of the three degrees of Nature and of the three modes of human existence which she has evolved or is evolving. We would include in the scope of our liberated being and perfected modes of activity the material life, our base, and the mental life, our intermediate instrument.
Nor would the integrality to which we aspire be real or even possible, if it were confined to the individual. Since our divine perfection embraces the realisation of ourselves in being, in life and in love through o thers as well as through ourselves, the extension of our liberty and of its results in o thers would be the inevitable outcome as well as the broadest utility of our liberation and perfection. And the constant and inherent attempt of such an extension would be towards its increasing and ultimately complete generalisation in mankind.
the divinising of the normal material life of man and of his great secular attempt of mental and moral self-culture in the individual and the race by this integralisation of a widely perfect
50
--
spiritual existence would thus be the crown alike of our individual and of our common effort. Such a consummation being no o ther than the kingdom of heaven within reproduced in the kingdom of heaven without, would be also the true fulfilment of the great dream cherished in different terms by the world's religions.
the widest syn thesis of perfection possible to thought is the sole effort entirely worthy of those whose dedicated vision perceives that God dwells concealed in humanity.
0.06 - INTRODUCTION, #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
SOMEWHAT reluctantly, out of respect for a venerable tradition, we publish the
Dark Night as a separate treatise, though in reality it is a continuation of the Ascent
of Mount Carmel and fulfils the undertakings given in it:
the first night or purgation is of the sensual part of the soul, which is
treated in the present stanza, and will be treated in the first part of this book.
And the second is of the spiritual part; of this speaks the second stanza,
which follows; and of this we shall treat likewise, in the second and the third
part, with respect to the activity of the soul; and in the fourth part, with
respect to its passivity. 1
This 'fourth part' is the Dark Night. Of it the Saint writes in a passage which
follows that just quoted:
And the second night, or purification, pertains to those who are already
proficient, occurring at the time when God desires to bring them to the state
of union with God. And this latter night is a more obscure and dark and
--
In his three earlier books he has written of the Active Night, of Sense and of
Spirit; he now proposes to deal with the Passive Night, in the same order. He has
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.
He now proceeds to explain, with an arresting freshness, how these same senses
and faculties are purged and purified by God with a view to the same end that of
union. the combined description of the two nights completes the presentation of
active and passive purgation, to which the Saint limits himself in these treatises,
although the subject of the stanzas which he is glossing is a much wider one,
comprising the whole of the mystical life and ending only with the Divine embraces
of the soul transformed in God through love.
the stanzas expounded by the Saint are taken from the same poem in the two
treatises. the commentary upon the second, however, is very different from that
upon the first, for it assumes a much more advanced state of development. the
Active Night has left the senses and faculties well prepared, though not completely
prepared, for the reception of Divine influences and illuminations in greater
abundance than before. the Saint here postulates a principle of dogmatic theology
that by himself, and with the ordinary aid of grace, man cannot attain to that
degree of purgation which is essential to his transformation in God. He needs
Divine aid more abundantly. 'However greatly the soul itself labours,' writes the
Saint, 'it cannot actively purify itself so as to be in the least degree prepared for the
Divine union of perfection of love, if God takes not its hand and purges it not in that
--
the Passive Nights, in which it is God Who accomplishes the purgation, are
based upon this incapacity. Souls 'begin to enter' this dark night
when God draws them forth from the state of beginnerswhich is the
state of those that meditate on the spiritual road and begins to set them in
the state of progressiveswhich is that of those who are already
contemplativesto the end that, after passing through it, they may arrive at
the state of the perfect, which is that of the Divine union of the soul with
God. 4
Before explaining the nature and effects of this Passive Night, the Saint touches, in
passing, upon certain imperfections found in those who are about to enter it and
which it removes by the process of purgation. Such travellers are still untried
proficients, who have not yet acquired mature habits of spirituality and who
therefore still conduct themselves as children. the imperfections are examined one
by one, following the order of the seven deadly sins, in chapters (ii-viii) which once
more reveal the author's skill as a director of souls. they are easy chapters to
understand, and of great practical utility, comparable to those in the first book of
the Ascent which deal with the active purgation of the desires of sense.
In Chapter viii, St. John of the Cross begins to describe the Passive Night of
the senses, the principal aim of which is the purgation or stripping of the soul of its
imperfections and the preparation of it for fruitive union. the Passive Night of
Sense, we are told, is 'common' and 'comes to many,' whereas that of Spirit 'is the
portion of very few.'5 the one is 'bitter and terrible' but ' the second bears no
comparison with it,' for it is 'horrible and awful to the spirit.'6 A good deal of
literature on the former Night existed in the time of St. John of the Cross and he
therefore promises to be brief in his treatment of it. Of the latter, on the o ther hand,
he will 'treat more fully . . . since very little has been said of this, ei ther in speech or
--
from frailty or lukewarmness of spirit, or even from indisposition or 'humours' of the
body. the Saint is particularly effective here, and we may once more compare this
chapter with a similar one in the Ascent (II, xiii)that in which he fixes the point
where the soul may abandon discursive meditation and enter the contemplation
which belongs to loving and simple faith.
Both these chapters have contri buted to the reputation of St. John of the
Cross as a consummate spiritual master. And this not only for the objective value of
his observations, but because, even in spite of himself, he betrays the sublimity of
his own mystical experiences. Once more, too, we may admire the crystalline
transparency of his teaching and the precision of the phrases in which he clo thes it.
To judge by his language alone, one might suppose at times that he is speaking of
--
In Chapter x, the Saint describes the discipline which the soul in this Dark
Night must impose upon itself; this, as might be logically deduced from the Ascent,
consists in 'allowing the soul to remain in peace and quietness,' content 'with a
4Op. cit., Bk. I, chap. i, 1.
--
and draw it gradually nearer to God; we have here, as it were, so many stages of the
ascent of the Mount on whose summit the soul attains to transforming union.
Chapters xii and xiii detail with great exactness the benefits that the soul receives
from this aridity, while Chapter xiv briefly expounds the last line of the first stanza
and brings to an end what the Saint desires to say with respect to the first Passive
Night.
At only slightly greater length St. John of the Cross describes the Passive
Night of the Spirit, which is at once more afflictive and more painful than those
which have preceded it. This, never theless, is the Dark Night par excellence, of
which the Saint speaks in these words: ' the night which we have called that of
sense may and should be called a kind of correction and restraint of the desire
ra ther than purgation. the reason is that all the imperfections and disorders of the
sensual part have their strength and root in the spirit, where all habits, both good
and bad, are brought into subjection, and thus, until these are purged, the
rebellions and depravities of sense cannot be purged thoroughly.' 9
Spiritual persons, we are told, do not enter the second night immediately
after leaving the first; on the contrary, they generally pass a long time, even years,
before doing so,10 for they still have many imperfections, both habitual and actual
(Chapter ii). After a brief introduction (Chapter iii), the Saint describes with some
fullness the nature of this spiritual purgation or dark contemplation referred to in
the first stanza of his poem and the varieties of pain and affliction caused by it,
whe ther in the soul or in its faculties (Chapters iv-viii). these chapters are brilliant
beyond all description; in them we seem to reach the culminating point of their
author's mystical experience; any excerpt from them would do them an injustice. It
must suffice to say that St. John of the Cross seldom again touches those same
heights of sublimity.
Chapter ix describes how, although these purgations seem to blind the spirit,
they do so only to enlighten it again with a brighter and intenser light, which it is
preparing itself to receive with greater abundance. the following chapter makes the
comparison between spiritual purgation and the log of wood which gradually
becomes transformed through being immersed in fire and at last takes on the fire's
own properties. the force with which the familiar similitude is driven home
impresses indelibly upon the mind the fundamental concept of this most sublime of
all purgations. Marvellous, indeed, are its effects, from the first enkindlings and
burnings of Divine love, which are greater beyond comparison than those produced
by the Night of Sense, the one being as different from the o ther as is the body from
the soul. 'For this (latter) is an enkindling of spiritual love in the soul, which, in the
midst of these dark confines, feels itself to be keenly and sharply wounded in strong
Divine love, and to have a certain realization and foretaste of God.'11 No less
wonderful are the effects of the powerful Divine illumination which from time to
time enfolds the soul in the splendours of glory. When the effects of the light that
wounds and yet illumines are combined with those of the enkindlement that melts
the soul with its heat, the delights experienced are so great as to be ineffable.
the second line of the first stanza of the poem is expounded in three
admirable chapters (xi-xiii), while one short chapter (xiv) suffices for the three lines
remaining. We then embark upon the second stanza, which describes the soul's
8Dark Night, Bk. I, chap. x, 4.
--
security in the Dark Nightdue, among o ther reasons, to its being freed 'not only
from itself, but likewise from its o ther enemies, which are the world and the devil.'12
This contemplation is not only dark, but also secret (Chapter xvii), and in
Chapter xviii is compared to the 'staircase' of the poem. This comparison suggests to
the Saint an exposition (Chapters xviii, xix) of the ten steps or degrees of love which
comprise St. Bernard's mystical ladder. Chapter xxi describes the soul's 'disguise,'
from which the book passes on (Chapters xxii, xxiii) to extol the 'happy chance'
which led it to journey 'in darkness and concealment' from its enemies, both without
--
Chapter xxiv glosses the last line of the second stanza'my house being now
at rest.' Both the higher and the lower 'portions of the soul' are now tranquillized
and prepared for the desired union with the Spouse, a union which is the subject
that the Saint proposed to treat in his commentary on the five remaining stanzas.
As far as we know, this commentary was never written. We have only the briefest
outline of what was to have been covered in the third, in which, following the same
effective metaphor of night, the Saint describes the excellent properties of the
spiritual night of infused contemplation, through which the soul journeys with no
o ther guide or support, ei ther outward or inward, than the Divine love 'which
burned in my heart.'
It is difficult to express adequately the sense of loss that one feels at the
premature truncation of this eloquent treatise.13 We have already given our
opinion14 upon the commentaries thought to have been written on the final stanzas
of the 'Dark Night.' Did we possess them, they would explain the birth of the light
'dawn's first breathings in the heav'ns above'which breaks through the black
darkness of the Active and the Passive Nights; they would tell us, too, of the soul's
fur ther progress towards the Sun's full brightness. It is true, of course, that some
part of this great gap is filled by St. John of the Cross himself in his o ther treatises,
but it is small compensation for the incomplete state in which he left this edifice of
such gigantic proportions that he should have given us o ther and smaller buildings
of a somewhat similar kind. Admirable as are the Spiritual Canticle and the Living
Flame of Love, they are not so completely knit into one whole as is this great double
treatise. they lose both in flexibility and in substance through the closeness with
which they follow the stanzas of which they are the exposition. In the Ascent and
the Dark Night, on the o ther hand, we catch only the echoes of the poem, which are
all but lost in the resonance of the philosopher's voice and the eloquent tones of the
preacher. Nor have the o ther treatises the learning and the authority of these.
Nowhere else does the genius of St. John of the Cross for infusing philosophy into
his mystical dissertations find such an outlet as here. Nowhere else, again, is he
--
sublimest passages, this intermingling of philosophy with mystical theology makes
him seem particularly so. these treatises are a wonderful illustration of the
theological truth that grace, far from destroying nature, ennobles and dignifies it,
and of the agreement always found between the natural and the supernatural
between the principles of sound reason and the sublimest manifestations of Divine
grace.
0.06 - Letters to a Young Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To a young sadhak who later became a teacher in the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education.1
I hope and believe Your work does not depend upon
--
Is there no means of uniting my will with Yours? Perhaps
You have no special will, for You want nothing.
I know perfectly well what I want or ra ther what the divine Will
is, and it is that which will triumph in time.
What we want to bring to the earth can hardly be called a revolution, although it will be the most marvellous change ever seen;
in any case this cannot be compared at all with the bloody revolutions which quite uselessly tear up countries without bringing
any great change after them, because they leave men as false, as
ignorant, as egoistic as before.
This Series is organised broadly by subject into thirteen parts - the form in which
it was originally published; in this it differs from the o ther Series, which are arranged
chronologically. the replies here were written between 1933 and 1949 - most of them
between 1933 and 1935.
I believe a day will come when the Divine will be seen
quite naturally as one sees earthly things and then there
will be no need to exclaim: " the Divine is everywhere"
--
If the realisation were to be limited to this, it would hardly be
worth much. It is an integral transformation of terrestrial life
--
It is quite true. But it seems to me that even the outer forms,
the appearances are changing more than you say. Only, this is
--
with the law of the truth of things, and not arbitrarily through
a mental decision.
Certainly the Divine Grace is always at work, it is the material
world and the men living there that do not want it!
What does the Divine want of me?
He wants that you first find yourself; that with your true being,
your psychic being, you master and govern the lower being, and
then you will quite naturally take your proper place in the great
Divine Work.
--
Far ther within or higher above, on the o ther side of the emotions,
beyond the mind.
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
--
refuse to recognise the body as one's "self". Indeed, what would
it be without the feelings and thoughts which animate it? An
inert, lifeless mass.
--
the awareness of the Divine Presence in all things and always.
You have said in your Conversations that to prepare
oneself for the Yoga one must first of all be conscious.
To be conscious of the Divine Presence in us is our goal;
I don't see how I can be conscious from the beginning.
I have not said "conscious of the Divine Presence", I have said
"conscious"; that means one does not live in total ignorance of
--
an aim as to be united with the Divine and to manifest Him, how
can he be affected by all the futilities and foolishnesses of life?
there are people who say one must unite closely with
the outer nature to be able to taste the joy which the
manifested world so effectively conceals.
I don't think this is true; union with the outer nature brings more
certainly sorrow than joy!
If you were a man of the world as you say, you would not be
here; you would be in the world. these are certain elements in
the being which remain attached to their old activities and refuse
to change. they will have to yield and be transformed one day
or ano ther.
--
the conflict is between that which aspires towards consciousness, the "sattwic" part of the being, and that which lets itself
be invaded and governed by the inconscience, the "tamasic"
part of the being, between that which pushes upwards and that
which pulls downwards and therefore is subject to all outer
influences.
--
It is good to be above all enjoyments the world can give, but
why accept to be hurt by it?
--
Why do you want to think the whole world is against you? This
is childish.
--
It may be that human life is indeed incapable of it; but for the
divine life nothing is impossible.
--
world? the repetition of the same round - that is death
itself.
This is one way of seeing things; but there is ano ther in which
one finds that no two things, no two moments are exactly alike
in the world and that everything is in perpetual change.
I do not understand a phrase in Your Prayers: "and that
--
All the stars (spiritually speaking) are the same. I mean that one
may call human beings grains of dust if one likes, or compare
them to the stars; in ei ther case they are all alike in size and
worth before Eternity.
--
I too do not want any distance between us. But the relation must
be a true one, that is, based on union in the divine consciousness.
Open your heart yet wider, yet better, and the distance will
disappear.
This prison that separates me from You and from the
Divine must be broken. O Mo ther, I don't know what I
--
to You, I must prove it in my actions; without that these
would be worthless words behind which a man seeks
--
Whatever the reason may be, as soon as my consciousness loses You I become joyless and without energy.
At no moment do I forget you. Don't you ra ther allow too many
--
Mo ther, why is it so difficult to feel Your Presence constantly near me? In the depths of my heart I know well
that without You there is no meaning in life for me; yet
my mind flits hi ther and thi ther as soon as it finds the
slightest occasion.
It is precisely because of this that you lose the feeling of the
Presence.
I am always with you, and to become conscious of the inner
Presence is one of the most important points of the sadhana.
Ask X, he will tell you that the Presence is not a matter of faith
or of mental imagination, it is a fact, absolutely concrete and
as real and tangible to the consciousness as the most material
phenomenon.
--
being that it is possible to find You in the centre of my
heart.
It is not a question of convincing your heart, you must get the
experience of this presence and then you will become aware
that in its depths your heart has always been conscious of this
--
Beloved Mo ther, how shall I find the source of that
Love which will make me feel that the divine Presence is
always and everywhere?
You must find the Divine first, whe ther in yourself by interiorisation and concentration, or in Sri Aurobindo and me through
love and self-giving. Once you have found the Divine you will
naturally see Him in all things and everywhere.
--
there are two ways of uniting with the Divine. One is to concentrate in the heart and go deep enough to find there His Presence;
the o ther is to fling oneself in His arms, to nestle there as a child
nestles in its mo ther's arms, with a complete surrender; and of
the two the latter seems to me the easier.
My darling Mo ther, if the Divine shows Himself to me
in exchange for my love for Him and the giving of my
soul, then it is a very easy thing for me.
Not only of the soul, but of the whole being, without reserve.
Who is there to hold me back far from You?
You yourself.
--
must climb to the plane where You are, to be able to
have You intimately, and that I must not expect You
--
to climb up there. there is a world of difference between
our two planes. I dare not dream of the moment I shall
be at your side; You will always be higher, and I shall
--
not appear bad to me, because I know there is a great
joy in seeking; but it is true that my heart will always be
--
From a certain point of view what you say is true; but there is
also a sort of reversal of consciousness in which it comes out of
--
some o ther plane than the physical? I don't mean by
leaving the body; even when in the body, is it not possible
to meet on some o ther higher plane?
Certainly, this is quite possible. But one must awaken to the
consciousness of these planes.
Mo ther, I want simply to leave the body; it is the body
which separates me from You.
--
stupidity. It seems to me that actually it is just the opposite, for
without the possibility of seeing me daily, what contact will you
have with me in the present state of your consciousness? Are
you capable of feeling me, experiencing concretely my presence,
--
know, on the contrary, that there is no separation and that in
the reality of your being we are always united.
--
me is a big mistake; for the vital being remains what it is, whe ther
the body be alive or dead, and if the vital being is, during one's
life, incapable of feeling the nearness, the deep intimacy, how
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
--
because it has left the body? It is ignorant childishness.
And that o ther idea that if the body is changed the next
one will necessarily be better, is also a mistake. It is only when
one has profited fully and to the utmost by the opportunity for
progress which life in a physical body represents, that one may
hope to be reborn in a higher organism. All defection, on the
contrary, naturally brings in a diminution of being.
Only the resolution to face courageously, in the present existence, all the difficulties, and to overcome them, is the sure
means of attaining the union you desire.
My one hope is to progress as much as I can, so that my
--
This is all nonsense; we have not to busy ourselves with the next
life, but with this one which offers us, till our very last breath,
all its possibilities. To put off for the next birth what one can do
in this life is like putting off for tomorrow what one can do this
very day; it is laziness. It is only with death that the possibility
of integral realisation ceases; so long as one is alive, nothing is
--
not be done after death. It is the physical life which is the true
field for progress and realisation.
--
It is impossible to cease to be; nothing that belongs to the manifested universe can go out of it except through the door of
spiritual liberation, that is, transformation.
--
I often ask myself if there is a truth behind this desire to
come close to You.
Yes, there is the Truth of perfect union with the Divine in an
identity of consciousness and will.
--
I have never said anything of the kind. But you must prepare
yourself, purify yourself within, so that this approach may be
--
If you say I am there for you alone, obviously it is egoistic and
false; but if you think I am there for all my children, that I carry
them in my heart, that I want to lead them to the Divine and
that I am grieved when they move away from Him, - then this
is quite true.
I have not the least intention of keeping you away from me; I
wanted only to remind you that you are not alone in the Ashram
and that I have to divide my time among all those who have need
--
If you are physically far from me and think of me all the time,
you will surely be nearer to me than if you were seated near me
--
Beloved Mo ther, there are twenty-four hours in a day,
but I can't remain at Your feet for more than a few
--
find me at the same time, living in you, life of your life, ever
present and ever near, quite concretely and tangibly.
--
(which may be had in all circumstances), call me from the depths
of this silence and you will see me standing there in the centre
of your being.
Because I stopped the pranam for two days, you should not
think that I was not with you. Wherever you work, physically
--
the Divine is constantly present in the psychic being and the
latter is quite conscious of this.
--
the psychic being is not asleep. It is the connection with it which
is not well established because the mind makes too much noise
and the vital is too restless.
Mo ther, if the psychic always feels the Divine Presence,
why does the human being cry and lament the lack of
this Presence?
I have already told you that it is because the contact between
the outer consciousness and the psychic consciousness is not
well established. He in whom this contact is well established is
--
the suffering we experience proves that the psychic being is far away from the Divine.
It is not the psychic being which suffers, it is the mind, the vital
and the ordinary consciousness of ignorant man.
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
--
rose from the depths of my being, through a crowd of
obstacles, and when this thing had come out above, all
was changed in me; then I was in joy and peace and all
difficulties suddenly disappeared. Since that day I have
--
Certainly it was the psychic being, but it became active only
through my intervention.
--
well stop doing it. But then you should no longer ask me to
help you to progress, for you cannot on the one hand ask me to
intervene and on the o ther refuse my intervention.
If you are vexed by what I tell you, it proves that you do not
--
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.
I have not the least intention in the world to push you into a
corner, and if I had not the full assurance that you can overcome
all these difficulties, I would not even have mentioned them. It
is no good telling someone, "You have such and such a fault",
--
I don't see why I should give you blows - I don't give them for
the pleasure of giving them, but only when they are altoge ther
indispensable.
--
That's very good, but if you were to add to this the idea that I
know you and love you better than you yourself do and that I
know better than you what is good for you - then that would
be perfect.
--
Mo ther of joy, I am surprised to find that there are people
who think that You call only those sadhaks who cannot
--
weakness on the part of those who see You from time to
time.
--
I always wonder that people imagine they can know the
reasons for my actions! I act differently for each one, according
to the needs of his particular case.
I don't think it would be bad to let You know about a
--
On the contrary, it is good to let me know immediately.
Nothing is better than a confession for opening the closed doors.
Tell me what you fear most to tell me, and immediately you will
--
the Divine is infinite and innumerable, and consequently the
ways of approaching Him are also infinite and innumerable,
and on the manner of one's approach to the Divine depends
what he receives and knows of the Divine. the bhakta meets
a Divine full of affection and sweetness, the wise man will find
a Divine full of wisdom and knowledge. He who fears meets a
severe Divine, and he who is trusting finds the Divine a friend
and protector... and so on in the infinite variety of possibilities.
Fear nothing: the Divine always answers every sincere aspiration
and never refuses what is offered to Him whole-heartedly; thus
you may live in the peace of the certitude that you are accepted
by the Divine.
Beloved Mo ther, how to master this lethargy that overcomes me? I do not live, Mo ther, I just exist in some way.
--
to find the Divine Presence. Far from seeking to fill your heart
with frivolities in order to "divert" it, you must with a great
--
great and small, so that the power of that great emptiness may
attract the Marvellous Presence. One must know how to pay
this supreme Grace the price it deserves.
Of each one is asked only what he has, what he is, nothing more,
--
You are right to want to create the emptiness in you; for you will
soon discover that in the depths of this emptiness is the Divine.
If I find some solace in books, how can I say that nothing sustains me and that I am plunged in the divine life
through an absolute emptiness?
--
When I try to look within myself, I find there a being that
is detached from everything, a great indifference reigns
--
Mo ther, my life is dry, it was always so; the dryness of
my life constantly increases.
--
consciousness and dwell there.
It is certainly not by becoming morose and melancholy that one
draws near the Divine. One must always keep in one's heart an
unshakable faith and confidence and in one's head the certitude
of victory. Drive away these shadows which come between you
and me and hide me from your sight. It is in the pure light of
certitude that you can become conscious of my presence.
the sadder you are and the more you lament, the far ther you
move away from me. the Divine is not sad and to realise the
Divine you must reject far from yourself all sadness and all
--
I don't see the need of your suffering. Psychic love is always
peaceful and joyous; it is the vital which dramatises and makes
itself unhappy without any reason. I hope, indeed, that you will
--
My most beloved Mo ther, the idea of separation opens
between You and me like a frightening abyss. I am not
--
It is always the vital being which protests and complains. the
psychic being works with perseverance and ardour to make the
union an accomplished fact, but it never complains, and knows
how to wait for the hour of realisations to come.
It is the vital which asks and asks and is never satisfied... the
psychic, the true deep feelings are always satisfied and never ask
for anything. the psychic feels my constant presence, is aware
of my love and solicitude, and is always peaceful, happy and
--
the true divine love is above all quarrels. It is the experience of
perfect union in an invariable joy and peace.
--
Radha is the symbol of loving consecration to the Divine.
Keep always your balance and a calm serenity; it is only thus
that one can attain the true Union.
It is in your soul that the calmness can be found and it is by contagion that it spreads through your being. It is not steady because
the sovereignty of your soul is not yet definitively established
over all the being.
I don't see anything wrong in not being sentimental; nothing is
fur ther from true love, the divine love, than sentimentality.
All will be done, Mo ther, but why is my heart becoming
--
A love which is sufficiently strong can make a person the
slave of the beloved.
You speak here of vital love, but certainly not of psychic love
and still less of the Divine Love.
the person I love belongs to me.
--
It is not this person or that who attracts you... it is the eternal
feminine in the lower nature which attracts the eternal masculine in the lower nature and creates an illusion in the mind; it
is the great play, obscure and semi-conscious, of the forces of
unillumined nature; and as soon as one succeeds in escaping
--
all desires and all attractions vanish; only the ardent aspiration
for the Divine remains.
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
My beloved Mo ther, the whole day I thought of nothing
else except that red rose which signifies "Human passions changed into love for the Divine". I want to know
precisely what the human passions are.
By "passion" we mean all the violent desires which take possession of a man and finally govern his life - the drunkard has
the passion for drink, the debauchee the passion for women,
the gambler the passion for dice, etc. If one human being feels
a violent and uncontrollable love for ano ther, this is called a
--
changed into love for the Divine.
Sensations belong to the vital domain and to that part of it which
is expressed through the nerves of the body. It is sentiments
and emotions which are characteristic of the heart. It is always
preferable not to live in the sensations but to consider them as
something outside ourselves, like the clo thes we wear.
Be courageous and do not think of yourself so much. It is because
you make your little ego the centre of your preoccupation that
you are sad and unsatisfied. To forget oneself is the great remedy
for all ills.
--
True humility lies in not judging oneself and in letting the Divine
determine our real worth.
--
You must avoid the one as carefully as the o ther.
My most beloved Mo ther, an introspection has revealed
to me many things. there is a jealousy in me which blinds
me; ano ther part in me is very vain, it gives me the idea
that I have already reached my goal.
--
useful only from the moment you resolve that it is no longer
going to be like this, and that you will strive to conquer your
two great enemies: jealousy and vanity. the more we advance
on the road, the more modest we become, and the more we find
that we have done nothing in comparison with what remains to
--
for the illumination.
Formerly I used to repeat to myself: "I am one of the
greatest sadhaks." Now I tell myself: "I am nobody."
--
We must want to be only what the divine Will wants of us.
All my good intentions, since my childhood, have been
--
after all, is it worth the trouble to try and transform it?
It is better not to think of this personal nature as mine;
not to identify myself with it is the best remedy I can
find against the lower and inconscient nature.
Nothing of all this is the right attitude. So long as you oscillate between wanting to transform yourself and not wanting to
transform yourself - making an effort to progress and becoming indifferent to all effort through fatigue - the true attitude
will not be there. All your observations should lead you to one
certainty, that by oneself one is nothing and can do nothing.
Only the Divine is the life of our life, the consciousness of our
consciousness, the Power and Capacity in us. It is to Him that
we must entrust ourselves, give ourselves without reserve, and it
--
My sweet beloved Mo ther, I read in the Conversations:
"Concentration alone will lead you to this goal." Should
one increase the time of meditation?
Concentration does not mean meditation; on the contrary, concentration is a state one must be in continuously, whatever the
outer activity. By concentration I mean that all the energy, all the
will, all the aspiration must be turned only towards the Divine
and His integral realisation in our consciousness.
--
thought about the moonlight playing upon the water.
Or, better still, not to have thought at all but contemplated the
Divine Grace.
--
sincerity at the feet of the Divine, work will do you as much
good as meditation.
--
I have had the experience myself that one can be fully concentrated and be in union with the Divine even while working
physically with one's hands; but naturally this asks for a little
practice, and for this the most important thing to avoid is useless
talking. It is not work but useless talk which takes us away from
--
All depends not on what one does but on the attitude behind the
action.
--
If in all sincerity one acts only to express the Divine Will, all
actions without exception can become unselfish. But so long as
one has not reached this state, there are actions which are more
helpful for the contact with the Divine.
the yogic life does not depend on what one does but on how
one does it; I mean it is not so much the action which counts
as the attitude, the spirit in which one acts. To know how to
give yourself entirely and without egoism while washing dishes
or serving a meal brings you much nearer the Divine than
doing what men call "great things" in a spirit of vanity and
--
It is not the work, any work, in itself which can bring you
close to me. It is the spirit in which it is done that is important.
Mo ther, which is this being that receives happily any
--
It is that part of your being which is under the influence of the
psychic and obeys the Divine impulsion.
Do I serve You as best I can?
--
Without discipline it is impossible to realise anything on the
physical plane. If your heart were not willing to submit to the
strict discipline of beating regularly and constantly, you would
--
the great realisers have always been the great disciplined
men.
It is not that there is a dearth of people without work in the
Ashram; but those who are without work are certainly so because they do not like to work; and for that disease it is very
difficult to find a remedy - it is called laziness...
--
peace and let it enter into the cells of the body; then the suggestion of awkwardness can no longer have any effect.
Mo ther, X has broken a porcelain bowl.
--
Keep always burning in you the fire of aspiration and purification which I have kindled there.
Without perseverance one never attains anything.
--
it up; on the contrary, the more difficult a thing is, the greater
must be the will to carry it out successfully.
Of all things the most difficult is to bring the divine consciousness into the material world. Must the endeavour then be
given up because of this?
--
If you resolve to do it, my force will be there to back up your
effort.
--
and things get realised only when they are the expression of an
inner truth.
--
in such a way that when they are contradicted it gets a shock
and this gives it pain. It must become calm and develop the habit
of remaining quiet.
Have faith in the Divine Grace and the hour of liberation will
be hastened.
--
Only the Divine can heal. It is in Him alone that one must
seek help and support, it is in Him alone that one must put all
--
calm confidence, have faith in the Divine Grace, and you will
overcome all your difficulties.
Do not worry, only keep in you always the will to do things well.
Why accept the idea of being weak? It is this which is bad.
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
Yes, it is in a calm and patient confidence that lies the certitude
of victory.
Confidence in the Divine I do not lack, but it is perhaps
my ego which unceasingly says that I cannot accomplish
what the Divine wants of me.
Yes, and as soon as the ego surrenders and abdicates, this fear
disappears giving place to the calm assurance that nothing is
impossible.
--
If you repeat it with sufficient constancy, the recalcitrant part
will at last be convinced.
--
remember that the conditions of our life are not quite ordinary
conditions, and keep your trust in the Divine Power to organise
all and do all through the human instruments which are open to
His influence.
--
magnet and attracts what we fear. One must, on the contrary,
keep a calm certitude that sooner or later all will be well.
--
towards oneself just the things one fears. One must, on the
contrary, drive off all pessimistic thoughts and compel oneself
--
think much. the most obvious sign of the action of an
adverse force - it is this that I want to learn to see in
--
Do not grieve. Always the same battle must be won several
times, especially when it is waged against the hostile forces.
That is why one must be armed with patience and keep faith in
--
My beloved Mo ther, can the adverse forces act effectively
against the terrestrial evolution without using a human
being as an intermediary?
It is not impossible, but it is easier for them to find a human
instrument.
--
But in the matter of the adverse forces, it is good to be always
vigilant and sincere.
--
is the best means of overcoming an attraction, whe ther
small or great.
This is childish; it is always the same trap of the adverse forces;
if, instead of expressing their advice under cleverly perverted
forms, they were to speak of things as they are, it would come
to something like this: "Continue to drink in order to stop being a drunkard" or better: "Continue to kill to stop being a
--
One must never be afraid, and if the adverse forces try to lodge
themselves in your lower nature, you have only to dislodge them,
calling me to your help.
--
to remember me and call me to your help if there is some danger.
You will see that the nightmares will vanish.
It seemed to me that there was someone in my room
who wanted to suck my blood; I wanted to stretch my
--
If you start feeding the adverse forces, they will exact more and
more and will never be satisfied.
--
these so-called vital beings, most of them would be immediately
dissolved.
If I can remain peaceful in the face of all circumstances,
I can be sure that the hostile force is far from me.
Yes, on condition that the "peace" is not that of a hardening but
of a conscious force.
--
I am speaking of the peace experienced by those who are utterly
insensible and indifferent to the misfortunes of the world and
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
the suffering of o thers, those who have turned their hearts to
stones and are incapable of compassion.
--
This is not at all correct; the experience of all recluses, all ascetics, proves indisputably the contrary. the difficulty comes
from oneself, from one's own nature, and one takes it along
wherever one goes, whatever the conditions one may be in. there
is but one way of getting out of it - it is to conquer the difficulty,
overcome one's lower nature. And is this not easier here, with
--
shed light on the path and guide the uncertain footsteps?
My darling Mamma, I want to lead a pure life and I shall
do all I can to progress towards the divine life.
This does not depend so much on outer conditions, but above
all on the inner state.
A pure being is always pure, in all circumstances.
--
being influenced more or less by them.
No, this is wrong! It is true of the ordinary life but not of a yogi.
Sweet Mo ther, if my company is not good for o thers,
--
It would be much better to dissociate yourself from the tendency
to fall into your ordinary consciousness.
What will be the result if I meditate on the thought that
there is no difference between a certain thing, no matter
which, and me; for the Divine is as much present in that
thing as in me?
--
Why? I don't see that this is necessary. the effort which would
be needed to become immune from the effects of dirt can be
utilized much more profitably elsewhere.
--
of knowledge must be added to these sentiments. For, to communicate peace and joy to o thers is not so easy, and unless one
has within oneself an unshakable peace and joy, there is a great
risk of losing what one has ra ther than passing it on to o thers.
--
insensible to their suffering, but what's the good of this
feeling if I cannot come to their aid in their suffering?
One cannot help o thers to overcome their sorrows and sufferings
unless one has overcome all this in oneself and is master of one's
--
It is just when one is innocent that one ought to be most indifferent to ill-treatment, because there is nothing to blame oneself
for and one has the approbation of one's conscience to console
oneself.
--
learn to do so, these contacts with o thers are useful.
I do not know of anything more foolish than these quarrels in
which everybody is in the wrong. And is there anything more
ridiculous than ruffled amours-propres?
--
disastrous, for falsehood is the very symbol of that which wants
to oppose the divine work of Truth.
Health is the outer expression of a deep harmony, one must be
proud of it and not despise it.
--
open oneself to all kinds of bad suggestions? there is no reason
to be ill and I don't see why you should be so.
--
overcome and replaced by a complete trust in the divine Grace.
For several days there has been pain in the nape of the
neck; I am tired of the remedies our dispensary gives me.
I rely on Your Will alone to rid me of this illness.
--
One must never lose hope or faith - there is nothing incurable,
and no limit can be set to the power of the Divine.
One must find the inner peace and keep it constantly. In the force
this peace brings, all these little miseries will disappear.
Mo ther, the inherent tendency of the material body is to
dissolve, and the mind helps it; how will You be able to
stop the natural propensity of my body to disintegration?
It must become aware of the immortality of the elements constituting it (which is a scientifically recognised fact), then it must
submit itself to the influence and the will of the psychic being
which is immortal in its very nature.
--
For food to be no longer necessary, the body would have to be
completely transformed and no longer subject to any of the laws
governing it at present.
I don't see why people should feel guilty because they are hungry.
If food is prepared, it is for eating.
--
the vital is at once the place of desires and energies, impulses
and passions, of cowardice, but also of heroism - to bridle it is
to turn all this towards the divine Will and submit it to this Will.
the vital being seeks only power - material possession
--
This also is false. the higher part of the vital being, like the
higher part of the mental being, aspires for the Divine and suffers
when far from Him.
--
doesn't it show that my mind can govern the vital?
No, it only shows that in your consciousness the mind takes
a bigger place than the vital. What I call the domination of
the mind over the vital is when the latter takes no initiative,
accepts no impulse which has not been first sanctioned by the
mind, when no desire, no passion arises unless the mind thinks
it good; and if an impulse of desire, passion or violence comes
from outside, it is enough that the mind intervenes for it to be
immediately controlled.
Mo ther dearest, the vital desires will vanish as gradually
my body becomes weaker, won't they?
Certainly not; quite on the contrary, to be able to conquer the desires of the vital one must have an excellent physical equilibrium
and sound health.
In the vital world attraction and repulsion are the right and
wrong sides of the same thing and always indicate an attachment. One must persistently turn away one's thought from its
object.
--
accept the circumstance and try to be its master?
It is always better to avoid the temptation.
One has only to persist with a calm confidence and the vital will
stop going on strike.
Depression is always unreasonable and leads nowhere. It is the
most subtle enemy of yoga.
--
In Your Conversations You have said that the intellect is
like an intermediary between the true knowledge and its
realisation here below. Does it not follow that intellectual culture is indispensable for rising above the mind to
find there the true knowledge?
Intellectual culture is indispensable for preparing a good mental
instrument, large, supple and rich, but its action stops there.
In rising above the mind, it is more often a hindrance than
a help, for, in general, a refined and educated mind finds its
--
will feel this strong urge to study; but when the brain is well
formed, the taste for studies will gradually die away.
My beloved Mo ther, I want to follow a systematic course
--
never lose sight of the fact that this is not a source of knowledge and that it is not in this way that one can draw close
to knowledge. Naturally, this does not hold good for the Life
Divine...
In silence lies the source of the highest inspirations.
Identification with the Divine is our goal; I don't see why
I am trying to know this or that.
It is not the work that is of importance but the spirit in which
one does it. It is difficult to keep one's mind perfectly quiet; it
--
It is difficult to keep one's mind always fixed on the same thing,
and if it is not given enough work to occupy it, it begins to
--
nothing except making people conceited, for they imagine they
know and in fact know nothing.
--
Not as much as they seem to be. there is a deep and very wise
observation in the comedies of Molière.
I have just finished Salammbô;2 I did not find any ideal
--
It is not a book of ideas; it is only for the beauty of its form and
style that it is remarkable.
--
not the vital enjoy it through the mind?
In the mind also there are perversions. It is a ra ther poor and
unrefined vital which can take pleasure in such things!
--
the students talk so much in the class that I have to
scold them often.
It is not with severity but with self-mastery that children are
--
be respectable. X is not the only one to say that you use violence
to make yourself obeyed; nothing is less respectable. You must
--
I have always thought that something in the teacher's character
was responsible for the indiscipline of his students.
I hope you will give me precise instructions which will
--
the students cannot learn their lessons even when they
have their books.
One must have a lot of patience with young children, and repeat
the same thing to them several times, explaining it to them in
various ways. It is only gradually that it enters their mind.
0.07 - DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL, #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
object:0.07 - DARK NIGHT OF the SOUL
class:chapter
--
Exposition of the stanzas describing the method followed by the soul in its journey upon the spiritual road to the attainment of the perfect union of love with God, to the extent that is possible in this life. Likewise are described the properties belonging to the soul that has attained to the said perfection, according as they are contained in the same stanzas.
PROLOGUE
IN this book are first set down all the stanzas which are to be expounded; afterwards, each of the stanzas is expounded separately, being set down before its exposition; and then each line is expounded separately and in turn, the line itself also being set down before the exposition. In the first two stanzas are expounded the effects of the two spiritual purgations: of the sensual part of man and of the spiritual part. In the o ther six are expounded various and wondrous effects of the spiritual illumination and union of love with God.
STANZAS OF the SOUL
1. On a dark night, Kindled in love with yearningsoh, happy chance!
--
2. In darkness and secure, By the secret ladder, disguisedoh, happy chance!
In darkness and in concealment, My house being now at rest.
3. In the happy night, In secret, when none saw me,
Nor I beheld aught, Without light or guide, save that which burned in my heart.
4. This light guided me More surely than the light of noonday
To the place where he (well I knew who!) was awaiting me
A place where none appeared.
5. Oh, night that guided me, Oh, night more lovely than the dawn,
Oh, night that joined Beloved with lover, Lover transformed in the Beloved!
6. Upon my flowery breast, Kept wholly for himself alone,
there he stayed sleeping, and I caressed him, And the fanning of the cedars made a breeze.
7. the breeze blew from the turret As I parted his locks;
With his gentle hand he wounded my neck And caused all my senses to be suspended.
8. I remained, lost in oblivion; My face I reclined on the Beloved.
All ceased and I abandoned myself, Leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.
Begins the exposition of the stanzas which treat of the way and manner which the soul follows upon the road of the union of love with God. Before we enter upon the exposition of these stanzas, it is well to understand here that the soul that utters them is now in the state of perfection, which is the union of love with God, having already passed through severe trials and straits, by means of spiritual exercise in the narrow way of eternal life whereof Our Saviour speaks in the Gospel, along which way the soul ordinarily passes in order to reach this high and happy union with God. Since this road (as the Lord Himself says likewise) is so strait, and since there are so few that enter by it,19 the soul considers it a great happiness and good chance to have passed along it to the said perfection of love, as it sings in this first stanza, calling this strait road with full propriety 'dark night,' as will be explained hereafter in the lines of the said stanza. the soul, then, rejoicing at having passed along this narrow road whence so many blessings have come to it, speaks after this manner.
BOOK the FIRST
Which treats of the Night of Sense.
STANZA the FIRST
On a dark night, Kindled in love with yearningsoh, happy
--
IN this first stanza the soul relates the way and manner which it followed in going forth, as to its affection, from itself and from all things, and in dying to them all and to itself, by means of true mortification, in order to attain to living the sweet and delectable life of love with God; and it says that this going forth from itself and from all things was a 'dark night,' by which, as will be explained hereafter, is here understood purgative contemplation, which causes passively in the soul the negation of itself and of all things referred to above.
2. And this going forth it says here that it was able to accomplish in the strength and ardour which love for its Spouse gave to it for that purpose in the dark contemplation aforementioned. Herein it extols the great happiness which it found in journeying to God through this night with such signal success that none of the three enemies, which are world, devil and flesh (who are they that ever impede this road), could hinder it; inasmuch as the aforementioned night of purgative20 contemplation lulled to sleep and mortified, in the house of its sensuality, all the passions and desires with respect to their mischievous desires and motions. the line, then, says:
On a dark night
0.07 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To the sadhak who was the dentist at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram
during the 1930s and then served from 1938 to 1950 as one of
Sri Aurobindo's personal attendants.1
--
easy at all. But to achieve even the beginning of a genuine
surrender of self - oh, how difficult it is, Mo ther!
--
Nothing special to you. It is the same difficulty that exists for all
human beings: the pride and blindness of the physical mind.
8 July 1935
--
or sleep with one's head towards the North. Has it got
any real significance, Mo ther?
Many things have been said on the subject but, as far as my own
experience goes, I do not attach much importance to that belief.
--
"O Lord, awaken my entire being that it may be for thee
the needed instrument, the perfect servant."
27 March 1936
--
us from subjection to the horoscope; the horoscope expresses
the position one has in relation with the material world, but by
the sadhana we get free from the slavery to that world.
14 September 1936
I know that the work I get nowadays is often very slight.
But I submit reports about it because once you expressed
--
Yes, I like to receive the book from you. It helps to keep the
contact materially.
--
I am getting tired of taking and taking, and giving nothing in return. It is almost indecent. But, then, I do not
know what I can do unless it is to pray to you to deliver
--
to the Divine.
13 November 1937
--
seem far ther away than ever. You are the Infinite Mo ther
of all your creation and many are your children. But
--
spite of the dull and heavy veil which lies thick upon
them. And may your Grace open up fully the lotus
of my heart so that I may be blessed with a vision
of your soul-captivating Presence in the full glory of
its enrapturing beauty and goodness and sweetness, so
--
of the mind and stormy uprisings of passions laid at
rest.
--
that was never there before. It seems to me that soon you will
discover, behind the apparent dryness of the surface, the always
burning flame of a conscious Love.
--
I know that it is only the weak who complain. the strong never
do because they can't be hurt. So I never attach much importance
to complaints.
--
(In his notebook the sadhak drew a simple pencil sketch
of a foot extended to touch a lotus.) Please excuse me
for spoiling the book with this very crude offering.
Nothing to excuse, all is in the spirit of the offering....
Love and blessings to my dear child.
--
Has the psychic flame any correspondence to the Vedic
Agni? they seem to have more or less the same leading
qualities.
Yes, these are two names for the same thing.
Love and blessings to my dear child.
--
still, O my Shining Light, the way is not clear to me. And
how shall I be ever able to climb to your dizzying heights
with the heavy chains of a mortal's nature pulling at my
feet?
Let me carry you in my arms and the climbing will become easy.
Love and blessings to my dear child.
--
Love, Mo ther? How did you know it was the inmost
desire of my heart? You are very, very adorable and very,
--
Yes, you are my child and it is true that of all things it is the most
important.... Dear child, I am always with you and my love and
--
Faith in the Divine's Grace and its power to transform you.
Love and blessings to my dear child.
--
the only mystery, the only spell is my love - my love which is
spread over my children and calls down upon them the Divine's
Grace to help and to protect.
--
Nothing can resist the steady action of love. It melts all resistances and triumphs over all difficulties...
Love and blessings to my dear child.
--
me to tell you that there are difficulties of my nature
which make it difficult for me to accept you and your
Yoga in the requisite spirit. And without this, what is
discipleship?
It is not as a Guru that I love and bless, it is as the Mo ther who
asks nothing in return for what she gives.
--
the love of the Mo ther who does not ask for anything
in return. That is all right for you, for yours is a selffulfilled life. But I have yet to achieve everything, yet to
--
and my Self, to know and love the Divine Godhead and
fulfil Her in my life and to know the worlds, if it is Her
Will that I should do so. But above all, I must have the
Darshan of the World-Mo ther, Adya Shakti Mahakali.
She will know what is best for me. then how can I do
without a Guru who will lead me to Her Feet?
I do not see anybody in the world more qualified than Sri
Aurobindo to lead you to the feet of the Mahashakti.
With my love and blessings.
--
you aspire, the way is Love and the goal too is Love" - is it not
the best answer to your letter?...
--
there happen to be bad sons now and then, but a bad
mo ther never.
--
egoism. But if my Mo ther chooses to see only the good
in her child, that only speaks of the goodness of the
Mo ther's heart.
My child's heart is filled with love and light from the Divine; let
them shine throughout your whole being and the clouds, if any,
will soon disappear.
--
( the sadhak received a jar of pickles from the Mo ther.)
You overwhelm me with your love, dear Mo ther. I know
I do not deserve one iota of the kindness you show to
me. What shall I say to you, you whose very nature is an
--
gift. Why then these o ther gifts?
there is a great joy in giving; there is a still greater joy in pleasing
those we love... and when you will eat the pickles you may
remember me and think, Mo ther loves me...
--
I send you heaps and heaps of love. In the lotus of my
heart may I have your lotus feet permanently installed
--
me remain always there so that I may fill your whole being with
light and love and joy.
--
In the secret recesses of my heart's chamber I have
always been aware of an instinctive belief that you are an
Avatar of the Divine Mo ther whom I adore, but whom
I know not except by Her lotus-feet. That is the reason
why my eyes seek Her in your lotus-feet, and my heart
yearns to press them to itself knowing them as its sole
refuge.
My dear, dear child, let the Light of a conscious certitude and the
joy of an everlasting Presence be always with you - concretely
- in the sweetness of love divine.
10 August 1939
--
a question to you, but I hear the word "experiment"
used so often and in such a variety of ways that I feel
--
Well - the best thing you could do is not to listen to what
people say; it would save you from many falls of consciousness.
--
you do not expect me to justify my love in front of the foolish
ignorance of such interpretations. Whe ther you believe or doubt,
--
and protect you against the intrusion of any force of falsehood.
My love and blessings will lead you to the goal.
13 August 1939
--
please me immensely and help you very much on the way.
My love and blessings to you, dear child.
--
Whatever is the nature of the offering, when it is made with
sincerity it always contains a spark of divine light which can
grow into a full sun and illuminate the whole being. You can be
sure of my love, you can be sure of my help, and our blessings
--
How extremely lovable you are, dear Mama! Is there
anyone like you in the whole world? LOVE.
Love, love, love to my very dear child; all the joy, all the light,
all the peace of the divine love and also my loving blessings.
20 August 1939
--
I have returned the pot of pickles but I still have
the pickles, and whenever I see them I remember you
and say to myself, " the Mo ther loves me." On the crest
of a great wave of love the gift came to me and I felt
the presence of the ocean which projected that wave.
With that pot in hand when you called me, do you
--
invoking Her and there you were with the pot of pickles
and an ocean of Love! Such is your play, dear playful
--
You were asking me this morning what was the matter
with me. It is the same old thing, but none theless distressing. It is civil war, a conflict between two different
tendencies and ideals, a pull from two different types
of leadership, the Deva type and the saint type (not in
the western sense), a war on all fronts, the mental, the
vital and the physical. But I am deeply sensible of your
kindness, my Mo ther, and grateful too.
--
in a syn thesis if you rise high enough in the intuitive mind and
yours is not at all irreducible. I am sure that one day you will
--
have been doing for so many years. I expect these moods
will come and go. But may I never lose sight of your
luminous smiling face through all these passing clouds!
My very dear child,
--
one good jump to the higher consciousness where all problems
Series Seven - To a Sadhak
--
"Rise into the higher Consciousness, let its light control
and transform the nature." Some time back you wrote to
me, "One good jump to the higher consciousness where
all problems are solved and you will get rid of your difficulties." Now what exactly is this higher consciousness
--
be conquered." Is this higher consciousness the same
thing as a state of pure love and, if so, how would it be
--
state of pure openness to divine knowledge. there is no opposition there between these two kindred things; it is the mind that
makes them separate.
the best way to get to it is to refuse all mental agitation when
it comes, also all vital desires and turmoils, and to keep the mind
and heart turned as constantly as possible towards the Divine.
the love for the Divine is the strongest force for doing this.
My love and blessings.
--
Why did the Mo ther choose this frail vessel for Her
abode? I know that so long as She chooses to make her
--
So, the best thing to do is to abdicate at once and to get
rest, peace and joy. When you have to get rid of an obstinate
--
Inside, outside and everywhere is the help of the Mo ther...
with her love and blessings.
--
My love wants to lead you to the goal and it is bound to
succeed.
--
the way I used to feel for the old ideal of liberation. the
path, the ideal you represent, your values still leave me
very cold. I still do not feel at home here. I do not know
--
too late now to begin at the beginning and teach myself
to ask for a new ideal, the realisation of which seems
none too near.
That which the Divine has destined for each of us - that will be.
My love and blessings to my dear child.
--
tired of the problem called me.
If it is not going to make any difference to your
--
the sadhak asked if he could accept money sent to him by relatives. the Mo ther
answered: "My dear child, you can be sure of my love and blessings."
--
It does not displease me in the least. If I did not answer to
what you wrote about it the o ther day, it is because I did not
attach much importance to it. My sentence meant simply that
--
I can add today that I am not at all tired of the "problem
called me" and that I remain convinced that it will be solved
--
Whenever you require spiritual help I am always there to
give you that help under whatever form it can take.
--
Let this year bring you the power to smile in all circumstances. For, a smile acts upon difficulties as the sun upon the
clouds - it disperses them.
With my love and blessings.
--
My dear child, here is the programme for this year: Unify your
whole being around your highest consciousness and do not let
--
with impunity: it is a poison which drop by drop corrodes the
soul.
--
the Divine's Grace is there - open your door and welcome it.
With my love and blessings.
0.08 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To a young captain in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Department
of Physical Education.
--
What is the difference between the psychic change
and the spiritual change?
the psychic change is the change that puts you in contact with
the immanent Divine, the Divine who is at the centre of each
being and of whom the psychic being is the sheath and the
expression. By the psychic change one passes from the individual
Divine to the universal Divine and finally to the Transcendent.
the spiritual change puts you directly in contact with the
Supreme.
--
It is through all the experiences of life that the psychic personality forms, grows, develops and finally becomes a complete,
conscious and free being.
--
one is not conscious of one's psychic being - for that is the
indispensable starting-point. Through interiorisation and concentration one has to enter into conscious contact with one's
psychic being. This psychic being always has an influence on the
outer being, but that influence is almost always occult, nei ther
--
In order to streng then the contact and aid, if possible, the
development of the conscious psychic personality, one should,
while concentrating, turn towards it, aspire to know it and feel
--
possible, to cultivate a perfect sincerity in all the activities of
one's being - these are the essential conditions for the growth
of the psychic being.
10 September 1959
--
That depends on the kind of energy one wants to absorb, for
each region of the being has a corresponding kind of energy. If it
is physical energy, we absorb it principally through respiration,
and all that facilitates and improves respiration increases at the
same time the absorption of physical energy.
But there are many o ther kinds of energies, or ra ther many
o ther forms of Energy, which is one and universal.
And it is through the various yogic exercises of breathing,
meditation, japa and concentration that one puts oneself in
contact with these various forms of Energy.
10 September 1959
--
What are these o ther forms of Energy and how do
they help us in our sadhana?
Each region of the being and each activity has its energies. We
Series Eight - To a Young Captain
may classify them generally into vital energies, mental energies, spiritual energies. Modern science tells us that Matter is
ultimately nothing but energy condensed.
Our yoga being integral, all these various forms or kinds of
energy are indispensable to our realisation.
--
of the superficial form of the mental envelope"?
It means that the ghost one sees and wrongly takes for the
departed being itself, is only an image of it, an imprint (like
a photographic imprint) left in the subtle physical by the superficial mental form, an image that can become visible under
certain conditions. these images can move about (like cinema
images), but they have no substantial reality. It is the fear or
emotion of those who see these images that sometimes gives
them the appearance of a power or an action they do not possess in themselves. Hence the necessity of never being afraid and
of recognising them for what they are - a deceptive appearance.
14 September 1959
--
How can one silence the mind, remain quiet, and
at the same time have an aspiration, an intensity or a
widening? Because as soon as one aspires, isn't it the
mind that aspires?
--
the heart, the emotional centre, the door of the psychic or ra ther
the door leading to the psychic.
the mind by its nature is curious and interested; it sees, it
--
activity, it disturbs the experience and diminishes its intensity
and force.
On the o ther hand, the more quiet and silent the mind is,
the more can aspiration rise up from the depths of the heart in
the fullness of its ardour.
--
How can one eliminate the will of the ego?
This amounts to asking how one can eliminate the ego. It is only
by yoga that one can do it. there have been, throughout the spiritual history of humanity, many methods of yoga - which Sri
Aurobindo has described and explained for us in the Syn thesis
of Yoga.
But before eliminating the will of the ego, which takes a very
long time, one can begin by surrendering the will of the ego to the
Divine Will at every opportunity and finally in a constant way.
For this, the first step is to understand that the Divine knows
better than we what is good for us and what we truly need, not
only for our spiritual progress but also for our material wellbeing, the health of our body and the proper functioning of all
the activities of our being.
Naturally, this is not the opinion of the ego, which thinks
it knows better than anyone else what it needs, and claims for
--
For the desires are not the expression of needs but of preferences.
19 September 1959
--
Why has the Divine made His path so difficult? He
can make it easier if He wants, can't He?
First of all, one should know that the intellect, the mind, can
understand nothing of the Divine, nei ther what He does nor how
He does it and still less why He does it. To know something of
the Divine, one has to rise above thought and enter into the
psychic consciousness, the consciousness of the soul, or into the
spiritual consciousness.
Those who have had the experience have always said that
the difficulties and sufferings of the path are not real, but a
creation of human ignorance, and that as soon as one gets out
of this ignorance one also gets out of the difficulties, to say
nothing of the inalienable state of bliss in which one dwells as
soon as one is in conscious contact with the Divine.
So according to them, the question has no real basis and
cannot be posed.
--
This too is a way which is certainly as good as the o ther.
there are many ways to attain self-realisation, and each one
must choose the way that comes to him most naturally.
But each way has its demands in order to be truly effective.
In thinking of me, you must think not only of the outer
person. but of what she represents, what stands behind her.
For you must never forget that the outer person is only the
form and symbol of an eternal Reality, and through the physical
appearance, it is to this higher Reality that you must turn. the
physical being cannot become truly expressive of the eternal
Reality until it is completely transformed by the supramental
manifestation. And until then, it is through it that you must find
the Truth.
--
if you persist in the effort. You begin by remembering your
dreams, then gradually you remain more and more conscious
during your sleep, and not only can you control your dreams
--
(1) Concentrate your thought on the will to come and find
me; then pursue this thought, first by an effort of imagination,
afterwards in a tangible and increasingly real way, until you are
--
(2) Establish a sort of bridge between the waking and the
sleeping consciousness, so that when you wake up you remember
--
takes a certain time and you must persist in the effort.
25 September 1959
--
What is the role of the soul?
But without the soul we wouldn't exist!
the soul is that which comes from the Divine without ever
leaving Him, and returns to the Divine without ceasing to be
manifest.
the soul is the Divine made individual without ceasing to
be divine.
In the soul the individual and the Divine are eternally one;
therefore, to find one's soul is to find God; to identify with one's
soul is to unite with the Divine.
Thus it may be said that the role of the soul is to make a
true being of man.
--
Is there anything like good luck and bad luck, or is
it something that one creates for oneself?
--
luck are the effects of causes they do not know.
Nor is there anything that in itself is good or bad luck;
each one characterises circumstances as good or bad depending
on whe ther they are more or less favourable to him; and this
estimation itself is very superficial and ignorant, for one must
--
Moreover, the same event may be very good for one person
and at the same time very bad for ano ther. these estimations are
purely subjective and depend on each one's reaction to contacts
--
Finally, the circumstances of our life, the surroundings in
which we live and the way in which people regard us are the
expression, the objective projection of what we ourselves are,
within and without. So we may say with certainty that what we
--
Likewise, in the case of those who degenerate and fall back,
the circumstances of their lives also worsen.
5 October 1959
--
What do you give us in the morning at the balcony,1
and what should we try to do in order to receive what
--
Every morning at the balcony, after establishing a conscious
contact with each of those who are present, I identify myself
with the Supreme Lord and dissolve myself completely in Him.
then my body, completely passive, is nothing but a channel
through which the Lord passes His forces freely and pours upon
all His Light, His Consciousness and His Joy, according to each
--
During this period the Mo ther stood for a while every morning on a balcony facing
the street and gazed at the sadhaks assembled below.
Series Eight - To a Young Captain
the best way to receive what He gives is to come to the
balcony with trust and aspiration and to keep oneself as calm
--
beforehand, not while I am there, because any activity lessens
the receptivity.
--
What is meant by the "silence of the physical consciousness"2 and how can one remain in this silence?
the physical consciousness is not only the consciousness of our
body, but of all that surrounds us as well - all that we perceive
with our senses. It is a sort of apparatus for recording and transmission which is open to all the contacts and shocks coming
from outside and responds to them by reactions of pleasure and
pain which welcome or repel. This makes in our outer being a
--
because we are so accustomed to them.
But if through meditation or concentration we turn inward
--
the depths calm, quiet, peace and finally silence. It is a concrete, positive silence (not the negative silence of the absence
of noise), immutable so long as it remains, a silence one can
experience even in the outer tumult of a hurricane or battlefield.
This silence is synonymous with peace and it is all-powerful;
it is the perfectly effective remedy for the fatigue, tension and
exhaustion arising from that internal over-activity and noise
--
Sri Aurobindo, the Life Divine, SABCL, Vol. 19, p. 906.
This is why the first thing required when one wants to do
Yoga is to bring down and establish in oneself the calm, the
peace, the silence.
15 October 1959
--
How can one enter into the feelings of a piece of
music played by someone else?
In the same way that one can share the emotions of ano ther
person - by sympathy, spontaneously, by an affinity more or
--
the point of stopping all o ther noise in the head and obtaining
a complete silence into which fall, drop by drop, the notes of
the music whose sound alone remains; and with the sound all
the feelings, all the movements of emotion can be captured,
experienced, re-felt as if they were produced in ourselves.
20 October 1959
--
In principle, to judge the activities of sleep one needs the same
capacity of discrimination as to judge the waking activities.
But since we usually give the name "dream" to a considerable number of activities that differ completely from one ano ther,
the first point is to learn to distinguish between these various
activities - that is, to recognise what part of the being it is that
"dreams", what domain it is that one "dreams" in, and what the
nature of that activity is. In his letters, Sri Aurobindo has given
--
the activities of sleep. Reading these letters is a good introduction
to the study of this subject and to its practical application .
2 November 1959
--
How should we read your books and the books of Sri
Aurobindo so that they may enter into our consciousness
instead of being understood only by the mind?
To read my books is not difficult because they are written in the
simplest language, almost the spoken language. To get help from
them, it is enough to read with attention and concentration and
--
the expression is highly intellectual and the language far more
literary and philosophic. the brain needs a preparation to really
be able to understand and generally this preparation takes time,
--
the mind as quiet as one can, without making an effort to understand, but keeping the head as silent as possible and letting
the force contained in what one reads enter deep inside. This
--
and will create in the brain, if necessary, the cells required for
understanding. Thus, when one re-reads the same thing some
months later, one finds that the thought expressed has become
much clearer and closer and even at times quite familiar.
--
fixed hour if possible; this facilitates the brain's receptivity.
2 November 1959
--
on the photo, one enters into relation with that special aspect or
different personality which the photo has captured and whose
image it conveys.
--
Why is the photo a fragmentary and limited presence?
Because the photo catches only the image of a moment, an instant of a person's appearance and of what that appearance
can reveal of a passing psychological condition and fragmentary soul-state. Even if the photograph is taken under the best
possible conditions at an exceptional and particularly expressive
moment, it cannot in any way reproduce the whole personality.
5 November 1959
--
What exactly are the subconscient and the inconscient?
the inconscient is that part of Nature which is so obscure and
--
rate, as in the stone, the mineral kingdom, the consciousness
there is entirely inactive and hidden. the history of the earth
begins with this inconscience.
--
We too carry it in ourselves, in the substance of our body,
since the substance of our body is the same as that of the earth.
But by evolution, this sleeping and hidden consciousness
gradually awakens through the vegetal and animal kingdoms,
and in them subconscience begins; this subconscience, with the
appearance of mind in man, culminates in consciousness. This
--
We too, then, carry in ourselves the subconscience which
links us to the animal, and the superconscience which is our
hope and assurance of future realisation.
--
your music at the Playground?
This music aims at awakening certain profound feelings.
--
passive as possible. And if, in the mental silence, a part of the
being can take the attitude of the witness who observes without
reacting or participating, then one can notice the effect that the
music produces on the feelings and emotions; and if it produces
a state of deep calm and semi-trance, that is very good.
--
What is the work of the Overmind?3
the overmind is the region of the gods, the beings of divine
origin who have been charged with supervising, directing and
This question and the three that follow are based on terms used by Sri Aurobindo in
the Life Divine, especially in its final chapters.
organising the evolution of the universe; and more specifically,
since the formation of the earth they have served as messengers
and intermediaries to bring to the earth the aid of the higher
regions and to preside over the formation of the mind and its
progressive ascension. It is usually to the gods of the overmind
that the prayers of the various religions are addressed. these religions most often choose, for various reasons, one of these gods
and transform him for their personal use into the supreme God.
In the individual evolution, one must develop in oneself
a zone corresponding to the overmind and an overmind consciousness, before one can rise above it, to the Supermind, or
open oneself to it.
Almost all the occult systems and disciplines aim at the
development and mastery of the overmind.
27 November 1959
--
What is meant by "a zone corresponding to the overmind" and how can one develop it in oneself? What is
meant by the "mastery of the overmind"?
the individual being is made up of states of being corresponding
to cosmic zones or planes, and it is as these inner states of being
are developed that one becomes conscious of those domains.
--
emotions, sensations; then objective and concrete when one is
able to go beyond the limits of the body in order to move about
in the various cosmic regions, grow conscious of them and act
freely in them - it is this that is called "mastery"; it is this that
I spoke of when I mentioned the mastery of the overmind.
It goes without saying that all this is not done in a day,
--
concentration. these masteries are no easier than the mastery
of the physical world; and everyone knows how much time and
effort are needed merely to learn the things indispensable for
leading one's life properly, not to speak of "mastery", which is
--
Supernature is the Nature superior to material or physical Nature - what we usually call "Nature". But this Nature that we
see, feel and study, this Nature that has been our familiar environment since our birth upon earth, is not the only one. there
is a vital nature, a mental nature, and so on. It is this that, for
--
Very often the word "Nature" is used as a synonym for
Prakriti, the executive force of Purusha. But to answer your
question more precisely, the context would be needed in order to
know on what occasion Sri Aurobindo spoke about Supernature.
--
Sri Aurobindo has written in the Life Divine:
" there is as yet no overmind being or organised overmind nature, no supramental being or organised supermind nature acting ei ther on our surface or in our
normal subliminal parts."4 Sweet Mo ther, now after the
descent of the Supermind,5 is it still like that?
SABCL, Vol. 19, p. 921.
On 29 February 1956 there took place, in the Mo ther's words, " the manifestation of the Supramental upon earth"; " then the supramental Light and Force and
Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow."
--
who do not belong to the ordinary humanity, have a conscious
and organised overmind being and overmind life, and still fewer
are those who have an organised supramental being and supramental life, even admitting that there are any at all. Certainly
the very recent descent of the first elements of the Supermind
into the earth's atmosphere (not yet quite four years ago) cannot
have changed this state of things.
--
What is meant by the yoga of devotion and the yoga
of knowledge?
the yoga of knowledge is the path that leads to the Divine
through the exclusive pursuit of the pure and absolute Truth.
the yoga of devotion is the path that leads to union with
the Divine through perfect, total and eternal love.
In the integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo, the two combine
with the yoga of works and the yoga of self-perfection to make
a homogeneous whole, culminating in the yoga of supramental
realisation.
--
What are the "supreme faculties"?
It is difficult to reply without having the context. Which
"supreme faculties" are being referred to here? Those of man on
the way to becoming superman, or those that the supramental
being will possess when he appears on earth?
In the first case, they are the faculties that develop in man as
he opens to the higher mind and overmind, and through those
Series Eight - To a Young Captain
regions he receives the light of the Truth. these faculties are not
a direct expression of the supreme Truth, but a transcription, an
indirect reflection of it. they include intuition, foreknowledge,
knowledge by identity and certain powers such as that of healing
--
If it refers to the supreme faculties of the supramental being, we cannot say much about them, for all we can say at the
moment belongs more to the realm of imagination than to the
realm of knowledge, since this supramental being has not yet
--
these divisions are merely arbitrary. they have been established
in order to facilitate the study of human nature and especially
to constitute a definite basis for the various methods of selfdevelopment and self-discipline. That is why each philosophic,
educational or Yogic system has, as it were, its own division
based on the experience of its founder. Never theless, despite
these divergences, there is a sort of tradition which, behind the
different terms, makes for an essential analogy. This analogy can
be expressed by a quaternary: the physical, the vital, the mental
and the psychic or soul.
Sri Aurobindo has written on this subject in great detail in
some of his letters, in the Syn thesis of Yoga and in Essays on
the Gita.
--
Is it possible to have a correct conception of the
Divine?
No conception of the Divine can be correct; for conceptions are
mental activities, and no mental activity is fit to manifest the
Divine.
It is only by experience that one can know Him, and the
experience cannot be translated into words.
0.09 - Letters to a Young Teacher, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To a young teacher in the Sri Aurobindo International Centre
of Education.
--
books when they are difficult and when I don't understand? Savitri, the Life Divine, for example.
Read a little at a time, read again and again until you have
--
Sri Aurobindo says: "Yoga is nothing but practical psychology."1 What does this sentence mean? the whole
paragraph is not clear to me.
--
spirit he receives the sacrifice."2 What does this mean?
It means that all we offer, we necessarily offer to the Supreme,
because He is the sole Reality behind everything.
the Syn thesis of Yoga, SABCL, Vol. 20, p. 39.
--
Sri Aurobindo has written: "He who chooses the Infinite
has been chosen by the Infinite."3 And what about the
o thers, Mo ther? What good is life if the Divine does not
want us? I believe that in truth the Divine has chosen us
all; but what does this sentence mean, then?
In truth the Divine has chosen everyone and everything, and
everyone and everything will return to Him. But for some it will
--
very lifetime. This is what makes the difference.
23 May 1960
--
You have asked the teachers "to think with ideas
instead of with words".4 You have also said that later on
you will ask them to think with experiences. Will you
throw some light on these three ways of thinking?
Our house has a very high tower; at the very top of this tower
there is a bright and bare room, the last before we emerge into
the open air, into the full light.
the Syn thesis of Yoga, SABCL, Vol. 20, p. 47.
--
bright room, and there, if we remain very quiet, one or more
visitors come to call on us; some are tall, o thers small, some
--
Usually, in our joy at their arrival and our haste to welcome
them, we lose our tranquillity and come galloping down to rush
into the great hall that forms the base of the tower and is the
storeroom of words. Here, more or less excited, we select, reject,
assemble, combine, disarrange, rearrange all the words in our
reach, in an attempt to portray this or that visitor who has come
to us. But most often, the picture we succeed in making of our
visitor is more like a caricature than a portrait.
--
the summit of the tower, quite calm, in joyful contemplation.
then, after a certain length of time, we would see the visitors
themselves slowly, gracefully, calmly descend, without losing
anything of their elegance or beauty and, as they cross the
storeroom of words, clo the themselves effortlessly, automatically, with the words needed to make themselves perceptible
even in the material house.
This is what I call thinking with ideas.
--
those who are sincere in their aspiration will remain here and
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
always be with you so that you can make all the progress you
want to make.
--
the central knot of desires is the sense of separate personality;
it is the ego. With the disappearance of the ego, the desires
disappear.
--
open, that we should give you everything, even our defects and vices and all the dirt in us. Is this the only way
to get rid of them, and how can one do it?
One keeps one's defects because one hangs on to them as if
they were something precious; one clings to one's vices as one
--
vice or bad habit, then one has the joy of making an offering
and one receives in exchange the force to replace what has been
given, by a better and truer vibration.
--
intimately in contact with You, we have the impression
that the Divine belongs to us exclusively (and not that
we belong to Him). Why?
--
the two are equally true and they ought to be felt simultaneously. But human egoism always has the tendency to take ra ther
than to give. This is where that impression comes from.
--
is it necessary to try to establish the same relation with
him?
--
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
of Yoga.
--
What exactly is the soul or psychic being? And what
is meant by the evolution of the psychic being? What is
its relation to the Supreme?
the soul and the psychic being are not exactly the same thing,
although their essence is the same.
the soul is the divine spark that dwells at the centre of each
being; it is identical with its Divine Origin; it is the divine in
man.
--
centre, the soul, in the course of its innumerable lives in the
terrestrial evolution, until the time comes when the psychic being, fully formed and wholly awakened, becomes the conscious
sheath of the soul around which it is formed.
And thus identified with the Divine, it becomes His perfect
instrument in the world.
16 July 1960
--
circumstances, consciously receive the psychic influence which
always produces an illumination in the being and has more or
less lasting effects.
--
the soul individualises itself and progressively transforms itself into a psychic being. What are the best
conditions for its rapid growth?
It would be more correct to say that the soul puts on a progressive individual form which becomes the psychic being. For since
the soul is itself a portion of the Supreme, it is immutable and
eternal. the psychic being is progressive and immortal.
All the methods of self-knowledge, self-control and selfmastery are good. You have to choose the one that comes to you
spontaneously and best corresponds to your nature. And once
--
having chosen the method, you must use your intelligent will
to apply it with an unfailing perseverance that does not shrink
--
Does an outer life of evil deeds and a base consciousness have an effect on the psychic being? Is there
a possibility of its degradation?
A base and evil life can only have the effect of separating the
outer being more and more completely from the psychic being,
which retires into the depths of the higher consciousness and
sometimes even cuts off all relation with the body, which is then
usually possessed by an asuric or rakshasic being.
--
How does the soul influence a being who is normally
unconscious?
--
the most opaque substances and acts even in the unconsciousness.
But then its action is slow and takes a very long time to
obtain a perceptible result.
--
Sri Aurobindo says that the voice of the ordinary
conscience is not the voice of the soul. What is it then?
the voice of the ordinary conscience is an ethical voice, a moral
voice which distinguishes between good and evil, encourages us
--
all egoism and become a conscious instrument of the Divine
Will. the soul itself, being a portion of the Divine, is above
all moral and ethical notions; it ba thes in the Divine Light and
manifests it, but it can truly govern the whole being only when
the ego has been dissolved.
--
Aurobindo's room and meditate there, "one must have
done much for Him".5 What do You mean by that,
Mo ther? What can one do for the Lord which will be
this "much"?
To do something for the Lord is to give Him something of what
one has or of what one does or of what one is. In o ther words,
--
it. But there are many persons who, without giving anything,
Words of the Mo ther - I, CWM, Vol. 13, p. 29.
Series Nine - To a Young Teacher
always want to take and to receive. these people are selfish and
they are not worthy of meditating in Sri Aurobindo's room.
--
How are the messages that You give us on Blessings
days chosen? How should we read them and what new
things in particular should we look for in them?
the messages are usually chosen according to the occasion or
the need of the moment, so that each person may be able to find
in them ei ther the force or the knowledge that will help him to
make progress.
In each one the will to progress is the needed thing - that
is what opens us to the divine influence and makes us capable
of receiving what it brings us.
--
Sri Aurobindo tells us: "First be sure of the call and
of thy soul's answer"6 before following the path of Yoga,
or else the end will be a disaster. But how can we know if
the call is really there or not? And as for our soul, would
it not always choose Yoga?
--
ambition or a vital caprice for the spiritual call - for that alone
is a sure sign that one should take up Yoga. the spiritual call is
heard only when the time has come, and then the soul responds
and sets out on the path; it does not allow itself to be deceived by
any ambition, pride or desire, and so long as it does not receive
the Divine command to take up the path, it waits patiently,
the Hour of God and O ther Writings, SABCL, Vol. 17, p. 39.
knowing that to start out too soon is useless, to say the least,
and may be harmful.
--
to have or to keep than the nectar of the Immortals."7
What does this mean? Doesn't the Divine Grace always
pour down on us, depending only on our receptivity?
the Grace is always there, eternally present and active, but Sri
Aurobindo says that it is extremely difficult for us to be in a
--
drink from the cup of the gods who are immortal.
To receive the divine grace, not only must one have a great
aspiration, but also a sincere humility and an absolute trust.
--
Why isn't it possible to live always on the same
height of consciousness? Sometimes I fall despite every
--
one ano ther: some want the spiritual life, o thers are attached to
the things of this world. To make all these parts agree and to
unify them is a long and difficult task.
the Hour of God and O ther Writings, SABCL, Vol. 17, p. 40.
--
the force and the light received by the more developed
parts spread gradually into the rest of the being by a process of
assimilation, and during this period of assimilation the progress
of the more developed parts seems to be interrupted. This is
what Sri Aurobindo has spoken of.
--
Divine. How to approach the Transcendent Divine?
It is utterly certain that if you were truly in contact with "your
personal divine", you would know perfectly well "how to approach the Transcendent Divine". For the two are identical; it is
only the mode of approach that differs: one is through the heart,
the o ther through the mind.
29 October 1960
--
In the last question, I expressed myself very poorly
and Your reply made me feel very insincere. What I
--
imperative need to give ourselves and who is the object
of all our love and adoration. This Presence I have called
--
conception of the Divine at this stage.
So now tell me, Mo ther, if it is possible to have an
idea of the "Transcendent Divine".
My reply contained the answer to your question, for I understood very well that you were not claiming anything, but had
expressed yourself poorly.
To discover the Transcendent Divine one has to follow the
intellectual discipline, the way of knowledge, and by successive
eliminations arrive at the one sole Truth, the Absolute beyond
form and time and space. It is a long and difficult path, a very
--
Whereas with one's heart, one can set out to discover the
Immanent Divine. And if one knows truly how to love, without
--
there is a lot of misunderstanding among the young
people about this sentence. What does it mean exactly?
It should be understood clearly that there is no question here
of any physical embracing, as practical jokers with the tastes
and habits of street-urchins might like to suggest and who seek
in what Sri Aurobindo has written an excuse for their excesses.
the divine embraces are embraces of soul and of consciousness,
and they can be reproduced among human beings only by a
widening of the consciousness, understanding and feelings - a
widening that enables you to understand everything and love
--
We are told that before the children came to the
Ashram, the conditions were a lot stricter and the discipline more rigorous. How and why have these conditions
changed now?
Before the children came, only those who wanted to do sadhana
were admitted to the Ashram, and the only habits and activities
tolerated were those that were useful for the practice of sadhana.
But as it would be unreasonable to demand that children
should do sadhana, this rigidity had to disappear the moment
the children were introduced into the Ashram.
26 November 1960
--
finding the psychic being within us?
In terrestrial man, it is only the psychic being that knows true
love. As for perfect love, it exists only in the Divine.
26 April 1961
--
In the New Year Message of 1961 You say: "This
wonderful world of delight waiting at our gates for our
--
It is not the world of delight that has come down, but only the
supramental Light, Consciousness and Force.
--
An absolute sincerity in the aspiration.
26 April 1961
--
When this delight comes down, what will the visible
results be in the world?
A generalised goodwill and harmony.
--
these days they print your symbol and Sri Aurobindo's name on all sorts of things, on all the thousand
and one little trifles of daily life which have to be thrown
away once they have served their purpose, as for example matchboxes, pencils, toothbrushes, combs, even the
borders of a sari, which are much trampled on. Is it good
to use these precious things in such a free and common
way?
And then what can we do with these things, Mo ther,
when we no longer need them? We can't throw them
away. the old calendars, for example; we have a thick
pile of them.
the Lord is everywhere, in everything, in what we throw away
--
If you are speaking of calendars with photographs, it is preferable to cut out the photos, and if you do not want to keep them,
give them to X who makes good use of them.
And if you are telling me that the photos are damaged, this
will make you understand how necessary it is to take care of the
things we use. That is what I mean when I speak of living with
--
Is there a dynamic and rapid way to find one's
psychic being and to raise one's consciousness?
--
It is effective, but not very practical for the work!
27 May 1963
01.01 - A Yoga of the Art of Life, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
object:01.01 - A Yoga of the Art of Life
author class:Nolini Kanta Gupta
--
O ther Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Part OneA Yoga of the Art of Life
A Yoga of the Art of Life
I
When Sri Aurobindo said, Our Yoga is not for ourselves but for humanity, many heaved a sigh of relief and thought that the great soul was after all not entirely lost to the world, his was not one more name added to the long list of Sannyasins that India has been producing age after age without much profit ei ther to herself or to the human society (or even perhaps to their own selves). People understood his Yoga to be a modern one, dedicated to the service of humanity. If service to humanity was not the very sum and substance of his spirituality, it was, at least, the fruitful end and consummation. His Yoga was a sort of art to explore and harness certain unseen powers that can better and ameliorate human life in a more successful way than mere rational scientific methods can hope to do.
Sri Aurobindo saw that the very core of his teaching was being missed by this common interpretation of his saying. So he changed his words and said, Our Yoga is not for humanity but for the Divine. But I am afraid this change of front, this volte-face, as it seemed, was not welcomed in many quarters; for thereby all hope of having him back for the work of the country or the world appeared to be totally lost and he came to be looked upon again as an irrevocable metaphysical dreamer, aloof from physical things and barren, even like the Immutable Brahman.
II
In order to get a nearer approach to the ideal for which Sri Aurobindo has been labouring, we may combine with advantage the two mottoes he has given us and say that his mission is to find and express the Divine in humanity. This is the service he means to render to humanity, viz, to manifest and embody in it the Divine: his goal is not merely an amelioration, but a total change and transformation, the divinisation of human life.
Here also one must guard against certain misconceptions that are likely to occur. the transformation of human life does not necessarily mean that the entire humanity will be changed into a race of gods or divine beings; it means the evolution or appearance on earth of a superior type of humanity, even as man evolved out of animality as a superior type of animality, not that the entire animal kingdom was changed into humanity.
As regards the possibility of such a consummation,Sri Aurobindo says it is not a possibility but an inevitabilityone must remember that the force that will bring about the result and is already at work is not any individual human power, however great it may be, but the Divine himself, it is the Divine's own Shakti that is labouring for the destined end.
Here is the very heart of the mystery, the master-key to the problem. the advent of the superhuman or divine race, however stupendous or miraculous the phenomenon may appear to be, can become a thing of practical actuality, precisely because it is no human agency that has undertaken it but the Divine himself in his supreme potency and wisdom and love. the descent of the Divine into the ordinary human nature in order to purify and transform it and be lodged there is the whole secret of the sadhana in Sri Aurobindo's Yoga. the sadhaka has only to be quiet and silent, calmly aspiring, open and acquiescent and receptive to the one Force; he need not and should not try to do things by his independent personal effort, but get them done or let them be done for him in the dedicated consciousness by the Divine Master and Guide. All o ther Yogas or spiritual disciplines in the past envisaged an ascent of the consciousness, its sublimation into the consciousness of the Spirit and its fusion and dissolution there in the end. the descent of the Divine Consciousness to prepare its definitive home in the dynamic and pragmatic human nature, if considered at all, was not the main theme of the past efforts and achievements. Fur thermore, the descent spoken of here is the descent, not of a divine consciousness for there are many varieties of divine consciousness but of the Divine's own consciousness, of the Divine himself with his Shakti. For it is that that is directly working out this evolutionary transformation of the age.
It is not my purpose here to enter into details as to the exact meaning of the descent, how it happens and what are its lines of activity and the results brought about. For it is indeed an actual descent that happens: the Divine Light leans down first into the mind and begins its purificatory work therealthough it is always the inner heart which first recognises the Divine Presence and gives its assent to the Divine action for the mind, the higher mind that is to say, is the summit of the ordinary human consciousness and receives more easily and readily the Radiances that descend. From the Mind the Light filters into the denser regions of the emotions and desires, of life activity and vital dynamism; finally, it gets into brute Matter itself, the hard and obscure rock of the physical body, for that too has to be illumined and made the very form and figure of the Light supernal. the Divine in his descending Grace is the Master-Architect who is building slowly and surely the many-chambered and many-storeyed edifice that is human nature and human life into the mould of the Divine Truth in its perfect play and supreme expression. But this is a matter which can be closely considered when one is already well within the mystery of the path and has acquired the elementary essentials of an initiate.
Ano ther question that troubles and perplexes the ordinary human mind is as to the time when the thing will be done. Is it now or a millennium hence or at some astronomical distance in future, like the cooling of the sun, as someone has suggested for an analogy. In view of the magnitude of the work one might with reason say that the whole eternity is there before us, and a century or even a millennium should not be grudged to such a labour for it is nothing less than an undoing of untold millenniums in the past and the building of a far-flung futurity. However, as we have said, since it is the Divine's own work and since Yoga means a concentrated and involved process of action, effectuating in a minute what would perhaps take years to accomplish in the natural course, one can expect the work to be done sooner ra ther than later. Indeed, the ideal is one of here and nowhere upon this earth of material existence and now in this life, in this very bodynot hereafter or elsewhere. How long exactly that will mean, depends on many factors, but a few decades on this side or the o ther do not matter very much.
As to the extent of realisation, we say again that that is not a matter of primary consideration. It is not the quantity but the substance that counts. Even if it were a small nucleus it would be sufficient, at least for the beginning, provided it is the real, the genuine thing
Swalpamapyasya dharmasya tryate mahato bhayt1
Now, if it is asked what is the proof of it all, how can one be sure that one is not running after a mirage, a chimera? We can only answer with the adage; the proof of the pudding is in the eating thereof
III
I have a word to add finally in justification of the title of this essay. For, it may be asked, how can spirituality be considered as one of the Arts or given an honourable place in their domain?
From a certain point of view, from the point of view of essentials and inner realities, it would appear that spirituality is, at least, the basis of the arts, if not the highest art. If art is meant to express the soul of things, and since the true soul of things is the divine element in them, then certainly spirituality, the discipline of coming in conscious contact with the Spirit, the Divine, must be accorded the regal seat in the hierarchy of the arts. Also, spirituality is the greatest and the most difficult of the arts; for it is the art of life. To make of life a perfect work of beauty, pure in its lines, faultless in its rhythm, replete with strength, iridescent: with light, vibrant with delightan embodiment of the Divine, in a wordis the highest ideal of spirituality; viewed the spirituality that Sri Aurobindo practisesis the ne plus ultra of artistic creation
the Gita, II. 40
***
01.01 - Sri Aurobindo - The Age of Sri Aurobindo, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
object:01.01 - Sri Aurobindo - the Age of Sri Aurobindo
author class:Nolini Kanta Gupta
--
A Vedic Conception of the Poet Sri Aurobindo: Ahana and O ther Poems
O ther Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Poets and MysticsSri Aurobindo: the Age of Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo: the Age of Sri Aurobindo
Someone has written to this effect: "This is not the age of Sri Aurobindo. His ideal of a divine life upon earth mayor may not be true; at any rate it is not of today or even of tomorrow. Humanity will take some time before it reaches that stage or its possibility. What we are concerned with here and now is something perhaps less great, less spiritual, but more urgent and more practical. the problem is not to run away with one's soul, but to maintain its earthly tenement, to keep body and soul toge ther: one has to live first, live materially before one can hope to live spiritually."
Well, the view expressed in these words is not a new revelation. It has been the cry of suffering humanity through the ages. Man has borne his cross since the beginning of his creation through want and privation, through disease and bereavement, through all manner of turmoil and tribulation, and yetmirabile dictuat the same time, in the very midst of those conditions, he has been aspiring and yearning for something else, ignoring the present, looking into the beyond. It is not the prosperous and the more happily placed in life who find it more easy to turn to the higher life, it is not the wealthiest who has the greatest opportunity to pursue a spiritual idea. On the contrary, spiritual leaders have thought and experienced o therwise.
Apart from the well-recognised fact that only in distress does the normal man think of God and non-worldly things, the real matter, however, is that the inner life is a thing apart and follows its own line of movement, does not depend upon, is not subservient to, the kind of outer life that one may happen to live under. the Bible says indeed, "Blessed are the poor, blessed are they that mourn"... But the Upanishad declares, on the o ther hand, that even as one lies happily on a royal couch, ba thes and anoints himself with all the perfumes of the world, has attendants all around and always to serve him, even so, one can be full of the divine consciousness from the crown of the head to the tip of his toe-nail. In fact, a poor or a prosperous life is in no direct or even indirect ratio to a spiritual life. All the miseries and immediate needs of a physical life do not and cannot detain or delay one from following the path of the ideal; nor can all your riches be a burden to your soul and overwhelm it, if it chooses to walk onit can not only walk, but soar and fly with all that knapsack on its back.
If one were to be busy about reforming the world and when that was done then alone to turn to o ther-worldly things, in that case, one would never take the turn, for the world will never be reformed totally or even considerably in that way. It is not that reformers have for the first time appeared on the earth in the present age. Men have attempted social, political, economic and moral reforms from times immemorial. But that has not barred the spiritual attempt or minimised its importance. To say that because an ideal is apparently too high or too great for the present age, it must be kept in cold storage is to set a premium on the present nature of humanity arid eternise it: that would bind the world to its old moorings and never give it the opportunity to be free and go out into the high seas of larger and greater realisations.
the ideal or perhaps one should say the policy of Real-politick is the thing needed in this world. To achieve something actually in the physical and material field, even a lesser something, is worth much more than speculating on high flaunting chimeras and indulging in day-dreams. Yes, but what is this something that has to be achieved in the material world? It is always an ideal. Even procuring food for each and every person, clothing and housing all is not less an ideal for all its concern about actuality. Only there are ideals and ideals; some are nearer to the earth, some seem to be in the background. But the mystery is that it is not always the ideal nearest to the earth which is the easiest to achieve or the first thing to be done first. Do we not see before our very eye show some very simple innocent social and economic changes are difficult to carry out they bring in their train quite disproportionately gestures and movements of violence and revolution? That is because we seek to cure the symptoms and not touch the root of the disease. For even the most innocent-looking social, economic or political abuse has at its base far-reaching attitudes and life-urgeseven a spiritual outlook that have to be sought out and tackled first, if the attempt at reform is to be permanently and wholly successful. Even in mundane matters we do not dig deep enough, or rise high enough.
Indeed, looking from a standpoint that views the working of the forces that act and achieve and not the external facts and events and arrangements aloneone finds that things that are achieved on the material plane are first developed and matured and made ready behind the veil and at a given moment burst out and manifest themselves often unexpectedly and suddenly like a chick out of the shell or the young butterfly out of the cocoon. the Gita points to that truth of Nature when it says: " these beings have already been killed by Me." It is not that a long or strenuous physical planning and preparation alone or in the largest measure brings about a physical realisation. the deeper we go within, the far ther we are away from the surface, the nearer we come to the roots and sources of things even most superficial. the spiritual view sees and declares that it is the Brahmic consciousness that holds, inspires, builds up Matter, the physical body and form of Brahman.
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 o ther 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.
***
A Vedic Conception of the Poet Sri Aurobindo: Ahana and O ther Poems
01.01 - The New Humanity, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
object:01.01 - the New Humanity
author class:Nolini Kanta Gupta
--
the New Humanity
the world is in the throes of a new creation and the pangs of that new birth have made mo ther Earth restless. It is no longer a far-off ideal that our imagination struggles to visualise, nor a prophecy that yet remains to be fulfilled. It is Here and Now.
Although we may not know it, the New Man the divine race of humanity is already among us. It may be in our next neighbour, in our nearest bro ther, even in myself. Only a thin veil covers it. It marches just behind the line. It waits for an occasion to throw off the veil and place itself in the forefront. We are living in strenuous times in which age-long institutions are going down and new-forces rearing their heads, old habits are being cast off and new impulsions acquired. In every sphere of life, we see the urgent demand for a recasting, a fresh valuation of things. From the base to the summit, from the economic and political life to the artistic and spiritual, humanity is being shaken to bring out a new expression and articulation. there is the hidden surge of a Power, the secret stress of a Spirit that can no longer suffer to remain in the shade and behind the mask, but wills to come out in the broad daylight and be recognised in its plenary virtues.
That Power, that Spirit has been growing and ga thering its strength during all the millenniums that humanity has lived through. On the momentous day when man appeared on earth, the Higher Man also took his birth. Since the hour the Spirit refused to be imprisoned in its animal sheath and came out as man, it approached by that very uplift a greater freedom and a vaster movement. It was the crest of that underground wave which peered over the surface from age to age, from clime to clime through the experiences of poets and prophets and sages the Head of the Sacrificial Horse galloping towards the Dawn.
And now the days of captivity or ra ther of inner preparation are at an end. the voice in the wilderness was necessary, for it was a call and a communion in the silence of the soul. Today the silence seeks utterance. Today the shell is ripe enough to break and to bring out the mature and full-grown being. the king that was in hiding comes in glory and triumph, in his complete regalia.
Ano ther humanity is rising out of the present human species. the beings of the new order are everywhere and it is they who will soon hold sway over earth, be the head and front of the terrestrial evolution in the cycle that is approaching as it was with man in the cycle that is passing away. What will this new order of being be like? It will be what man is not, also what man is. It will not be man, because it will overstep the limitations and incapacities inherent in man; and it will be man by the realisation of those fundamental aspirations and yearnings that have troubled and consoled the deeper strata the soulin him throughout the varied experiences of his terrestrial life.
the New Man will be Master and not slave. He will be master, first, of himself and then of the world. Man as he actually is, is but a slave. He has no personal voice or choice; the determining soul, the Ishwara, in him is sleep-bound and hushed. He is a mere plaything in the hands of nature and circumstances. therefore it is that Science has become his supreme Dharmashastra; for science seeks to teach us the moods of Nature and the methods of propitiating her. Our actual ideal of man is that of the cleverest slave. But the New Man will have found himself and by and according to his inner will, mould and create his world. He will not be in awe of Nature and in an attitude of perpetual apprehension and hesitation, but will ground himself on a secret harmony and union that will declare him as the lord. We will recognise the New Man by his very gait and manner, by a certain kingly ease and dominion in every shade of his expression.
Not that this sovereign power will have anything to do with aggression or over-bearingness. It will not be a power that feels itself only by creating an eternal opponentErbfeindby coming in constant clash with a rival that seeks to gain victory by subjugating. It will not be Nietzschean "will to power," which is, at best, a supreme Asuric power. It will ra ther be a Divine Power, for the strength it will exert and the victory it will achieve will not come from the egoit is the ego which requires an object outside and against to feel and affirm itself but it will come from a higher personal self which is one with the cosmic soul and therefore with o ther personal souls. the Asura, in spite of, or ra ther, because of his aggressive vehemence betrays a lack of the sovereign power that is calm and at ease and self-sufficient. the Devic power does not assert hut simply accomplishes; the forces of the world act not as its opponent but as its instrument. Thus the New Man shall affirm his individual sovereignty and do so to perfection by expressing through it his unity with the cosmic powers, with the infinite godhead. And by being Swarat, Self-Master, he will become Samrat, world-master.
This mastery will be effected not merely in will, but in mind and heart also. For the New Man will know not by the intellect which is egocentric and therefore limited, not by ratiocination which is an indirect and doubtful process, but by direct vision, an inner communion, a soul revelation. the new knowledge will be vast and profound and creative, based as it will be upon the reality of things and not upon their shadows. Truth will shine through every experience and every utterance"a truth shall have its seat on our speech and mind and hearing", so have the Vedas said. the mind and intellect will not be active and constructive agents but the luminous channel of a self-luminous knowledge. And the heart too which is now the field of passion and egoism will be cleared of its noise and obscurity; a serener sky will shed its pure warmth and translucent glow. the knot will be rent asunderbhidyate hridaya granthih and the vast and mighty streams of ano ther ocean will flow through. We will love not merely those to whom we are akin but God's creatures, one and all; we will love not with the yearning and hunger of a mortal but with the wide and intense Rasa that lies in the divine identity of souls.
And the new society will be based not upon competition, nor even upon co-operation. It will not be an open conflict, nei ther will it be a convenient compromise of rival individual interests. It will be the organic expression of the collective soul of humanity, working and achieving through each and every individual soul its most wide-winging freedom, manifesting the godhead that is, proper to each and every one. It will be an organisation, most delicate and subtle and supple, the members of which will have no need to live upon one ano ther but in and through one ano ther. It will be, if you like, a heno theistic hierarchy in which everyone will be the greatest, since everyone is all and all everyone simultaneously.
the New Humanity will be something in the mould that we give to the gods. It will supply the link that we see missing between gods and men; it will be the race of embodied gods. Man will attain that thing which has been his first desire and earliest dream, for which he coveted the gods Immortality, amritatwam. the mortalities that cut and divide, limit and bind man make him the sorrowful being he is. these are due to his ignorance and weakness and egoism. these are due to his soul itself. It is the soul that requires change, a new birth, as Christ demanded. Ours is a little soul that has severed itself from the larger and mightier self that it is. And therefore does it die every moment and even while living is afraid to live and so lives poorly and miserably. But the age is now upon us when the god-like soul anointed with its immortal royalties is ready to emerge and claim our salutation.
the breath and the surge of the new creation cannot be mistaken. the question that confronts us today is no longer whe ther the New Man, the Super-humanity, will come or if at all, when; but the question we have to answer is who among us are ready to be its receptacle, its instrument and embodiment.
***
Publishers Note the Creative Soul
01.01 - The One Thing Needful, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:01.01 - the One Thing Needful
class:chapter
It is the lesson of life that always in this world everything fails a man - only the Divine does not fail him, if he turns entirely towards the Divine. It is not because there is something bad in you that blows fall on you - blows fall on all human beings because they are full of desire for things that cannot last and they lose them or, even if they get, it brings disappointment and cannot satisfy them. To turn to the Divine is the only truth in life.
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 o ther 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.
Sadhana must be the main thing and sadhana means the purification of the nature, the consecration of the being, the opening of the psychic and the inner mind and vital, the contact and presence of the Divine, the realisation of the Divine in all things, surrender, devotion, the widening of the consciousness into the cosmic Consciousness, the Self one in all, the psychic and the spiritual transformation of the nature.
... the principle of this Yoga is not perfection of the human nature as it is but a psychic and spiritual transformation of all the parts of the being through the action of an inner consciousness and then of a higher consciousness which works on them, throws out the old movements or changes them into the image of its own and so transmutes lower into higher nature. It is not so much the perfection of the intellect as a transcendence of it, a transformation of the mind, the substitution of a larger greater principle of knowledge - and so with all the rest of the being.
This is a slow and difficult process; the road is long and it is hard to establish even the necessary basis. the old existing nature resists and obstructs and difficulties rise one after ano ther and repeatedly till they are overcome. It is therefore necessary to be sure that this is the path to which one is called before one finally decides to tread it.
01.01 - The Symbol Dawn, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:01.01 - the Symbol Dawn
class:chapter
--
It was the hour before the Gods awake.
1.2
Across the path of the divine Event
the huge foreboding mind of Night, alone
--
In the sombre symbol of her eyeless muse
the abysm of the unbodied Infinite;
A fathomless zero occupied the world.
1.4
--
Between the first and the last Nothingness,
Recalling the tenebrous womb from which it came,
Turned from the insoluble mystery of birth
And the tardy process of mortality
And longed to reach its end in vacant Nought.
--
A mute featureless semblance of the Unknown
Repeating for ever the unconscious act,
Prolonging for ever the unseeing will,
Cradled the cosmic drowse of ignorant Force
Whose moved creative slumber kindles the suns
And carries our lives in its somnambulist whirl.
--
Athwart the vain enormous trance of Space,
Its formless stupor without mind or life,
--
Earth wheeled abandoned in the hollow gulfs
Forgetful of her spirit and her fate.
--
then something in the inscrutable darkness stirred;
A nameless movement, an unthought Idea
--
Teased the Inconscient to wake Ignorance.
1.9
--
And only meets the corpse of his desire.
1.10
--
Condemned to resume the effort and the pang,
Reviving in ano ther frustrate world.
--
Reminded of the endless need in things
the heedless Mo ther of the universe,
An infant longing clutched the sombre Vast.
Insensibly somewhere a breach began:
--
Troubled the far rim of life's obscure sleep.
Arrived from the o ther side of boundlessness
An eye of deity peered through the dumb deeps;
A scout in a reconnaissance from the sun,
It seemed amid a heavy cosmic rest,
--
Its message crept through the reluctant hush
Calling the adventure of consciousness and joy
And, conquering Nature's disillusioned breast,
--
A thought was sown in the unsounded Void,
A sense was born within the darkness' depths,
A memory quivered in the heart of Time
As if a soul long dead were moved to live:
But the oblivion that succeeds the fall,
Had blotted the crowded tablets of the past,
And all that was destroyed must be rebuilt
--
All can be done if the god-touch is there.
A hope stole in that hardly dared to be
Amid the Night's forlorn indifference.
As if solicited in an alien world
--
Into a far-off nook of heaven there came
A slow miraculous gesture's dim appeal.
--
Persuaded the inert black quietude
And beauty and wonder disturbed the fields of God.
1.21
--
Forced the world's blind immensity to sight.
1.23
--
From the reclining body of a god.
1.24
then through the pallid rift that seemed at first
Hardly enough for a trickle from the suns,
Outpoured the revelation and the flame.
1.25
--
Iridescent with the glory of the Unseen,
A message from the unknown immortal Light
Ablaze upon creation's quivering edge,
--
And buried its seed of grandeur in the hours.
1.27
An instant's visitor the godhead shone.
On life's thin border awhile the Vision stood
And bent over earth's pondering forehead curve.
--
It wrote the lines of a significant myth
Telling of a greatness of spiritual dawns,
A brilliant code penned with the sky for page.
1.29
Almost that day the epiphany was disclosed
Of which our thoughts and hopes are signal flares;
A lonely splendour from the invisible goal
Almost was flung on the opaque Inane.
1.30
Once more a tread perturbed the vacant Vasts;
Infinity's centre, a Face of rapturous calm
Parted the eternal lids that open heaven;
A Form from far beatitudes seemed to near.
--
the omniscient Goddess leaned across the breadths
That wrap the fated journeyings of the stars
And saw the spaces ready for her feet.
1.32
--
Earth felt the Imperishable's passage close:
the waking ear of Nature heard her steps
--
Kindled to fire the silence of the worlds.
1.34
--
Arose and failed upon the altar hills;
the high boughs prayed in a revealing sky.
--
Here where our half-lit ignorance skirts the gulfs
On the dumb bosom of the ambiguous earth,
Here where one knows not even the step in front
And Truth has her throne on the shadowy back of doubt,
On this anguished and precarious field of toil
--
Our prostrate soil bore the awakening ray.
1.37
Here too the vision and prophetic gleam
Lit into miracles common meaningless shapes;
then the divine afflatus, spent, withdrew,
Unwanted, fading from the mortal's range.
1.38
--
Only a little the god-light can stay:
Spiritual beauty illumining human sight
--
As when a soul draws near the sill of birth,
Adjoining mortal time to Timelessness,
--
Its lustre vanishes in the inconscient planes,
That transitory glow of magic fire
--
the message ceased and waned the messenger.
1.42
the single Call, the uncompanioned Power,
Drew back into some far-off secret world
the hue and marvel of the supernal beam:
She looked no more on our mortality.
--
there was the common light of earthly day.
1.45
Affranchised from the respite of fatigue
Once more the rumour of the speed of Life
Pursued the cycles of her blinded quest.
1.46
All sprang to their unvarying daily acts;
the thousand peoples of the soil and tree
Obeyed the unforeseeing instant's urge,
And, leader here with his uncertain mind,
Alone who stares at the future's covered face,
Man lifted up the burden of his fate.
--
And Savitri too awoke among these tribes
That hastened to join the brilliant Summoner's chant
And, lured by the beauty of the apparent ways,
Acclaimed their portion of ephemeral joy.
2.2
Akin to the eternity whence she came,
No part she took in this small happiness;
A mighty stranger in the human field,
the embodied Guest within made no response.
--
the call that wakes the leap of human mind,
Its chequered eager motion of pursuit,
--
In her there was the anguish of the gods
Imprisoned in our transient human mould,
the deathless conquered by the death of things.
2.6
--
Life's fragile littleness denied the power,
the proud and conscious wideness and the bliss
She had brought with her into the human form,
the calm delight that weds one soul to all,
the key to the flaming doors of ecstasy.
2.8
Earth's grain that needs the sap of pleasure and tears
Rejected the undying rapture's boon:
Offered to the daughter of infinity
Her passion-flower of love and doom she gave.
--
In vain now seemed the splendid sacrifice.
2.10
--
And in their body's lives acclimatise
That heaven might native grow on mortal soil.
--
Mortality bears ill the eternal's touch:
It fears the pure divine intolerance
Of that assault of e ther and of fire;
--
Almost with hate repels the light it brings;
It trembles at its naked power of Truth
And the might and sweetness of its absolute Voice.
2.12
Inflicting on the heights the abysm's law,
It sullies with its mire heaven's messengers:
Its thorns of fallen nature are the defence
It turns against the saviour hands of Grace;
It meets the sons of God with death and pain.
2.13
A glory of lightnings traversing the earth-scene,
their sun-thoughts fading, darkened by ignorant minds,
their work betrayed, their good to evil turned,
the cross their payment for the crown they gave,
Only they leave behind a splendid Name.
2.14
--
Too unlike the world she came to help and save,
Her greatness weighed upon its ignorant breast
--
the mortal's lot became the Immortal's share.
2.17
Thus trapped in the gin of earthly destinies,
Awaiting her ordeal's hour abode,
--
From all of whom she was the star and stay;
Too great to impart the peril and the pain,
In her torn depths she kept the grief to come.
2.19
--
Takes up the load of an unwitting race,
Harbouring a foe whom with her heart she must feed,
Unknown her act, unknown the doom she faced,
Unhelped she must foresee and dread and dare.
--
She told the secret of her woe to none:
Calm was her face and courage kept her mute.
--
Her spirit opened to the Spirit in all,
Her nature felt all Nature as its own.
--
Aloof, she carried in herself the world:
Her dread was one with the great cosmic dread,
Her strength was founded on the cosmic mights;
the universal Mo ther s love was hers.
--
Against the evil at life's afflicted roots,
Her own calamity its private sign,
--
To the lone Immortal's unshared work she rose.
2.27
--
On the lap of earth's original somnolence
Inert, released into forgetfulness,
--
Obtuse and tranquil like the stone and star.
2.28
--
Nothing recalling of the sorrow here.
2.29
--
And recognised the close and lingering ache,
Deep, quiet, old, made natural to its place,
But knew not why it was there nor whence it came.
2.30
--
Sullen, the torch of sense refused to burn;
the unassisted brain found not its past.
--
Only a vague earth-nature held the frame.
2.32
But now she stirred, her life shared the cosmic load.
2.33
At the summons of her body's voiceless call
Her strong far-winging spirit travelled back,
Back to the yoke of ignorance and fate,
Back to the labour and stress of mortal days,
Lighting a pathway through strange symbol dreams
Across the ebbing of the seas of sleep.
2.34
--
And memory's casements opened on the hours
And the tired feet of thought approached her doors.
2.35
--
Like giant figures wrestling in the night:
the godheads from the dim Inconscient born
Awoke to struggle and the pang divine,
And in the shadow of her flaming heart,
At the sombre centre of the dire debate,
A guardian of the unconsoled abyss
Inheriting the long agony of the globe,
A stone-still figure of high and godlike Pain
--
All the fierce question of man's hours relived.
2.38
--
Earth offers to the immortal Ecstasy
Began again beneath the eternal Hand.
2.39
Awake she endured the moments' serried march
And looked on this green smiling dangerous world,
And heard the ignorant cry of living things.
2.40
Amid the trivial sounds, the unchanging scene
Her soul arose confronting Time and Fate.
--
This was the day when Satyavan must die.
\t:End of Book I - Canto I
01.02 - Natures Own Yoga, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
A Yoga of the Art of Life Sri Aurobindo and his School
O ther Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Part OneNatures Own Yoga
--
Sri Aurobindo's Yoga is in the direct line of Nature's own Yoga. Nature has a Yoga, which she follows unfailingly, and inevitably for it is her innermost law of being. Yoga means, in essence, a change or transformation of consciousness, a heightening and broadening of consciousness, which is effected by communion or union or identification with a higher and vaster consciousness.
This process of a developing consciousness in Nature is precisely what is known as Evolution. It is the bringing out and fixing of a higher and higher principle of consciousness, hi therto involved and concealed behind the veil, in the earth consciousness as a dynamic factor in Nature's manifest working. Thus, the first stage of evolution is the status of inconscient Matter, of the lifeless physical elements; the second stage is that of the semi-conscious life in the plant, the third that of the conscious life in the animal, and finally the fourth stage, where we stand at present, is that of the embodied self-conscious life in man.
the course of evolution has not come to a stop with man and the next stage, Sri Aurobindo says, which Nature envisages and is labouring to bring out and establish is the life now superconscious to us, embodied in a still higher type of created being, that of the superman or god-man. the principle of consciousness which will determine the nature and build of this new, being is a spiritual principle beyond the mental principle which man now incarnates: it may be called the Supermind or Gnosis.
For, till now Mind has been the last term of the evolutionary consciousness Mind as developed in man is the highest instrument built up and organised by Nature through which the self-conscious being can express itself. That is why the Buddha said: Mind is the first of all principles, Mind is the highest of all principles: indeed Mind is the constituent of all principlesmana puvvangam dhamm1. the consciousness beyond mind has not yet been made a patent and dynamic element in the life upon earth; it has been glimpsed or entered into in varying degrees and modes by saints and seers; it has cast its derivative illuminations in the creative activities of poets and artists, in the finer and nobler urges of heroes and great men of action. But the utmost that has been achieved, the summit reached in that direction, as exampled in spiritual disciplines, involves a withdrawal from the evolutionary cycle, a merging and an absorption into the static status that is altoge ther beyond it, that lies, as it were, at the o ther extreme the Spirit in itself, Atman, Brahman, Sachchidananda, Nirvana, the One without a second, the Zero without a first.
the first contact that one has with this static supra-reality is through the higher ranges of the mind: a direct and closer communion is established through a plane which is just above the mind the Overmind, as Sri Aurobindo calls it. the Overmind dissolves or transcends the ego-consciousness which limits the being to its individualised formation bounded by an outward and narrow frame or sheath of mind, life and body; it reveals the universal Self and Spirit, the cosmic godhead and its myriad forces throwing up myriad forms; the world-existence there appears as a play of ever-shifting veils upon the face of one ineffable reality, as a mysterious cycle of perpetual creation and destructionit is the overwhelming vision given by Sri Krishna to Arjuna in the Gita. At the same time, the initial and most intense experience which this cosmic consciousness brings is the extreme relativity, contingency and transitoriness of the whole flux, and a necessity seems logically and psychologically imperative to escape into the abiding substratum, the ineffable Absoluteness.
This has been the highest consummation, the supreme goal which the purest spiritual experience and the deepest aspiration of the human consciousness generally sought to attain. But in this view, the world or creation or Nature came in the end to be looked upon as fundamentally a product of Ignorance: ignorance and suffering and incapacity and death were declared to be the very hallmark of things terrestrial. the Light that dwells above and beyond can be made to shed for a while some kind of lustre upon the mortal darkness but never altoge ther to remove or change itto live in the full light, to be in and of the Light means to pass beyond. Not that there have not been o ther strands and types of spiritual experiences and aspirations, but the one we are considering has always struck the major chord and dominated and drowned all the rest.
But the initial illusory consciousness of the Overmind need not at all lead to the static Brahmic consciousness or Sunyam alone. As a matter of fact, there is in this particular processes of consciousness a hiatus between the two, between Maya and Brahman, as though one has to leap from the one into the o ther somehow. This hiatus is filled up in Sri Aurobindo's Yoga by the principle of Supermind, not syn thetic-analytic2 in knowledge like Overmind and the highest mental intelligence, but inescapably unitarian even in the utmost diversity. Supermind is the Truth-consciousness at once static and dynamic, self-existent and creative: in Supermind the Brahmic consciousness Sachchidanandais ever self-aware and ever manifested and embodied in fundamental truth-powers and truth-forms for the play of creation; it is the plane where the One breaks out into the Many and the Many still remain one, being and knowing themselves to be but various self-expressions of the One; it develops the spiritual archetypes, the divine names and forms of all individualisations of an evolving existence.
SRI AUROBINDO
the Upanishads speak of a solar and a lunar Path in the spiritual consciousness. Perhaps they have some reference to these two linesone through the Mayic consciousness of the Overmind enters into the static Bliss, ecstatic Nihil, and the o ther mounts still far ther to the solar status which is a mass, a sea, an infinity of that light and ecstasy but which can at the same time express and embody itself as the creative Truth-consciousness (srya svitr ).
In the Supermind things exist in their perfect spiritual reality; each is consciously the divine reality in its transcendent essence, its cosmic extension, its, spiritual individuality; the diversity of a manifested existence is there, but the mutually exclusive separativeness has not yet arisen. the ego, the knot of separativity, appears at a later and lower stage of involution; what is here is indivisible nexus of individualising centres of the one eternal truth of being. Where Supermind and Overmind meet, one can see the multiple godheads, each distinct in his own truth and beauty and power and yet all toge ther forming the one supreme consciousness infinitely composite and inalienably integral. But stepping back into Supermind one sees something moreOneness ga thering into itself all diversity, not destroying it, but annulling and forbidding the separative consciousness that is the beginning of Ignorance. the first shadow of the Illusory Consciousness, the initial possibility of the movement of Ignorance comes in when the supramental light enters the penumbra of the mental sphere. the movement of Supermind is the movement of light without obscurity, straight, unwavering, unswerving, absolute. the Force here contains and holds in their oneness of Reality the manifold but not separated lines of essential and unalloyed truth: its march is the inevitable progression of each one assured truth entering into and upholding every o ther and therefore its creation, play or action admits of no trial or stumble or groping or deviation; for each truth rests on all o thers and on that which harmonises them all and does not act as a Power diverging from and even competing with o ther Powers of being. In the Overmind commences the play of divergent possibilities the simple, direct, united and absolute certainties of the supramental consciousness retire, as it were, a step behind and begin to work themselves out through the interaction first of separately individualised and then of contrary and contradictory forces. In the Overmind there is a conscious underlying Unity but yet each Power, Truth, Aspect of that Unity is encouraged to work out its possibilities as if it were sufficient to itself and the o thers are used by it for its own enhancement until in the denser and darker reaches below Overmind this turns out a thing of blind conflict and battle and, as it would appear, of chance survival. Creation or manifestation originally means the concretisation or devolution of the powers of Conscious Being into a play of united diversity; but on the line which ends in Matter it enters into more and more obscure forms and forces and finally the virtual eclipse of the supreme light of the Divine Consciousness. Creation as it descends' towards the Ignorance becomes an involution of the Spirit through Mind and Life into Matter; evolution is a movement backward, a return journey from Matter towards the Spirit: it is the unravelling, the gradual disclosure and deliverance of the Spirit, the ascension and revelation of the involved consciousness through a series of awakeningsMatter awakening into Life, Life awakening into Mind and Mind now seeking to awaken into something beyond the Mind, into a power of conscious Spirit.
the apparent or actual result of the movement of Nescienceof Involutionhas been an increasing negation of the Spirit, but its hidden purpose is ultimately to embody the Spirit in Matter, to express here below in cosmic Time-Space the splendours of the timeless Reality. the material body came into existence bringing with it inevitably, as it seemed, mortality; it appeared even to be fashioned out of mortality, in order that in this very frame and field of mortality, Immortality, the eternal Spirit Consciousness which is the secret truth and reality in Time itself as well as behind it, might be established and that the Divine might be possessed, or ra ther, possess itself not in one unvarying mode of the static consciousness, as it does even now behind the cosmic play, but in the play itself and in the multiple mode of the terrestrial existence.
II
the secret of evolution, I have said, is an urge towards the release and unfoldment of consciousness out of an apparent unconsciousness. In the early stages the movement is very slow and gradual; there it is Nature's original unconscious process. In man it acquires the possibility of a conscious and therefore swifter and concentrated process. And this is in fact the function of Yoga proper, viz, to bring about the evolution of consciousness by hastening the process of Nature through the self-conscious will of man.
An organ in the human being has been especially developed to become the effective instrument of this accelerated Yogic process the self-consciousness which I referred to as being the distinctive characteristic of man is a function of this organ. It is his soul, his psychic being; originally it is the spark of the Divine Consciousness which came down and became involved in Matter and has been endeavouring ever since to release itself through the upward march of evolution. It is this which presses on continually as the stimulus to the evolutionary movement; and in man it has attained sufficient growth and power and has come so far to the front from behind the veil that it can now lead and mould his external consciousness. It is also the channel through which the Divine Consciousness can flow down into the inferior levels of human nature. It is the being no bigger than the thumb ever seated within the heart, spoken of in the Upanishads. It is likewise the basis of true individuality and personal identity. It is again the reflection or expression in evolutionary Nature of one's essential selfjivtman that is above, an eternal portion of the Divine, one with the Divine and yet not dissolved and lost in it. the psychic being is thus on the one hand in direct contact with the Divine and the higher consciousness, and on the o ther it is the secret upholder and controller' (bhart, antarymin) of the inferior consciousness, the hidden nucleus round which the body and the life and the mind of the individual are built up and organised.
the first decisive step in Yoga is taken when one becomes conscious of the psychic being, or, looked at from the o ther side, when the psychic being comes forward and takes possession of the external being, begins to initiate and influence the movements of the mind and life and body and gradually free them from the ordinary round of ignorant nature. the awakening of the psychic being means, as I have said, not only a deepening and heightening of the consciousness and its release from the obscurity and limitation of the inferior Prakriti, confined to the lower threefold status, into what is behind and beyond; it means also a return of the deeper and higher consciousness upon the lower hemisphere and a consequent purification and illumination and regeneration of the latter. Finally, when the psychic being is in full self-possession and power, it can be the vehicle of the direct supramental consciousness which will then be able to act freely and absolutely for the entire transformation of the external nature, its transfiguration into a perfect body of the Truth-consciousness in a word, its divinisation.
This then is the supreme secret, not the renunciation and annulment, but the transformation of the ordinary human nature : first of all, its psychicisation, that is to say, making it move and live and be in communion and identification with the light of the psychic being, and, secondly, through the soul and the ensouled mind and life and body, to open out into the supramental consciousness and let it come down here below and work and achieve.
the soul or the true being in man uplifted in the supramental consciousness and at the same time coming forward to possess a divinised mind and life and body as an instrument and channel of its self-expression and an embodiment of the Divine Will and Purposesuch is the goal that Nature is seeking to realise at present through her evolutionary lan. It is to this labour that man has been called so that in and through him the destined transcendence and transformation can take place.
It is not easy, however, nor is it necessary for the moment to envisage in detail what this divinised man would be like, externallyhis mode of outward being and living, kimsita vrajeta kim, as Arjuna queriedor how the collective life of the new humanity would function or what would be the composition of its social fabric. For what is happening is a living process, an organic growth; it is being elaborated through the actions and reactions of multitudinous forces and conditions, known and unknown; the precise configuration of the final outcome cannot be predicted with exactitude. But the Power that is at work is omniscient; it is selecting, rejecting, correcting, fashioning, creating, co-ordinating elements in accordance with and by the drive of the inviolable law of Truth and Harmony that reigns in Light's own homeswe dame the Supermind.
It is also to be noted that as mind is not the last limit of the march of evolution, even so the progress of evolution will not stop with the manifestation and embodiment of the Supermind. there are o ther still higher principles beyond and they too presumably await manifestation and embodiment on earth. Creation has no beginning in time (andi) nor has it an end (ananta). It is an eternal process of the unravelling of the mysteries of the Infinite. Only, it may be said that with the Supermind the creation here enters into a different order of existence. Before it there was the domain of Ignorance, after it will come the reign of Light and Knowledge. Mortality has been the governing principle of life on earth till now; it will be replaced by the consciousness of immortality. Evolution has proceeded through struggle and pain; hereafter it will be a spontaneous, harmonious and happy flowering.
Now, with regard to the time that the present stage of evolution is likely to take for its fulfilment, one can presume that since or if the specific urge and stress has manifested and come up to the front, this very fact would show that the problem has become a problem of actuality, and even that it can be dealt with as if it had to be solved now or never. We have said that in man, with man's self-consciousness or the consciousness of the psychic being as the instrument, evolution has attained the capacity of a swift and concentrated process, which is the process of Yoga; the process will become swifter and more concentrated, the more that instrument grows and ga thers power and is infused with the divine afflatus. In fact, evolution has been such a process of gradual acceleration in tempo from the very beginning. the earliest stage, for example, the stage of dead Matter, of the play of the mere chemical forces was a very, very long one; it took millions and millions of years to come to the point when the manifestation of life became possible. But the period of elementary life, as manifested in the plant world that followed, although it too lasted a good many millions of years, was much briefer than the preceding periodit ended with the advent of the first animal form. the age of animal life, again, has been very much shorter than that of the plant life before man came upon earth. And man is already more than a million or two years oldit is fully time that a higher order of being should be created out of him.
the Dhammapada, I. 1
the Supermind is not merely syn thetic. the Supermind is syn thetic only on the lowest spaces of itself, where it has to prepare the principles of Overmind,syn thesis is necessary only where analysis has taken place, one has dissected everything, put in pieces (analysis), so one has to piece toge ther. But Supermind is unitarian, has never divided up, so it does not need to add and piece toge ther the parts and fragments. It has always held the conscious Many toge ther in the conscious One.
***
A Yoga of the Art of Life Sri Aurobindo and his School
01.02 - Sri Aurobindo - Ahana and Other Poems, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: the Age of Sri Aurobindo Mystic Poetry
O ther Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Poets and MysticsSri Aurobindo: Ahana and O ther Poems
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What is the world that Sri Aurobindo sees and creates? Poetry is after all passion. By passion I do not mean the fury of emotion nor the fume of sentimentalism, but what lies behind at their source, what lends them the force they have the sense of the "grandly real," the vivid and pulsating truth. What then is the thing that Sri Aurobindo has visualised, has endowed with a throbbing life and made a poignant reality? Victor Hugo said: Attachez Dieu au gibet, vous avez la croixTie God to the gibbet, you have the cross. Even so, infuse passion into a thing most prosaic, you create sublime poetry out of it. What is the dead matter that has found life and glows and vibrates in Sri Aurobindo's passion? It is something which appears to many poetically intractable, not amenable to aes thetic treatment, not usually, that is to say, nor in the supreme manner. Sri Aurobindo has thrown such a material into his poetic fervour and created a sheer beauty, a stupendous reality out of it. Herein lies the greatness of his achievement. Philosophy, however divine, and in spite of Milton, has been regarded by poets as "harsh and crabbed" and as such unfit for poetic delineation. Not a few poets indeed foundered upon this rock. A poet in his own way is a philosopher, but a philosopher chanting out his philosophy in sheer poetry has been one of the rarest spectacles.1 I can think of only one instance just now where a philosopher has almost succeeded being a great poet I am referring to Lucretius and his De Rerum Natura. Nei ther Shakespeare nor Homer had anything like philosophy in their poetic creation. And in spite of some inclination to philosophy and philosophical ideas Virgil and Milton were not philosophers ei ther. Dante sought perhaps consciously and deliberately to philosophise in his Paradiso I Did he? the less Dante then is he. For it is his Inferno, where he is a passionate visionary, and not his Paradiso (where he has put in more thought-power) that marks the nee plus ultra of his poetic achievement.
And yet what can be more poetic in essence than philosophy, if by philosophy we mean, as it should mean, spiritual truth and spiritual realisation? What else can give the full breath, the integral force to poetic inspiration if it is not the problem of existence itself, of God, Soul and Immortality, things that touch, that are at the very root of life and reality? What can most concern man, what can strike the deepest fount in him, unless it is the mystery of his own being, the why and the whi ther of it all? But mankind has been taught and trained to live merely or mostly on earth, and poetry has been treated as the expression of human joys and sorrows the tears in mortal things of which Virgil spoke. the savour of earth, the thrill of the flesh has been too sweet for us and we have forgotten o ther sweetnesses. It is always the human element that we seek in poetry, but we fail to recognise that what we obtain in this way is humanity in its lower degrees, its surface formulations, at its minimum magnitude.
We do not say that poets have never sung of God and Soul and things transcendent. Poets have always done that. But what I say is this that presentation of spiritual truths, as they are in their own home, in o ther words, treated philosophically and yet in a supreme poetic manner, has always been a rarity. We have, indeed, in India the Gita and the Upanishads, great philosophical poems, if there were any. But for one thing they are on dizzy heights out of the reach of common man and for ano ther they are idolised more as philosophy than as poetry. Doubtless, our Vaishnava poets sang of God and Love Divine; and Rabindranath, in one sense, a typical modern Vaishnava, did the same. And their songs are masterpieces. But are they not all human, too human, as the mad prophet would say? In them it is the human significance, the human manner that touches and moves us the spiritual significance remains esoteric, is suggested, is a matter of deduction. Sri Aurobindo has dealt with spiritual experiences in a different way. He has not clo thed them in human symbols and allegories, in images and figures of the mere earthly and secular life: he presents them in their nakedness, just as they are seen and realised. He has not sought to tone down the rigour of truth with contrivances that easily charm and captivate the common human mind and heart. Nor has he indulged like so many poet philosophers in vague generalisations and colourless or too colourful truisms that do not embody a clear thought or rounded idea, a radiant judgment. Sri Aurobindo has given us in his poetry thoughts that are clear-cut, ideas beautifully chiselledhe is always luminously forceful.
Take these Vedantic lines that in their limpidity and harmonious flow beat anything found in the fine French poet Lamartine:
It is He in the sun who is ageless and deathless,
And into the midnight His shadow is thrown;
When darkness was blind and engulfed within darkness,
--
or these that contain the metaphysics of a spiritual life:
King, not in vain. I knew the tedious bars
That I had fled,
--
Out of his being; I perceived the Law,
the Truth, the Vast,
From which we came and which we are; I heard
the ages past
Whisper their history, and I knew the Word
That forth was cast
Into the unformed potency of things
To build the suns.
Through endless Space and on Time's iron wings
--
Our lives pursue, and till the strain's complete
That now so moans
--
This is sheer philosophy, told with an almost philosophical bluntnessmay be, but is it mere philosophy and mediocre poetry? Once more listen to the Upanishadic lines:
Deep in the luminous secrecy, the mute
Profound of things,
--
Light is not, nor our darkness, nor these bright
Thunderings,
In the deep steady voiceless core of white
And luminous bliss,
the sweet vast centre and the cave divine
Called Paradise,
--
It is the bare truth, "truth in its own home", as I have said already using a phrase of the ancient sages, that is formulated here without the prop of any external symbolism. there is no veil, no mist, no uncertainty or ambiguity. It is clarity itself, an almost scientific exactness and precision. In all this there is something of the straightness and fullness of vision that characterised the Vedic Rishis, something of their supernal genius which could mould speech into the very expression of what is beyond speech, which could sublimate the small and the finite into forms of the Vast and the Infinite. Mark how in these aphoristic lines embodying a deep spiritual experience, the inexpressible has been expressed with a luminous felicity:
Delight that labours in its opposite,
Faints in the rose and on the rack is curled.6
or
--
To humanise the Divine, that is what we all wish to do; for the Divine is too lofty for us and we cannot look full into his face. We cry and supplicate to Rudra, "O dire Lord, show us that o ther form of thine that is benign and humane". All earthly imageries we lavish upon the Divine so that he may appear to us not as something far and distant and foreign, but, quite near, among us, as one of us. We take recourse to human symbolism often, because we wish to palliate or hide the rigours of a supreme experience, not because we have no adequate terms for it. the same human or earthly terms could be used differently if we had a different consciousness. Thus the Vedic Rishis sought not to humanise the Divine, their purpose was ra ther to divinise the human. And their allegorical language, although rich in terrestrial figures, does not carry the impress and atmosphere of mere humanity and earthliness. For in reality the symbol is not merely the symbol. It is mere symbol in regard to the truth so long as we take our stand on the lower plane when we have to look at the truth through the symbol; but if we view it from the higher plane, from truth itself, it is no longer mere symbol but the very truth bodied forth. Whatever there is of symbolism on earth and its beauties, in sense and its enjoyments, is then transfigured into the expression of the truth, of the divinity itself. We then no longer speak in human language but in the language of the gods.
We have been speaking of philosophy and the philosophic manner. But what are the exact implications of the words, let us ask again. they mean nothing more and nothing lessthan the force of thought and the mass of thought content. After all, that seems to be almost the whole difference between the past and the present human consciousness in so far at least as it has found expression in poetry. That element, we wish to point out, is precisely what the old-world poets lacked or did not care to possess or express or stress. A poet meant above all, if not all in all, emotion, passion, sensuousness, sensibility, nervous enthusiasm and imagination and fancy: remember the classic definition given by Shakespeare of the poet
Of imagination all compact.. . .
the poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling.8
the heart and its urges, the vital and its surges, the physical impulsesit is these of which the poets sang in their infinite variations. But the mind proper, that is to say, the higher reflective ideative mind, was not given the right of citizenship in the domain of poetry. I am not forgetting the so-called Metaphysicals. the element of metaphysics among the Metaphysicals has already been called into question. there is here, no doubt, some theology, a good dose of mental cleverness or conceit, but a modern intellectual or ra ther rational intelligence is something o ther, something more than that. Even the metaphysics that was commandeered here had more or less a decorative value, it could not be taken into the pith and substance of poetic truth and beauty. It was a decoration, but not unoften a drag. I referred to the Upanishads, but these strike quite a different, almost an opposite line in this connection. they are in a sense truly metaphysical: they bypass the mind and the mental powers, get hold of a higher mode of consciousness, make a direct contact with truth and beauty and reality. It was Buddha's credit to have forged this missing link in man's spiritual consciousness, to have brought into play the power of the rational intellect and used it in support of the spiritual experience. That is not to say that he was the very first person, the originator who initiated the movement; but at least this seems to be true that in him and his au thentic followers the movement came to the forefront of human consciousness and attained the proportions of a major member of man's psychological constitution. We may remember here that Socrates, who started a similar movement of rationalisation in his own way in Europe, was almost a contemporary of the Buddha.
Poetry as an expression of thought-power, poetry weighted with intelligence and rationalised knowledge that seems to me to be the end and drive, the secret sense of all the mystery of modern technique. the combination is risky, but not impossible. In the spiritual domain the Gita achieved this miracle to a considerable degree. Still, the power of intelligence and reason shown by Vyasa is of a special order: it is a sublimated function of the faculty, something aloof and o ther-worldly"introvert", a modern mind would term it that is to say, something a priori, standing in its own au thenticity and self-sufficiency. A modern intelligence would be more scientific, let us use the word, more matter-of-fact and sense-based: the mental light should not be confined in its ivory tower, however high that may be, but brought down and placed at the service of our perception and appreciation and explanation of things human and terrestrial; made immanent in the mundane and the ephemeral, as they are commonly called. This is not an impossibility. Sri Aurobindo seems to have done the thing. In him we find the three terms of human consciousness arriving at an absolute fusion and his poetry is a wonderful example of that fusion. the three terms are the spiritual, the intellectual or philosophical and the physical or sensational. the intellectual, or more generally, the mental, is the intermediary, the Paraclete, as he himself will call it later on in a poem9 magnificently exemplifying the point we are trying to make out the agent who negotiates, bridges and harmonises the two o ther firmaments usually supposed to be antagonistic and incompatible.
Indeed it would be wrong to associate any cold ascetic nudity to the spiritual body of Sri Aurobindo. His poetry is philosophic, abstract, no doubt, but every philosophy has its practice, every abstract thing its concrete application,even as the soul has its body; and the fusion, not mere union, of the two is very characteristic in him. the deepest and unseizable flights of thought he knows how to clo the with a Kalidasian richness of imagery, or a Keatsean gusto of sensuousness:
. . . . .O flowers, O delight on the tree-tops burning!
Grasses his kine have grazed and crushed by his feet in the dancing!
Yamuna flowing with song, through the greenness always advancing!
You unforgotten remind. For his flute with its sweetness ensnaring
Sounds in our ears in the night and our souls of their teguments baring
Hales them out naked and absolute, out to his wood lands eternal,
Out to his moonlit dances, his dalliance sweet and supernal;10
And it would be wrong too to suppose that there is want of sympathy in Sri Aurobindo for ordinary humanity, that he is not susceptible to sentiments, to the weaknesses, that stir the natural man. Take for example this line so instinct with a haunting melancholy strain:
Cold are your rivers of peace and their banks are leafless and lonely.
or,
--
Skies of monotonous calm and his stillness slaying the ages?
All the tragedy, the entire pathos of human life is concentrated in this line so simple, yet so grand:
Son of man, thou hast crowned the life with the flowers that are scentless,
And the whole aspiration of striving mortality finds its echo in:
A song not master of its note, a cry
--
And what an amount of tenderness he has poured into his little poem on childhood, a perfect piece of chiselled crystal, pure and translucent and gleaming with the clear lines of a summer sky:
O thou golden image,
--
And yet, I should say, in all this it is not mere the human that is of supreme interest, but something which even in being human yet transcends it.
And here, let me point out, the capital difference between the European or ra ther 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 o ther 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
--
We have in Sri Aurobindo a passage parallel in sentiment, if not of equal poetic value, which will bear out the contrast:
My mind within grew holy, calm and still
Like the snow.
However spiritual a soul, Dante is yet bound to the earth, he has dominated perhaps but not conquered.
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 aes thetic 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.
Mark the stately march, the fullness of voice, the wealth of imagery, the vigour of movement of these lines:
What though it's true that the river of Life
through the Valley of Peril
Flows? But the diamond shines on the cliff-side,
jacinth and beryl
Gleam in the crannies, sapphire, smaragdus the
roadway bejewel,
Down in the jaws of the savage mountains granite
and cruel.
See, how the coursers divine champ spirited
pawing the mountains!
Look, how the wide-pacing river of life from its
far-off fountains
--
Arching its neck as it paces grand to the gorges
of danger.
Headlong, o'ercome, with a stridulent horror the
river descending
--
And the majestic sweep and the wide rolling cadence of
these wanderings of the suns, these stars at play
In the due measure that they chose of old.. . .
the superb and the right imperial tone instinct with a concentrated force of
Who art thou, warrior armed gloriously
Like the sun?
Thy gait is an empire and thine eye
--
This is poetry salutary indeed if there were any. We are so often and so much enamoured of the feminine languidness of poetry; the clear, the sane, the virile, that is a type of poetry that our nerves cannot always or for long stand. But there is poetry that is agrable and there is poetry that is grand, as Sainte Beuve said. there are the pleasures of poetry and there are the "ardours of poetry". And the great poets are always grand ra ther than agrable, full of the ardours of poetry rat her than the pleasures of poetry.
And if there is something in the creative spirit of Sri Aurobindo which tends more towards the strenuous than the genial, the arduous than the mellifluous, and which has more of the austerity of Vyasa than the easy felicity of Valmiki, however it might have affected the ultimate value of his creation, according to certain standards,14 it has illustrated once more that poetry is not merely beauty but power, it is not merely sweet imagination but creative visionit is even the Rik, the mantra that impels the gods to manifest upon earth, that fashions divinity in man.
James H. Cousins in his New Ways in English Literature describes Sri Aurobindo as " the philosopher as poet."
--
"Thought the Paraclete".
From "Ahana" in Sri Aurobindo's Ahana and O ther Poems. there is a later version of the poem in Collected Poems and Plays, Vol II.
"Reminiscence."
--
it cannot be said that Aurobindo shows any organic adaptation to music and melody. His thought is profound; his technical devices are commendable; but the music that enchants or disturbs is not there. Aurobindo is not ano ther Tagore or Iqbal, or even Sarojini Naidu." the Times Literary Supplement, July 8, 1944.
***
Sri Aurobindo: the Age of Sri Aurobindo Mystic Poetry
01.02 - The Creative Soul, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
object:01.02 - the Creative Soul
author class:Nolini Kanta Gupta
--
the Creative Soul
the difference between living organism and dead matter is that while the former is endowed with creative activity, the latter has only passive receptivity. Life adds, syn thetises, new-createsgives more than what it receives; matter only sums up, ga thers, reflects, gives just what it receives. Life is living, glad and green through its creative genius. Creation in some form or o ther must be the core of everything that seeks vitality and growth, vigour and delight. Not only so, but a thing in order to be real must possess a creative function. We consider a shadow or an echo unreal precisely because they do not create but merely image or repeat, they do not bring out anything new but simply reflect what is given. the whole of existence is real because it is eternally creative.
So the problem that concerns man, the riddle that humanity has to solve is how to find out and follow the path of creativity. If we are not to be dead matter nor mere shadowy illusions we must be creative. A misconception that has vitiated our outlook in general and has been the most potent cause of a sterilising atavism in the moral evolution of humanity is that creativity is an aristocratic virtue, that it belongs only to the chosen few. A great poet or a mighty man of action creates indeed, but such a creator does not appear very frequently. A Shakespeare or a Napoleon is a rare phenomenon; they are, in reality, an exception to the general run of mankind. It is enough if we o thers can understand and follow themMahajano yena gatahlet the great souls initiate and create, the common souls have only to repeat and imitate.
But this is not as it should be, nor is it the truth of the matter. Every individual soul, however placed it may be, is by nature creative; every individual being lives to discover and to create.
the inmost reality of man is not a passive receptacle, a mere responsive medium but it is a dynamoa power-station generating and throwing out energy that produces and creates.
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.
In one's own soul lies the very height and profundity of a god-head. Each soul by bringing out the note that is his, makes for the most wondrous symphony. Once a man knows what he is and holds fast to it, refusing to be drawn away by any necessity or temptation, he begins to uncover himself, to do what his inmost nature demands and takes joy in, that is to say, begins to create. Indeed there may be much difference in the forms that different souls take. But because each is itself, therefore each is grounded upon the fundamental equality of things. All our valuations are in reference to some standard or o ther set up with a particular end in view, but that is a question of the practical world which in no way takes away from the intrinsic value of the greatness of the soul. So long as the thing is there, the how of it does not matter. Infinite are the ways of manifestation and all of them the very highest and the most sublime, provided they are a manifestation of the soul itself, provided they rise and flow from the same level. Whe ther it is Agni or Indra, Varuna, Mitra or the Aswins, it is the same supreme and divine inflatus.
the cosmic soul is true. But that truth is borne out, effectuated only by the truth of the individual soul. When the individual soul becomes itself fully and integrally, by that very fact it becomes also the cosmic soul. the individuals are the channels through which flows the Universal and the Infinite in its multiple emphasis. Each is a particular figure, aspectBhava, a particular angle of vision of All. the vision is entire and the figure perfect if it is not refracted by the lower and denser parts of our being. And for that the individual must first come to itself and shine in its opal clarity and translucency.
Not to do what o thers do, but what your soul impels you to do. Not to be o thers but your own self. Not to be anything but the very cosmic and infinite divinity of your soul. therein lies your highest freedom and perfect delight. And there you are supremely creative. Each soul has a consortPrakriti, Naturewhich it creates out of its own rib. And in this field of infinite creativity the soul lives, moves and has its being.
***
the New Humanity Rationalism
01.02 - The Issue, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:01.02 - the Issue
class:chapter
--
It bore the future on its phantom breast.
3.2
Along the fleeting event's far-backward trail
Regressed the stream of the insistent hours,
And on the bank of the mysterious flood
Peopled with well-loved forms now seen no more
And the subtle images of things that were,
Her witness spirit stood reviewing Time.
--
From the bright country of her childhood's days
And the blue mountains of her soaring youth
And the paradise groves and peacock wings of Love
To joy clutched under the silent shadow of doom
In a last turn where heaven raced with hell.
--
Forced out from the protecting Ignorance
And flung back on his naked primal need,
--
And be the ungarbed entity within:
That hour had fallen now on Savitri.
--
For only the unborn spirit's timeless power
Can lift the yoke imposed by birth in Time.
3.9
Only the Self that builds this figure of self
Can rase the fixed interminable line
That joins these changing names, these numberless lives,
these new oblivious personalities
--
Disown the legacy of our buried selves,
the burdensome heirship to our vanished forms
Accepted blindly by the body and soul.
3.10
--
the fixity of the cosmic sequences
Fastened with hidden inevitable links
--
Her past, a block on the Immortal's road,
Make a rased ground and shape anew her fate.
--
A colloquy of the original Gods
Meeting upon the borders of the unknown,
Her soul's debate with embodied Nothingness
--
Against the universe weigh its single self.
3.13
On the bare peak where Self is alone with Nought
And life has no sense and love no place to stand,
--
In the world's death-cave uphold life's helpless claim
And vindicate her right to be and love.
--
Strike out from Time the soul's long compound debt
And the heavy servitudes of the Karmic Gods,
the slow revenge of unforgiving Law
And the deep need of universal pain
And hard sacrifice and tragic consequence.
--
Penetrate with her thinking depths the Void's monstrous hush,
Look into the lonely eyes of immortal Death
And with her nude spirit measure the Infinite's night.
3.16
--
Long but too soon to pass, too near the end.
3.18
Alone amid the many faces loved,
Aware among unknowing happy hearts,
Her armoured spirit kept watch upon the hours
Listening for a foreseen tremendous step
In the closed beauty of the inhuman wilds.
3.19
--
the world unknowing, for the world she stood:
No helper had she save the Strength within;
there was no witness of terrestrial eyes;
--
Were the spectators of that mighty strife.
3.20
Around her were the austere sky-pointing hills,
And the green murmurous broad deep-thoughted woods
Muttered incessantly their muffled spell.
3.21
--
Draped in the leaves' vivid emerald monotone
And set with chequered sunbeams and bli the flowers
Immured her destiny's secluded scene.
--
there had she grown to the stature of her spirit:
the genius of titanic silences
--
With a background of the eternal and unique.
3.24
--
Reduced the heavy framework of man's days
And his overburdening mass of outward needs
--
And the mighty wildness of the primitive earth
And the brooding multitude of patient trees
And the musing sapphire leisure of the sky
And the solemn weight of the slowly-passing months
Had left in her deep room for thought and God.
--
A spot for the eternal's tread on earth
Set in the cloistral yearning of the woods
And watched by the aspiration of the peaks
Appeared through an aureate opening in Time,
Where stillness listening felt the unspoken word
And the hours forgot to pass towards grief and change.
3.27
Here with the suddenness divine advents have,
Repeating the marvel of the first descent,
Changing to rapture the dull earthly round,
Love came to her hiding the shadow, Death.
3.28
--
Since first the earth-being's heavenward growth began,
Through all the long ordeal of the race,
Never a rarer creature bore his shaft,
That burning test of the godhead in our parts,
A lightning from the heights on our abyss.
3.30
--
Overflew the ways of Thought to unborn things.
3.32
--
Moves in some prophet cavern of the gods,
A heart of silence in the hands of joy
Inhabited with rich creative beats
--
Even in earth-stuff, and their intense delight
Poured a supernal beauty on men's lives.
--
Recover the lost habit of happiness,
Feel her bright nature's glorious ambience,
--
Love in her was wider than the universe,
the whole world could take refuge in her single heart.
--
Vacant of the dwarf self's imprisoned air,
Her mood could harbour his sublimer breath
--
At once she was the stillness and the word,
A continent of self-diffusing peace,
--
the strength, the silence of the gods were hers.
3.41
--
Till then no mournful line had barred this ray.
4.2
On the frail breast of this precarious earth,
Since her orbed sight in its breath-fastened house,
--
Although she leaned to bear the human load,
Her walk kept still the measures of the gods.
4.4
--
Unsmeared with the dust of our mortal atmosphere
It still reflected heaven's spiritual joy.
--
Almost they saw who lived within her light
Her playmate in the sempiternal spheres
Descended from its unattainable realms
--
Heaven's tranquil shield guarded the missioned child.
4.6
--
Years like gold raiment of the gods that pass;
Her youth sat throned in calm felicity.
--
But joy cannot endure until the end:
there is a darkness in terrestrial things
--
On her too closed the inescapable Hand:
the armed Immortal bore the snare of Time.
4.9
One dealt with her who meets the burdened great.
4.10
Assigner of the ordeal and the path
Who chooses in this holocaust of the soul
Death, fall and sorrow as the spirit's goads,
the dubious godhead with his torch of pain
Lit up the chasm of the unfinished world
And called her to fill with her vast self the abyss.
4.11
--
Heightening the Eternal's dreadful strategy,
He measured the difficulty with the might
And dug more deep the gulf that all must cross.
4.12
--
He made her heart kin to the striving human heart
And forced her strength to its appointed road.
--
To wrestle with the Shadow she had come
And must confront the riddle of man's birth
And life's brief struggle in dumb Matter's night.
--
Or hew the ways of Immortality,
To win or lose the godlike game for man,
Was her soul's issue thrown with Destiny's dice.
--
An image fluttering on the screen of Fate,
Half-animated for a passing show,
Or a castaway on the ocean of Desire
Flung to the eddies in a ruthless sport
And tossed along the gulfs of Circumstance,
A creature born to bend beneath the yoke,
A chattel and a plaything of Time's lords,
--
In the chess-play of the earth-soul with Doom,--
Such is the human figure drawn by Time.
4.18
--
In this enigma of the dusk of God,
This slow and strange uneasy compromise
--
Too high the fire spiritual dare not blaze.
4.20
If once it met the intense original Flame,
An answering touch might shatter all measures made
And earth sink down with the weight of the Infinite.
4.21
--
At every gate the huge dim sentinels pace.
4.22
A grey tribunal of the Ignorance,
An Inquisition of the priests of Night
In judgment sit on the adventurer soul,
And the dual tables and the Karmic norm
Restrain the Titan in us and the God:
Pain with its lash, joy with its silver bribe
Guard the Wheel's circling immobility.
4.23
A bond is put on the high-climbing mind,
A seal on the too large wide-open heart;
Death stays the journeying discoverer, Life.
4.24
Thus is the throne of the Inconscient safe
While the tardy coilings of the aeons pass
And the Animal browses in the sacred fence
And the gold Hawk can cross the skies no more.
4.25
But one stood up and lit the limitless flame.
4.26
Arraigned by the dark Power that hates all bliss
In the dire court where life must pay for joy,
Sentenced by the mechanic justicer
To the afflicting penalty of man's hopes,
Her head she bowed not to the stark decree
Baring her helpless heart to destiny's stroke.
--
So bows and must the mind-born will in man
Obedient to the statutes fixed of old,
Admitting without appeal the ne ther gods.
4.28
In her the superhuman cast its seed.
4.29
--
Her spirit refused to hug the common soil,
Or, finding all life's golden meanings robbed,
Compound with earth, struck from the starry list,
Or quench with black despair the God-given light.
4.30
Accustomed to the eternal and the true,
Her being conscious of its divine founts
--
Writing the unfinished story of her soul
In thoughts and actions graved in Nature's book,
She accepted not to close the luminous page,
Cancel her commerce with eternity,
--
To the brute balance of the world's exchange.
4.32
--
Accomplishing in life the great world-plan,
Pursuing after death immortal aims,
--
Forfeit the meaning of her birth in Time,
Obey the government of the casual fact
Or yield her high destiny up to passing Chance.
--
She matched with the iron law her sovereign right:
Her single will opposed the cosmic rule.
4.34
To stay the wheels of Doom this greatness rose.
4.35
At the Unseen's knock upon her hidden gates
Her strength made greater by the lightning's touch
Awoke from slumber in her heart's recess.
--
It bore the stroke of That which kills and saves.
4.37
Across the awful march no eye can see,
Barring its dreadful route no will can change,
She faced the engines of the universe;
A heart stood in the way of the driving wheels:
Its giant workings paused in front of a mind,
Its stark conventions met the flame of a soul.
4.38
--
That moves the veiled Ineffable's timeless will:
A prayer, a master act, a king idea
--
then miracle is made the common rule,
One mighty deed can change the course of things;
A lonely thought becomes omnipotent.
--
Annul the claim of man's free human will.
4.41
--
A piston brain pumps out the shapes of thought,
A beating heart cuts out emotion's modes;
--
Or the figure of the world reveals the signs
Of a tied Chance repeating her old steps
--
Or the empiric Life's instinctive search,
Or a vast ignorant mind's colossal work.
--
His soul steps back and sees the Light supreme.
4.45
A Godhead stands behind the brute machine.
4.46
--
Affirmed the spirit's tread on Circumstance,
Pressed back the senseless dire revolving Wheel
And stopped the mute march of Necessity.
4.48
A flaming warrior from the eternal peaks
Empowered to force the door denied and closed
Smote from Death's visage its dumb absolute
And burst the bounds of consciousness and Time.
End of Book I - Canto II
01.02 - The Object of the Integral Yoga, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:01.02 - the Object of the Integral Yoga
class:chapter
... the object of the 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 turned in our nature into nature of the Divine and in our will and works and life to be the instrument of the Divine. Its object is not to be a great Yogi or a superman (although that may come) or to grab at the Divine for the sake of the ego's power, pride or pleasure.
It is not for salvation though liberation comes by it and all else may come; but these must not be our objects. the Divine alone is our object.
To come to this Yoga merely with the idea of being a superman would be an act of vital egoism which would defeat its own object. Those who put this object in the front of their preoccupations invariably come to grief, spiritually and o therwise. the aim of this Yoga is, first, to enter into the divine consciousness by merging into it the separative ego (incidentally, in doing so one finds one's true individual self which is not the limited, vain and selfish human ego but a portion of the Divine) and, secondly, to bring down the supramental consciousness on earth to transform mind, life and body. All else can be only a result of these two aims, not the primary object of the Yoga.
the only creation for which there is any place here is the supramental, the bringing of the divine Truth down on the earth, not only into the mind and vital but into the body and into
Matter. Our object is not to remove all "limitations" on the expansion of the ego or to give a free field and make unlimited room for the fulfilment of the ideas of the human mind or the desires of the ego-centred life-force. None of us are here to "do as we like", or to create a world in which we shall at last be able to do as we like; we are here to do what the Divine wills and to create a world in which the Divine Will can manifest its truth no longer deformed by human ignorance or perverted and mistranslated by vital desire. the work which the sadhak of the supramental Yoga has to do is not his own work for which he can lay down his own conditions, but the work of the Divine which he has to do according to the conditions laid down by the Divine. Our Yoga is not for our own sake but for the sake of the Divine. It is not our own personal manifestation that we are to seek, the manifestation of the individual ego freed from all bounds and from all bonds, but the manifestation of the Divine. Of that manifestation our own spiritual liberation, perfection, fullness is to be a result and a part, but not in any egoistic sense or for any ego-centred or self-seeking purpose.
This liberation, perfection, fullness too must not be pursued for our own sake, but for the sake of the Divine.
This Yoga demands a total dedication of the life to the aspiration for the discovery and embodiment of the Divine Truth and to nothing else whatever. To divide your life between the Divine and some outward aim and activity that has nothing to do with the search for the Truth is inadmissible. the least thing of that kind would make success in the Yoga impossible.
You must go inside yourself and enter into a complete dedication to the spiritual life. All clinging to mental preferences must fall away from you, all insistence on vital aims and interests and attachments must be put away, all egoistic clinging to family, friends, country must disappear if you want to succeed in Yoga. Whatever has to come as outgoing energy or action, must proceed from the Truth once discovered and not from the lower mental or vital motives, from the Divine Will and not from personal choice or the preferences of the ego.
01.03 - Mystic Poetry, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: Ahana and O ther Poems the Poetry in the Making
O ther Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Poets and MysticsMystic Poetry
--
the waves break helplessly at the sides!
His face looks familiar... 1
--
To thee, invisible, unrumoured, still:
White for Thy whiteness all desires burn.
--
is just on the borderland: it has succeeded in leaving behind the mystic domain, but has not yet entered the city of the Spiritat the most, it has turned the corner and approached the gate. Listen now,
My soul unhorizoned widens to measureless sight,
--
or the more occult yet luminously vibrant lines:
He stood upon a threshold serpent-watched,
--
Silent and listening in the silent heart
For the coming of the new and the unknown.||6.18||
He gazed across the empty stillness
And heard the footsteps of the undreamed Idea
In the far avenues of the Beyond.||6.19||
He heard the secret Voice, the Word that knows,
And saw the secret face that is our own...||6.20||
Is there not a fundamental difference, difference not merely with regard to the poetic personality, but with regard to the very stuff of consciousness? there is direct vision here, the fullness of light, the native rhythm and substance of revelation, as if
In the dead wall closing from a wider self,
Parting a door to things unseized by earth-sense, ||6.12||
It lifted the heavy curtain of the flesh.. . . ||6.18||
Later version:
In the dead wall closing us from wider self,
Into a secrecy of apparent sleep,
the mystic tract beyond our waking thoughts,
A door parted, built in by Matters force,
--
When the Spirit speaks its own language in its own name, we have spiritual poetry. If, however, the Spirit speaksfrom choice or necessity-an alien language and manner, e.g., that of a profane consciousness, or of the consciousness of ano ther domain, idealistic or philosophical or even occult, puts on or imitates spirit's language and manner, we have what we propose to call mystic poetry proper. When Samain sings of the body of the dancer:
Et Pannyre deviant fleur, flamme, papillon! ...
--
or when Mallarm describes the laurel flower:
Vermeil comme Iepur orteil du sraphin
--
both so idealise, e therealize, almost spiritualise the earth and the flesh that they seem ostensibly only a vesture of something else behind, something mysterious and o ther-worldly, something o ther than, even just opposite to what they actually are or appear to be. That is the mystique of the senses which is a very characteristic feature of some of the best poetic inspirations of France. Baudelaire too, the Satanic poet, by the sheer intensity of sympathy and sincerity, pierces as it were into the soul of things and makes the ugly, the unclean, the diseased, the sordid throb and glow with an almost celestial light. Here is the Baudelairean manner:
Tout casss
--
It is not merely by addressing the beloved as your goddess that you can attain this mysticism; the Elizabethan did that in merry abundance,ad nauseam.A finer temper, a more delicate touch, a more subtle sensitiveness and a kind of artistic wizardry are necessary to tune the body into a rhythm of the spirit. the o ther line of mysticism is common enough, viz., to express the spirit in terms and rhythms of the flesh. Tagore did that liberally, the Vaishnava poets did nothing but that, the Song of Solomon is an exquisite example of that procedure. there is here, however, a difference in degrees which is an interesting feature worth noting. Thus in Tagore the reference to the spirit is evident, that is the major or central chord; the earthly and the sensuous are meant as the name and form, as the body to render concrete, living and vibrant, near and intimate what o therwise would perhaps be vague and abstract, afar, aloof. But this mundane or human appearance has a value in so far as it is a support, a pointer or symbol of the spiritual import. And the mysticism lies precisely in the play of the two, a hide-and-seek between them. On the o ther hand, as I said, the greater portion of Vaishnava poetry, like a precious and beautiful casket, no doubt, hides the spiritual import: not the pure significance but the sign and symbol are luxuriously elaborated, they are placed in the foreground in all magnificence: as if it was their very purpose to conceal the real meaning. When the Vaishnava poet says,
O love, what more shall I, shall Radha speak,
--
No o ther lord but thee can Radha seek.7
there is nothing in the matter or manner which can indicate, to the uninitiated, any reference to the Spirit or the Divine. Or this again,
I have gazed upon beauty from my very birth
--
they all give a very beautiful, a very poignant experience of love, but one does not know if it is love human or divine, if it is soul's love or mere bodily love.
the famous Song of Solomon too is not on a different footing, when the poet cries:
Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse;
--
one can explain that it is the Christ calling the Church or God appealing to the human soul or one can simply find in it nothing more than a man pining for his woman. Anyhow I would not call it spiritual poetry or even mystic poetry. For in itself it does not carry any double or oblique meaning, there is no suggestion that it is applicable to o ther fields or domains of consciousness: it is, as it were, monovalent. An allegory is never mysticism. there is more mysticism in Wordsworth, even in Shelley and Keats, than in Spenser, for example, who stands in this respect on the same ground as Bunyan in his the Pilgrim's Progress. Take Wordsworth as a Nature-worshipper,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the far thest Hebrides.8
or Wordsworth the Pagan,
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wrea thed horn.9
--
And give the world a girdle with the sun!10
than in this pious morning hymn,
--
O never then from me depart !11
I am anticipating however, I shall come to the point presently again. I was speaking of spiritual poetry. Listen once more to these simple, transparent, yet vibrant lines:
But how shall body not seem a hollow space
When the soul bears eternity's embrace?12
or these again equally fraught with an intense experience a quiet inga thered luminous consciousness:
I held my breath and from a world of din
--
And felt the being vistaed into fire
Of truth which did acquire
Rhythm in the heart,
When lo, I knew the worlds without as worlds within.13
But first let us go to the fans et origo, be acquainted with the very genuine article in its purity and perfection, in its essential simplicity. I do not know of any o ther ideal exemplar than the Upanishad. Thus,
there the sun shines not and the moon has no
splendour and the stars are blind; there these
lightnings flash not, nor any earthly fire. For all
that is bright is but the shadow of His brightness
and by His shining all this shineth.14
--
Even as one Fire hath entered into the world but
it shapeth itself to the form it meeteth, so there
is one Spirit within all creatures but it shapeth
itself to form and form; it is likewise outside these.15
This is spiritual matter and spiritual manner that can never be improved upon. This is spiritual poetry in its quintessence. I am referring naturally here to the original and not to the translation which can never do full justice, even at its very best, to the poetic value in question. For apart from the individual genius of the poet, the greatness of the language, the instrument used by the poet, is also involved. It may well be what is comparatively easy and natural in the language of the gods (devabhasha) would mean a tour de force, if not altoge ther an impossibility, in a human language. the Sanskrit language was moulded and fashioned in the hands of the Rishis, that is to say, those who lived and moved and had their being in the spiritual consciousness. the Hebrew or even the Zend does not seem to have reached that peak, that absoluteness of the spiritual tone which seems inherent in the Indian tongue, although those too brea thed and grew in a spiritual atmosphere. the later languages, however, Greek or Latin or their modern descendants, have gone still far ther from the source, they are much nearer to the earth and are suffused with the smell and effluvia of this vale of tears.
Among the ancients, strictly speaking, the later classical Lucretius was a remarkable phenomenon. By nature he was a poet, but his mental interest lay in metaphysical speculation, in philosophy, and unpoetical business. He turned away from arms and heroes, wrath and love and, like Seneca and Aurelius, gave himself up to moralising and philosophising, delving 'into the mystery, the why and the how and the whi ther of it all. He chose a dangerous subject for his poetic inspiration and yet it cannot be said that his attempt was a failure. Lucretius was not a religious or spiritual poet; he was ra ther Marxian,a theistic, materialistic. the dialectical materialism of today could find in him a lot of nourishment and support. But whatever the content, the manner has made a whole difference. there was an idealism, a clarity of vision and an intensity of perception, which however scientific apparently, gave his creation a note, an accent, an atmosphere high, tense, aloof, ascetic, at times bordering on the supra-sensual. It was a high light, a force of consciousness that at its highest pitch had the ring and vibration of something almost spiritual. For the basic principle of Lucretius' inspiration is a large thought-force, a tense perception, a taut nervous reactionit is not, of course, the identity in being with the inner realities which is the hallmark of a spiritual consciousness, yet it is something on the way towards that.
there have been o ther philosophical poets, a good number of them since thennot merely rationally philosophical, as was the vogue in the eighteenth century, but metaphysically philosophical, that is to say, inquiring not merely into the phenomenal but also into the labyrinths of the noumenal, investigating not only what meets the senses, but also things that are behind or beyond. Amidst the earlier efflorescence of this movement the most outstanding philosopher poet is of course Dante, the Dante of Paradiso, a philosopher in the mediaeval manner and to the extent a lesser poet, according to some. Goe the is ano ther, almost in the grand modern manner. Wordsworth is full of metaphysics from the crown of his head to the tip of his toe although his poetry, perhaps the major portion of it, had to undergo some kind of martyrdom because of it. And Shelley, the supremely lyric singer, has had a very rich undertone of thought-content genuinely metaphysical. And Browning and Arnold and Hardyindeed, if we come to the more moderns, we have to cite the whole host of them, none can be excepted.
We left out the Metaphysicals, for they can be grouped as a set apart. they are not so much metaphysical as theological, religious. they have a brain-content stirring with theological problems and speculations, replete with scintillating conceits and intricate fancies. Perhaps it is because of this philosophical burden, this intellectual bias that the Metaphysicals went into obscurity for about two centuries and it is precisely because of that that they are slowly coming out to the forefront and assuming a special value with the moderns. For the modern mind is characteristically thoughtful, introspective"introvert"and philosophical; even the exact physical sciences of today are rounded off in the end with metaphysics.
the growth of a philosophical thought-content in poetry has been inevitable. For man's consciousness in its evolutionary march is driving towards a consummation which includes and presupposes a development along that line. the mot d'ordre in old-world poetry was "fancy", imaginationremember the famous lines of Shakespeare characterising a poet; in modern times it is Thought, even or perhaps particularly abstract metaphysical thought. Perceptions, experiences, realisationsof whatever order or world they may beexpressed in sensitive and aes thetic terms and figures, that is poetry known and appreciated familiarly. But a new turn has been coming on with an increasing insistencea definite time has been given to that, since the Renaissance, it is said: it is the growing importance of Thought or brain-power as a medium or atmosphere in which poetic experiences find a sober and clear articulation, a definite and strong formulation. Rationalisation of all experiences and realisations is the keynote of the modern mentality. Even when it is said that reason and rationality are not ultimate or final or significant realities, that the irrational or the submental plays a greater role in our consciousness and that art and poetry likewise should be the expression of such a mentality, even then, all this is said and done in and through a strong rational and intellectual stress and frame the like of which cannot be found in the old-world frankly non-intellectual creations.
the religious, the mystic or the spiritual man was, in the past, more or Jess methodically and absolutely non-intellectual and anti-intellectual: but the modern age, the age of scientific culture, is tending to make him as strongly intellectual: he has to explain, not only present the object but show up its mechanism alsoexplain to himself so that he may have a total understanding and a firmer grasp of the thing which he presents and explains to o thers as well who demand a similar approach. He feels the necessity of explaining, giving the rationality the rationale the science, of his art; for without that, it appears to him, a solid ground is not given to the structure of his experience: analytic power, preoccupation with methodology seems inherent in the modern creative consciousness.
the philosophical trend in poetry has an interesting history with a significant role: it has acted as a force of purification, of sublimation, of katharsis. As man has risen from his exclusively or predominantly vital nature into an increasing mental poise, in the same way his creative activities too have taken this new turn and status. In the earlier stages of evolution the mental life is secondary, subordinate to the physico-vital life; it is only subsequently that the mental finds an independent and self-sufficient reality. A similar movement is reflected in poetic and artistic creation too: the thinker, the philosopher remains in the background at the outset, he looks out; peers through chinks and holes from time to time; later he comes to the forefront, assumes a major role in man's creative activity.
Man's consciousness is fur ther to rise from the mental to over-mental regions. Accordingly, his life and activities and along with that his artistic creations too will take on a new tone and rhythm, a new mould and constitution even. For this transition, the higher mentalwhich is normally the field of philosophical and idealistic activitiesserves as the Paraclete, the Intercessor; it takes up the lower functionings of the consciousness, which are intense in their own way, but narrow and turbid, and gives, by purifying and enlarging, a wider frame, a more luminous pattern, a more subtly articulated , form for the higher, vaster and deeper realities, truths and harmonies to express and manifest. In the old-world spiritual and mystic poets, this intervening medium was overlooked for evident reasons, for human reason or even intelligence is a double-edged instrument, it can make as well as mar, it has a light that most often and naturally shuts off o ther higher lights beyond it. So it was bypassed, some kind of direct and immediate contact was sought to be established between the normal and the transcendental. the result was, as I have pointed out, a pure spiritual poetry, on the one hand, as in the Upanishads, or, on the o ther, religious poetry of various grades and denominations that spoke of the spiritual but in the terms and in the manner of the mundane, at least very much coloured and dominated by the latter. Vyasa was the great legendary figure in India who, as is shown in his Mahabharata, seems to have been one of the pioneers, if not the pioneer, to forge and build the missing link of Thought Power. the exemplar of the manner is the Gita. Valmiki's represented a more ancient and primary inspiration, of a vast vital sensibility, something of the kind that was at the basis of Homer's genius. In Greece it was Socrates who initiated the movement of speculative philosophy and the emphasis of intellectual power slowly began to find expression in the later poets, Sophocles and Euripides. But all these were very simple beginnings. the moderns go in for something more radical and totalitarian. the rationalising element instead of being an additional or subordinate or contri buting factor, must itself give its norm and form, its own substance and manner to the creative activity. Such is the present-day demand.
the earliest preoccupation of man was religious; even when he concerned himself with the world and worldly things, he referred all that to the o ther world, thought of gods and goddesses, of after-death and o ther where. That also will be his last and ultimate preoccupation though in a somewhat different way, when he has passed through a process of purification and growth, a "sea-change". For although religion is an aspiration towards the truth and reality beyond or behind the world, it is married too much to man's actual worldly nature and carries always with it the shadow of profanity.
the religious poet seeks to tone down or cover up the mundane taint, since he does not know how to transcend it totally, in two ways: (1) by a strong thought-element, the metaphysical way, as it may be called and (2) by a strong symbolism, the occult way. Donne takes to the first course, Blake the second. And it is the alchemy brought to bear in ei ther of these processes that transforms the merely religious into the mystic poet. the truly spiritual, as I have said, is still a higher grade of consciousness: what I call Spirit's own poetry has its own matter and mannerswabhava and swadharma. A nearest approach to it is echoed in those famous lines of Blake:
To see a World in a grain of Sand,
--
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour.16
And a considerable impact of it is vibrant and aglow in these lines of a contemporary Indian poet:
Sky-lucent Bliss untouched by earthiness!
--
Something of the fullness of spiritual matter and manner overflows in these epic lines:
His spirit mingles with eternity's heart
And bears the silence of the Infinite. ||20.21||
In a divine retreat from mortal thought,
--
or this simple single line pregnant no less with the self-same fullness:
An eye awake in voiceless heights of trance, ||8.8||
This, I say, is something different from the religious and even from the mystic. It is away from the merely religious, because it is naked of the vesture of humanity (in spite of a human face that masks it at times) ; it is something more than the merely mystic, for it does not stop being a signpost or an indication to the Beyond, but is itself the presence and embodiment of the Beyond. the mystic gives us, we can say, the magic of the Infinite; what I term the spiritual, the spiritual proper, gives in addition the logic of the Infinite. At least this is what distinguishes modern spiritual consciousness from the ancient, that is, Upanishadic spiritual consciousness. the Upanishad gives expression to the spiritual consciousness in its original and pristine purity and perfection, in its essential simplicity. It did not buttress itself with any logic. It is the record of fundamental experiences and there was no question of any logical exposition. But, as I have said, the modern mind requires and demands a logical element in its perceptions and presentations. Also it must needs be a different kind of logic that can satisfy and satisfy wholly the deeper and subtler movements of a modern consciousness. For the philosophical poet of an earlier age, when he had recourse to logic, it was the logic of the finite that always gave him the frame, unless he threw the whole thing overboard and leaped straight into the occult, the illogical and the a logical, like Blake, for instance. Let me illustrate and compare a little. When the older poet explains indriyani hayan ahuh, it is an allegory he resorts to, it is the logic of the finite he marshals to point to the infinite and the beyond. the stress of reason is apparent and effective too, but the pattern is what we are normally familiar with the movement, we can say, is almost Aristotelian in its rigour. Now let us turn to the following:
Our life is a holocaust of the Supreme. ||26.15||
the great World-Mo ther by her sacrifice||4.47||
Has made her soul the body of our state;
Accepting sorrow and unconsciousness
--
the many-patterned ground of all we are. ||26.16||
An idol of self is our mortality. ||26.17||
--
Here we have a pattern of thought-movement that does not seem to follow the lineaments of the normal brain-mind consciousness, although it too has a basis there: our customary line of reasoning receives a sudden shock, as it were, and then is shaken, moved, lifted up, transportedgradually or suddenly, according to the temperament of the listener. Besides, we have here the peculiar modern tone, which, for want of a better term, may be described as scientific. the impressimprimaturof Science is its rational coherence, justifying or justified by sense data, by physical experience, which gives us the pattern or model of an inexorable natural law. Here too we feel we are in the domain of such natural law but lifted on to a higher level.
This is what I was trying to make out as the distinguishing trait of the real spiritual consciousness that seems to be developing in the poetic creation of tomorrow, e.g., it has the same rationality, clarity, concreteness of perception as the scientific spirit has in its own domain and still it is rounded off with a halo of magic and miracle. That is the nature of the logic of the infinite proper to the spiritual consciousness. We can have a Science of the Spirit as well as a Science of Matter. This is the Thought element or what corresponds to it, of which I was speaking, the philosophical factor, that which gives form to the formless or definition to that which is vague, a nearness and familiarity to that which is far and alien. the fullness of the spiritual consciousness means such a thing, the presentation of a divine name and form. And this distinguishes it from the mystic consciousness which is not the supreme solar consciousness but the nearest approach to it. Or, perhaps, the mystic dwells in the domain of the Divine, he may even be suffused with a sense of unity but would not like to acquire the Divine's nature and function. Normally and generally he embodies all the aspiration and yearning moved by intimations and suggestions belonging to the human mentality, the divine urge retaining still the human flavour. We can say also, using a Vedantic terminology, that the mystic consciousness gives us the tatastha lakshana, the nearest approximative attribute of the attri buteless; or o therwise, it is the hiranyagarbha consciousness which englobes the multiple play, the coruscated possibilities of the Reality: while the spiritual proper may be considered as prajghana, the solid mass, the essential lineaments of revelatory knowledge, the typal "wave-particles" of the Reality. In the former there is a play of imagination, even of fancy, a decorative aes thesis, while in the latter it is vision pure and simple. If the spiritual poetry is solar in its nature, we can say, by extending the analogy, that mystic poetry is characteristically lunarMoon representing the delight and the magic that Mind and mental imagination, suffused, no doubt, with a light or a reflection of some light from beyond, is capable of ( the Upanishad speaks of the Moon being born of the Mind).
To sum up and recapitulate. the evolution of the poetic expression in man has ever been an attempt at a return and a progressive approach to the spiritual source of poetic inspiration, which was also the original, though somewhat veiled, source from the very beginning. the movement has followed devious waysstrongly negative at timeseven like man's life and consciousness in general of which it is an organic member; but the ultimate end and drift seems to have been always that ideal and principle even when fallen on evil days and evil tongues. the poet's ideal in the dawn of the world was, as the Vedic Rishi sang, to raise things of beauty in heaven by his poetic power,kavi kavitv divi rpam sajat. Even a Satanic poet, the inaugurator, in a way, of modernism and modernistic consciousness, Charles Baudelaire, thus admonishes his spirit:
"Flyaway, far from these morbid miasmas, go and purify yourself in the higher air and drink, like a pure and divine liquor, the clear fire that fills the limpid spaces."18
That angelic poets should be inspired by the same ideal is, of course, quite natural: for they sing:
Not a senseless, trancd thing,
--
since they
Have ye souls in heaven too,
--
Poetry, actually however, has been, by and large, a profane and mundane affair: for it expresses the normal man's perceptions and feelings and experiences, human loves and hates and desires and ambitions. True. And yet there has also always been an attempt, a tendency to deal with them in such a way as can bring calm and puritykatharsisnot trouble and confusion. That has been the purpose of all Art from the ancient days. Besides, there has been a growth and development in the historic process of this katharsis. As by the sublimation of his bodily and vital instincts and impulses., man is gradually growing into the mental, moral and finally spiritual consciousness, even so the artistic expression of his creative activity has followed a similar line of transformation. the first and original transformation happened with religious poetry. the religious, one may say, is the profane inside out; that is to say, the religious man has almost the same tone and temper, the same urges and passions, only turned Godward. Religious poetry too marks a new turn and development of human speech, in taking the name of God human tongue acquires a new plasticity and flavour that transform or give a new modulation even to things profane and mundane it speaks of. Religious means at bottom the colouring of mental and moral idealism. A parallel process of katharsis is found in ano ther class of poetic creation, viz., the allegory. Allegory or parable is the stage when the higher and inner realities are expressed wholly in the modes and manner, in the form and character of the normal and external, when moral, religious or spiritual truths are expressed in the terms and figures of the profane life. the higher or the inner ideal is like a loose clothing upon the ordinary consciousness, it does not fit closely or fuse. In the religious, however, the first step is taken for a mingling and fusion. the mystic is the beginning of a real fusion and a considerable ascension of the lower into the higher. the philosopher poet follows ano ther line for the same katharsisinstead of uplifting emotions and sensibility, he proceeds by thought-power, by the ideas and principles that lie behind all movements and give a pattern to all things existing. the mystic can be of ei ther type, the religious mystic or the philosopher mystic, although often the two are welded toge ther and cannot be very well separated. Let us illustrate a little:
the spacious firmament on high,
With all the blue e thereal sky,
And spangled heavens, a shining frame,
their great Original proclaim.20
This is religious poetry, pure and simple, expressing man's earliest and most elementary feeling, marked by a broad candour, a ra ther shallow monotone. But that feeling is raised to a pitch of fervour and scintillating sensibility in Vaughan's
they are all gone into the world of light
And I alone sit lingering here, . . .
--
Created glories under thee,
Resume Thy spirit from this world of thrall
--
the same religious spirit seems to climb a little higher still stretching towards the mystic vein in Donne,
My heart is by dejection, clay,
--
the allegorical element too finds here cleverly woven into the mystically religious texture. Here is ano ther example of the mystically religious temper from Donne:
For though through many streights, and lands I roame,
--
the same poet is at once religious and mystic find philosophical in these lines, for example:
That All, which always is All every where,
--
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour.25
Blake had this wonderful gift of transmuting the baser metal of mundane experience into the gold of a deep mystic and spiritual experience:
Bring me my bow of burning gold!
--
But all that is left far behind, when we hear a new voice announcing an altoge ther new manner, revelatory of the truly and supremely spiritual consciousness, not simply mystic or religious but magically occult and carved out of the highest if recondite philosophia:
A finite movement of the Infinite
Came winging its way through a wide air of Time;
--
And guarded in the form a separate soul. ||42.17||
" the Golden Boat."
--
Mallarme: "Les Fleurs". "Vermilion like the pure toe of the seraph Reddened by the blush of dawns it trampled through."
"Quite broken they are, yet they have eyes that pierce like a drill, shine like those holes in which the water sleeps at night: they have the divine eyes of a little girl."Baudelaire, "Les petites vieilles"
Sri Aurobindo: Radhas Appeal in Songs to Mytrilla.
--
K. D. Sethna: "Deluge" in the Secret Splendour.
Harindranath Chattopadhyaya: "Blue Profound" in Strange Journey.
--
K. D. Sethna: "This Errant Life" in the Secret Splentiour.
Envole-toi bien loin de ces miasmes morbides; Va te purifier dans l'air suprieur, Et bois, comme tine pure et divine liqueur, Le feu clair qui remplit les espaces Iimpides. "Elvation" Spleen et Idal.
Keats: "Ode on the Poets".
Addison: "Hymn":
--
the Progress of the Soule, VI.
"Annvnciation"Divine Poems
--
Sri Aurobindo: Ahana and O ther Poems the Poetry in the Making
01.03 - Rationalism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
What is Reason, the faculty that is said to be the proud privilege of man, the sovereign instrument he alone possesses for the purpose of knowing? What is the value of knowledge that Reason gives? For it is the manner of knowing, the particular faculty or instrument by which we know, that determines the nature and content of knowledge. Reason is the collecting of available sense-perceptions and a certain mode of working upon them. It has three component elements that have been defined as observation, classification and deduction. Now, the very composition of Reason shows that it cannot be a perfect instrument of knowledge; the limitations are the inherent limitations of the component elements. As regards observation there is a two-fold limitation. First, observation is a relative term and variable quantity. One observes through the prism of one's own observing faculty, through the bias of one's own personality and no two persons can have absolutely the same manner of observation. So Science has recognised the necessity of personal equation and has created an imaginary observer, a "mean man" as the standard of reference. And this already takes us far away from the truth, from the reality. Secondly, observation is limited by its scope. All the facts of the world, all sense-perceptions possible and actual cannot be included within any observation however large, however collective it may be. We have to go always upon a limited amount of data, we are able to construct only a partial and sketchy view of the surface of existence. And then it is these few and doubtful facts that Reason seeks to arrange and classify. That classification may hold good for certain immediate ends, for a temporary understanding of the world and its forces, ei ther in order to satisfy our curiosity or to gain some practical utility. For when we want to consider the world only in its immediate relation to us, a few and even doubtful facts are sufficient the more immediate the relation, the more immaterial the doubtfulness and insufficiency of facts. We may quite confidently go a step in darkness, but to walk a mile we do require light and certainty. Our scientific classification has a background of uncertainty, if not, of falsity; and our deduction also, even while correct within a very narrow range of space and time, cannot escape the fundamental vices of observation and classification upon which it is based.
It might be said, however, that the guarantee or sanction of Reason does not lie in the extent of its application, nor can its subjective nature (or ego-centric predication, as philosophers would term it) vitiate the validity of its conclusions. there is, in fact, an inherent unity and harmony between Reason and Reality. If we know a little of Reality, we know the whole; if we know the subjective, we know also the objective. As in the part, so in the whole; as it is within, so it is without. If you say that I will die, you need not wait for my actual death to have the proof of your statement. the generalising power inherent in Reason is the guarantee of the certitude to which it leads. Reason is valid, as it does not betray us. If it were such as anti-intellectuals make it out to be, we would be making nothing but false steps, would always remain entangled in contradictions. the very success of Reason is proof of its being a reliable and perfect instrument for the knowledge of Truth and Reality. It is beside the mark to prove o therwise, simply by analysing the nature of Reason and showing the fundamental deficiencies of that nature. It is ra ther to the credit of Reason that being as it is, it is none the less a successful and trustworthy agent.
Now the question is, does Reason never fail? Is it such a perfect instrument as intellectualists think it to be? there is ground for serious misgivings. Reason says, for example, that the earth revolves round the sun: and reason, it is argued, is right, for we see that all the facts are conformableto it, even facts that were hi therto unknown and are now coming into our ken. But the difficulty is that Reason did not say that always in the past and may not say that always in the future. the old astronomers could explain the universe by holding quite a contrary theory and could fit into it all their astronomical data. A future scientist may come and explain the matter in quite a different way from ei ther. It is only a choice of workable theories that Reason seems to offer; we do not know the fact itself, apart perhaps from exactly the amount that immediate sense-perception gives to each of us. Or again, if we take an example of ano ther category, we may ask, does God exist? A candid Rationalist would say that he does not know although he has his own opinion about the matter. Evidently, Reason cannot solve all the problems that it meets; it can judge only truths that are of a certain type.
It may be answered that Reason is a faculty which gives us progressive knowledge of the reality, but as a knowing instrument it is perfect, at least it is the only instrument at our disposal; even if it gives a false, incomplete or blurred image of the reality, it has the means and capacity of correcting and completing itself. It offers theories, no doubt; but what are theories? they are simply the gradually increasing adaptation of the knowing subject to the object to be known, the evolving revelation of reality to our perception of it. Reason is the power which carries on that process of adaptation and revelation; we can safely rely upon Reason and trust It to carry on its work with increasing success.
But in knowledge it is precisely finality that we seek for and no mere progressive, asymptotic, rapprochement ad infinitum. No less than the Practical Reason, the theoretical Reason also demands a categorical imperative, a clean affirmation or denial. If Reason cannot do that, it must be regarded as inefficient. It is poor consolation to man that Reason is gradually finding out the truth or that it is trying to grapple with the problems of God, Soul and Immortality and will one day pronounce its verdict. Whe ther we have or have not any o ther instrument of knowledge is a different question altoge ther. But in the meanwhile Reason stands condemned by the evidence of its own limitation.
It may be retorted that if Reason is condemned, it is condemned by itself and by no o ther authority. All argumentation against Reason is a function of Reason itself. the deficiencies of Reason we find out by the rational faculty alone. If Reason was to die, it is because it consents to commit suicide; there is no o ther power that kills it. But to this our answer is that Reason has this miraculous power of self-destruction; or, to put it philosophically, Reason is, at best, an organ of self-criticism and perhaps the organ par excellence for that purpose. But criticism is one thing and creation ano ther. And whe ther we know or act, it is fundamentally a process of creation; at least, without this element of creation there can be no knowledge, no act. In knowledge there is a luminous creativity, Revelation or Categorical Imperative which Reason does not and cannot supply but vaguely strains to seize. For that element we have to search elsewhere, not in Reason.
Does this mean that real knowledge is irrational or against Reason? Not so necessarily. there is a super-rational power for knowledge and Reason may ei ther be a channel or an obstacle. If we take our stand upon Reason and then proceed to know, if we take the forms and categories of Reason as the inviolable schemata of knowledge, then indeed Reason becomes an obstacle to that super-rational power. If, on the o ther hand, Reason does not offer any set-form from beforehand, does not insist upon its own conditions, is passive and simply receives and reflects what is given to it, then it becomes a luminous and sure channel for that higher and real knowledge.
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.
***
the Creative Soul the Intuition of the Age
01.03 - Sri Aurobindo and his School, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
A considerable amount of vague misunderstanding and misapprehension seems to exist in the minds of a certain section of our people as to what Sri Aurobindo is doing in his retirement at Pondicherry. On the o ther hand, a very precise exposition, an exact formula of what he is not doing has been curiously furnished by a well-known patriot in his indictment of what he chooses to call the Pondicherry School of contemplation. But he has arrived at this formula by openly and fearlessly affirming what does not exist; for the things that Sri Aurobindo is accused of doing are just the things that he is not doing. In the first place, Sri Aurobindo is not doing peaceful contemplation; in the second place, he is not doing active propaganda ei ther; in the third place, he is not doing prnyma or even dhyna in the ordinary sense of the word; and, lastly, he is not proclaiming or following the maxim that although action may be tolerated as good, his particular brand of Yoga is something higher and better.
Evidently the eminent politician and his school of activism are labouring under a Himalayan confusion: when they speak of Sri Aurobindo, they really have in their mind some of the old schools of spiritual discipline. But one of the marked aspects of Sri Aurobindo's teaching and practice has been precisely his insistence on putting aside the inert and life-shunning quietism, illusionism, asceticism and monasticism of a latter-day and decadent India. these ideals are perhaps as much obstacles in his way as in the way of the activistic school. Only Sri Aurobindo has not had the temerity to say that it is a weakness to seek refuge in contemplation or to suggest that a Buddha was a weakling or a Shankara a poltroon.
This much as regards what Sri Aurobindo is not doing; let us now turn and try to understand what he is doing. the distinguished man of action speaks of conquering Nature and fighting her. Adopting this war-like imagery, we can affirm that Sri Aurobindo's work is just such a battle and conquest. But the question is, what is nature and what is the kind of conquest that is sought, how are we to fight and what are the required arms and implements? A good general should foresee all this, frame his plan of campaign accordingly and then only take the field. the above-mentioned leader proposes ceaseless and unselfish action as the way to fight and conquer Nature. He who speaks thus does not know and cannot mean what he says.
European science is conquering Nature in a way. It has attained to a certain kind and measure, in some fields a great measure, of control and conquest; but however great or striking it may be in its own province, it does not touch man in his more intimate reality and does not bring about any true change in his destiny or his being. For the most vital part of nature is the region of the life-forces, the powers of disease and age and death, of strife and greed and lustall the instincts of the brute in man, all the dark aboriginal forces, the forces of ignorance that form the very groundwork of man's nature and his society. And then, as we rise next to the world of the mind, we find a twilight region where falsehood masquerades as truth, where prejudices move as realities, where notions rule as ideals.
This is the present nature of man, with its threefold nexus of mind and life and body, that stands there to be fought and conquered. This is the inferior nature, of which the ancients spoke, that holds man down inexorably to a lower dharma, imperfect mode of life the life that is and has been the human order till today. No amount of ceaseless action, however selflessly done, can move this wheel of Nature even by a hair's breadth away from the path that it has carved out from of old. Human nature and human society have been built up and are run by the forces of this inferior nature, and whatever shuffling and reshuffling we may make in its apparent factors and elements, the general scheme and fundamental form of life will never change. To displace earth (and to conquer nature means nothing less than that) and give it ano ther orbit, one must find a fulcrum outside earth.
Sri Aurobindo does not preach flight from life and a retreat into the silent and passive Infinite; the goal of life is not, in his view, the extinction of life. Nei ther is he satisfied on that account to hold that life is best lived in the ordinary round of its unregenerate dharma. If the first is a blind alley, the second is a vicious circle,both lead nowhere.
Sri Aurobindo's sadhana starts from the perception of a Power that is beyond the ordinary nature yet is its inevitable master, a fulcrum, as we have said, outside the earth. For what is required first is the discovery and manifestation of a new soul-consciousness in man which will bring about by the very pressure and working out of its self-rule an absolute reversal of man's nature. It is the Asuras who are now holding sway over humanity, for man has allowed himself so long to be built in the image of the Asura; to dislodge the Asuras, the Gods in their sovereign might have to be forged in the human being and brought into play. It is a stupendous task, some would say impossible; but it is very far removed from quietism or passivism. Sri Aurobindo is in retirement, but it is a retirement only from the outward field of present physical activities and their apparent actualities, not from the true forces and action of life. It is the retreat necessary to one who has to go back into himself to conquer a new plane of creative power,an entrance right into the world of basic forces, of fundamental realities, into the flaming heart of things where all actualities are born and take their first shape. It is the discovery of a power-house of tremendous energism and of the means of putting it at the service of earthly life.
And, properly speaking, it is not at all a school, least of all a mere school of thought, that is growing round Sri Aurobindo. It is ra ther the nucleus of a new life that is to come. Quite naturally it has almost insignificant proportions at present to the outward eye, for the work is still of the nature of experiment and trial in very restricted limits, something in the nature of what is done in a laboratory when a new power has been discovered, but has still to be perfectly formulated in its process. And it is quite a mistake to suppose that there is a vigorous propaganda carried on in its behalf or that there is a large demand for recruits. Only the few, who possess the call within and are impelled by the spirit of the future, have a chance of serving this high attempt and great realisation and standing among its first instruments and pioneer workers.
***
01.03 - The Yoga of the King - The Yoga of the Souls Release, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:01.03 - the Yoga of the King - the Yoga of the Souls Release
class:chapter
--
One in the front of the immemorial quest,
Protagonist of the mysterious play
In which the Unknown pursues himself through forms
And limits his eternity by the hours
And the blind Void struggles to live and see,
A thinker and toiler in the ideal's air,
Brought down to earth's dumb need her radiant power.
--
Covered the All-Wise who leads the unseeing world.
Affiliated to cosmic Space and Time
--
His knowledge shared the Light ineffable.
A strength of the original Permanence
Entangled in the moment and its flow,
He kept the vision of the Vasts behind:
A power was in him from the Unknowable.
An archivist of the symbols of the Beyond,
A treasurer of superhuman dreams,
He bore the stamp of mighty memories
And shed their grandiose ray on human life.
His days were a long growth to the Supreme.
A skyward being nourishing its roots
--
His will a hunter in the trails of light.
An ocean impulse lifted every breath;
Each action left the footprints of a god,
Each moment was a beat of puissant wings.
--
Touched by this tenant from the heights became
A playground of the living Infinite.
This bodily appearance is not all;
the form deceives, the person is a mask;
Hid deep in man celestial powers can dwell.
His fragile ship conveys through the sea of years
An incognito of the Imperishable.
A spirit that is a flame of God abides,
A fiery portion of the Wonderful,
Artist of his own beauty and delight,
--
This sculptor of the forms of the Infinite,
This screened unrecognised Inhabitant,
--
In the mute strength of the occult Idea
Determining predestined shape and act,
--
He regards the icon growing by his gaze
And in the worm foresees the coming god.
At last the traveller in the paths of Time
Arrives on the frontiers of eternity.
In the transient symbol of humanity draped,
He feels his substance of undying self
--
A beam of the Eternal smites his heart,
His thought stretches into infinitude;
--
His soul breaks out to join the Oversoul,
His life is oceaned by that superlife.
He has drunk from the breasts of the Mo ther of the worlds;
A topless Supernature fills his frame:
--
As the security of her changing world
And shapes the figure of her unborn mights.
Immortally she conceives herself in him,
In the creature the unveiled Creatrix works:
Her face is seen through his face, her eyes through his eyes;
--
then is revealed in man the overt Divine.
A static Oneness and dynamic Power
Descend in him, the integral Godhead's seals;
His soul and body take that splendid stamp.
--
Until at last is reached the giant point
Through which his Glory shines for whom we were made
And we break into the infinity of God.
Across our nature's border line we escape
--
Of which all Nature's process is the art,
the cosmic Worker set his secret hand
--
A Presence wrought behind the ambiguous screen:
It beat his soil to bear a Titan's weight,
--
the Craftsman of the magic stuff of self
Who labours at his high and difficult plan
In the wide workshop of the wonderful world,
Modelled in inward Time his rhythmic parts.
then came the abrupt transcendent miracle:
the masked immaculate Grandeur could outline,
At travail in the occult womb of life,
His dreamed magnificence of things to be.
A crown of the architecture of the worlds,
A mystery of married Earth and Heaven
Annexed divinity to the mortal scheme.
A Seer was born, a shining Guest of Time.
--
In the griffin forefront of the Night and Day
A gap was rent in the all-concealing vault;
the conscious ends of being went rolling back:
the landmarks of the little person fell,
the island ego joined its continent.
--
Life's barriers opened into the Unknown.
Abolished were conception's covenants
--
Annulled the soul's treaty with Nature's nescience.
All the grey inhibitions were torn off
And broken the intellect's hard and lustrous lid;
Truth unpartitioned found immense sky-room;
--
And made him an archmason of the soul,
A builder of the Immortal's secret house,
An aspirant to supernal Timelessness:
--
there gleamed the dawn of a spiritual day.
\t:As so he grew into his larger self,
--
Mind's soar, soul's dive into the Infinite.
Even his first steps broke our small earth-bounds
--
Efforts that would shatter the strength of mortal hearts,
Pursued in a royalty of mighty ease
--
the gifts of the spirit crowding came to him;
they were his life's pattern and his privilege.
--
It looked into the very self of things;
Deceived no more by form he saw the soul.
In beings it knew what lurked to them unknown;
It seized the idea in mind, the wish in the heart;
It plucked out from grey folds of secrecy
the motives which from their own sight men hide.
He felt the beating life in o ther men
Invade him with their happiness and their grief;
their love, their anger, their unspoken hopes
Entered in currents or in pouring waves
Into the immobile ocean of his calm.
He heard the inspired sound of his own thoughts
Re-echoed in the vault of o ther minds;
the world's thought-streams travelled into his ken;
--
To e thereal symphonies the old earthy strings;
It raised the servitors of mind and life
To be happy partners in the soul's response,
Tissue and nerve were turned to sensitive chords,
--
the body's means the spirit's acolytes.
A heavenlier function with a finer mode
--
In the dead wall closing us from wider self,
Into a secrecy of apparent sleep,
--
Appeared in the silent spaces of the soul.
He sat in secret chambers looking out
Into the luminous countries of the unborn
Where all things dreamed by the mind are seen and true
And all that the life longs for is drawn close.
He saw the Perfect in their starry homes
Wearing the glory of a deathless form,
Lain in the arms of the Eternal's peace,
Rapt in the heart-beats of God-ecstasy.
He lived in the mystic space where thought is born
And will is nursed by an e thereal Power
And fed on the white milk of the Eternal's strengths
Till it grows into the likeness of a god.
In the Witness's occult rooms with mind-built walls
On hidden interiors, lurking passages
Opened the windows of the inner sight.
He owned the house of undivided Time.
Lifting the heavy curtain of the flesh
He stood upon a threshold serpent-watched,
--
Silent and listening in the silent heart
For the coming of the new and the unknown.
He gazed across the empty stillnesses
And heard the footsteps of the undreamed Idea
In the far avenues of the Beyond.
He heard the secret Voice, the Word that knows,
And saw the secret face that is our own.
the inner planes uncovered their crystal doors;
Strange powers and influences touched his life.
--
And subtler bodies than these passing frames,
Objects too fine for our material grasp,
--
Replaced the separated sense and heart
And drew all Nature into its embrace.
the mind leaned out to meet the hidden worlds:
Air glowed and teemed with marvellous shapes and hues,
In the nostrils quivered celestial fragrances,
On the tongue lingered the honey of paradise.
A channel of universal harmony,
--
That flows beneath the cosmic surfaces,
Only mid an omniscient silence heard,
--
It caught the burden of secrecies sealed and dumb,
It voiced the unfulfilled demand of earth
And the song of promise of unrealised heavens
And all that hides in an omnipotent Sleep.
In the unceasing drama carried by Time
On its long listening flood that bears the world's
Insoluble doubt on a pilgrimage without goal,
--
A cry came of the world's delight to be,
the grandeur and greatness of its will to live,
Recall of the soul's adventure into space,
A traveller through the magic centuries
And being's labour in Matter's universe,
Its search for the mystic meaning of its birth
And joy of high spiritual response,
--
In all the sweetness of the gifts of life,
Its large breath and pulse and thrill of hope and fear,
--
the murmur and whisper of the unheard sounds
Which crowd around our hearts but find no window
--
And all the sweetness none will ever taste
And all the beauty that will never be.
Inaudible to our deaf mortal ears
the wide world-rhythms wove their stupendous chant
To which life strives to fit our rhyme-beats here,
Melting our limits in the illimitable,
Tuning the finite to infinity.
A low muttering rose from the subconscient caves,
the stammer of the primal ignorance;
Answer to that inarticulate questioning,
--
A radiant hymn to the Inexpressible
And the an them of the superconscient light.
All was revealed there none can here express;
Vision and dream were fables spoken by truth
--
Could leave their glory beyond death and birth
To utter the wisdom which exceeds all phrase:
the kings of evil and the kings of good,
Appellants at the reason's judgment seat,
Proclaimed the gospel of their opposites,
And all believed themselves spokesmen of God:
the gods of light and titans of the dark
Battled for his soul as for a costly prize.
In every hour loosed from the quiver of Time
there rose a song of new discovery,
--
To help the heart to yield to rapture's call,
And sweet temptations stole from beauty's realms
--
Sight's lightnings leaped into the invisible.
Ever his consciousness and vision grew;
--
He passed the border marked for Matter's rule
And passed the zone where thought replaces life.
Out of this world of signs suddenly he came
--
these symbol figures lost their right to live,
All tokens dropped our sense can recognise;
there the heart beat no more at body's touch,
there the eyes gazed no more on beauty's shape.
In rare and lucent intervals of hush
--
Packed with the deep contents of formlessness
Where world was into a single being rapt
And all was known by the light of identity
And Spirit was its own self-evidence.
--
And love is a yearning of the One for the One,
And beauty is a sweet difference of the Same
And oneness is the soul of multitude.
there all the truths unite in a single Truth,
And all ideas rejoin Reality.
--
Sat uncompanioned in the eternal Calm,
All-seeing, motionless, sovereign and alone.
--
the boundless with the boundless there consorts;
While there, one can be wider than the world;
While there, one is one's own infinity.
His centre was no more in earthly mind;
--
He neared the still consciousness sustaining all.
the voice that only by speech can move the mind
Became a silent knowledge in the soul;
the strength that only in action feels its truth
--
A leisure in the labour of the worlds,
A pause in the joy and anguish of the search
Restored the stress of Nature to God's calm.
A vast unanimity ended life's debate.
the war of thoughts that fa thers the universe,
the clash of forces struggling to prevail
In the tremendous shock that lights a star
As in the building of a grain of dust,
the grooves that turn their dumb ellipse in space
Ploughed by the seeking of the world's desire,
the long regurgitations of Time's flood,
the torment edging the dire force of lust
That wakes kinetic in earth's dullard slime
--
the weeping of Love, the quarrel of the Gods,
Ceased in a truth which lives in its own light.
--
Absorbed no more in the moment-ridden flux
Where mind incessantly drifts as on a raft
--
Felt in the seconds the uncounted years
And saw the hours like dots upon a page.
An aspect of the unknown Reality
Altered the meaning of the cosmic scene.
This huge material universe became
--
Overtaking the moment the eternal Ray
Illumined That which never yet was made.
--
Mind screened no more the shoreless infinite.
Across a void retreating sky he glimpsed
--
Where judgment ceases and the word is mute
And the Unconceived lies pathless and alone.
there came not form or any mounting voice;
there only were Silence and the Absolute.
Out of that stillness mind new-born arose
--
He knew the source from which his spirit came:
Movement was married to the immobile Vast;
He plunged his roots into the Infinite,
He based his life upon eternity.
\t:Only awhile at first these heavenlier states,
these large wide-poised upliftings could endure.
--
the body's stone stillness and the life's hushed trance,
the breathless might and calm of silent mind;
Or slowly they fail as sets a golden day.
the restless ne ther members tire of peace;
--
To tread the accustomed and inferior way,
the need to rest in a natural pose of fall,
--
Replace the titan will for ever to climb,
On the heart's altar dim the sacred fire.
An old pull of subconscious cords renews;
It draws the unwilling spirit from the heights,
Or a dull gravitation drags us down
To the blind driven inertia of our base.
This too the supreme Diplomat can use,
He makes our fall a means for greater rise.
--
Into the half-ordered chaos of mortal life
the formless Power, the Self of eternal light
Follow in the shadow of the spirit's descent;
the twin duality for ever one
Chooses its home mid the tumults of the sense.
He comes unseen into our darker parts
And, curtained by the darkness, does his work,
A subtle and all-knowing guest and guide,
Till they too feel the need and will to change.
All here must learn to obey a higher law,
Our body's cells must hold the Immortal's flame.
Else would the spirit reach alone its source
Leaving a half-saved world to its dubious fate.
--
Till at last the frustrate universe sank undone.
Even his godlike strength to rise must fall:
--
To feel again the old sublimities,
Bring the high saving touch, the e thereal flame,
Call back to its dire need the divine Force.
Always the power poured back like sudden rain,
Or slowly in his breast a presence grew;
--
Or soared above the peak from which it fell.
Each time he rose there was a larger poise,
A dwelling on a higher spirit plane;
--
the glory of the integer of his soul.
7.14
A union of the Real with the unique,
A gaze of the Alone from every face,
the presence of the Eternal in the hours
Widening the mortal mind's half-look on things,
Bridging the gap between man's force and Fate
Made whole the fragment-being we are here.
7.15
--
A constant lodging in the Eternal's realm,
A safety in the Silence and the Ray,
A settlement in the Immutable.
7.16
His heights of being lived in the still Self;
His mind could rest on a supernal ground
And look down on the magic and the play
Where the God-child lies on the lap of Night and Dawn
And the Everlasting puts on Time's disguise.
To the still heights and to the troubled depths
His equal spirit gave its vast assent:
--
Indifferent to the sorrow and delight,
Untempted by the marvel and the call,
Immobile it beheld the flux of things,
Calm and apart supported all that is:
His spirit's stillness helped the toiling world.
Inspired by silence and the closed eyes' sight
His force could work with a new luminous art
On the crude material from which all is made
And the refusal of Inertia's mass
And the grey front of the world's Ignorance
And nescient Matter and the huge error of life.
As a sculptor chisels a deity out of stone
He slowly chipped off the dark envelope,
Line of defence of Nature's ignorance,
the illusion and mystery of the Inconscient
In whose black pall the Eternal wraps his head
That he may act unknown in cosmic Time.
A splendour of self-creation from the peaks,
A transfiguration in the mystic depths,
A happier cosmic working could begin
And fashion the world-shape in him anew,
God found in Nature, Nature fulfilled in God.
--
Life made its home on the high tops of self;
His soul, mind, heart became a single sun;
--
But there too, in the uncertain shadow of life,
there was a labour and a fiery breath;
--
Watched by the inner Witness's moveless peace.
Even on the struggling Nature left below
Strong periods of illumination came:
--
Air rippled round the argosies of the Gods,
Strange riches sailed to him from the Unseen;
Splendours of insight filled the blank of thought,
Knowledge spoke to the inconscient stillnesses,
Rivers poured down of bliss and luminous force,
--
Rained from the all-powerful Mystery above.
thence stooped the eagles of Omniscience.
A dense veil was rent, a mighty whisper heard;
Repeated in the privacy of his soul,
A wisdom-cry from rapt transcendences
Sang on the mountains of an unseen world;
the voices that an inner listening hears
Conveyed to him their prophet utterances,
And flame-wrapped outbursts of the immortal Word
And flashes of an occult revealing Light
Approached him from the unreachable Secrecy.
An inspired Knowledge sat enthroned within
--
And like a sky-flare showing all the ground
A swift intuitive discernment shone.
One glance could separate the true and false,
Or raise its rapid torch-fire in the dark
To check the claimants crowding through mind's gates
Covered by the forged signatures of the gods,
Detect the magic bride in her disguise
Or scan the apparent face of thought and life.
\t:Oft inspiration with her lightning feet,
A sudden messenger from the all-seeing tops,
Traversed the soundless corridors of his mind
Bringing her rhythmic sense of hidden things.
--
As if from a golden phial of the All-Bliss,
A joy of light, a joy of sudden sight,
A rapture of the thrilled undying Word
Poured into his heart as into an empty cup,
--
Lodged in the expectant stillness of his depths
A crystal of the ultimate Absolute,
A portion of the inexpressible Truth
Revealed by silence to the silent soul.
the intense creatrix in his stillness wrought;
--
She looked upon the seen and the unforeseen,
Unguessed domains she made her native field.
--
As when the eyes stare at an invisible point
Till through the intensity of one luminous spot
An apocalypse of a world of images
Enters into the kingdom of the seer.
A great nude arm of splendour suddenly rose;
It rent the gauze opaque of Nescience:
Her lifted finger's keen unthinkable tip
Bared with a stab of flame the closed Beyond.
8.8
--
A mind plucking at the unimaginable,
Overleaping with a sole and perilous bound
--
And plundered the Unknowable's vast estate.
A gleaner of infinitesimal grains of Truth,
--
She pierced the guarded mysteries of World-Force
And her magic methods wrapped in a thousand veils;
Or she ga thered the lost secrets dropped by Time
In the dust and crannies of his mounting route
Mid old forsaken dreams of hastening Mind
--
She joined the distant ends, the viewless deeps,
Or streaked along the roads of Heaven and Hell
Pursuing all knowledge like a questing hound.
--
Passed through the masked office of the occult mind,
Transmitting gave to prophet and to seer
the inspired body of the mystic Truth.
A recorder of the inquiry of the gods,
Spokesman of the silent seeings of the Supreme,
She brought immortal words to mortal men.
Above the reason's brilliant slender curve,
Released like radiant air dimming a moon,
--
Stretched out surrounded by the eternal hush;
the ways that lead to endless happiness
--
White sun-steppes in the pathless Infinite.
Along a naked curve in bourneless Self
the points that run through the closed heart of things
Shadowed the indeterminable line
That carries the Everlasting through the years.
the magician order of the cosmic Mind
Coercing the freedom of infinity
With the stark array of Nature's symbol facts
And life's incessant signals of event,
--
Out of the rich wonders and the intricate whorls
Of the spirit's dance with Matter as its mask
the balance of the world's design grew clear,
Its symmetry of self-arranged effects
Managed in the deep perspectives of the soul,
And the realism of its illusive art,
Its logic of infinite intelligence,
--
the letters stood out of the unmoving Word:
In the immutable nameless Origin
Was seen emerging as from fathomless seas
the trail of the Ideas that made the world,
And, sown in the black earth of Nature's trance,
the seed of the Spirit's blind and huge desire
From which the tree of cosmos was conceived
And spread its magic arms through a dream of space.
--
there looked out from the shadow of the Unknown
the bodiless Namelessness that saw God born
And tries to gain from the mortal's mind and soul
A deathless body and a divine name.
the immobile lips, the great surreal wings,
the visage masked by superconscient Sleep,
the eyes with their closed lids that see all things,
Appeared of the Architect who builds in trance.
the original Desire born in the Void
Peered out; he saw the hope that never sleeps,
the feet that run behind a fleeting fate,
the ineffable meaning of the endless dream.
Hardly for a moment glimpsed viewless to Mind,
--
the radiant world of the everlasting Truth
Glimmered like a faint star bordering the night
Above the golden Overmind's shimmering ridge.
Even were caught as through a cunning veil
the smile of love that sanctions the long game,
the calm indulgence and maternal breasts
Of Wisdom suckling the child-laughter of Chance,
Silence, the nurse of the Almighty's power,
the omniscient hush, womb of the immortal Word,
And of the Timeless the still brooding face,
And the creative eye of Eternity.
the inspiring goddess entered a mortal's breast,
Made there her study of divining thought
And sanctuary of prophetic speech
And sat upon the tripod seat of mind:
All was made wide above, all lit below.
--
On the undiscovered depths imposed a form,
Lent a vibrant cry to the unuttered vasts,
And through great shoreless, voiceless, starless breadths
--
Hewn from the silence of the Ineffable.
A Voice in the heart uttered the unspoken Name,
A dream of seeking Thought wandering through Space
Entered the invisible and forbidden house:
the treasure was found of a supernal Day.
In the deep subconscient glowed her jewel-lamp;
Lifted, it showed the riches of the Cave
Where, by the miser traffickers of sense
Unused, guarded beneath Night's dragon paws,
In folds of velvet darkness draped they sleep
Whose priceless value could have saved the world.
A darkness carrying morning in its breast
Looked for the eternal wide returning gleam,
Waiting the advent of a larger ray
And rescue of the lost herds of the Sun.
In a splendid extravagance of the waste of God
Dropped carelessly in creation's spendthrift work,
Left in the chantiers of the bottomless world
And stolen by the robbers of the Deep,
the golden shekels of the Eternal lie,
Hoarded from touch and view and thought's desire,
Locked in blind antres of the ignorant flood,
Lest men should find them and be even as Gods.
A vision lightened on the viewless heights,
A wisdom illumined from the voiceless depths:
A deeper interpretation greatened Truth,
A grand reversal of the Night and Day;
All the world's values changed heightening life's aim;
A wiser word, a larger thought came in
Than what the slow labour of human mind can bring,
A secret sense awoke that could perceive
--
But a living movement of the body of God.
A spirit hid in forces and in forms
Was the spectator of the mobile scene:
the beauty and the ceaseless miracle
Let in a glow of the Unmanifest:
the formless Everlasting moved in it
--
In the struggle and upheaval of the world
He saw the labour of a godhead's birth.
A secret knowledge masked as Ignorance;
--
the All-Blissful sat unknown within the heart;
Earth's pains were the ransom of its prisoned delight.
A glad communion tinged the passing hours;
the days were travellers on a destined road,
--
Once only registering the heavy tread
Of a blind Power on human littleness,
--
And cosmos the soul's opportunity.
the world was a conception and a birth
--
And Nature bore the Immortal in her womb,
That she might climb through him to eternal life.
--
Lit by the rays of an everlasting sun.
Even his body's subtle self within
Could raise the earthly parts towards higher things
And feel on it the breath of heavenlier air.
Already it journeyed towards divinity:
--
It left mind's distance from the Truth supreme
And lost life's incapacity for bliss.
--
His daily thoughts looked up to the True and One,
His commonest doings welled from an inner Light.
Awakened to the lines that Nature hides,
Attuned to her movements that exceed our ken,
--
He spoke with the unknown Guardians of the worlds,
Forms he descried our mortal eyes see not.
--
He saw the cosmic forces at their work
And felt the occult impulse behind man's will.
Time's secrets were to him an oft-read book;
the records of the future and the past
Outlined their excerpts on the e theric page.
One and harmonious by the Maker's skill,
the human in him paced with the divine;
His acts betrayed not the interior flame.
This forged the greatness of his front to earth.
A genius heightened in his body's cells
That knew the meaning of his fate-hedged works
Akin to the march of unaccomplished Powers
Beyond life's arc in spirit's immensities.
--
A demigod shaping the lives of men:
One soul's ambition lifted up the race;
A Power worked, but none knew whence it came.
--
Filling earth's smallness with their boundless breadths,
He drew the energies that transmute an age.
Immeasurable by the common look,
He made great dreams a mould for coming things
And cast his deeds like bronze to front the years.
His walk through Time outstripped the human stride.
Lonely his days and splendid like the sun's.
\t:End of Book I - Canto III
01.03 - Yoga and the Ordinary Life, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:01.03 - Yoga and the Ordinary Life
class:chapter
In the Yoga practised here the aim is to rise to a higher consciousness and to live out of the higher consciousness alone, not with the ordinary motives. This means a change of life as well as a change of consciousness. But all are not so circumstanced that they can cut loose from the ordinary life; they accept it therefore as a field of experience and self-training in the earlier stages of the sadhana. But they must take care to look at it as a field of experience only and to get free from the ordinary desires, attachments and ideas which usually go with it; o therwise it becomes a drag and hindrance on their sadhana. When one is not compelled by circumstances there is no necessity to continue the ordinary life.
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.
I may say briefly that there are two states of consciousness in ei ther of which one can live. One is a higher consciousness which stands above the play of life and governs it; this is variously called the Self, the Spirit or the Divine. the o ther is the normal consciousness in which men live; it is something quite superficial, an instrument of the Spirit for the play of life. Those who live and act in the normal consciousness are governed entirely by the common movements of the mind and are naturally subject to grief and joy and anxiety and desire or to everything else that makes up the ordinary stuff of life.
Mental quiet and happiness they can get, but it can never be permanent or secure. But the spiritual consciousness is all light, peace, power and bliss. If one can live entirely in it, there is no question; these things become naturally and securely his.
But even if he can live partly in it or keep himself constantly open to it, he receives enough of this spiritual light and peace and strength and happiness to carry him securely through all the shocks of life. What one gains by opening to this spiritual consciousness, depends on what one seeks from it; if it is peace, one gets peace; if it is light or knowledge, one lives in a great light and receives a knowledge deeper and truer than any the normal mind of man can acquire; if it [is] strength or power, one gets a spiritual strength for the inner life or Yogic power to govern the outer work and action; if it is happiness, one enters into a beatitude far greater than any joy or happiness that the ordinary human life can give.
there are many ways of opening to this Divine consciousness or entering into it. My way which I show to o thers is by a constant practice to go inward into oneself, to open by aspiration to the Divine and once one is conscious of it and its action to give oneself to It entirely. This self-giving means not to ask for anything but the constant contact or union with the Divine Consciousness, to aspire for its peace, power, light and felicity, but to ask nothing else and in life and action to be its instrument only for whatever work it gives one to do in the world. If one can once open and feel the Divine Force, the
Power of the Spirit working in the mind and heart and body, the rest is a matter of remaining faithful to It, calling for it always, allowing it to do its work when it comes and rejecting every o ther and inferior Force that belongs to the lower consciousness and the lower nature.
Apart from external things there are two possible inner ideals which a man can follow. the first is the highest ideal of ordinary human life and the o ther the divine ideal of Yoga.
I must say in view of something you seem to have said to your fa ther that it is not the object of the one to be a great man or the object of the o ther to be a great Yogin. the ideal of human life is to establish over the whole being the control of a clear, strong and rational mind and a right and rational will, to master the emotional, vital and physical being, create a harmony of the whole and develop the capacities whatever they are and fulfil them in life. In the terms of Hindu thought, it is to enthrone the rule of the purified and sattwic buddhi, follow the dharma, fulfilling one's own svadharma and doing the work proper to one's capacities, and satisfy kama and artha under the control of the buddhi and the dharma. the object of the divine life, on the o ther hand, is to realise one's highest self or to realise
God and to put the whole being into harmony with the truth of the highest self or the law of the divine nature, to find one's own divine capacities great or small and fulfil them in life as a sacrifice to the highest or as a true instrument of the divine
Sakti.
the spiritual life (adhyatma jvana), the religious life (dharma jvana) and the ordinary human life of which morality is a part are three quite different things and one must know which one desires and not confuse the three toge ther. the ordinary life is that of the average human consciousness separated from its own true self and from the Divine and led by the common habits of the mind, life and body which are the laws of the Ignorance.
the religious life is a movement of the same ignorant human consciousness, turning or trying to turn away from the earth towards the Divine but as yet without knowledge and led by the dogmatic tenets and rules of some sect or creed which claims to have found the way out of the bonds of the earth-consciousness into some beatific Beyond. the religious life may be the first approach to the spiritual, but very often it is only a turning about in a round of rites, ceremonies and practices or set ideas and forms without any issue. the spiritual life, on the contrary, proceeds directly by a change of consciousness, a change from the ordinary consciousness, ignorant and separated from its true self and from God, to a greater consciousness in which one finds one's true being and comes first into direct and living contact and then into union with the Divine. For the spiritual seeker this change of consciousness is the one thing he seeks and nothing else matters.
Morality is a part of the ordinary life; it is an attempt to govern the outward conduct by certain mental rules or to form the character by these rules in the image of a certain mental ideal. the spiritual life goes beyond the mind; it enters into the deeper consciousness of the Spirit and acts out of the truth of the Spirit.
the principle of life which I seek to establish is spiritual.
Morality is a question of man's mind and vital, it belongs to a lower plane of consciousness. A spiritual life therefore cannot be founded on a moral basis, it must be founded on a spiritual basis. This does not mean that the spiritual man must be immoral - as if there were no o ther law of conduct than the moral. the law of action of the spiritual consciousness is higher, not lower than the moral - it is founded on union with the Divine and living in the Divine Consciousness and its action is founded on obedience to the Divine Will.
01.04 - Motives for Seeking the Divine, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:01.04 - Motives for Seeking the Divine
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Obviously to seek the Divine only for what one can get out of
Him is not the proper attitude; but if it were absolutely forbidden to seek Him for these things, most people in the world would not turn towards Him at all. I suppose therefore it is allowed so that they may make a beginning - if they have faith, they may get what they ask for and think it a good thing to go on and then one day they may suddenly stumble upon the idea that this is after all not quite the one thing to do and that there are better ways and a better spirit in which one can approach the
Divine. If they do not get what they want and still come to the
Divine and trust in Him, well, that shows they are getting ready.
Let us look on it as a sort of infants' school for the unready.
But of course that is not the spiritual life, it is only a sort of elementary religious approach. For the spiritual life to give and not to demand is the rule. the sadhak however can ask for the
Divine Force to aid him in keeping his health or recovering it if he does that as part of his sadhana so that his body may be able and fit for the spiritual life and a capable instrument for the
Divine Work.
Let us first put aside the quite foreign consideration of what we would do if the union with the Divine brought eternal joylessness, Nirananda or torture. Such a thing does not exist and to drag it in only clouds the issue. the Divine is Anandamaya and one can seek him for the Ananda he gives; but he has also in him many o ther things and one may seek him for any of them, for peace, for liberation, for knowledge, for power, for anything else of which one may feel the pull or the impulse. It is quite possible for someone to say: "Let me have Power from the
Divine and do His work or His will and I am satisfied, even if the use of Power entails suffering also." It is possible to shun bliss as a thing too tremendous or ecstatic and ask only or ra ther for peace, for liberation, for Nirvana. You speak of self-fulfilment,
- one may regard the Supreme not as the Divine but as one's highest Self and seek fulfilment of one's being in that highest Self; but one need not envisage it as a self of bliss, ecstasy, Ananda - one may envisage it as a self of freedom, vastness, knowledge, tranquillity, strength, calm, perfection - perhaps too calm for a ripple of anything so disturbing as joy to enter. So even if it is for something to be gained that one approaches the Divine, it is not a fact that one can approach Him or seek union only for the sake of Ananda and nothing else.
That involves something which throws all your reasoning out of gear. For these are aspects of the Divine Nature, powers of it, states of his being, - but the Divine Himself is something absolute, someone self-existent, not limited by his aspects, - wonderful and ineffable, not existing by them, but they existing because of him. It follows that if he attracts by his aspects, all the more he can attract by his very absolute selfness which is sweeter, mightier, profounder than any aspect. His peace, rapture, light, freedom, beauty are marvellous and ineffable, because he is himself magically, mysteriously, transcendently marvellous and ineffable. He can then be sought after for his wonderful and ineffable self and not only for the sake of one aspect or ano ther of him. the only thing needed for that is, first, to arrive at a point when the psychic being feels this pull of the Divine in himself and, secondly, to arrive at the point when the mind, vital and each thing else begins to feel too that that was what it was wanting and the surface hunt after Ananda or what else was only an excuse for drawing the nature towards that supreme magnet.
Your argument that because we know the union with the
Divine will bring Ananda, therefore it must be for the Ananda that we seek the union, is not true and has no force. One who loves a queen may know that if she returns his love it will bring him power, position, riches and yet it need not be for the power, position, riches that he seeks her love. He may love her for herself and could love her equally if she were not a queen; he might have no hope of any return whatever and yet love her, adore her, live for her, die for her simply because she is she. That has happened and men have loved women without any hope of enjoyment or result, loved steadily, passionately after age has come and beauty has gone. Patriots do not love their country only when she is rich, powerful, great and has much to give them; their love for country has been most ardent, passionate, absolute when the country was poor, degraded, miserable, having nothing to give but loss, wounds, torture, imprisonment, death as the wages of her service; yet even knowing that they would never see her free, men have lived, served and died for her - for her own sake, not for what she could give. Men have loved Truth for her own sake and for what they could seek or find of her, accepted poverty, persecution, death itself; they have been content even to seek for her always, not finding, and yet never given up the search.
That means what? That men, country, Truth and o ther things besides can be loved for their own sake and not for anything else, not for any circumstance or attendant quality or resulting enjoyment, but for something absolute that is ei ther in them or behind their appearance and circumstance. the Divine is more than a man or woman, a stretch of land or a creed, opinion, discovery or principle. He is the Person beyond all persons, the
Home and Country of all souls, the Truth of which truths are only imperfect figures. And can He then not be loved and sought for his own sake, as and more than these have been by men even in their lesser selves and nature?
What your reasoning ignores is that which is absolute or tends towards the absolute in man and his seeking as well as in the Divine - something not to be explained by mental reasoning or vital motive. A motive, but a motive of the soul, not of vital desire; a reason not of the mind, but of the self and spirit. An asking too, but the asking that is the soul's inherent aspiration, not a vital longing. That is what comes up when there is the sheer self-giving, when "I seek you for this, I seek you for that" changes to a sheer "I seek you for you." It is that marvellous and ineffable absolute in the Divine that Krishnaprem means when he says, "Not knowledge nor this nor that, but Krishna."
the pull of that is indeed a categorical imperative, the self in us drawn to the Divine because of the imperative call of its greater Self, the soul ineffably drawn towards the object of its adoration, because it cannot be o therwise, because it is it and
He is He. That is all about it.
I have written all that only to explain what we mean when we speak of seeking the Divine for himself and not for anything else - so far as it is explicable. Explicable or not, it is one of the most dominant facts of spiritual experience. the call to selfgiving is only an expression of this fact. But this does not mean that I object to your asking for Ananda. Ask for that by all means, so long as to ask for it is a need of any part of your being
- for these are the things that lead on towards the Divine so long as the absolute inner call that is there all the time does not push itself to the surface. But it is really that that has drawn from the beginning and is there behind - it is the categorical spiritual imperative, the absolute need of the soul for the Divine.
I am not saying that there is to be no Ananda. the selfgiving itself is a profound Ananda and what it brings, carries in its wake an inexpressible Ananda - and it is brought by this method sooner than by any o ther, so that one can say almost,
"A self-less self-giving is the best policy." Only one does not do it out of policy. Ananda is the result, but it is done not for the result, but for the self-giving itself and for the Divine himself - a subtle distinction, it may seem to the mind, but very real.
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 o ther 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, whe ther through desireless work or knowledge or devotion or even a combination of the three. the Modern School, on the o ther 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 o ther-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.
Sri Aurobindo has raised action completely out of the mental and moral plane and has given it an absolute spiritual life. Action has been spiritualised by being carried back to its very source and origin, for it is the expression in life of God's own Consciousness-Energy (Chit-Shakti).
the Supreme Spirit, Purushottama, who holds in himself the dual reality of Brahman and the world, is the master of action who acts but in actionlessness, the Lord in whom and through whom the universes and their creatures live and move and have their being. Karmayoga is union in mind and soul and body with the Lord of action in the execution of his cosmic purpose. And this union is effected through a transformation of the human nature, through the revelation of the Divine Prakriti and its descent upon and possession of the inferior human vehicle.
Arrived so far, we now find, if we look back, a change in the whole perspective. Karma and even Karmayoga, which hi therto seemed to be the pivot of the Gita's teaching, retire somewhat into the background and present a diminished stature and value. the centre of gravity has shifted to the conception of the Divine Nature, to the Lord's own status, to the consciousness above the three Gunas, to absolute consecration of each limb of man's humanity to the Supreme Purusha for his descent and incarnation and play in and upon this human world.
the higher secret of the Gita lies really in the later chapters, the earlier chapters being a preparation and passage to it orpartial and practical application. This has to be pointed out, since there is a notion current which seeks to limit the Gita's effective teaching to the earlier part, neglecting or even discarding the later portion.
the style and manner of Sri Aurobindo's interpretation1 is also supremely characteristic: it does not carry the impress of a mere metaphysical dissertation-although in matter it clo thes throughout a profound philosophy; it is throbbing with the luminous life of a prophet's message, it is instinct with something of the Gita's own mantraakti.
Essays on the Gita, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry
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01.04 - The Intuition of the Age, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
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author class:Nolini Kanta Gupta
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the Intuition of the Age
All movementswhe ther of thought or of life, whe ther in the individual or in the massproceed from a fundamental intuition which lies in the background as the logical presupposition, the psychological motive and the spiritual force. A certain attitude of the soul, a certain angle of vision is what is posited first; all o ther thingsall thoughts and feelings and activities are but necessary attempts to express, to demonstrate, to realise on the conscious and dynamic levels, in the outer world, the truth which has thus already been seized in some secret core of our being. the intuition may not, of course, be present to the conscious mind, it may not be ostensibly sought for, one may even deny the existence of such a preconceived notion and proceed to establish truth on a tabula rasa; none the less it is this hidden bias that judges, this secret consciousness that formulates, this unknown power that fashions.
Now, what is the intuition that lies behind the movements of the new age? What is the intimate realisation, the underlying view-point which is guiding and modelling all our efforts and achievementsour science and art, our poetry and philosophy, our religion and society? For, there is such a common and fundamental note which is being voiced forth by the human spirit through all the multitude of its present-day activities.
A new impulse is there, no one can deny, and it has vast possibilities before it, that also one need not hesitate to accept. But in order that we may best fructuate what has been spontaneously sown, we must first recognise it, be luminously conscious of it and develop it along its proper line of growth. For, also certain it is that this new impulse or intuition, however true and strong in itself, is still groping and erring and miscarrying; it is still wasting much of its energy in tentative things, in mere experiments, in even clear failures. the fact is that the intuition has not yet become an enlightened one, it is still moving, as we shall presently explain, in the dark vital regions of man. And vitalism is naturally and closely affianced to pragmatism, that is to say, the mere vital impulse seeks immediately to execute itself, it looks for external effects, for changes in the form, in the machinery only. Thus it is that we see in art and literature discussions centred upon the scheme of composition, as whe ther the new poetry should be lyrical or dramatic, popular or aristocratic, metrical or free of metre, and in practical life we talk of remodelling the state by new methods of representation and governance, of purging society by bills and legislation, of reforming humanity by a business pact.
All this may be good and necessary, but there is the danger of leaving altoge ther out of account the one thing needful. We must then pause and turn back, look behind the apparent impulsion that effectuates to the Will that drives, behind the ideas and ideals of the mind to the soul that informs and inspires; we must carry ourselves up the stream and concentrate upon the original source, the creative intuition that lies hidden somewhere. And then only all the new stirrings that we feel in our heartour urges and ideals and visions will attain an effective clarity, an unshaken purpose and an inevitable achievement.
That is to say, the change has been in the soul of man himself, the being has veered round and taken a new orientation. It is this which one must envisage, recognise and consciously possess, in order that one may best fulfil the call of the age. But what we are doing instead is to observe the mere external signs and symbols and symptoms, to fix upon the distant quiverings, the echoes on the outermost rim, which are not always faithful representations, but very often distorted images of the truth and life at the centre and source and matrix. We must know that if there has been going on a redistribution and new-marshalling of forces, it is because the fiat has come from the Etat Major.
Now, in order to understand the new orientation of the spirit of the present age, we may profitably ask what was the inspiration of the past age, the characteristic note which has failed to satisfy us and which we are endeavouring to transform. We know that that age was the Scientific age or the age of Reason. Its great prophets were Voltaire and the Encyclopaedists or if you mount fur ther up in time, we may begin from Bacon and the humanists. Its motto was first, " the proper study of mankind is man" and secondly, Reason is the supreme organon of knowledge, the highest deity in manla Desse Raison. And it is precisely against these two basic principles that the new age has entered its protest. In face of Humanism, Nietzsche has posited the Superman and in face of Reason Bergson has posited Intuition.
the worship of man as something essentially and exclusively human necessitates as a corollary, the o ther doctrine, viz the deification of Reason; and vice versa. Humanism and Scientism go toge ther 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 ano ther 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 o ther more powerful faculties.
Now, the question is, what is the insufficiency of Reason? How does it limit man? And what is the Superman into which man is asked or is being impelled to grow?
Reason is insufficient and unsatisfactory because, as Bergson explains, it does not and cannot embrace life as a whole, seize man and the world in an integral realisation. the greater part of the vast mystery of existence escapes its envergure. Reason is that faculty which is for analysing, defining, classifying and fixing things. It is a power that has grown in man in order that he may best manipulate the things of the world. It is utilitarian, practical in its nature and outlook. And as practical dealing requires that things should be stable and separate entities, therefore Reason cannot but see things in solid and in the fragments of a solid. It cuts up existence into distinct parts and diverse elements; and these again it seeks to relate and aggregate, in accordance with what it calls "laws". Such a process has been necessary for man in conducting life and action successfully. Originally a bye-product of active life, Reason gradually separated itself and came finally to have an independent status and function, became or sought to become the instrument of knowledge, of Truth.
But although Reason has been and is useful for the practical, we may say almost, the manual aspect of life, life itself it leaves unexplained and uncomprehended. For life is mobility, a continuous flow that has nowhere any gap or stop and things have in reality no isolated or separate existence, they merge and mingle into one ano ther and form an indissoluble whole. therefore the forms and categories that Reason imposes upon existence are more or less arbitrary; they are shackles that seek to bind up and limit life, but are often rent asunder in the very effort. So the civilisation that has its origin in Reason and progresses with discoveries and inventionsdevices for artfully manipulating naturehas been essentially and pre-eminently mechanical in its structure and outlook. It has become more and more efficient perhaps, but less and less soul-inspired, less and less-endowed with the free-flowing sap of organic growth and vitality.
So instead of the rational principle, the new age wants the principle of Nature or Life. Even as regards knowledge Reason is not the only, nor the best instrument. For animals have properly no reason; the nature-principle of knowledge in the animal is Instinct the faculty that acts so faultlessly, so marvellously where Reason can only pause and be perplexed. This is not to say that man is to or can go back to this primitive and animal function; but certainly he can replace it by something akin which is as natural and yet purified and self-consciousillumined instinct, we may say or Intuition, as Bergson terms it. And Nietzsche's definition of the Superman has also a similar orientation and significance; for, according to him, the Superman is man who has outgrown his Reason, who is not bound by the standards and the conventions determined by Reason for a special purpose. the Superman is one who has gone beyond "good and evil," who has shaken off from his nature and character elements that are "human, all too human"who is the embodiment of life-force in its absolute purity and strength and freedom.
This then is the mantra of the new ageLife with Intuition as its guide and not Reason and mechanical efficiency, not Man but Superman. the right mantra has been found, the principle itself is irreproachable. But the interpretation, the application, does not seem to have been always happy. For, Nietzsche's conception of the Superman is full of obvious lacunae. If we have so long been adoring the intellectual man, Nietzsche asks us, on the o ther hand, to deify the vital man. According to him the superman is he who has (1) the supreme sense of the ego, (2) the sovereign will to power and (3) who lives dangerously. All this means an Asura, that is to say, one who has, it may be, dominion over his animal and vital impulsions in order, of course, that he may best gratify them but who has not purified them. Purification does not necessarily mean, annihilation but it does mean sublimation and transformation. So if you have to transcend man, you have to transcend egoism also. For a conscious egoism is the very characteristic of man and by increasing your sense of egoism you do not supersede man but simply aggrandise your humanity, fashion it on a larger, a titanic scale. And then the will to power is not the only will that requires fulfilment, there is also the will to knowledge and the will to love. In man these three fundamental constitutive elements coexist, although they do it, more often than not, at the expense of each o ther and in a state of continual disharmony. the superman, if he is to be the man "who has surmounted himself", must embody a poise of being in which all the three find a fusion and harmonya perfect syn thesis. Again, to live dangerously may be heroic, but it is not divine. To live dangerously means to have eternal opponents, that is to say, to live ever on the same level with the forces you want to dominate. To have the sense that one has to fight and control means that one is not as yet the sovereign lord, for one has to strive and strain and attain. the supreme lord is he who is perfectly equanimous with himself and with the world. He has not to batter things into a shape in order to create. He creates means, he manifests. He wills and he achieves"God said 'let there be light' and there was light."
As a matter of fact, the superman is not, as Nietzsche thinks him to be, the highest embodiment of the biological force of Nature, not even as modified and refined by the aes thetic and aristocratic virtues of which the higher reaches of humanity seem capable. For that is after all humanity only accentuated in certain o ther fundamentally human modes of existence. It does not carry far enough the process of surmounting. In reality it is not a surmounting but a new channelling. Instead of the ethical and intellectual man, we get the vital and aes thetic man. It may be a change but not a transfiguration.
And the faculty of Intuition said to be the characteristic of the New Man does not mean all that it should, if we confine ourselves to Bergson's definition of it. Bergson says that Intuition is a sort of sympathy, a community of feeling or sensibility with the urge of the life-reality. the difference between the sympathy of Instinct and the sympathy of Intuition being that while the former is an unconscious or semi-conscious power, the latter is illumined and self-conscious. Now this view emphasises only the feeling-tone of Intuition, the vital sensibility that attends the direct communion with the life movement. But Intuition is not only purified feeling and sensibility, it is also purified vision and knowledge. It unites us not only with the movement of life, but also opens out to our sight the Truths, the fundamental realities behind that movement. Bergson does not, of course, point to any existence behind the continuous flux of life-power the elan vital. He seems to deny any static truth or truths to be seen and seized in any scheme of knowledge. To him the dynamic flow the Heraclitian panta reei is the ultimate reality. It is precisely to this view of things that Bergson owes his conception of Intuition. Since existence is a continuum of Mind-Energy, the only way to know it is to be in harmony or unison with it, to move along its current. the conception of knowledge as a fixing and delimiting of things is necessarily an anomaly in this scheme. But the question is, is matter the only static and separative reality? Is the flux of vital Mind-Energy the ultimate truth?
Matter forms the lowest level of reality. Above it is the elan vital. Above the elan vital there is yet the domain of the Spirit. And the Spirit is a static substance and at the same a dynamic creative power. It is Being (Sat) that realises or expresses itself through certain typal nuclei or nodi of consciousness (chit) in a continuous becoming, in a flow of creative activity (ananda). the dynamism of the vital energy is only a refraction or precipitation of the dynamism of the spirit; and so also static matter is only the substance of the spirit concretised and solidified. It is in an uplift both of matter and vital force to their prototypesswarupa and swabhavain the Spirit that lies the real transformation and transfiguration of the humanity of man.
This is the truth that is trying to dawn upon the new age. Not matter but that which forms the substance of matter, not intellect but a vaster consciousness that informs the intellect, not man as he is, an aberration in the cosmic order, but as he may and shall be the embodiment and fulfilment of that orderthis is the secret Intuition which, as yet dimly envisaged, never theless secretly inspires all the human activities of today. Only, the truth is being interpreted, as we have said, in terms of vital life. the intellectual and physical man gave us one aspect of the reality, but nei ther is the vital and psychical man the complete reality. the one acquisition of this shifting of the viewpoint has been that we are now in touch with the natural and deeper movement of humanity and not as before merely with its artificial scaffolding. the Alexandrine civilisation of humanity, in Nietzsche's phrase, was a sort of divagation from nature, it was following a loop away from the direct path of natural evolution. And the new Renaissance of today has precisely corrected this aberration of humanity and brought it again in a line with the natural cosmic order.
Certainly this does not go far enough into the motive of the change. the cosmic order does not mean mentalised vitalism which is also in its turn a section of the integral reality. It means the order of the spirit, it means the transfiguration of the physical, the vital and the intellectual into the supernal Substance, Power and Light of that Spirit. the real transcendence of humanity is not the transcendence of one or o ther of its levels but the total transcendence to an altoge ther different status and the transmutation of humanity in the mould of that statusnot a Nietzschean Titan nor a Bergsonian Dionysus but the tranquil vision and delight and dynamism of the Spirit the incarnation of a god-head.
***
Rationalism the Nietzschean Antichrist
01.04 - The Poetry in the Making, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
object:01.04 - the Poetry in the Making
author class:Nolini Kanta Gupta
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O ther Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Poets and Mystics the Poetry in the Making
the Poetry in the Making
Is the artist the supreme artist, when he is a genius, that is to sayconscious in his creation or is he unconscious? Two quite opposite views have been taken of the problem by the best of intelligences. On the one hand, it is said that genius is genius precisely because it acts unconsciously, and on the o ther it is asserted with equal emphasis that genius is the capacity of taking infinite pains, which means it is absolutely a self conscious activity.
We take a third view of the matter and say that genius is nei ther unconscious or conscious but superconscious. And when one is superconscious, one can be in appearance ei ther conscious or unconscious. Let us at the outset try to explain a little this psychological riddle.
When we say one is conscious, we usually mean that one is conscious with the mental consciousness, with the rational intelligence, with the light of the brain. But this need not be always so. For one can be conscious with o ther forms of consciousness or in o ther planes of consciousness. In the average or normal man the consciousness is linked to or identified with the brain function, the rational intelligence and so we conclude that without this wakeful brain activity there can be no consciousness. But the fact is o therwise. the experiences of the mystic prove the point. the mystic is conscious on a level which we describe as higher than the mind and reason, he has what may be called the overhead consciousness. (Apart from the normal consciousness, which is named jagrat, waking, the Upanishad speaks of three o ther increasingly subtler states of consciousness, swapna, sushupti and turiya.)And then one can be quite unconscious, as in samadhi that can be sushupti or turiyaorpartially consciousin swapna, for example, the external behaviour may be like that of a child or a lunatic or even a goblin. One can also remain normally conscious and still be in the superconscience. Not only so, the mystic the Yogican be conscious on infraconscious levels also; that is to say, he can enter into and identify with the consciousness involved in life and even in Matter; he can feel and realise his oneness with the animal world, the plant world and finally the world of dead earth, of "stocks and stones" too. For all these strands of existence have each its own type of consciousness and all different from the mode of mind which is normally known as consciousness. When St. Francis addresses himself to the bro ther Sun or the sister Moon, or when the Upanishad speaks of the tree silhouetted against the sky, as if stilled in trance, we feel there is something of this fusion and identification of consciousness with an infra-conscient existence.
I said that the supreme artist is superconscious: his consciousness withdraws from the normal mental consciousness and becomes awake and alive in ano ther order of consciousness. To that superior consciousness the artist's mentalityhis ideas and dispositions, his judgments and valuations and acquisitions, in o ther words, his normal psychological make-upserves as a channel, an instrument, a medium for transcription. Now, there are two stages, or ra ther two lines of activity in the processus, for they may be overlapping and practically simultaneous. First, there is the withdrawal and the in-ga thering of consciousness and then its reappearance into expression. the consciousness retires into a secret or subtle worldWords-worth's "recollected in tranquillity"and comes back with the riches ga thered or transmuted there. But the purity of the gold thus garnered and stalled in the artistry of words and sounds or lines and colours depends altoge ther upon the purity of the channel through which it has to pass. the mental vehicle receives and records and it can do so to perfection if it is perfectly in tune with what it has to receive and record; o therwise the transcription becomes mixed and blurred, a faint or confused echo, a poor show. the supreme creators are precisely those in whom the receptacle, the instrumental faculties offer the least resistance and record with absolute fidelity the experiences of the over or inner consciousness. In Shakespeare, in Homer, in Valmiki the inflatus of the secret consciousness, the inspiration, as it is usually termed, bears down, sweeps away all obscurity or contrariety in the recording mentality, suffuses it with its own glow and puissance, indeed resolves it into its own substance, as it were. And the difference between the two, the secret norm and the recording form, determines the scale of the artist's creative value. It happens often that the obstruction of a too critically observant and self-conscious brain-mind successfully blocks up the flow of something supremely beautiful that wanted to come down and waited for an opportunity.
Artists themselves, almost invariably, speak of their inspiration: they look upon themselves more or less as mere instruments of something or some Power that is beyond them, beyond their normal consciousness attached to the brain-mind, that controls them and which they cannot control. This perception has been given shape in myths and legends. Goddess Saraswati or the Muses are, however, for them not a mere metaphor but concrete realities. To what extent a poet may feel himself to be a mere passive, almost inanimate, instrumentnothing more than a mirror or a sensitive photographic plateis illustrated in the famous case of Coleridge. His Kubla Khan, as is well known, he heard in sleep and it was a long poem very distinctly recited to him, but when he woke up and wanted to write it down he could remember only the opening lines, the rest having gone completely out of his memory; in o ther words, the poem was ready-composed somewhere else, but the transmitting or recording instrument was faulty and failed him. Indeed, it is a common experience to hear in sleep verses or musical tunes and what seem then to be very beautiful things, but which leave no trace on the brain and are not recalled in memory.
Still, it must be noted that Coleridge is a rare example, for the recording apparatus is not usually so faithful but puts up its own formations that disturb and alter the perfection of the original. the passivity or neutrality of the intermediary is relative, and there are infinite grades of it. Even when the larger waves that play in it in the normal waking state are quieted down, smaller ripples of unconscious or half-conscious habitual formations are thrown up and they are sufficient to cause the scattering and dispersal of the pure light from above.
the absolute passivity is attainable, perhaps, only by the Yogi. And in this sense the supreme poet is a Yogi, for in his consciousness the higher, deeper, subtler or o ther modes of experiences pass through and are recorded with the minimum aberration or diffraction.
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 o ther 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 o thers, 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 far ther 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 clo thed 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 Bro therhood, 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 o ther words, the poet then was an excessively self-conscious artist. That seems to be the general trend of all literature.
But should there be an inherent incompatibility between spontaneous creation and self-consciousness? As we have seen, a harmony and fusion can and do happen of the superconscious and the normally conscious in the Yogi. Likewise, an artist also can be wakeful and transparent enough so that he is conscious on both the levels simultaneouslyabove, he is conscious of the source and origin of his inspiration, and on the level plain he is conscious of the working of the instrument, how the vehicle transcribes and embodies what comes from elsewhere. the poet's consciousness becomes then divalent as it were there is a sense of absolute passivity in respect of the receiving apparatus and coupled and immisced with it there is also the sense of dynamism, of conscious agency as in his secret being he is the master of his apparatus and one with the Inspirerin o ther words, the poet is both a seer (kavih) and a creator or doer (poits).
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 whi ther 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 far ther 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. Goe the, 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.
the consciously purposive activity of the poetic consciousness in fact, of all artistic consciousness has shown itself with a clear and unambiguous emphasis in two directions. First of all with regard to the subject-matter: the old-world poets took things as they were, as they were obvious to the eye, things of human nature and things of physical Nature, and without questioning dealt with them in the beauty of their normal form and function. the modern mentality has turned away from the normal and the obvious: it does not accept and admit the "given" as the final and definitive norm of things. It wishes to discover and establish o ther norms, it strives to bring about changes in the nature and condition of things, envisage the shape of things to come, work for a brave new world. the poet of today, in spite of all his effort to remain a pure poet, in spite of Housman's advocacy of nonsense and not-sense being the essence of true Art, is almost invariably at heart an incorrigible prophet. In revolt against the old and established order of truths and customs, against all that is normally considered as beautiful,ideals and emotions and activities of man or aspects and scenes and movements of Natureagainst God or spiritual life, the modern poet turns deliberately to the ugly and the macabre, the meaningless, the insignificant and the triflingtins and teas, bone and dust and dustbin, hammer and sicklehe is still a prophet, a violent one, an iconoclast, but one who has his own icon, a terribly jealous being, that seeks to pull down the past, erase it, to break and batter and knead the elements in order to fashion out of them something conforming to his heart's desire. there is also the class who have the vision and found the truth and its solace, who are prophets, angelic and divine, messengers and harbingers of a new beauty that is to dawn upon earth. And yet there are o thers in whom the two strains mingle or approach in a strange way. All this means that the artist is far from being a mere receiver, a mechanical executor, a passive unconscious instrument, but that he is supremely' conscious and master of his faculties and implements. This fact is doubly reinforced when we find how much he is preoccupied with the technical aspect of his craft. the richness and variety of patterns that can be given to the poetic form know no bounds today. A few major rhythms were sufficient for the ancients to give full expression to their poetic inflatus. For they cared more for some major virtues, the basic and fundamental qualitiessuch as truth, sublimity, nobility, forcefulness, purity, simplicity, clarity, straightforwardness; they were more preoccupied with what they had to say and they wanted, no doubt, to say it beautifully and powerfully; but the modus operandi was not such a passion or obsession with them, it had not attained that almost absolute value for itself which modern craftsmanship gives it. As technology in practical life has become a thing of overwhelming importance to man today, become, in the Shakespearean phrase, his "be-all and end-all", even so the same spirit has invaded and pervaded his aes thetics too. the subtleties, variations and refinements, the revolutions, reversals and inventions which the modern poet has ushered and takes delight in, for their own sake, I repeat, for their intrinsic interest, not for the sake of the subject which they have to embody and clo the, have never been dream by Aristotle, the supreme legislator among the ancients, nor by Horace, the almost incomparable craftsman among the ancients in the domain of poetry. Man has become, to be sure, a self-conscious creator to the pith of his bone.
Such a stage in human evolution, the advent of Homo Faber, has been a necessity; it has to serve a purpose and it has done admirably its work. Only we have to put it in its proper place. the salvation of an extremely self-conscious age lies in an exceeding and not in a fur ther enhancement or an exclusive concentration of the self-consciousness, nor, of course, in a falling back into the original unconsciousness. It is this shift in the poise of consciousness that has been presaged and prepared by the conscious, the scientific artists of today. their task is to forge an instrument for a type of poetic or artistic creation completely new, unfamiliar, almost revolutionary which the older mould would find it impossible to render adequately. the yearning of the human consciousness was not to rest satisfied with the familiar and the ordinary, the pressure was for the discovery of o ther strands, secret stores of truth and reality and beauty. the first discovery was that of the great Unconscious, the dark and mysterious and all-powerful subconscient. Many of our poets and artists have been influenced by this power, some even sought to enter into that region and become its denizens. But artistic inspiration is an emanation of Light; whatever may be the field of its play, it can have its origin only in the higher spheres, if it is to be truly beautiful and not merely curious and scientific.
That is what is wanted at present in the artistic world the true inspiration, the breath from higher altitudes. And here comes the role of the mystic, the Yogi. the sense of evolution, the march of human consciousness demands and prophesies that the future poet has to be a mysticin him will be fulfilled the travail of man's conscious working. the self-conscious craftsman, the tireless experimenter with his adventurous analytic mind has sharpened his instrument, made it supple and elastic, tempered, refined and enriched it; that is comparable to what we call the aspiration or call from below. Now the Grace must descend and fulfil. And when one rises into this higher consciousness beyond the brain and mind, when one lives there habitually, one knows the why and the how of things, one becomes a perfectly conscious operator and still retains all spontaneity and freshness and wonder and magic that are usually associated with inconscience and irreflection. As there is a spontaneity of instinct, there is likewise also a spontaneity of vision: a child is spontaneous in its movements, even so a seer. Not only so, the higher spontaneity is more spontaneous, for the higher consciousness means not only awareness but the free and untrammelled activity and expression of the truth and reality it is.
Genius had to be generally more or less unconscious in the past, because the instrument was not ready, was clogged as it were with its own lower grade movements; the higher inspiration had very often to bypass it, or rob it of its serviceable materials without its knowledge, in an almost clandestine way. Wherever it was awake and vigilant, we have seen it causing a diminution in the poetic potential. And yet even so, it was being prepared for a greater role, a higher destiny it is to fulfil in the future. A conscious and full participation of a refined and transparent and enriched instrument in the delivery of superconscious truth and beauty will surely mean not only a new but the very acme of aes thetic creation. We thus foresee the age of spiritual art in which the sense of creative beauty in man will find its culmination. Such an art was only an exception, something secondary or even tertiary, kept in the background, suggested here and there as a novel strain, called "mystic" to express its unfamiliar nature-unless, of course, it was openly and obviously scriptural and religious.
I have spoken of the source of inspiration as essentially and originally being a super-consciousness or over-consciousness. But to be more precise and accurate I should add ano ther source, an inner consciousness. As the super-consciousness is imaged as lying above the normal consciousness, so the inner consciousness may be described as lying behind or within it. the movement of the inner consciousness has found expression more often and more largely than that of over-consciousness in the artistic creation of the past : and that was in keeping with the nature of the old-world inspiration, for the inspiration that comes from the inner consciousness, which can be considered as the lyrical inspiration, tends to be naturally more "spontaneous", less conscious, since it does not at all go by the path of the head, it evades that as much as possible and goes by the path of the heart.
But the evolutionary urge, as I have said, has always been to bring down or instil more and more light and self-consciousness into the depths of the heart too: and the first result has been an intellectualisation, a rationalisation of the consciousness, a movement of scientific observation and criticism which very naturally leads to a desiccation of the poetic enthusiasm and fervour. But a period of transcendence is in gestation. All efforts of modern poets and craftsmen, even those that seem apparently queer, bizarre and futile, are at bottom a travail for this transcendence, including those that seem contradictory to it.
Whe ther the original and true source of the poet's inspiration lies deep within or high above, all depends upon the mediating instrument the mind (in its most general sense) and speech for a successful transcription. Man's ever-growing consciousness demanded also a conscious development and remoulding of these two factors. A growth, a heightening and deepening of the consciousness meant inevitably a movement towards the spiritual element in things. And that means, we have said, a twofold change in the future poet's make-up. First as regards the substance. the revolutionary shift that we notice in modern poets towards a completely new domain of subject-matter is a signpost that more is meant than what is expressed. the superficialities and futilities that are dealt with do not in their outward form give the real trend of things. In and through all these major and constant preoccupation of our poets is " the pain of the present and the passion for the future": they are, as already stated, more prophets than poets, but prophets for the moment crying in the wildernessalthough some have chosen the path of denial and revolt. they are all looking ahead or beyond or deep down, always yearning for ano ther truth and reality which will explain, justify and transmute the present calvary of human living. Such an acute tension of consciousness has necessitated an overhauling of the vehicle of expression too, the creation of a mode of expressing the inexpressible. For that is indeed what human consciousness and craft are aiming at in the present stage of man's evolution. For everything, almost everything that can be normally expressed has been expressed and in a variety of ways as much as is possible: that is the history of man's aes thetic creativity. Now the eye probes into the unexpressed world; for the artist too the Upanishadic problem has cropped up:
By whom impelled does the mind fall to its target, what is the agent that is behind the eye and sees through the eyes, what is the hearing and what the speech that their respective sense organs do not and cannot convey and record adequately or at all?
Like the modern scientist the artist or craftsman too of today has become a philosopher, even a mystic philosopher. the subtler and higher ranges of consciousness are now the object of inquiry and investigation and expression and revelation for the scientist as well as for the artist. the external sense-objects, the phenomenal movements are symbols and signposts, graphs and pointer-readings of facts and realities that lie hidden, behind or beyond. the artist and the scientist are occult alchemists. What to make of this, for example:
Beyond the shapes of empire, the capes of Carbonek, over
the topless waves of trenched Broceliande, drenched by
the everlasting spray of existence, with no mind's sail
reefed or set, no slaves at the motived oars,
drove into and clove the wind from unseen shores. Swept
from all altars, swallowed in a path of power by the wrath
that wrecks the pirates in the Narrow Seas,.. . .
multiple without dimension, indivisible without uniformity,
the ship of Solomon (blessed be he) drove on.1
Well, it is sheer incantation. It is word-weaving, rhythm plaiting, thought-wringing in order to pass beyond these frail materials, to get into contact with, to give some sense of the mystery of existence that passeth understanding. We are very far indeed from the "natural" poets, Homer or Shakespeare, Milton, or Virgil. And this is from a profane, a mundane poet, not an ostensibly religious or spiritual poet. the level of the poetic inspiration, at least of the poetic view and aspiration has evidently shifted to a higher, a deeper degree. We may be speaking of tins and tinsel, bones and dust, filth and misery, of the underworld of ignorance and ugliness,
All things uncomely and broken, all things worn out and old,
and the imaginative idealist, the romantically spiritual poet says that these or
the cry of a child by the roadway, the creak of a lumbering cart,
the heavy steps of the ploughman, splashing the wintry mould,
all, all the dark spots and blotches on the fair face of earth and humanity
Are wronging your image that blossoms a rose in the deeps of my heart.
and he cries out:
the wrong of unshapely things is a wrong too great to be told;
and declares the ardent aspiration of his heart and soul:
I hunger to build them anew, and sit on a green knoll apart,
With the earth and the sky and the water, re-made, like a casket of gold
For my dreams of your image that blossoms a rose in the deeps of my heart.2
But the more truly modern mind looks at the thing in a slightly different way. the good and the evil are not, to it, contrary to each o ther: one does not deny or negate the o ther. they are intermixed, fused in a mysterious identity. the best and the worst are but two conditions, two potentials of the same entity. Baudelaire, who can be considered as the first of the real moderns in many ways, saw and experienced this intimate polarity or identity of opposites in human nature and consciousness. What is Evil, who is the Evil One:
Une Ide, uneForme, Un tre
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I And therefore it is not so irremediable as it appears to be. For the miracle happens and is an inevitable natural phenomenon, and that is why
Par l'opration d'un mystrevengeur
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Heaven and Earth are not incommensurables, divinity and humanity function as one reality, towards one purpose and end: cruel heaven, miserable humanity? Well, this is how they appear to the poet's eye:
Le Ciel! Couvercle noir de la grande marmite
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In o ther words, the tension in the human consciousness has been raised to the nth power, the heat of a brooding consciousness is about to lead it to an outburst of new creationsah tapastaptva. Human self-consciousness, the turning of oneself upon oneself, the probing and projecting of oneself into oneselfself-consciousness raised so often to the degree of self-torture, marks the acute travail of the spirit. the thousand "isms" and "logies" that pullulate in all fields of life, from the political to the artistic or even the religious and the spiritual indicate how the human laboratory is working at white heat. they are breaches in the circuit of the consciousness, volcanic eruptions from below or cosmic-ray irruptions from above, tearing open the normal limit and boundaryBaudelaire's couvercle or the "golden lid" of the Upanishads-disclosing and bringing into the light of common day realities beyond and unseen till now.
Ifso long the poet was more or less a passive, a half-conscious or unconscious intermediary between the higher and the lower lights and delights, his role in the future will be better fulfilled when he becomes fully aware of it and consciously moulds and directs his creative energies. the poet is and has to be the harbinger and minstrel of unheard-of melodies: he is the fashioner of the creative word that brings down and embodies the deepest aspirations and experiences of the human consciousness. the poet is a missionary: he is missioned by Divine Beauty to radiate upon earth something of her charm and wizardry. the fullness of his role he can only play up when he is fully conscious for it is under that condition that all obstructing and obscuring elements lying across the path of inspiration can be completely and wholly eradicated: the instrument purified and tempered and transmuted can hold and express golden truths and beauties and puissances that o therwise escape the too human mould.
" the Last Voyage" by Charles Williams-A Little Book of Modern Verse, (Faber and Faber).
W. B. Yeats: " the Lover tells of the Rose in his Heart"- the Wind among the Reeds.
An Idea, a Form, a Being left the azure and fell into the mud and grey of a Styx where no eye from Heaven can penetrate.
An avenging Mystery operating, out of the drowsy animal awakes an angel.
Heaven! it is the dark lid upon the huge cauldron in which the imperceptible and vast humanity is boiling. Les Fleurs du Mal.
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01.04 - The Secret Knowledge, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:01.04 - the Secret Knowledge
class:chapter
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Our early approaches to the Infinite
Are sunrise splendours on a marvellous verge
While lingers yet unseen the glorious sun.
What now we see is a shadow of what must come.
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Is a preface only of the epic climb
Of human soul from its flat earthly state
To the discovery of a greater self
And the far gleam of an eternal Light.
This world is a beginning and a base
Where Life and Mind erect their structured dreams;
An unborn Power must build reality.
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Akin to the ineffable Secrecy,
Mystic, eternal in unrealised Time,
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To these high-peaked dominions sealed to our search,
Too far from surface Nature's postal routes,
--
Still have we parts that grow towards the light,
Yet are there luminous tracts and heavens serene
And Eldorados of splendour and ecstasy
And temples to the godhead none can see.
A shapeless memory lingers in us still
--
In the unfolding process of the Self
Sometimes the inexpressible Mystery
Elects a human vessel of descent.
--
A stillness falls upon the instruments:
Fixed, motionless like a marble monument,
Stone-calm, the body is a pedestal
Supporting a figure of eternal Peace.
--
And Nature trembles with the power, the flame.
A greater Personality sometimes
--
Or we adore the Master of our souls.
then the small bodily ego thins and falls;
No more insisting on its separate self,
Losing the punctilio of its separate birth,
It leaves us one with Nature and with God.
In moments when the inner lamps are lit
And the life's cherished guests are left outside,
Our spirit sits alone and speaks to its gulfs.
A wider consciousness opens then its doors;
Invading from spiritual silences
A ray of the timeless Glory stoops awhile
To commune with our seized illumined clay
--
In the oblivious field of mortal mind,
Revealed to the closed prophet eyes of trance
Or in some deep internal solitude
--
A Voice calls from the chambers of the soul;
We meet the ecstasy of the Godhead's touch
In golden privacies of immortal fire.
--
And a diviner Presence moves the soul;
Or through the earthly coverings something breaks,
A grace and beauty of spiritual light,
--
It follows the line of sempiternal birth,
Yet seems to perish with its mortal frame.
Assured of the Apocalypse to be,
It reckons not the moments and the hours;
Great, patient, calm it sees the centuries pass,
Awaiting the slow miracle of our change
In the sure deliberate process of world-force
And the long march of all-revealing Time.
10.25
It is the origin and the master-clue,
A silence overhead, an inner voice,
A living image seated in the heart,
An unwalled wideness and a fathomless point,
the truth of all these cryptic shows in Space,
the Real towards which our strivings move,
--
A treasure of honey in the combs of God,
A Splendour burning in a tenebrous cloak,
It is our glory of the flame of God,
Our golden fountain of the world's delight,
An immortality cowled in the cape of death,
the shape of our unborn divinity.
--
Where sleeps the eternal seed of transient things.
Always we bear in us a magic key
--
A burning Witness in the sanctuary
Regards through Time and the blind walls of Form;
A timeless Light is in his hidden eyes;
He sees the secret things no words can speak
And knows the goal of the unconscious world
And the heart of the mystery of the journeying years.
10.29
--
It needs the intuitive heart, the inward turn,
It needs the power of a spiritual gaze.
Else to our waking mind's small moment look
--
Our life a vague experiment, the soul
A flickering light in a strange ignorant world,
--
Out of the unknown we move to the unknown.
Ever surround our brief existence here
--
An aspiration in the Night's profound,
Seed of a perishing body and half-lit mind,
--
Or for what reason is the suffering here,
God's sanction to the paradox of life
And the riddle of the Immortal's birth in Time.
Along a path of aeons serpentine
In the coiled blackness of her nescient course
the Earth-Goddess toils across the sands of Time.
A Being is in her whom she hopes to know,
--
In her unconscious orbit through the Void
Out of her mindless depths she strives to rise,
--
the idea, the speech that labels more than it lights;
A trembling gladness that is less than bliss
--
Alarmed by the sorrow dragging at her feet
And conscious of the high things not yet won,
Ever she nurses in her sleepless breast
--
She seeks through the soul's war and quivering pain
the pure perfection her marred nature needs,
--
Her state she learns to read and the act she has done,
But the one needed truth eludes her grasp,
Herself and all of which she is the sign.
An inarticulate whisper drives her steps
Of which she feels the force but not the sense;
A few rare intimations come as guides,
--
Outstretching arms to the unconscious Void,
Passionate she prays to invisible forms of Gods
--
For these she yearns and feels them destined hers:
Heaven's privilege she claims as her own right.
Just is her claim the all-witnessing Gods approve,
Clear in a greater light than reason owns:
--
But few can look beyond the present state
Or overleap this matted hedge of sense.
--
Our outward happenings have their seed within,
And even this random Fate that imitates Chance,
--
Are the dumb graph of truths that work unseen:
the laws of the Unknown create the known.
the events that shape the appearance of our lives
Are a cipher of subliminal quiverings
--
they are born from the spirit's sun of hidden powers
Digging a tunnel through emergency.
But who shall pierce into the cryptic gulf
And learn what deep necessity of the soul
Determined casual deed and consequence?
--
We hear the crash of the wheels of Circumstance
And wonder at the hidden cause of things.
Yet a foreseeing Knowledge might be ours,
--
If we could hear the muffled daemon voice.
11.30
Too seldom is the shadow of what must come
Cast in an instant on the secret sense
Which feels the shock of the invisible,
And seldom in the few who answer give
the mighty process of the cosmic Will
Communicates its image to our sight,
Identifying the world's mind with ours.
Our range is fixed within the crowded arc
Of what we observe and touch and thought can guess
And rarely dawns the light of the Unknown
Waking in us the prophet and the seer.
the outward and the immediate are our field,
the dead past is our background and support;
Mind keeps the soul prisoner, we are slaves to our acts;
We cannot free our gaze to reach wisdom's sun.
Inheritor of the brief animal mind,
Man, still a child in Nature's mighty hands,
In the succession of the moments lives;
To a changing present is his narrow right;
--
He waits to see the consequence of his acts,
He waits to weigh the certitude of his thoughts,
He knows not what he shall achieve or when;
--
Or end like the mastodon and the sloth
And perish from the earth where he was king.
He is ignorant of the meaning of his life,
He is ignorant of his high and splendid fate.
Only the Immortals on their deathless heights
Dwelling beyond the walls of Time and Space,
Masters of living, free from the bonds of Thought,
Who are overseers of Fate and Chance and Will
And experts of the theorem of world-need,
Can see the Idea, the Might that change Time's course,
Come maned with light from undiscovered worlds,
Hear, while the world toils on with its deep blind heart,
the galloping hooves of the unforeseen event,
Bearing the superhuman Rider, near
And, impassive to earth's din and startled cry,
Return to the silence of the hills of God;
As lightning leaps, as thunder sweeps, they pass
And leave their mark on the trampled breast of Life.
Above the world the world-creators stand,
In the phenomenon see its mystic source.
these heed not the deceiving outward play,
they turn not to the moment's busy tramp,
But listen with the still patience of the Unborn
For the slow footsteps of far Destiny
Approaching through huge distances of Time,
Unmarked by the eye that sees effect and cause,
Unheard mid the clamour of the human plane.
Attentive to an unseen Truth they seize
A sound as of invisible augur wings,
--
Mutterings that brood in the core of Matter's sleep.
In the heart's profound audition they can catch
the murmurs lost by Life's uncaring ear,
--
Above the illusion of the hopes that pass,
Behind the appearance and the overt act,
Behind this clock-work Chance and vague surmise,
Amid the wrestle of force, the trampling feet,
Across the cries of anguish and of joy,
Across the triumph, fighting and despair,
they watch the Bliss for which earth's heart has cried
On the long road which cannot see its end
Winding undetected through the sceptic days
And to meet it guide the unheedful moving world.
Thus will the masked Transcendent mount his throne.
When darkness deepens strangling the earth's breast
And man's corporeal mind is the only lamp,
As a thief's in the night shall be the covert tread
Of one who steps unseen into his house.
A Voice ill-heard shall speak, the soul obey,
A Power into mind's inner chamber steal,
--
And beauty conquer the resisting world,
the Truth-Light capture Nature by surprise,
A stealth of God compel the heart to bliss
And earth grow unexpectedly divine.
In Matter shall be lit the spirit's glow,
In body and body kindled the sacred birth;
Night shall awake to the an them of the stars,
the days become a happy pilgrim march,
Our will a force of the Eternal's power,
And thought the rays of a spiritual sun.
A few shall see what none yet understands;
God shall grow up while the wise men talk and sleep;
For man shall not know the coming till its hour
And belief shall be not till the work is done.
A Consciousness that knows not its own truth,
--
Between the being's dark and luminous ends
Moves here in a half-light that seems the whole:
An interregnum in Reality
Cuts off the integral Thought, the total Power;
It circles or stands in a vague interspace,
--
Far from the original Dusk, the final Flame
In some huge void Inconscience it lives,
--
Suggested a million renderings to the Mind,
It lends a purport to a random world.
--
Or a fragment of the universal word.
It leaves two giant letters void of sense
While without sanction turns the middle sign
Carrying an enigmatic universe,
--
Repeating the same revolution's whirl
Turned on its axis in its own Inane.
Thus is the meaning of creation veiled;
For without context reads the cosmic page:
Its signs stare at us like an unknown script,
--
It wears to the perishable creature's eyes
the grandeur of a useless miracle;
--
A fire in the Night is its mighty action's blaze.
This is our deepest need to join once more
--
We must fill the immense lacuna we have made,
Re-wed the closed finite's lonely consonant
With the open vowels of Infinity,
A hyphen must connect Matter and Mind,
the narrow isthmus of the ascending soul:
We must renew the secret bond in things,
Our hearts recall the lost divine Idea,
Reconstitute the perfect word, unite
the Alpha and the Omega in one sound;
then shall the Spirit and Nature be at one.
Two are the ends of the mysterious plan.
In the wide signless e ther of the Self,
In the unchanging Silence white and nude,
Aloof, resplendent like gold dazzling suns
Veiled by the ray no mortal eye can bear,
the Spirit's bare and absolute potencies
Burn in the solitude of the thoughts of God.
A rapture and a radiance and a hush,
Delivered from the approach of wounded hearts,
Denied to the Idea that looks at grief,
Remote from the Force that cries out in its pain,
In his inalienable bliss they live.
Immaculate in self-knowledge and self-power,
Calm they repose on the eternal Will.
Only his law they count and him obey;
they have no goal to reach, no aim to serve.
Implacable in their timeless purity,
All barter or bribe of worship they refuse;
Unmoved by cry of revolt and ignorant prayer
--
they bend not to the voices that implore,
they hold no traffic with error and its reign;
they are guardians of the silence of the Truth,
they are keepers of the immutable decree.
A deep surrender is their source of might,
A still identity their way to know,
Motionless is their action like a sleep.
At peace, regarding the trouble beneath the stars,
Deathless, watching the works of Death and Chance,
Immobile, seeing the millenniums pass,
Untouched while the long map of Fate unrolls,
they look on our struggle with impartial eyes,
And yet without them cosmos could not be.
Impervious to desire and doom and hope,
--
Moveless upholds the world's enormous task,
Its ignorance is by their knowledge lit,
Its yearning lasts by their indifference.
As the height draws the low ever to climb,
As the breadths draw the small to adventure vast,
their aloofness drives man to surpass himself.
Our passion heaves to wed the Eternal's calm,
Our dwarf-search mind to meet the Omniscient's light,
Our helpless hearts to enshrine the Omnipotent's force.
Acquiescing in the wisdom that made hell
And the harsh utility of death and tears,
Acquiescing in the gradual steps of Time,
Careless they seem of the grief that stings the world's heart,
Careless of the pain that rends its body and life;
Above joy and sorrow is that grandeur's walk:
they have no portion in the good that dies,
Mute, pure, they share not in the evil done;
Else might their strength be marred and could not save.
Alive to the truth that dwells in God's extremes,
Awake to a motion of all-seeing Force,
the slow outcome of the long ambiguous years
And the unexpected good from woeful deeds,
the immortal sees not as we vainly see.
--
He knows the law and natural line of things.
Undriven by a brief life's will to act,
Unharassed by the spur of pity and fear,
He makes no haste to untie the cosmic knot
Or the world's torn jarring heart to reconcile.
In Time he waits for the Eternal's hour.
Yet a spiritual secret aid is there;
While a tardy Evolution's coils wind on
--
Even through the tangled anarchy called Fate
And through the bitterness of death and fall
An outstretched Hand is felt upon our lives.
--
Our errors are his steps upon the way;
He works through the fierce vicissitudes of our lives,
He works through the hard breath of battle and toil,
He works through our sins and sorrows and our tears,
--
Whatever the appearance we must bear,
Whatever our strong ills and present fate,
--
A date is fixed in the calendar of the Unknown,
An anniversary of the Birth sublime:
Our soul shall justify its chequered walk,
--
Immovably ready for their destined task,
the ever-wise compassionate Brilliances
Await the sound of the Incarnate's voice
To leap and bridge the chasms of Ignorance
And heal the hollow yearning gulfs of Life
And fill the abyss that is the universe.
Here meanwhile at the Spirit's opposite pole
In the mystery of the deeps that God has built
For his abode below the Thinker's sight,
In this compromise of a stark absolute Truth
With the Light that dwells near the dark end of things,
In this tragi-comedy of divine disguise,
--
In the grandiose dream of which the world is made,
In this gold dome on a black dragon base,
--
A dark-robed labourer in the cosmic scheme
Carrying clay images of unborn gods,
Executrix of the inevitable Idea
Hampered, enveloped by the hoops of Fate,
Patient trustee of slow eternal Time,
--
the dumb intention of the unconscious gulfs
Answers to a will that sees upon the heights,
And the evolving Word's first syllable
Ponderous, brute-sensed, contains its luminous close,
--
And the portent of the soul's immense uprise.
All here where each thing seems its lonely self
Are figures of the sole transcendent One:
Only by him they are, his breath is their life;
An unseen Presence moulds the oblivious clay.
A playmate in the mighty Mo ther s game,
One came upon the dubious whirling globe
To hide from her pursuit in force and form.
A secret spirit in the Inconscient's sleep,
A shapeless Energy, a voiceless Word,
He was here before the elements could emerge,
Before there was light of mind or life could brea the.
Accomplice of her cosmic huge pretence,
--
And makes the symbol equal with the truth:
He gives to his timeless thoughts a form in Time.
He is the substance, he the self of things;
She has forged from him her works of skill and might:
She wraps him in the magic of her moods
And makes of his myriad truths her countless dreams.
--
An immortal child born in the fugitive years.
In objects wrought, in the persons she conceives,
Dreaming she chases her idea of him,
And catches here a look and there a gest:
Ever he repeats in them his ceaseless births.
He is the Maker and the world he made,
He is the vision and he is the Seer;
He is himself the actor and the act,
He is himself the knower and the known,
He is himself the dreamer and the dream.
there are Two who are One and play in many worlds;
In Knowledge and Ignorance they have spoken and met
And light and darkness are their eyes' interchange;
Our pleasure and pain are their wrestle and embrace,
Our deeds, our hopes are intimate to their tale;
they are married secretly in our thought and life.
--
Which but for the dream would not be wholly true,
A phenomenon stands out significant
--
A part is seen, we take it for the whole.
Thus have they made their play with us for roles:
Author and actor with himself as scene,
He moves there as the Soul, as Nature she.
Here on the earth where we must fill our parts,
We know not how shall run the drama's course;
Our uttered sentences veil in their thought.
Her mighty plan she holds back from our sight:
--
And disguised the Love and Wisdom in her heart;
Of all the marvel and beauty that are hers,
Only a darkened little we can feel.
--
Although possessor of the earth and heavens,
He leaves to her the cosmic management
And watches all, the Witness of her scene.
A supernumerary on her stage,
He speaks no words or hides behind the wings.
He takes birth in her world, waits on her will,
--
He yields to her as the mover of his will,
He burns the incense of his nights and days
Offering his life, a splendour of sacrifice.
--
He makes the most of the little that she gives
And all she does drapes with his own delight.
--
A word from her lips with happiness wings the hours.
13.26
--
And suns in the glory of her passing smile.
13.27
--
He makes the hours pivot around her will,
Makes all reflect her whims; all is their play:
This whole wide world is only he and she.
--
This is the knot that ties toge ther the stars:
the Two who are one are the secret of all power,
the Two who are one are the might and right in things.
His soul, silent, supports the world and her,
His acts are her commandment's registers.
--
Of which our lives are the quivering theatre,
And none could bear but for his strength within,
--
Passive, he bears the impacts of the world
As if her touches shaping his soul and life:
His journey through the days is her sun-march;
He runs upon her roads; hers is his course.
--
In the execution of her drama's scheme,
In her fancies of the moment and its mood,
In the march of this obvious ordinary world
Where all is deep and strange to the eyes that see
And Nature's common forms are marvel-wefts,
--
Unrolls the material of her cosmic Act,
Her happenings that exalt and smite the soul,
Her force that moves, her powers that save and slay,
Her Word that in the silence speaks to our hearts,
Her silence that transcends the summit Word,
Her heights and depths to which our spirit moves,
Her events that weave the texture of our lives
And all by which we find or lose ourselves,
--
Her empire in the cosmos she has built,
He is governed by her subtle and mighty laws.
--
Her endless space is the playground of his thoughts;
She binds to knowledge of the shapes of Time
And the creative error of limiting mind
And chance that wears the rigid face of fate
And her sport of death and pain and Nescience,
--
His spirit survives amid the death of things,
He climbs to eternity through being's gaps,
--
In the mystery of her cosmic ignorance,
In the insoluble riddle of her play,
A creature made of perishable stuff,
In the pattern she has set for him he moves,
He thinks with her thoughts, with her trouble his bosom heaves;
He seems the thing that she would have him seem,
He is whatever her artist will can make.
--
To freedom and the Eternal's mastery
And immortality's stand above the world,
She moves her seeming puppet of an hour.
--
He has harnessed her to the yoke of her own law.
His face of human thought puts on a crown.
--
But conquering her, then is he most her slave;
He is her dependent, all his means are hers;
--
He sees within the face of deity,
the Godhead breaks out through the human mould:
Her highest heights she unmasks and is his mate.
Till then he is a plaything in her game;
Her seeming regent, yet her fancy's toy,
--
He acts as in the movements of a dream,
An automaton stepping in the grooves of Fate,
He stumbles on driven by her whip of Force:
--
Her will he has made the master of his fate,
Her whim the dispenser of his pleasure and pain;
He has sold himself into her regal power
--
He feels the sweetness of her mastering touch,
In all experience meets her blissful hands;
On his heart he bears the happiness of her tread
And the surprise of her arrival's joy
In each event and every moment's chance.
--
the Spirit, the innumerable One,
He has left behind his lone eternity,
--
the master of existence lurks in us
And plays at hide-and-seek with his own Force;
--
He has made the universe his pastime's field,
A vast gymnasium of his works of might.
--
And drinks experience like a streng thening wine.
He whose transcendence rules the pregnant Vasts,
Prescient now dwells in our subliminal depths,
--
the Absolute, the Perfect, the Alone
Has called out of the Silence his mute Force
Where she lay in the featureless and formless hush
Guarding from Time by her immobile sleep
--
the Absolute, the Perfect, the Alone
Has entered with his silence into space:
He has fashioned these countless persons of one self;
He has built a million figures of his power;
--
the Absolute, the Perfect, the Immune,
One who is in us as our secret self,
--
His image in the human measure cast
That to his divine measure we might rise;
--
A plan of godhead on the mortal's mould
Lifting our finite minds to his infinite,
Touching the moment with eternity.
This transfiguration is earth's due to heaven:
A mutual debt binds man to the Supreme:
His nature we must put on as he put ours;
--
And to the musing and immobile spirit
Life and himself don the aspect of a myth,
the burden of a long unmeaning tale.
For the key is hid and by the Inconscient kept;
the secret God beneath the threshold dwells.
In a body obscuring the immortal Spirit
A nameless Resident vesting unseen powers
--
And the hazard of an unguessed consequence,
An omnipotent indiscernible Influence,
He sits, unfelt by the form in which he lives
And veils his knowledge by the groping mind.
A wanderer in a world his thoughts have made,
--
His own self's truth he seeks who is the Truth;
He is the Player who became the play,
He is the Thinker who became the thought;
He is the many who was the silent One.
In the symbol figures of the cosmic Force
And in her living and inanimate signs
--
He explores the ceaseless miracle of himself,
Till the thousandfold enigma has been solved
In the single light of an all-witnessing Soul.
This was his compact with his mighty mate,
--
To follow the course of Time's eternity,
Amid magic dramas of her sudden moods
And the surprises of her masked Idea
And the vicissitudes of her vast caprice.
Two seem his goals, yet ever are they one
And gaze at each o ther over bourneless Time;
Spirit and Matter are their end and source.
16.10
--
Of the great Mo ther s wide uncharted will
And the rude enigma of her terrestrial ways
He is the explorer and the mariner
On a secret inner ocean without bourne:
He is the adventurer and cosmologist
Of a magic earth's obscure geography.
--
Where all seems sure and, even when changed, the same,
Even though the end is left for ever unknown
And ever unstable is life's shifting flow,
--
As stations in the ages' weltering flood
Firm lands appear that tempt and stay awhile,
then new horizons lure the mind's advance.
there comes no close to the finite's boundlessness,
there is no last certitude in which thought can pause
And no terminus to the soul's experience.
A limit, a farness never wholly reached,
--
From distant boundaries in the Unseen:
A long beginning only has been made.
This is the sailor on the flow of Time,
This is World-Matter's slow discoverer,
--
At first he hugs the shore and shuns the breadths,
Dares not to affront the far-off perilous main.
He in a petty coastal traffic plies,
--
He hazards not the new and the unseen.
But now he hears the sound of larger seas.
A widening world calls him to distant scenes
--
Serves the world's commerce in the riches of Time
Severing the foam of a great land-locked sea
To reach unknown harbour lights in distant climes
--
And transient splendours won and lost by the days.
Or passing through a gate of pillar-rocks,
--
He plunges through a bright haze that hides the stars,
Steering on the trade-routes of Ignorance.
His prow pushes towards undiscovered shores,
--
A seeker of the islands of the Blest,
He leaves the last lands, crosses the ultimate seas,
He turns to eternal things his symbol quest;
--
Earth's borders recede and the terrestrial air
Hangs round him no longer its translucent veil.
He has crossed the limit of mortal thought and hope,
He has reached the world's end and stares beyond;
the eyes of mortal body plunge their gaze
Into Eyes that look upon eternity.
--
At last he hears a chanting on the heights
And the far speaks and the unknown grows near:
He crosses the boundaries of the unseen
And passes over the edge of mortal sight
To a new vision of himself and things.
--
His is a search of darkness for the light,
Of mortal life for immortality.
In the vessel of an earthly embodiment
Over the narrow rails of limiting sense
He looks out on the magic waves of Time
Where mind like a moon illumines the world's dark.
there is limned ever retreating from the eyes,
As if in a tenuous misty dream-light drawn,
--
A sailor on the Inconscient's fathomless sea,
He voyages through a starry world of thought
--
Across the noise and multitudinous cry,
Across the rapt unknowable silences,
Through a strange mid-world under supernal skies,
--
But none learns whi ther through the unknown he sails
Or what secret mission the great Mo ther gave.
In the hidden strength of her omnipotent Will,
Driven by her breath across life's tossing deep,
Through the thunder's roar and through the windless hush,
Through fog and mist where nothing more is seen,
--
Late will he know, opening the mystic script,
Whe ther to a blank port in the Unseen
He goes or, armed with her fiat, to discover
A new mind and body in the city of God
And enshrine the Immortal in his glory's house
And make the finite one with Infinity.
Across the salt waste of the endless years
Her ocean winds impel his errant boat,
--
And never can the mighty Traveller rest
And never can the mystic voyage cease
Till the nescient dusk is lifted from man's soul
And the morns of God have overtaken his night.
As long as Nature lasts, he too is there,
For this is sure that he and she are one;
--
To repose without her in the Unknowable.
there is a truth to know, a work to do;
--
there is a plan in the Mo ther s deep world-whim,
A purpose in her vast and random game.
This ever she meant since the first dawn of life,
This constant will she covered with her sport,
To evoke a Person in the impersonal Void,
With the Truth-Light strike earth's massive roots of trance,
Wake a dumb self in the inconscient depths
And raise a lost Power from its python sleep
That the eyes of the Timeless might look out from Time
And the world manifest the unveiled Divine.
For this he left his white infinity
And laid on the spirit the burden of the flesh,
That Godhead's seed might flower in mindless Space.
01.05 - Rabindranath Tagore: A Great Poet, a Great Man, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
the Poetry in the Making Vivekananda
O ther Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Poets and MysticsRabindranath Tagore: A Great Poet, a Great Man
--
Tagore is a great poet: he will be remembered as one of the I greatest world-poets. But humanity owes him ano therperhaps a greaterdebt of gratitude: his name has a higher value, a more significant potency for the future.
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 ano ther 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 Shelley 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 o ther 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.
the world being nothing but Spirit made visible is, according to Tagore, fundamentally a thing of beauty. the scars and spots that are on the surface have to be removed and mankind has to repossess and clo the itself with that mantle of beauty. the world is beautiful, because it is the image of the Beautiful, because it harbours, expresses and embodies the Divine who is Beauty supreme. Now by a strange alchemy, a wonderful effect of polarisation, the very spiritual element in Tagore has made him almost a pagan and even a profane. For what are these glories of Nature and the still more exquisite glories that the human body has captured? they are but vibrations and modulations of beauty the delightful names and forms of the supreme Lover and Beloved.
Socrates is said to have brought down Philosophy from Heaven to live among men upon earth. A similar exploit can be ascribed to Tagore. the Spirit, the bare transcendental Reality contemplated by the orthodox Vedantins, has been brought nearer to our planet, close to human consciousness in Tagore's vision, being clo thed in earth and flesh and blood, made vivid with the colours and contours of the physical existence. the Spirit, yes and by all means, but not necessarily asceticism and monasticism. So Tagore boldly declared in those famous lines of his:
Mine is not the deliverance achieved through mere renunciation. Mine ra ther the freedom that tastes itself in a thousand associations.1
the spirit of the age demands this new gospel. Mankind needs and awaits a fresh revelation. the world and life are not an illusion or a lesser reality: they are, if taken rightly, as real as the pure Spirit itself. Indeed, Spirit and Flesh, Consciousness and Matter are not antinomies; to consider them as such is itself an illusion. In fact, they are only two poles or modes or aspects of the same reality. To separate or divide them is a one-sided concentration or abstraction on the part of the human mind. the fulfilment of the Spirit is in its expression through Matter; human life too reaches its highest term, its summum bonum, in embodying the spiritual consciousness here on earth and not dissolving itself in the Transcendence. That is the new Dispensation which answers to the deepest aspiration in man and towards which he has been travelling through the ages in the course of the evolution of his consciousness. Many, however, are the prophets and sages who have set this ideal before humanity and more and more insistently and clearly as we come nearer to the age we live in. But none or very few have expressed it with such beauty and charm and compelling persuasion. It would be carping criticism to point out-as some, purists one may call them, have done-that in poetising and aes thetising the spiritual truth and reality, in trying to make it human and terrestrial, he has diminished and diluted the original substance, in endeavouring to render the diamond iridescent, he has turned it into a baser alloy. Tagore's is a poetic soul, it must be admitted; and it is not necessary that one should find in his ideas and experiences and utterances the cent per cent accuracy and inevitability of a Yogic consciousness. Still his major perceptions, those that count, stand and are borne out by the highest spiritual realisation.
Tagore is no inventor or innovator when he posits Spirit as Beauty, the spiritual consciousness as the ardent rhythm of ecstasy. This experience is the very core of Vaishnavism and for which Tagore is sometimes called a Neo-Vaishnava. the Vaishnava sees the world pulsating in glamorous beauty as the Lila (Play) of the Lord, and the Lord, God himself, is nothing but Love and Beauty. Still Tagore is not all Vaishnava or merely a Vaishnava; he is in addition a modern ( the carping voice will say, there comes the dilution and adulteration)in the sense that problems exist for himsocial, political, economic, national, humanitarianwhich have to be faced and solved: these are not merely mundane, but woven into the texture of the fundamental problem of human destiny, of Soul and Spirit and God. A Vaishnava was, in spite of his acceptance of the world, an introvert, to use a modern psychological phrase, not necessarily in the pejorative sense, but in the neutral scientific sense. He looks upon the universe' and human life as the play of the Lord, as an actuality and not mere illusion indeed; but he does not participate or even take interest in the dynamic working out of the world process, he does not care to know, has no need of knowing that there is a terrestrial purpose and a diviner fulfilment of the mortal life upon earth. the Vaishnava dwells more or less absorbed in the Vaikuntha of his inner consciousness; the outer world, although real, is only a symbolic shadowplay to which he can but be a witness-real, is only a nothing more.
A modern idealist of the type of a reformer would not be satisfied with that role. If he is merely a moralist reformer, he will revolt against the "witness business", calling it a laissez-faire mentality of bygone days. A spiritual reformer would ask for morea dynamic union with the Divine Will and Consciousness, not merely a passive enjoyment in the Bliss, so that he may be a luminous power or agent for the expression of divine values in things mundane.
Not the acceptance of the world as it is, not even a joyous acceptance, viewing it as an inexplicable and mysterious and magic play of, God, but the asp ration and endeavour to change it, mould it in the pattern of its inner divine realities for there are such realities which seek expression and embodiment in earthly life that is the great mission and labour of humanity and that is all the meaning of man's existence here below. And Tagore is one of the great prophets and labourers who had the vision of the shape of things to come and worked for it. Only it must be noted, as I have already said, that unlike mere moral reformists or scientific planners, Tagore grounded himself upon the eternal ancient truths that "age cannot wi ther nor custom stale" the divine truths of the Spirit.
Tagore was a poet; this poetic power of his he put in the service of the great cause for the divine uplift of humanity. Naturally, it goes without saying, his poetry did not preach or propagandize the truths for which he stoodhe had a fine and powerful weapon in his prose to do the work, even then in a poetic way but to sing them. And he sang them not in their philosophical bareness, like a Lucretius, or in their sheer transcendental austerity like some of the Upanishadic Rishis, but in and through human values and earthly norms. the especial aroma of Tagore's poetry lies exactly here, as he himself says, in the note of unboundedness in things bounded that it describes. A mundane, profane sensuousness, Kalidasian in richness and sweetness, is matched or counterpointed by a simple haunting note imbedded or trailing somewhere behind, a lyric cry persevering into eternity, the nostalgic cry of the still small voice.2
Thus, on the one hand, the Eternity, the Infinity, the Spirit is brought nearer home to us in its embodied symbols and living vehicles and vivid formulations, it becomes easily available to mortals, even like the fa ther to his son, to use a Vedic phrase; on the o ther hand, earthly things, mere humanities are uplifted and suffused with a "light that never was, on sea or land."
Ano ther great poet of the spirit says also, almost like Tagore:
Cold are the rivers of peace and their banks are leafless and lonely.3
and sends up this prayer:
Earth-souls needing the touch of the heaven's peace to recapture,
Heaven needing earth's passion' to quiver its peace into rapture.
Marry, O lightning eternal, the passion of a moment born fire!
Out of thy greatness draw close to the breast of our mortal desire!
This also is Tagore's soul-prayer, his deepest aspiration.
"Deliverance is not for me in renunciation. I feel the embrace of freedom in a thousand bonds of delight."Gitanjali,73.
Tagore the poet reminds one often and anon of Kalidasa. He was so much in love, had such kinship with the great old master that many of his poems, many passages and lines are reminiscences, echoes, modulations or a paraphrase of the original classic. Tagore himself refers in his memoirs to one Kalidasian line that haunted his juvenile brain because of its exquisite music and enchanting imagery:
Mandki nirjharikarm vodh muhuh-kamPita-deva-druh
Winds carrying spray from the falls of Mandakini, making deodars all astir.
Both the poets were worshippers, idolaters, of beauty, especially of natural physical beauty, of beauty heaped on beauty, of beauty ga thered, like honey from all places and stored and ranged and stalled with the utmost decorative skill. Yet the difference between the two is not less pronounced. A philosopher is reminded of Bergson, the great exponent of movement as reality, in connection with certain aspects of Tagore. Indeed, Beauty in Tagore is something moving, flowing, dancing, rippling; it is especially the beauty which music embodies and expresses. A Kalidasian beauty, on the contrary, is statuesque and plastic, it is to be appreciated in situ. This is, however, by the way.
Sri Aurobindo: "Ahana", Collected Poems & Plays, Vol. 2
--
the Poetry in the Making Vivekananda
01.05 - The Nietzschean Antichrist, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
object:01.05 - the Nietzschean Antichrist
author class:Nolini Kanta Gupta
--
the Nietzschean Antichrist
Nietzsche as the apostle of force is a name now familiar to all the world. the hero, the warrior who never tamely accepts suffering and submission and defeat under any condition but fights always and fights to conquersuch is the ideal man, according to Nietzsche, the champion of strength, of greatness, of mightiness. the dominating personality infused with the supreme "will to power"he is Ubermensch, the Superman. Sentiment does not move the mountains, emotion diffuses itself only in vague aspiration. the motive power, the creative fiat does not dwell in the heart but somewhere higher. the way of the Cross, the path of love and charity and pity does not lead to the kingdom of Heaven. the world has tried it for the last twenty centuries of its Christian civilisation and the result is that we are still living in a luxuriant abundance of misery and sordidness and littleness. This is how Nietzsche thinks and feels. He finds no virtue in the old rgimes and he revolts from them. He wants a speedy and radical remedy and teaches that by violence only the Kingdom of Heaven can be seized. For, to Nietzsche the world is only a clash of forces and the Superman therefore is one who is the embodiment of the greatest force. Nietzsche does not care for the good, it is the great that moves him. the good, the moral is of man, conventional and has only a fictitious value. the great, the non-moral is, on the o ther hand, divine. That only has a value of its own. the good is nothing but a sort of makeshift arrangement which man makes for himself in order to live commodiously and which changes according to his temperament. But the great is one with the Supreme Wisdom and is absolute and imperative. the good cannot create the great; it is the great that makes for the good. This is what he really means when he says, " they say that a good cause sanctifies war but I tell thee it is a good war that sanctifies all cause." For the goodness of your cause you judge by your personal predilections, by your false conventionalities, by a standard that you set up in your ignoranceBut a good war, the output of strength in any cause is in itself a cause of salvation. For thereby you are the champion of that ultimate verity which conduces to the ultimate good. Do not shrink, he would say, to be even like the cyclone and the avalanche, destructive, indeed, but grand and puissant and therefore truer emblems of the BeyondJenseitsthan the weak, the little, the pitiful that do not dare to destroy and by that very fact cannot hope to create.
This is the Nietzsche we all know. But there is ano ther 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 aes thetic 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 ei ther 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.
***
the Intuition of the Age On Communism
01.05 - The Yoga of the King - The Yoga of the Spirits Freedom and Greatness, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:01.05 - the Yoga of the King - the Yoga of the Spirits Freedom and Greatness
class:chapter
--
He found the occult cave, the mystic door
Near to the well of vision in the soul,
And entered where the Wings of Glory brood
In the silent space where all is for ever known.
Indifferent to doubt and to belief,
Avid of the naked real's single shock
He shore the cord of mind that ties the earth-heart
And cast away the yoke of Matter's law.
the body's rules bound not the spirit's powers:
When life had stopped its beats, death broke not in;
--
And the poverty of Nature's earthly sight.
All that the Gods have learned is there self-known.
there in a hidden chamber closed and mute
Are kept the record graphs of the cosmic scribe,
And there the tables of the sacred Law,
there is the Book of Being's index page;
the text and glossary of the Vedic truth
Are there; the rhythms and metres of the stars
Significant of the movements of our fate:
the symbol powers of number and of form,
And the secret code of the history of the world
And Nature's correspondence with the soul
Are written in the mystic heart of Life.
In the glow of the spirit's room of memories
He could recover the luminous marginal notes
Dotting with light the crabbed ambiguous scroll,
Rescue the preamble and the saving clause
Of the dark Agreement by which all is ruled
That rises from material Nature's sleep
To clo the the Everlasting in new shapes.
He could re-read now and interpret new
--
Its hard conditions for the mighty work,--
Nature's impossible Herculean toil
--
Its law of the opposition of the gods,
Its list of inseparable contraries.
--
Infinity's sanction to the birth of form,
Accepts indomitably to execute
--
And works out through the appearance of a soul
By a miraculous birth in plasm and gas
the mystery of God's covenant with the Night.
Once more was heard in the still cosmic Mind
the Eternal's promise to his labouring Force
Inducing the world-passion to begin,
the cry of birth into mortality
And the opening verse of the tragedy of Time.
Out of the depths the world's buried secret rose;
He read the original ukase kept back
In the locked archives of the spirit's crypt,
And saw the signature and fiery seal
Of Wisdom on the dim Power's hooded work
Who builds in Ignorance the steps of Light.
A sleeping deity opened deathless eyes:
He saw the unshaped thought in soulless forms,
Knew Matter pregnant with spiritual sense,
Mind dare the study of the Unknowable,
Life its gestation of the Golden Child.
In the light flooding thought's blank vacancy,
Interpreting the universe by soul signs
He read from within the text of the without:
the riddle grew plain and lost its catch obscure.
A larger lustre lit the mighty page.
A purpose mingled with the whims of Time,
A meaning met the stumbling pace of Chance
And Fate revealed a chain of seeing Will;
A conscious wideness filled the old dumb Space.
In the Void he saw throned the Omniscience supreme.
\tA Will, a hope immense now seized his heart,
And to discern the superhuman's form
He raised his eyes to unseen spiritual heights,
--
And learn the logic of the Infinite.
the Ideal must be Nature's common truth,
the body illumined with the indwelling God,
the heart and mind feel one with all that is,
--
the greatness of the eternal Spirit appeared,
Exiled in a fragmented universe
--
the Immortal's pride refused the doom to live
A miser of the scanty bargain made
Between our littleness and bounded hopes
And the compassionate Infinitudes.
His height repelled the lowness of earth's state:
A wideness discontented with its frame
--
the harsh contract spurned and the diminished lease.
Only beginnings are accomplished here;
--
Or we saddle with the vice of earthly form
A hurried imperfect glimpse of heavenly things,
--
A brief formation drifting in the void:
Apings of knowledge, unfinished arcs of power,
--
there is provender for the mind's satiety,
there are thrills of the flesh, but not the soul's desire.
Here even the highest rapture Time can give
Is a mimicry of ungrasped beatitudes,
--
Thrown by the World-Power to her body-slave,
Or a simulacrum of enforced delight
In the seraglios of Ignorance.
For all we have acquired soon loses worth,
--
Imperfection's cheque drawn on the Inconscient.
An inconsequence dogs every effort made,
--
He saw the doubtfulness of all things here,
the incertitude of man's proud confident thought,
the transience of the achievements of his force.
A thinking being in an unthinking world,
An island in the sea of the Unknown,
He is a smallness trying to be great,
--
For the eternal Spirit is his truth.
He can re-create himself and all around
And fashion new the world in which he lives:
He, ignorant, is the Knower beyond Time,
He is the Self above Nature, above Fate.
\tHis soul retired from all that he had done.
Hushed was the futile din of human toil,
Forsaken wheeled the circle of the days;
In distance sank the crowded tramp of life.
the Silence was his sole companion left.
--
A figure in the ineffable Witness' shrine
Pacing the vast ca thedral of his thoughts
Under its arches dim with infinity
--
Indifferent to the little outpost Mind,
He dwelt in the wideness of the Eternal's reign.
His being now exceeded thinkable Space,
--
He felt the invasion and the nameless joy.
Aware of his occult omnipotent Source,
Allured by the omniscient Ecstasy,
A living centre of the Illimitable
Widened to equate with the world's circumference,
He turned to his immense spiritual fate.
--
He climbed to meet the infinite more above.
the Immobile's ocean-silence saw him pass,
--
Suddenly shot from the tense bow of Time,
A ray returning to its parent sun.
--
Into the deep obscurities of form:
Death lay beneath him like a gate of sleep.
One-pointed to the immaculate Delight,
Questing for God as for a splendid prey,
--
Engrossed in the external world's design,
Is chosen by a secret witness Eye
--
A pilgrim of the everlasting Truth,
Our measures cannot hold his measureless mind;
He has turned from the voices of the narrow realm
And left the little lane of human Time.
In the hushed precincts of a vaster plan
He treads the vestibules of the Unseen,
Or listens following a bodiless Guide
--
All the deep cosmic murmur falling still,
He lives in the hush before the world was born,
His soul left naked to the timeless One.
Far from compulsion of created things
--
A lone forerunner of the Godward earth,
Among the symbols of yet unshaped things
Watched by closed eyes, mute faces of the Unborn,
He journeys to meet the Incommunicable,
Hearing the echo of his single steps
In the eternal courts of Solitude.
A nameless Marvel fills the motionless hours.
His spirit mingles with eternity's heart
And bears the silence of the Infinite.
\t In a divine retreat from mortal thought,
--
That thrilled and fainted with the epiphany:
His nature shuddered in the Unknown's grasp.
In a moment shorter than death, longer than Time,
--
A mystic Form that could contain the worlds,
Yet make one human breast its passionate shrine,
--
Into the magnitudes of God's embrace.
As when a timeless Eye annuls the hours
Abolishing the agent and the act,
So now his spirit shone out wide, blank, pure:
--
On which the Universal and Sole could write.
All that represses our fallen consciousness
--
A fire that seemed the body of a god
Consumed the limiting figures of the past
And made large room for a new self to live.
Eternity's contact broke the moulds of sense.
A greater Force than the earthly held his limbs,
Huge workings bared his undiscovered sheaths,
--
Unwound the triple cord of mind and freed
the heavenly wideness of a Godhead's gaze.
As through a dress the wearer's shape is seen,
there reached through forms to the hidden absolute
A cosmic feeling and transcendent sight.
Increased and heightened were the instruments.
Illusion lost her aggrandising lens;
As from her failing hand the measures fell,
Atomic looked the things that loomed so large.
the little ego's ring could join no more;
In the enormous spaces of the self
the body now seemed only a wandering shell,
His mind the many-frescoed outer court
Of an imperishable Inhabitant:
--
Vast barriers crashed around the huge escape.
Immutably coeval with the world,
Circle and end of every hope and toil
--
Effaced themselves beneath the Incarnate's tread.
the dire velamen and the bottomless crypt
Between which life and thought for ever move,
Forbidden still to cross the dim dread bounds,
the guardian darknesses mute and formidable,
Empowered to circumscribe the wingless spirit
In the boundaries of Mind and Ignorance,
Protecting no more a dual eternity
Vanished rescinding their enormous role:
Once figure of creation's vain ellipse,
--
the python coils of the restricting Law
Could not restrain the swift arisen God:
Abolished were the scripts of destiny.
there was no small death-hunted creature more,
--
Burst open the narrow dams that keep us safe
Against the forces of the universe.
the soul and cosmos faced as equal powers.
--
Invaded Nature with the infinite;
He saw unpa thed, unwalled, his titan scope.
--
Lay bare to the burning splendour of his will.
In shadowy chambers lit by a strange sun
--
Confessed the advent of a mastering Mind
And bore the compulsion of a time-born gaze.
Incalculable in their wizard modes,
Immediate and invincible in the act,
Her secret strengths native to greater worlds
--
And the sure power-pattern of her cryptic signs,
Her diagrams of geometric force,
--
And the lightning bareness of a free soul-force.
All once impossible deemed could now become
--
This seeming outward world which tricks the sense;
He weaves his hidden threads of consciousness,
--
Out of the unformed and vacant Vast he has made
His sorcery of solid images,
--
In her mystery's moods divorced from the Maker's laws
She too as sovereignly creates her field,
Her will shaping the undetermined vasts,
Making a finite of infinity;
--
All she new-fashions by the thought and word,
Compels all substance by her wand of Mind.
--
Indifferent to the angry stare of Death,
It can immortalise a moment's work:
--
Can liberate the Energy dumb and pent
Within its chambers of mysterious trance:
It makes the body's sleep a puissant arm,
Holds still the breath, the beatings of the heart,
While the unseen is found, the impossible done,
Communicates without means the unspoken thought;
It moves events by its bare silent will,
--
Invoke the bacchic rapture, the Fury's goad,
In our body arouse the demon or the god,
Call in the Omniscient and Omnipotent,
Awake a forgotten Almightiness within.
--
In the leap of a transitional moment brings
Surprises of creation never achieved
--
On the margin of great immaterial planes,
In kingdoms of an untrammelled glory of force,
Where Mind is master of the life and form
And soul fulfils its thoughts by its own power,
--
On the unseen links that join the parted spheres.
thence to the initiate who observes her laws
She brings the light of her mysterious realms:
Here where he stands, his feet on a prostrate world,
--
Over their bounds in spurts of splendid strength
She carries their magician processes
And the formulas of their stupendous speech,
Till heaven and hell become purveyors to earth
And the universe the slave of mortal will.
A mediatrix with veiled and nameless gods
--
Imitating the World-Magician's ways
She invents for her self-bound free-will its grooves
--
All worlds she makes the partners of her deeds,
Accomplices of her mighty violence,
Her daring leaps into the impossible:
From every source she has taken her cunning means,
She draws from the free-love marriage of the planes
Elements for her creation's tour-de-force:
--
She has combined to make the unreal true
Or liberate suppressed reality:
--
Her mnemonics of the craft of the Infinite,
Jets of the screened subliminal's caprice,
Tags of the gramarye of Inconscience,
Freedom of a sovereign Truth without a law,
Thoughts that were born in the immortals' world,
Oracles that break out from behind the shrine,
Warnings from the daemonic inner voice
And peeps and lightning-leaps of prophecy
And intimations to the inner ear,
Abrupt interventions stark and absolute
And the Superconscient's unaccountable acts,
Have woven her balanced web of miracles
And the weird technique of her tremendous art.
This bizarre kingdom passed into his charge.
As one resisting more the more she loves,
Her great possessions and her power and lore
--
She turned against the evil she had helped
Her engined wrath, her invisible means to slay;
--
She surrendered to the service of the soul
And the control of a spiritual will.
A greater despot tamed her despotism.
Assailed, surprised in the fortress of her self,
Conquered by her own unexpected king,
--
Fragments of the mystery of omnipotence.
\tA border sovereign is the occult Force.
A threshold guardian of the earth-scene's Beyond,
She has canalised the outbreaks of the Gods
And cut through vistas of intuitive sight
--
Her reign received their mystic influences,
their lion-forces crouched beneath her feet;
the future sleeps unknown behind their doors.
23.5
Abysms infernal gaped round the soul's steps
And called to its mounting vision peaks divine:
An endless climb and adventure of the Idea
there tirelessly tempted the explorer mind
And countless voices visited the charmed ear;
A million figures passed and were seen no more.
--
Beginnings of the half-screened Invisible.
23.7A magic porch of entry glimmering
--
A court of the mystical traffic of the worlds,
A balcony and miraculous facade.
--
All the unknown looked out from boundlessness:
It lodged upon an edge of hourless Time,
--
Its shadows gleaming with the birth of gods,
Its bodies signalling the Bodiless,
Its foreheads glowing with the Oversoul,
Its forms projected from the Unknowable,
Its eyes dreaming of the Ineffable,
Its faces staring into eternity.
--
the little fronts unlocked to the unseen Vasts:
Her gulfs stood nude, her far transcendences
--
Of which the tassel and extended fringe
Are the scant stuff of our material lives.
This overt universe whose figures hide
--
Wrote clear the letters of its glowing code:
A map of subtle signs surpassing thought
--
Illumining the world's concrete images
Into significant symbols by its gloss,
It offered to the intuitive exegete
Its reflex of the eternal Mystery.
Ascending and descending twixt life's poles
the seried kingdoms of the graded Law
Plunged from the Everlasting into Time,
then glad of a glory of multitudinous mind
--
And packed with the beauty of Matter's shapes and hues
Climbed back from Time into undying Self,
Up a golden ladder carrying the soul,
Tying with diamond threads the Spirit's extremes.
In this drop from consciousness to consciousness
Each leaned on the occult Inconscient's power,
the fountain of its needed Ignorance,
Archmason of the limits by which it lives.
In this soar from consciousness to consciousness
--
An organ scale of the Eternal's acts,
Mounting to their climax in an endless Calm,
Paces of the many-visaged Wonderful,
Predestined stadia of the evolving Way,
Measures of the stature of the growing soul,
they interpreted existence to itself
And, mediating twixt the heights and deeps,
United the veiled married opposites
And linked creation to the Ineffable.
A last high world was seen where all worlds meet;
--
the light began of the Trinity supreme.
All there discovered what it seeks for here.
It freed the finite into boundlessness
And rose into its own eternities.
--
At last clutched passionately the body of Truth,
the music born in Matter's silences
Plucked nude out of the Ineffable's fathomlessness
the meaning it had held but could not voice;
--
An answer brought to the torn earth's hungry need
Rending the night that had concealed the Unknown,
Giving to her her lost forgotten soul.
A grand solution closed the long impasse
In which the heights of mortal effort end.
A reconciling Wisdom looked on life;
It took the striving undertones of mind
And took the confused refrain of human hopes
And made of them a sweet and happy call;
It lifted from an underground of pain
--
A mighty oneness its perpetual theme,
It caught the soul's faint scattered utterances,
Read hardly twixt our lines of rigid thought
--
It grouped the golden links that they had lost
And showed to them their divine unity,
Saving from the error of divided self
the deep spiritual cry in all that is.
All the great Words that toiled to express the One
Were lifted into an absoluteness of light,
--
And the immortality of the eternal Voice.
there was no quarrel more of truth with truth;
the endless chapter of their differences
Retold in light by an omniscient Scribe
--
That garbed the initial and original thought
With the finality of an ultimate phrase:
United were Time's creative mood and tense
To the style and syntax of Identity.
A paean swelled from the lost musing deeps;
An an them pealed to the triune ecstasies,
A cry of the moments to the Immortal's bliss.
As if the strophes of a cosmic ode,
A hierarchy of climbing harmonies
--
Aspired in a crescendo of the Gods
From Matter's abysses to the Spirit's peaks.
Above were the Immortal's changeless seats,
White chambers of dalliance with eternity
And the stupendous gates of the Alone.
Across the unfolding of the seas of self
Appeared the deathless countries of the One.
A many-miracled Consciousness unrolled
--
Affranchised from the net of earthly sense
Calm continents of potency were glimpsed;
--
Surprised the vision with felicity;
Sunbelts of knowledge, moonbelts of delight
--
there he could enter, there awhile abide.
A voyager upon uncharted routes
Fronting the viewless danger of the Unknown,
Adventuring across enormous realms,
01.06 - On Communism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Communism is the syn thesis of collectivism and individualism. the past ages of society were characterised more or less by a severe collectivism. In ancient Greece, more so in Sparta and in Rome, the individual had, properly speaking, no separate existence of his own; he was merged in the State or Nation. the individual was considered only as a limb of the collective being, had to live and labour for the common weal. the value attached to each person was strictly in reference to the output that the group to which he belonged received from him. Apart from this service for the general unit the body politicany personal endeavour and achievement, if not absolutely discouraged and repressed, was given a very secondary place of merit. the summum bonum of the individual was to sacrifice at the altar of the res publica, the bonum publicum. In India, the position and function of the State or Nation was taken up by the society. Here too social institutions were so constituted and men were so bred and brought up that individuality had nei ther the occasion nor the incentive to express itself, it was a thing that remained, in the Kalidasian phrase, an object for the ear onlysrutau sthita. Those who sought at all an individual aim and purpose, as perhaps the Sannyasins, were put outside the gate of law and society. Within the society, in actual life and action, it was a sin and a crime or at least a gross imperfection to have any self-regarding motive or impulse; personal preference was the last thing to be considered, virtue consisted precisely in sacrificing one's own taste and inclination for the sake of that which the society exacts and sanctions.
Against this tyranny of the group, this absolute rule of the collective will, the human mind rose in revolt and the result was Individualism. For whatever may be the truth and necessity of the Collective, the Individual is no less true and necessary. the individual has his own law and urge of being and his own secret godhead. the collective godhead derides the individual godhead at its peril. the first movement of the reaction, however, was a run to the o ther extremity; a stern collectivism gave birth to an intransigent individualism. the individual is sacred and inviolable, cost what it may. It does not matter what sort of individuality one seeks, it is enough if the thing is there. So the doctrine of individualism has come to set a premium on egoism and on forces that are disruptive of all social bonds. Each and every individual has the inherent right, which is also a duty, to follow his own impetus and impulse. Society is nothing but the battle ground for competing individualities the strongest survive and the weakest go to the wall. Association and co-operation are instruments that the individual may use and utilise for his own growth and development but in the main they act as deterrents ra ther than as aids to the expression and expansion of his characteristic being. In reality, however, if we probe sufficiently deep into the matter we find that there is no such thing as corporate life and activity; what appears as such is only a camouflage for rigorous competition; at the best, there maybe only an offensive and defensive alliancehumanity fights against nature, and within humanity itself group fights against group and in the last analysis, within the group, the individual fights against the individual. This is the ultimate Law- the Dharma of creation.
Now, what such an uncompromising individualism fails to recognise is that individuality and ego are not the same thing, that the individual may have his individuality intact and entire and yet sacrifice his ego, that the soul of man is a much greater thing than his vital being. It is simply ignoring the fact and denying the truth to say that man is only a fighting animal and not a loving god, that the self within the individual realises itself only through competition and not co-operation. It is an error to conceive of society as a mere parallelogram of forces, to suppose that it has risen simply out of the struggle of individual interests and continues to remain by that struggle. Struggle is only one aspect of the thing, a particular form at a particular stage, a temporary manifestation due to a particular system and a particular habit and training. It would be nearer the truth to say that society came into being with the demand of the individual soul to unite with the individual soul, with the stress of an Over-soul to express itself in a multitude of forms, diverse yet linked toge ther and organised in perfect harmony. Only, the stress for union manifested itself first on the material plane as struggle: but this is meant to be corrected and transcended and is being continually corrected and transcended by a secret harmony, a real commonality and bro therhood and unity. the individual is not so self-centred as the individualists make him to be, his individuality has a much vaster orbit and fulfils itself only by fulfilling o thers. the scientists have begun to discover o ther instincts in man than those of struggle and competition; they now place at the origin of social grouping an instinct which they name the herd-instinct: but this is only a formulation in lower terms, a translation on the vital plane of a higher truth and reality the fundamental oneness and accord of individuals and their spiritual impulsion to unite.
However, individualism has given us a truth and a formula which collectivism ignored. Self-determination is a thing which has come to stay. Each and every individual is free, absolutely free and shall freely follow his own line of growth and development and fulfilment. No extraneous power shall choose and fix what is good or evil for him, nor coerce and exploit him for its own benefit. But that does not necessarily mean that collectivism has no truth in it; collectivism also, as much as individualism, has a lesson for us and we should see whe ther we can harmonise the two. Collectivism signifies that the individual should not look to himself alone, should not be shut up in his freedom but expand himself and envelop o thers in a wider freedom, see o ther creatures in himself and himself in o ther creatures, as the Gita says. Collectivism demands that the individual need not and should not exhaust himself entirely in securing and enjoying his personal freedom, but that he can and should work for the salvation of o thers; the truth it upholds is this that the individual is from a certain point of view only a part of the group and by ignoring the latter it ignores itself in the end.
Now, a spiritual communism embraces individualism and collectivism, fuses them in a higher truth, establishes them in an intimate and absolute harmony. the individual is the centre, the group is the circumference and the two form one whore circle. the individual by fulfilling the truth of his real individuality fulfils also the truth of a commonality. there are no different laws for the two. the individuals do not stand apart from and against one ano ther, the dharma of one does not clash with the dharma of the o ther. the ripples in the bosom of the sea, however distinct and discrete in appearance, form but a single mass, all follow the same law of hydrodynamics that the mo ther sea incarnates. Stars and planets and nebulae, each separate heavenly body has its characteristic form and nature and function and yet all fulfil the same law of gravitation and beat the measure of the silent symphony of spaces. Individualities are the freedoms of the collective being and collectivity the concentration of individual beings. the same soul looking inward appears as the individual being and looking outward appears as the collective being.
Communism takes man not as ego or the vital creature; it turns him upside downurdhomulo' vaksakhah and establishes him upon his soul, his inner godhead. Thus established the individual soul finds and fulfils the divine law that by increasing itself it increases o thers and by increasing o thers it increases itself and thus by increasing one ano ther they attain the supreme good. Unless man goes beyond himself and reaches this self, this godhead above, he will not find any real poise, will always swing between individualism and collectivism, he will remain always boundbound ei ther in his freedom or in his bondage.
A commune is a group of individuals having a common self and a common life-intuition. A common self presupposes the realisation by each individual of his deepest being the self which is at once distinct from and instinct with o ther selves; a common life-intuition presupposes the awakening of each individual to his inmost creative urge, which, pure and true and vast as it is, fulfils itself in and through o ther creative urges.
A commune, fur ther, is not only a product or final achievement; it is also a process, an instrument to bring about the desired end. A group of individuals come to have a common self and a common life-intuition in and through the commune; and in and through the commune does each individual progress to the realisation of his deepest self and the awakening of his inmost life-intuition.
the individual must find himself and establish his secret god-head, and then only, when such free and integral individualities meet and reciprocate and coalesce, can the community they form have a living reality and a permanent potency. On the o ther hand, unless individuals come toge ther and through the interchange of each o ther's soul and substance' enhance the communal Godhead, the separate individual godheads also will not manifest in their supreme and sovereign powers.
If society, that is to say, community, be the fieldkshetra for the individual to live, move and have its being, then we must begin at the very outset with the community itself, at least, with a nucleus that will go to form such a thing. the fear that the untimely grouping toge ther of immature souls may crush out individuality and dig its own grave has, no doubt, sufficient justification behind it to deter one from the attempt; but nei ther can we be certain that souls nursed and nourished in solitary cells, absolutely apart from any mellowing and broadening influence of the outside world will ever reach to that stage of perfect maturity when they will suddenly and spontaneously break open their cells and recognise in one ano ther the communal bro ther-self.
As a matter of fact, the individual is not and cannot be such an isolated thing as our egoistic sense would like to have it. the sharp angularities of the individual are being, at every moment, chastened by the very primary conditions of life; and to fail to recognise this is the blindest form of ignorance. It is no easy task to draw exactly the line of distinction between our individual being and our social or communal being. In actual life they are so blended toge ther that in trying to extricate them from each o ther, we but tear and lacerate them both. the highest wisdom is to take the two toge ther as they are, and by a gradual purifying processboth internal and external, internal in thought and knowledge and will, external in life and actionrestore them to their respective truth and lawSatyam and Ritam.
the individual who leads a severely individual life from the very beginning, whose outlook of the world has been fashioned by that conception, can hardly, if at all, enter at the end the communal life. He must perforce be ei ther a vagabond or a recluse: But the recluse is not an integral man, nor the vagabond an ideal personality. the individual need not be too chaste and shy to associate with o thers and to give and take as freely and fully as he can. Individuality is not necessarily curtailed or mutilated in this process, but there is this o ther greater possibility of its getting enlarged and enhanced. Ra ther it is when you shut yourself up in your own self, that you stick to only one line of your personality, to a single phase of your self and thus limit and diminish yourself; the breadth and height and depth of your self, the cubic completeness of your personality you can attain only through a multiple and variegated stress by which you come in contact with the world and things.
So first the individual and then the commune is not the natural nor the ideal principle. On the o ther hand, first the commune and then the individual would appear to be an equally defective principle. For first a commune means an organisation, its laws and rules and regulations, its injunctions and prohibitions; all which signifies or comes to signify that every individual is not free to enter its fold and that whoever enters must know how to dovetail himself therein and thus crush down the very life-power whose enhancement and efflorescence is sought. First a commune means necessarily a creed, a dogma, a set form of being and living indelibly marked out from beforehand. the individual has there no choice of finding and developing the particular creed or dogma or mode of being and living, from out of his own self, along his particular line of natural growth; all that is imposed upon him and he has to accept and make it his own by trial and effort and self-torture. Even if the commune be a contractual association, the members having joined toge ther in a common cause to a common end, by voluntarily sacrificing a portion of their personal choice and freedom, even then it is not the ideal thing; the collective soul will be diminished in exact proportion as each individual soul has had to be diminished, be that voluntary or o therwise. That commune is plenary and entire which ensures plenitude and entirety to each of its individuals.
Now how to escape the dilemma? Only if we take the commune and the individual toge theren bloc, as has already been suggested. This means that the commune should be at the beginning a subtle and supple thing, without form and even without name, it should be no more than the circumambient aura the sukshma deha that plays around a group of individuals who meet and unite and move toge ther by a secret affinity, along a common path towards a common goal. As each individual develops and defines himself, the commune also takes a more and more concrete shape; and when at the last stage the individual rises to the full height of his godhead, takes possession of his integral divinity, the commune also establishes its solid empire, vivid and vibrant in form and name.
***
the Nietzschean Antichrist the Basis of Social Reconstruction
01.06 - Vivekananda, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
A personal reminiscence. A young man in prison, accused of conspiracy and waging war against the British Empire. If convicted he might have to suffer the extreme penalty, at least, transportation to the Andamans. the case is dragging on for long months. And the young man is in a solitary cell. He cannot always keep up his spirits high. Moments of sadness and gloom and despair come and almost overwhelm him. Who was there to console and cheer him up? Vivekananda. Vivekananda's speeches, From Colombo to Almora, came, as a godsend, into the hands of the young man. Invariably, when the period of despondency came he used to open the book, read a few pages, read them over again, and the cloud was there no longer. Instead there was hope and courage and faith and future and light and air.
Such is Vivekananda, the embodiment of Fearlessnessabh, the Upanishadic word, the mantra, he was so fond of. the life and vision of Vivekananda can be indeed summed up in the mighty phrase of the Upanishads, nyam tm balahnena labhya. 'This soul no weakling can attain.' Strength! More strength! Strength evermore! One remembers the motto of Danton, the famous leader in the French Revolution:De l'audance, encore de l'audace, toujours de l'audace!
the gospel of strength that Vivekananda spread was very characteristic of the man. For it is not mere physical or nervous bravery, although that too is indispensable, and it is something more than moral courage. In the speeches referred to, the subject-matter (as well as the manner to a large extent) is philosophical, metaphysical, even abstract in outlook and treatment: they are not a call to arms, like the French National An them, for example; they are not merely an ethical exhortation, a moral lesson ei ther. they speak of the inner spirit, the divine in man, the supreme realities that lie beyond. And yet the words are permeated through and through with a vibration life-giving and heroic-not so much in the explicit and apparent meaning as in the style and manner and atmosphere: it is catching, even or precisely when he refers, for example, to these passages in the Vedas and the Upanishads, magnificent in their poetic beauty, sublime in their spiritual truth,nec plus ultra, one can say, in the grand style supreme:
Yasyaite himavanto mahitv
He whose greatness these snowy ranges declare
or,
--
there the' sun shines not, nor the moon nor the stars
or agam,
--
then existence was not nor non-existence, the midworld was not nor the E ther nor what is beyond.
the consciousness that brea thed out these mighty words, these heavenly sounds was in itself mighty and heavenly and it is that that touches you, penetrates you, vibrates in you a kindred chord, "awakening in you someone dead" till thenmrtam kcana bodhayant. More than the matter, the thing that was said, was the personality, the being who embodied the truth expressed, the living consciousness behind the words and the speech that set fire to your soul. Indeed it was the soul that Vivekananda could awaken and stir in you. Any orator, any speaker with some kind of belief, even if it is for the moment, in what he says, by the sheer force of assertion, can convince your mind and draw your acquiescence and adhesion. A leader of men, self-confident and bold and fiery, can carry you off your feet and make you do brave things. But that is a lower degree of character and nature, ephemeral and superficial, that is touched in you thereby. the spiritual leader, the Guide, goes straight to the spirit in youit is the call of the deep unto the deep. That was what Vivekananda meant when he said that Brahman is asleep in you, awaken it, you are the Brahman, awaken it, you are free and almighty. It is the spirit consciousness Sachchidananda that is the real man in you and that is supremely mighty and invincible and free absolutely. the courage and fearlessness that Vivekananda gave you was the natural attribute of the lordship of your spiritual reality. Vivekananda spoke and roused the Atman in man.
Vivekananda spoke to the Atman in man, he spoke to the Atman of the world, and he spoke specially to the Atman of India. India had a large place in Vivekananda's consciousness: for the future of humanity and the world is wedded to India's future. India has a great mission, it has a spiritual, ra ther the spiritual work to do. Here is India's work as Vivekananda conceived it in a nutshell:
"Shall India die? then from the world all spirituality will be extinct." And wherefore is this call for the life spiritual? Thus the aspiring soul would answer:
"If I do not find bliss in the life of the spirit, shall I seek satisfaction in the life of the senses? If I cannot get nectar, shall I fall back upon ditch water?"
the answer is as old as that of Nachiketas: " these horses and these songs and dances of yours, let them remain yours, man is not appeased with riches"; or that of Maitreyi, "What am I to do with that which will not bring me immortality?" This is then man's mission upon earth:
"Man is higher than all animals, than all angels: none is greater than man. Even the Devas will have to come down again and attain to salvation though a human body. Man alone attains to perfection, not even the Devas." Indeed, men are gods upon earth, come down here below to perfect themselves and perfect the worldonly, they have to be conscious of themselves. they do not know what they are, they have to be actually and sovereignly what they are really and potentially. This then is the life-work of everyone:
"First, let us be Gods, and then help o thers to be Gods.
'Be and make', let this be our motto."
That is indeed the only way of securing a harmonious and
perfected humanity:
"Manifest the divinity within you, and everything will be
harmoniously arranged around it."
the path to this higher harmonious divine life is that of
hard labour, of scrupulously untiring, conscientious work:
--
Work and not abstention from work is the way, but not work for ignorant enjoyment:
" the dwelling-place of the Jivatman, this body, is a veritable means of work, and he who converts this into an infernal den is guilty, and he who neglects it is also to blame."
"No work is petty ... He who can properly prepare a chilam (pipe of tobacco) can also properly meditate."
these are luminous life-giving mantras and the world and humanity of today, sore distressed and utterly confounded, have great need of them to live them by and be saved.
***
01.07 - Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Vivekananda Walter Hilton: the Scale of Perfection
O ther Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Poets and MysticsBlaise Pascal (1623-1662)
--
" 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 ma thematical 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 ma thematics, viz., the ma thematical theory of probability. We shall see presently how his preoccupation with the ma thematics 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 o ther 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.
Pascal's place in the evolution of European culture and consciousness is of considerable significance and importance. He came at a critical time, on the mounting tide of rationalism and scepticism, in an age when the tone and temper of human mentality were influenced and fashioned by Montaigne and Rochefoucauld, by Bacon and Hobbes. Pascal himself, born in such an atmosphere of doubt and disbelief and disillusionment, had sucked in a full dose of that poison; yet he survived and found the Rock of Ages, became the clarion of Faith against Denial. What a spectacle it was! This is what one wrote just a quarter of a century after the death of Pascal:
" they can no longer tell us that it is only small minds that have piety. they are shown how it has grown best in one of the the greatest geometricians, one of the subtlest metaphysicians, one of the most penetrating minds that ever existed on earth. the piety of such a philosopher should make the unbeliever and the libertine declare what a certain Diocles said one day on seeing Epicurus in a temple: 'What a feast, what a spectacle for me to see Epicurus in a temple! All my doubts vainsh, piety takes its place again. I never saw Jupiter's greatness so well as now when I behold Epicurus kneeling down!"1
What characterises Pascal is the way in which he has bent his brainnot rejected it but truly bent and forced even the dry "geometrical brain" to the service of Faith.
In his inquiry into truth and certitude Pascal takes his stand upon what he calls the geometrical method, the only valid method, according to him, in the sphere of reason. the characteristic of this method is that it takes for granted certain fundamental principles and realitiescalled axioms and postulates or definitionsand proceeds to o ther truths that are infallibly and inevitably deduced from them, that are inherent and implied in them. there is no use or necessity in trying to demonstrate these fundamentals also; that will only land us into confusion and muddle. they have to be simply accepted, they do not require demonstration, it is they that demonstrate o thers. Such, for instance, are space, time, number, the reality of which it is foolishness and pedantry to I seek to prove. there is then an order of truths that do not i require to be proved. We are referring only to the order of I physical truths. But there is ano ther order, Pascal says, equally I valid and veritable, the order of the Spirit. Here we have ano ther set of fundamentals that have to be accepted and taken for granted, matrix of o ther truths and realities. It can also be called the order of the Heart. Reason posits physical fundamentals; it does not know of the fundamentals of the Heart which are beyond its reach; such are God, Soul, Immortality which are evident only to Faith.
But Faith and Reason, according to Pascal, are not contraries nor irreconcilables. Because the things of faith are beyond reason, it is not that they are irrational. Here is what Pascal says about the function and limitation of reason:
" the last movement of reason is to know that there is an infinity of things that are beyond it. It must be a very weak reason if it does not arrive there."2
"One must know where one should doubt, where one should submit."3
--
"We know truth not by reason alone, but by the heart also: it is in the latter way that we know the first principles, and in vain does reasoning, that has no part in it, attempt to combat them... the heart feels... and the reason demon strates afterwards... Principles are felt, propositions are deduced. . . . "5
About doubt, Pascal says that the perfect doubter, the Pyrrhonian as he is called, is a fiction. Pascal asks:
"What will men do in such a state? Will he doubt everything?... Will he doubt whe ther he doubts ? Will he doubt whe ther he exists?. . . In fact there has never been a perfectly effective Pyrrhonian."6
the process of conversion of the doubting mind, of the dry intellectual reason as propounded and perhaps practised by Pascal is also a characteristic mark of his nature and genius. It is explained in his famous letter on "bet" or "game of chance" (Le Pari). Here is how he puts the issue to the doubting mind (I am giving the substance, not his words): let us say then that in the world we are playing a game of chance. How do the chances stand? What are the gains and losses if God does not exist? What 'are the gains and losses if God does exist? If God exists, by accepting and reaching him what do we gain? All that man cares forhappiness, felicity. And what do we lose? We lose the world of misery. If, on the o ther 'hand, God does not exist, by believing him to exist, we lose nothing, we are not more miserable than what we are. If, however, God exists and we do not believe him, we gain this world of misery but we lose all that is worth having. Thus Pascal concludes that even from the standpoint of mere gain and loss, belief in God is more advantageous than unbelief. This is how he applied to metaphysics the ma thematics of probability.
One is not sure if such reasoning is convincing to the intellect; but perhaps it is a necessary stage in conversion. At least we can conclude that Pascal had to pass through such a stage; and it indicates the difficulty his brain had to undergo, the tension or even the torture he made it pass through. It is true, from Reason Pascal went over to Faith, even while giving Reason its due. Still it seems the two were not perfectly syn thetised or fused in him. there was a gap between that was not thoroughly bridged. Pascal did not possess the higher, intuitive, luminous mind that mediates successfully between the physical discursive ratiocinative brain-mind and the vision of faith: it is because deep in his consciousness there lay this chasm. Indeed,Pascal's abyss (l' abme de Pascal) is a well-known legend. Pascal, it appears, used to have very often the vision of an abyss about to open before him and he shuddered at the prospect of falling into it. It seems to us to be an experience of the Infinity the Infinity to which he was so much attracted and of which he wrote so beautifully (L'infiniment grand et l'infiniment petit)but into which he could not evidently jump overboard unreservedly. This produced a dichotomy, a lack of integration of personality, Jung would say. Pascal's brain was cold, firm, almost rigid; his heart was volcanic, the faith he had was a fire: it lacked something of the pure light and burned with a lurid glare.
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 o ther and need each o ther. Greatness and misery are intertwined, united, unified with each o ther 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 o ther. 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:
" the greatness of man is great in this that he knows he is miserable. A tree does not know that it is miserable.
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Man is a mere reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed."7
Pascal's faith had not the calm, tranquil, serene, luminous and happy self-possession of an Indian Rishi. It was ardent and impatient, fiery and vehement. It had to be so perhaps, since it was to stand against his steely brain (and a gloomy vital or life force) as a counterpoise, even as an antidote. This tension and schism brought about, at least contri buted to his neuras thenia and physical infirmity. But whatever the effect upon his inner consciousness and spiritual achievement, his power of expression, his literary style acquired by that a special quality which is his great gift to the French language. If one speaks of Pascal, one has to speak of his language also; for he was one of the great masters who created the French prose. His prose was a wonderful blend of clarity, precision, serried logic and warmth, colour, life, movement, plasticity.
A translation cannot give any idea of the Pascalian style; but an inner echo of the same can perhaps be caught from the thought movement of these characteristic sayings of his with which we conclude:
"Contradiction is not a mark of falsehood, nor is uncontradiction a mark of truth."8
" the infinite distance of the body from the mind images the distance infinitely more infinite of the mind from Charity (Divine Grace, Faith)."9
" the heart has its reasons which Reason knows not... I say, the heart loves the universal being naturally, and itself also naturally, according to which so ever it gives itself. And it hardens itself against the one or the o ther according to its choice. You have rejected one and preserved the o ther. Is it by the reason that you love ?"10
"Know then, a you proud one, what a paradox you are to yourself. Humble yourself, impotent Reason. Learn, man surpasses man infinitely. Hear from your Master your true state which you do not know. Listen to God."11
"Ils ne peuvent plus nous dire qu'il n'y a que de petits esprits qui aient de la pit: car on leur en fait voir de la mieux pouss dans run des plus grands go-mtres, l'un des plus subtils mtaphysiciens, et des plus pntrants esprits que aient jamais t au monde. La pit d'un tel philosophe devrait faire dire aux indvots et awe libertins ce que dit un jour un certain Diocls, en voyant Epicure dans un temple: 'Quelle fte,' s'criait-il, 'quelle spectacle pour moi, de voir Epicure dans un temple! Tous mes soupons s'vanouissent: la pit reprend sa place; et je ne vis jamais mieux la grandeur de Jupiter que depuis que je vois Epicure genoux!' " aBayle: Nouvelle de la Rpublique des Lettres.
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Vivekananda Walter Hilton: the Scale of Perfection
01.07 - The Bases of Social Reconstruction, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
object:01.07 - the Bases of Social Reconstruction
author class:Nolini Kanta Gupta
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the Basis of Social Reconstruction
Any real reconstruction of society, any permanent reformation of the world presupposes a real reconstruction, a permanent reformation of human nature. O therwise any amount of casting and recasting the mere machineries would not bring about any appreciable result, but leave the thing as it is. Change the laws as much as you like, but if you do not change the nature of man, the world will not change. For it is man that makes laws and not laws that make man. Laws express at best the demand which man feels within himself. A truth must realise itself in human nature before it can be codified. You may certainly legalise an ideal, but that does not necessarily mean realising it. the realisation must come first in nature and character, then it is naturally translated into laws and institutions. A man lives the laws of his soul and being and not the law given him by the shastras. He violates the shastras, modifies them, utilises them according to the greater imperative of his Swabhava.
the French Revolution wanted to remould human society and its ideal was liberty, equality and fraternity. It pulled down the old machinery and set up a new one in its stead. And the result? "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" remained always in effect a cry in the wilderness. Ano ther wave of idealism is now running over the earth and the Bolshevists are its most fiercely practical exponents. Instead of dealing merely with the political machinery, the Socialistic Revolution tries to break and remake, above all, the social machinery. But judged from the results as yet attained and the tendencies at work, few are the reasons to hope but many to fear the worst. Even education does not seem to promise us anything better. Which nation was better educatedin the sense we understood and still commonly understand the wordthan Germany?
And yet we have no hesitation today to call them Huns and Barbarians. That education is not giving us the right thing is proved fur ther by the fact that we are constantly changing our programmes and curriculums, everyday remodelling old institutions and founding new ones. Even a revolution in the educational system will not bring about the desired millennium, so long as we lay so much stress upon the system and not upon man himself. And finally, look to all the religions of the worldwe have enough of creeds and dogmas, of sermons and mantras, of churches and templesand yet human life and society do not seem to be any the more worthy for it.
Are we then to say that human nature is irrevocably vitiated by an original sin and that all our efforts at reformation and regeneration are, as the Indian saying goes, like trying to straighten out the crooked tail of a dog?
It is this persuasion which, has led many spiritual souls, siddhas, to declare that theirs is not the kingdom upon this earth, but that the kingdom of Heaven is within. And it is why great lovers of humanity have sought not to eradicate but only to mitigate, as far as possible, the ills of life. Earth and life, it is said, contain in their last analysis certain ugly and loathsome realities which are an inevitable and inexorable part of their substance and to eliminate one means to annihilate the o ther. What can be done is to throw a veil over the ne ther regions in human nature, to put a ban on their urges and velleities and to create opportunities to make social arrangements so that the higher impulses only find free play while the lower impulses, for want of scope and indulgence, may fall down to a harmless level. This is what the Reformists hope and want and no more. Life is based upon animality, the soul is encased in an earth-sheathman needs must procreate, man needs must seek food. But what human effort can achieve is to set up barriers and limitations and form channels and openings, which will restrain these impulses, allow them a necessary modicum of play and which for the greater part will serve to encourage and enhance the nobler urges in man. Of course, there will remain always the possibility of the whole scaffolding coming down with a crash and the aboriginal in man running riot in his nudity. But we have to accept the chance and make the best of what materials we have in hand.
No doubt this is a most dismal kind of pessimism. But it is the logical conclusion of all optimism that bases itself upon a particular view of human nature. If we question that pessimism, we have to question the very grounds of our optimism also. As a matter of fact, all our idealism has been so long infructuous and will be so in the future, if we do not shift our foundation and start from a different IntuitionWeltanschauung.
Our ideals have been mental constructions, ra ther than spiritual realitiesrealities of the deepest and highest being. And the power by which we sought to realise those ideals was mainly the insistence of our emotional urges, ra ther than Nature's Truth-Power. For this must be understood that the mental, the vital and the physical form a nexus of reality which works in its own inexorable law and so long as we are within them we cannot but obey the laws that guide them. Of these three strata which form the human adhara, it is the vital which holds the key to man's nature. It is the executive power, the force that fashions the realities on the physical plane; it is what creates the character. the power of thought and sentiment is often much too exaggerated, even so the power of the body, that of physical and external rules and regulations. the mental or the physical or both toge ther can mould the vital only to a limited extent, to the extent which is allowed by the inherent law of the vital. If the demands of the mental and the physical are stretched too far and are not suffered by the vital, a crash and catastrophe is bound to come in the end.
This is the meaning of the Reformist's pessimism. So long as we remain within the domain of the triple nexus, we must always take account of an original sin, an aboriginal irredeemability in human nature. And it, is this fact which a too hasty optimistic idealism is apt to ignore. the point, however, is that man need not be necessarily bound to this triple chord of life. He can go beyond, transcend himself and find a reality which is the basis of even this lower poise of the mental and vital and physical. Only in order to get into that higher poise we must really transcend the lower, that is to say, we must not be satisfied with experiencing or envisaging it through the mind and heart but must directly commune with it, be it. there is a higher law that rules there, a power that is the truth-substance of even the vital and hence can remould it with a sovereign inevitability, according to a pattern which may not and is not the pattern of mental and emotional idealism, but the pattern of a supreme spiritual realism.
What then is required is a complete spiritual regeneration in man, a new structure of his soul and substancenot merely the realisation of the highest and supreme Truth in mental and emotional consciousness, but the translation and application of the law of that truth in the power of the vital. It is here that failed all the great spiritual or ra ther religious movements of the past. they were content with evoking the divine in the mental being, but left the vital becoming to be governed by the habitual un-divine or at the most to be just illumined by a distant and faint glow which served, however, more to distort than express the Divine.
the Divine Nature only can permanently reform the vital nature that is ours. Nei ther laws and institutions, which are the results of that vital nature, nor ideas and ideals which are often a mere revolt from and more often an auxiliary to it, can comm and the power to regenerate society. If it is thought improbable for any group of men to attain to that God Nature, then there is hardly any hope for mankind. But improbable or probable, that is the only way which man has to try and test, and there is none o ther.
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On Communism A theory of Yoga
01.08 - A Theory of Yoga, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
object:01.08 - A theory of Yoga
author class:Nolini Kanta Gupta
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A theory of Yoga
Yoga is ano ther form of a normal function in man, it is the consciously regulated and heightened process of a habitual activity of the mind.
the recent science of Psycho-analysis has brought to light certain hidden springs and undercurrents of the mind; it has familiarised us with a mode of viewing the entire psychical life of man which will be fruitful for our present enquiry. Mind, it has been found, is a house divided, against itself, that is to say it is an arena where different and divergent forces continually battle against one ano ther. there must be, however, at the same time, some sort of a resolution of these forces, some equation that holds them in balance, o therwise the mind the human being itselfwould cease to exist as an entity. What is the mechanism of this balance of power in the human mind? In order to ascertain that we must first of all know the fundamental nature of the struggle and also the character of the more elemental forces that are engaged in it.
there are some primary desires that seek satisfaction in man. they are the vital urges of life, the most prominent among them being the instinct of self-preservation and that of self-reproduction or the desire to preserve one's body by defensive as well as by offensive means and the desire to multiply oneself by mating. these are the two biological necessities that are inevitable to man's existence as a physical being. they give the minimum conditions required to be fulfilled by man in order that he may live and hence they are the strongest and the most fundamental elements that enter into his structure and composition.
It would have been an easy matter if these vital urges could flow on unhindered in their way. there would have been no problem at all, if they met satisfaction easily and smoothly, without having to look to o ther factors and forces. As a matter of fact, man does not and cannot gratify his instincts whenever and wherever he chooses and in an open and direct manner. Even in his most primitive and barbarous condition, he has often to check himself and throw a veil, in so many ways, over his sheer animality. In the civilised society the check is manifold and is frankly recognised. We do not go straight as our sexual impulsion leads, but seek to hide and camouflage it under the institution of marriage; we do not pounce upon the food directly we happen to meet it and snatch and appropriate whatever portion we get but we secure it through an elaborate process, which is known as the economic system. the machinery of the state, the cult of the kshatriya are roundabout ways to meet our fighting instincts.
What is the reason of this elaboration, this check and constraint upon the natural and direct outflow of the animal instincts in man? It has been said that the social life of man, the fact that he has to live and move as member of a group or aggregate has imposed upon him these restrictions. the free and unbridled indulgence of one's bare aboriginal impulses may be possible to creatures that live a separate, solitary and individual life but is disruptive of all bonds necessary for a corporate and group life. It is even a biological necessity again which has evolved in man a third and collateral primary instinct that of the herd. And it is this herd-instinct which naturally and spontaneously restrains, diverts and even metamorphoses the o ther instincts of the mere animal life. However, leaving aside for the moment the question whe ther man's ethical and spiritual ideals are a mere dissimulation of his animal instincts or whe ther they correspond to certain actual realities apart from and co-existent with these latter, we will recognise the simple fact of control and try to have a glimpse into its mechanism.
there are three lines, as the Psycho-analysts point out along which this control or censuring of the primary instincts acts. First, there is the line of Defence Reaction. That is to say, the mind automatically takes up an attitude directly contrary to the impulse, tries to shut it out and deny altoge ther its existence and the measure of the insistence of the impulse is also the measure of the vehemence of the denial. It is the case of the lady protesting too much. So it happens that where subconsciously there is a strong current of a particular impulse, consciously the mind is obliged to take up a counteracting opposite impulse. Thus in presence of a strong sexual craving the mind as if to guard and save itself engenders by a reflex movement an ascetic and puritanic mood. Similarly a strong unthinking physical attraction translates itself on the conscious plane as an equally strong repulsion.
Secondly, there is the line of Substitution. Here the mind does not stand in an antagonistic and protestant mood to combat and repress the impulse, but seeks to divert it into o ther channels, use it to o ther purposes which do not demand equal sacrifice, may even, on the o ther hand, be considered by the conscious mind as worthy of human pursuit. Thus the energy that normally would seek sexual gratification might find its outlet in the cultivation of art and literature. It is a common thing in novels to find the heroine disappointed in love taking finally to works of charity and beneficence and thus forgetting her disappointment. Ano ther variety of this is what is known as "drowning one's sorrow in drinking."
Thirdly, there is the line of Sublimationit is when the natural impulse is nei ther repressed nor diverted but lifted up into a higher modality. the thing is given a new sense and a new value which serve to remove the stigma usually attached to it and thus allow its free indulgence. Instances of carnal love sublimated into spiritual union, of passion transmuted into devotion (Bhakti) are common enough to illustrate the point.
the human mind naturally, without any effort on its part, takes to one or more of these devices to control and conceal the aboriginal impulses. But this spontaneous process can be organised and consciously regulated and made to serve better the purpose and urge of Nature. And this is the beginning of yoga the conscious fulfilment of Nature. the Psycho-analysts have given us the first and elementary stage of this process of yoga. It is, we may say, the fourth line of control. With this man enters a new level of being, develops a new mode of life. It is when the automatism of Nature is replaced by the power of Conscious Control. Man is not here, a blind instrument of forces, his activities (both indulging and controlling) are not guided according to an ignorant submission to the laws of almost subconscious impulsions. Conscious control means that the mind does not fight shy of or seek to elude the aboriginal insistences, but allows them to come up freely, meets them squarely, recognises them and establishes an easy mastery over them.
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 ne ther 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.
Yet even here the process of control and transformation does not end. And we now come to the Fifth Line, the real and intimate path of yoga. Conscious control gives us a natural mastery over the instinctive impulses which are relieved of their dark tamas and attain a purified rhythm. We do not seek to hide or repress or combat them, but surpass them and play with them as the artist does with his material. Something of this katharsis, this aes theticism of the primitive impulses was achieved by the ancient Greeks. Even then the primitive impulses remain primitive all the same; they fulfil, no doubt, a real and healthy function in the scheme of life, but still in their fundamental nature they continue the animal in man. And even when Conscious Control means the utter elimination and annihilation of the primal instinctswhich, however, does not seem to be a probable eventualityeven then, we say, the basic problem remains unsolved; for the urge of nature towards the release and a transformation of the instincts does not find satisfaction, the question is merely put aside.
Yoga, then, comes at this stage and offers the solution in its power of what we may call Transubstantiation. That is to say, here the mere form is not changed, nor the functions restrained, regulated and purified, but the very substance of the instincts is transmuted. the power of conscious control is a power of the human will, i.e. of an individual personal will and therefore necessarily limited both in intent and extent. It is a power complementary to the power of Nature, it may guide and fashion the latter according to a new pattern, but cannot change the basic substance, the stuff of Nature. To that end yoga seeks a power that transcends the human will, brings into play the supernal puissance of a Divine Will.
This is the real meaning and sense of the moral struggle in man, the continuous endeavour towards a transvaluation of the primary and aboriginal instincts and impulses. Looked at from one end, from below up the ascending line, man's ethical and spiritual ideals are a dissimulation and sublimation of the animal impulsions. But this is becauseas we see, if we look from the o ther end, from above down the descending lineman is not all instinct, he is not a mere blind instrument in the hands of Nature forces. He has in him ano ther source, an opposite pole of being from which o ther impulsions flow and continually modify the structure of the lower levels. If the animal is the foundation of his nature, the divine is its summit. If the bodily demands form his manifest reality, the demands of the spirit enshrine his higher reality. And if as regards the former he is a slave, as regards the latter he is the Master. It is by the interaction of these double forces that his whole nature has been and is being fashioned. Man does not and cannot give carte blanche to his vital, inclinations, since there is a pressure upon them of higher forces coming down from his mental and spiritual levels. It is these latter which have deviated him from the direct line of the pure animal life.
Thus then we may distinguish three types of control on three levels. First, the natural control, secondly the conscious, i.e. to say the mental the ethical and religious control, and thirdly the spiritual or divine control. Now the spirit is the ultimate truth and reality, behind the forces that act in the mind and in the body, so that the natural control and the ethical control are mere attempts to establish and realise the spiritual control. the animal impulses feel the hidden stress of the divine urges that are their real essence and thus there rises first an unconscious conflict in the natural life and then a conscious conflict in the higher ethical life. But when both of these are transcended and the conflict is carried on to a still higher level, then do we find their real significance and arrive at the consummation to which they move. Yoga is the ultimate transvaluation of physical (and of moral) values, it is the trans-substantiation of life-power into its spiritual substance.
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the Basis of Social Reconstruction the Parting of the Way
01.08 - Walter Hilton: The Scale of Perfection, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
object:01.08 - Walter Hilton: the Scale of Perfection
author class:Nolini Kanta Gupta
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Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) William Blake: the Marriage of Heaven and Hell
O ther Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Poets and MysticsWalter Hilton: the Scale of Perfection
Walter Hilton: the Scale of Perfection
From the twentieth century back to the fourteenth is a far cry: a far cry indeed from the modern scientific illumination to mediaeval superstition, from logical positivists and ma thematical rationalists to visionary mystics, from Russell and Huxley to Ruysbroeck and Hilton. the mystic lore, the Holy Writ, the mediaeval sage says, echoing almost the very words of the Eastern Masters, "may not be got by study nor through man's travail only, but principally by the grace of the Holy Ghost." As for the men living and moving in the worldly way, there are "so mickle din and crying in their heart and vain thoughts and fleshly desires" that it is impossible for them to listen or understand the still small voice. It is the pure soul touched by the Grace that alone "seeth soothfastness of Holy Writ wonderly shewed and opened, above study and travail and reason of man's kindly (i.e. natural) wit."
What is day to us is night to the mystics and what is day to the mystics is night for us. the first thing the mystic asks is to close precisely those doors and windows which we, on the contrary, feel obliged to keep always open in order to know and to live and move. the Gita says: " the sage is wakeful when it is night for all creatures and when all creatures are wakeful, that is night for the sage." Even so this sage from the West says: " the more I sleep from outward things, the more wakeful am I in knowing of Jhesu and of inward things. I may not wake to Jhesu, but if I sleep to the world."
Close the senses. Turn within. And then go forward, that is to say, more and more inward. In that direction lies your itinerary, the journey of your consciousness. the sense-ridden secular man, who goes by his physical eye, has marked in his own way the steps of his forward march and progress. His knowledge and his power grew as he proceeded in his survey from larger masses of physical objects to their component molecules and from molecules to their component atoms and from atoms once more into electrons and protons or energy-points pure and simple, or o therwise as, in ano ther direction, he extended his gaze from earth to the solar system, from the solar system to o ther starry systems, to far-off galaxies and I from galaxies to spaces beyond. the record of this double-track march to infinityas perceived or conceived by the physical sensesis marvellous, no doubt. the mystic offers the spectacle of a still more marvellous march to ano ther kind of infinity.
Here is the Augustinian mantra taken as the motto of the Scale of Perfection: We ascend the ascending grades in our heart and we sing the song of ascension1. the journey's end is heavenly Jerusalem, the House of the Lord. the steps of this inner ascension are easily visible, not surely to the outer eye of the sense-burdened man, but to the "ghostly seeing" of the aspirant which is hazy in the beginning but slowly clears as he advances. the first step is the withdrawal from the outer senses and looking and seeing within. "Turn home again in thyself, and hold thee within and beg no more without." the immediate result is a darkness and a restless darknessit is a painful night. the outer objects of attraction and interest have been discarded, but the inner attachments and passions surge there still. If, however, one continues and persists, refuses to be drawn out, the turmoil settles down and the darkness begins to thin and wear away. One must not lose heart, one must have patience and perseverance. So when the outward world is no more- there and its call also no longer awakes any echo in us, then comes the stage of "restful darkness" or "light-some darkness". But it is still the dark Night of the soul. the outer light is gone and the inner light is not yet visible: the night, the desert, the great Nought, stretches between these two lights. But the true seeker goes through and comes out of the tunnel. And there is happiness at the end. " the seeking is travaillous, but the finding is blissful." When one steps out of the Night, enters into the deepest layer of the being, one stands face to face to one's soul, the very image of God, the perfect God-man, the Christ within. That is the third degree of our inner ascension, the entry into the deepest, purest and happiest statein which one becomes what he truly is; one finds the Christ there and dwells in love and union with him. But there is still a fur ther step to take, and that is real ascension. For till now it has been a going within, from the outward to the inner and the inmost; now one has to go upward, transcend. Within the body, in life, however deep you may go, even if you find your soul and your union with Jesus whose tabernacle is your soul, still there is bound to remain a shadow of the sinful prison-house; the perfect bliss and purity without any earthly taint, the completeness and the crowning of the purgation and transfiguration can come only when you go beyond, leaving altoge ther the earthly form and worldly vesture and soar into Heaven itself and be in the company of the Trinity. "Into myself, and after... above myself by overpassing only into Him." At the same time it is pointed out, this mediaeval mystic has the common sense to see that the going in and going above of which one speaks must not be understood in a literal way, it is a figure of speech. the movement of the mystic is psychological"ghostly", it is saidnot physical or carnal.
This spiritual march or progress can also be described as a growing into the likeness of the Lord. His true self, his own image is implanted within us; he is there in the profoundest depth of our being as Jesus, our beloved and our soul rests in him in utmost bliss. We are aware nei ther of Jesus nor of his spouse, our soul, because of the obsession of the flesh, the turmoil raised by the senses, the blindness of pride and egoism. All that constitutes the first or old Adam, the image of Nought, the body of death which means at bottom the "false misruled love in to thyself." This self-love is the mo ther of sin, is sin itself. What it has to be replaced by is charity that is the true meaning of Christian charity, forgetfulness of self. "What is sin but a wanting and a forbearing of God." And the whole task, the discipline consists in " the shaping of Christ in you, the casting of sin through Christ." Who then is Christ, what is he? This knowledge you get as you advance from your sense-bound perception towards the inner and inmost seeing. As your outer nature gets purified, you approach gradually your soul, the scales fall off from your eyes too and you have the knowledge and "ghostly vision." Here too there are three degrees; first, you start with faith the senses can do nothing better than have faith; next, you rise to imagination which gives a sort of indirect touch or inkling of the truth; finally, you have the "understanding", the direct vision. "If he first trow it, he shall afterwards through grace feel it, and finally understand it."
It is never possible for man, weak and bound as he is, to reject the thraldom of his flesh, he can never purify himself wholly by his own unaided strength. God in his infinite mercy sent his own son, an emanation created out of his substancehis embodied loveas a human being to suffer along with men and take upon himself the burden of their sins. God the Son lived upon earth as man and died as man. Sin therefore has no longer its final or definitive hold upon mankind. Man has been made potentially free, pure and worthy of salvation. This is the mystery of Christ, of God the Son. But there is a fur ther mystery. Christ not only lived for all men for all time, whe ther they know him, recognise him or not; but he still lives, he still chooses his beloved and his beloved chooses him, there is a conscious acceptance on ei ther side. This is the function of the Holy Ghost, the redeeming power of Love active in him who accepts it and who is accepted by it, the dynamic Christ-Consciousness in the true Christian.
Indeed, the kernel of the mystic discipline and its whole bearingconsists in one and only one principle: to love Jhesu. All roads lead to Rome: all preparations, all trials lead to one realisation, love of God, God as a living person close to us, our friend and lover and master. the Christian mystic speaks almost in the terms of the Gita: Rise above your senses, give up your ego-hood, be meek and humble, it is Jesus within you, who embraces your soul: it is he who does everything for you and in you, give yourself up wholly into his hands. He will deliver you.
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 ano ther 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 o ther take cognizance of the truth of it. the Christian doctrine too says indeed, 'I and my Fa ther 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 altoge ther 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 fur ther 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 bro ther 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 nei ther 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 hypo thetical 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. Whe ther 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
This will elucidate ano ther point of difference between the Christian's and the Vaishnava's love of God, for both are characterised by an extreme intensity and sweetness and exquisiteness of that divine feeling. This Christian's, however, is the union of the soul in its absolute purity and simplicity and "privacy" with her lord and master; the soul is shred here of all earthly vesture and goes innocent and naked into the embrace of her Beloved. the Vaishnava feeling is richer and seems to possess more amplitude; it is more concrete and less e thereal. the Vaishnava in his passionate yearning seeks to carry as it were the whole world with him to his Lord: for he sees and feels Him not only in the inmost chamber of his soul, but meets Him also in and I through his senses and in and through the world and its objects around. In psychological terms one can say that the Christian realisation, at its very source, is that of the inmost soul, what we call the "psychic being" pure and simple, referred to in the book we are considering; as: "His sweet privy voice... stirreth thine heart full stilly." Whereas the Vaishnava reaches out to his Lord with his outer heart too aflame with passion; not only his inmost being but his vital being also seeks the Divine. This bears upon the occult story of man's spiritual evolution upon earth. the Divine Grace descends from the highest into the deepest and from the deepest to the outer ranges of human nature, so that the whole of it may be illumined and transformed and one day man can embody in his earthly life the integral manifestation of God, the perfect Epiphany. Each religion, each line of spiritual discipline takes up one limb of manone level or mode of his being and consciousness purifies it and suffuses it with the spiritual and divine consciousness, so that in the end the whole of man, in his integral living, is recast and remoulded: each discipline is in charge of one thread as it were, all toge ther weave the warp and woof in the evolution of the perfect pattern of a spiritualised and divinised humanity.
the conception of original sin is a cardinal factor in Christian discipline. the conception, of sinfulness is the very motive-power that drives the aspirant. "Seek tensely," it is said, "sorrow and sigh deep, mourn still, and stoop low till thine eye water for anguish and for pain." Remorse and grief are necessary attendants; the way of the cross is naturally the calvary strewn with pain and sorrow. It is the very opposite of what is termed the "sunlit path" in spiritual ascension. Christian mystics have made a glorious spectacle of the process of "dying to the world." Evidently, all do not go the whole length. there are less gloomy and happier temperaments, like the present one, for example, who show an unusual balance, a sturdy common sense even in the midst of their darkest nights, who have chalked out as much of the sunlit path as is possible in this line. Thus this old-world mystic says: it is true one must see and admit one's sinfulness, the grosser and apparent and more violent ones as well as all the subtle varieties of it that are in you or rise up in you or come from the Enemy. they pursue you till the very end of your journey. Still you need not feel overwhelmed or completely desperate. Once you recognise the sin in you, even the bare fact of recognition means for you half the victory. the mystic says, "It is no sin as thou feelest them." the day Jesus gave himself away on the Cross, since that very day you are free, potentially free from the bondage of sin. Once you give your adherence to Him, the Enemies are rendered powerless. " they tease the soul, but they harm not the soul". Or again, as the mystic graphically phrases it: "This soul is not borne in this image of sin as a sick man, though he feel it; but he beareth it." the best way of dealing with one's enemies is not to struggle and "strive with them." the aspirant, the lover of Jesus, must remember: "He is through grace reformed to the likeness of God ('in the privy substance of his soul within') though he nei ther feel it nor see it."
If you are told you are still full of sins and you are not worthy to follow the path, that you must go and work out your sins first, here is your answer: "Go shrive thee better: trow not this saying, for it is false, for thou art shriven. Trust securely that thou art on the way, and thee needeth no ransacking of shrift for that that is passed, hold forth thy way and think on Jerusalem." That is to say, do not be too busy with the difficulties of the moment, but look ahead, as far as possible, fix your attention upon the goal, the intermediate steps will become easy. Jerusalem is ano ther name of the Love of Jesus or the Bliss in Heaven. Grow in this love, your sins will fade away of themselves. "Though thou be thrust in an house with thy body, never theless in thine heart, where the stead of love is, thou shouldst be able to have part of that love... " What exquisite utterance, what a deep truth!
Indeed, there are one or two points, notes for the guidance of the aspirant, which I would like to mention here for their striking appositeness and simple "soothfastness." First of all with regard to the restless enthusiasm and eagerness of a novice, here is the advice given: " the fervour is so mickle in outward showing, is not only for mickleness of love that they have; but it is for littleness and weakness of their souls, that they may not bear a little touching of God.. afterward when love hath boiled out all the uncleanliness, then is the love clear and standeth still, and then is both the body and the soul mickle more in peace, and yet hath the self soul mickle more love than it had before, though it shew less outward." And again: "without any fervour outward shewed, and the less it thinketh that it loveth or seeth God, the nearer it nigheth" ('it' naturally refers to the soul). the statement is beautifully self-luminous, no explanation is required. Ano ther hurdle that an aspirant has to face often in the passage through the Dark Night is that you are left all alone, that you are deserted by your God, that the Grace no longer favours you. Here is however the truth of the matter; "when I fall down to my frailty, then Grace withdraweth: for my falling is cause there-of, and not his fleeing." In fact, the Grace never withdraws, it is we who withdraw and think o therwise. One more difficulty that troubles the beginner especially is with regard to the false light. the being of darkness comes in the form of the angel of light, imitates the tone of the still small voice; how to recognise, how to distinguish the two? the false light, the "feigned sun" is always found "atwixt two black rainy clouds" : they are "highing" of oneself and "lowing" of o thers. When you feel flattered and elated, beware it is the siren voice tempting you. the true light brings you soothing peace and meekness: the o ther light brings always a trail of darknessf you are soothfast and sincere you will discover it if not near you, somewhere at a distance lurking.
the ultimate truth is that God is the sole doer and the best we can do is to let him do freely without let or hindrance. "He that through Grace may see Jhesu, how that He doth all and himself doth right nought but suffereth Jhesu work in him what him liketh, he is meek." And yet one does not arrive at that condition from the beginning or all at once. " the work is not of the hour nor of a day, but of many days and years." And for a long time one has to take up one's burden and work, co-operate with the Divine working. In the process there is this double movement necessary for the full achievement. "Nei ther Grace only without full working of a soul that in it is nor working done without grace bringeth a soul to reforming but that one joined to that o ther." Mysticism is not all eccentricity and irrationality: on the contrary, sanity seems to be the very character of the higher mysticism. And it is this sanity, and even a happy sense of humour accompanying it, that makes the genuine mystic teacher say: "It is no mastery to me for to say it, but for to do it there is mastery." Amen.
Ascendimus ascensiones in corde et cantamus canticum graduum." Confessions of St. Augustine XIII. 9.
the Gita, VI. 31
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Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) William Blake: the Marriage of Heaven and Hell
01.09 - The Parting of the Way, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
object:01.09 - the Parting of the Way
author class:Nolini Kanta Gupta
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the Parting of the Way
To be divine or to remain humanthis is the one choice that is now before Nature in her upward march of evolution. What is the exact significance of this choice?
To remain human means to continue the fundamental nature of man. In what consists the humanity of man? We can ascertain it by distinguishing what forms the animality of the animal, since that will give us the differentia that nature has evolved to raise man over the animal. the animal, again, has a characteristic differentiating it from the vegetable world, which latter, in its turn, has something to mark it off from the inorganic world. the inorganic, the vegetable, the animal and finally man these are the four great steps of Nature's evolutionary course.
the differentia, in each case, lies in the degree and nature of consciousness, since it is consciousness that forms the substance and determines the mode of being. Now, the inorganic is characterised by un-consciousness, the vegetable by sub-consciousness, the animal by consciousness and man by self-consciousness. Man knows that he knows, an animal only knows; a plant does not even know, it merely feels or senses; matter cannot do that even, it simply acts or ra ther is acted upon. We are not concerned here, however, with the last two forms of being; we will speak of the first two only.
We say, then, that man is distinguished from the animal by his having consciousness as it has, but added to it the consciousness of self. Man acts and feels and knows as much as the animal does; but also he knows that he acts, he knows that he feels, he knows that he knowsand this is a thing the animal cannot do. It is the awakening of the sense of self in every mode of being that characterises man, and it is owing to this consciousness of an ego behind, of a permanent unit of reference, which has modified even the functions of knowing and feeling and acting, has refashioned them in a mould which is not quite that of the animal, in spite of a general similarity.
So the humanity of man consists in his consciousness of the self or ego. Is there no o ther higher mode of consciousness? Or is self-consciousness the acme, the utmost limit to which consciousness can raise itself? If it is so, then we are bound to conclude that humanity will remain eternally human in its fundamental nature; the only progress, if progress at all we choose to call it, will consist perhaps in accentuating this consciousness of the self and in expressing it through a greater variety of stresses, through a richer combination of its colour and light and shade and rhythm. But also, this may not be so there may be the possibility of a fur ther step, a transcending of the consciousness of the self. It seems unnatural and improbable that having risen from un-consciousness to self-consciousness through a series of continuous marches, Nature should suddenly stop and consider what she had achieved to be her final end. Has Nature become bankrupt of her creative genius, exhausted of her upward drive? Has she to remain content with only a clever manipulation, a mere shuffling and re-arranging of the materials already produced?
As a matter of fact it is not so. the glimpses of a higher form of consciousness we can see even now present in self-consciousness. We have spoken of the different stages of evolution as if they were separate and distinct and incommensurate entities. they may be described as such for the purpose of a logical understanding, but in reality they form a single progressive continuum in which one level gradually fuses into ano ther. And as the higher level takes up the law of the lower and evolves out of it a characteristic function, even so the law of the higher level with its characteristic function is already involved and envisaged in the law of the lower level and its characteristic function. It cannot be asserted positively that because man's special virtue is self-consciousness, animals cannot have that quality on any account. We do see, if we care to observe closely and dispassionately, that animals of the higher order, as they approach the level of humanity, show more and more evident signs of something which is very much akin to, if not identical with the human characteristic of self-consciousness.
So, in man also, especially of that order which forms the crown of humanityin poets and artists and seers and great men of actioncan be observed a certain characteristic form of consciousness, which is something o ther than, greater than the consciousness of the mere self. It is difficult as yet to characterise definitely what that thing is. It is the awakening of the self to something which is beyond itselfit is the cosmic self, the oversoul, the universal being; it is God, it is Turiya, it is sachchidanandain so many ways the thing has been sought to be envisaged and expressed. the consciousness of that level has also a great variety of names given to it Intuition, Revelation, cosmic consciousness, God-consciousness. It is to be noted here, however, that the thing we are referring to, is not the Absolute, the Infinite, the One without a second. It is not, that is to say, the supreme Reality the Brahmanin its static being, in its undivided and indivisible unity; it is the dynamic Brahman, that status of the supreme Reality where creation, the diversity of Becoming takes rise, it is the Truth-worldRitam the domain of typal realities. the distinction is necessary, as there does seem to be such a level of consciousness intermediary, again, between man and the Absolute, between self-consciousness and the supreme consciousness. the simplest thing would be to give that intermediate level of consciousness a negative namesince being as yet human we cannot foresee exactly its composition and function the super-consciousness.
the inflatus of something vast and transcendent, something which escapes all our familiar schemes of cognisance and yet is insistent with a translucent reality of its own, we do feel sometimes within us invading and enveloping our individuality, lifting up our sense of self and transmuting our personality into a reality which can hardly be called merely human. All this life of ego-bound rationality then melts away and opens out the passage for a life of vision and power. Thus it is the poet has felt when he says, " there is this incalculable element in human life influencing us from the mystery which envelops our being, and when reason is satisfied, there is something deeper than Reason which makes us still uncertain of truth. Above the human reason there is a transcendental sphere to which the spirit of men sometimes rises, and the will may be forged there at a lordly smithy and made the unbreakable pivot."(A.E.)
This passage from the self-conscient to the super-conscient does not imply merely a shifting of the focus of consciousness. the transmutation of consciousness involves a purer illumination, a surer power and a wider compass; it involves also a fundamental change in the very mode of being and living. It gives quite a different life-intuition and a different life-power. the change in the motif brings about a new form altoge ther, a re-casting and re-shaping and re-energising of the external materials as well. As the lift from mere consciousness to self-consciousness meant all the difference between an animal and a man, so the lift again from self-consciousness to super-consciousness will mean the difference of a whole world between man and the divine creature that is to be.
Indeed it is a divine creature that should be envisaged on the next level of evolution. the mental and the moral, the psychical and the physical transfigurations which must follow the change in the basic substratum do imply such a mutation, the birth of a new species, as it were, fashioned in the nature of the gods. the vision of angels and Siddhas, which man is having ceaselessly since his birth, may be but a prophecy of the future actuality.
This then, it seems to us, is the immediate problem that Nature has set before herself. She is now at the parting of the ways. She has done with man as an essentially human being, she has brought out the fundamental possibilities of humanity and perfected it, so far as perfection may be attained within the cadre by which she chose to limit herself; she is now looking forward to ano ther kind of experiment the evolving of ano ther life, ano ther being out of her entrails, that will be greater than the humanity we know today, that will be superior even to the supreme that has yet been actualised.
Nature has marched from the unconscious to the sub-conscious, from the sub-conscious to the conscious and from the conscious to the self-conscious; she has to rise yet again from the self-conscious to the super-conscious. the mineral gave place to the plant, the plant gave place to the animal and the animal gave place to man; let man give place to and bring out the divine.
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A theory of Yoga Principle and Personality
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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Walter Hilton: the Scale of Perfection Nicholas Berdyaev: God Made Human
O ther 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 Lifehell, 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 nutshell:
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.
the eyes of fire, the nostrils of air, the mouth of water, the beard of earth.
Such is to be the ideal, the perfect, the spiritual man. Have we here the progenitor of the Nietzschean Superman? Both smell almost the same sulphurous atmosphere. But that also seems to lie in the direction to which the whole world is galloping in its evolutionary course. Humanity in its agelong travail has passed through the agony, one might say, of two extreme and opposite experiences, which are epitomised in the classic phrasing of Sri Aurobindo as: (1) the Denial of the Materialist and (2) the Refusal of the Ascetic.1 Nei ther, however, the Spirit alone nor the body alone is man's reality; nei ther only the earth here nor only the heaven there embodies man's destiny. Both have to be claimed, both have to belivedubhayameva samrt, as the old sage, Yajnavalkya, declared.
the earliest dream of humanity is also the last fulfilment. the Vedic Rishis sang of the marriage of heaven and earthHeaven is my fa ther and this Earth my mo ther. And Blake and Nietzsche are fiery apostles of that dream and ideal in an age crippled with doubt, falsehood, smallness, crookedness, impotence, colossal ignorance.
We welcome voices that speak of this ancient tradition, this occult Knowledge of a high Future. Recently we have come across one aspirant in the line, and being a contemporary, his views and reviews in the matter will be all the more interesting to us.2 He is Gustave Thibon, a Frenchman-not a priest or even a religious man in the orthodox sense in any way, but a country farmer, a wholly self-educated laque. Of late he has attracted a good deal of attention from intellectuals as well as religious people, especially the Catholics, because of his remarkable conceptions which are so often unorthodox and yet so often ringing true with an old-world au thenticity.
Touching the very core of the malady of our age he says that our modern enlightenment seeks to cancel altoge ther the higher values and install instead the lower alone as true. Thus, for example, Marx and Freud, its twin arch priests, are bro thers. Both declare that it is the lower, the under layer alone that matters: to one " the masses", to the o ther " the instincts". their wild imperative roars: "Sweep away this pseudo-higher; let the instincts rule, let the pro-letariat dictate!" But more characteristic, Monsieur Thibon has made ano ther discovery which gives the whole value and speciality to his outlook. He says the moderns stress the lower, no doubt; but the old world stressed only the higher and neglected the lower. therefore the revolt and wrath of the lower, the rage of Revanche in the heart of the dispossessed in the modern world. Enlightenment meant till now the cultivation and embellishment of the Mind, the conscious Mind, the rational and nobler faculties, the height and the depth: and mankind meant the princes and the great ones. In the individual, in the scheme of his culture and education, the senses were neglected, left to go their own way as they pleased; and in the collective field, the toiling masses in the same way lived and moved as best as they could under the economics of laissez-faire. So Monsieur Thibon concludes: "Salvation has never come from below. To look for it from above only is equally vain. No doubt salvation must come from the higher, but on condition that the higher completely adopts and protects the lower." Here is a vision luminous and revealing, full of great import, if we follow the right track, prophetic of man's true destiny. It is through this infiltration of the higher into the lower and the integration of the lower into the higher that mankind will reach the goal of its evolution, both individually and collectively.
But the process, Monsieur Thibon rightly asserts, must begin with the individual and within the individual. Man must "turn within, feel alive within himself", re-establish his living contact with God, the source and origin from which he has cut himself off. Man must learn to subordinate having to being. Each individual must be himself, a free and spontaneous expression. Upon such individual , upon individuals grouped naturally in smaller collectivities and not upon unformed or ill-formed wholesale masses can a perfect human society be raised and will be raised. Monsieur Thibon insistsand very rightlyupon the variety and diversity of individual and local growths in a unified humanity and not a dead uniformity of regimented oneness. He declares, as the reviewer of the London Times succinctly puts it: "Let us abolish our insensate worship of number. Let us repeal the law of majorities. Let us work for the unity that draws toge ther instead of idolizing the multiplicity that disintegrates. Let us understand that it is not enough for each to have a place; what matters is that each should be in his right place. For the atomized society let us substitute an organic society, one in which every man will be free to do what he alone is qualified and able to do."
So far so good. For it is not far enough. the being or becoming that is demanded in fulfilment of the divine advent in humanity must go to the very roots of life and nature, must seize God in his highest and sovereign status. No prejudice of the past, no notion of our mental habits must seek to impose its law. Thus, for example, in the matter of redeeming the senses by the influx of the higher light, our author seems to consider that the senses will remain more or less as they are, only they will be controlled, guided, used by the higher light. And he seems to think that even the sex relation (even the institution of marriage) may continue to remain, but sublimated, submitted to the laws of the Higher Order. This, according to us, is a dangerous compromise and is simply the imposition of the lower law upon the higher. Our view of the total transformation and divinisation of the Lower is altoge ther different. the Highest must come down wholly and inhabit in the Lowest, the Lowest must give up altoge ther its own norms and lift itself into the substance and form too of the Highest.
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
the Times Literary Supplement, January 15, 1949
***
Walter Hilton: the Scale of Perfection Nicholas Berdyaev: God Made Human
0.10 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To a young captain in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Department
of Physical Education. He began writing to the Mo ther at the
age of nineteen.
--
On the night of Friday the 8th, I had a very peculiar
dream. As I could not tell it to You at the Playground, I
am going to tell You now.
It was a very fine day - very special. there was an
important meeting at the Playground, so I was hurrying there. But near the Playground in front of Standard
Stores, the road was covered with innumerable snakes.
I was taken aback and ra ther afraid. So I was about to
go round by ano ther way to the Playground. But just
then something spoke to me within: "What! Are you
--
them. they will not harm you." I walked through them
quite confidently. Not one of them disturbed me nor
did I disturb them. When I reached the Playground, I
started talking to a friend. Suddenly he jumped back
in fright and said: "Be careful, there is a snake coiled
around your arm, and ano ther around your o ther arm,
--
not felt their presence till then, I was not in the least
alarmed. I took them off one by one and threw them
away. One snake was dead because I had stepped on it.
--
exactly what happened at the Playground afterwards.
Mo ther, what do You think of this dream?
--
From time to time there is an upsurge of bad
thoughts; the mind becomes like a mire of passions
and I wallow in it like a worm. After a while I wake up
--
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
--
stick to one thing till the end. Perhaps that is why we
are not able to go beyond a mediocre average. Or is it
--
the cause of mediocre work is nei ther the variety nor the number
of activities, but the lack of power of concentration.
One must learn to concentrate and do all that one does with
--
in the students, whe ther in games, athletics or gymnastics. Even our own enthusiasm dwindles when we see
their lack of interest in everything.
the interest of the students is proportionate to the true capacity
of the teacher.
12 July 1961
(Regarding the Lost Footsteps by Silviu Craciunas) This
book shows how Sri Aurobindo is working in every corner of the world. We who are here in the Ashram still
haven't even had a glimpse of him.
--
with him. they are those who love him sincerely and sufficiently
to live according to his ideal.
--
(Regarding the Mo ther's message of March 1961 to the
captains; in it she asks them to "be the elite") We are very
far from what You ask of us, at least I am. It is a most
--
are on the same level as our students, so the immediate
problem is not solved. How can we create an interest in
--
elite. So the best thing to do is to set to work immediately. the
rest is simply an excuse that our laziness gives to itself.
--
This is not good; the collective work should not suffer because
of personal work.
--
afraid of the Light.
1 August 1961
--
want, on the contrary, to feel an intense joy, a moment
of ecstasy. How can I obtain it?
Come with the aspiration to give yourself, to offer your whole
being, without reserve, to the Divine Grace, and you will feel
the felicity for which you aspire.
--
On the first of each month, the sadhaks received "Prosperity" - their basic material
requirements.
--
I want an electric lamp in the corridor of my room.
It would be more proper to write (and above all, to think):
"Would it be possible to have an electric lamp in the corridor?"
the ego would do well to become a little more modest.
--
past things be effaced by forgetting the past?
If you can really allow them to be effaced and cease to exist,
even in your memory, it is better.
--
lightly, you are amusing yourselves all the time, you are
so self-centred." It is quite true that we are taking life
--
it to be the right attitude. And we are self-centred. How
can we get out of this trap? In any case, the dose You
gave us this morning was really just right. I feel very
--
action at the centre of the universe so that it exists only in terms
of oneself - one is part of the universe. One can unite with it,
but the Supreme Lord alone is its centre because He surpasses
and contains it.
--
one can have the total experience of God.2 But isn't
the second method (perfect satisfaction of desire) very
--
We speak very often of the psychic and the soul, but
I understand nothing about them. What are these two
things and how can one experience them?
Sri Aurobindo has written a lot on this subject (in his letters)
and I too have explained everything in the book Education. One
has to read, study and, above all, practise.
--
to sleep, the next day I wake up quite early and am
quite fresh. I concentrate on the tiny luminous tip of an
"Only by perfect renunciation of desire or by perfect satisfaction of desire can the
utter embrace of God be experienced, for in both ways the essential precondition is
effected, - desire perishes."
--
of that? there is no relation between these two things!
On the contrary, there is a very concrete relation. When you
concentrate before sleeping, then in your sleep you remain in
contact with the Divine force; but when you fall heavily to sleep
without any preliminary concentration, you sink into the inconscient and the sleep is more tiring than restful, and it is difficult
to come out of this sluggishness.
--
I read them as a relaxation. In detective stories -
especially Perry Mason - there is always a courtroom
scene in which the lawyer Perry Mason seems certain
to lose his case; his client is accused of murder, all the
evidence is against him, but the master-stroke of the
lawyer Perry Mason changes the situation. Throughout
the story there are mysteries, and the trial is like the
mental acrobatics of a master gymnast. But each time I
--
tamas in your mind, and the mental acrobatics of the author
shakes up this tamas a little and awakens the mind. But this
cannot last for long and soon you must turn to higher things.
--
(After seeing the Mo ther on Lakshmi Puja Day) I await
the day when this joy and this felicity will be established
--
Persist in your aspiration and the dream will be realised.
23 October 1961
--
it is that we take part in as many items as possible in the
2nd December programme.3 Would it not be better to
choose one or two items and give a very good demonstration in them, ra ther than to do several in a mediocre way?
Each one acts according to his nature and if he (or she) courageously and sincerely follows the law of that nature, he or she
acts according to truth. Thus, it is impossible to judge and decide
for o thers. One can know only for oneself, and even then one
has to be very sincere so as not to deceive oneself.
--
were able to accept only the pleasant burden of His love
and kindlier rapture."4 So the gods are cowards! Where
then is their greatness and their splendour? Why do we
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
and bear the burden of His wrath and enmity; the gods were able to accept only the
pleasant burden of His love and kindlier rapture."
--
worship inferior entities? And the Titans must be the
most lovable sons of the Divine!
What Sri Aurobindo writes here is a paradox to awaken sleepy
minds. But we must understand all the irony in these sayings, and
especially the intention behind his words. Moreover, cowards or
not, I see no need for us to worship the gods, great or small. Our
adoration ought to go only to the Supreme Lord, who is one in
all things and all beings.
--
Behind all that and this famous inferiority complex, there is the
ego and its vanity which wants to cut a good figure and be
--
to the Divine, you would not care at all about the appreciation
of o thers.
--
an offering to the Divine. What does this mean exactly,
and how can it be done? For instance, when we play
--
more conscious of the divine will and to give yourself more
entirely to it, until you have made enough progress to know
and to feel that it is the Divine who acts in you, His force that
impels you and His will that supports you - not just a mental
knowledge, but the sincerity of a state of consciousness and the
power of a living experience.
--
thinks it will be the opposite. It is true that our performance is not up to the mark. I hope and I pray to You
that the performance this evening may be at its best.
Sweet Mo ther, take our actions and guide us. You told
us You would be there - if only I had eyes to see You!
What I saw on the 26th was satisfactory (of course it can always
be better) and I have heard a great many compliments about
--
I am very lazy and I lack the fervour and perseverance to continue on the chosen path. I am like a flame
that is roused by the wind and rises upwards, but falls
back dead or dying as soon as the wind drops. Vigilant,
that is what I should be. But how?
All the psychological qualities can be cultivated as the muscles
Series Ten - To a Young Captain
are - by regular, daily exercise. Above all, turn towards the
Divine Force in a sincere aspiration and implore It to deliver
--
I was surprised to see this new ritual, "Sri Aurobindo sharanam mama",5 introduced into the cemetery
ceremonies. X stands in meditation in front of the body
and pronounces the phrase, "Sri Aurobindo sharanam
mama", and the o thers, standing round the body, must
repeat it after him. This is done a hundred times. Personally, I don't like this ceremony. I find it empty of feeling.
--
one of Your prayers and then invoke the Divine Grace
in silence, each in his own way, for the departed person,
as was done before. That is my opinion.
--
adopts the sincere fervour and ardent aspiration which give life
to any ceremony, whatever it may be, and yet do not depend
--
passed since the great battle of Kurukshetra was fought.
But the benign influence of Sri Krishna's political genius
Sri Aurobindo is my refuge.
--
to protect India and the world anew, there had to be a
Purna Avatar.7 This Avatar will awaken the Brahmatej8,
which is dormant. Sri Aurobindo also says that it is only
in the Kaliyuga9 that the Divine manifests fully because
man is in great danger in this age. And here he is! He
himself reveals the great secret: the Divine has fully manifested in India. But he has the modesty not to say that
he himself is this manifestation!
Those who accomplish the work are not in the habit of boasting.
they keep their energy for the task and leave the glory of the
results to the Eternal Lord.
6 March 1962
--
than I was before; but all the same I am quite far, perhaps
very far, from the Ideal You have given us. This does not
discourage me, for I have full confidence in You.
--
We have had a discussion among friends about the
problem and various possible methods of physical education. the fundamental problem is this: how can we
the Queen of Jhansi who died on the battlefield in 1858 while fighting British
troops.
--
Power of the Spirit.
the "Iron Age" in which we live.
--
be as effective as possible for all the members? Are the
tournaments necessary? Should there be no compulsion
whatever? And if complete freedom is given, will it be
--
unless the Mo ther Herself intervenes.
It is impossible. Each one has his own taste and his own temperament. Nothing can be done without discipline - the whole of
life is a discipline.
--
Is it bad to go to the cinema in town?
For those who want to do yoga, it is very bad. Moreover, I have
--
there are too many tight knots in the immense organisation of this Ashram. When will the promised day
come when there will be nothing but unmixed harmony,
joy and peace?
--
than with criticising those of o thers, the work would go more
quickly.
--
and even then... What knowledge do you possess that gives you
the right to judge? Only the Lord sees and knows - He alone is
the Truth.
--
I had written a letter to the Mo ther asking why She
had not given Her darshan to Z. But now I am afraid
--
Sometimes I have the impression that our leaders do not
seem to have the sort of backbone displayed by Kennedy
with his decision about Cuba.
--
This kind of comment is quite out of place at the moment. One
should never criticise someone unless one has proved beyond
dispute that in the same circumstances one can do better than he.
Do you feel capable of being an unequalled Prime Minister
--
education programme and the countless o ther activities we have here, he asked me: "Can you give me a
valid example of even one person who takes part in so
--
one single person in the whole world?"
Do not forget - all of you who are here - that we want to
--
He also told me this: "Mo ther says that there is full
freedom and every facility for those who are gifted in
a particular subject and want to pursue it to the full.
But where is this freedom to become, for instance, a
--
few words on the subject of this freedom?
the freedom I speak of is the freedom to follow the will of the
soul, not all the whims of the mind and vital.
the freedom I speak of is an austere truth which strives to
surmount all the weaknesses and desires of the lower, ignorant
being.
the freedom I speak of is the freedom to consecrate oneself
wholly and without reserve to one's highest, noblest, divinest
--
(Regarding the captain's estimate of someone)
Remember that all these individual virtues and faults are only the
deceptive appearance of a great play of universal forces which
--
Find your happiness and your joy in the very fact of loving, and
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
and that the outer person is merely a pretext.
27 January 1963
--
What is the difference between meditating here in
my room and going to meditate at the Playground with
everyone else?
Is it better to meditate there or here in my room?
Meditate where you meditate best - that is to say, wherever you
--
I call that mental fermentation. As soon as your waking consciousness falls asleep or leaves your body, the brain-cells you
have not taken the trouble to quiet down begin to fidget restlessly
and produce what is called a dream, but it is nothing more than
--
personal needs and to offer the rest to You. O therwise
people will say that I ask for anything I want just because
--
Is it right to pray to the Mo ther for little things and
selfish gains?
--
one will obtain the thing one has prayed for. But for spiritual
progress, it is harmful.
--
What is the true significance of marriage?
It has hardly any true significance - it is a social custom for the
perpetuation of the species.
10 May 1963
--
We see too many films these days and I fail to see
how they educate us!
When one has the true attitude, everything can be an opportunity
to learn.
--
that the desire to see films, which is so imperious in some people,
is just as pernicious as any o ther desire.
--
good and is done by the Divine Grace." Is it good, is it
healthy to think like this?
--
on the spiritual path. As a matter of fact, it is the first step
without which one cannot advance at all. That is why I always
say: "Whatever you do, do the best you can, and leave the result
to the Lord; then your heart will be at peace."
13 May 1963
--
Can the lines of our hands reflect our past, present
and future life?
--
I have often noticed that the work we do is done
much better and more quickly than if it were done by
--
Girls are always at a disadvantage: they cannot do
what they want, as boys can.
Why not?
there are hundreds of proofs to the contrary.
31 May 1963
--
What is the best relationship between two human
beings? Mo ther and son? Bro ther, friend or lover, etc?
All the relationships are good in principle and each one expresses
a mode of the Eternal. But each can be perverted and become
bad due to the selfish falsehood of human nature which prevents
the vibrations of love from manifesting in their purity.
4 June 1963
--
About the hero of the film Reach for the Sky, I said
that nothing could ever discourage him. For even after
--
That is exactly the kind of determination one must have to
practise the yoga of integral perfection.
7 June 1963
--
It all depends on the quality of the silence - if it is a luminous
silence, full of force and conscious concentration, it is good. If
--
saw the Mo ther and received Her Blessings.
It is not a dream, but the result of the preceding meditation and
of your aspiration.
--
By studying much, by reflecting much, by doing intellectual exercises. For instance, state a general idea clearly, then state the
opposite idea, then look for the syn thesis of both - that is, find
a third idea which harmonises the o ther two.
25 June 1963
--
of time. It is certainly one of the reasons why your brain is still
in a muddle and lacks clarity.
--
Man is so weak that he is influenced even by the
wind that blows about him, by a book he reads or a
--
That happens when he has not taken care to organise his conscious being around the psychic centre, which is the Truth of his
being.
--
Most people here quote the Mo ther to suit their own
convenience.
--
the children of Group A2: the boys don't want to work
with the girls; they don't even want to stand side by
side. they cannot work toge ther. How did this idea of
difference come to these little children who are barely
eleven years old! It is strange.
It is atavistic and comes from the subconscient.
This instinct is based both on masculine pride, the foolish
idea of superiority, and on the still more foolish fear due to the
idea that woman is a dangerous being who entices you into sin.
In children, all this is still subconscious, but it influences their
actions.
--
your capacity as a captain, you did wrong, for the captains
have a uniform which they should wear when they are acting as
captains.
--
Or better, it is because one is awaking to the need of knowing
one's soul and uniting with the Divine.
5 July 1963
--
This creation has a purpose - therefore is it possible
that even the most "insignificant" individual has come
upon earth to fulfil a mission? That is not my conception
--
Who said that? And what "mission" are you referring to? the
creation is a single whole advancing as a totality towards its
single goal - the Divine - through a collective evolution which
is continuous and endless.
--
each person here in the Ashram represents a particular
human difficulty, and that this difficulty will be mastered
--
Things are not so cut and dried as the mind thinks and even
desires in order to simplify the problem.
there is an almost infinite variety of shades and combinations of character, and although there are categories of very
similar types, no two cases are identical.
--
change them and at the moment when one can make the change.
8 July 1963
--
the Mo ther underlined the phrase "in his lifetime".
Series Ten - To a Young Captain
long. I have often tried to observe and find out the cause
of this fleeting joy, but in vain.
Because you are looking for the cause outside, around you,
whereas it is within.
--
close one's eyes to it, but there are o thers who prefer to
give advice or even to scold. I think that by closing one's
eyes to it, one minimises the importance of the problem
and thus this idea of difference between girls and boys
--
One cannot make a general rule; everything depends on the
case and the occasion. Both methods have their good and bad
points, their advantages and drawbacks. For the captains, the
main thing is to have tact and sufficient inner perception to
--
(1) Goodwill means wanting to do good always. the only
true "good" is the will of the Supreme Lord. Do you know
what the Lord's will is, always, at every moment and in all
circumstances? No, so you are ignorant of what "good" is -
--
(2) the very nature of energy is to be inexhaustible, unfailing, tireless. Are you never tired? Yes, very often - therefore:
indolent energy.
--
thought) against the very little discipline that is demanded when
it is utterly indispensable, as in physical education, for example.
--
with You, or is there ano ther reason? I do not understand
myself.
--
sign, because this kind of discretion comes from the psychic
consciousness which would ra ther give than ask.
--
X told us the favourite story of Dr. Y, the ma thematics teacher: "A sculptor was working on a block of
stone near a village. One by one the villagers ga thered
round the sculptor, curious to see why he was breaking
the stone. After much labour the work was finished and
a masterpiece came to light - a dancing goddess instead
of a block of stone stood there in front of the sculptor.
All the villagers around him who had watched him work
were astonished, and they marvelled at the sight of the
beautiful figure which had emerged from the stone. So
they asked the sculptor: "How did you know that this
figure was there in the stone?"
the question is admirable - and if the sculptor had been witty,
he would have replied: "Because I saw it inside."
--
You would do better to make an effort to understand them,
for behind the words there is always something profound to be
understood.
--
sight. One wonders why God has made all these deformations in Nature. the only answer - which answers
nothing - is that it is " the Divine's play". It is incomprehensible.
--
cannot take the trouble to understand.
But if one rises above the individual mentality and enters
into the consciousness of Unity, then one can understand.
18 August 1963
--
I feel miserable because I asked the Mo ther for incense. It would be much better to buy it from the market,
for She does not like her children to beg.
--
you really need something. But at the same time, you must be
prepared not to receive it and not to get upset if I fail to give it.
--
on the eve of something very difficult and dangerous."
But he did not explain.
--
(Regarding someone's observations on the captain's
character)
--
judgments are always partial and therefore ignorant.
To know oneself, one must look at oneself with a higher
and deeper consciousness which can discern the true causes of
reactions and feelings.
--
(Regarding X, who related her misfortunes to the captain, blaming herself for all her troubles) To console her,
I told her that blaming oneself was perhaps not always
--
When something goes wrong, one must always find the reason in oneself, not superficially but deep inside oneself, and not
in order to uselessly bewail the fault, but to cure it by calling to
one's aid the all-powerful force of the Divine.
To be sure of making myself clearly understood, I will add
--
he does, then it is her own fault, for it means that her own feeling
is tainted with egoism. It is this egoism that she must conquer,
--
No, unless there are serious reasons for doing so. I am not
speaking of the outward act - whe ther one eats here or there
comes to the same thing - I am speaking of the inner attitude,
of the excessive importance one gives to food, and of greediness.
21 September 1963
--
True happiness does not depend on the external circumstances
of life. One can obtain true happiness and keep it constantly
--
I am not properly prepared for the 1st December
performance,11 and, what is more, I don't feel at all
--
From the moment one has decided and accepted to do something, it must be done as well as one can.
One can find in everything a chance to progress in consciousness and self-mastery. And this effort for progress immediately
makes the thing interesting, no matter what it is.
26 September 1963
--
released into freedom is the liberator."12 What does that
mean? How can law be released into freedom? By law we
--
to understand with your superficial mind, while what Sri Aurobindo has said comes from the highest intellectual light, far
above the mind. All I can tell you, which perhaps will put you
on the right track, is that behind law there is a spirit of order
and organisation. But law itself is something fixed and therefore
contrary to the highest truth. If the same spirit of order and
organisation is put at the service of freedom, it can become a
means of attaining liberation, that is to say, union with the Truth.
29 September 1963
--
"Those who are deficient in the free, full and intelligent
observation of a self-imposed law, must be placed in
subjection to the will of o thers."13 Mo ther, I am one of
those. Will You take me and discipline me?
--
"Law cannot save the world, therefore Moses' ordinances are dead for humanity
and the Shastra of the Brahmins is corrupt and dying. Law released into freedom is the
liberator. Not the Pundit, but the Yogin, not monasticism, but the inner renunciation of
desire and ignorance and egoism."
--
and often, very often, the same mistakes of gender, agreement
and conjugation which I have corrected many times.
--
strong, severe with themselves, courageous and enduring.
But before trying to discipline one's whole life, one should
--
I have formed the bad habit of nearly always being
late everywhere.
--
the works of the Mo ther and Sri Aurobindo to be read.
You have even remarked that to read these old classics
is to lower the level of one's consciousness.
Mo ther, do You advise this only for those who are
--
First of all, what has been reported is not correct. Secondly, the
advice is adapted to each case and cannot be made a general
--
(Written by the Mo ther at the beginning of a notebook
containing quotations from Sri Aurobindo's Savitri)
--
has not made the most out of what is given to us.
That proves that life is too easy here and that for the most part
you are all too tamasic to make an effort unless goaded by the
difficulties of ordinary life. Only a very ardent aspiration can
remedy this deadly condition. But the aspiration is absent and
your soul is asleep!
--
I hope that this new year will see the reawakening of your soul
and the awakening in your consciousness of a will to progress.
3 January 1964
I have kept your notebook in the hope of finding time to read and
correct it. But the weeks go by and I see that it is impossible. I
am therefore returning it to you without having read it, and I ask
you not to send it again until it is possible for me to start looking
at it once more. Continue your translation of the Aphorisms; I
shall send you more at a time for correction.
--
You blessed me that I may be born to the true life,
but what are the conditions needed to be born to that
life and how can they be fulfilled?
the first condition is to decide not to live for oneself any more,
but to live exclusively for the Divine.
Naturally, this decision should be renewed every day and
--
exclusively for the Divine" mean exactly? For me it is
only an idea mechanically repeated by the mind; but,
Mo ther, what can one do to realise it?
To live for the Divine means to offer all that one does to the
Divine without desiring a personal result from what one does.
Certainly at the beginning, when the Divine is only a word or
at most an idea and not an experience, the whole thing remains
purely mental. But if one makes a sincere and repeated effort, one
day the experience comes and one feels that the offering made is
made to something real, tangible, concrete and beneficent. the
more sincere and assiduous one is, the sooner the experience
comes and the longer it remains.
For each person the way differs in its details, but sincerity
and perseverance are equally indispensable for all.
--
You may have one if there is one or if you can find one. But do
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
is better for me not to have it, all right, I accept Your
--
What is an obstacle to the spiritual life is to attach importance to
material comfort and to take one's desires for needs - in o ther
--
to make progress - that it will only give your body the illusion
of being more comfortable.
--
One is often afraid of doing what is new; the body
refuses to act in a new way, such as trying a new gymnastic figure or ano ther kind of dive. Where does this
--
inertia, tamas; it is the vital which brings in a dominant note of
rajas, activity. That is why, as a general rule, the intrusion of the
vital in the form of ambition, emulation and vanity, compels the
body to shake off the tamas and make the necessary effort to
progress.
Naturally, those in whom the mind is dominant can lecture
their body and provide it with all the reasons needed to overcome
its fear.
the best way for everyone is self-giving to the Divine and
trust in His infinite Grace.
--
What is the difference between pleasure, joy, happiness, ecstasy and Ananda? Can we find one in the
o ther?
Ananda belongs to the Supreme Lord.
Ecstasy belongs to the perfected yogi.
Joy belongs to the desireless man.
Pleasure is within the reach of all living beings, but with its
inevitable accompaniment of suffering.
--
perfected yogi identified with the Supreme Lord? Isn't a
desireless man a sincere sadhak?
--
practises it. there are desireless men who are not pursuing any
yoga.
--
towards the ideal love, the true love?
there is only one true love - it is the Divine Love; all o ther loves
are diminutions, limitations and deformations of that Love. Even
the love of the bhakta for his God is a diminution and often is
tainted by egoism. But as one tends quite naturally to become
like what one loves, the bhakta, if he is sincere, begins to become
like the Divine whom he adores, and thus his love becomes purer
and purer. To adore the Divine in the one whom one loves has
often been suggested as a solution, but unless one's heart and
--
It would seem that in your situation, the best solution would
be to use your mutual attachment to unite your efforts in a
common and combined aspiration to attain the Divine, and in
perfect sincerity to let each bring to the o ther, as far as possible,
what the o ther needs to attain that goal.
10 June 1964
--
How can one know the o ther's need and help him?
I was not speaking of external things and mental faculties! True
love is in the soul (all the rest is vital attraction or mental and
physical attachment, nothing else) and the soul ( the psychic being) knows instinctively what the o ther needs to receive and is
always ready to give it to him.
--
cannot tolerate them in o thers? What is the origin of the
shock we feel?
Yes, in a general way it is the defects you have in yourselves
which seem to you most shocking in o thers.
--
reflecting the image of what you are.
24 June 1964
--
Just as there are tangible and concrete bodily exercises and disciplines for physical culture, is there not
something tangible and concrete for the progress of the
soul and the consciousness?
Since the most ancient times, each system of yoga has developed
its own discipline in all its details. All that can be studied, learned
--
of these practices has its limitations and gives only a partial
result. That is why he advised those who want to follow the
integral yoga to find their own discipline, based on the ancient
knowledge but adapted to the needs and the condition of each
individual.
--
weakness in the being, but what does this epidemic in
the Ashram mean? Even X was a victim. Where does
--
impurity. the Ashram as a whole is evidently very far from
what it should be to be equal to its task and give to the world
the example of a total consecration to the Divine Work and the
Series Ten - To a Young Captain
preparation of the future. the forms of illness vary according to
the condition of each person and his link with the whole.
8 July 1964
--
I am trying to concentrate in the heart and to enter
deep within as You advised me to do, but in vain. the
only result is that I get a headache, a kind of dizziness,
--
and your psychic consciousness awakens from the slumber in
which it lies.
--
should I do, apart from aspiring that the Mo ther may
pull me out of the slumber and awaken my psychic
consciousness?
To develop your intelligence, read the teachings of Sri Aurobindo
regularly and very attentively. To develop and master your vital,
--
working at the Playground and your place of work, and try to
do it as selflessly as possible.
--
When a stranger asks us what the Sri Aurobindo
Ashram is, how can we give him a reply that is both
--
the Ashram is the cradle of a new world, of the creation of
tomorrow.
And if o ther questions are put to you, the only reply to be
made is: you must read the books and study the teaching.
29 July 1964
--
Are there really any tragedies in life, since everything
leads to the Divine?
they are tragedies for those who take them tragically - the
immense majority of human beings.
One must live in the consciousness of the Divine Unity to
see the Grace behind everything.
5 August 1964
--
enough vitamins and protein. the doctors claim that this
is why we have so much physical and bodily suffering.14
Is it really the cause? Does food have such an important
place in life?
For those whose consciousness is centred in the body, who live
for the body, its desires and satisfactions, those for whom the
truth begins and ends with the body, it is evident that food is of
capital importance since they live to eat.
Beside this sentence, the Mo ther wrote: "So much as that???"
Series Ten - To a Young Captain
the doctors are always anxious to throw the responsibility
for their incompetence to cure on the external conditions of life.
If one wants to see the truth of the problem, it is this: only
an enlightened body, balanced and free from all vital desire and
--
Apart from that, one must act for the best and not attach
too much importance to it.
Let those who have confidence in doctors do as they advise
and see if it helps them to suffer less!
12 August 1964
--
activities - the Playground, band, studies, etc. - and
devoting all my time to work. But my logic does not
--
In this case your logic is right. In the outer nature there is often
a tamasic tendency to simplify the conditions of life in order to
avoid the effort of organising more complicated circumstances.
But when one wants to progress in the integrality of the being,
this simplification is hardly advisable.
--
What is the most effective way of overcoming desires
and attachments: to cut them off all at one stroke, even
at the risk of breaking down, or to advance slowly and
surely by eliminating them carefully one by one?
Both these ways are equally ineffective. the normal result of
both these methods is that you deceive yourself, you delude
yourself that you have overcome your desires, whereas at best
you are merely sitting on them - they remain repressed in the
subconscient until they explode there and cause an upheaval in
the whole being.
--
that is free of all desire and attachment because it is under the
influence of the divine Light and Force. It is a long and exacting
labour which must be undertaken with an unfailing sincerity
--
this sensitivity is the sign of a strong ego, how can one
eliminate the ego?
Why do you say that sensitivity is the sign of a strong ego? It
does not seem to be evident at all. Moreover, there are many
different kinds of sensitivity: some stem from weakness, o thers
- the best - are the result of refinement. the ego generally
governs the development of the individual, but the most developed individualities are not necessarily those in whom the ego is
strongest - on the contrary. As the individuality perfects itself,
the power of the ego diminishes, and indeed it is by perfecting
himself that the individual arrives at that state of divinisation
which liberates him from the ego.
2 September 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.
But whatever the progress made, individually or collectively, the
progress still remaining to be made is so considerable that there
is no reason to stop on the way to assess the ground one has
covered.
--
come spontaneously, by the sudden and unexpected awareness
of what one is in comparison with what one was some time
--
of development of the consciousness.
9 September 1964
--
the progress one has made, that is to say, the results of
the past, but the state one is in. I do not want to assess
the ground I have covered, but to know whe ther I am
advancing on the path continually, without stoppage.
the advance is rarely in a straight and continuous line because a
--
one part or ano ther progresses in its turn while the o ther parts
remain quiescent until their turn comes. It is only when the
consciousness grows enough to have an overall view that one
--
alive the flame of one's aspiration.
16 September 1964
--
What is the use of Japa?15 Is it a good method to
repeat words like "Silence" and "Peace" in order to establish silence and peace in oneself when one sits down
--
to subdue the lower mind and establish a connection with higher
forces or with deities. these Japas must be given by the Guru,
who at the same time infuses them with the power of realisation.
they are useful only for those who want to do an intensive yoga
--
Gandhi, but only for a fortnight. then a period of chaos
in the Government will follow. After that, a young man
will appear on the scene who will be guided by a divine
force coming from a woman of great spiritual power.
--
in some part of the being. For the psychic being knows and is
not mistaken; but more often than not, we do not listen to what
--
murmur in the depths of our heart which is easy to ignore.
However, there are cases where one acts wrongly out of
ignorance, and this error is effaced as soon as the ignorance is replaced by knowledge and the way of acting completely changed.
What man in his ignorance calls "pardon" is the effacement, the
dissolution of errors committed.
--
reasoning, but all the same its effect remains and makes
me a little sullen and very touchy.
--
realising the supreme Unity.
14 October 1964
--
People often ask us this question: "What are you doing for society or even for the people of Pondicherry? You
are preoccupied with your own community, your own
progress. Nothing exists for you outside the Ashram.
Isn't this a kind of isolation, a form of egoism?"
--
" the greatest egoist is the Supreme Lord because He never
bo thers about anything but Himself!"
--
freedom. there is a kind of enthusiasm in the soul (I do
not know whe ther it comes from the soul) to enjoy the
supreme Ananda and forget life as it really is. What does
--
It is the natural and indispensable counterpart of the moments
- so numerous and so frequent! - when you are attached to
--
found the poise of the total and syn thetic truth.
That alone can give the true Freedom which is experienced
in all circumstances.
--
Although one part of the being aspires and wants
the Divine, the o ther part is so tamasic and heavy! How
can it be awakened? What blows does it need? It is not
that this part is against the Divine - it does not even
seem to be interested in Him (which is perhaps worse).
--
it means that of all conditions, inertia is the worst.
Aspiration is the only remedy - an aspiration that rises
constantly like a clear flame burning up all the impurities of
the being.
--
We see many people leaving the Ashram, ei ther to
seek a career or to study; and they are mostly those
who have been here since childhood. there is a kind
of uncertainty in our young people when they see o thers
leave here and they say cautiously: "Who knows whe ther
it won't be my turn some day!" I feel there is a force
behind all this. What is it?
This uncertainty and these departures are due to the lower nature, which resists the influence of the yogic power and tries to
slow down the divine action, not out of ill-will but in order to
be sure that nothing is forgotten or neglected in the haste to
reach the goal. Few are ready for a total consecration. Many
children who have studied here need to come to grips with life
before they can be ready for the divine work, and that is why
they leave to undergo the test of ordinary life.
11 November 1964
--
"If you cannot make God love you, make Him fight you. If He will not give you the
embrace of the lover, compel Him to give you the embrace of the wrestler."
Thoughts and Aphorisms, in SABCL, Vol. 17, p. 130.
ra ther than a virtue, for I feel that I take them upon
myself in order to end the matter as quickly as possible
- it is a kind of escapism.
--
What is the meaning of one's birthday, apart from its
commemorative character? How can one take advantage
--
Because of the rhythm of the universal forces, a person is supposed to have a special receptivity on his birthday each year.
He can therefore take advantage of this receptivity by making good resolutions and fresh progress on the path of his
integral development.
--
by my devotion for the Master - and not everyone is
Series Ten - To a Young Captain
devoted. I do not think this is true. But then, why are
men's hearts not yet enchanted by His Words?
Who can understand Sri Aurobindo? He is as vast as the universe
and his teaching is limitless...
--
to the transformation of the world which Sri Aurobindo has
predicted.
--
How can one empty the mind of all thought? When
one tries during meditation, the thought that one must
not think of anything is always there.
It is not during meditation that one must learn to be silent,
because the very fact of trying makes a noise.
One must learn to concentrate one's energies in the heart
- then, when one succeeds in that, silence comes automatically.
9 December 1964
--
Sri Aurobindo has said somewhere that if we surrender to the Divine Grace, it will do everything for us.
then what is the value of tapasya?
If you want to know what Sri Aurobindo has said on a given
--
You will then see that he seems to have said the most contradictory things. But when one has read everything and understood
a little, one sees that all the contradictions complement one
ano ther and are organised and unified in an integral syn thesis.
--
you that your question is an ignorant one. there are many o thers
which you could read to advantage and which will make your
--
"If there is not a complete surrender, then it is not possible to adopt the baby cat attitude, - it becomes mere tamasic
passivity calling itself surrender. If a complete surrender is not
possible in the beginning, it follows that personal effort is necessary."17
16 December 1964
--
oneself float on the waves of the universal force as a plank floats
on water, motionless but relaxed.
--
unique privilege of living here in the Ashram?
Never forget where you are.
--
Never forget where you are living and the true aim of life.
Remember this at every moment and in all circumstances. In this
way you will make the best use of your existence.
Happy New Year for 1965.
--
What is the eternal truth behind this sympathy or
attraction of man for woman and of woman for man?
--
year: "Salute to the advent of Truth." Is it therefore very
near? What must we do during 1965 to prepare ourselves
--
the best thing to do is to distinguish in oneself the origin of all
one's movements - those that come from the light of truth and
those that come from the old inertia and falsehood - in order
to accept the first and to refuse or reject the o thers.
With practice one learns to distinguish more and more
--
consciousness comes from the Truth.
This is only a hint, nothing more, about how to take the
first steps on the path.
13 January 1965
--
of Truth - what is called the Satya Yuga in the ancient
Scriptures ( the Mahabharata)?
An age of truth is sure to come before the earth is transformed.
21 January 1965
--
What does this extraordinary Asuric attack on the
Ashram mean?18 Are we responsible for it because of our
faults and because we disobey the Supreme Truth in our
daily lives?
Very certainly such a thing has been made possible because the
atmosphere of the Ashram is not pure enough to be invulnerable
to falsehood.
--
doctor or barrister, come to stay here in the Ashram
for their own salvation? they could perhaps serve the
Divine better by serving men and the world!"
Nobody comes here for his own salvation because Sri Aurobindo
--
word. We are here to prepare the transformation of the earth
and men so that the new creation may take place, and if we
On the evening of February 11, many Ashram buildings were stoned, burned or
looted, ostensibly as part of an anti-Hindi agitation.
--
indispensable for the accomplishment of the work.
I am surprised that after having lived in the Ashram for
so long, you can still think in this way and be open to this
--
the nobility of the human character or an idea that we are here
to establish mental and moral and social Truth and justice on
--
of the kind. Human nature is made up of imperfections, even
its righteousness and virtue are pretensions, imperfections and
--
is a spiritual truth as the basis of life, the first words of which
are surrender and union with the Divine and the transcendence
of ego. So long as that basis is not established, a sadhak is only
an ignorant and imperfect human being struggling with the evils
of the lower nature.... What is created by spiritual progress is an
inner closeness and intimacy in the inner being, the sense of the
Mo ther's love and presence etc."
--
What is the best way of expressing one's gratitude
towards man and towards the Divine?
Why do you put man and the Divine toge ther?
It is true that man is essentially divine, but at present, apart
from a few very rare exceptions, man is quite unconscious of the
Divine he carries within him; and it is just this unconsciousness
which constitutes the falsehood of the material world.
I have already written to you that our gratitude should go
to the Divine and that as for men what is required is an attitude
of goodwill, understanding and mutual help.
--
towards the Divine is the best way to be happy and peaceful.
And the only true way of expressing one's gratitude to the
Divine is to identify with Him.
--
Sri Aurobindo's yoga? What is the sure sign of it?
It is impossible to say, because for each person it is different.
It depends on the part of one's being that awakens first and
responds to Sri Aurobindo's influence.
--
I aspire to live the yoga of Sri Aurobindo, the life
divine. But I feel that I am in a virgin forest in which I
--
onto the right path, the path leading to the Divine.
Generally, the starting-point must be an experience, however
small, which serves as a compass on the way, an experience one
refers to in order to be sure of not going astray, until one is ready
--
the real landmarks on the way are the spontaneous experiences, not those that come from a mental formation and are
always unreliable.
--
the experience must come first and the explanation afterwards. That is why Sri Aurobindo has said: Never distrust your
experience; but you may distrust your explanation, which is a
--
remember them. To construct a system of development is secondary and sometimes harmful.
17 March 1965
--
But the shades of difference are subtle and many, and it is
by a very attentive and sincere observation (that is to say, free
--
the one from the o ther.
24 March 1965
--
Just as there is a methodical progression of exercises
for mental and physical education, isn't there a similar
method to progress towards Sri Aurobindo's yoga? It
--
"Experience in thy soul the truth of the Scripture; afterwards, if thou wilt, reason
and state thy experience intellectually and even then distrust thy statement; but distrust
never thy experience."
--
rigidity has little or no effect on spiritual development where the
spontaneity of an absolute sincerity is indispensable.
--
what he has written on it has appeared in the Syn thesis of Yoga.
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
to make an offering of this day to the Divine, an offering of all
that one thinks, all that one is, all that one will do; (2) and at
night, before going to sleep, it is good to review the day, taking
note of all the times one has forgotten or neglected to make an
offering of one's self or one's action, and to aspire or pray that
--
increase with the sincerity of your consecration.
31 March 1965
--
How can one increase single-mindedness and willpower? they are so necessary for doing anything.
Through regular, persevering, obstinate, unflagging exercise - I
--
You have written: "Of all renunciations, the most
difficult is to renounce one's good habits." What exactly
--
are not necessary in the yoga?
Good habits are indispensable so long as one acts out of habit.
But to attain the supreme goal of yoga, one must abandon all
ties, whatever they may be. And good habits are also a tie which
must one day be abandoned when one wants to obey and is able
to obey nothing but the one supreme impulse, the Will of the
Supreme.
--
renunciation begin when one is on the path?
What I call "being on the path" is being in a state of consciousness in which only union with the Divine has any value - this
union is the only thing worth living, the sole object of aspiration.
Everything else has lost all value and is not worth seeking, so
--
As long as union with the Divine is not the thing for which
one lives, one is not yet on the path.
21 April 1965
--
Why is India, which has such a rich past and the
promise of such a brilliant future, in such a miserable
--
When she renounces falsehood and lives in the Truth.
28 April 1965
--
Why did Sri Aurobindo advise India's leaders to accept the Cripps Proposal in 1942, when He knew fully
well that they would not?21
the Divine often advises or tries to guide man,
--
to Him. Ei ther they do not hear Him or do not believe Him.
Men always complain of not being helped, but the truth is
that they refuse the help which is always with them.
5 May 1965
--
You say that to hope to partake of the new realisation, "you must feel that this world is ugly, stupid, brutal
and full of intolerable suffering".22 But what would be
the state of one who feels that everything here is the play
Sri Aurobindo sent a special messenger to Delhi advising Indian leaders to accept,
--
India by putting her on a par with the various Dominions already associated with the
United Kingdom. Had his advice been heeded, the partition of India might have been
avoided.
--
It is in the depths of the consciousness, beyond the mind, that one
can in all sincerity have the experience that all is the Divine and
that only the Divine exists. But the manifestation is progressive,
and in order to have the strength to advance by rejecting what
ought to disappear, one must strongly feel one's unworthiness
and incapacity to express the divine perfection.
the two states of consciousness should be simultaneous and
--
possible only when the seat of consciousness is beyond the mind
and its limitations.
--
or commit an injustice towards their subordinates, what
should be the attitude of those affected by these errors?
Should one keep silent and say, "It is none of my business", or should one try to point out the mistake to them?
Nei ther the one nor the o ther.
First and always, we must ask ourselves what our instrument
--
And since the answer to all these questions will be the same,
namely, "NO", the honest and sincere conclusion must be: "I
cannot judge, I do not have the elements needed for a true
judgment; therefore I will not judge, I will keep quiet."
19 May 1965
--
Being far from the Truth-Consciousness, must one
always remain silent, even though as an individual one
--
centre. All the divine centres are essentially One in their origin,
but they act as separate beings in the manifestation.
the individual must make decisions in order to live, but it
--
that he should air them.
It is ignorance that has opinions.
--
the descent of the Supermind, which You announced on the 29th of February 1956, is still only
"something one hears about" for most people here.
--
change of the whole nature which You have predicted?
the descent of the forerunners of the supramental forces is a
fact (not a prediction). the incapacity of the vast majority of
human beings to become conscious of it is a fact which can in
no way affect the fact of the advent of these forces and powers
in the physical world.
the "supreme and radical" change of the whole nature
can only come about after a long and slow preparation, and
men will perceive it only when their consciousness has become
enlightened.
--
the resolutions I make lose their intensity and ardour after a time. How can I keep this enthusiasm and
increase it more and more?
--
in the Ignorance, assumes the form of vital desires is the
same which, in its pure form, constitutes the dynamis
towards transformation."23
--
the words are of little importance; it is the experience and
the sincerity of the experience that count.
23 June 1965
--
You speak (in Conversations) of the plunge we must
take in order to have the true spiritual experience. Is it
possible to achieve it by aspiration alone, or is there a
method or discipline to be followed?
Everything is possible. All paths lead to the goal provided they
are followed with persistence and sincerity.
--
the aspiration must be ardent, the will unshakable, the patience
unfailing.
--
Are illnesses and accidents the result of something
bad one has thought or done, of a fall in one's consciousness? If the cause is a mistake one has made, how can
one find out what it is?
It has nothing to do with punishment; it is the natural and
normal consequence of an error, shortcoming or fault which
necessarily has consequences. Actually, everything in the world
is a question of equilibrium or disequilibrium, of harmony or
--
may be collective or individual, but the principle is the same
- and so is the remedy: to cultivate in oneself order and harmony, peace and equilibrium by surrendering unreservedly to
the Divine Will.
--
Sri Aurobindo says: "If the transformation of
the body is complete, that means no subjection to
--
change take place in the present body or does one have
Letters on Yoga, SABCL, Vol. 22, p. 11.
--
to leave it? If one has to leave the body, there seems to
be death. So...?
What he means is that when one will have the power to withdraw the physical body from the influence of death, the power of
transformation will be such that one will also be able to change
--
What do You mean by "to change the form of that
body at will"? For example, will a hundred-year old man
--
the law of aging; consequently the question of age will not arise
for them.
21 July 1965
--
the nerve that conveys this sensation to the brain. How
can this be done?
I did not say "cut the nerve" - that would be a surgical operation! I said, cut the conscious connection with the brain.
It is an occult operation, certainly more difficult than the
o ther for those who don't know how to do it, but less dangerous.
--
People who come to the Ashram for the first time
are often delighted with their visit and full of praise
for the efficient administration of this organisation. But
when they get to know the Ashram and the sadhaks
better, their admiration begins to wane and they find that
Ashram people are far more egoistic than people from
--
In the world as it is now, everything is mixed and each one
sees and feels that which corresponds to his own nature.
To tell the truth, it doesn't matter at all.
25 August 1965
--
I really feel that there is a great lack of harmony
and cooperation here among us and among the various departments. This results in a great waste of money
and energy. Where does this disharmony come from and
--
Here is the best answer to your questions, written by Sri Aurobindo:
Each one carries in himself the seeds of this disharmony,
and his most urgent work is to purify himself of it by a constant
--
Sri Aurobindo writes in His Essays on the Gita: " the
law of Vishnu cannot prevail till the debt to Rudra is
paid." What does this mean?
Mo ther, is the present situation in India25 like the
debt that must be paid to Rudra?
Here is the whole quotation which I had prepared in advance for
those who want to know the reason for the present situation. I
am sending it to you so that your question becomes unnecessary.
"No real peace can be till the heart of man deserves peace;
the law of Vishnu cannot prevail till the debt to Rudra is paid.
To turn aside then and preach to a still unevolved mankind
the law of love and oneness? Teachers of the law of love and
oneness there must be, for by that way must come the ultimate
salvation. But not till the Time-Spirit in man is ready, can the
inner and ultimate prevail over the outer and immediate reality.
Christ and Buddha have come and gone but it is Rudra who still
holds the world in the hollow of his hand. And meanwhile the
fierce forward labour of mankind tormented and oppressed by
the powers that are profiteers of egoistic force and their servants
On September 1, Pakistan invaded India's border at Jammu-Kashmir.
cries for the sword of the Hero of the struggle and the word of
its prophet."26
--
In spite of Your message of September 16 to the
Prime Minister and the Army Chief of Staff, was not our
Government's acceptance of the cease-fire the best that
could be done under the circumstances?27
they could not do o therwise.
--
constantly protecting me from all the misfortunes of life.
But I very often ask myself: "Why does Mo ther protect
--
One sees that the world as a whole is presently in
a sort of disequilibrium and chaos. Does this mean that
it is preparing for the manifestation of a new force, for
the descent of the Truth, or is it the result of the action
Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, SABCL, Vol. 13, p. 372.
the Indo-Pakistan conflict ended in a cease-fire on September 22. the Mo ther's
message, sent six days prior to the cease-fire, was: "It is for the sake and the triumph
of Truth that India is fighting and must fight until India and Pakistan have become One
because that is the truth of their being."
Series Ten - To a Young Captain
--
It is both at the same time - a chaotic means of preparation.
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
materialistic and neglectful of her soul.
--
we do not really want to do them, but still we do them.
Why does this happen? How can we avoid it?
--
Both of these can be acquired if one is sincere in one's
aspiration.
--
About individual transformation and social transformation You say: "Since the environment reacts upon
the individual and, on the o ther hand, the value of the
environment depends upon the value of the individual,
the two works should proceed side by side. But this
--
necessitates the formation of a group, hierarchicised, if
possible."28
--
Mo ther, I do not understand what You mean by the
formation of a hierarchicised group.
A hierarchicised group means a group in which the activities
and functions are organised according to individual ability, with
a leader at the centre. A military organisation, for example, is a
hierarchy.
Here is a diagram of the ancient
traditional hierarchies.
--
Is there a hierarchicised group here in the Ashram?
Mo ther, I want to know more about it, but I don't know
--
Every group, if it is a real one - that is, one made up according to the ability of the individuals who compose it - must
necessarily be hierarchical.
But there are considerable obstacles to the realisation of this
hierarchy:
(1) First, when the group is incomplete - that is, when
it does not have all the members necessary to constitute the
hierarchy and certain functions or intermediaries are missing.
(2) the indiscipline of certain members refusing wholly or
in part to occupy the place assigned to them.
When order and harmony are established, the hierarchy is
organised quite naturally and spontaneously.
--
Fear is an invention of the hostile forces who have created it as
the best means of dominating living beings, animals and men.
Those who are pure - that is to say, exclusively under the
Divine influence - have no fear.
--
something of the Divine Truth and the Divine Force
comes down to manifest upon earth, some change is
effected in the earth's atmosphere."29
(1) Is this change always violent and destructive,
--
is the resistance in the human consciousness to the New Force.
When the resistance is less, everything takes place harmoniously.
(2) And is the converse always valid: if there is a war or
a revolution, is it the sign of a descent of the Truth?
Not necessarily. Human folly takes advantage of the slightest
cause to manifest itself.
--
It is an ironic way of saying that the most difficult cases, from
the standpoint of transformation, are ga thered here to concretise
and syn thesise the work of transforming the earth in order to
prepare the new creation.
1 December 1965
--
You told me to enter within, into the depths of my
heart, to find You seated there. But, Mo ther, I cannot
manage to enter into the heart. I feel during meditation
that my consciousness is flying around an impenetrable
--
consciousness which does not have contact with the inner states
of being. You have to go out of this external consciousness and
penetrate into a subtler consciousness; then the fortress will no
longer be impenetrable.
--
What must we do to serve the Truth? Must it first of
all be lived?
--
Words of the Mo ther - II, CWM, Vol. 14, p. 84.
Series Ten - To a Young Captain
--
there is a tendency among most of us here to conduct our lives and programmes according to the customs
of society. We say: "We must also think of the opinion of
people from outside. Since we live in society, we must be
reasonable and lead a life in keeping with theirs." Sweet
Mo ther, what do You say to all this and what should our
attitude be towards the customs and laws of society?
If most people here think and feel like that, it is an obvious proof
that most are not at all ready for the new life, nor even ready to
prepare for the new life. And to tell the truth, they would do far
better to return to the ordinary life and experience it, instead of
taking advantage of the exceptional conditions of existence they
have here, without being worthy of enjoying them.
12 January 1966
--
Formerly, You were very strict about permitting people to come and live in the Ashram. Now it is no longer
so. Why?
So long as the Ashram was reserved for those who wanted to
practise the yoga, it was natural to be strict.
As soon as the children were admitted here, it was no longer
possible to be strict and the nature of the life changed.
Now the Ashram has become a symbolic representation of
life on earth and everything can find a place in it, provided it
has the will to progress towards a diviner life.
19 January 1966
--
I ask myself whe ther I am practising yoga! But the
answer is not sure. Can You tell me where I am and how
--
By the very fact that you are living on earth, you are doing a
yoga, even if you do not know it; and by the very fact that you
are living here, you are helped in your yoga to the utmost of
your possibilities. the only thing you lack is being conscious.
2 February 1966
--
You say that "by the very fact that you are living
on earth, you are doing a yoga" and You also told me
--
to practise the yoga"; and again, I believe you have
said somewhere, "Not everyone here is meant for yoga."
--
Well, all three are true, but on different planes, and to understand something of the problem one has to reach the domain
where the three complement one ano ther and unite.
9 February 1966
--
(1) "By the very fact that you are living on earth,
you are doing a yoga" - do You mean that it is the yoga
of the natural and inevitable progress of evolution?
(2) " the Ashram was reserved for those who wanted
to practise the yoga" - that is to say, only for those who
are practising consciously?
--
is, they are incapable of doing it consciously?
YES.
--
This is also the way to avoid going to undesirable places during
your sleep, for in those places you are sure not to meet us. Try,
and you will see the result.
23 March 1966
--
and more towards the principles and ways of ordinary
life? In that case, aren't we straying from the true path?
You are still in the old rut that separates spirituality from life.
Whereas Sri Aurobindo has declared, "All life is Yoga" and
--
for those of us who are not yet awake, who are still unconscious? What is the explanation for this opportunity,
this good fortune we have been granted?
--
them nothing would ever stir; and also they are indispensable
for moulding the character of those who want to progress.
13 April 1966
--
How should I prepare myself for the April 24th
Darshan?
Look attentively into yourself to find out what for you is the
most important thing, the thing you feel that you couldn't do
without.
--
Anger is a violent reaction of the vital to some shock that
is unpleasant to it; and when it involves words or thoughts,
--
the mind responds to the influence of the vital and also reacts violently. Any expression of anger is the sign of a lack of
self-control.
--
the whole conversation, but the impression that remains
is that You are not very pleased with the questions I ask
You every Wednesday. Is this true?
--
indifferent to the opportunity I give you each week to ask me
a question. Your questions are ra ther commonplace and don't
give the impression that you are really searching for the secrets
of life and the world.
18 May 1966
--
Usually they are due to mental inertia, unless one has obtained
this calm and indifference through a very intense sadhana resulting in a perfect equality for which good and bad, pleasant
--
This should alternate in the course of the day with exercises
of mental silence in concentration.
--
Are the presence and intervention of the Americans
in Vietnam justifiable?
--
If it is from the political point of view, politics is steeped in
falsehood, and I am not interested in it.
If it is from the moral point of view, morality is a shield
which ordinary men flourish to protect themselves from the
Truth.
If it is from the spiritual point of view, the Divine Will alone
is justifiable, and it is That which men travesty and deform in
all their actions.
6 July 1966
--
I had asked my last question from the spiritual point
of view and from Your answer I conclude that the American action is not at all justifiable. But, Mo ther, isn't the
world in danger of being swallowed by the Communists
and isn't that why the Americans and their Allies are
Series Ten - To a Young Captain
engaged in safeguarding the freedom of man? Is that the
Divine Will?
the opinion you express is the opinion of the Americans and
of a large number of human beings who think like them.
But the Communists and all those who have faith in the
Communist ideal have the opposite opinion, not to mention
all the many and varied opinions on social and political subjects. All these are only OPINIONS and have no value at all
from the Divine point of view - the Divine who does not
have an opinion but a total vision of everything as a whole
and of the goal to be achieved, which is the only thing that
matters.
--
only an infinitesimal fraction of the Truth.
13 July 1966
--
Some say that You have stated: "Among the 1500
people who are here, there are only 250 or so who understand Sri Aurobindo's yoga, only forty-five who practise
it, five who are capable of realisation and only one who
can be transformed." What is the truth?
I may have said something of the kind. But the exactness of the
numbers is certainly fanciful.
It is true that the number of those who take the yoga
seriously is not considerable...
But the Divine Grace is infinite!
20 July 1966
--
I feel it is most shameful on our part to waste the
Divine Grace, to misuse this unique privilege granted to
--
life, in a blessed moment - the infinite Splendour which
is within our reach and awaits us. Yet there are so few
of us who take the yoga seriously. Why?
It is quite simply unconsciousness, incoercible TAMAS.
--
(Regarding an invitation to the captain to follow a course
of practical studies in Calcutta)
Those who sincerely want to learn have all the possibilities to
do so here. the only thing that one has outside, but does not
have here, is the moral constraint of an external discipline.
Here one is free and the only constraint is the one that one
puts on oneself when one is SINCERE.
--
approve of this proposal, but all the same I had the
following reasons when I asked You if I could accept the
invitation. (Here the reasons are enumerated.)
From your letter I can see that you really have a great desire to
accept the invitation... I do not want, then, to deprive you of
this experience and I say to you: "You may go."
--
One final note on this famous affair of the invitation which has created a lot of misunderstandings
everywhere.
--
and send me away with the assurance that You will
be with me always, that I can go without fear, that it
--
Naturally, after that, I go and make all the necessary
arrangements. X arranges for my departure. But later
--
going there. Strange!
Truly, I understand nothing about all this except
--
India is supposed to be the Guru of the world in
order to establish the spiritual life on earth. But, Mo ther,
in order to occupy this high position she must be worthy
--
Without any doubt - and just now, there is much to be done!
7 September 1966
--
Why this chaotic condition in our present government? Is it the sign of a change for the better, for the
reign of Truth?
It is the pressure of the force of Truth on the whole earth
which is causing disorder, confusion and falsehood to spring
--
the victory of the Truth is certain, but it is difficult to say
when and how it will come about.
--
How can one practise yogic disciplines without believing in God or the Divine?31
Why? It is very easy. Because these are only words. When one
practises without believing in God or the Divine, one practises
the Mo ther replied to this question orally; she was speaking to someone o ther than
--
Are there many people - I am not speaking of those who
have a religion: they learn a catechism when they are young and
that doesn't mean much; but out of people taken as they are
- are there many who believe in the Divine? Not in Europe
anyway. But even here, there are quite a number who by tradition have a "family deity", yet it doesn't bo ther them at all
to take their deity and throw it into the Ganges when they get
displeased! It does happen - I know some people who did it.
they had a family Kali in their house, they actually did take
her and throw her into the Ganges because they were displeased
with her. If one believes in the Divine, one cannot do things like
that.
I don't know - believe in the Divine? One thirsts for a certain perfection, perhaps even to transcend oneself, to arrive at
something higher than what one is; if one is a philanthropist,
--
to have the faith that there cannot be a world without the Divine,
that the very existence of the world proves the existence of the
Divine. And not just a "belief", not something one has thought
--
knowledge, not an acquired one, that the existence of the world
is enough to prove the Divine. Without the Divine, no world.
And this is so obvious, you see, that one has the impression that
in order to think o therwise, one has to be a bit dense. And the
"Divine" not in the sense of "purpose" or "goal" or "end", not
that sort of thing: the world as it is proves the Divine. Because
it is the Divine under a certain aspect - a ra ther distorted one,
but still...
--
see it to be sure that there is a Divine. It is a certainty. One
cannot... it is impossible not to believe. It is like those people
--
without being absolutely convinced that the Divine is there? We
call it the Divine - the Divine is tiny! (Mo ther laughs.) For me
existence is an incontestable proof that there is... that there is
nothing but That - something we cannot name, cannot define,
--
more become. A Something that is more perfect than all the
perfections, more beautiful than all the beauties, more marvellous than all the marvels, so that even the totality of all that
exists cannot express it. And there is nothing but That. And it
is not a Something floating in nothingness: there is nothing but
That.
--
Moreover, there is a very simple way of knowing. One has
only to imagine that the thing one wants to do will not be done,
and if this imagination creates the least uneasiness, then one can
be sure of the presence of desire.
12 October 1966
--
place of capital importance, doesn't it? This being the
case, what place does meditation have?
--
there is room for many o ther activities which have their
purpose in an integral Yoga.
--
In the story You wrote, " the Virtues", You describe
several virtues. Which is the most necessary?
SINCERITY.
--
For several years now, we have been hearing that the
Ashram is in a terrible financial condition, and from time
--
certain departments. Moreover, these expenditures are
possible only through Your generosity. So how can it be
said that the Ashram is undergoing a financial crisis?
But perhaps it is just because certain individuals and certain
departments are spending extravagantly that there is a financial
crisis!...
--
orders these expenditures?
Not always.
--
a constant experience? Because the moment one throws
oneself into activity, the mental disturbance begins again!
One can have a quiet mind without being in a complete state
--
the ideal is to be able to act without coming out of the mental
quietude.
One can do everything while keeping the mind quiet, and
what one does is better done.
In order to achieve self-mastery, should one follow the
method of "widening the consciousness"?
Widening the consciousness is necessary for all who want to live
a free and intelligent life, even without there being any question
of Yoga or aspiration for the Divine Life.
7 December 1966
--
When I heard that X was drowned in a lake at Gingee during the outing, I was unable to believe it or to be
shocked by this news. the only question that arose in me
was: How is it possible! Mo ther knew we were at Gingee,
so Her protection was with us. then how is it possible?
the protection is over the group - and if the action of the group
is coordinated and disciplined, the protection acts. But when an
individual acts independently, the protection acts only in the
measure of his faith.
--
In the Darshan message of November 24th, Sri
Aurobindo speaks of the influence of the Divine Compassion and the Divine Grace.32 But what is the difference between the two?
the compassion seeks to relieve the suffering of all, whe ther
they deserve it or not.
the Grace does not recognise the right of suffering to exist
and abolishes it.
--
What are the qualities needed for one to be called
"a true child of the Ashram"?
" there are these three powers: (1) the Cosmic Law, of Karma or what else; (2) the
Divine Compassion acting on as many as it can reach through the nets of the Law and
giving them their chance; (3) the Divine Grace which acts more incalculably but also
more irresistibly than the o thers." - Letters on Yoga, SABCL, Vol. 23, p. 609.
Sincerity, courage, discipline, endurance, absolute faith in the
Divine work and unshakable trust in the Divine Grace. All
this must be accompanied by a sustained, ardent, persevering
--
outside. It is also said elsewhere that our vision of the
outside (of the world around us) is the reflection of our
inner being. Could you explain these two sentences a
little?
In order to understand these apparent contradictions, one has
to rise to the intellectual level on which all opposite ideas can be
set face to face and assembled in a comprehensive syn thesis.
--
On the cards that You send to people on their birthdays, often You simply write: "Bonne fête to X, with
my blessings." But sometimes You write various o ther
things, such as: "May he be born to the true life" or
Series Ten - To a Young Captain
"For a year of great progress", etc. On what do all these
variations depend?
On the condition of the one to whom I write the card and on his
state of consciousness, which varies according to the moment
and the year.
8 February 1967
--
on the idea of good and evil, a moral entity or ra ther an element of goodwill which tries to keep the individual on what is
commonly known as the straight path.
This element acts as a defence against the hostile forces
which can quite easily take possession of one who has disregarded the advice of his conscience.
But all this is a mental approximation of the Truth. It is not
the Truth itself.
--
a need for physical closeness? What is the value of this
physical contact?
(1) When one is more conscious in the physical than in the vital
and mental, the physical relation seems more real and tangible.
(2) For those who have seriously begun the yoga in the body,
the physical relation is of course a powerful aid.
I ask the first to make an effort to establish not only a psychic
relation (which is always there even when they are not conscious
of it) but also a mental and vital relation, which makes the outer
relation less indispensable.
I try to teach the o thers to widen their physical consciousness
so as to be able to benefit from my physical presence even at a
--
emptiness inside. Even if one has all the physical comforts, there is still something missing. One doesn't feel
very joyful. One wants to come back as soon as possible.
Can You explain to me the reason for this feeling? Why
doesn't one even feel free?
--
who are guided by their soul.
19 April 1967
--
passes quickly. But there are periods when I feel that I
Series Ten - To a Young Captain
am not making much progress. I am still in the rut of
old petty habits which do not allow me to be free.
--
People are saying many things about the 4th of
May33 - sometimes You too are quoted. But in spite
--
It is said that the vibrations of the being develop
from one life to ano ther, become richer and form the psychic personality behind the surface personality. But then
how does the psychic, weighed down by these vibrations
and memories, remain free?35
--
2.3.45 is the year of power - when the thing manifested gets full force. 4.5.67 is the
year of complete realisation." (Letter of 2 February 1934)
--
No, the psychic decants - that is exactly what happens.
the psychic does not retain things in their totality - it decants,
it gradually decants the vibrations.
the psychic memory is a decanted memory of events. For
example, in past lives there have been moments when, for some
reason or o ther, the psychic was present and participated; in that
case it retains the memory of the circumstance. But the memory
it retains is that of the psychic life of that moment; so even if it
retains the memory of the image, it is a simplified image such as
it is translated in the psychic consciousness and according to the
psychic vibration of all the people present.
He would not ask such a question if he had ever had a
--
Before knowing these things, I had had psychic memories
and always they struck me by their special character. It was as
if one had, one cannot exactly say an emotion, but a certain
--
- a little vague, a little blurred - of the people who were there,
of the circumstances, of the events, and that makes a psychic
memory; it is rarely the events that mentally are considered
as the most memorable or most important in a lifetime, but
the moments when the psychic has participated - consciously
participated - in the event. And that is what remains.
15 July 1967
--
the o ther day while we were on a long journey, we felt the
presence of someone o ther than ourselves in the car, and
it was very strong, even though we were not conscious
--
of any danger. Was there a possibility of danger on that
day? If so, why didn't we sense it?
--
written to me that the tyres of the car were in poor condition.
You did not feel the danger because I did not want you to
feel it.
--
Why is it that in the Ashram itself people feel the
need to form little groups and societies: for example,
World Union, New Age Association, etc.? What is their
purpose?
It is because men still imagine that to do something useful, they
have to form groups.
It is the caricature of organisation.
20 September 1967
--
Does the Divine punish injustice? Is it possible that
He ever punishes anyone?
--
After all these years I have found the forgotten notebook, and I
reply:
--
All actions carry in themselves their fruits with their consequences.
According to its nature, an action brings one nearer to the
Divine or takes one far ther from Him - and that is the supreme
consequence.
--
Aurobindo's Action. He said that had there been an enlightened person like Vivekananda, the work could have
been done better, but that Mo ther has to do Her work
with the instruments She has at her disposal. Finally he
told me that he had no opinion on the subject. "My
business," he said, "is to write." And he asked me what
--
Certainly, the most important occupation is to develop and perfect oneself, but that can be done very well, and even better, while
working. It is for you to know what work it is that most interests
you, the one that opens for you a path towards perfection. It
may be something apparently very modest; it is not the apparent
importance of a work which gives it its real value for the yoga.
5 August 1970
--
one's nature and a mastery of one's imperfections. But to tell the
truth, it is not of capital importance, and it is far more important
to concentrate on the future, on the consciousness to be acquired
and on the development of the nature, which is almost unlimited
for those who know how to do it.
We are at an especially favourable moment in the universal
existence, a moment when, upon earth, everything is being prepared for a new creation, or ra ther, for a new manifestation in
--
sad. And then, is this not part of the Sacrifice of the
Supreme spoken of by Sri Aurobindo? Are we worthy of
--
What is the best attitude on our part?
the best for each one is to progress as sincerely as he can. the
material difficulties are part of the work of transformation and
they should be accepted calmly.
--
I have the impression that Your Force responds according to the intensity of our prayer. But my case seems
to be different. Or am I not conscious of my prayers?
--
It is always that way for everyone. the difference lies in each
one's state of consciousness. Some are entirely conscious of what
is done for them. Those who make an effort become conscious
of the answer they receive, and there are those whose aspiration is sufficiently strong and sincere for them to be constantly
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
O ther Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Poets and MysticsNicholas Berdyaev: God Made Human
--
Nicholas Berdyaev is an ardent worker, as a Russian is naturally expected to be, in the cause of the spiritual rehabilitation of mankind. He is a Christian, a neo-Christian: some of his conclusions are old-world truths and bear repetition and insistence; o thers are of a more limited, conditional and even doubtful nature. His conception of the value of human person, the dignity and the high reality he gives to it, can never be too welcome in a world where the individual seems to have gone the way of vanished empires and kings and princes. But even more important and interesting is the view he underlines that the true person is a spiritual being, that is to say, it is quite o ther than the empirical ego that man normally is"not this that one worships" as the Upanishads too declare. Fur ther, in his spiritual being man, the individual, is not simply a portion or a fraction; he is, on the contrary, an integer, a complete whole, a creative focus; the true individual is a microcosm yet holding in it and imaging the macrocosm. Only perhaps greater stress is laid upon the aspect of creativity or activism. An Eastern sage, a Vedantin, would look for the true spiritual reality behind the flux of forces: Prakriti or Energy is only the executive will of the Purusha, the Conscious Being. the personality in Nature is a formulation and emanation of the transcendent impersonality.
there is ano ther aspect of personality as viewed by Berdyaev which involves a bias of the more orthodox Christian faith: the Christ is inseparable from the Cross. So he says: " there is no such thing as personality if there is no capacity for suffering. Suffering is inherent in God too, if he is a personality, and not merely an abstract idea. God shares in the sufferings of men. He yearns for responsive love. there are divine as well as human passions and therefore divine or creative personality must always suffer to the end of time. A condition of anguish and distress is inherent in it." the view is logically enforced upon the Christian, it is said, if he is to accept incarnation, God becoming flesh. Flesh cannot but be weak. This very weakness, so human, is and must be specially characteristic of God also, if he is one with man and his lover and saviour.
Eastern spirituality does not view sorrow and sufferingevilas an integral part of the Divine Consciousness. It is born out of the Divine, no doubt, as nothing can be outside the Divine, but it is a local and temporal formation; it is a disposition consequent upon certain conditions and with the absence or elimination of those conditions, this disposition too disappears. God and the Divine Consciousness can only be purity, light, immortality and delight. the compassion that a Buddha feels for the suffering humanity is not at all a feeling of suffering; pain or any such normal human reaction does not enter into its composition; it is the movement of a transcendent consciousness which is beyond and purified of the normal reactions, yet overarching them and entering into them as a soothing and illumining and vivifying presence. the healer knows and understands the pain and suffering of his patient but is not touched by them; he need not contract the illness of his patient in order to be in sympathy with him. the Divine the Soulcan be in flesh and yet not smirched with its mire; the flesh is not essentially or irrevocably the ooze it is under certain given conditions. the divine physical body is composed of radiant matter and one can speak of it even as of the soul that weapons cannot pierce it nor can fire burn it.
***
William Blake: the Marriage of Heaven and Hell Aldous Huxley: the Perennial Philosophy
01.10 - Principle and Personality, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
It is asked of us why do we preach a man and not purely and solely a principle. Our ideal being avowedly the establishment and reign of a new principle of world-order and not ga thering recruits for the camp of a sectarian teacher, it seems all the more inconsistent, if not thoroughly ruinous for our cause, that we should lay stress upon a particular individual and incur the danger of overshadowing the universal truths upon which we seek to build human society. Now, it is not that we are unconscious or oblivious of the many evils attendant upon the system of preaching a man the history of the rise and decay of many sects and societies is there to give us sufficient warning; and yet if we cannot entirely give the go-by to personalities and stick to mere and bare principles, it is because we have clear reasons for it, because we are not unconscious or oblivious ei ther of the evils that beset the system of preaching the principle alone.
Religious bodies that are formed through the bhakti and puja for one man, social reconstructions forced by the will and power of a single individual, have already in the inception this grain of incapacity and disease and death that they are not an integrally self-conscious creation, they are not, as a whole, intelligent and wide awake and therefore constantly responsive to the truths and ideals and realities for which they exist, for which at least, their founder intended them to exist. the light at the apex is the only light and the entire structure is but the shadow of that light; the whole thing has the aspect of a dark mass galvanised into red-hot activity by the passing touch of a dynamo. Immediately however the solitary light fails and the dynamo stops, there is nothing but the original darkness and inertiatoma asit tamasa gudham agre.
Man, however great and puissant he may be, is a perishable thing. People who ga ther or are ga thered round a man and cling to him through the tie of a personal relation must fall off and scatter when the man passes away and the personal tie loses its hold. What remains is a memory, a gradually fading memory. But memory is hardly a creative force, it is a dead, at best, a moribund thing; the real creative power is Presence. So when the great man's presence, the power that crystallises is gone, the whole edifice crumbles and vanishes into air or remains a mere name.
Love and admiration for a mahapurusha is not enough, even faith in his gospel is of little avail, nor can actual participation, consecrated work and labour in his cause save the situation; it is only when the principles, the bare realities for which the mahapurusha stands are in the open forum and men have the full and free opportunity of testing and assimilating them, it is only when individuals thus become living embodiments of those principles and realities that we do create a thing universal and permanent, as universal and permanent as earthly things may be. Principles only can embrace and unify the whole of humanity; a particular personality shall always create division and limitation. By placing the man in front, we erect a wall between the Principle and men at large. It is the principles, on the contrary, that should be given the place of honour: our attempt should be to keep back personalities and make as little use of them as possible. Let the principles work and create in their freedom and power, untrammelled by the limitations of any mere human vessel.
We are quite familiar with this cry so rampant in our democratic ageprinciples and no personalities! And although we admit the justice of it, yet we cannot ignore the trenchant one-sidedness which it involves. It is perhaps only a reaction, a swing to the opposite extreme of a mentality given too much to personalities, as the case generally has been in the past. It may be necessary, as a corrective, but it belongs only to a temporary stage. Since, however, we are after a universal ideal, we must also have an integral method. We shall have to curb many of our susceptibilities, diminish many of our apprehensions and soberly strike a balance between opposite extremes.
We do not speak like politicians or banias; but the very truth of the matter demands such a policy or line of action. It is very well to talk of principles and principles alone, but what are principles unless they take life and form in a particular individual? they are airy nothings, notions in the brain of logicians and metaphysicians, fit subjects for discussion in the academy, but they are devoid of that vital urge which makes them creative agencies. We have long lines of philosophers, especially European, who most scrupulously avoided all touch of personalities, whose utmost care was to keep principles pure and unsullied; and the upshot was that those principles remained principles only, barren and infructuous, some thing like, in the strong and puissant phrase of BaudelaireLa froide majest de la femme strile. And on the contrary, we have had o ther peoples, much addicted to personalitiesespecially in Asiawho did not care so much for abstract principles as for concrete embodiments; and what has been the result here? None can say that they did not produce anything or produced only still-born things. they produced living creaturesephemeral, some might say, but creatures that lived and moved and had their days.
But, it may be asked, what is the necessity, what is the purpose in making it all a one man show? Granting that principles require personalities for their fructuation and vital functioning, what remains to be envisaged is not one personality but a plural personality, the people at large, as many individuals of the human race as can be consciously imbued with those principles. When principles are made part and parcel of, are concentrated in a single solitary personality, they get "cribbed and cabined," they are vitiated by the idiosyncrasies of the man, they come to have a narrower field of application; they are emptied of the general verities they contain and finally cease to have any effect.
the thing, however, is that what you call principles do not drop from heaven in their virgin purity and all at once lay hold of mankind en masse. It is always through a particular individual that a great principle manifests itself. Principles do not live in the general mind of man and even if they live, they live secreted and unconscious; it is only a puissant personality, who has lived the principle, that can bring it forward into life and action, can awaken, like the Vedic Dawn, what was dead in allmritam kanchana bodhayanti. Men in general are by themselves 'inert and indifferent; they have little leisure or inclination to seek, from any inner urge of their own, for principles and primal truths; they become conscious of these only when expressed and embodied in some great and rare soul. An Avatar, a Messiah or a Prophet is the centre, the focus through which a Truth and Law first dawns and then radiates and spreads abroad. the little lamps are all lighted by the sparks that the great torch scatters.
And yet we yield to none in our demand for holding forth the principles always and ever before the wide open gaze of all. the principle is there to make people self-knowing and self-guiding; and the man is also there to illustrate that principle, to serve as the hope and prophecy of achievement. the living soul is there to touch your soul, if you require the touch; and the principle is there by which to test and testify. For, we do not ask anybody to be a mere automaton, a blind devotee, a soul without individual choice and initiative. On the contrary, we insist on each and every individual to find his own soul and stand on his own Truththis is the fundamental principle we declare, the only creedif creed it be that we ask people to note and freely follow. We ask all people to be fully self-dependent and self-illumined, for only thus can a real and solid reconstruction of human nature and society be possible; we do not wish that they should bow down ungrudgingly to anything, be it a principle or a personality. In this respect we claim the very first rank of iconoclasts and anarchists. And along with that, if we still choose to remain an idol-lover and a hero-worshipper, it is because we recognise that our mind, human as it is, being not a simple equation but a complex paradox, the idol or the hero symbolises for us and for those who so will, the very iconoclasm and anarchism and perhaps o ther more positive things as wellwhich we behold within and seek to manifest.
the world is full of ikons and archons; we cannot escape them, even if we try the world itself being a great ikon and as great an archon. Those who swear by principles, swear always by some personality or o ther, if not by a living creature then by a lifeless book, if not by Religion then by Science, if not by the East then by the West, if not by Buddha or Christ then by Bentham or Voltaire. Only they do it unwittingly they change one set of personalities for ano ther and believe they have rejected them all. the veils of Maya are a thousand-fold tangle and you think you have entirely escaped her when you have only run away from one fold to fall into ano ther. the wise do not attempt to reject and negate Maya, but consciously accept herfreedom lies in a knowing affirmation. So we too have accepted and affirmed an icon, but we have done it consciously and knowingly; we are not bound by our idol, we see the truth of it, and we serve and utilise it as best as we may.
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the Parting of the Way the Basis of Unity
01.11 - Aldous Huxley: The Perennial Philosophy, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
object:01.11 - Aldous Huxley: the Perennial Philosophy
author class:Nolini Kanta Gupta
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O ther Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Poets and MysticsAldous Huxley: the Perennial Philosophy
Aldous Huxley: the Perennial Philosophy
This latest work of Aldous Huxley is a collection of sayings of sages and saints and philosophers from all over the world and of all times. the sayings are arranged under several heads such as "That art Thou", " the Nature of the Ground", "Divine Incarnation", "Self-Knowledge", "Silence", "Faith" etc., which clearly give an idea of the contents and also of the "Neo-Brahmin's" own personal preoccupation. there is also a running commentary, ra ther a note on each saying, meant to elucidate and explain, naturally from the compiler's standpoint, what is obviously addressed to the initiate.
A similar compilation was published in the Arya, called the Eternal Wisdom (Les Paroles ternelles, in French) a portion of which appeared later on in book-form: that was more elaborate, the contents were arranged in such a way that no comments were needed, they were self-explanatory, divided as they were in chapters and sections and subsections with proper headings, the whole thing put in a logical and organised sequence. Huxley's compilation begins under the title of the Upanishadic text "That art Thou" with this saying of Eckhart: " the more God is in all things, the more He is outside them. the more He is within, the more without". It will be interesting to note that the Arya compilation too starts with the same idea under the title " the God of All; the God who is in All", the first quotation being from Philolaus, " the Universe is a Unity". the Eternal Wisdom has an introduction called " the Song of Wisdom" which begins with this saying from the Book of Wisdom: "We fight to win sublime Wisdom; therefore men call us warriors".
Huxley gives only one quotation from Sri Aurobindo under the heading "God in the World". Here it is:
" the touch of Earth is always reinvigorating to the son of Earth, even when he seeks a supraphysical Knowledge. It may even be said that the supraphysical can only be really mastered in its fullnessto its heights we can always reachwhen we keep our feet firmly on the physical. 'Earth is His footing' says the Upanishad, whenever it images the Self that manifests in the universe." Huxley's commentary is as follows:
"To its heights we can always come. For those of us who are still splashing about in the lower ooze, the phrase has a ra ther ironical ring. Never theless, in the light of even the most distant acquaintance with the heights and the fullness, it is possible to understand what its author means. To discover the Kingdom of God exclusively within oneself is easier than to discover it, not only there, but also in the outer worlds of minds and things and living creatures. It is easier because the heights within reveal themselves to those who are ready to exclude from their purview all that lies without. And though this exclusion may be a painful and mortificatory process, the fact remains that it is less arduous than the process of inclusion, by which we come to know the fullness as well as the heights of spiritual life. Where there is exclusive concentration on the heights within, temptations and distractions are avoided and there is a general denial and suppression. But when the hope is to know God inclusivelyto realise the divine Ground in the world as well as in the soul, temptations and distractions must not be avoided, but submitted to and used as opportunities for advance; there must be no suppression of outward-turning activities, but a transformation of them so that they become sacramental."
the neatness of the commentary cannot be improved upon. Only with regard to the "ironical ring" of which Huxley speaks, it has just to be pointed out, as he himself seems to understand, that the "we" referred to in the phrase does not mean humanity in general that 'splashes about in the lower ooze' but those who have a sufficiently developed inner spiritual life.
there is a quotation from Lao Tzu put under the heading "Grace and Free Will": "It was when the Great Way declined that human kindness and morality arose".
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 apoph thegm. 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 ga thering 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:
"'Listen to this!' shouted Monkey. 'After all the trouble we had getting here from China, and after you specially ordered that we were to be given the scriptures, Ananda and Kasyapa made a fraudulent delivery of goods. they gave us blank copies to take away; I ask you, what is the good of that to us?' 'You needn't shout,' said the Buddha, smiling. 'As a matter of fact, it is such blank scrolls as these that are the true scriptures. But I quite see that the people of China are too foolish and ignorant to believe this, so there is nothing for it but to give them copies with some writing on.' "
A sage can smile and smile delightfully! the parable illustrates the well-known Biblical phrase, ' the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life'. the monkey is symbolical of the ignorant, arrogant, fussy human mind. there is ano ther Buddhistic story about the monkey quoted in the book and it is as delightful; but being somewhat long, we cannot reproduce it here. It tells how the mind-monkey is terribly agile, quick, clever, competent, moving lightning-fast, imagining that it can easily go to the end of the world, to Paradise itself, to Brahmic status. But alas! when he thought he was speeding straight like a rocket or an arrow and arrive right at the target, he found that he was spinning like a top at the same spot, and what he very likely took to be the very fragrance of the topmost supreme heaven was nothing but the aroma of his own urine.
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01.11 - The Basis of Unity, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
object:01.11 - the Basis of Unity
author class:Nolini Kanta Gupta
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the Basis of Unity
I
A modern society or people cannot have religion, that is to say, credal religion, as the basis of its organized collective life. It was mediaeval society and people that were organized on that line. Indeed mediaevalism means nothing more and nothing lessthan that. But whatever the need and justification in the past, the principle is an anachronism under modern conditions. It was needed, perhaps, to keep alive a truth which goes into the very roots of human life and its deepest aspiration; and it was needed also for a dynamic application of that truth on a larger scale and in smaller details, on the mass of mankind and in its day to day life. That was the aim of the Church Militant and the Khilafat; that was the spirit, although in a more Sattwic way, behind the Buddhistic evangelism or even Hindu colonization.
the truth behind a credal religion is the aspiration towards the realization of the Divine, some ultimate reality that gives a permanent meaning and value to the human life, to the existence lodged in this 'sphere of sorrow' here below. Credal paraphernalia were necessary to express or buttress this core of spiritual truth when mankind, in the mass, had not attained a certain level of enlightenment in the mind and a certain degree of development in its life-relations. the modern age is modern precisely because it had attained to a necessary extent this mental enlightenment and this life development. So the scheme or scaffolding that was required in the past is no longer unavoidable and can have ei ther no reality at all or only a modified utility.
A modern people is a composite entity, especially with regard to its religious affiliation. Not religion, but culture is the basis of modern collective life, national or social. Culture includes in its grain that fineness of temperament which appreciates all truths behind all forms, even when there is a personal allegiance to one particular form.
In India, it is well known, the diversity of affiliations is colossal, sui generis. Two major affiliations have today almost cut the country into two; and desperate remedies are suggested which are worse than the malady itself, as they may kill the patient outright. If it is so, it is, I repeat, the mediaeval spirit that is at:, the bottom of the trouble.
the rise of this spirit in modern times and conditions is a phenomenon that has to be explained and faced: it is a ghost that has come out of the past and has got to be laid and laid for good. First of all, it is a reaction from modernism; it is a reaction from the modernist denial of certain fundamental and eternal truths, of God, soul, and immortality: it is a reaction from the modernist affirmation of the mere economic man. And it is also a defensive gesture of a particular complex of consciousness that has grown and lives powerfully and now apprehends expurgation and elimination.
In Europe such a contingency did not arise, because the religious spirit, rampant in the days of Inquisitions and St. Bartholomews, died away: it died, and (or, because) it was replaced by a spirit that was felt as being equally, if not more, au thentic and, which for the moment, suffused the whole consciousness with a large and high afflatus, commensurate with the amplitude of man's aspiration. I refer, of course, to the spirit of the Renaissance. It was a spirit profane and secular, no doubt, but on that level it brought a catholicity of temper and a richness in varied interesta humanistic culture, as it is calledwhich constituted a living and unifying ideal for Europe. That spirit culminated in the great French Revolution which was the final coup de grace to all that still remained of mediaevalism, even in its outer structure, political and economical.
In India the spirit of renascence came very late, late almost by three centuries; and even then it could not flood the whole of the continent in all its nooks and corners, psychological and physical. there were any number of pockets (to use a current military phrase) left behind which guarded the spirit of the past and offered persistent and obdurate resistance. Perhaps, such a dispensation was needed in India and inevitable also; inevitable, because the religious spirit is closest to India's soul and is its most direct expression and cannot be uprooted so easily; needed, because India's and the world's future demands it and depends upon it.
Only, the religious spirit has to be ba thed and purified and enlightened by the spirit of the renascence: that is to say, one must learn and understand and realize that Spirit is the thing the one thing needfulTamevaikam jnatha; 'religions' are its names and forms, appliances and decorations. Let us have by all means the religious spirit, the fundamental experience that is the inmost truth of all religions, that is the matter of our soul; but in our mind and life and body let there be a luminous catholicity, let these organs and instruments be trained to see and compare and appreciate the variety, the numberless facets which the one Spirit naturally presents to the human consciousness. Ekam sat viprh bahudh vadanti. It is an ancient truth that man discovered even in his earliest seekings; but it still awaits an adequate expression and application in life.
II
India's historical development is marked by a special characteristic which is at once the expression of her inmost nature and the setting of a problem which she has to solve for herself and for the whole human race. I have spoken of the diversity and divergence of affiliations in a modern social unit. But what distinguishes India from all o ther peoples is that the diversity and divergence have culminated here in contradictoriness and mutual exclusion.
the first extremes that met in India and fought and gradually coalesced to form a single cultural and social whole were, as is well known, the Aryan and the non-Aryan. Indeed, the geologists tell us, the land itself is divided into two parts structurally quite different and distinct, the Deccan plateau and the Himalayan ranges with the Indo-Gangetic plain: the former is formed out of the most ancient and stable and, on the whole, horizontally bedded rocks of the earth, while the latter is of comparatively recent origin, formed out of a more flexible and weaker belt ( the Himalayan region consisting of a colossal flexing and crumpling of strata). the disparity is so much that a certain group of geologists hold that the Deccan plateau did not at all form part of the Asiatic continent, but had drifted and dashed into it:in fact the Himalayas are the result of this mighty impact. the usual division of an Aryan and a Dravidian race may be due to a memory of the clash of the two continents and their races.
However, coming to historical times, we see wave after wave of the most heterogeneous and disparate elementsSakas and Huns and Greeks, each bringing its quota of exotic materialenter into the oceanic Indian life and culture, lose their separate foreign identity and become part and parcel of the common whole. Even so,a single unitary body was formed out of such varied and shifting materialsnot in the political, but in a socio-religious sense. For a catholic religious spirit, not being solely doctrinal and personal, admitted and embraced in its supple and wide texture almost an infinite variety of approaches to the Divine, of forms and norms of apprehending the Beyond. It has been called Hinduism: it is a vast syn thesis of multiple affiliations. It expresses the characteristic genius of India and hence Hinduism and Indianism came to be looked upon as synonymous terms. And the same could be defined also as Vedic religion and culture, for its invariable basis the bed-rock on which it stood firm and erectwas the Vedas, the Knowledge seen by the sages. But there had already risen a voice of dissidence and discord that of Buddha, not so much, perhaps, of Buddha as of Buddhism. the Buddhistic enlightenment and discipline did not admit the supreme authority of the Vedas; it sought o ther bases of truth and reality. It was a great denial; and it meant and worked for a vital schism. the denial of the Vedas by itself, perhaps, would not be serious, but it became so, as it was symptomatic of a deeper divergence. Denying the Vedas, the Buddhistic spirit denied life. It was quite a new thing in the Indian consciousness and spiritual discipline. And it left such a stamp there that even today it stands as the dominant character of the Indian outlook. However, India's syn thetic genius rose to the occasion and knew how to bridge the chasm, close up the fissure, and present again a body whole and entire. Buddha became one of the Avataras: the discipline of Nirvana and Maya was reserved as the last duty to be performed at the end of life, as the culmination of a full-length span of action and achievement; the way to Moksha lay through Dharma and Artha and Kama, Sannyasa had to be built upon Brahmacharya and Garhasthya. the integral ideal was epitomized by Kalidasa in his famous lines about the character of the Raghus:
they devoted themselves to study in their boyhood, in youth they pursued the objects of life; when old they took to spiritual austerities, and in the end they died united with the higher consciousness.
Only this process of integration was not done in a day, it took some centuries and had to pass through some unpleasant intermediary stages.
And still this was not the lastit could not be the lastanti thesis that had to be syn thetized. the dialectical movement led to a more serious and fiercer contradiction. the Buddhistic schism was after all a division brought about from within: it could be said that the two terms of the antinomy belonged to the same genus and were commensurable. the idea or experience of Asat and Maya was not unknown to the Upanishads, only it had not there the exclusive stress which the later developments gave it. Hence quite a different, an altoge ther foreign body was imported into what was or had come to be a homogeneous entity, and in a considerable mass.
Unlike the previous irruptions that merged and were lost in the general life and consciousness, Islam entered as a leaven that maintained its integrity and revolutionized Indian life and culture by infusing into its tone a Semitic accent. After the Islamic impact India could not be what she was beforea change became inevitable even in the major note. It was a psychological cataclysm almost on a par with the geological one that formed her body; but the spirit behind which created the body was working automatically, inexorably towards the greater and more difficult syn thesis demanded by the situation. Only the thing is to be done now consciously, not through an unconscious process of laissez-faire as on the inferior stages of evolution in the past. And that is the true genesis of the present conflict.
History abounds in instances of racial and cultural immixture. Indeed, all major human groupings of today are invariably composite formations. Excepting, perhaps, some primitiveaboriginal tribes there are no pure races existent. the Briton, the Dane, the Anglo-Saxon, and the Norman have combined to form the British; a Frenchman has a Gaul, a Roman, a Frank in him; and a Spaniard's blood would show an Iberian, a Latin, a Gothic, a Moorish element in it. And much more than a people, a culture in modern times has been a veritable cockpit of multifarious and even incongruous elements. there are instances also in which a perfect fusion could not be accomplished, and one element had to be rejected or crushed out. the complete disappearance of the Aztecs and Mayas in South America, the decadence of the Red Indians in North America, of the Negroes in Africa as a result of a fierce clash with European peoples and European culture illustrate the point.
Nature, on the whole, has solved the problem of blood fusion and mental fusion of different peoples, although on a smaller scale. India today presents the problem on a larger scale and on a higher or deeper level. the demand is for a spiritual fusion and unity. Strange to say, although the Spirit is the true bed-rock of unitysince, at bottom, it means identityit is on this plane that mankind has not yet been able to really meet and coalesce. India's genius has been precisely working in the line of a perfect solution of this supreme problem.
Islam comes with a full-fledged spiritual soul and a mental and vital formation commensurable with that inner being and consciousness. It comes with a dynamic spirit, a warrior mood, that aims at conquering the physical world for the Lord, a temperament which Indian spirituality had not, or had lost long before, if she had anything of it. This was, perhaps, what Vivekananda meant when he spoke graphically of a Hindu soul with a Muslim body. the Islamic dispensation, however, brings with it not only something complementary, but also something contradictory, if not for anything else, at least for the strong individuality which does not easily yield to assimilation. Still, in spite of great odds, the process of assimilation was going on slowly and surely. But of late it appears to have come to a dead halt; difficulties have been presented which seem insuperable.
If religious toleration were enough, if that made up man's highest and largest achievement, then Nature need not have attempted to go beyond cultural fusion; a liberal culture is the surest basis for a catholic religious spirit. But such a spirit of toleration and catholicity, although it bespeaks a widened consciousness, does not always enshrine a profundity of being. Nobody is more tolerant and catholic than a dilettante, but an ardent spiritual soul is different.
To be loyal to one's line of self-fulfilment, to follow one's self-law, swadharma, wholly and absolutelywithout this no spiritual life is possible and yet not to come into clash with o ther lines and loyalties, nay more, to be in positive harmony with them, is a problem which has not been really solved. It was solved, perhaps, in the consciousness of a Ramakrishna, a few individuals here and there, but it has always remained a source of conflict and disharmony in the general mind even in the field of spirituality. the clash of spiritual or religious loyalties has taken such an acute form in India today, they have been carried to the bitter extreme, in order, we venture to say, that the final syn thesis might be absolute and irrevocable. This is India's mission to work out, and this is the lesson which she brings to the world.
the solution can come, first, by going to the true religion of the Spirit, by being truly spiritual and not merely religious, for, as we have said, real unity lies only in and through the Spirit, since Spirit is one and indivisible; secondly, by bringing down somethinga great part, indeed, if not the wholeof this puissant and marvellous Spirit into our life of emotions and sensations and activities.
If it is said that this is an ideal for the few only, not for the mass, our answer to that is the answer of the GitaYad yad acharati sreshthah. Let the few then practise and achieve the ideal: the mass will have to follow as far as it is possible and necessary. It is the very character of the evolutionary system of Nature, as expressed in the principle of symbiosis, that any considerable change in one place (in one species) is accompanied by a corresponding change in the same direction in o ther contiguous places (in o ther associated species) in order that the poise and balance of the system may be maintained.
It is precisely strong nuclei that are needed (even, perhaps, one strong nucleus is sufficient) where the single and integrated spiritual consciousness is an accomplished and established fact: that acts inevitably as a solvent drawing in and assimilating or transforming and re-creating as much, of the surroundings as its own degree and nature of achievement inevitably demand.
India did not and could not stop at mere cultural fusionwhich was a supreme gift of the Moguls. She did not and could not stop at ano ther momentous cultural fusion brought about by the European impact. She aimed at something more. Nature demanded of her that she should discover a greater secret of human unity and through progressive experiments apply and establish it in fact. Christianity did not raise this problem of the greater syn thesis, for the Christian peoples were more culture-minded than religious-minded. It was left for an Asiatic people to set the problem and for India to work out the solution.
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01.12 - Goethe, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Aldous Huxley: the Perennial Philosophy T. S. Eliot: Four Quartets
O ther Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Poets and MysticsGoe the
Goe the
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German obscured the spirit of a Greek.
Sri Aurobindo
the year 1949 has just celebrated the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great force of light that was Goe the. We too remember him on the occasion, and will try to present in a few words, as we see it, the fundamental experience, the major Intuition that stirred this human soul, the lesson he brought to mankind. Goe the was a great poet. He showed how a language, perhaps least poetical by nature, can be moulded to embody the great beauty of great poetry. He made the German language sing, even as the sun's ray made the stone of Memnon sing when falling upon it. Goe the was a man of consummate culture. Truly and almost literally it could be said of him that nothing human he considered foreign to his inquiring mind. And Goe the was a man of great wisdom. His observation and judgment on thingsno matter to whatever realm they belonghave an arresting appropriateness, a happy and revealing insight. But above all, he was an aspiring soulaspiring to know and be in touch with the hidden Divinity in man and the world.
Goe the and the Problem of Evil
No problem is so vital to the human consciousness as the problem of Evilits why and wherefore It is verily the Sphinx Riddle. In all ages and in all climes man has tried to answer; the answers are of an immense variety, but none seems to be sure and certain. Goe the's was an ardent soul seeking to embrace the living truth whole and entire; the problem was not merely of philosophical interest to him, but a burning question of life and deathlife and death of the body and even of the soul.
One view considers Evil as coeval with Good: the Prince of Evil is God's peer, equal to him in all ways, absolutely separate, independent and self-existent. Light and Darkness are eternal principles living side by side, possessing equal reality. For, although it is permissible to the individual to pass out of the Darkness and enter into Light, the Darkness itself does not disappear: it remains and maintains its domain, and even it is said that some human beings are meant eternally for this domain. That is the Manichean principle and that also is fundamentally the dualistic conception of chit-achit in some Indian systems (although the principle of chit or light is usually given a higher position and priority of excellence).
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 fur ther 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
there is on the earthly stage the play of a challenge, a twofold challenge, one between God and Satan and ano ther, as a consequence, between Man and Satan.
Satan is jealous of man who is God's favourite. He tells God that his partiality to man is misplaced. God has put into man a little of his light (reason and intelligence and something more perhaps), but to what purpose? Man tries to soar, he thinks he flies high and wide, but in fact he is and will be an insect that "lies always in the grass and sings its old song in the grass." God answers that whatever the perplexity in which man now is, in the end he will come out and reach the Light with a greater and richer experience of it. Satan smiles in return and says he will prove o therwise. Given a free hand, he can do whatever he likes with man: "Dust shall he eat and with a relish." God willingly agrees to the challenge: there is no harm in Satan's trying his hand. Indeed, Satan will prove to be a good companion to man; for man is normally prone to inertia and sinks into repose and rest and stagnation. Satan will be the goad, the force that drives towards ceaseless activity. For activity is life, and without activity no progress.
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 o ther hand, in return, man will have to serve Satan there, on the o ther 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 Goe the'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.
the Cosmic Rhythm
the angels weave the symphony that is creation. they represent the various notes and rhythmsin their higher and purer degrees that make up the grand harmony of the spheres. It is magnificent, this music that moves the cosmos, and wonderful the glory of God manifest therein. But is it absolutely perfect? Is there nowhere any flaw in it? there is a doubting voice that enters a dissenting note. That is Satan, the Antagonist, the Evil One. Man is the weakest link in the chain of the apparently all-perfect harmony. And Satan boldly proposes to snap it if God only let him do so. He can prove to God that the true nature of his creation is not cosmos but chaos not a harmony in peace and light, but a confusion, a Walpurgis Night. God acquiesces in the play of this apparent breach and proves in the end that it is part of a wider scheme, a vaster harmony. Evil is rounded off by Grace.
the total eradication of Evil from the world and human nature and the remoulding of a terrestrial life in the substance and pattern of the Highest Good that is beyond all dualities is a conception which it was not for Goe the to envisage. In the order of reality or existence, first there is the consciousness of division, of trenchant separation in which Good is equated with not-evil and evil with not-good. This is the outlook of individualised consciousness. Next, as the consciousness grows and envelops the whole existence, good and evil are both embraced and are found to form a secret and magic harmony. That is the universal or cosmic consciousness. And Goe the's genius seems to be an outflowering of something of this status of consciousness. But there is still a higher status, the status of transcendence in which evil is not simply embraced but dissolved and even transmuted into a supreme reality of which it is an aberration, a reflection or projection, a lower formulation. That is the mystery of a spiritual realisation to which Goe the aspired perhaps, but had not the necessary initiation to enter into.
***
Aldous Huxley: the Perennial Philosophy T. S. Eliot: Four Quartets
01.12 - Three Degrees of Social Organisation, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Declaration of Rights is a characteristic modern phenomenon. It is a message of liberty and freedom,no doubt of secular liberty and freedomthings not very common in the old world; and yet at the same time it is a clarion that calls for and prepares strife and battle. If the conception of Right has sanctified the individual or a unit collectivity, it has also pari passu developed a fissiparous tendency in human organisation. Society based on or living by the principle of Right becomes naturally and inevitably a competitive society. Where man is regarded as nothing moreand, of course, nothing lessthan a bundle of rights, human aggregation is bound to be an exact image of Darwinian Naturered in tooth and claw.
But Right is not the only term on which an ideal or even a decent society can be based. there is ano ther term which can serve equally well, if not better. I am obviously referring to the conception of duty. I tis an old world conception; it isa conception particularly familiar to the East. the Indian term for Right is also the term for dutyadhikara means both. In Europe too, in more recent times, when after the frustration of the dream of a new world envisaged by the French Revolution, man was called upon again to rise and hope, it was Mazzini who brought forward the new or discarded principle as a mantra replacing the o ther more dangerous one. A hierarchy of duties was given by him as the pattern of a fulfilled ideal life. In India, in our days the distinction between the two attitudes was very strongly insisted upon by the great Vivekananda.
Vivekananda said that if human society is to be remodelled, one must first of all learn not to think and act in terms of claims and rights but in terms of duties and obligations. Fulfil your duties conscientiously, the rights will take care of themselves; it is such an attitude that can give man the right poise, the right impetus, the right outlook with regard to a collective living. If instead of each one demanding what one considers as one's dues and consequently scrambling and battling for them, and most often not getting them or getting at a ruinous pricewhat made Arjuna cry, "What shall I do with all this kingdom if in regaining it I lose all my kith and kin dear to me?"if, indeed, instead of claiming one's right, one were content to know one's duty and do it as it should be done, then not only there would be peace and amity upon earth, but also each one far from losing anything would find miraculously all that one most needs and must have, the necessary, the right rights and all.
It might be objected here however that actually in the history of humanity the conception of Duty has been no less pugnacious than that of Right. In certain ages and among certain peoples, for example, it was considered the imperative duty of the faithful to kill or convert by force or o therwise as many as possible belonging to o ther faiths: it was the mission of the good shepherd to burn the impious and the heretic. In recent times, it was a sense of high and solemn duty that perpetrated what has been termed "purges"brutalities undertaken, it appears, to purify and preserve the integrity of a particular ideological, social or racial aggregate. But the real name of such a spirit is not duty but fanaticism. And there is a considerable difference between the two. Fanaticism may be defined as duty running away with itself; but what we are concerned with here is not the aberration of duty, but duty proper self-poised.
One might claim also on behalf of the doctrine of Right that the right kind of Right brings no harm, it is as already stated ano ther name for liberty, for the privilege of living and it includes the obligation to let live. One can do what one likes provided one does not infringe on an equal right of o thers to do the same. the measure of one's liberty is equal to the measure of o thers' liberty.
Here is the crux of the question. the dictum of utilitarian philosophers is a golden rule which is easy to formulate but not so to execute. For the line of demarcation between one's own rights and the equal rights of o thers is so undefinable and variable that a title suit is inevitable in each case. In asserting and establishing and even maintaining one's rights there is always the possibilityalmost the certaintyof encroaching upon o thers' rights.
What is required is not therefore an external delimitation of frontiers between unit and unit, but an inner outlook of nature and a poise of character. And this can be cultivated and brought into action by learning to live by the sense of duty. Even then, even the sense of duty, we have to admit, is not enough. For if it leads or is capable of leading into an aberration, we must have something else to check and control it, some o ther higher and more potent principle. Indeed, both the conceptions of Duty and Right belong to the domain of mental ideal, although one is usually more aggressive and militant (Rajasic) and the o ther tends to be more tolerant and considerate (sattwic): nei ther can give an absolute certainty of poise, a clear guarantee of perfect harmony.
Indian wisdom has found this o ther, a fairer terma tertium quid, the mystic factor, sought for by so many philosophers on so many counts. That is the very well- known, the very familiar termDharma. What is Dharma then? How does it accomplish the miracle which to o thers seems to have proved an impossibility? Dharma is self-law, that is to say, the law of the Self; it is the rhythm and movement of our inner or inmost being, the spontaneous working out of our truth-conscious nature.
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 o ther 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.
the conception of Right had to appear in order to bring out the principle of individuality, of personal freedom and fulfilment. For, a true healthy collectivity is the association and organisation of free and self-determinate units. the growth of independent individuality naturally means at first clash and rivalry, and a violently competitive society is the result. It is only at this stage that the conception of duty can fruitfully come in and develop in man and his society the mode of Sattwa, which is that of light and wisdom, of toleration and harmony. then only a society is sought to be moulded on the principle of co-ordination and co-operation.
Still, the conception of duty cannot finally and definitively solve the problem. It cannot arrive at a perfect harmonisation of the conflicting claims of individual units; for, duty, as I have already said, is a child of mental idealism, and although the mind can exercise some kind of control over life-forces, it cannot altoge ther eliminate the seeds of conflict that lie imbedded in the very nature of life. It is for this reason that there is an element of constraint in duty; it is, as the poet says, the "stern daughter of the Voice of God". One has to compel oneself, one has to use force on oneself to carry out one's duty there is a feeling somehow of its being a bitter pill. the cult of duty means rajas controlled and coerced by Sattwa, not the transcendence of rajas. This leads us to the high and supreme conception of Dharma, which is a transcendence of the gunas. Dharma is not an ideal, a standard or a rule that one has to obey: it is the law of self-nature that one inevitably follows, it is easy, spontaneous, delightful. the path of duty is heroic, the path of Dharma is of the gods, godly (cf. Virabhava and Divyabhava of the Tantras).
the principle of Dharma then inculcates that each individual must, in order to act, find out his truth of being, his true soul and inmost consciousness: one must entirely and integrally merge oneself into that, be identified with it in such a manner that all acts and feelings and thoughts, in fact all movements, inner and outerspontaneously and irrepressibly well out of that fount and origin. the individual souls, being made of one truth-nature in its multiple modalities, when they live, move and have their being in its essential law and dynamism, there cannot but be absolute harmony and perfect syn thesis between all the units, even as the sun and moon and stars, as the Veda says, each following its specific orbit according to its specific nature, never collide or haltna me thate na tas thatuh but weave out a faultless pattern of symphony.
the future society of man is envisaged as something of like nature. When the mortal being will have found his immortal soul and divine self, then each one will be able to give full and free expression to his self-nature (swabhava); then indeed the utmost sweep of dynamism in each and all will not cause clash or conflict; on the contrary, each will increase the o ther and there will be a global increment and fulfilmentparasparam bhavayantah. the division and conflict, the stress and strain that belong to the very nature of the inferior level of being and consciousness will then have been transcended. It is only thus that a diviner humanity can be born and replace all the o ther moulds and types that can never lead to anything final and absolutely satisfactory.
***
the Basis of Unity the World War
01.13 - T. S. Eliot: Four Quartets, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Goe the Nicholas Roerich
O ther Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Poets and MysticsT. S. Eliot: Four Quartets
--
In these latest poems of his, Eliot has become outright a poet of the Dark Night of the Soul. the beginnings of the new avatar were already there certainly at the very beginning. the Waste Land is a good preparation and passage into the Night. Only, the negative element in it was stronger the cynicism, the bleakness, the sereness of it all was almost overwhelming. the next stage was " the Hollow Men": it took us right up to the threshold, into the very entrance. It was gloomy and fore-boding enough, grim and seriousno glint or hint of the silver lining yet within reach. Now as we find ourselves into the very heart of the Night, things appear somewhat changed: we look at the past indeed, but can often turn to the future, feel the pressure of the Night yet sense the Light beyond overarching and embracing us. This is how the poet begins:
I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you
Which shall be the darkness of God.1
and continues
--
but what he adds is characteristic of the new outlook
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
Yes, by the force of this secret knowledge he has discovered, this supreme skill in action, as it is termed in the Eastern lore, I that the poet at last comes out into the open, into the light and happiness of the Dawn and the Day:
Whisper of running streams, and winter lightning.
the wild thyme unseen and the wild strawberry,
the laughter in the garden, echoed ecstasy
Not lost, but requiring, pointing to the agony
Of death and birth.
It is the song of redemption, of salvation achieved, of Paradise regained. the full story of the purgatory, of man's calvary is beautifully hymned in these exquisite lines of a haunting poetic beauty married to a real mystic sense:
the dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
the one discharge from sin and error.
the only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre
To be redeemed from fire by fire.2
the Divine Love is a greater fire than the low smouldering fire that our secular unregenerate life is. One has to choose and declare his adhesion. Indeed, the stage of conversion, the crucial turn from the ordinary life to the spiritual life Eliot has characterised in a very striking manner. We usually say, sometimes in an outburst of grief, sometimes in a spirit of sudden disgust and renunciation that the world is dark and dismal and lonesome, the only thing to do here is to be done with it. the true renunciation, that which is deep and abiding, is not, however, so simple a thing, such a short cut. So our poet says, but the world is not dark enough, it is not lonesome enough: the world lives and moves in a superficial half-light, it is nei ther real death nor real life, it is death in life. It is this miserable mediocrity, the shallow uncertainty of consciousness that spells danger and ruin for the soul. Hence the poet exclaims:
. . . . Not here
Not here the darkness, in this twittering world.
Descend lower, descend only
Into the world of perpetual solitude,. . . .
Internal darkness, deprivation
--
Desiccation of the world of sense,
Evacuation of the world of fancy,
Inoperancy of the world of spirit;3
Yes, that is the condition demanded, an entire vacuity in which nothing moves. That is the real Dark Night of the Soul. It is then only that the Grace leans down and descends, then only beams in the sweet Light of lights. Eliot has expressed the experience in these lines of rare beauty and sincerity :
Time and the bell have buried the day,
the black cloud carries the sun away.
Will the sunflower turn to us, will the clematis
Stray down, bend to us; tendril and spray Clutch and cling?
--
Down on us? After the kingfisher's wing
Has answered light to light, and is silent, the light is still
At the still point of the turning world.4
Eliot's is a very Christian soul, but we must remember at the same time that he is nothing if not modern. And this modernism gives all the warp and woof woven upon that inner core. How is it characterised? First of all, an intellectualism that requires a reasoned and rational syn thesis of all experiences. Ano ther poet, a great poet of the soul's Dark Night was, as we all know, Francis Thompson: it was in his case not merely the soul's night, darkness extended even to life, he lived the Dark Night actually and physically. His haunting, weird lines, seize within their grip our brain and mind and very flesh
My days have crackled and gone up in smoke,5
--
Suffered the trampling hoof of every hour
the night's slow-wheel'd car.. . .
But Thompson was not an intellectual, his doubts and despondencies were not of the mental order, he was a boiling, swelling life-surge, a geyser, a volcano. He, too, crossed the Night and saw the light of Day, but in a different way. Well, I he did not march into the day, it was the Day that marched I into him! Yes, the Divine Grace came and seized him from behind with violence. A modern, a modernist consciousness cannot expect that indulgence. God meets him only halfway, he has to work up himself the o ther half. He has laid so many demands and conditions: the knots in his case are not cut asunder but slowly disengaged.
the modern temper is especially partial to harmony: it cannot assert and reject unilaterally and categorically, it wishes to go round an object and view all its sides; it asks for a syn thesis and reconciliation of differences and contraries. Two major chords of life-experience that demand accord are Life and Death, Time and Eternity. Indeed, the problem of Time hangs heavy on the human consciousness. It has touched to the quick philosophers and sages in all ages and climes; it is the great question that confronts the spiritual seeker, the riddle that the Sphinx of life puts to the journeying soul for solution.
A modern Neo-Brahmin, Aldous Huxley, has given a solution of the problem in his now famous Shakespearean apo thegm, "Time must have a stop". That is an old-world solution rediscovered by the modern mind in and through the ravages of Time's storm and stress. It means, salvation lies, after all, beyond the flow of Time, one must free oneself from the vicious and unending circle of mortal and mundane life. As the Rajayogi controls and holds his breath, stills all life-movement and realises a dead-stop of consciousness (Samadhi), even so one must control and stop all secular movements in oneself and attain a timeless stillness and vacancy in which alone the true spiritual light and life can descend and manifest. That is the age-long and ancient solution to which the Neo-Brahmin as well the Neo-Christian adheres.
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 syn thesis and not a mere transcendence: the transcendence is indeed a part of the syn thesis, the o ther part is furnished by an immanence. He does not cut away altoge ther from Time, but reaches its outermost limit, its rim, its summit, where it stops, not altoge ther 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. Nei ther flesh nor fleshless;
Nei ther from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But nei ther arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
--
Nei ther ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
there would be no dance, and there is only the dance.6
He aims at the neutral point between the positive and the negative poles, which is nei ther, yet holding the two toge therat the crossing of Yes and No, the known and the unknown, the local and the eternal. That is what he means when he says:
Here, the intersection of the timeless moment
Is England and nowhere. Never and always.7
First, the movement towards transcendence, that is the journey in the Night which you do throwing away one by one all your possessions and burdens till you make yourself bare and naked, you die but you are reborn a new babe:
Into ano ther intensity
--
Through the dark cold and the empty desolation,
the wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning. 8
there must be a beginning, an affirmation. the o ther side of nature is not merely transcended and excluded, it must be taken up too, given some place, its proper place in the totality, in the higher syn thesis:
So Krishna, as when he admonished Arjuna
On the field of battle.
Not fare well,
--
That is the lesson that our poet has learnt from the Gita and that is the motto he too would prescribe to the seekers.
Now, a modern poet is modern, because he is doubly attracted and attached to things of this world and this mundane life, in spite of all his need and urge to go beyond for the larger truth and the higher reality. Apart from the natural link with which we are born, there is this o ther fascination which the poor miserable things, all the little superficialities, trivialities especially have for the modern mind in view of their possible sense and significance and right of existence. these too have a magic of their own, not merely a black magic:
..... our losses, the torn seine,
the shattered lobsterpot, the broken oar
And the gear of foreign dead men. . . .10
or even these local names and habitations:
Hampstead and Clerkenwell, Campden and Putney,
--
It is true the movement towards transcendence is stronger and apparent in our poet, but the o ther kindred point-of home and time-is not forgotten. So he says:
.History may be servitude,
History may be freedom. See, now they vanish,
the faces and places, with the self which, as it could, loved them,
To become renewed, transfigured, in ano ther pattern.
--
Nothing can be clearer with regard to the ultimate end the poet has in view. Listen once more to the hymn of the higher reconciliation:
the dance along the artery
the circulation of the lymph
Are figured in the drift of stars
Ascend to summer in the tree
We move above the moving tree
In light upon the figured leaf
And hear upon the sodden floor
Below, the boarhound and the boar
Pursue their pattern as before
But reconciled among the stars.13
the Word was made flesh and the Word was made Poetry. To express the supreme Word in life, that is the work of the sage, the Rishi. To express the Word in speech, that is the labour of the Poet. Eliot undertook this double function of the poet and the sage and he found the task difficult. the poet has to utter the unutterable, if he is to clo the in words the mystic experience of the sage in him. That is Eliot's ambition:
.... Words, after speech, reach
Into the silence. Only by the form, the pattern,
Can words or music reach
the stillness, as a Chinese jar still
Moves perpetually in its stillness. 14
--
Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,...15
And a lower and more facile inspiration tempts the poet and he often speaks with a raucous voice, even as the Arch-tempter sought to lure the Divine Word made flesh:
... Shrieking voices
--
Always assail them. the Word in the desert
Is most attacked by voices of temptation,16
Our poet is too self-conscious, he himself feels that he has not the perfect voice. A Homer, even a Milton possesses a unity of tone and a wholeness of perception which are denied to the modern. To the modern, however, the old masters are not subtle enough, broad enough, psychological enough, let us say the word, spiritual enough. And yet the poetic inspiration, more than the religious urge, needs the injunction not to be busy with too many things, but to be centred upon the one thing needful, viz., to create poetically and not to discourse philosophically or preach prophetically. Not that it is impossible for the poet to swallow the philosopher and the prophet, metabolising them into the substance of his bone and marrow, of " the trilling wire in his blood", as Eliot graphically expresses. That perhaps is the consummation towards which poetry is tending. But at present, in Eliot, at least, the strands remain distinct, each with its own temper and rhythm, not fused and moulded into a single streamlined form of beauty. Our poet flies high, very high indeed at times, often or often he flies low, not disdaining the perilous limit of bathos. Perhaps it is all wilful, it is a mannerism which he cherishes. the mannerism may explain his psychology and enshrine his philosophy. But the poet, the magician is to be looked for elsewhere. In the present collection of poems it is the philosophical, exegetical, discursive Eliot who dominates: although the high lights of the subject-matter may be its justification. Still even if we have here doldrums like
That the past has ano ther pattern, and ceases to be a mere sequence
Or even development: the latter a partial fallacy Encouraged by superficial notions of evolution, Which becomes, in the popular mind, a means of disowning the past.17
we have also high flights like the lines I have already quoted:
Time and the bell have buried the day,
the black cloud carries the sun away.. . .
which make one wish to have more of the kind. Perhaps his previous works contained lines more memorable, for example, those justly famous
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
--
these do not appear:
there, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column. . . .18
Here the poet is almost grimly tense, concentrated and has not allowed himself to be dissipated by thinkings and arguments, has confined himself wholly to a living experience. That is because the poet has since then moved up and sought a more rarefied air, a more even and smooth temper. the utter and absolute poetic ring of the Inferno is difficult to maintain in the Paradiso, unless and until the poet transforms himself wholly into the Rishi, like the poet of the Gita or the Upanishads.
"East Coker"
--
the Hollow Men
***
Goe the Nicholas Roerich
01.14 - Nicholas Roerich, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Ex oriente lux. Out of the East the Light, and that light is of the nature and substance of beauty, of creative and dynamic beauty in the life the spirit. This, I suppose, is Roerich's message in a nutshell. the Light of the East is always the light of the ample consciousness that dwells on the heights of our being in God.
the call that stirred a Western soul, made him a wanderer over the world in quest of the Holy Grail and finally lodged him in the Home of the Snows is symbolic of a more than individual destiny. It is representative of the secret history of a whole culture and civilisation that have been ruling humanity for some centuries, its inner want and need and hankering and fulfilment. the West shall come to the East and be reborn. That is the prophecy of occult seers and sages.
I speak of Roerich as a Western soul, but more precisely perhaps he is a soul of the mid-region (as also in ano ther sense we shall see subsequently) intermediary between the East and the West. His external make-up had all the characteristic elements of the Western culture, but his mind and temperament, his inner soul was oriental. And yet it was not the calm luminous staticancientsoul that an Indian or a Chinese sage is; it is a nomad soul, newly awakened, young and fresh and ardent, something primitive, pulsating with the unspoilt green sap of life something in the manner of Whitman. And that makes him all the more representative of the young and ardent West yearning for the light that was never on sea or land.
Is it not strange that one should look to the East for the light? there is a light indeed that dwells in the setting suns, but that is the inferior light, the light that moves level with the earth, pins us down to the normal and ordinary life and consciousness: it" leads into the Night, into Nihil, pralaya. It is the light of the morning sun that man looks up to in his forward march, the sun that rises in the East whom the Vedic Rishi invoked in these magnificent lines:
Lo, the supreme light of all lights is come, a vast and varied consciousness is born in us. . . .
It is not a mere notion or superstition, it is an occult reality that gives sanctity to a particular place or region. the saintly soul has always been also a pilgrim, physically, to holy places, even to one single holy place, if he so chooses. the puritan poet may say tauntingly:
Here pilgrims roam, that strayed so far to seek In Golgotha him dead who lives in heaven
the pilgrim soul of Roerich declares with but equal vehemence and assurance:
All teachers journeyed to the mountains. the higher knowledge, the most inspired songs, the most superb sounds and colours are created in the mountains. On the highest mountains there is the Supreme: the highest mountains stand as witnesses of Great Reality.
Indeed, Roerich considers the Himalayas as the very abode, the tabernacle itself thesanctum sanctorumof the Spirit, the Light Divine. Many of Roerich's paintings have mountain ranges, especially snow-bound mountain ranges, as their theme. there is a strange kinship between this yearning artistic soul, which seems solitary in spite of its ardent humanism, and the silent heights, rising white tier upon tier reflecting prism like the fiery glowing colours, the vast horizons, the wide vistas vanishing beyond.
Roerich is one of the prophets and seers who have ever been acclaiming and preparing the Golden Age, the dream that humanity has been dreaming continuously since its very childhood, that is to say, when there will be peace and harmony on earth, when racial, cultural or ideological egoism will no longer divide man and mana thing that seems today a chimera and a hallucinationwhen there will be one culture, one civilisation, one spiritual life welding all humanity into a single unit of life luminous and beautiful. Roerich believes that such a consummation can arrive only or chiefly through the growth of the sense of beauty, of the aes thetic temperament, of creative labour leading to a wider and higher consciousness. Beauty, Harmony, Light, Knowledge, Culture, Love, Delight are cardinal terms in his vision of the deeper and higher life of the future.
the stress of the inner urge to the heights and depths of spiritual values and realities found special and significant expression in his paintings. It is a difficult problem, a problem which artists and poets are tackling today with all their skill and talent. Man's consciousness is no longer satisfied with the customary and the ordinary actions and reactions of life (or thought), with the old-world and time-worn modes and manners. It is no more turned to the apparent and the obvious, to the surface forms and movements of things. It yearns to look behind and beyond, for the secret mechanism, the hidden agency that really drives things. Poets and artists are the vanguards of the age to come, prophets and pioneers preparing the way for the Lord.
Roerich discovered and elaborated his own technique to reveal that which is secret, express that which is not expressed or expressible. First of all, he is symbolical and allegorical: secondly, the choice of his symbols and allegories is hieratic, that is to say, the subject-matter refers to objects and events connected with saints and legends, shrines and enchanted places, hidden treasures, spirits and angels, etc. etc.; thirdly, the manner or style of execution is what we may term pantomimic, in o ther words, concrete, graphic, dramatic, even melodramatic. He has a special predilection for geometrical patterns the artistic effect of whichbalance, regularity, fixity, soliditywas greatly utilised by the French painter Czanne and poet Mallarm who seem to have influenced Roerich to a considerable degree. But this Nor therner had not the reticence, the suavity, the tonic unity of the classicist, nor the normality and clarity of the Latin temperament. the prophet, the priest in him was the stronger element and made use of the artist as the rites andceremoniesmudras and chakrasof his vocation demanded. Indeed, he stands as the hierophant of a new cultural religion and his paintings and utterances are, as it were, gestures that accompany a holy ceremonial.
A Russian artist (Monsieur Benois) has stressed upon the primitivealmost aboriginalelement in Roerich and was not happy over it. Well, as has been pointed out by o ther prophets and thinkers, man today happens to be so sophisticated, artificial, material, cerebral that a [all-back seems to be necessary for him to take a new leap forward on to a higher ground. the pure aes thete is a closed system, with a consciousness immured in an ivory tower; but man is something more. A curious paradox. Man can reach the highest, realise the integral truth when he takes his leap, not from the relatively higher levels of his consciousness his intellectual and aes thetic and even moral status but when he can do so from his lower levels, when the physico-vital element in him serves as the springing-board. the decent and the beautiful the classic grace and aristocracyform one aspect of man, the aspect of "light"; but the aspect of energy and power lies precisely in him where the aboriginal and the barbarian find also a lodging. Man as a mental being is naturally sattwic, but prone to passivity and weakness; his physico-vital reactions, on the o ther hand, are obscure and crude, simple and vehement, but they have life and energy and creative power, they are there to be trained and transfigured, made effective instruments of a higher illumination.
All elemental personalities have something of the unconventional and irrational in them. And Roerich is one such in his own way. the truths and realities that he envisages and seeks to realise on earth are elemental and fundamental, although apparently simple and commonplace.
***
0.11 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To a sadhak of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.
How can my effort to serve the Divine become more
perfect?
--
In 1958 the Mo ther said, "If things go on advancing at
this speed, it seems more than possible, almost evident,
--
announcement: the supramental consciousness will enter a phase of realising power in 1967."1
Have things advanced at the required speed?
Yes.
--
an aspiration to remember the activities of the night
when you wake up.
--
movement of the head and keep still for a few minutes, with a concentration to remember what happened
during your sleep.
3) Repeat these exercises every day until you begin
to perceive a result.
--
In the human being, is the psychic being the entire soul
or do both the soul (in its essence as a divine spark in all
creatures) and the psychic being exist toge ther?
the soul is the eternal essence at the centre of the psychic being.
the soul is in fact like a divine spark which puts on many states
of being of increasing density, down to the most material; it is
inside the body, within the solar plexus, so to say.2 these states
of being take form and develop, progress, become individualised
and perfected in the course of many earthly lives and form the
psychic being. When the psychic being is fully formed, it is aware
of the consciousness of the soul and manifests it perfectly.
1 February 1967
--
habit, in spite of the fact that I want to get rid of these
reactions. What should I do?
--
with these people; but until you know how to do this, you
By "solar plexus", the Mo ther is referring to the heart (not the navel) region; this is
clear from statements she has made elsewhere; see, for example, in Series Thirteen of
this volume, the last paragraph of her reply of 20 September 1969.
Series Eleven - To a Sadhak
must persistently eliminate from your consciousness the effect
produced by their influence.
18 February 1967
--
gives way to the fancies of your outer nature - I am
speaking here of the truth of your being. Moreover, he
sometimes moulds himself according to your outer aspirations, and if you live like the devotees who alternate
between periods of estrangement and embrace, of ecstasy
and despair, the Divine too will be far ther from you or
nearer, depending on what you believe. the attitude is
therefore very important, even the outer attitude."
What is the meaning of "outer aspiration" and
"outer attitude"? What is the best outer attitude?
Unless one practises yoga in the physical being (outer being), it
remains ignorant - even its aspiration is ignorant and so is its
goodwill; all its movements are ignorant and so they distort and
disfigure the Divine Presence.
That is why the yoga of the body-cells is indispensable.
25 February 1967
--
This is how I understand the Purusha:
the Lord is the Supreme Purusha, the Purushottama.
the Atman is the universal Purusha.
the Jivatman is the individual Purusha, and the
physical Purusha, the vital Purusha, the mental Purusha
and the secret Purusha in the heart are projections of it.
the soul is the Purusha that enters into the evolution.
Is my understanding correct?
--
At the centre of each cell lies the Divine Consciousness. By
aspiration and repeated self-giving, the cells must be made transparent.
18 March 1967
"To be aware of the consciousness of the soul" - is this
the same thing as uniting with the Divine?
To become aware of the consciousness of the soul is the surest
and easiest way of uniting with the Divine.
25 March 1967
--
even the little I am able to receive. Untroubled, I pray:
How can the situation be improved?
This difficulty usually comes from a lack of unification of the
being. Certain parts are recalcitrant and refuse to receive. they
have to be educated little by little, just as one educates a child
- and little by little too the situation will improve.
7 April 1967
Looking at the present state of the world, we can say
that the worst has already happened. We await the day
when the Lord will take the earth into His arms and " the
earth will be transformed". Is that day drawing near?
--
is not on the human scale.
One moment of the Lord probably means many years for
us!
--
Although there is a certain charm and poetry in the
fact that there is no formal date for the creation of
our Ashram, could it be said from the true occult point
of view that the Ashram was born with the Mo ther's
arrival?
--
for the moment turn thy gaze towards the earth."4
Sweet Mo ther, what does "thou wilt be my head"
--
the head is the original conceiving Consciousness.
22 April 1967
--
the Grace is there to solve it.
1 May 1967
--
offers itself to You the joy I feel is greater still. But in
spite of this experience my whole being is not offered to
--
around the psychic being, if we are conscious of it or at least
around the central aspiration. If this unification is not done, we
carry this division within us.
--
impulse, each reaction, as it manifests, must be presented in the
consciousness to the central being or its aspiration. What is in
accord is accepted; what is not in accord is refused, rejected or
--
once it is done, the unification is achieved and the path becomes
easy and swift.
--
How can I get rid of the habit of feeling that I own the
material things that belong to me?
If you belong entirely and totally to the Divine, then all that belongs to you, all that forms part of your material being, belongs
to the Divine.
16 May 1967
Sometimes I think that the Agni You have kindled in me
is going to burn up everything that separates me from
--
or resists, throw it into the flame of Agni, which is the fire of
aspiration.
--
Is it possible to make my hands conscious so that they
do nothing imperfect, incorrect or wrong? What is the
way to do it, Divine Mo ther?
It is quite possible, by concentrating on the hands when they are
doing something.
--
them or to prevent me from attending to them.
This "something" is the insincerity of an ignorant self-esteem
which has not yet understood that it is nobler and loftier to
recognise one's faults in order to correct them, than to conceal
them in the hope that they will not be noticed.
As for all psychological problems, here too sincerity, a total
and uncompromising sincerity, is the true remedy.
1 June 1967
Please tell me how I can get rid of the past, which clings
so heavily.
To get rid of the past is something so difficult that it seems almost
impossible.
But if you give yourself entirely and without reserve to the
future, and if this giving is constantly renewed, the past will fall
away by itself and no longer encumber you.
--
first, "to live in thee" or "to live for thee". Before the
mind could set to work to find the answer, the reply that
Series Eleven - To a Sadhak
--
Yes, the two states are complementary, but that does not necessarily mean that they are simultaneous. Most often, "to live for
thee" comes first and if the being is unified and sincere, "to live
in thee" soon follows.
But of course, for the first to be perfect, the second must be
present.
--
This is the exact image of the state of the world which suffers
because it is not receptive, when it could live in beatitude if it
would open to the Divine Love.
But there is a remedy:
Sincere and constant aspiration.
--
I have begun to see that both the personal effort of the
sadhak and its result depend on the Divine Grace.
About this, one could say humorously that we are all divine, but
--
To establish the reign of the Divine on earth, who is
slower - man or the Divine Himself?
To man the Divine seems slow.
In the eyes of the Divine man is slow indeed!
But perhaps in these two cases, the slowness is not the same.
20 July 1967
--
First the dead man must have a daughter in order to be reborn
in her child.
It is not an absolute rule - far from it - but the case is quite
frequent in India where the belief in frequent reincarnations is
still quite common.
--
I asked myself, "How can one express the inexpressible?" the reply came, "By living it, by becoming it, by
being it." What does the Mo ther say?
That is correct.
--
the body is able to bear the pressure of time because it knows
and feels quite concretely that it does not itself live and act, but
that only the Supreme Lord exists and that He alone lives and
acts.
This, moreover, is the secret of all endurance.
12 August 1967
--
From what I understand, You said that the psychic beings
of the disciples of the Ashram all belong to the same family. In spite of this, there is often a lack of collaboration
among us. Why is that, Mo ther?
If I did say this (probably not quite in these words), it could only
refer to a universal family open to all differences and even all
--
But in any case, mutual misunderstanding and lack of collaboration can only come from the outer physical and vital being
which is formed in this life and is not yet under the rule and
influence of the psychic. As soon as one is united with one's
psychic, all the conflicts due to clashing bad wills can no longer
exist.
--
How can one use shadow to realise the Light?
Painters use shadow to bring out the light.
Shadow is the symbol of the inconscient. This is where men
rest at night from the effort of the day to become conscious.
When consciousness becomes all-powerful, shadow will no
--
It is said that there are certain methods in the Tantras
to open the chakras from below, whereas in the integral
yoga the chakras open from above by the descent of the
Mo ther's force.
What is the difference between the results of the
opening of the chakras in these two systems?
In Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga, there are no such rigid rules
and distinctions. Each one follows his own path and has his
--
and written that his yoga begins where the o thers leave off.
This is to say that yoga ordinarily consists in awakening the
physical consciousness and making it rise gradually towards the
Divine. Whereas Sri Aurobindo has said that to do his yoga,
one must already have found the Divine and united with Him -
then the consciousness descends through all the states of being
down to the most material, bringing the Divine Force with it so
that the Force can transform the whole being and finally divinise
the physical body.
--
In the message for the radio You substituted the word
"union" for the word "unity".5 May I know, Sweet
Mo ther, why this change was made?
Because most people, when they hear the word "unity", understand uniformity and nothing can be fur ther from the truth.
25 September 1967
"O India, land of light and spiritual knowledge! Wake up to your true mission in the
world, show the way to union and harmony." - Message for the inauguration of All
India Radio, Pondicherry, 23 September 1967. Words of the Mo ther - I, CWM, Vol. 13,
p. 367.
--
Spontaneity in feelings and action comes from a permanent contact with the psychic, which brings order into the thoughts and
automatically controls the vital impulses.
30 September 1967
You have taught me the importance of awakening the
divine consciousness in the body, and now I pray to You
to awaken my body's aspiration towards You.
the cells of the body thirst for the Divine Consciousness and
when they are brought into contact with It their aspiration
becomes very intense.
--
I have heard about the aspiration to be simply what You
want.
That is the best state for advancing swiftly on the path.
26 October 1967
--
and virtuous, are not paying what they owe according
to their accounts. One of them refuses to speak to me
about it and the o ther says, "Have trust in God, you will
not lose your money."
If the Mo ther could make these two men honest
(even temporarily, long enough for them to settle this
affair)...
It is said that Christ healed the sick and even raised the dead.
One day an idiot was brought to him to be cured. But Christ
--
of its laziness. That even the body has a will of its own
is a new experience for me.
When the body is converted, it knows how to collaborate.
29 November 1967
Which came first in the manifestation, the god or the
Asura?
the oldest tradition says that the first four emanations of
the Mahashakti - Consciousness, Love, Truth and Life - cut
themselves off (separated themselves) from their Supreme Origin
and became Unconsciousness, Suffering, Falsehood and Death.
then a second emanation was made to repair the damage.
they are the Gods.
Naturally, this is a way of speaking which corresponds to a
--
isn't that the aspiration of every sincere sadhak?
Total means vertically in all the states of being, from the
most material to the most subtle.
Integral means horizontally in all the different and often
contradictory parts which make up the outer being (physical,
vital and mental).
--
the fragrance of the flowers given by the Mo ther is often
something extraordinary.
Flowers are very receptive and they are happy when they are
loved.
--
I have forgotten the Divine for so long in this life and in
former lives. But a drop of Your Grace can enable me to
make up for all the lost time.
Whatever the past may have been, it is not time that is needed
to establish contact with the Divine, but sincerity of aspiration.
19 December 1967
Can one's aspiration for the Divine have the required
intensity and sincerity without the tears and anguish that
are mentioned in nearly all the old legends of the saints?
Tears and anguish indicate the presence of a weak and paltry
nature which is still unable to receive the Divine in all his power
and glory. Not only are they unnecessary, they are useless and
an obstacle to realisation.
--
see the Truth that words cannot convey. What is it that
accompanies Your words?
--
Day and night hundreds of calls are coming - but the Consciousness is always alert and it answers.
One is limited only materially by time and space.
--
How is it that ordinarily the richer one is (materially),
the more dishonest one is?
It is because material wealth is controlled by the adverse forces
- and because they have not yet been converted to the Divine
Influence, though the work has begun.
That victory will form part of the triumph of Truth.
Wealth should not be a personal property and should be at
the disposal of the Divine for the welfare of all.
4 January 1968
--
a change of psychological attitude on the part of those
who own money than any change in the law of property.
Undoubtedly.
Only the psychological change can be a solution.
6 January 1968
the disciples of the Ashram have a sure and easy way to
put their money at the disposal of the Divine: they offer
it to the Mo ther.
But how can o thers do it? Can it be said that each
one should get rid of the sense of property and spend his
money according to the Divine command within, from
time to time?
I am sure that if someone is advanced enough on the path to
receive the knowledge that money is an impersonal power and
should be used for the progress of the earth, this person will
be developed enough inwardly to receive the knowledge of how
best to make use of the money.
8 January 1968
--
and it really smiled. the same thing happened again
yesterday and today.
--
Is constant remembrance of the Divine the beginning of
union?
--
When the remembrance is constant, one often feels a Presence
that imposes itself on the remembrance.
29 January 1968
While speaking about the "Transcendent Mo ther" (and
the upper petal of the Transformation flower), You said,
" the Transcendent is both one and two (or dual) at the
same time." What does this mean?
Beyond the creation lies the perfect Oneness, but potentially it
contains duality since the Mahashakti will manifest for the needs
of the creation.
5 February 1968
Last Monday You spoke to me about the Transcendent
which is both one and two at the same time. Naturally, I
shall wait for the true consciousness to come in order to
have this knowledge. But yesterday I tried to note down
--
beyond and above, everything exists at the same time.
the One is both one and two; the manifested and the
unmanifested, everything exists at the same time. When
Series Eleven - To a Sadhak
It is objectified in the creation, in the manifestation, there
is a succession: one, two... But this is only a way of
speaking. there is no succession, no beginning. Beyond,
in the perfect Oneness, everything exists at the same
time, simultaneously. This cannot be understood, it must
be experienced; one can have the experience of it."
Please correct these lines.
they are correct.
--
What is the difference between an emanation and a
formation?
these words do not apply to the physical world as it is at present.
the explanation is only an approximation. Still, one can
say that the emanation is made up of the very substance of
the emanator, whereas the formation is made up of a substance
external to the formator.
To make a comparison, one could say that the emanation is
like a child made from the substance of its mo ther and that the
formation is like a living statue made out of a material external
to the sculptor.
But naturally this is only a very approximate explanation.
--
It is true that the path is very long, but for one who follows it
with sincerity, it is really very interesting, and at every step one
--
It seems to me that the very land of Auroville aspires. Is
it true, Sweet Mo ther?
Yes, the land itself has a consciousness, even though this consciousness is not intellectualised and cannot express itself.
21 March 1968
Today You have shown me the basic incompatibility between human law and the Truth. But this is a problem
that confronts me very often.
--
closed to the Truth. But their turn for conversion will also come,
perhaps sooner than we think.
--
Waste of any kind is the result of unconsciousness.
Consciousness in its purity is perfect and infallible.
--
pure Being. Does this apply only to the Yogi or to
everyone?
In theory, it applies to everyone. But the vast majority of human beings fall into unconsciousness, and if there is a contact
with pure Being it is quite unconscious. Very few persons are
conscious of this relation. It is usually the result of Yoga.
8 April 1968
--
During sleep the inner beings become consciously active. When
one wakes up, it is the waking being that is not conscious of the
activities of the night.
16 April 1968
In the quotation chosen for tomorrow6 Sri Aurobindo
speaks of " the Truth that seeks to descend upon us" and
"is already there within us". Please explain this paradox
which, as I can feel, is only apparent.
--
It is the same phenomenon as for the Divine who is at the
centre of our being, etc. and at the same time is beyond the creation, the Divine towards whom the whole creation is moving,
but whom it could never reach if it did not carry him in itself.
--
me for the last three weeks, I felt that all these things
have actually been there for a long time and that now
Your Grace has brought them to my notice so that the
next step may be taken.
Mo ther, the night has already been very long for me.
But it matters little, so long as I can continue to hold
--
"In the spiritual order of things, the higher we project our view and our aspiration,
the greater the Truth that seeks to descend upon us, because it is already there within us
and calls for its release from the covering that conceals it in manifested Nature."
Sri Aurobindo
--
to eliminate. One should concentrate all one's effort on building up and streng thening the true consciousness, which will
automatically do the work of unifying the being.
In this way, everything that has to be transformed will be
--
How can one hasten the day when the whole being will
be able to say, "I am Yours - Yours alone"?
--
(1) Never forget the goal that one wants to attain.
(2) Never allow any part of the being or any of its movements to contradict one's aspiration.
This also makes it necessary to become conscious of one's
nights, because the activities of the night often contradict the
aspiration of the day and undo its work.
Vigilance, sincerity, continuity of effort, and the Grace will
do the rest.
20 May 1968
--
on different colours in the light of the psychic flame.
the very notion of good and bad is completely changed.
One can say very simply that all that leads to the Divine is
good, and all that leads away from the Divine is bad.
Many virtues lead away from the Divine by making men
satisfied with what they are.
22 May 1968
--
"Yes, there are happy ways near to God's sun;
But few are they who tread the sunlit path;
Only the pure in soul can walk in light."7
What a joy it would be to possess the required purity!
When one is living among men with all their miseries, it is only
the Grace that can bestow this state - even in those who by
Tapasya have abolished their ego.
It is beyond all personal effort.
--
What is the most effective way to overcome the ego?
the simplest and most effective way is to offer it to the Divine;
the more sincere and radical this offering is, the more quickly
the result will come.
--
To remain turned upwards and to live in the true consciousness - the two seem complementary to each o ther.
Are they not two ways of saying the same thing? - certainly
two ways of doing the same thing.
3 June 1968
Who should be put on guard to give the alert: "Be
careful! Look upwards"?
It is what is usually called conscience, but in fact it is the psychic
being. And one can hear it only if one is very attentive, because
--
What is the origin of man's love for his own ignorance?
It is inconscience.
Inconscience is the negation of all effort. Ignorance (that
is, the acknowledgement that there is something to be known
which we do not know) is the first effect of the divine influence
on the inconscient.
15 June 1968
--
Can one say that such determination is demanded of the
sadhak who aspires for transformation?
This is the great mystery of creation: immutable and yet eternally
renewed.
--
"Not only is there hope for godheads pure;
the violent and darkened deities
Leaped down from the one breast in rage to find
What the white gods had missed: they too are safe;
Savitri, Book X, Canto 1.
--
A Mo ther's eyes are on them and her arms
Stretched out in love desire her rebel sons."9
What had the white gods missed?
the conversion of the Asuras.
24 June 1968
Isn't the power of the Asuras as boundless as the power
of the gods?
the vibrations of evil are in truth less powerful than the vibrations of good.
26 June 1968
Can one say that total sincerity and the abolition of the
ego are closely interdependent?
Only the Supreme Lord is perfectly sincere.
And when the ego is abolished, only the Supreme Lord
exists.
--
But there comes a time when the ascent becomes a perfect
repose.
--
Sincerity is compared to an atmosphere or a sheet of glass. If the
one or the o ther is completely transparent, it lets light through
without distorting it.
--
through without distorting them.
8 July 1968
Can an individual achieve transformation even if the
universe continues to be such as it is?
In the evolution, the individual is far ahead of the earth, but
as long as he lives on earth there is a certain interdependence.
But the condition of the earth is sure to become such that a
supramental being will soon be able to live on it.
--
the Buddha said that Nirvana results in the cessation
of rebirth. But isn't the Divine always free to send back
into the manifestation the spark that extinguishes itself
in Him?
--
body, the Buddha himself has returned to work in the earthatmosphere.
26 July 1968
--
If the universe is one, shouldn't the liberation of one single person on earth have the power to liberate everyone?
Oneness means identity in origin; but in the manifestation each
entity follows its own path of conscious return to the Oneness.
28 September 1968
In 1953 Mo ther said: "Whatever the way one follows,
whe ther it be the religious way, the philosophical way,
the yogic way, the mystic way, no one has realised transformation."10
Can one hope that the sadhaks have now made good
progress towards this goal?
Now the conditions are such that every sincere effort must
necessarily tend towards this goal.
--
How can one collaborate in the transformation?
Things are now arranged in such a way that as soon as one
collaborates for the Divine Dawn in any form, one necessarily
collaborates in the transformation.
7 October 1968
the Divine is the goal, the path and the one who treads
the path. But isn't a person who is not advancing towards
the Divine also the Divine?
All are the Divine, but very few are those who know it and fewer
still are those who want to realise it consciously. This explains
--
the long duration and difficulty of the creation if its goal is that
all and everything should once more become consciously divine.
--
One would like to have the fundamental realisation that
the Divine is all and everything.
For that one must identify oneself with the Supreme Divine.
Once one is identified, when one turns towards the creation,
one sees and knows that the Divine alone exists both in the
Essence and in the manifestation.
16 October 1968
Is immunity to the attack of adverse forces possible
without transformation?
--
One has to cut off all connection with the manifested world
in order to be immune.
But in any case, transformation gives the power of victory.
18 October 1968
Is the Divine Love equal for all even in the manifestation?
Yes, equal and immutable.
But the capacity to perceive and receive it and the habit of
distorting it differ with each one.
--
" the ideal Sadhaka should be able to say in the Biblical
phrase: 'My zeal for the Lord has eaten me up.' "11
Does this mean an intense, constant and integral
--
Yes, it means that the entire being is absorbed in its consecration.
24 October 1968
Does the subconscient go on recording during sleep?
For most people, in their sleep, it is precisely what has been
recorded in the subconscient during the day or previously which
becomes active again and constitutes their dreams.
26 October 1968
--
It does not go away, but enters the subconscient and continues
to act.
To remain conscious of it, one must reduce the range of the
subconscient in oneself and thus increase the consciousness.
3 November 1968
Sri Aurobindo, the Syn thesis of Yoga, SABCL, Vol. 20, p. 52.
Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Book I, Canto 3.
What should one do to reduce the range of the subconscient?
To grow in consciousness is the very aim of life on earth. It is
through the experience of successive lives that the range of the
subconscient is gradually reduced.
By yoga and the effort to find the Divine in oneself and in
life, one hastens the work considerably and it can be done in a
few years.
--
Replaced the separated sense and heart
And drew all Nature into its embrace."13
--
"A greater force than the earthly held his limbs,...
Unwound the triple cord of mind and freed
the heavenly wideness of a Godhead's gaze."14
--
the cords symbolise the limitations of the mind; and there are
three of them because there is a physical mind, a vital mind and
a mental mind.
--
Yes, there comes a time when nothing, absolutely nothing is
outside the yoga and the Divine's Presence is felt and found in
all things and all circumstances.
--
the light began of the Trinity supreme."16
Is the "Trinity supreme" Sachchidananda?
Yes.
--
Through Krishna's Grace, Arjuna realised the cosmic
Divine and Virat in the twinkling of an eye. What a
good Guru and what a good disciple!
--
these "instantaneous" conversions are most often the result
of many lives of preparation.
--
"Our body's cells must hold the Immortal's flame."17
Is this the secret of the luminous body?
It is a poetic way of expressing the transformation which is going
to take place and which is more complicated than that.
--
It seems to me, Mo ther, that when man does not accept the Divine, it is more out of ignorance than out of
wickedness. Isn't it so?
--
It is only the Asuras and a few great hostile beings who
refuse and oppose the Divine even though they know who He is.
21 November 1968
It seems to me, Mo ther, that the flame that calls and the
flame that responds are one and the same.
Essentially they are the same; but the plenitude of the response
far exceeds the intensity of the call. the response always exceeds
our receptivity by far.
--
with constant union with the Divine?
If we call "perfect receptivity" the receptivity that receives only
the Divine Influence and no o ther, it is certain - and at the same
time it is perfect purity.
--
But still, Mo ther, doesn't the soul chosen by the
Divine go through hell in a different way than o thers?
--
the quotation means that in order to reach the divine regions
one must, while on earth, pass through the vital, which in some
of its parts is a veritable hell. But those who have surrendered
to the Divine and been adopted by Him are surrounded by the
divine protection and for them the passage is not difficult.
29 November 1968
--
Because it is part of the play?
It is the human mind that has the conception of success and
failure. It is the human mind that wants one thing and does not
want ano ther. In the divine plan each thing has its place and its
importance. So it is not success that matters. What matters is to
be a docile and if possible a conscious instrument of the Divine
Will.
To be and to do what the Divine wants, this is the truly
important thing.
--
" the one original transcendent Shakti, the Mo ther
stands above all the worlds and bears in her eternal
consciousness the Supreme Divine."20
Similarly, can one say that the Supreme Divine carries the Mo ther in his eternal consciousness?
Beyond all question.
--
Sri Aurobindo, the Mo ther, SABCL, Vol. 25, p. 20.
Cannot the ego consent to its own abolition?
the ego was created for the work of individualisation; when the
work is achieved, it is not unusual for the ego to accept its own
dissolution .
--
All pleasure is a perversion, by egoistic limitation, of the Ananda
which is the purpose of the universal manifestation.
11 December 1968
--
When I try to take this attitude, the food tastes better
and the atmosphere becomes quieter.
the Presence is always there whatever we do, and it is because
of ignorance, negligence or absent-mindedness that we do not
--
In order to be conscious of the constant Presence, is
memory a good aid?
Memory is a mental faculty and helps the mental consciousness.
But feeling and sensation must also participate.
--
Sri Aurobindo, the Syn thesis of Yoga, SABCL, Vol. 20, p. 103.
Series Eleven - To a Sadhak
When the Presence becomes concrete, does this indicate
the participation of feeling and sensation?
To have the perception of the Presence, the participation of feeling is indispensable, and when sensation collaborates, then the
perception becomes concrete and tangible.
--
Can man delay or hasten the coming of this hour?
Nei ther the one nor the o ther in their apparent contradiction
created by the separative consciousness, but something else that
our words cannot express.
In the present state of human consciousness, it is good for it
to think that aspiration and human effort can hasten the advent
of the divine transformation, because effort and aspiration are
needed for the transformation to take place.
21 December 1968
--
In its essential truth, but one usually keeps the perception of the
illusory appearance at the same time.
23 December 1968
--
It seems to me that to know things in detail, the ordinary
instrumentation is necessary for the yogi too, but that the
yogi puts this knowledge to the test of the essential truth.
Yes, one can put it that way. But above all, it is the attitude
towards the outward appearance that changes completely.
25 December 1968
In fact, Mo ther, what is the yogi's attitude towards the
outward appearance?
--
the usefulness of knowing the true purpose of life instead
of living in ignorance and falsehood.
--
Is the perception of the illusory appearance automatic
for the yogi?
That probably depends on the yogi and his condition.
But when one is united with the Supreme Consciousness and
when the body is undergoing transformation, the body keeps its
automatic perception of the outer world; but this perception is
more complete than the ordinary one, as if it revealed something
of its content.
--
therefore, Mo ther, the transformation of the body is
necessary even to live in the Integral Knowledge!
Certainly.
--
In Sri Aurobindo's yoga, the transformation of the body is
indispensable so far as it can be done. Because the aim of this
yoga is not an escape from the physical consciousness but a
divinisation of that consciousness.
0.12 - Letters to a Student, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To a student in the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education who began writing to the Mo ther at the age of sixteen.
Sweet Mo ther,
I used to have the habit of reading Savitri or one of
Your books before going to bed at night. But now I have
lost the habit and I do not even go to the Samadhi very
regularly. I do not understand the true value of these
things. Should one do them regularly or only when one
feels like doing them? Why should one do these things
and how should one do them?
One reads Savitri to develop one's intelligence and to understand
--
One concentrates at the Samadhi to grow in devotion and
to put oneself in contact with Sri Aurobindo in order to receive
--
If these things have any value for you, you must do them
regularly, because it is the laziness of unconsciousness that keeps
you from doing them.
You are born for a spiritual and conscious life - but perhaps
you are still too young to have the will to realise it.
Blessings.
--
think there is something in me that refuses to obey me.
It is the same for everybody as long as one has not consciously
unified the whole of one's being around the psychic centre.
This unification is indispensable if one wants to be the
master of one's being and of all its actions.
It is a long and meticulous work that requires much perseverance, but the result is worth the trouble, for it brings not
only mastery but also the possibility of the transformation and
illumination of the consciousness.
Do you want to do it?
--
never forgetting that it is for the Divine?
To achieve that, one must have an obstinate will and a great
patience. But once one has taken the resolution to do it, the
divine help will be there to support and to help. This help is felt
inwardly in the heart.
Blessings.
--
I would like to know the true meaning of birthdays,
for it is an important day here.
--
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.
--
with the psychic being. Why do You consider it difficult?
How should I begin?
I said "not easy" because the contact is not spontaneous - it
is voluntary. the psychic being always has an influence on the
thoughts and actions, but one is rarely conscious of it. To become
conscious of the psychic being, one must want to do so, make
one's mind as silent as possible, and enter deep into the heart
of one's being, beyond sensations and thoughts. One must form
the habit of silent concentration and descent into the depths of
one's being.
the discovery of the psychic being is a definite and very
concrete fact, as all who have had the experience know.
Blessings.
--
is much slower than the vital desire for progress and the mental
will for progress. And if the vital and the mind are left in charge
of action, they simply harass the body, destroy its balance and
upset its health.
therefore, one must be patient and follow the rhythm of
one's body, which is more reasonable and knows what it can
--
Those who have had the memory of past lives have declared the
reality of rebirth.
there have been - and there still are - beings whose inner
consciousness is sufficiently developed for them to know for
certain that this consciousness has manifested in bodies o ther
than their present one and that it will survive the disappearance
of this body.
It is not a theory to be discussed - it is an indisputable
experience for one who has had it.
--
When we are in the midst of Nature, what should
we think about? Does being in contact with Nature help
--
But if one deeply feels the beauty of Nature and communes
with her, that can help in widening the consciousness.
Blessings.
--
Love of Nature is usually the sign of a pure and healthy being uncorrupted by modern civilisation. It is in the silence of a
peaceful mind that one can best commune with Nature.
--
In ei ther case the only truly effective remedy is conscious
union with the Divine. Indeed, as soon as one becomes conscious
of the Divine and is united with Him, one learns to love with
the true love: the love that loves for the joy of loving and has no
need to be loved in return; one also learns to draw Force from
--
using this Force in the service of the Divine one receives from
Him all that one has spent and much more.
All the remedies suggested by the mind, even the most
enlightened mind, are only palliatives and not a true cure.
--
At times I talk in my sleep. It is a sign that the mind
lacks control, isn't it? So what should I do to keep it
--
Generally when the body is asleep at night, the mind goes out
because it is difficult for it to remain quiet for a long time; and
--
When the body is asleep, is it better for the mind to
go out of the body? Where does the mind go?
the possibilities are different for each person: there are as many
cases as there are persons. But each one can learn which conditions are best for his rest.
You can become conscious of your nights and your sleep
--
development and discipline of the consciousness.
Blessings.
--
becoming conscious of the Divine Presence in oneself the
only thing or does becoming conscious of one's movements, of one's speech, etc. also count?
--
You may be sure that becoming conscious of the Divine Presence
in oneself considerably changes one's whole way of being and
--
etc., or is there something good in it too?
Energy, strength, enthusiasm, artistic taste, boldness, forcefulness are there too, if we know how to use them in the true way.
A vital converted and consecrated to the Divine Will becomes a bold and forceful instrument that can overcome all
obstacles. But it first has to be disciplined, and this it consents
to only when the Divine is its master.
Blessings.
--
Passing from the general ignorant human consciousness to the
yogic consciousness founded on the knowledge of the Divine
Presence.
--
When the sun sets, a kind of peace descends on earth and this
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
forces of Nature, and that is not very wise.
--
he who has become conscious of the Divine and become His
faithful instrument can avoid error, if he is careful to act only at
--
What are knowledge and intelligence? Do they play
important roles in our life?
Knowledge and intelligence are precisely the higher mental qualities in man, those that differentiate him from the animal.
Series Twelve - To a Student
--
In the new race, will our body change form?
Between the body of the supramental being and the body of
man, there will surely be a difference comparable to that which
exists between man and the most advanced ape; but what this
difference will be we can hardly know until the new species
appears on earth.
--
What is the difference between sports and physical
education?
Sports are all the games, competitions, tournaments, etc. that
are based on competition and lead to placings and prizes.
Physical education means principally all the various exercises for the development and maintenance of the body.
Naturally, here we have combined the two. But this is mainly
because human beings, especially in their childhood, still need a
certain excitement in order to make effort.
--
What should our attitude be towards the captains
and teachers here?
An obedient, willing and affectionate attitude. they are your
elder bro thers and sisters who take a lot of trouble to help you.
--
Why has the Creator made this world and human
beings? Does He expect something of us?
This world is Himself. He wants everything - ourselves and the
world and the whole universe - to become conscious once more
of being Him.
0.13 - Letters to a Student, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To a student in the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education who began writing to the Mo ther at the age of sixteen.
Sweet Mo ther,
--
In a well-organized society, there should not be any beggars.
But as long as there are, do as you feel.
there are good reasons both for doing it and for not doing
--
there is no one for whom it is impossible to realise the Divine.
Only, for some it will take many, many lives, whereas there are
o thers who will do it in this very lifetime. It is a question of will.
--
But I must say that at the present moment conditions are
particularly favourable.
--
What does it mean, really, "to realise the Divine"?
It means to become conscious of the Divine Presence in oneself or on the spiritual heights, and, once one is conscious of
His Presence, to surrender to Him completely so that one no
--
consciousness with His. That is "to realise the Divine".
Blessings.
--
what happens? Does the consciousness divide itself or
are o ther people's dreams only their own imagination?
Most often, it is the vital consciousness that goes out of the body
and has the form, the appearance of the person's body. If one
person dreams of ano ther, it means that both have met at night,
most often in the vital region, but it can also happen elsewhere,
in the subtle physical or the mental. there are any number of
different possibilities in dreams.
--
Why is the night darker just before dawn - from
the scientific as well as the spiritual point of view?
Because the darkness tries to prevent the light from coming.
Blessings.
--
Why are the hours before midnight better for sleep
than the hours after it?
Series Thirteen - To a Student
Because, symbolically, during the hours before midnight the sun
is setting, while from the first hour after midnight it begins to
rise.
--
there is only one love, the Divine Love, eternal, universal, equal
for everyone and everything.
--
"love": all the desires, attractions, vital exchanges, sexual relations, attachments, even friendships, and many o ther things
besides.
But all that is not even the shadow of love nor even its
deformation.
--
What is the difference between desire and aspiration,
and between selfishness and self-realisation?
--
one cannot even ask the question anymore; for the vibration
of aspiration, luminous and calm, has nothing to do with the
vibration of desire, which is passionate, dark and often violent.
--
as they are necessary or important to oneself. In French, selfrealisation (réalisation du Soi) means discovering the divine
centre in one's being. In English, self-fulfilment is generally taken
in the sense "to be successful". Sri Aurobindo in his writings
uses the word "self-realisation" to mean realisation of the Self,
that is to say, becoming conscious of the Divine in oneself and
identifying with Him.
--
the first step is to find, deep within oneself, behind the desires
and impulses, a luminous consciousness which is always present
and manifests the physical being.
Ordinarily, one becomes aware of the presence of this consciousness only when one has to face some danger or an unexpected event or a great sorrow.
One has, then, to come into conscious contact with that and
learn to do so at will. the rest will follow.
Generally it is in the heart, behind the solar plexus, that one
finds this luminous presence.
--
What will be the result of changing the vital into
something good; in o ther words, what will be the
change?
the vital is the receptacle of all the bad impulses, all wickedness,
cowardice, weakness and avarice.
When the vital is converted, the impulses are good instead
of being bad; wickedness is replaced by kindness, avarice by
--
the seat of power in action is in the purified vital.
Blessings.
--
I have never discussed with my friends the question
of knowing why we are here on earth, but I have thought
about it and the only answer I could get is that at least
we are here in the Ashram to manifest the Divine upon
earth. But there remains one question: if everything is
divine, even the adverse forces, and if everything has been
created by Him and He can do everything, then how is
it that He takes so much time and uses such roundabout
--
things and making them conscious? And why all these
misfortunes and sufferings?
--
Some have considered the problem more deeply and asked
themselves whe ther human beings, who are so small and limited,
could see things as they really are; and in the hope of understanding better, they have sought for a diviner vision, a global and true
vision - with the result of Yoga. And those who have succeeded
in their endeavour have found that when one is united with the
Divine, one's vision of things changes totally, and they have all
come to the same conclusion: unite with the Divine and you will
understand.
--
Your protection is always there, isn't it?
To visit one's parents is to return to an influence which is generally stronger than any o ther; and there are not many cases where
the parents help you in your spiritual progress, because they are
usually more interested in a worldly realisation.
--
usually do not ask their children to come back to them.
Blessings.
--
Why should one take part in the sports' competitions
and demonstrations?
--
I would like to know the second step towards unifying one's being. You told me about the first step.
the work of unifying the being consists of:
(1) becoming aware of one's psychic being.
(2) putting before the psychic being, as one becomes aware
of them, all one's movements, impulses, thoughts and acts of
will, so that the psychic being may accept or reject each of these
movements, impulses, thoughts or acts of will. Those that are
--
be driven out of the consciousness so that they may never come
back again.
--
How should one spend the Darshan days, December
fifth and ninth, and one's birthday?
--
the birthday in finding out the purpose of life.
Blessings.
--
(Regarding accidents in sports at the Ashram)
I do not think that there are more accidents here than elsewhere.
Certainly there ought to be less. But for that, the children who
study here must make an effort to grow in consciousness (a thing
--
however, few of them take the trouble to do it, so they lose the
fine opportunity that has been given to them.
22 December 1969
--
What is the difference between persons who have
developed their consciousness and those who have not?
Those who have done it and done it well become conscious; the
o thers remain half conscious like the vast majority of human
beings.
Consciousness, the true consciousness, gives control over
one's own character and, to a large extent, over events.
--
Do you think it isn't good to visit the churches here
to see the midnight ceremony?
Why go to church? Are you Christians or do you want to become
--
for the sake of a childish idle curiosity?
Up to now, all those who have gone have done so without
asking for permission, because they sensed that it would not be
given.
--
In the Hour of God Sri Aurobindo has written:
" there are moments when the Spirit moves among men
and the breath of the Lord is abroad upon the waters
of our being; there are o thers when it retires and men
are left to act in the strength or the weakness of their
own egoism"1 and in one of your letters, you have said
that one must not rely on one's ego but on the psychic.
Mo ther, will you explain this to me?
--
to their own means. the Divine has sent down His Consciousness to give them light. All who are able to do so should profit
by it.
--
About what you told me yesterday: had the Divine
not sent His Consciousness down upon earth? But the
whole creation has had the Divine in it from the very
beginning, hasn't it?
--
And why were primitive men left to their own means?
Primitive men were still too close to the animal to be able to
enter into relation with the Inner Divine; it is only gradually,
through thousands of years of ascending evolution, that men
have learned to be conscious. Now they are ready to manifest
a far higher consciousness, the consciousness that will act fully
in the superman; and that is why this consciousness has come
down on earth to work in all who are ready to receive it.
--
This great change is the appearance on earth of a new race that
will be to man what man is to the animal. the consciousness of
this new race is already at work on earth to give light to all who
--
How should the news of death be received, especially
when it is someone close to us?
Say to the Supreme Lord: "Let Thy Will be done", and remain
as peaceful as possible.
If the departed one is a person one loves, one should concentrate one's love on him in peace and calm, for that is what
can most help the one who has departed.
Blessings.
--
the characters and if the film is tragic or full of suspense,
we get so involved that we cry or feel frightened. And if
--
It is the vital that gets touched and moved.
If you watch mentally, the interest is no longer the same;
instead of being moved or troubled, you can calmly judge the
value of a film, whe ther it is well made or well acted, or whe ther
--
In the first case you are a "good audience", in the second
case you are more peaceful.
--
countries and even in our own if we did not read newspapers? At least we get some idea from them, don't we?
Or would it be better not to read them at all?
Series Thirteen - To a Student
--
that the truth is altoge ther different.
Blessings.
--
How can we know the truth of the facts when reading newspapers? What is the best way of knowing the
truth of the world?
the best way is to find the truth in ourselves - then we shall be
able to see the Truth wherever it is.
Blessings.
0.14 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To a sadhak of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram
We are at a moment of transition in the history of the earth.
It is merely a moment in eternal time, but this moment is long
--
itself for the new manifestation, but the human body is not
plastic enough and offers resistance; this is why the number of
incomprehensible disorders and even diseases is increasing and
--
the remedy lies in union with the divine forces that are at
work and a receptivity full of trust and peace which makes the
task easier.
--
because the transformation begins with the opening of the consciousness to the action of the new forces; thus individuals have
a unique and wonderful opportunity to open themselves to the
divine influence.
--
the purpose of individual existence is the joy of discovering the
Divine and uniting with Him. When one has understood this,
then one is ready to gain the strength to surmount all difficulties.
22 November 1971
A victory won over the lower nature gives a deeper and more
lasting joy than any external success.
--
Sri Aurobindo has revealed to us a few of the marvels that the
future will bring to the earth and has encouraged us to prepare
ourselves for it.
--
Each one has his ego and all the egos are at odds with one
ano ther. It is only when one gets rid of the ego that one becomes
a free being.
To be free, one must belong only to the Divine.
3 December 1971
In the difficult hours of life, the imperative duty of each one is
to overcome his ego in a total and unconditional self-giving to
the Divine. then the Divine will make you do what you have to
do.
--
themselves, the only safety lies in taking refuge in thee!
Grant that nothing in us may be an obstacle to the fulfilment
of Thy Will.
Grant that we may become conscious and effective collaborators in the fulfilment of Thy Will.
5 December 1971
--
Difficult hours come to the earth to compel men to overcome
their small personal egoism and turn exclusively to the Divine
for help and light. the wisdom of men is ignorant. Only the
Divine knows.
--
Our human consciousness has windows that open upon the
Infinite. But generally men keep these windows carefully closed.
We have to open them wide and allow the Infinite to enter us
freely in order to transform us.
Two conditions are necessary to open the windows:
(1) ardent aspiration;
(2) progressive abolition of the ego.
the divine help is assured to those who set to work sincerely.
--
the ego was necessary to form the individual being. Its destruction is therefore difficult. there is a much better, though more
difficult solution: to transform it and make it an instrument of
--
Egos that are converted and wholly consecrated to the
Divine become especially powerful and effective instruments.
--
the method for each individual is worked out as the activity
proceeds, for each ego has its own character and needs a particular method. the only qualities indispensable for all are absolute
perseverance and sincerity. the least tendency to deceive oneself
makes success impossible.
--
For you, the best way to begin is to find your psychic being,
to concentrate on it by making it the witness of all your inner
movements and the judge of all that you should or should not
do, and to strive to submit your external nature to its decisions.
--
the psychic being is the individual sheath of the Divine Presence.
It is found deep within oneself, beyond all thoughts.
--
Communications from the psychic do not come in a mental
form. they are not ideas or reasonings. they have their own
character quite distinct from the mind, something like a feeling
that comprehends itself and acts.
By its very nature, the psychic is calm, quiet and luminous,
understanding and generous, wide and progressive. Its constant
--
the psychic is conscious of its progressive formation during successive lives upon earth, so it has the memory of the important
moments in its previous lives.
the more the psychic has taken part in these physical lives
on earth, the more numerous and precise its memories are.
14 December 1971
Feeling alone in the midst of human beings is the sign that you
are beginning to feel the need to find in your own being contact
with the Divine Presence. So you must concentrate in silence and
Series Fourteen - To a Sadhak
try to enter deep within to discover the Divine Presence in the
depths of your consciousness, beyond all mental activity.
--
the Divine Presence. therefore, give yourself entirely to the
Divine and you will emerge into the Light.
17 December 1971
One moment of conscious communion with the Divine can
shatter all resistance, however powerful it may be.
--
In silence lies the greatest receptivity. And in an immobile silence
the vastest action is done.
Let us learn to be silent so that the Lord may make use of
us.
--
It is by perfecting our faith in the Divine Grace that we shall
be able to conquer the defeatism of the subconscient.
20 December 1971
Total union and the perfect manifestation of the Divine are the
sole means of putting an end to the suffering and misery of the
physical world which are the cause of subconscient pessimism.
It is only in perfect union with the Divine that the consciousness
can emerge into the eternal delight. And this conscious union is
the true goal of earthly existence.
--
To know why we live: discovery of the Divine and conscious
union with Him.
--
O Lord, awaken in me the ardent desire to know You.
I aspire to consecrate my life to Your service.
--
on the grounds that o thers are not transformed. But that is
the stronghold of bad will, for each one's duty is to transform
--
If men knew that this transformation, the abolition of egoism, is the only way to gain constant peace and delight, they
would consent to make the necessary effort. This, then, is the
conviction that must awaken in them.
Everyone should repeatedly be told: abolish your ego and
--
according to the attitude they take in life:
( 1 ) Those who live for themselves. they consider everything
in relation to themselves and act accordingly. the vast majority
of men are like this.
--
(2) Those who give their love to ano ther human being and
live for him. As for the result, everything naturally depends on
the person one chooses to love.
(3) Those who consecrate their life to the service of humanity through some activity done not for personal satisfaction
but truly to be useful to o thers without calculation and without
expecting any personal gain from their work.
(4) Those who give themselves entirely to the Divine and
live only for Him and through Him. This implies making the
effort required to find the Divine, to be conscious of His Will
and to work exclusively to serve Him.
In the first three categories, one is naturally subject to the
ordinary law of suffering, disappointment and sorrow.
It is only in the last category - if one has chosen it in all
sincerity and pursued it with an unfailing patience - that one
finds the certitude of total fulfilment and a constant luminous
peace.
--
Do not live to be happy, live to serve the Divine, and the
happiness you enjoy will exceed all expectation.
--
We are at a decisive hour in the history of the earth. It is preparing for the coming of the superman and because of this the old
way of life is losing its value. We must strike out boldly on the
path of the future despite its new demands. the pettinesses once
tolerable, are tolerable no longer. We must widen ourselves to
--
the result of the creation is a detailed multiplication of consciousness.
When the vision of the whole and the vision of all the details
are united in a single active consciousness, the creation will have
attained its progressive perfection.
--
In time and space no two human beings have the same consciousness, and the sum of all these consciousnesses is but a partial
and diminished manifestation of the Divine Consciousness.
That is why I said "progressive perfection", because the
manifestation of the consciousness of detail is infinite and unending.
9 January 1972
--
And then to be conscious that one knows nothing compared
to what one ought to know, that one can do nothing compared
--
One must constantly progress in the light and peace that
come from the absence of personal desires.
One could take as a programme:
--
And to have only one goal: to know the Divine in order to
be able to manifest Him.
--
Mo ther, is it possible to develop in oneself the capacity
to heal?
--
But a method has to be found, and this depends on the case
and the individual.
the first condition is to have a physical nature that gives
--
energy from above, from the inexhaustible impersonal source.
12 January 1972
In this way the more one spends the more one receives, and
one becomes an inexhaustible channel ra ther than a vessel that
--
must be convinced that the possibility of progress is unlimited.
Progress is youth; one can be young at a hundred.
--
When the body has learned the art of constantly progressing
towards an increasing perfection, we shall be well on the way to
overcoming the inevitability of death.
16 January 1972
If the growth of consciousness were considered as the principal
goal of life, many difficulties would find their solution.
the best way to avoid growing old is to make progress the
goal of our life.
--
cure ourselves of ignorance and incapacity - then life becomes
tremendously interesting and worth living.
--
Sri Aurobindo came upon earth to announce the manifestation
of the supramental world. And not only did he announce this
manifestation but he also embodied in part the supramental
force and gave us the example of what we must do to prepare
ourselves for this manifestation. the best thing we can do is to
study all he has told us, strive to follow his example and prepare
ourselves for the new manifestation.
This gives life its true meaning and will help us to overcome
--
Let us live for the new creation and we shall grow stronger
and stronger while remaining young and progressive.
--
occupy such a predominant place in their lives, should on the
contrary be sublimated and used for progress and higher development so as to prepare the coming of the new race. But first, the
vital and the physical have to be free of all desire - o therwise
one is courting disaster.
--
the first thing the physical consciousness must understand is
that all the difficulties we meet with in life come from the fact
that we do not rely exclusively on the Divine for the help we
need.
the Divine alone can liberate us from the mechanism of
universal Nature. And this liberation is indispensable for the
birth and development of the new race.
It is only by giving ourselves entirely to the Divine in perfect
trust and gratitude that the difficulties will be overcome.
1 February 1972
To want what the Divine wants, in all sincerity, is the essential
condition for peace and joy in life. Almost all human miseries
come from the fact that men are nearly always convinced that
they know better than the Divine what they need and what
life ought to give them. Most human beings want o ther human
beings to conform to their expectations and circumstances to
conform to their desires - therefore they suffer and are unhappy.
It is only when one gives oneself in all sincerity to the Divine
Will that one has the peace and calm joy which come from the
abolition of desires.
--
with one's psychic, one can know it. But the first condition is
not to be subject to one's desires and mistake them for the truth
of one's being.
--
the best way to help the world is to realise the Divine oneself.
5 February 1972
In the depths of our being, in the silence of contemplation, a
luminous force floods our consciousness with a vast and luminous peace which prevails over all petty reactions and prepares
us for union with the Divine - the very purpose of individual
existence.
--
Thus, the purpose and goal of life is not suffering and struggle
but an all-powerful and happy realisation.
All the rest is painful illusion.
7 February 1972
When humanity was first created, the ego was the unifying
element. It was around the ego that the different states of being
were grouped; but now that the birth of superhumanity is being
prepared, the ego has to disappear and give way to the psychic
being, which has slowly been formed by divine intervention in
order to manifest the Divine in the human being.
It is under the psychic influence that the Divine manifests in
man and thus prepares the coming of superhumanity.
the psychic is immortal and it is through the psychic that
immortality can be manifested on earth.
So the important thing now is to find one's psychic, unite
with it and allow it to replace the ego, which will be compelled
ei ther to get converted or disappear.
--
the first thing one learns on the way is that the joy of giving is
far greater than the joy of taking.
then gradually one learns that to forget oneself is the source
of immutable peace. Later on, in this self-forgetfulness, one finds
the Divine, and that is the source of an ever-increasing bliss.
Series Fourteen - To a Sadhak
--
were convinced of it, they would all want to do yoga.
9 February 1972
Human consciousness is so corrupted that men prefer the miseries of the ego and its ignorance to the luminous joy that comes
from a sincere surrender to the Divine. So great is their blindness
that they refuse even to try the experiment and would ra ther be
subject to the miseries of their ego than make the effort needed
to get rid of them.
So completely blind are they that they would not hesitate
to make the Divine a slave of their ego, if such a thing were
possible, in order to avoid giving themselves to the Divine.
10 February 1972
Supreme Lord, teach us to be silent, that in the silence we may
receive Your force and understand Your will.
--
We want to be true servitors of the Divine.
"Supreme Lord, Perfect Consciousness, You alone know
--
we may overcome them in order to serve You faithfully."
the supreme happiness is to be true servitors of the Divine.
14 February 1972
For those who want always to progress, there are three major
ways of progressing:
(1) To widen the field of one's consciousness.
(2) To understand ever better and more completely what
--
(3) To find the Divine and surrender more and more to his
Will.
--
(1) To constantly enrich the possibilities of the instrument.
(2) To ceaselessly perfect the functioning of this instrument.
(3) To make this instrument increasingly receptive and obedient to the Divine.
To learn to understand and do more and more things. To
purify oneself of all that prevents one from being totally surrendered to the Divine. To make one's consciousness more and
more receptive to the Divine Influence.
One could say: to widen oneself more and more, to deepen
--
with the promises one has made. But the only true and binding
faithfulness is faithfulness to the Divine - and that is the faithfulness we all ought to acquire through sincere and sustained
effort.
When the whole being, in all its parts and all its activities,
can say to the Divine in all sincerity:
"Whatever You will, whatever You will",
then one is well on the way to the true faithfulness.
17 February 1972
--
is for all the progress that has to be made!
Series Fourteen - To a Sadhak
To waste one's time seeking the satisfaction of one's petty
desires is sheer folly. True happiness is possible only when one
has found the Divine.
19 February 1972
--
until the day when it shall automatically know what You
will because its consciousness will be totally united with Yours.
--
Lord, give us the silence of Your contemplation, the silence rich
with Your effective Presence.
--
To prepare for immortality, the consciousness of the body must
first identify itself with the Eternal Consciousness.
17 March 1972
--
I answered: " the Will of the Supreme Lord."
It is a subject for contemplative meditation.
--
This truth that man has vainly sought to know will be the
birthright of the new race, the race of tomorrow, the superman.
To live according to Truth will be his birthright.
Let us do our best to prepare the coming of the New Being. the mind must fall silent and be replaced by the TruthConsciousness - the consciousness of details harmonised with
the consciousness of the whole.
19 March 1972
0 1951-09-21, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
into all the cells
of my body
0 1952-08-02, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Only when it is no longer necessary for my body to resemble the bodies of men in order to make them progress will it be free to be supramentalized.1
***
Only when men shall depend exclusively upon the Divine and upon nothing else will the incarnate god no longer need to die for them.2
Note written by Mo ther in French.
0 1954-08-25 - what is this personality? and when will she come?, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
the following text is an extract from a 'Wednesday Class,' when every Wednesday Mo ther would answer questions raised by the disciples and children at the Ashram Playground.
(Mo ther reads to the disciples an excerpt from Sri Aurobindos the MO theR, in which he describes the different aspects of the Creative Powerwhat is India is called the Shakti, or the Mo therwhich have presided over universal evolution.)
there are o ther great Personalities of the Divine Mo ther, but they were more difficult to bring down and have not stood out in front with so much prominence in the evolution of the earth-spirit. there are among them Presences indispensable for the supramental realization,most of all one who is her Personality of that mysterious and powerful ecstasy and Ananda1 which flows from a supreme divine Love, the Ananda that alone can heal the gulf between the highest heights of the supramental spirit and the lowest abysses of Matter, the Ananda that holds the key of a wonderful divines Life and even now supports from its secrecies the work of all the o ther Powers of the universe.
Sri Aurobindo, the Mo ther
(A disciple:) Sweet Mo ther, what is this Personality and when will It manifest?
--
I knew you would ask me this question because it is indeed the most interesting thing in the whole passageso my answer is ready, along with my answer to ano ther question. But first let me read you this one.
You asked, What is this Personality and when will She come? Here is my answer (Mo ther reads):
She has come, bringing with Her a splendor of power and love, an intensity of divine joy heretofore unknown to the Earth. the physical atmosphere has been completely changed by her descent, permeated with new and marvelous possibilities.
But if She is ever to reside and act here, She has to find at least a minimal receptivity, at least one human being with the required vital and physical qualities, a kind of super-Parsifal gifted with an innate and integral purity, yet possessing at the same time a body strong enough and poised enough to bear unwaveringly the intensity of the Ananda She brings.
Thus far, She has not found what is needed. Men remain obstinately men and do not want to or are unable to become supermen. All they can receive and express is a love at their own dimension: a human lovewhereas the supreme bliss of divine Ananda eludes their perception.
At times, finding the world unready to receive Her, She contemplates withdrawing. But how cruel a loss this would be!
It is true that at present, her presence is more rhetorical than factual, since so far She has had no chance to manifest. Yet even so, She is a powerful instrument in the Work, for of all the Mo thers aspects, She holds the greatest power to transform the body. Indeed, those cells which can vibrate at the touch of the divine Joy, receive it and bear it, are cells reborn, on their way to becoming immortal.
But the vibrations of divine Bliss and those of pleasure cannot cohabit in the same vital and physical house. We must therefore TOTALLY renounce all feelings of pleasure to be ready to receive the divine Ananda. But rare are those who can renounce pleasure without thereby renouncing all active participation in life or sinking into a stern asceticism. And among those who realize that the transformation is to be wrought in active life, some pretend that pleasure is a form of Ananda gone more or less astray and legitimize their search for self-satisfaction, thereby creating a virtually insuperable obstacle to their own transformation.
Now, if there is anything else you wish to ask me Anyone may ask, anyoneanyone who has something to saynot just the students.
Mo ther, even if we have not previously succeeded, cant we still try?
--
the world is recreated from minute to minute. If you knew how I mean if you could change your natureyou could recreate a new world this very minute!
I didnt say She HAD gone. I said She was CONTEMPLATING it at times, now and then.
But Mo ther, if She came down, She must have seen a possibility!
She came down because there WAS a possibilitybecause things had reached such a stage that it was her hour to come down. But in truth, She came down because because I thought it was possible for her to succeed.
Possibilities are still thereonly they have to materialize.
This is borne out by the fact that her descent took place at a given moment and for two or three weeks the atmospherenot only of the Ashram but of the Earthwas so highly charged with such a power of such an intense divine Bliss creating so marvelous a force that things difficult to do before could be done almost instantly.
there were repercussions the world over. But I dont believe that a single one of you noticed it you cannot even tell me when it happened, can you?
When did it happen?
I dont know dates. I dont know, I never remember dates. I can only tell you this that it happened before Sri Aurobindo left his body, that he was told about it beforeh and and that he well, he acknowledged the fact.
But there was a formidable battle with the Inconscient, for when I saw that the level of receptivity was not what it should have been, I blamed the Inconscient and tried to wage the battle there.
I dont say it was ineffectual, but between the result obtained and the result hoped for, there was a considerable difference. But as I said, you who are all so near, so steeped in this atmosphere who among you noticed anything?You simply went on with your little lives as usual.
I think it was in 1946, Mo ther, because you told us so many things at that time.
--
Now you may ask me the questions you wanted to ask Thats all?
Mo ther, there is not even one single man?
I dont know.
Mo ther, you are wasting your time with all these Ashram people.
Oh! But you see, from an occult standpoint, it is a selection. From an external standpoint you could say that there are people in the world who are far superior to you (and I would not disagree!), but from an occult standpoint, it is a selection. there are It can be said that without a doubt the majority of young people here have come because it was promised them that they would be present at the Hour of Realization but they just dont remember it! (Mo ther laughs) I have already said several times that when you come down on earth, you fall on your head, which leaves you a little dazed! (laughter) Its a pity, but after all, you dont have to remain dazed all your lives, do you? You should go deep within yourselves and there find the immortal consciousness then you can see very well, you can very clearly remember the circumstances in which you you aspired to be here for the Hour of the Works realization.
But actually, to tell you the truth, I think your lives are so easy that you dont exert yourselves very much! How many among you have truly an INTENSE need to find their psychic beings? To find out truly who they are? To find out what their roles are, why they are here? You just let yourselves drift. You even complain when things arent easy enough! You just take things as they come. And sometimes, should an aspiration arise in you and you encounter some difficulty in yourself, you say, Oh, Mo ther is there! Shell take care of it for me! And you think about something else.
Mo ther, previously things were very strict in the Ashram, but not now. Why?
Yes, I have always said that it changed when we had to take the very little children. How can you envision an ascetic life with little sprouts no bigger than that? Its impossible! But thats the little surprise package the war left on our doorstep. When it was found that Pondicherry was the safest place on earth, naturally people came wheeling in here with all their baby carriages filled and asked us if we could shelter them, so we couldnt very well turn them away, could we?! Thats how it happened, and in no o ther way But, in the beginning, the first condition for coming here was that you would have nothing more to do with your family! If a man was married, then he had to completely overlook the fact that he had a wife and childrencompletely sever all ties, have nothing fur ther to do with them. And if ever a wife asked to come just because her husb and happened to be here, we told her, You have no business coming here!
In the beginning, it was very, very strict for a long time.
the first condition was: Nothing more to do with your family Well, we are a long way from that! But I repeat that it only happened because of the war and not because we stopped seeing the need to cut all family ties; on the contrary, this is an indispensable condition because as long as you hang on to all these cords which bind you to ordinary life, which make you a slave to the ordinary life, how can you possibly belong to the Divine alone? What childishness! It is simply not possible. If you have ever taken the trouble to read over the early ashram rules, you would find that even friendships were considered dangerous and undesirable We made every effort to create an atmosphere in which only ONE thing counted: the Life Divine.
But as I said, bit by bit things changed. However, this had one advantage: we were too much outside of life. So there were a number of problems which had never arisen but which would have suddenly surged up the moment we wanted a complete manifestation. We took on all these problems a little prematurely, but it gave us the opportunity to solve them. In this way we learned many things and surmounted many difficulties, only it complicated things considerably. And in the present situation, given such a large number of elements who havent even the slightest idea why theyre here (!) well, it demands a far greater effort on the disciples part than before.
Before, when there were we started with 35 or 36 people but even when it got up to 150, even with 150it was as if they were all nestled in a cocoon in my consciousness: they were so near to me that I could constantly guide ALL their inner or outer movements. Day and night, at each moment, everything was totally under my control. And naturally, I think they made a great deal of progress at that time: it is a fact that I was CONSTANTLY doing the sadhana2 for them. But then, with this baby boom the sadhana cant be done for little sprouts who are 3 or 4 or 5 years old! Its out of the question. the only thing I can do is wrap them in the Consciousness and try to see that they grow up in the best of all possible conditions. However, the one advantage to all this is that instead of there being such a COMPLETE and PASSIVE dependence on the disciples part, each one has to make his own little effort. Truly, thats excellent.
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 o therwise 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 ra ther 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 o ther 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!
So some of you people have been here since the time you were toddlerseverything has been explained to you, the whole thing has been served to you on a silver platter (not only with words, but through psychic aid and in every possible way), you have been put on the path of this inner discovery and then you just go on drifting along: When it comes, it will come.If you even spare it that much thought!
So thats how it is.
But Im not at all discouraged, I just find it ra ther laughable. Only there are o ther far more serious things; for example, when you try to deceive yourselves that is not so pretty. One should not mix up cats and kings. You should call a cat a cat and a king a king and human instinct, human instinctand not speak about things divine when they are utterly human, nor pretend to have supramental experiences when you are living in a blatantly ordinary consciousness.
If you look at yourselves straight in the face and you see what you are, then if by chance you should resolve to But what really astounds me is that you dont even seem to feel an intense NEED to do this! But how can we know? Because you DO know, you have been told over and over again, it has been drummed into your heads. You KNOW that you have a divine consciousness within you. And yet you can go on sleeping night after night, playing day after day, doing your lessons ad infinitum and still not be not have a BURNING desire and will to come into contact with yourselves!With yourselves, yes, the you just there, inside (motion towards the center of the chest) Really, its beyond me!
As soon as I found outand no one told me, I found out through an experienceas soon as I found out that there was a discovery to be made within myself, well, it became the MOST IMPORTANT thing in the world. It took precedence over everything else!
And when, as I told you, I chanced upon a book or an individual that could give me just a little clue and tell me, Here. If you do such and such, you will find your pathwell I charged into it like a cyclone and nothing could have stopped me.
And how many years have you all been here, half-asleep? Naturally, youre happy to think about it now and thenespecially when I speak to you about it or sometimes when you read. But THATthat fire, that will which plows through all barriers, that concentration which can triumph over EVERYTHING
Now who was it that asked me what you should do?
--
Mo ther, what was the o ther thing you wrote?
I thought someone might ask me, Why doesnt She4 stay for your sake? Since She came here because you called Her, then why doesnt She stay for your sake?
But no one asked me that.
--
For Her, this body is but one instrument among so many o thers in an eternity of ages to come, and for Her its only importance is that attributed to it by the Earth and mankind the extent to which it can be used as a channel to fur ther Her manifestation. If I find myself surrounded by people who are incapable of receiving Her, then for Her, I am quite useless.
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! Fur thermore, 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!
Only when we went down from the vital plane into the physical plane, all this went awaybecause on the physical plane, the work is much harder and we had so much to do, so many things to change.
But if a force like Hers could manifest and be received here, it would have INESTIMABLE results!
Well, I am only telling you all this because I thought someone might ask me about it, but o therwise I dont have that kind of relationship with Her. You see, if you consider this body, this poor body, it is very innocent: it in no way tries to draw attention to itself nor to attract forces nor to do anything at all except its workas best it can. And thats how it stands: its importance is proportionate to its usefulness and to the significance the world attri butes to itsince its action is for the world.
But in and of itself, it is only one body among countless o thers. Thats all.
(To the disciple handling the microphone:) Its over now.
(Mo ther gets up to go, but while leaving, She says to the children around her:) If you had made just one little decision to try to feel your psychic being, my time would not have been wasted.
Ananda: Divine Joy.
--
the Mo ther of Ananda, or the Creative Power's aspect of Joy.
W.W. Pearson, a friend of Rabindranath Tagore, who had come from Tagore's Ashram in 1923; Mo ther had met him with Tagore in 1916 in Japan.
0 1955-03-26, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I dont know what mud is stirring about in me, but everything is obscured, and I cannot dissociate myself from these vital waves.
Mo ther, 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. Mo ther, I beg of you, help. me to BREAK this shell 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
Mahakali: the eternal Mo ther in her warrior aspect, She who severs the heads of the demons.
Such was our old, meaningless name (except for its Germanic root: 'hard bear') until a certain March 3, 1957, when Mo ther named us Sat-prem (' the one who loves truly').
0 1955-04-04, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Mo ther, for more than a year now I have been near you and nothing, no really significant inner experience, no sign has come that allows me to feel I have progressed or merely to show me that I am on the right path. I cannot even say I am happy.
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 o ther, 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. Fur thermore, 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 o ther 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 ano ther 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!
Consequently, I understand much better now why in the traditional yogas one settled all these difficulties once and for all by escaping from the world, without bo thering to transform a life that seems so untransformable.
I am not now going to renounce Sri Aurobindos Yoga, Mo ther, for my whole life is based upon it, but I believe I should employ o ther meanswhich is why I am writing you this letter.
By continuing this daily little ant-like struggle and by having to confront the same desires, the same distractions every day, it seems to me I am wasting my energy in vain. Sri Aurobindos Yoga, which is meant to include life, is so difficult that one should come to it only after having already established the solid base of a concrete divine realization. That is why I want to ask you if I should not withdraw for a certain time, to Almora,3 for example, to Brewsters place,4 to live in solitude, silence, meditation, far away from people, work and temptations, until a beginning of Light and Realization is concretized in me. Once this solid base is acquired, it would be easier for me to resume my work and the struggle here for the true transformation of the outer being. But to want to transform this outer being without having fully illumined the inner being seems to me to be putting the cart before the horse, or at least condemning myself to a pitiless and endless battle in which the best of my forces are fruitlessly consumed.
In all sincerity, I must say that when I was at Brewsters place in Almora, I felt very near to that state in which the Light must surge forth. I quite understand the imperfection of this process, which involves fleeing from difficulties, but this would only be a stage, a strategic retreat, as it were.
Mo ther, this is not a vital desire seeking to divert me from the sadhana, for my life has no o ther meaning than to seek the divine, but it seems to be the only solution that could bring about some progress and get me out of this lukewarm slump in which I have been living day after day. I cannot be satisfied living merely one hour a day, when I see you.
I know that you do not like to write, Mo ther, 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 Mo ther, help me!
--
No doubt it would be better to go to Almora for a whilenot for too long, I hope, for it is needless to say how much the work will be disrupted by this departure
(Ano ther handwritten version)
--
You may go to Almora if you think it will help you break this shell 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.
--
For a long time, Satprem took care of the correspondence with the outside, along with Pavitra, not to mention editing the Ashram Bulletin as well as Mo ther's writings and talks, translating Sri Aurobindo's works into French, and conducting classes at the Ashram's 'International Centre of Education.'
Every evening at the Playground, the disciples passed before Mo ther one by one to receive symbolically some food.
In the Himalayas.
An American artist, an old friend of D.H. Lawrence, and Satprem's friend.
0 1955-06-09, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Mo ther, I cannot say that it is a nostalgia for the outside world that is drawing me backwards nor some attachment to a personal form of life, nor even some vital desire seeking its own satisfaction. That old world no longer attracts me, and I do not see at all what I would do there. Yet something is standing in my way.
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 Mo ther, 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 Mo ther, 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.
Mo ther, it is an impossible, absurd, unlivable life. I feel as though I have no hand in this cruel little game. Oh Mo ther, why doesnt your grace trust that deep part in me which knows so well that you are the Truth? Deliver me from these evil forces since, profoundly, it is you and you alone I want. Give me the aspiration and strength I do not have. If you do not do this Yoga for me, I feel I shall never have the strength to go on.
there is something that must be SHATTERED: can it not be done once and for all without lingering on indefinitely? Mo ther, I am your child.
Signed: Bernard
--
Your case is not unique; there are o thers (and among the best and the most faithful) who are likewise a veritable battlefield for the forces opposing the advent of the truth. they feel powerless in this battle, sorrowful witnesses, victims without the strength to fight, for this is taking place in that part of the physical consciousness where the supramental forces are not yet fully active, although I am confident they soon will be. Meanwhile, the only remedy is to endure, to go through this suffering and to await patiently the hour of liberation.
While reading your prayer, I too prayed that it be heard.
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. Mo ther, 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. Mo ther, 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 Mo ther, may I live in you.
Your child,
0 1955-09-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Mo ther 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.
Mo ther, 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.
I have friends in Bangalore whom I would like to join for two or three weeks, perhaps more, perhaps less, however long it may take to confront this vital with its own freedom. I need a vital activity, to move, to sail, for example, to have friends etc. the need I am feeling is exactly that which I sought to satisfy in the past through my long boat journeys along the coast of Brittany. It is a kind of thirst for space and movement.
O therwise, Mo ther, there is this block before me that is obscuring all the rest and taking away my taste for everything. I would like to leave, Mo ther, but not in revolt; may it be an experience to go through that receives your approval. I would not like to be cut off from you by your displeasure or your condemnation, for this would seem to me terrible and leave me no o ther recourse but to plunge into the worst excesses in order to forget.
Mo ther, I would like you to forgive me, to understand me and, above all, not to deprive me of your Love. I would like you to tell me if I may leave for a few weeks and how you feel about it. It seems to me that I am profoundly your child, in spite of all this??
0 1955-10-19, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
the three images of total self-giving to the Divine:
1) To prostrate oneself at His feet in a surrender of all pride, with a perfect HUMILITY.
2) To unfold ones being before Him, to open entirely ones body from head to toe, as one opens a book, spreading open ones centers so as to make all their movements visible in a total SINCERITY that allows nothing to remain hidden.
3) To nestle in His arms, to melt in Him in a tender and absolute CONFIDENCE.
these movements may be accompanied by three formulas, or any one of them, depending upon the case:
1) May Your Will be done and not mine.
--
Generally, when these movements are made in the right way, they are followed by a perfect identification, a dissolution of the ego, bringing about a sublime felicity.
***
0 1956-02-29 - First Supramental Manifestation - The Golden Hammer, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
object:0_1956-02-29 - First Supramental Manifestation - the Golden Hammer
author class: the Mo ther
--
the following text was given by Mo ther in both French and English.
FIRST SUPRAMENTAL MANIFESTATION
(During the common meditation on Wednesday the 29th February 1956)
This evening the Divine Presence, concrete and material, was there present amongst you. I had a form of living gold, bigger than the universe, and I was facing a huge and massive golden door which separated the world from the Divine.
As I looked at the door, I knew and willed, in a single movement of consciousness, that the TIME HAS COME, and lifting with both hands a mighty golden hammer I struck one blow, one single blow1 on the door and the door was shattered to pieces.
then the supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow.
Later added by Mo ther
0 1956-03-19, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Note written by Mo ther in French. At this period, Mo ther's back was already bent. This straightening of her back seems to be the first physiological effect of the 'Supramental Manifestation' of February 29, which is perhaps the reason why Mo ther noted down the experience under the name 'Agenda of the Supramental Action on Earth.' It was the first time Mo ther gave a title to what would become this fabulous document of 13 volumes. the experience took place during a 'translation class' when, twice a week, Mo ther would translate the works of Sri Aurobindo into French before a group of disciples.
AGENDA OF the SUPRAMENTAL ACTION ON EARTH
On March 19 during the translation class the inner voice said:
Hold yourself straight
and the body sat up and held itself absolutely straight during the entire class.
***
0 1956-03-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
the control over the movements of the vertebrae, lost a long time ago (which resulted in a kind of insensitivity and incapacity to move them at will) has returned to a great extent: the consciousness is once again able to express itself and the back can straighten up very visibly.
***
( the same day on the balcony1)
Almost a total straightening, along with a very clear perception of the new force and power in the cells of the body.
Mo ther appeared on her balcony daily at about 6 a.m. to give a few moments of meditation to her disciples before the beginning of the day's work.
***
0 1956-03-21, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
the age of Capitalism and business is drawing to a close.
But the age of Communism, too, will pass. For Communism as it is preached is not constructive, it is a weapon to combat plutocracy. But when the battle is over and the armies are disbanded for want of employment, then Communism, having no more utility, will be transformed into something else that will express a higher truth.
We know this truth, and we are working for it so that it may reign upon earth.
0 1956-04-04, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Mo ther, 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, Mo ther, 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. Mo ther, 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, Mo ther, help me to know.
I also had a very clear sensation that you were abandoning me, that you had no fur ther 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.
0 1956-04-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
the difficulties of the past weeks have taught me that as soon as one strays from the true consciousness, in however trifling a way, anything may happen, any excess, any aberration, any imbalance and I have felt very dangerous things prowling about me. Mo ther, you told me in regard to Patrick1 that the law of the manifestation was a law of freedom, even the freedom to choose wrongly. This evening, it has been my very deep perception that this freedom is virtually always a freedom to choose wrongly. I harbor a great fear of losing the true consciousness once again. I have become aware of how fragile everything in me is and that very little would be enough to carry me away.
therefore, Sweet Mo ther, I come to ask a great grace of you, from the depths of my heart: take my freedom into your hands. Prevent me from falling back, far away from you. I place this freedom in your hands. Keep me safe, Mo ther, protect me. Grant me the grace of watching over me and of taking me in your hands completely, like a child whose steps are unsure. I no longer want this Freedom. It is you I want, the Truth of my being. Mo ther, as a grace, I implore you to free me from my freedom to choose wrongly.
I am your child and I love you.
--
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 1956-04-23, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
the Lord hast willed, and Thou dost execute;
A new Light shall break upon the earth.
A new world shall be born.
And the things that were promised shall be fulfilled.
and rewrites it as follows in her own hand:
--
A new light breaks upon the earth,
A new world is born.
the things that were promised are fulfilled.1
Original English.
0 1956-04-24, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
the manifestation of the Supramental upon earth is no more a promise but a living fact, a reality.
It is at work here, and one day will come when the most blind, the most unconscious, even the most unwilling shall be obliged to recognize it.
***
0 1956-05-02, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Extract from the Wednesday class)
Sweet Mo ther, you said, the Supramental has come down on earth. What does this mean, exactly? You also said, the things that were promised are fulfilled. What are these things?
Oh, really! How ignorant! It has been promised for such a very long time, it has been said for such a very long timenot only here in the Ashram, but ever since the beginning of the earth. there have been all kinds of predictions, by all kinds of prophets. It has been said, there will be a new heaven and a new earth, a new race shall be born, the world shall be transformed Prophets have spoken of this in every tradition.
You said, they are fulfilled.
Yes. then?
Where is the new race?
the new race? Wait for something like a few thousand years or so, and you will see it!
When the mind came down upon earth, something like a million years went by between the manifestation of the mind in the earth atmosphere and the appearance of the first man. But it will go faster this time because man is waiting for something, he has a vague idea: he is awaiting in some way or ano ther the advent of the superman. Whereas the apes were certainly not awaiting the birth of man, they never thought of it for the excellent reason that they probably dont think very much! But man has thought about it and is waiting, so it will go faster. But faster probably still means thousands of years. We shall speak of this again in a few thousand years!
(silence)
Those who are ready within, who are open and in touch with the higher forces, those who have had a more or less direct personal contact with the Supramental Light and Consciousness, are capable of feeling the difference in the earth atmosphere.
But for this only like can know like. Only the Supramental Consciousness in an individual can perceive the Supramental acting in the earth atmosphere. Those who, for whatever reason, have developed this perception can see it. But those who are not even remotely conscious of their inner beings, who would be quite at a loss to say what their souls look like, are certainly not ready to perceive the difference in the earth atmosphere. they still have quite a way to go for that. Because, for those whose consciousness is more or less exclusively centered in the outer beingmental, vital and physicalthings need to have an absurd or unexpected appearance to be noticeable. And then they call it a miracle.
But we do not call a miracle the constant miracle of the forces that intervene to change circumstances and human natures and which have very far-reaching consequences, for we see only the appearance, and this appearance seems quite natural. But in truth, if you were to reflect upon the least thing that happens, you would be forced to acknowledge that it is miraculous.
It is simply because you do not reflect upon it and assume things to be as they are, what they are, unquestioningly; o therwise you would have quite a number of opportunities everyday to say to yourself, But look! That is absolutely amazing! How did it happen?
Quite simply, the habit of a purely superficial way of seeing.
Sweet Mo ther, what should be our attitude towards this New Consciousness?
--
If you want to look at it as an object of curiosity, then you have only to look at it, to try to understand.
If you want it to change you, you must open yourself and strive to progress.
--
Because a lot of people have come here, and they are asking, How are we going to benefit from it?
Oh!
And why should they benefit from it? What entitles them to benefit from it? Simply because they took the train to come here?
I knew some people who came here a long time ago, something like (Oh, I dont recall anymore, but quite a long time ago!), certainly more than twenty years ago; the first time someone died in the Ashram, they expressed a considerable dissatisfaction: But I came here because I thought this yoga would make me immortal! If you can still die, then why did I come here?
Well, its the same thing. People take the train to come here there were about a hundred and fifty more people than usual1simply because they want to benefit. But this may be exactly why they have not benefited from it! Because This [ the supramental consciousness] has not come to make people benefit in any way whatsoever!
they ask if their inner difficulties will be easier to overcome.
I would repeat the same thing. What reason and what right have they to ask that things be easier? What have they done on their side? Why should it be easier? To satisfy peoples laziness and slothor what?
Because when something new comes, we always have the idea of benefiting from it.
No! Not only in the case of something new: in every case, there is always this idea of benefiting. However, that is the best way to get nothing.
Who are you trying to fool? the Divine? That is hardly possible.
Its the same with those who ask for an interview. I tell them, Look, you have come in large numbers, and if each one asks me for an interview, how could I possibly find enough minutes in so few days to see everyone? While youre here, I wouldnt have even a single minute. then they retort, Oh, I have taken so MUCH trouble, I have come from so FAR away, I have come from way in the North, I have travelled for so many hoursand I have no right to an interview? I reply, Im sorry, but you are not the only one in that situation.
And thats how it isswapping, bargaining. We are not a commercial enterprise, we have made it clear that we are not doing business.
the number of disciples is increasing now day by day. What does this indicate?
But inevitablyit will increase more and more! Which is why I cannot do what I used to do when there were one hundred and fifty people in the Ashram. If they had just a little bit of common sense, they would understand that I cannot have the same relationship with people now (just imagine, 1,800 people these last days!), so I cannot have the same relationship with 1,845 people (exactly, I believe) as with thirty or even a hundred. That seems an easy enough logic to understand.
But they want everything to remain as it was and, as you say, to be the first to benefit.
Mo ther, when the mind came down into the earth atmosphere, the ape did not make any effort to convert himself into a man, did he? It was Nature that supplied the effort. But in our case
But its not man who is going to convert himself into a superman!
--
You see, it is something else that is going to do the work.
So we are
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!
--
Look. If all of you who have heard of this, not once but perhaps hundreds of times, who have spoken of it yourselves, thought about it, hoped for it, wanted it ( there are some people who have come here only for this, to receive the Supramental Force and to be transformed into supermen, this has been their goal) then how is it that you were ALL such strangers to this Force that when it came, you did not even feel it?!
Can you solve that problem for me? If you find the solution to this problem, you will have the solution to the difficulty.
I am not speaking of people from outside who have never thought about it, who have never felt concerned and who do not even know that there may be something like the Supermind to receive, in fact. I am speaking of people who have built their lives upon this aspiration (and I dont doubt their sincerity for a minute), who have workedsome of them for thirty years, some for thirty-five, o thers somewhat lessall the while saying, When the supermind comes When the supermind comes That was their refrain: When the supermind comes Consequently, they were really in the best possible frame of mind, one could not have dreamt of a better predisposition. How is it, then, that their inner preparation was so lets just say incomplete, that they did not feel the Vibration immediately, as soon as it came, through a shock of identity?
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?
Well, in any event, that was the case for those who had a little inner contact; they recognized it, they felt it, and they said, Ah, there it is! It has come! But how is it that so many hundreds of peoplenot to mention the handful of those who really wanted only that, thought only of that, had staked their whole lives on thathow is it that they felt nothing? What can this mean?
It is well known that only like knows like. It is an obvious fact.
there was indeed a possibility to enter into contact with the Thing individuallythis was even what Sri Aurobindo had described as being the necessary procedure: a certain number of people would enter into contact with this Force through their inner effort and their aspiration. We had called it the ascent towards the Supermind. And IF and when they had touched the Supermind through an inner ascent (that is, by freeing themselves from the material consciousness), they should have recognized it SPONTANEOUSLY as soon as it came. But a preliminary contact was indispensableif you have never touched it, how can you recognize it?
Thats how the universal movement works (I read this to you a few days ago): through their inner effort and inner progress, certain individuals, who are the pioneers, the forerunners, enter into communication with the new Force which is to manifest, and they receive it in themselves. And because a number of calls like this surge forth, the thing becomes possible, and the era, the time, the moment for the manifestation comes. This is how it happened and the Manifestation took place.
But then, all those who were ready should have recognized it.
I hasten to tell you that some did recognize it, but they were so few But as for those who ask these questions, who even took the trouble to come here, who took the train to gulp this down as you gulp down a soft drink, how can they possibly feel anything whatsoever if they have not prepared themselves at all? Yet they are already speaking of profiting: We want to benefit from it
After all, if they have even a tiny bit of sincerity (not too much, its tiring!), a tiny bit of sincerity, it is quite possible (I am joking), it is quite possible that they might get a few good kicks to make them go faster! It is possible. In fact, I think thats what will happen.
But really, this attitude this ra ther overly commercial attitude, is usually not very profitable. If you have difficulties and you sincerely aspire, it is likely that the difficulties will diminish. Let us hope so.
(Turning to the disciple) So you may tell them this: be sincere and you will be helped.
Mo ther, 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.
Yes, yes, yes! I indeed said all that. I acknowledge it. And so?
It is said, the supramental principle is at work
But I have just explained the whole thing to you! (Mo ther laughs) Its incredible!
What I call a descent is this: first of all, the consciousness climbs in ascent, then you catch the Thing up above and redescend with it. This is an INDIVIDUAL event.
When this individual event has taken place sufficiently to allow a more general possibility to emerge, it is no longer a descent but a manifestation.
What I call a descent is the individual movement in an individual consciousness. But when a new world is manifesting in an old worldas when similarly the mind spread over the earth I call it a manifestation.
You may call it whatever you like, it makes no difference to me, but we must understand each o ther.
What I call a descent takes place in the individual consciousness. In the same way, we speak of ascent ( there is no ascent really, there is no high or low, no direction: its all a manner of speaking)we speak of ascent when we feel ourselves rising up towards something, and we call it a descent when, after having caught this thing, we bring it down into ourselves.
But when the doors are opened and the flood pours in, it can no longer be called a descent: it is a Force that spreads everywhere. Understood? Ah!
I dont care what words you use. I do not essentially insist upon my words, but I explain them to you, and its better to agree on words beforehand, for o therwise theres no end to explanations.
But now, you may reply to those people who are asking these insidious questions that the best way to receive anything whatsoever is not to pull, but to give. If they want to give themselves to the new life, well, the new life will enter into them.
But if they want to pull the new life into themselves, they will close the door with their egoism. Thats all.
Mo ther is referring to the darshan of April 24, 1956. Four times a year, for 'darshan,' visitors increasingly poured into the Ashram to pass one by one before Mo ther (and formerly, Sri Aurobindo) to receive her look.
***
0 1956-07-29, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
O Thou who art always therepresent in all I do, all I amnot for repose do I aspire, but for THY INTEGRAL VICTORY.
***
0 1956-08-10, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
My Lord, through me thou hast challenged the world and all the adverse forces have risen in protest.1
But Thy Grace is winning the victory.
In fact, following the 'Supramental Manifestation' of February 29, 1956, all of Mo ther's physical difficulties increased, as though all the obscurities in the physical consciousness were surging forth beneath the pressure of the new light. the same observation applies to the disciples who were around Mo ther and undoubtedly to the world as a whole. A strange 'mysterious acceleration' was beginning to take hold of the world.
***
0 1956-09-12, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
This text was noted down by a disciple from memory. On the original manuscript submitted for her approval, Mo ther wrote, 'This account is quite correct,' and She signed the text. Words added or corrected by Mo ther are in italics.
(During the Wednesday class)
A supramental entity had entirely possessed me.
--
A light, not like the golden light of the Supermind: ra ther a kind of phosphorescence. I felt that had it been night, it would have been physically visible.
And it was denser than my physical body: the physical body seemed to me almost unrealas though crumblylike sand running through your fingers.
I would have been incapable of speaking, words seemed so petty, narrow, ignorant.
I saw (how shall I put it?) the successive preparations which took place, in certain anterior beings, in order to achieve this.
It felt as if I had several heads.
the experience of February 29 was of a general nature; but this one was intended for me.
An experience I had never had.
I begin to see what the supramental body will be.
I had had a somewhat similar experience at the time of the union of the supreme creative principle with the physical consciousness. But that was a subtle experience, while this was materialin the body.
I did not have the experience, I did not look at it: I WAS it.
And it radiated from me: myriads of little sparks that were penetrating everybody I saw them enter into each one of those present.
One more step.
0 1956-09-14, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
My friends keep telling me that I am not ready and that, like R,1 whom they knew, I should go and spend some time in society. they say that my idea of going to the Himalayas is absurd, and they advise me to return to Brazil for a few years to stay with W W is an elderly American millionaire the only good rich man I knowwho wanted to make me an heir, as it were, to his financial affairs and who treats me ra ther like a son. He was quite disappointed when I came back to India. My friends tell me that if I have to go through a period in the outside world, the best way to do it is to remain near someone who is fond of me, while at the same time ensuring a material independence for the future.
these questions of money do not interest me. In fact, nothing interests me except this something I feel within me. the only question for me is to know whe ther I am truly ready for the Yoga, or if my failings are not the sign of some immaturity. Mo ther, you alone can tell me what is right.
I feel a bit lost, cut off from you. the idea of going to the Himalayas is absurd and I am abandoning it. My friends tell me that I may remain with them as long as I wish, but this is hardly a solution; I dont even feel like writing a book any longernothing seems to appeal to me except the trees in this garden and the music that fills a large part of my days. there is no solution o ther than the Ashram or Brazil. You alone can tell me what to do.
I KNOW that ultimately my place is near you, but is that my place at present, after all these failings? Spontaneously, it is you I want, you alone who represent the light and all that is real in this world; I can love no one but you nor be interested in anything but this thing within me, but will it not all begin again once I have returned to the Ashram? You alone know the stage I am at, what is good for me, what is possible.
Sweet Mo ther, may I still ask for your Love, your help? For without your help, nothing is possible, and without your love, nothing has any meaning.
--
For my part, there has been no cut and I have not been severe My feelings cannot change, for they are based upon something o ther than outer circumstances.
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 never theless are always with you.
You asked me what I see and whe ther 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.
This possibility appeared to me while reading what you wrote about your sojourn in Brazil with W, the only good rich man you have known. Here is my proposal, which I express to you quite plainly, spontaneously, as it presented itself to me.
Just now, the work is being delayed, curtailed, limited, almost endangered for want of money.
That which you would not do for yourself personally, would you not do it for the divine cause?
Go to Brazil, to this good rich man, make him understand the importance of our work, the extent to which his fortune would be used to the utmost for the good of all and for the earths salvation were he to put it, even partially, at the disposal of our action. Win this victory over the power of money, and by so doing you will be freed from all your personal difficulties. then you can return here with no apprehension, and you will be ready for the transformation.
Reflect upon this, take your time, tell me very frankly how you feel about it and whe ther it appears to you, as it does to me, to be a door opening onto a path that will bring you back, free and strong at last to me.
--
A former disciple who left the Ashram, and subsequently committed suicide.
***
0 1956-10-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I cried towards the Light
and Thou gavest me knowledge.
Z asked me, Why didnt you stop it?1 I replied, Probably because I am not omnipotent! then he insisted: No, thats not it. I make no distinction between your will and the divine will and I know that you dont ei ther. So why didnt you stop it?
And suddenly, I understood.
It was because I hadnt thought of it. It hadnt even grazed my consciousness. the divine will is not at all like that, it is not a will: it is a VISION, a global vision, that sees and No, it does not guide (to guide suggests something outside, but nothing is outside), a creative vision, as it were; yet even then, the word create does not here have the meaning we generally attribute to it.
And what is the Ashram? (I dont even mean in terms of the Universeon Earth only.) A speck. And why should this speck receive exceptional treatment? Perhaps if people here had realized the supermind. But are they so exceptional as to expect exceptional treatment?
As Sri Aurobindo says, people see God as a magnified man: he is the Demiurge, Jehovahwhat I call the Lord of Falsehood.
Arbitrariness. But the Divine is not like that!
People say, I gave everything, I sacrificed everything. In exchange, I expect exceptional conditionseverything should be beautiful, harmonious, easy.
But the divine vision is global. the people in the Ashram do not want this strike but what about the o thers? they are ignorant, mean, full of ill will, etc., but in their own way they are following a path, and why should they be deprived of the Grace? By the fact that their action is against the Ashram? It is certainly a Grace.
I said that I had not even thought of intervening. When things threatened to turn bad, I simply applied a force so that it wouldnt become too serious.
Complete surrender It is not a matter of giving what is small to something greater nor of losing ones will in the divine will; it is a matter of ANNULLING ones will in something that is of ano ther nature.
What comes to replace this human will?
--
I used to be different (although I was said to be non-interfering); I acted, if at all, to defend myself But I understood very quickly that even this was a reaction of ignorance and that things would be set right automatically if one remained in the true consciousness.
A consciousness that sees and makes you see.
Which is why things go amiss when people try to force me to act: I am outside of myself, so to speak. As soon as I come back here, with no one around, then I see.
I have called for a greater package of Grace and asked that the truth of things prevail. We shall see what happens.
Mo ther is referring to a strike by the salaried workers of the Ashram, one of the numerous internal and external difficulties constantly assailing Her.
***
0 1956-10-08, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(At about 6 a.m., before Mo ther appeared on the balcony)
Be always at the height of yourself, in all circumstances.
then I wondered when and how I am at the height of myself. And this is what I saw:
Two things which were parallel and concomitant that is, they are always toge ther:
Oneidentity with the Origin, which imparts an absolute serenity and perfect detachment to the action.
the o theridentity with the supreme Grace, which obliterates and abolishes all errors committed in the action by whomsoever and whatsoever and which annuls all the consequences of these errors.
And the moment I perceived this, I saw that my third attitude in action, which is the will for progress for the whole earth as well as for each particular individual, was not the height of my being.
***
--
One is never anything but a divine apprentice: the Divine of yesterday is only an apprentice to the Divine of tomorrow No, I am not speaking of a progressive manifestation that is much far ther below.
When I am at my highest, I am already too high for the manifestation.
I have gone far beyond what I wrote this morning.
What if the human is too heavy, too narrow, too obscure to follow you?
No, it is exactly the opposite of what you are saying. It is not that the Divine in his divinity is opposed to his own manifested selfHe is very far beyond, beyond the necessity for Grace; He perceives his unique and exclusive responsibility, and that it is He and He alone who must change in His Manifestation so that all may change.
***
--
I wanted to take this little rose (Tenderness for the Divine), for I consider it to be the manifestation nearest to divine Love. Its disinterested, spontaneous, intimate.
This is what I wanted to take with me to my super-heaven, as the most precious thing in the human heart.
***
0 1956-10-28, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Sweet Mo ther, 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 o ther, 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 wi thered, suspended in a void, nothing seems to give me direction anymore. there is no rebelliousness in me, but ra ther 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?
Mo ther, 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 Mo ther. Whatever my shortcomings, my difficulties, I feel I am so deeply your child.
Signed: Bernard
P.S. If you see that I should remain here, put in me the necessary strength and aspiration. I shall obey you. I want to obey you.
***
--
One should beware of the charm of memories. What remains of past experiences is the effect they have had in the development of the consciousness. But when one attempts to relive a memory by placing oneself again in similar circumstances, one realizes quite rapidly how devoid they are of their power and charm, because they have lost their usefulness for progress.
You are now beyond the stage when the virgin forest and the desert can be useful for your growth. they had put you in contact with a life vaster than your own and they widened the limits of your consciousness. But now you need something else.
So far, your whole life has revolved around yourself; all you have done, even the apparently most disinterested or least egoistic act, has been done with a view to your own personal growth or illumination. It is time to live for something o ther than yourself, something o ther than your own individuality.
Open a new chapter in your existence. Live, no longer for your own realization or the realization of your ideal, however exalted it may be, but to serve an eternal work that transcends your individuality on all sides.
Signed: Mo ther
0 1956-11-22, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
For weeks on end, I have been spending nearly all my nights battling with serpents. Last night, I was attacked by three different kinds of serpents, each more venomous and repugnant than the o ther???
Signed: Bernard
0 1956-12-12, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Mo ther, what can I do with my life? I feel absolutely alone, in a void. What hope remains since I have not been able to integrate into the Ashram? I am goalless. I am from nowhere. I am good for nothing.
I have wanted to remain near you, and I love you, but there is something in me that does not accept an Ashram ending. there is a need in me to DO, to act. But what? What? Have I something to do in this life?
For years I have dreamed of going to Chinese Turkestan. Should I head in that direction? Or towards Africa?
I dont see a thing, nothing. Oh Mo ther, I turn towards you in this void that is stifling me. Hear my prayer. Tell me what I must do. Give me a sign. Mo ther, you are my sole recourse, for who else would show me the path to be taken, who else but you would love me? Or is my fate to go off into the night?
Forgive me, Mo ther, for loving you so poorly, for giving myself so badly. Mo ther, you are my only hope, all the rest in me is utter despair.
Your child,
0 1956-12-26, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I feel that this Truth of my being, this self most intensely felt, is independent from any form or institution. As far back as I can reach in my consciousness, this thing has been there; it was what drove me at an early age to liberate myself from my family, my religion, my country, a profession, marriage or society in general. I feel this thing to be a kind of absolute freedom, and I have been feeling within me this same profound drive for more than a year. Is this need for freedom wrong? And yet is it not because of this that the best in me has blossomed?
This is actually what is happening in me: I never really accepted the W solution, and the solution of Somalil and doesnt appeal to me. But I feel drawn by the idea of Turkestan, as I already told you, and this is why:
Ten years ago, I had two intuitions the first of which, to my great astonishment, was realized. It was that I had something important to do in South America and though I never could have foreseen such a voyage, I went there. the second was that I had something to do in Turkestan.
Mo ther, this is the problem around which I have desperately been turning in circles. What is the truth of my destiny? Is it that which is urging me so strongly to leave, or that which is struggling against my freedom? For ultimately, sincerely, what I want is to fulfill my lifes truth. If I have ever had a will, then it is: LET BE WHAT MUST BE. Mo ther, how can one truly know? Is this drive, this very old and very CLEAR urge in me, false??
Your child,
0 1957-01-01, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
can alone win the victory.
It is not a crucified
--
that will save the world.
***
0 1957-01-18, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
the conflict that is tearing me apart is between this shadowy part of a past that does not want to die, and the new light. I wonder if, ra ther than escaping to some desert, it would not be wiser to resolve this conflict by objectify it, by writing this book I spoke to you about.
But I would like to know whe ther it is really useful for me to write this book, or whe ther it is not just some inferior task, a makeshift.
You told me one day that I could be useful to you. then, by chance, I came across this passage from Sri Aurobindo the o ther day: Everyone has in him something divine, something his own, a chance of perfection and strength in however small a sphere which God offers him to take or refuse.
Could you tell me, as a favor, what this particular thing is in me which may be useful to you and serve you? If I could only know what my real work is in this world All the conflicting impulses in me stem from my being like an unemployed force, like a being whose place has not yet been determined.
What do you see in me, Mo ther? Is it through writing that I shall achieve what is to be achievedor does all this still belong to a ne ther world? But if so, then of what use am I? If I were good at something, it would give me some air to brea the.
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 for there 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, Mo ther, 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.
Thus I am so tense that I do not even want to close my eyes to meditate for fear of yielding. And I fall into all kinds of errors that horrify me, simply because the pressure is too strong at times, and I literally suffocate. Mo ther, I am not cut out to be a disciple.
I realize that all the progress I was able to make during the first two years has been lost and I am just as before, worse than beforeas if all my strength were in ruin, all faith in myself undoneso much so that at times I curse myself for having come here at all.
That is the situation, Mo ther. I feel my unworthiness profoundly. I am the opposite of Satprem, unable to love and to give myself. Everything in me is sealed tight.
So what is to be done? I intend asking your permission to leave as soon as the book is finished (I am determined to finish it, for it will rid me of the past it represents). I expect nothing from the world, except a bit of external space, in the absence of ano ther space.
Signed: Bernard
--
I read your letter yesterday, and here is the answer that immediately came to me. I add to it the assurance that nothing has changed, nor can change, in my relationship with you, and that you are and always will be my child for that is the truth of your being.
Here is what I wrote:
In your ignorance, you created a phantom of your destiny, and then, out of this non-existent ghost, you made a hobgoblin around which all the resistances of your outer nature have crystallized.
It is a double ignorance:
in the universe, there are not there cannot betwo similar destinies.
each ones destiny is inevitably fulfilled, but the nearer one is to the Divine, the more does this destiny assume its divine qualities.
I am saying all this so that you do not hypnotize yourself fur ther with some imaginary and groundless possibility.
0 1957-04-22, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
the book is finished.1 I would like to give it to you personally, if it would not disturb you, whenever you wish.
Your child,
0 1957-07-03, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Extract from the Wednesday class)
I have been asked if we are doing a collective yoga and what are the conditions of a collective yoga.
First, I could tell you that to do a collective yoga, there has to be a collectivity! And I could speak to you about the different conditions required to be a collectivity. But last night (smiling), I had a symbolic vision of our collectivity.
This vision took place early in the night and woke me up with a ra ther unpleasant feeling. then I fell back to sleep and forgot about it; but a little while ago, when I was thinking of the question put to me, it returned. It returned with a great intensity and so imperatively that now, just as I wanted to tell you what kind of collectivity we wish to realize according to the ideal described by Sri Aurobindo in the last chapter of the Life Divinea gnostic, supramental collectivity, the only kind that can do Sri Aurobindos integral yoga and be realized physically in a progressive collective body becoming more and more divine the recollection of this vision became so imperative that I couldnt speak.
Its symbolism was very clear, though of quite a familiar nature, as it were, and because of its very familiarity, unmistakable in its realism Were I to tell you all the details, you would probably not even be able to follow: it was ra ther intricate. It was a kind of (how can I express it?)an immense hotel where all the terrestrial possibilities were lodged in different apartments. And it was all in a constant state of transformation: parts or entire wings of the building were suddenly torn down and rebuilt while people were still living in them, such that if you went off somewhere within the immense hotel itself, you ran the risk of no longer finding your room when you wanted to return to it, for it might have been torn down and was being rebuilt according to ano ther plan! It was orderly, it was organized yet there was this fantastic chaos which I mentioned. And all this was a symbola symbol that certainly applies to what Sri Aurobindo has written here1 regarding the necessity for the transformation of the body, the type of transformation that has to take place for life to become a divine life.
It went something like this: somewhere, in the center of this enormous edifice, there was a room reservedas it seemed in the story for a mo ther and her daughter. the mo ther was a lady, an elderly lady, a very influential matron who had a great deal of authority and her own views concerning the entire organization. Her daughter seemed to have a power of movement and activity enabling her to be everywhere at once while at the same time remaining in her room, which was well, a bit more than a roomit was a kind of apartment which, above all, had the characteristic of being very central. But she was constantly arguing with her mo ther. the mo ther wanted to keep things just as they were, with their usual rhythm, which precisely meant the habit of tearing down one thing to rebuild ano ther, then again tearing down that to build still ano ther, thus giving the building an appearance of frightful confusion. But the daughter did not like this, and she had ano ther plan. Most of all, she wanted to bring something completely new into the organization: a kind of super-organization that would render all this confusion unnecessary. Finally, as it was impossible for them to reach an understanding, the daughter left the room to go on a kind of general inspection She went out, looked everything over, and then wanted to return to her room to decide upon some final measures. But this is where something ra ther peculiar began happening.
She clearly remembered where her room was, but each time she set out to go there, ei ther the staircase disappeared or things were so changed that she could no longer find her way! So she went here and there, up and down, searched, went in and out but it was impossible to find the way to her room! Since all of this assumed a physical appearanceas I said, a very familiar and very common appearance, as is always the case in these symbolic visions there was somewhere (how shall I put it?) the hotels administrative office and a woman who seemed to be the manager, who had all the keys and who knew where everyone was staying. So the daughter went to this person and asked her, Could you show me the way to my room?But of course! Easily! Everyone around the manager looked at her as if to say, How can you say that? However, she got up, and with authority asked for a key the key to the daughters roomsaying, I shall take you there. And off she went along all kinds of paths, but all so complicated, so bizarre! the daughter was following along behind her very attentively, you see, so as not to lose sight of her. But just as they should have come to the place where the daughters room was supposed to be, suddenly the manageress (let us call her the manageress), both the manageress and her key vanished! And the sense of this vanishing was so acute that at the same time, everything vanished!
So to help you understand this enigma, let me tell you that the mo ther 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 altoge ther incapable of leading what could be called the creative consciousness of the new world to its true place.
I knew this, but I did not have a vision of the solution, which means it has yet to manifest; this thing had not yet manifested in the building, this fantastic construction, although it is the very mode of consciousness which could transform this incoherent creation into something real, truly conceived, willed and materialized, with a center in its proper place, a recognized place, and with a REAL effective power.
(silence)
the symbolism is quite clear in that all the possibilities are there, all the activities are there, but in disorder and confusion. they are nei ther coordinated nor centralized nor unified around the central and unique truth and consciousness and will. So this brings us back precisely to this question of a collective yoga and of a collectivity capable of realizing it. What should this collectivity be?
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 toge ther 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 toge ther, 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 toge ther, band toge ther, 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 o ther members of the community; that is, each one should not feel himself a member connected to all the o thers in an arbitrary way, but that all are one within himself. For each one, the o thers 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.
(silence)
This means that before hoping to realize such a gnostic collectivity, each one must first of all become (or at least start to become) a gnostic being. It is obvious that the individual work must take the lead and the collective work follow; but the fact remains that spontaneously, without any arbitrary intervention of will the individual progress IS restrained or CHECKED, as It were, by the collective state. Between the collectivity and the individual, there exists an interdependence from which one cannot be totally free, even if one tries. And even he who might try, in his yoga, to free himself totally from the human and terrestrial state of consciousness, would be at least subconsciously bound by the state of the whole, which impedes and PULLS BACKWARDS. One can attempt to go much faster, one can attempt to let all the weight of attachments and responsibilities fall off, but in spite of everything, the realization of even the most advanced or the leader in the march of evolution is dependent upon the realization of the whole, dependent upon the state in which the terrestrial collectivity happens to be. And this PULLS backwards to such an extent that sometimes one has to wait centuries for the earth to be ready before being able to realize what is to be realized.
This is why Sri Aurobindo has also written somewhere else that a double movement is necessary: the effort for individual progress and realization must be combined with the effort of trying to uplift the whole so as to enable it to make a progress indispensable for the greater progress of the individual: a mass progress, if you will, that allows the individual to take a fur ther step forward.
And now you understand why I had thought it would be useful to have a few meditations in common, to work at creating a common atmosphere a bit more organized than my big hotel of last night!
So, the best way to use these meditations (and they are going to increase, since we are now also going to replace the distributions with short meditations) is to go deep within yourselves, as far as you can, and find the place where you can feel, perceive and perhaps even create an atmosphere of oneness wherein a force of order and organization can put each element in its true place, and out of the chaos existing at this hour, make a new, harmonious world surge forth.
the Supramental Manifestation, (Cent. Ed. XVI, pp. 33-36.)
***
0 1957-07-18, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I have just received a letter from my friends in charge of the French Archaeological Expedition to Afghanistan. they need someone to assist them on their next field excavations (August 15 December 15) and have offered to take me if I wish to join them.
If I must have some new experience outside, this one has the advantage of being short-termed and not far away from India, and it is also in an interesting milieu. the only disadvantage is that I would have to pay for the trip as far as Kabul. But I dont want to do anything that displeases you or of which you do not really approve. In the event you might feel this to be a worthwhile experience, I would have to leave by the beginning of August.
I place this in your hands, sincerely.
0 1957-10-08, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I come to ask your permission to leave India. For more than a year now, I have been fighting not to leave, but this seems to be the wrong strategy.
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?
It is not because I am unhappy with the Ashram that I want to leave, but because I am unhappy with myself and because I want to master myself through o ther means.
I give you so little love, but I have tried my best, and my departure is not a betrayal.
--
there is a joy to which you still seem completely closed: it is the joy of SERVING.
In truth, the only thing in the world that interests you, directly or indirectly, is YOURSELF. That is why you feel imprisoned within such narrow, stifling limits.
Signed: Mo ther
Of Mo ther's French translation of these two books by Sri Aurobindo.
***
0 1957-10-17, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
there are all kinds of freedommental freedom, vital freedom, spiritual freedomwhich are the fruits of successive masteries. But a completely new freedom has become possible with the Supramental Manifestation: it is the freedom of the body.
One of the very first results of the supramental manifestation was to give the body a freedom and an autonomy it has never before known. And when I say freedom, I dont mean some psychological perception or an inner state of consciousness, but something else and far betterit is a new phenomenon in the body, in the cells of the body. For the first time, the cells themselves have felt that they are free, that they have the power to decide. When the new vibrations came and combined with the old ones, I felt it at once and it showed me that a new world was really taking birth.
In its normal state, the body always feels that it is not its own master: illnesses invade it without its really being able to resist thema thousand factors impose themselves or exert pressure upon it. Its sole power is the power to defend itself, to react. Once the illness has got in, it can fight and overcome iteven modern medicine has acknowledged that the body is cured only when it decides to get cured; it is not the drugs per se that heal, for if the ailment is temporarily suppressed by a drug without the bodys will, it grows up again elsewhere in some o ther form until the body itself has decided to be cured. But this implies only a defensive power, the power to react against an invading enemyit is not true freedom.
But with the supramental manifestation, something new has taken place in the body: it feels it is its own master, autonomous, with its two feet solidly on the ground, as it were. This gives a physical impression of the whole being suddenly drawing itself up, with its head lifted high I am my own master.
We live perennially with a burden on our shoulders, something that bows our heads down, and we feel pulled, led by all kinds of external forces, we dont know by whom or what, nor where tothis is what men call Fate, Destiny. When you do yoga, one of the first experiences the experience of the kundalini, as it is called here in Indiais precisely one in which the consciousness rises, breaks through this hard lid, here, at the crown of the head, and at last you emerge into the Light. then you see, you know, you decide and you realizedifficulties may still remain, but truly speaking one is above them. Well, as a result of the supramental manifestation, it is THIS experience that came into the body. the body straightened its head up and felt its freedom, its independence.
During the flu epidemic, for example, I spent every day in the midst of people who were germ carriers. And one day, I clearly felt that the body had decided not to catch this flu. It asserted its autonomy. You see, it was not a question of the higher Will deciding, no. It didnt take place in the highest consciousness: the body itself decided. When you are way above in your consciousness, you see things, you know things; but in actual fact, once you descend again into matter, it is like water running through sand. In this respect, things have changed, the body has a DIRECT power, independent of any outer intervention. Even though it is barely visible, I consider this to be a very important result.
And this new vibration in the body has allowed me to understand the mechanism of the transformation. It is not something that comes from a higher Will, not a higher consciousness that imposes itself upon the body: it is the body itself awakening in its cells, a freedom of the cells themselves, an absolutely new vibration that sets disorders righteven disorders that existed prior to the supramental manifestation.
Naturally, all this is a gradual process, but I am hopeful that little by little this new consciousness will grow, gain ground and victoriously resist the old forces of destruction and annihilation, and this Fatality we believed to be so inexorable.
***
0 1957-10-18, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
This evening, you spoke of the possibility of shortening the path of realization to a few months, days or hours. And yesterday, when you talked to me about the freedom of the body, you spoke of the experience of the Kundalini, of this breaking of the lid that makes you emerge once and for all, above difficulties, into the light.
I need a practical method corresponding to my present possibilities and to results of which I am presently capable. I feel that my efforts are dispersed by concentrating sometimes here, sometimes therea feeling of not knowing exactly what to do to break through and get out of all this. Would you point out some particular concentration to which I could adhere, a particular method that I would stick to?
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,
--
This unique method was to be the mantra, as Mo ther herself would discover.
***
0 1957-11-12, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
the integral yoga is made up of an uninterrupted series of tests that you must pass through without any advance notice, thereby forcing you to be always vigilant and attentive.
Three groups of examiners conduct these tests. Apparently they have nothing in common and their methods are so different, at times even so seemingly contradictory, that they do not appear to work towards the same goal, and yet they complete one ano ther, they work toge ther for a common aim and each is indispensable for the integral result.
these three categories of tests are: those conducted by the forces of Nature, those conducted by the spiritual and divine forces, and those conducted by the hostile forces. This latter category is the most deceptive in its appearance, and a constant state of vigilance, sincerity and humility is required so as not to be caught by surprise or unprepared.
the most commonplace circumstances, people, the everyday events of life, the most seemingly insignificant things, all belong to one or ano ther of these three categories of examiners. In this considerably complex organization of tests, those events generally considered the most important in life are really the easiest of all examinations to pass, for they find you prepared and on your guard. One stumbles more easily over the little pebbles on the path, for they attract no attention.
the qualities more particularly required for the tests of physical Nature are endurance and plasticity, cheerfulness and fearlessness.
For the spiritual tests: aspiration, confidence, idealism, enthusiasm and generosity in self-giving.
For the tests stemming from the hostile forces: vigilance, sincerity and humility.
But do not imagine that those who are tested are on one side and those who test on the o ther; depending upon the times and circumstances, we are both examiners and examined, and it may even happen that simultaneously, at the very same moment, we are the examined and the examiner. And whatever benefits we derive depend, in both quality and quantity, upon the intensity of our aspiration and the alertness of our consciousness.
To conclude, a final recommendation: never pose as an examiner. For while it is good to remember constantly that perhaps one is passing a very important test, it is, on the o ther hand, extremely dangerous to imagine oneself entrusted with applying tests to o thers, for that is an open door to the most absurd and harmful vanities. It is not an ignorant human will that decides these things but the Supreme Wisdom.
***
Each time a progress is to be made, there is a test to pass.
***
0 1957-11-13, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Widen yourself as far as the extreme bounds of the universe and beyond.
Take upon yourself always all the necessities of progress and dissolve them in the ecstasy of Unity. then you will be divine.
***
0 1957-12-13, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Sweet Mo ther, 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.
Mo ther, 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 Mo ther.
Your child,
0 1957-12-21, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
the o ther day you told me that in order to know things, you plug into the subtle plane, and there it all unrolls as on a tape recorder. How does this work, exactly?
there is a whole gradation of planes of consciousness, from the physical consciousness to my radiant consciousness at the very highest level, that which knows the Will of the Supreme. I keep all these planes of consciousness in front of me, working simultaneously, coordinatedly, and I am acting on each plane, ga thering the information proper to each plane, so as to have the integral truth of things. Thus, when I have a decision to make in regard to one of you, I plug into you directly from that level of the supreme consciousness which sees the deep truth of your being. But at the same time, my decision is shaped, as it were, by the information given to me by the o ther planes of consciousness and particularly by the physical consciousness, which acts as a recorder.
This physical consciousness records all it sees, all your reactions, your thoughts, all the factswithout preference, without prejudice, without personal will. Nothing escapes it. Its work is almost mechanical. therefore I know what to tell or to ask you according to the integral truth of your being and its present possibilities. Ordinarily, in the normal man, the physical consciousness does not see things as they are, for three reasons: because of ignorance, because of preference, and because of an egoistic will. You color what you see, eliminate what displeases you. In short, you see only what you desire to see.
Now, I recently had a very striking experience: a discrepancy occurred between my physical consciousness and the consciousness of the world. In some instances decisions made in the Light and the Truth produced unexpected results, upheavals in the consciousness of o thers that were nei ther foreseen nor desired, and I did not understand. No matter how hard I tried, I could not understand and I emphasize this word understand. At last, I had to leave my highest consciousness and pull myself down into the physical consciousness to find out what was happening. And there, in my head, I saw what appeared to be a little cell bursting, and suddenly I understood: the recording had been defective. the physical consciousness had neglected to register certain of your lower reactions. It could not have been through preference or through personal will ( these things were eliminated from my consciousness long, long ago). But I saw that this most material consciousness was already completely permeated with the transforming supramental truth, and it could no longer follow the rhythm of normal life. It was much more attuned to the true consciousness than to the world! I couldnt possibly blame it for lagging behind; on the contrary, it was in front, too far ahead! there was a discrepancy between the rhythm of the transformation of my being and the worlds own rhythm. the supramental action on the world is slow, it does not act directlyit acts by infiltration, by traversing the successive layers, and the results are slow to come about. So I had to pull myself violently down in order to wait for the o thers.
One must at times know how not to know.
This experience showed me once more the necessity to be perfectly humble before the Lord. It is not enough merely to rise to the heights, to the e thereal planes of consciousness: these planes have also to descend into matter and illuminate it. O therwise, nothing is really done. One must have the patience to establish the communication between the high and the low. I am like a tempest, a hurricaneif I listened to myself, I would tear into the future, and everything would go flying! But then, there would no longer be any communication with the rest.
One must have the patience to wait.
Humility, a perfect humility, is the condition for all realization. the mind is so cocksure. It thinks it knows everything, understands everything. And if ever it acts through idealism to serve a cause that appears noble to it, it becomes even more arrogant more intransigent, and it is almost impossible to make it see that there might be something still higher beyond its noble conceptions and its great altruistic or o ther ideals. Humility is the only remedy. I am not speaking of humility as conceived by certain religions, with this God that belittles his creatures and only likes to see them down on their knees. When I was a child, this kind of humility revolted me, and I refused to believe in a God that wants to belittle his creatures. I dont mean that kind of humility, but ra ther the recognition that one does not know, that one knows nothing, and that there may be something beyond what presently appears to us as the truest, the most noble or disinterested. True humility consists in constantly referring oneself to the Lord, in placing all before Him. When I receive a blow (and there are quite a few of them in my sadhana), my immediate, spontaneous reaction, like a spring, is to throw myself before Him and to say, Thou, Lord. Without this humility, I would never have been able to realize anything. And I say I only to make myself understood, but in fact I means the Lord through this body, his instrument. When you begin living THIS kind of humility, it means you are drawing nearer to the realization. It is the condition, the starting point.
***
(Note written by Mo ther in connection with the conversation of December 21, 1957)
At the very top, a constant vision of the Supremes will.
In the world, an overall vision of what is to be done.
Individually, at each moment and in each circumstance, the vision of the truth of the moment, of the circumstance, of the individual.
In the external consciousness, the impersonal and mechanical recording of what is happening and of what are the people and things that comprise both the field of action and the limitations imposed upon this action. the recording is innately automatic and mechanical, without any kind of evaluation, as objective as possible.
***
0 1958-01-01, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Extract from the Wednesday class)
O Nature, Material Mo ther,
--
and there is no limit
to the splendor of this collaboration.
(Message of January 1, 1958)
--
there is nothing to explain. It is an experience, something that took place, and when it took place, I noted it down; and it so happens that it occurred just as I remembered that I had to write something for the new year (which at that time was the following year, that is, the year beginning today). When I remembered that I had to write somethingnot because of that, but simultaneouslythis experience came, and when I noted it down, I realized that it was the message for this year!
(Mo ther reads the notation of her experience)
During one of our classes (October 30, 1957), I spoke of the limitless abundance of Nature, this tireless Creatrice who takes the multitude of forms, mixes them toge ther, separates them again and reforms them, again undoes them, again destroys them, in order to move on to ever new combinations. As I said, it is a huge cauldron. Things get churned up in it and somehow something emerges; if its defective, it is thrown back in and something else is taken out One form, two forms or a hundred forms make no difference to her, there are thousands upon thousands of formsand one year, a hundred years, a thousand years, millions of years, what difference does it make? Eternity lies before her! She quite obviously enjoys herself and is in no hurry. If you speak to her of pressing on or of rushing through some part of her work or o ther, her reply is always the same: But what for? Why? Arent you enjoying it?
the evening I told you these things, I totally identified myself with Nature and I entered into her play. And this movement of identification brought forth a response, a new kind of intimacy between Nature and myself, a long movement of drawing ever nearer which culminated in an experience that came on November 8.
Nature suddenly understood. She understood that this newborn Consciousness does not seek to reject her, but wants to embrace her entirely. She understood that this new spirituality does not stand apart from life, does not timorously recoil before the awesome richness of her movement, but on the contrary wants to integrate all her facets. She understood that the supramental consciousness is not there to diminish her but to make her complete.
then, from the supreme Reality came this command: Awaken, O Nature, to the joy of collaboration. And suddenly, all Nature rushed forth in an immense bounding of joy, saying, I accept! I will collaborate! And at the same time, there came a calm, an absolute tranquillity, to allow this receptacle, this body, to receive and contain without breaking and without losing anything of the Joy of Nature that was rushing forth in a movement of grateful recognition like an overwhelming flood. She accepted, she sawwith all eternity before her that this supramental consciousness would fulfill her more perfectly and impart a still greater force to her movement and more richness, more possibilities to her play.
And suddenly, as if resounding from every corner of the earth, I heard these great notes which are sometimes heard in the subtle physicalra ther like those of Beethovens Concerto in Dwhich come at moments of great progress, as though fifty orchestras were bursting forth all at once without a single discordant note, to sound the joy of this new communion of Nature and Spirit, the meeting of old friends who, after a long separation, find each o ther once more.
then came these words: O Nature, Material Mo ther, thou hast said that thou wilt collaborate, and there is no limit to the splendor of this collaboration.
And the radiant felicity of this splendor was perceived in a perfect peace.
Such was the birth of this years message.
***
--
I have one thing to add: we must not misinterpret the meaning of this experience and imagine that henceforth everything will take place without difficulties or always in accordance with our personal desires. It is not at this level. It does not mean that when we do not want it to rain, it will not rain! Or when we want some event to take place in the world, it will immediately take place, or that all difficulties will be abolished and everything will be like a fairy tale. It is not like that. It is something more profound. Nature has accepted into her play of forces the newly manifested Force and has included it in her movements. But as always, the movements of Nature take place on a scale infinitely surpassing the human scale and invisible to the ordinary human consciousness. It is more of an inner, psychological possibility that has been born in the world than a spectacular change in earthly events.
I mention this because you might be tempted to believe that fairy tales are going to be realized upon earth. the time has not yet come.
(silence)
--
the miracles that are taking place are not what could be called literary miracles, for they do not take place as in storybooks. they are visible only to a very profound vision of thingsvery profound, very comprehensive, very vast.
(silence)
You first have to be able to follow the methods and the means of the Grace to recognize its action. You first have to be able to remain unblinded by appearances to see the deeper truth of things.
***
0 1958-01-22, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
It is an error to confuse Joy and Felicity. they are two very different things. Not only are their vibrations different, but their colors are different. the color of Felicity is blue, a clear silvery blue ( the blue of the Ashram flag), very luminous and transparent. And it has a passive and fresh quality that refreshes and rejuvenates.
Whereas Joy is a golden rose color, a pale gold with a tinge of red, a very pale red. It is active, warm, fortifying, intensifying. the first is sweetness, the second is tenderness.
And Blisswhat I spontaneously call Blissis the syn thesis of both. It is found in the very heights of the supramental consciousness, in a diamond light, an uncolored, sparkling light containing all the colors. Joy and Felicity form two sides of a triangle that has Bliss at its apex.
Bliss contains coolness and warmth, passivity and activity, repose and action, sweetness and tenderness, all at the same time. Divine tenderness is something very different from sweetnessit is a paroxysm of joy, a vibration so strong that the body feels it will burst, so it is forced to widen.
the diamond light of Bliss has the power to melt all hostile forces. Nothing can resist it. No consciousness, no being, no hostile will can draw near it without immediately being dissolved, for it is the Divine light in its pure creative power.
***
0 1958-01-25, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
It is quite evident that for some reason or o theror perhaps for no reason at all the Supreme has changed His mind about it.
***
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 o ther 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.
--
A Sannyasi, or wandering monk, whom Satprem would join a few weeks later in Ceylon, on February 27, and who would initiate him as a Sannyasi. Unfortunately, almost all the correspondence from this period has been lost.
***
0 1958-02-03b - The Supramental Ship, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
object:0_1958-02-03b - the Supramental Ship
author class: the Mo ther
--
( the following experience was later read out to the Wednesday class on 2.19.58)
Between the beings of the supramental world and men, there exists approximately the same gap as between men and animals. Sometime ago, I had the experience of identification with animal life, and it is a fact that animals do not understand us; their consciousness is so constituted that we elude them almost entirely. And yet I have known domestic animalscats and dogs, but especially catswho made an almost yogic effort of consciousness to understand us. But generally, when they watch us living and acting, they dont understand, they dont SEE US as we are and they suffer because of us. We are a constant enigma to them Only a very tiny part of their consciousness is linked to us. And it is the same for us when we try to look at the supramental world. Only when the link of consciousness has been built shall we see itand even then, only that part of our being which has undergone the transformation will be capable of seeing it as it iso therwise the two worlds would remain as separate as the animal world and the human world.
the experience I had on February 3 proves this. Before, I had had an individual, subjective contact with the supramental world, whereas on February 3, I went strolling there in a concrete wayas concretely as I used to go strolling in Paris in times pastin a world that EXISTS IN ITSELF, beyond all subjectivity.
It is like a bridge being built between the two worlds.
This is the experience as I dictated it immediately thereafter:
(silence)
the supramental world exists in a permanent way, and I am there permanently in a supramental body. I had proof of this today when my earthly consciousness went there and consciously remained there between two and three oclock in the afternoon: I now know that for the two worlds to join in a constant and conscious relationship what is missing is an intermediate zone between the existing physical world and the supramental world as it exists. This zone has yet to be built, both in the individual consciousness and in the objective world, and it is being built. When formerly I used to speak of the new world that is being created, I was speaking of this intermediate zone. And similarly, when I am on this side that is, in the realm of the physical consciousness and I see the supramental power, the supramental light and substance constantly permeating matter, I am seeing and participating in the construction of this zone.
I found myself upon an immense ship, which is the symbolic representation of the place where this work is being carried out. This ship, as big as a city, is thoroughly organized, and it had certainly already been functioning for quite some time, for its organization was fully developed. It is the place where people destined for the supramental life are being trained. these people (or at least a part of their being) had already undergone a supramental transformation because the ship itself and all that was aboard was nei ther material nor subtle-physical, nei ther vital nor mental: it was a supramental substance. This substance itself was of the most material supramental, the supramental substance nearest the physical world, the first to manifest. the light was a blend of red and gold, forming a uniform substance of luminous orange. Everything was like that the light was like that, the people were like thateverything had this color, in varying shades, however, which enabled things to be distinguished from one ano ther. the overall impression was of a shadowless world: there were shades, but no shadows. the atmosphere was full of joy, calm, order; everything worked smoothly and silently. At the same time, I could see all the details of the education, the training in all domains by which the people on board were being prepared.
This immense ship had just arrived at the shore of the supramental world, and a first batch of people destined to become the future inhabitants of the supramental world were about to disembark. Everything was arranged for this first landing. A certain number of very tall beings were posted on the wharf. they were not human beings and never before had they been men. Nor were they permanent inhabitants of the supramental world. they had been delegated from above and posted there to control and supervise the landing. I was in charge of all this since the beginning and throughout. I myself had prepared all the groups. I was standing on the bridge of the ship, calling the groups forward one by one and having them disembark on the shore. the tall beings posted there seemed to be reviewing those who were disembarking, allowing those who were ready to go ashore and sending back those who were not and who had to continue their training aboard the ship. While standing there watching everyone, that part of my consciousness coming from here became extremely interested: it wanted to see, to identify all the people, to see how they had changed and to find out who had been taken immediately as well as those who had to remain and continue their training. After awhile, as I was observing, I began to feel pulled backwards and that my body was being awakened by a consciousness or a person from here1and in my consciousness, I protested: No, no, not yet! Not yet! I want to see whos there! I was watching all this and noting it with intense interest It went on like that until, suddenly, the clock here began striking three, which violently jerked me back. there was the sensation of a sudden fall into my body. I came back with a shock, but since I had been called back very suddenly, all my memory was still intact. I remained quiet and still until I could bring back the whole experience and preserve it.
the nature of objects on this ship was not that which we know upon earth; for example, the clo thes were not made of cloth, and this thing that resembled cloth was not manufacturedit was a part of the body, made of the same substance that took on different forms. It had a kind of plasticity. When a change had to be made, it was done not by artificial and outer means but by an inner working, by a working of the consciousness that gave the substance its form or appearance. Life created its own forms. there was ONE SINGLE substance in all things; it changed the nature of its vibration according to the needs or uses.
Those who were sent back for more training were not of a uniform color; their bodies seemed to have patches of a grayish opacity, a substance resembling the earth substance. they were dull, as though they had not been wholly permeated by the light or wholly transformed. they were not like this all over, but in places.
the tall beings on the shore were not of the same color, at least they did not have this orange tint; they were paler, more transparent. Except for a part of their bodies, only the outline of their forms could be seen. they were very tall, they did not seem to have a skeletal structure, and they could take on any form according to their needs. Only from their waists to their feet did they have a permanent density, which was not felt in the rest of their body. their color was much more pallid and contained very little red, it verged ra ther on gold or even white. the parts of whitish light were translucid; they were not absolutely transparent, but less dense, more subtle than the orange substance.
Just as I was called back, when I was saying, Not yet , I had a quick glimpse of myself, of my form in the supramental world. I was a mixture of what these tall beings were and the beings aboard the ship. the top part of myself, especially my head, was a mere silhouette of a whitish color with an orange fringe. the more it approached the feet, the more the color resembled that of the people on the ship, or in o ther words, orange; the more it went up towards the top, the more translucid and white it was, and the red faded. the head was only a silhouette with a brilliant sun at its center; from it issued rays of light which were the action of the will.
As for the people I saw aboard ship, I recognized them all. Some were here in the Ashram, some came from elsewhere, but I knew them as well. I saw everyone, but as I realized that I would not remember everyone when I came back, I decided not to give any names. Besides, it is unnecessary. Three or four faces were very clearly visible, and when I saw them, I understood the feeling that I have had here, on earth, while looking into their eyes: there was such an extraordinary joy On the whole, the people were young; there were very few children, and their ages were around fourteen or fifteen, but certainly not below ten or twelve (I did not stay long enough to see all the details). there were no very old people, with the exception of a few. Most of the people who had gone ashore were of a middle ageagain, except for a few. Several times before this experience, certain individual cases had already been examined at a place where people capable of being supramentalized are examined; I had then had a few surprises which I had noted I even told some people. But those whom I disembarked today I saw very distinctly. they were of a middle age, nei ther young children nor elderly people, with only a few rare exceptions, and this quite corresponded to what I expected. I decided not to say anything, not to give any names. As I did not stay until the end, it would be impossible for me to draw an exact picture, for it was nei ther absolutely clear nor complete. I do not want to say things to some and not say them to o thers.
What I can say is that the criterion or the judgment was based EXCLUSIVELY on the substance constituting the peoplewhe ther they belonged completely to the supramental world or not, whe ther they were made of this very special substance. the criterion adopted was nei ther moral nor psychological. It is likely that their bodily substance was the result of an inner law or an inner movement which, at that time, was not in question. At least it is quite clear that the values are different.
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 ra ther long, almost the whole day) was of an extreme relativityno, not exactly that, but an impression that the relationship between this world and the o ther 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 o ther things that we consider important were really quite unimportant there! Whe ther 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 whe ther 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 Mo ther speaks to the children)
there is a continuation to all this, which is like the result in my consciousness of the experience of February 3, but it seems premature to read it now. It will appear in the April issue [of the Bulletin], as a sequel to this.
But one thing and I wish to stress this point to youwhich now seems to me to be the most essential difference between our world and the supramental world (and it is only after having gone there consciously, with the consciousness that ordinarily works here, that this difference appeared to me in what might be called its enormity): everything here, except for what happens within and at a very deep level, seemed absolutely artificial to me. Not one of the values of ordinary physical life is based upon truth. Just as we have to buy cloth, sew it toge ther, then put it on our backs in order to dress ourselves, likewise we have to take things from outside and then put them inside our bodies in order to feed ourselves. For everything, our life is artificial.
A true, sincere, spontaneous life, as in the supramental world, is a springing forth of things through the fact of conscious will, a power over substance that shapes this substance according to what we decide it should be. And he who has this power and this knowledge can obtain whatever he wants, whereas he who does not has no artificial means of getting what he desires.
In ordinary life, EVERYTHING is artificial. Depending upon the chance of your birth or circumstances, you have a more or less high position or a more or less comfortable life, not because it is the spontaneous, natural and sincere expression of your way of being and of your inner need, but because the fortuity of lifes circumstances has placed you in contact with these things. An absolutely worthless man may be in a very high position, and a man who might have marvelous capacities of creation and organization may find himself toiling in a quite limited and inferior position, whereas he would be a wholly useful individual if the world were sincere.
It is this artificiality, this insincerity, this complete lack of truth that appeared so shocking to me that one wonders how, in a world as false as this one, we can arrive at any truthful evaluation of things.
But instead of feeling grieved, morose, rebellious, discontent, I had ra ther the feeling of what I spoke of at the end: of such a ridiculous absurdity that for several days I was seized with an uncontrollable laughter whenever I saw things and people! Such a tremendous laughter, so absolutely inexplicable (except to me), because of the ridiculousness of these situations.
When I invited you on a voyage into the unknown, a voyage of adventure,2 I did not know just how true were my words! And I can promise those who are ready to embark upon this adventure that they will make some very astonishing discoveries.
Indeed, one of the people near Mo ther had pulled Her out of the experience.
See Questions and Answers, (July 10, 1957).
0 1958-02-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Last night, I had the vision of what this supramental world could become if men were not sufficiently prepared. the confusion existing at present upon earth is nothing in comparison to what could take place. Imagine that every powerful will has the power to transform matter as it likes! If the sense of collective oneness did not grow in proportion to the development of power, the resulting conflict would be yet more acute and chaotic than our material conflicts.
***
0 1958-02-25, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
these surface things are not dramatic. More and more, they seem to me like soap bubbles, especially since February 3.
Some people come to see me in utter despair, in tears, in what they call terrible moral suffering; when I see them like that I slightly shift the needle in that part of my consciousness containing all of you, and when they leave, they are completely relieved. It is just like a compass needle I slightly shift the needle in my consciousness, and its over. Naturally, through habit, it returns later on. But these are mere soap bubbles.
I too have known suffering, but there was always a part of me that knew how to hold itself back and remain aloof.
the only thing in the world that still appears intolerable to me now is all physical deterioration, physical suffering, the ugliness the powerlessness to express this capacity of beauty inherent in every being. But this, too, will be conquered one day. Here, too the power will come one day to shift the needle a little. Only, one has to climb higher in consciousness: the deeper into matter you want to descend, the higher must you ascend in consciousness.
It will take time. Sri Aurobindo was surely right when he spoke of a few centuries.
0 1958-03-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Since my departure, I have been feeling your Force continually, almost constantly. And I feel an infinite gratitude that you are there, and that this thread from you to me keeps me anchored to something in this world. Simply knowing that you exist, that you are there, that I have a goal, a centerfills me with infinite gratitude. On a street in Madras, the day after I left, I suddenly had a poignant experience: I felt that if that were not in me, I would fall to pieces on the sidewalk, I would crumble, nothing would be left, nothing. And this experience remains. Like a litany, something keeps repeating almost incessantly, I need you, need you, I have only you, you alone in the world. You are all my present, all my future, I have only you Mo ther, I am living in a state of need, like hunger.
On the way, I stopped at J and Es place. they are living like native fishermen, in loincloths, in a coconut grove by the sea. the place is exceedingly beautiful, and the sea full of rainbow-hued coral. And suddenly, within twenty-four hours, I realized an old dreamor ra ther, I purged myself of an old and tenacious dream: that of living on a Pacific island as a simple fisherman. And all at once, I saw, in a flash, that this kind of life totally lacks a center. You float in a nowhere. It plunges you into some kind of higher inertia, an illumined inertia, and you lose all true substance.
As for me, I am totally out of my element in this new life, as though I were uprooted from myself. I am living in the temple, in the midst of pujas,1 with white ashes on my forehead, barefoot dressed like a Hindu, sleeping on cement at night, eating impossible curries, with some good sunburns to complete the cooking. And there I am, clinging to you, for if you were not there I would collapse, so absurd would it all be. You are the only realityhow many times have I repeated this to myself, like a litany! Apart from this, I am holding up quite well physically. But inside and outside, nothing is left but you. I need you, thats all. Mo ther, this world is so horrifyingly empty. I really feel that I would evaporate if you werent there. Well, no doubt I had to go through this experience Perhaps I will be able to extract some book from it that will be of use to you. We are like children who need a lot of pictures in order to understand, and a few good kicks to realize our complete stupidity.
Swami must soon take to the road again, through Ceylon, towards March 20 or 25. So I shall go wandering with him until May; towards the beginning of May, he will return to India. I hope to have learned my lesson by then, and to have learned it well. Inwardly, I have understood that there is only you but its these problem children on the surface who must be made to toe the line once and for all.
Sweet Mo ther, I am in a hurry to work for you. Will you still want me? Mo ther, I need you, I need you. I would like to ask you an absurd question: Do you think of me? I have only you, you alone in the world.
Your child,
--
It is good, very goodin truth, everything is taking place as expected, as the best expected. And I am so happy for this.
To your question, I reply: I do not think of you, I feel you; you are with me, I am with you, in the light
Your place has remained vacant here; you alone can fill it, and it awaits your return, when the moment comes.
As soon as the problem children on the surface will also have learned their lesson, you have only to let me know of the date of your return and you will be welcome.
With you always and everywhere.
0 1958-04-03, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I was waiting for things to be well established in me before writing you again. An important change has occurred: it seems that something in me has clickedwhat Sri Aurobindo calls the central will, perhapsand I am living literally in the obsession of divine realization. This is what I want, nothing else, it is the only goal in life, and at last I have understood (not with the head) that the outer realization in the world will be the consequence of the inner realization. So thousands of times a day, I repeat, Mo ther, I want to be your instrument, ever more conscious, I want to express your truth, your light. I want to be what you want, as you want, when you want. there is in me now a kind of need for perfection, a will to abolish this ego, a real understanding that to become your instrument means at the same time to find the perfect plenitude of ones personality. So I am living in an almost constant state of aspiration, I feel your force constantly, or nearly so, and if I am distracted a few minutes, I experience a void, an uneasiness that calls me back to you.
And at the same time, I saw that it is you who is doing everything, you who aspires in me, you who wants the progress, and that all I myself am in this affair is a screen, a resisting obstacle. O Mo ther, break this screen that I may be wholly transparent before you, that your transforming force may purify all the secret recesses in my being, that nothing may remain but you and you alone. O Mo ther, may all my being be a living expression of your light, your truth.
Mo ther, from the depths of my being, I offer you a sole prayer: may I become your more and more perfect instrument, a sword of light in your hands. Oh, to get out of this ego that belittles everything, diminishes everything, to emerge from it! All is falsehood in it.
And I, who understood nothing of love, am beginning to suspect who Satprem is. Mo ther, your grace is infinite, it has accompanied me everywhere in my life.
We are still in Kataragama, and we shall only go up to nor thern Ceylon, to Jaffna, around the 15th, then return to India towards the beginning of May if the visa problems are settled. Only in India, at the temple of Rameswaram, can I receive the orange robe. I am living here as a sannyasi, but dressed in white, like a Hindu. It is a stark life, nothing more. I have seen however, that truth does not lie in starkness but in a change of consciousness. (Desire always finds a means to entrench itself in very small details and in very petty and stupid, though well-rooted, avidities.)
Mo ther, I am seeing all the mean pettiness that obstructs your divine work. Destroy my smallness and take me unto you. May I be sincere, integrally sincere.
With infinite gratitude, I am your child.
--
P.S. My system is not in perfect condition due to this absurdly spiced food, and the river water that is used for everything.
***
--
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.
May the joy of luminous love be with you.
Until we meet,
0 1958-05-01, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
these days I am having every possible experience in the body, one after the o ther. Yesterday and this morning oh, this morning!
I saw there (center of the heart) the Master of the Yoga; he was no different from me, but never theless I saw him, and he even seemed slightly imbued with color. Well, he does everything, he decides everything, he organizes everything with an almost ma thematical precision and in the smallest detailseverything.
To do the divine Will I have been doing the sadhana for a long time, and I can say that not a day has passed that I have not done the Divines Will. But I didnt know what it was! I was living in all the inner realms, from the subtle physical to the highest regions, yet I didnt know what it was I always had to listen, to refer things, to pay attention. Now, no morebliss! there are no more problems, and everything is done in such harmony! Even if I had to leave my body, I would be in bliss! And it would happen in the best possible way.
Only now am I beginning to understand what Sri Aurobindo has written in the Syn thesis of Yoga! And the human mind, the physical mind, appears so stupid, so stupid!
***
0 1958-05-10, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
This morning, I suddenly looked at my body (usually, I dont look at it I am inside it, working), I looked at my body and said to myself, Lets see, what would a witness say about this body? the witness Sri Aurobindo speaks of in the Syn thesis of Yoga. Nothing very remarkable. So I formulated it like this (Mo ther reads a written note):
This body has nei ther the uncontested authority of a god nor the imperturbable calm of the sage.
So, what then?
It is as yet only an apprentice in supermanhood.
--
I saw and understood very well that by concentrating, I could have given it the attitude of the absolute authority of the eternal Mo ther. When Sri Aurobindo told me, You are She, at the same time he bestowed upon my body this attitude of absolute authority. But as I had the inner vision of this truth, I concerned myself very little with the imperfections of the physical body I didnt bo ther about that, I only used it as an instrument. Sri Aurobindo did the sadhana for this body, which had only to remain constantly open to his action.1
Afterwards, when he left and I had to do the Yoga myself, to be able to take his physical place, I could have adopted the attitude of the sage, which is what I did since I was in an unparalleled state of calm when he left. As he left his body and entered into mine, he told me, You will continue, you will go right to the end of the work. It was then that I imposed a calm upon this body the calm of total detachment. And I could have remained like that.
But in a way, absolute calm implies withdrawal from action, so a choice had to be made between one or the o ther. I said to myself, I am nei ther exclusively this nor exclusively that. And actually, to do Sri Aurobindos work is to realize the Supramental on earth. So I began that work and, as a matter of fact, this was the only thing I asked of my body. I told it, Now you shall set right everything which is out of order and gradually realize this intermediate supermanhood between man and the supramental being or, in o ther words, what I call the superman.
And this is what I have been doing for the last eight years, and even much more during the past two years, since 1956. Now it is the work of each day, each minute.
Thats where I am. I have renounced the uncontested authority of a god, I have renounced the unshakable calm of the sage in order to become the superman. I have concentrated everything upon that.
We shall see.
I am learning to work. I am only an apprentice, simply an apprentice I am learning the trade!
***
--
In a considerable number of people, it is their body, the physical body, that obstinately resists.
the difficulty is greater for Westerners than for Indians. Its as though their substance were steeped in falsehood. It also happens with Indians, of course, but generally the falsehood is much more in the vital than in the physicalbecause after all, the physical has been utilized by bodies belonging to enlightened beings. the European substance seems steeped in rebellion; in the Indian substance this rebelliousness is subdued by an influence of surrender. the o ther day, someone was telling me about some Europeans with whom he corresponds, and I said, But tell them to read, to learn, to follow the Syn thesis of Yoga!it leads you straight to the path. Whereupon he replied, Oh, but they say its full of talk on surrender, surrender, always surrender and they want none of it.
they want none of it! Even if the mind accepts, the body and the vital refuse. And when the body refuses, it refuses with the stubbornness of a stone.
Is it not due to the bodys unconsciousness?
No. From the minute it is conscious, it is conscious of its own falsehood! It is conscious of this law, of that law, of this third law that fourth law, this tenth laweverything is a law. We are subject to physical laws: this will produce such and such a result if you do that, this will happen, etc. Oh! It reeks! I know it well. I know it very well. these laws reek of falsehood. In the body, we have no faith in the divine Grace, none, none, none, none! Those who have not undergone a tapasya2 as I have, say, Yes, all these inner moral things, feelings, psychology, all that is very good; we want the Divine and we are ready to But all the same, material facts are material facts, they have their concrete reality, after all an illness is an illness, food is food, and everything you do has a consequence, and when you are bah, bah, bah, bah, bah!
We must understand that this isnt trueit isnt true, its a falsehood, all this is sheer falsehood. It is NOT TRUE, it is not true!
If only we would accept the Supreme inside our bodies, if we had the experience I had a few days ago3: the supreme Knowledge in action along with the complete abolition of all consequences, past and future. Each second has its own eternity and its own law, which is a law of absolute truth.
When I had this experience, I understood that only a month ago I was still uttering mountain-sized imbecilities. And I laughed to the point of almost approving those who say, But all the same, the Supreme does not decide the number of sugar cubes you put in your coffee! That would be to project your own way of being onto the Supreme. But this is an Himalayan imbecility! It is a stupidity, the minds pretentious stupidity projecting itself onto the divine life and imagining that the divine life conforms to its own projection.
the Supreme does not decide: He knows. the Supreme does not want: He sees. And it is so for each thousandth of a second, eternally. Thats all. And it is the only true condition.
I know that the experience I had the o ther day is new and that I was the first person on earth to have it. But it is the only thing that is true. All the rest
I began my sadhana at birth, without knowing that I was doing it. I have continued it throughout my whole life, which means for almost eighty years (even though for perhaps the first three or four years of my life it was only something stirring about in unconsciousness). But I began a deliberate, conscious sadhana at about the age of twenty-two or twenty-three, upon prepared ground. I am now more than eighty years old: I have thought of nothing but that, I have wanted nothing but that, I had no o ther interest in life, and not for a single minute have I ever forgotten that it was THAT that I wanted. there were not periods of remembering and forgetting: it was continuous, unceasing, day and night, from the age of twenty-four and I had this experience for the first time about a week ago! So, I say that people who are in a hurry, people who are impatient, are arrogant fools.
It is a hard path. I try to make it as comfortable as possible, but never theless, it is a hard path. And it is obvious that it cannot be o therwise. You are beaten and battered until you understand. Until you are in that state in which all bodies are your body. But at that point, you begin to laugh! You were upset by this, hurt by that, you suffered from this or that but now, how laughable it all seems! And not only the head, but the body too finds it laughable!
(silence)
but it is so deeply rooted: all the reactions of the body-consciousness are like that, with a kind of shrinking at the idea of allowing a higher power to intervene.
(silence)
From the positive point of view, I am convinced that we agree upon the result to be obtained, that is, an integral and unreserved consecrationin love, knowledge and actionto the Supreme AND TO HIS WORK. I say to the Supreme and to his work because consecration to the Supreme alone is not enough. Now we are here for the supramental realization, this is what is expected of us, but to reach it, our consecration to it must be total, unreserved absolutely integral. I believe you have understood thisin o ther words, that you have the will to realize it.
From the negative point of view I mean the difficulties to be overcomeone of the most serious obstacles is that the ignorant and falsifying outer consciousness, the ordinary consciousness legitimizes all the so-called physical laws, causes, effects and consequences, all that science has discovered physically and materially. All this is an unquestionable reality to the consciousness, a reality that remains independent and absolute even in the face of the eternal divine Reality.
And it is so automatic that it is unconscious.
When it is a question of movements like anger, desire, etc., you recognize that they are wrong and must disappear, but when material laws are in questionlaws of the body, for example, its needs, its health, its nourishment, all those things they have such a solid, compact, established and concrete reality that it appears absolutely unquestionable.
Well, to be able to cure that, which of all the obstacles is the greatest (I mean the habit of putting spiritual life on one side and material life on the o ther, of acknowledging the right of material laws to exist), one must make a resolution never to legitimize any of these movements, at any cost.
To be able to see the problem as it is, it is absolutely indispensable, as a first step, to get out of the mental consciousness, even out of a mental transcription (in the highest mind) of the supramental vision and truth. A thing cannot be seen as it is, in its truth, except in the supramental consciousness, and if you try to explain, it immediately begins to escape you because you are obliged to give it a mental formulation.
As for me, I saw the thing only at the time of this experience,4 and as a result of this experience. But it is impossible to formulate even the experience itself, and as soon as I endeavored to formulate it and the more I was able to formulate it, the more the thing faded, escaped.
Consequently, if you do not remember having had the experience, you are left in the same condition as before, but with the difference that now you know, you can know, that these material laws do not correspond to the truth thats all. they do not at all correspond to the truth, so consequently, if you want to be faithful to your aspiration, you must in no way legitimize all that. Ra ther, you must say that it is an infirmity from which we are suffering for the moment, for an intermediate periodit is an infirmity and an ignorance for it really is an ignorance (this is not just a word): it is ignorance, it is not the thing as it is, even in regard to our present material bodies. therefore, we will not legitimize anything. What we say is thisit is an infirmity which has to be endured for the time being, until we get out of it, but we do NOT ACKNOWLEDGE all this as a concrete reality. It does NOT have a concrete reality, it has a false realitywhat we call concrete reality is a false reality.
And the proof I have the proof because I experienced it myselfis that from the minute you are in the o ther consciousness, the true consciousness, all these things which appear so real, so concrete, change INSTANTLY. there are a number of things, certain material conditions of my bodymaterial that changed instantly. It did not last long enough for everything to change, but some things changed and never returned, they remained changed. In o ther words, if that consciousness were kept constantly, it would be a perpetual miracle (what we would call a miracle from our ordinary point of view), a fantastic and perpetual miracle! But from the supramental point of view, it would not be a miracle at all, it would be the most normal of things.
therefore, if we do not want to oppose the supramental action by an obscure, inert and obstinate resistance, we have to admit once and for all that none of these things should be legitimized.
This last sentence was later added by Mo ther in writing.
0 1958-05-11 - the ship that said OM, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
object:0_1958-05-11 - the ship that said OM
author class: the Mo ther
--
One of the things that most gives me the feeling of the miraculous is when these obscure throngs1really tamasic2 beings, in fact, with children crying, people coughingwhen all that is ga thered there, and then suddenly silence.
Each time that happens, I have truly the feeling of a miracle! I immediately say, Oh, Lord! Your Grace is infinite!
***
Something quite curious took place during a recent meditation. I no longer recall when exactly, but it was at a time when there were many visitors, for the courtyard was full. After perhaps no more than a few minutes, I suddenly heard a distinct voice, coming from my right, say OM, like that. And then a second time, OM. What an impact it had upon me! I felt an emotion here (gesture towards the heart) as I have not felt for years and years and years. And all, all, all was filled with light, with forceit was absolutely marvelous. It was an invocation, and during the whole meditation the Presence was resplendent.
I said to myself, Who could have done that? I was not sure if only I had heard it, so I asked. the reply was, But it was the ship leaving! there was actually a ship which had left during the night3that is in support of those who said it was a ship. But for me, it was SOMEONE because I felt someone there and I thought, Oh! If someone, in the ardor of his soul, said that in this what I could call an a theistic silence. Because people here are so afraid of following tradition, of being the slaves of the old things, that they cast out anything closely or remotely resembling religion.
It was very strange, because my first reaction was one of bewilderment: how is it that someone I was really bewildered for a fraction, not even the fraction of a second. And then
In any event, if it wasnt a man, if it was a ship, then the ship said it! Because it was THATit was that, it was nothing o ther than an invocation. And the result was fantastic!
People immediately thought, Oh, its the ship! Well, even if it was a ship, it was the ship that said OM!
And then I wondered, If we were to repeat the mantra we heard the o ther day4 (Om Namo Bhagavateh) during the half-hour meditation, what would happen?
What would happen?
And these things act upon my body. It is strange, but it coagulates something: all the cellular life becomes one solid, compact mass, in a tremendous concentrationwith a single vibration. Instead of all the usual vibrations of the body, there is now only one single vibration. It becomes as hard as a diamond, a single massive concentration, as if all the cells of the body had
I became stiff from it. When the forest scene5 was over, I was so stiff that I was like that (gesture): one single mass.
Mo ther is referring to her 'Darshan' when four times a year She appeared on her balcony high above the assembled mass of disciples and visitors on the street below. the 'darshan days' were February 21, April 24, August 15 and November 24.
Tamas: in Indian psychology, inertia and obscurity.
the waters off Pondicherry occasionally serve as a port.
During an Indian film on Dhruva in which this manna was chanted for a long time. This film was shown at the Ashram Playground on April 29, 1958.
In the same film.
***
0 1958-05-17, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Actually, when I myself am perfect, I believe that all the rest will become perfect automatically. But it does not seem possible to become perfect without there being a beginning of realization from the o ther side. So it proceeds like that, bumping from one side to the o ther, and we go stumbling along like a drunken man!
***
0 1958-05-30, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I have noticed that in at least ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, it is an excuse people give to themselves. I have seen that practically, in the case of almost all the people who write to me saying, I am being violently attacked by hostile forces, its an excuse they are giving. It means that certain things in their nature do not want to yield, so they put all the blame on the hostile forces.
As a matter of fact, my tendency is more and more towards something in which the role of these hostile forces will be reduced to that of an examinerwhich means that they are there to test the sincerity of your spiritual quest. these elements have a reality in their action and for the workthis is their great reality but when you go beyond a certain region, it all grows dim to such a degree that it is no longer so well defined, so distinct. In the occult world, or ra ther if you look at the world from the occult point of view, these hostile forces are very real, their action is very real, quite concrete, and their attitude towards the divine realization is positively hostile; but as soon as you go beyond this region and enter into the spiritual world where there is no longer anything but the Divine in all things, and where there is nothing undivine, then these hostile forces become part of the total play and can no longer be called hostile forces: it is only an attitude that they have adoptedor more precisely, it is only an attitude adopted by the Divine in his play.
This again belongs to the dualities that Sri Aurobindo speaks of in ( the Syn thesis of Yoga, these dualities that are being reabsorbed. I dont know if he spoke of this particular one; I dont think so, but its the same thing. Its again a certain way of seeing. He has written of the Personal-Impersonal duality, Ishwara-Shakti, Purusha-Prakriti but there is still one more: Divine and anti-divine.
***
0 1958-06-06 - Supramental Ship, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Its all the same thing, but the word realization can be reserved for something that is durable, that does not wear off. Because everything on earth fades awayeverything fades away, nothing remains. In this sense, there has never been any realization, for everything fades away. Nothing is ever permanent. And I know for myself: I am doing the sadhana at a gallop, as it were; never are two experiences identical nor do they recur in the same way. As soon as something is established, the next thing begins immediately. It may appear to fade away, but it doesnt fade away; ra ther, it is the basis upon which the next thing is built.
***
This morning while I was on the balcony, I had an interesting experience: the experience of mans effort, in all its forms and through all the ages, to approach the Divine. And I seemed to be growing wider and wider so that all the forms and all the ways of approaching the Divine attempted by man would be contained in the present Work.
It was represented by a kind of image in which I was as vast as the Universe, and each way of approaching the Divine was like a tiny image containing the characteristic form of this approach. And my impression was this: Why do people always limit, limit themselves? Narrow, narrow, narrow! they understand only when it is narrow.
Take all! Take all within you. And then you will begin to understandyou will begin.
***
It was in 1910 that I had this sort of reversal of consciousness about which I spoke the o ther evening that is, the first contact with the higher Divine and it completely changed my life.
From that moment on, I was conscious that all one does is the expression of the indwelling Divine Will. But it is the Divine Will AT the VERY CENTER of oneself, although for a while there remained an activity in the physical mind. But this was stilled two or three days after I saw Sri Aurobindo for the first time in 1914, and it never started up again. Silence settled. And the consciousness was established above the head.
In the first experience [of 1910], the consciousness was established in the psychic depths of the being, and from that poise issued the feeling of no longer doing anything but what the Divine wantedit was the consciousness that the divine Will was all-powerful and that there was no longer any personal will, although there was still some mental activity and everything had to be made silent. In 1914, it was silenced, and the consciousness was established above the head. Here ( the heart) and here (above the head), the connection is constant.
Does one exclude the o ther?
they exist simultaneously; its the same thing. When you start becoming truly conscious, you realize that it depends upon the kinds of activities you have to do. When you do a certain kind of work, it is in the heart that the Force ga thers to radiate outwards, and when you do ano ther kind of work, it is above the head that the Force concentrates to radiate outwards, but the two are not separate: the center of activity is here or there depending upon what you have to do.
As for the latest experience,1 I cant say for sure that no one has ever had it, because someone like Ramakrishna, individuals like that, could have had it. But I am not sure, for when I had this experience (not of the divine Presence, which I had already felt in the cells for a long time, but the experience that the Divine ALONE is acting in the body, that He has BECOME the body, yet all the while retaining his character of divine omniscience and omnipotence) well, the whole time it remained actively like that, it was absolutely impossible to have the LEAST disorder in the body, and not only in the body, but IN ALL the SURROUNDING MATTER. It was as if every object obeyed without even needing to decide to obey: it was automatic. there was a divine harmony in EVERYTHING (it took place in my bathroom upstairs, certainly to demonstrate that it exists in the most trivial things), in everything, constantly. So if that is established in a permanent way, there CAN NO LONGER be illness it is impossible. there can no longer be accidents, there can no longer be illness, there can no longer be disorders, and everything should harmonize (probably in a progressive way) just as that was harmonized: all the objects in the bathroom were full of a joyful enthusiasmeverything obeyed, everything!
As it was the first experience, it started to fade slightly when I began having contact with people; but I really had the feeling that it was a first experience, new upon earth. For I have experienced an absolute identity of the will with the divine Will ever since 1910, it has never left me. It isnt that, its SOMETHING ELSE. It is MATTER BECOMING the DIVINE. And it really came with the feeling that this thing was happening for the first time upon earth. It is difficult to say for sure, but Ramakrishna died of cancer, and now that I have had the experience, I know in an ABSOLUTE way that this is impossible. If he had decided to go because the Divine wanted him to go, it would have been an orderly departure, in total harmony and with a total will, whereas this illness is a means of disorder.
Is this experience of May 1 related to the Supramental Manifestation of 1956? Is it a supramental experience?
It is the result of the descent of the supramental substance into Matter. Only this substancewhat it has put into physical Mattercould have made it possible. It is a new ferment. From the material standpoint, it removes from physical Matter its tamas, the heaviness of its unconsciousness, and from the psychological standpoint, its ignorance and its falsehood. Matter is subtilized. But it has surely come only as a first experience to show how it will be.
It is truly a state of absolute omniscience and omnipotence in the body which changes all the vibrations around it.
It is likely that the greatest resistance will be in the most conscious beings due to a lack of mental receptivity, due to the mind itself which wants things to continue (as Sri Aurobindo has written) according to its own mode of ignorance. So-called inert matter is much more easily responsive, much moreit does not resist. And I am convinced that among plants, for example, or among animals, the response will be much quicker than among men. It will be more difficult to act upon a very organized mind; beings who live in an entirely crystallized, organized mental consciousness are as hard as stone! It resists. According to my experience, what is unconscious will certainly follow more easily. It was a delight to see the water from the tap, the mouthwash in the bottle, the glass, the spongeit all had such an air of joy and consent! there is much less ego, you see, it is not a conscious ego.
the ego becomes more and more conscious and resistant as the being develops. Very primitive, very simple beings, little children will respond first, because they dont have an organized ego. But these big people! People who have worked on themselves, who have mastered themselves, who are organized, who have an ego made of steel, it will be difficult for them.
Unless they go beyond all this and have enough spiritual knowledge to be able to make the ego surrender in which case the realization will naturally be much greaterit will be more difficult to accomplish, but the result will be far more complete.
When you had this experience of February 3, 1958 [ the supramental ship], the vision of your usual consciousness, which is never theless a Truth Consciousness, no longer seemed true to you at all. Did you see things you had never before seen, or did you see things in ano ther way?
Yes, one enters into ano ther world.
This consciousness here is true in relation to this world as it is, but the o ther is something else entirely. An adjustment is needed for the two to touch, o therwise one jumps from one to the o ther. And that serves no purpose. A progressive passage has to be built between the two. This means that a whole number of rungs of consciousness are missing. This consciousness here must consciously connect with that consciousness there, which means a multitude of stairs passing from one to the o ther. then we will be able to rise up progressively, and the whole will arise.
Its action will be somewhat similar to what is described in the Last Judgment, which is an entirely symbolic expression of something that makes us discern between what belongs to the world of falsehood which is destined to disappear and what belongs to this same world of ignorance and inertia but is transformable. One will go to one side and the o ther to the o ther side. All that is transformable will be permeated more and more with this new substance and this new consciousness to such an extent that it will rise towards it and serve as a link between the two but all that belongs incorrigibly to falsehood and ignorance will disappear. This was also prophesied in the Gita: among what we call the hostile or anti-divine forces, those capable of being transformed will be uplifted and go off towards the new consciousness, whereas all that is irrevocably in darkness or belongs to an evil will shall be destroyed and vanish from the Universe. And a whole part of humanity that has responded to these forces ra ther too zealously will certainly vanish with them. And this is what was expressed in this concept of the Last Judgment.
May 1, 1958.
0 1958-06-22, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Do not ask questions about the details of the material existence of this body: they are in themselves of no interest and must not attract attention.
Throughout all this life, knowingly or unknowingly, I have been what the Lord wanted me to be, I have done what the Lord wanted me to do. That alone matters.
***
0 1958-07-02, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Ramdas1 must be a continuation of the line of Chaitanya, Ramakrishna, etc .
(silence)
--
Something I have never said completely. On the one hand, there is the attitude of those in yesterday evenings film2: God is everything, God is everywhere, God is in he who smites you (as Sri Aurobindo wroteGod made me good with a blow, shall I tell Him: O Mighty One, I forgive you your harm and cruelty but do not do it again!), an attitude which, if extended to its ultimate conclusion, accepts the world as it is: the world is the perfect expression of the divine Will. On the o ther hand, there is the attitude of progress and transformation. But for that, you must recognize that there are things in the world which are not as they should be.
In the Syn thesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo says that this idea of good and bad, of pure and impure, is a notion needed for action; but the purists, such as Chaitanya, Ramakrishna and o thers, do not agree. they do not agree that it is indispensable for action. they simply say: your acceptance of action as a necessary thing is contrary to your perception of the Divine in all things.
How can the two be reconciled?
I recall that once I tried to speak of this, but no one followed me, no one understood, so I did not insist. I left it open and never pursued it fur ther, for they could not decipher anything or find any meaning in what I was saying. But now I could give a very simple answer: Let the Supreme do the work. It is He who has to progress, not you!
Ramdas does not at all consider that the world as it is, is good.
No, but I know all these people, I know them thoroughly! I know Chaitanya, Ramakrishna and Ramdas thoroughly. they are utterly familiar to me. It doesnt bo ther them. these are people who live with a certain feeling, who have an entirely concrete experience and live in this experience, but they dont care at all if their formation they have not even crystallized it, they leave it like that, vaguecontains things that are mutually contradictory, because, in appearance, they reconcile them. they do not raise any questions, they do not have the need for an absolutely clear vision; their feeling is absolutely clear, and thats enough for them. Ramakrishna was like that; he said the most contradictory things without being bo thered in the least, and they are all exactly and equally true.
But this crystal clear vision Sri Aurobindo had, where everything is in its place, where contradictions no longer exist they never soared to that height. This was the thing, this really crystalline, perfect supramental vision, even from the standpoint of understanding and knowledge. they never went that far.
***
--
Each element, let us say each individual element (even though it is not exactly like that), is in its place according to whe ther the Grace acts on the individual or on the collectivity.
When the Grace acts on the collectivity, each thing, each element, each principle, is put in its place as the result of a karmic logic in the universal movement. This is what gives us the impression of disorder and confusion as we see it.
When the Grace acts on the individual, it gives to each the maximum position according to what he is and what he has realized.
And then, there is a super-grace, as it were, which works in a few exceptional cases, which places you not according to what you are but according to what you are to become, which means that the universal cosmic position is ahead of the individuals progress.
And it is then that you should keep silent and fall on your knees.
Ramdas: a yogi from Northwest India who followed the path of love (bhakti). His whole yoga consisted in repeating the name Ram. He founded the Anand-ashram in Kanhargad, Kerala. He was born in 1884 and died in 1963.
Bishnupriya, a Bengali film.
0 1958-07-05, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I have just explained to Z my program for getting out of the present difficulties,1 and I think if he has not concluded that I am totally mad, it is because he has an immense respect for me! But as always in these cases, there is such a joy in me, such an exultation: all the cells are dancing. I understand why people begin singing, dancing, etc. It takes a formidable power to remain like that (gesture of solidity): there is such a desire in the throat to sing!
***
S brought me a photograph (taken on 2.21.58 during the Darshan). A saint with a halo! (Mo ther laughs mockingly.)
the eyes are nice.
Yes, I remember. It was towards the end of the Darshan and I was repeating within me, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord But wordlessly. It came like that (gesture) and went far, far, far, far! It is all here (motion around the head). And that (Mo ther points to her chin) is determination (but there should have been a little more light on the chin!), the realizing will.
Thats it: the capacity to be an ABSOLUTELY receptive passivitylike thatin TOTAL silence and surrender, and at the same time here, there, an IRREDUCIBLE, OMNIPOTENT will with a total power to effectuate, shattering all resistances. Both simultaneously without one inhibiting the o ther, in the same joy that is the GREAT secret! the harmonization of opposites, in joy and plenitude, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, for all problems: that is the great secret.
In regard to the Ashram's financial difficulties.
***
0 1958-07-06, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
This morning I asked myself the question, is money truly under Natures control? I shall have to see Because for me personally, she always gives everything in abundance.
When I was young, I was as poor as a turkey, as poor as could be! As an artist, I sometimes had to go out in society (as artists are forced to do). I had lacquered boots that were cracked and I painted them so it wouldnt show! This is to tell you the state I was inpoor as a turkey. So one day, in a shop window, I saw a very pretty petticoat much in fashion then, with lace, ribbons, etc. (It was the fashion in those days to have long skirts which trailed on the floor, and I didnt have a petticoat which could go with such things I didnt care, it didnt matter to me in the least, but since Nature had told me I would always have everything I needed, I wanted to make an experiment.) So I said, Well, I would very much like to have a petticoat to go with those skirts. I got five of them! they came from every direction!
And it is always like that. I never ask for anything, but if by chance I say to myself, Hmm, wouldnt it be nice to have that, mountains of them pour in! So last year, I made an experiment, I told Nature, Listen, my little one, you say that you will collaborate, you told me I would never lack anything. Well then, to put it on a level of feelings, it would really be fun, it would give me joy (in the style of Krishnas joy), to have A LOT of money to do everything I feel like doing. Its not that I want to increase things for myself, no; you give me more than I need. But to have some fun, to be able to give freely, to do things freely, to spend freely I am asking you to give me a crore of rupees1 for my birthday!
She didnt do a thing! Nothing, absolutely nothing: a complete refusal. Did she refuse or was she unable to? It may be that I always saw that money was under the control of an asuric force. (I am speaking of currency, cash; I dont want to do business. When I try to do business, it generally succeeds very well, but I dont mean that. I am speaking of cash.) I never asked her that question.
You see, this is how it happened: theres this Ganesh2 We had a meditation (this was more than thirty years ago) in the room where Prosperity3 is now distributed. there were eight or ten of us, I believe. We used to make sentences with flowers; I arranged the flowers, and each one made a sentence with the different flowers I had put there. And one day when the subject of prosperity or wealth came up, I thought ( they always say that Ganesh is the god of money, of fortune, of the worlds wealth), I thought, Isnt this whole story of the god with an elephant trunk merely a lot of human imagination? thereupon, we meditated. And who should I see walk in and park himself in front of me but a living being, absolutely alive and luminous, with a trunk that long and smiling! So then, in my meditation, I said, Ah! So its true that you exist!Of course I exist! And you may ask me for whatever you wish, from a monetary standpoint, of course, and I will give it to you!
So I asked. And for about ten years, it poured in, like this (gesture of torrents). It was incredible. I would ask, and at the next Darshan, or a month or several days later, depending, there it was.
then the war and all the difficulties came, bringing a tremendous increase of people and expenditure ( the war cost a fortuneanything at all cost ten times more than before), and suddenly, finished, nothing more. Not exactly nothing, but a thin little trickle. And when I asked, it didnt come. So one day, I put the question to Ganesh through his image (! ), I asked him, What about your promise?I cant do it, its too much for me; my means are too limited!Ah! I said to myself (laughing), What bad luck! And I no longer counted on him.
Once someone even asked Santa Claus! A young Muslim girl who had a special liking for Fa ther Christmas I dont know why, as it was not part of her religion! Without saying a word to me, she called on Santa Claus and told him, Mo ther doesnt believe in you; you should give Her a gift to prove to Her that you exist. You can give it to Her for Christmas. And it happened! She was quite proud.
But it only happened like that once. And as for Ganesh, that was the end of it. So then I asked Nature. It took her a long time to accept to collaborate. But as for the money, I shall have to ask her about it; because for me personally, it is still going on. I think, Hmm, wouldnt it be nice to have a wristwatch like that. And I get twenty of them! I say to myself, Well, if I had that and I get thirty of them! Things come in from every side, without my even uttering a word I dont even ask, they just come.
the first time I came here and spoke with Sri Aurobindo about what was needed for the Work, he told me (he also wrote it to me) that for the secure achievement of the Work we would need three powers: one was the power over health, the second was the power over government, and the third was the power over money.
Health naturally depends upon the sadhana; but even that is not so sure: there are o ther factors. As for the second, the power over government, Sri Aurobindo looked at it, studied it, considered it very carefully, and finally he told me, there is only one way to have that power: it is TO BE the government. One can influence individuals, one can transmit the will to them, but their hands are tied. In a government, there is no one individual, nor even several who is all-powerful and who can decide things. One must be the government oneself and give it the desired orientation.
For the last, for money, he told me, I still dont know exactly what it depends on. then one day I entered into trance with this idea in mind, and after a certain journey I came to a place like a subterranean grotto (which means that it is in the subconscient, or perhaps even in the inconscient) which was the source, the place and the power over money. I was about to enter into this grotto (a kind of inner cave) when I saw, coiled and upright, an immense serpent, like an all black python, formidable, as big as a seven-story house, who said, You cannot pass!Why not? Let me pass!Myself, I would let you pass, but if I did, they would immediately destroy me.Who, then, is this they? they are the asuric4 powers who rule over money. they have put me here to guard the entrance, precisely so that you may not enter.And what is it that would give one the power to enter? then he told me something like this: I heard (that is, he himself had no special knowledge, but it was something he had heard from his masters, those who ruled over him), I heard that he who will have a total power over the human sexual impulses (not merely in himself, but a universal power that is, a power enabling him to control this everywhere, among all men) will have the right to enter. In o ther words, these forces would not be able to prevent him from entering.
A personal realization is very easy, it is nothing at all; a personal realization is one thing, but the power to control it among all men that is, to control or master such movements at will, everywhereis quite ano ther. I dont believe that this condition has been fulfilled. If what the serpent said is true and if this is really what will vanquish these hostile forces that rule over money, well then, it has not been fulfilled.
It has been fulfilled to a certain extent but its negligible. It is conditional, limited: in one case, it works; in ano ther, it doesnt. It is quite problematic. And naturally, where terrestrial things are involved (I dont say universal, but in any case terrestrial), when it is something involving the earth, it must be complete; there cannot be any approximations.
therefore, its an affair between the asuras and the human species. To transform itself is the only solution left to the human speciesin o ther words, to tear from the asuric forces the power of ruling over the human species.
You see, the human species is a part of Nature, but as Sri Aurobindo has explained, from the moment mind expressed itself in man, it put him into a relationship with Nature very different from the relationship all the lower species have with her. All the lower species right up to man are completely under the rule of Nature; she makes them do whatever she wants, and they can do nothing without her consent. Whereas man begins to act and to live as an equal; not as an equal in terms of power, but from the standpoint of consciousness (he is beginning to do so since he has the capacity to study and to find out Natures secrets). He is not superior to her, far from it, but he is on an equal footing. And so he has acquiredthis is a fac the has acquired a certain power of independence that he immediately used to put himself under the influence of the hostile forces, which are not terrestrial but extra-terrestrial.
I am speaking of terrestrial Nature. Through their mental power, men had the choice and the freedom to make pacts with these extraterrestrial vital forces. there is a whole vital world that has nothing to do with the earth, it is entirely independent or prior to earths existence, it is self-existentwell, they have brought that down here! they have made what we see! And such being the case This is what terrestrial Nature told me: It is beyond my control.
So considering all that, Sri Aurobindo came to the conclusion that only the supramental power (Mo ther brings down her hands) as he said, will be able to rule over everything. And when that happens, it will be all overincluding Nature. For a long time, Nature rebelled (I have written about it often). She used to say, Why are you in such a hurry? It will be done one day. But then last year, there was that extraordinary experience.5 And it was because of that experience that I told her, Well, now that we agree, give me some proof; I am asking you for some proofdo it for me. She didnt budge, absolutely nothing.
Perhaps it is a kind of it can hardly be called an intuition, but a kind of divination of this idea that made people speak of selling ones soul to the devil for money, of money being an evil force, which produces this shrinking on the part of all those who want to lead a spiritual life but as for that, they shrink from everything, not only from money!
Perhaps it would not be necessary to have this power over all men, but in any event, it should be great enough to act upon the mass. It is likely that once a certain movement has been mastered to some degree, what the mass does or doesnt do (this whole human mass that has barely, barely emerged into even the mental consciousness) will become quite irrelevant. You see, the mass is still under the great rule of Nature. I am referring to mental humanity, predominantly mental, which developed the mind but misused it and immediately set out on the wrong pathfirst thing.
there is nothing to say since the first thing done by the divine forces which emanated for the Creation was to take the wrong path!6 That is the origin, the seed of this marvelous spirit of independence the negation of surrender, in o ther words. Man said, I have the power to think; I will do with it what I want, and no one has the right to intervene. I am free, I am an independent being, IN-DE-PEN-DENT! So thats how things stand: we are all independent beings!
But yesterday, in fact, I was looking (with all these mantras and these prayers and this whole vibration that has descended into the atmosphere, creating a state of constant calling in the atmosphere), and I remembered the old movements and how everything now has changed! I was also thinking of the old disciplines, one of which is to say, I am That.7 People were told to sit in meditation and repeat, I am That, to reach an identification. And it all seemed to me so obsolete, so childish, but at the same time a part of the whole. I looked, and it seemed so absurd to sit in meditation and say, I am That! I, what is this I who is That; what is this I, where is it? I was trying to find it, and I saw a tiny, microscopic point (to see it would almost require some gigantic instrument), a tiny, obscure point in an im-men-sity of Light, and that little point was the body. At the same timeit was absolutely simultaneous I saw the Presence of the Supreme as a very, very, very, VERY immense Being, within which was I in an attitude of (I was only a sensation, you see), an attitude (gesture of surrender) like this. there were no limits, yet at the same time, one felt the joy of being permeated, enveloped and of being able to widen, widen, widen indefinitelyto widen the whole being, from the highest consciousness to the most material consciousness. And then, at the same time, to look at this body and to see every cell, every atom vibrating with a divine, radiant Presence with all its Consciousness, all its Power, all its Will, all its Loveall, all, really and a joy! An extraordinary joy. And one did not disturb the o ther, nothing was contradictory and everything was felt at the same time. That was when I said, But truly! This body had to have the training it has had for more than seventy years to be able to bear all that without starting to cry out or dance or leap up or whatever it might be! No, it was calm (it was exultant, but it was very calm), and it remained in control of its movements and its words. In spite of the fact that it was really living in ano ther world, it could apparently act normal due to this strenuous training in self-control by the REASONby the reasonover the whole being, which has tamed it and given it such a great cohesive power that I can BE in the experience, I can LIVE this experience, and at the same time respond with the most amiable of smiles to the most idiotic questions!
And then, it always ends in the same way, by a canticle to the action of the grace: O, Lord! You are truly marvelous! All the experiences I have needed to pass through You have given to me, all the things I needed to do to make this body ready You have made me do, and always with the feeling that it was You who was making me do itand with the universal disapproval of all the right-minded humanity!
About one million dollars.
Ganesh: a god with the head of an elephant; the son of Parvati, the Divine Mo ther.
the room where, on the first of each month, Mo ther distributed to the disciples their needs for the month.
Asuras: the demons or dark forces of the mental plane.
the experience of Nature's collaboration (November 8, 1957).
In effect, according to tradition, the first divine forces that emanated for the creation were the Asuras, who turned into demons. the gods were created later to repair the disorder engendered by the demons.
So'ham, the traditional mantra of the Vedantic path, which declares that the world is an illusion.
***
0 1958-07-19, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
A peach should ripen on the tree; its a fruit that should be picked when the sun is upon it. Just as the sun falls on it, you come along, pluck it and bite into it. then it is absolute paradise.
there are two such fruitspeaches and golden green plums. It is the same for both. You must take them warm from the tree, bite into them, and you are filled with the taste of paradise.
Every fruit should be eaten in a special way.
At heart, this is the symbol of the earthly Paradise and the tree of Knowledge: by biting into the fruit of Knowledge, one loses the spontaneity of movement and begins objectivizing, learning, questioning. So as soon as they ate of this fruit, they were full of sin.
I say that every fruit should be eaten in its own way. the being who lives according to his own nature, his own truth, must spontaneously find the right way of using things. When you live according to the truth of your being, you dont need to learn things: you do them spontaneously, according to the inner law. When you sincerely follow your nature, spontaneously and sincerely, you are divine. As soon as you think or look at yourself acting or start questioning, you are full of sin.
It is mans mental consciousness that has filled all Nature with the idea of sin and all the misery it brings. Animals are not at all unhappy in the way we are. Not at all, not at all, exceptas Sri Aurobindo saysthose that are corrupted. Those that are corrupted are those that live with men. Dogs have the sense of sin and guilt, for their whole aspiration is to resemble man. Man is the god. Hence there is dissimulation, hypocrisy: dogs lie. But men admire that. they say, Oh! How intelligent they are!
they have lost their divinity.
Truly, the human species is at a point in the spiral which is not very pretty.
But isnt a dog more conscious, more evolved than a tiger, or higher in the spiral that is, nearer the Divine?
Its not a question of being conscious. there is no doubt that man is more evolved than the tiger, but the tiger is more divine than man. One shouldnt confuse things. these are two entirely different things.
the Divine is everywhere, in everything. We should never forget itnot for a second should we forget it. He is everywhere, in everything; and in an unconscious but spontaneous, therefore sincere, way, all that exists below the mental manifestation is divine, without mixture; in o ther words, it exists spontaneously and in harmony with its nature. It is man with his mind who has introduced the idea of guilt. Naturally, he is much more conscious! theres no question about it, its a fact, although what we call consciousness (what we call it, that is, what man calls consciousness) is the power to objectify and mentalize things. It is not the true consciousness, but its what men call consciousness. So according to the human mode, it is obvious that man is much more conscious than the animal, but the human brings in sin and perversion which do not exist outside of this state we call consciouswhich in fact is not conscious but merely consists in mentalizing things and in having the ability to objectify them.
It is an ascending curve, but a curve that swerves away from the Divine. So naturally, one has to climb much higher to find a higher Divine, since it is a conscious Divine, whereas the o thers are divine spontaneously and instinctively, without being conscious of it. All our moral notions of good and evil, all of that, are what we have thrown over the creation with our distorted and perverted consciousness. It is we who have invented it.
We are the distorting intermediary between the purity of the animal and the divine purity of the gods.
***
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!
In fact, the immense majority of human beings feel they are living only when they waste their energy. O therwise, it does not seem to them to be life.
Not to waste energy means to utilize it towards the ends for which it was given. If energy is given for the transformation, for the sublimation of the being, it must be used for that; if energy is given to restore something that has been disrupted in the body, it must be used for that.
Naturally, if a special work is given to someone along with the energy to do this work, its very good as long as it is being used towards the end for which it was given.
But as soon as a man feels energetic, he immediately rushes into action. Or else, those who dont have the sense of doing something useful start gossiping. And still worse, those who have no control over themselves become intolerant and start arguing! If someone contradicts their will, they feel full of energy and they mistake that for a godlike wrath!
***
0 1958-07-23, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
In the final analysis, seeing the world such as it is and seems meant to be irremediably, human intellect has decided that this universe must be an error of God and that the manifestation or creation is certainly the result of a desire, the desire to manifest, know oneself, enjoy oneself. So the only thing to do is to put an end to this error as soon as possible by refusing to cling to desire and its fatal consequences.
But the Supreme Lord answers that the comedy is not entirely played out, and He adds: Wait for the last act; undoubtedly you will change your mind.
***
0 1958-07-25a, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
For it is You who is, who lives and who knowsit is You who does all things, You who is the result of every action.
***
0 1958-08-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
It is very difficult to manage both at the same time: the transformation of the body and taking care of people. But what can I do? I told Sri Aurobindo I would do the work, and I am doing it I cannot just abandon everything.
When I think of the time the hatha yogis devote to the work on the body they do nothing but that; they do nothing but that all the time, until they have attained a certain point. This is in fact the reason why Sri Aurobindo wanted none of it: he found that it took a lot of time for a ra ther meager result.
***
Day and night, I am investigating all that has to be transformed I can assure you that there is plenty of work!
Last night, I had many dreams (not really dreams, but ); I used to find them very interesting because they gave me certain indications, all kinds of things, but when I saw it all now, I said to myself, Good Lord! What a waste of time! Instead, I could be living in a supramental consciousness and seeing things. So during the night, I made a resolution to change all this too. My nights have to change. I am already changing my days; now my nights have to change. But then all this subconscious in Matter, all this, it all has to change! theres no choice, it has to be seen to.
Once you set to this work, it is such a formidable task! But what can I do?
0 1958-08-08, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Its remarkable that things you have understood in your consciousness reappear as problems to be solved in the cells of the body.
In the cells, both things are there. the body is convinced of the divine Presence everywhere, that all is the Divineit lives in that; and at the same time, it shrinks from certain contacts! I saw that this morning, both things at once, and I said, Lord, I know nothing at all!
there (gesture above the head), everything has been resolved, I could write books on how to resolve this or that, how the syn thesis is made, etc., but here ( the body) I live this syn thesis stumblingly. the two coexist, but it is still not THAT (gesture, hands clasped toge ther, pointing upwards).
(silence)
What problems come up! If there were a plague or cholera, for example, would the supramental Force in the cells, the supramental realization, be able to restore order out of the disorder that allows the epidemic to be? I dont mean on an individual levelindividually, if you are in a certain consciousness, you can remain untouched I am not speaking of that, I am speaking impersonally, as it were.
We know nothing. We believe we know, but as soon as it is a question of that ( the body), we know nothing. As soon as we are in the subtle physical, we know everything, we live in bliss but here, we know nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing.
***
0 1958-08-09, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
If human love came forth unalloyed, it would be all-powerful. Unfortunately, in human love, there is as much SELF love as love for the beloved; it is not a love that makes you forget yourself.
Evidently the gods of the Puranas are a good deal worse than human beings, as we saw in that film the o ther day1 (and that story was absolutely true). the gods of the Overmind are infinitely more egocentric the only thing that counts for them is their power, the extent of their power. Man has in addition a psychic being, so consequently he has true love and compassionwherein lies his superiority over the gods. It was very, very clearly expressed in this film, and its very true.
the gods are faultless, for they live according to their own nature, spontaneously and without constraint; it is their godly way. But if one looks at it from a higher point of view, if one has a higher vision, a vision of the whole, they have fewer qualities than man. In this film, it was proved that through their capacity for love and self-giving, men can have as much power as the gods, and even morewhen they are not egoists, when they can overcome their egoism.
Certainly man is nearer the Supreme than the gods. Provided he fulfills the necessary conditions, he can be nearerhe isnt so automatically, but he can be, he has the power, the potentiality to be.
Anusuya: wife of the rishi Atri and endowed with a great inner force. In her husband's absence, three gods came (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) disguised as brahmins and asked her for something to eat. then they refused to eat unless she served them naked. Since they were brahmins, she could not send them away without feeding them, so by her inner power, she changed them into babies and served them naked. This film was shown at the Ashram Playground on August 5, 1958.
***
0 1958-08-12, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Behind all the appearances and diverse entities, I am always present near you, and my love enfolds you.
I have put the work aside and shall be happy to do it with you upon your return.
My blessings never leave you.
0 1958-08-29, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Note written by Mo ther after an experience She had during a playground meditation when Swami J.J. was present. It was this swami with whom Satprem journeyed in the Himalayas to receive tantric initiation.)
[Satprem would later part company with this Swami and follow a thorough tantric discipline with ano ther guru who will henceforth be called X in the Agenda.]
the mantra written upon each of the souvenirs1 from the Himalayas has a strong power of evoking the Supreme Mo ther.
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.
the Swami brought back various objects and souvenirs from the Himalayas which he presented to Mo ther.
***
0 1958-08-30, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(In the presence of Pavitra and Abhay Singh, Mo ther recounts a vision she had during the night)
[ the disciple who managed the Ashram 'Atelier': mechanical workshop, maintenance garage, automobile service, etc.]
It was just at four oclock in the morning, and it woke me up. It was exactly like this I was apparently in my bathroom, and I had to open the door between the bathroom and Sri Aurobindos room; the moment I put my hand on the doorknob, I knew with an absolute certainty that destruction was awaiting me behind the door. It had the form or image of those great invaders of India, those who had swooped down upon India and destroyed everything in their wake But it was only an impression.
So the door had to be opened and I felt and said, Lord, may your will be done. I opened the door and behind it was Z1 in the same clo thes he wears when he drives, and he was leaning against one of those big tractor tiresor perhaps he was holding it at the same time. I was so dumbfounded that I woke up. It took me a little while to be able to understand what it might mean, and afterwards Even now, I still dont know What was I? Was I India, or was I the world? I dont know. And what did Z represent? It was as imperative and clear, as positive and absolute as could be: the certitude that destruction was behind the door, that it was inevitable. And it had the form of those great Tartar or Mongol invaders, those people who came from the North and invaded India, who pillaged everything Thats what it was like. But what Z was doing there I dont know. What does he represent? the first impulse was to tell Abhay Singh, Forbid him to drive the tractor.
(Pavitra:) What was he holding in his hands, Mo ther?
Huge tires He was standing there, like that, with a very majestic air. He was wearing his white outfit, those long pyjamas
(Abhay Singh:) Yesterday he drove the station wagon for the visitors.
Does it also have large tires?
--
No, it came up to here (gesture to the top of the head). It seemed to be a tractor tire, but it did not have the heavy tread that tractor tires have.
(Abhay Singh:) there are tractor tires that have no tread.
Ah! So He was standing, and it came up to here (same gesture). So it must have been a tractor tire.
What could it represent, he, and the tractor? I dont know It was not personal, you see I mean this body. It had nothing to do with that.
(Pavitra:) the industrialization of India?
(silence)
--
A young disciple who worked in the Atelier.
***
0 1958-09-16 - OM NAMO BHAGAVATEH, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I have a whole stock of mantras; they have all come spontaneously, never from the head. they sprang forth spontaneously, as the Veda is said to have sprung forth.
I dont know when it begana very long time ago, before I came here, although some of them came while I was here. But in my case, they were always very short. For example, when Sri Aurobindo was here in his body, at any moment, in any difficulty, for anything, it always came like this: My Lord!simply and spontaneouslyMy Lord! And instantly, the contact was established. But since He left, it has stopped. I can no longer say it, for it would be like saying My Lord, My Lord! to myself.
I had a mantra in French before coming to Pondicherry. It was Dieu de bont et de misricorde [God of kindness and mercy], but what it means is usually not understoodit is an entire program, a universal program. I have been repeating this mantra since the beginning of the century; it was the mantra of ascension, of realization. At present, it no longer comes in the same way, it comes ra ther as a memory. But it was deliberate, you see; I always said Dieu de bont et de misricorde, because even then I understood that everything is the Divine and the Divine is in all things and that it is only we who make a distinction between what is or what is not the Divine.
My experience is that, individually, we are in relationship with that aspect of the Divine which is not necessarily the most in conformity with our natures, but which is the most essential for our development or the most necessary for our action. For me, it was always a question of action because, personally, individually, each aspiration for personal development had its own form, its own spontaneous expression, so I did not use any formula. But as soon as there was the least little difficulty in action, it sprang forth. Only long afterwards did I notice that it was formulated in a certain way I would utter it without even knowing what the words were. But it came like this: Dieu de bont et de misricorde. It was as if I wanted to eliminate from action all aspects that were not this one. And it lasted for I dont know, more than twenty or twenty-five years of my life. It came spontaneously.
Just recently one day, the contact became entirely physical, the whole body was in great exaltation, and I noticed that o ther lines were spontaneously being added to this Dieu de bont et de misricorde, and I noted them down. It was a springing forth of states of consciousness not words.
Seigneur, Dieu de bont et de misricorde
--
the words came afterwards, as if they had been superimposed upon the states of consciousness, grafted onto them. Some of the associations seem unexpected, but they were the exact expression of the states of consciousness in their order of unfolding. they came one after ano ther, as if the contact was trying to become more complete. And the last was like a triumph. As soon as I finished writing (in writing, all this becomes ra ther flat), the impetus within was still alive and it gave me the sense of an all-conquering Truth. And the last mantra sprang forth:
Seigneur, Dieu de la Vrit victorieuse!
--
Of course, these things should not be published. We can file them in this Agenda of the Supramental Manifestation for later on. Later on, when the Victory is won, we shall say, If you want to see the curve
But what is going to come now? I constantly hear the Sanskrit mantra:
OM NAMO BHAGAVATEH1
It is there, all around me; it takes hold of all the cells and at once they spring forth in an ascension. And Naradas mantra, too:
Narayana, Narayana
(it is actually a Command which means: now you shall do as I wish), but it doesnt come from the heart.
What will it be?
--
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.
--
For the moment, of all the formulas or mantras, the one that acts most directly on this body, that seizes all the cells and immediately does this (vibrating motion) is the Sanskrit mantra: OM NAMO BHAGAVATEH.
As soon as I sit for meditation, as soon as I have a quiet minute to concentrate, it always begins with this mantra, and there is a response in the body, in the cells of the body: they all start vibrating.
This is how it happened: Y had just returned, and he brought back a trunk full of things which he then proceeded to show me, and his excitement made tight, tight little waves in the atmosphere, making my head ache; it made anyway, it was unpleasant. When I left, just after that had happened, I sat down and went like this (gesture of sweeping out) to make it stop, and immediately the mantra began.
It rose up from here (Mo ther indicates the solar plexus), like this: Om Namo Bhagavateh OM NAMO BHAGAVATEH OM NAMO BHAGAVATEH. It was formidable. For the entire quarter of an hour that the meditation lasted, everything was filled with Light! In the deeper tones it was of golden bronze (at the throat level it was almost red) and in the higher tones it was a kind of opaline white light: OM NAMO BHAGAVATEH, OM NAMO BHAGAVATEH, OM NAMO BHAGAVATEH.
the o ther day (I was in my bathroom upstairs), it came; it took hold of the entire body. It rose up in the same way, and all the cells were trembling. And with such a power! So I stopped everything, all movement, and I let the thing grow. the vibration went on expanding, ever widening, as the sound itself was expanding, expanding, and all the cells of the body were seized with an intensity of aspiration as if the entire body were swellingit became overwhelming. I felt that it would all burst.
I understood those who withdraw from everything to live that totally.
And it has such a transformative power! I felt that if it continued, something would happen, something like a change in the equilibrium of the bodys cells.
Unfortunately, I was unable to continue, because I dont have the time; it was just before the balcony darshan and I was going to be late. Something told me, That is for people who have nothing to do. then I said, I belong to my work, and I slowly withdrew. I put on the brakes, and the action was cut short. But what remains is that whenever I repeat this mantra everything starts vibrating.
So each one must find something that acts on himself, individually. I am only speaking of the action on the physical plane, because mentally, vitally, in all the inner parts of the being, the aspiration is always, always spontaneous. I am referring only to the physical plane.
the physical seems to be more open to something that is repetitious for example, the music we play on Sundays, which has three series of combined mantras. the first is that of Chandi, addressed to the universal Mo ther:
Ya devi sarvabhuteshu matrirupena sansthita
--
the second is addressed to Sri Aurobindo (and I believe they have put my name at the end). It incorporates the mantra I was speaking of:
Om namo namah shrimirambikayai
--
And the third is addressed to Sri Aurobindo: Thou art my refuge.
Shriaravindah sharanam mama.
Each time this music is played, it produces exactly the same effect upon the body. It is strange, as if all the cells were dilating, with a feeling that the body is growing larger It becomes all dilated, as if swollen with lightwith force, a lot of force. And this music seems to form spirals, like luminous ribbons of incense smoke, white (not transparent, literally white) and they rise up and up. I always see the same thing; it begins in the form of a vase, then swells like an amphora and converges higher up to blossom forth like a flower.
So for these mantras, everything depends upon what you want to do with them. I am in favor of a short mantra, especially if you want to make both numerous and spontaneous repetitionsone or two words, three at most. Because you must be able to use them in all cases, when an accident is about to happen, for example. It has to spring up without thinking, without calling: it should issue forth from the being spontaneously, like a reflex, exactly like a reflex. then the mantra has its full force.
For me, on the days when I have no special preoccupations or difficulties (days I could call normal, when I am normal), everything I do, all the movements of this body, all, all the words I utter, all the gestures I make, are accompanied and upheld by or lined, as it were, with this mantra:
OM NAMO BHAGAVATEH OM NAMO BHAGAVATEH
all, all the time, all the time, all the time.
That is the normal state. It creates an atmosphere of an intensity almost more material than the subtle physical; its like almost like the phosphorescent radiations from a medium. And it has a great action, a very great action: it can prevent an accident. And it accompanies you all the time, all the time.
But it is up to you to know what you want to do with it.
To sustain the aspirationto remember. We so easily lapse into forgetfulness. To create a kind of automatism.
You have no mantras that have come to you, that give you a more living feeling? Are their mantras long?
Yes, they are long. And he2 has not given me any mantra of the Mo ther, so they exist, but he has not given me any I dont know, they dont have much effect on me. It is something very mental.
Thats why it should spring forth from you.
--
This one, this mantra, OM NAMO BHAGAVATEH, came to me after some time, for I felt well, I saw that I needed to have a mantra of my own, that is, a mantra consonant with what this body has to do in the world. And it was just then that it came.3 It was truly an answer to a need that had made itself felt. So if you feel the neednot there, not in your head, but here (Mo ther points to the center of her heart), it will come. One day, ei ther you will hear the words, or they will spring forth from your heart And when that happens, you must hold onto it.
the first syllable of NAMO is pronounced with a short 'a,' as in nahmo. the final word is pronounced BHA-GAH-VA-TEH.
the tantric Swami.
the different mantras or prayers that came to Mo ther and which She grouped under the heading Prayers of the Consciousness of the Cells, are included as an addendum to the Agenda of 1959.
***
0 1958-09-19, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Something the modern world has completely lost is the sense of the sacred.
Ever since my childhood, I have spent my time veiling myself: one veil over ano ther veil over ano ther veil, so as to remain invisible. Because to see me without the true attitude is the great sin. Anyway, sin in the sense Sri Aurobindo defines itmeaning that things are no longer in their place.
***
0 1958-10-01, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Mo ther speaks of an experience She had during, the Wednesday class at the playground:)
It was so strong, so strong that it was really inexpressible. the negative experience of no longer being an individual, or in o ther words, the dissolution of the ego, took place a long time ago and still takes place quite often: the ego completely vanishes. But this was a positive experience of being not just the universe in its totality, but something elseineffable, yet concrete, absolutely concrete! Unutterable1and yet utterly concrete: the divine Person beyond the Impersonal.
the experience lasted for only a few minutes. And I knew, then, that all our words all our words are empty. But circumstances were such that I had to speak
Later, Mo ther added: 'Because I do not say everything; when I am in that state, there is a lethargy of expression!
***
0 1958-10-04, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Do all our vibrations reach you or must they have a special intensity?
It must be strong enough to pull me from my concentration or my activity. If I knew when you concentrate or do your puja,1 I could tune into you, and shell I would know more; o therwise, my inner life is too l am not at all passive inwardly, you see, I am very active, so I dont usually receive your vibrations unless they impose themselves strongly or unless I have decided beforeh and to be attentive to what is coming from someone or o ther. If I know that at a given moment something is going to happen, then I open a door, as it were. But its difficult to speak of these things.
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. Ra ther, I receive a sensation or an impression; and as these sensations and impressions are innumerable, its ra ther 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.
As soon as I am alone, I enter into a very deep concentration,a state of consciousness, a kind of universal activity. Is it deep? What is it? It is far beyond all the mental regions, far, far beyond, and it is constant. As soon as I am alone or resting somewhere, thats how it is.
the o ther day when I was in this state of concentration, I had the vision that I mentioned to you. I felt I was being pulled, that something was pulling me and trying to draw my attention. I felt it very strongly. So I opened my eyes, my mental eyes ( the physical eyes may remain opened or closed, it makes no difference ei ther way; when I am concentrated, things on the physical plane no longer exist), I deliberately opened the minds eyes, for that is where I felt myself being pulled, and then I had this vision I told you of. Someone was trying to draw my attention, to tell me something. It takes someone really quite powerful, with a very great power of concentration, to do that there are certainly a great many people here and elsewhere who try to do this, yet I dont feel a thing.3
In the outer, practical domain, I might suddenly think of someone, so I know that this person is calling or thinking of me. When you left on your trip, I created a special link-up so that if ever, at any moment, you called me for anything, I would know it instantly, and I remained attentive and alert. But I do that only in exceptional cases. Generally speaking, when I havent made this special link-up, things keep coming in and coming in and coming in and coming in, and the answer goes out automatically, here or there or there or therehundreds and hundreds of things that I dont keep in my memory because then it would really be frightful. I dont keep these things in my consciousness; it is ra ther a work that is done automatically.
When you asked me if X4 were thinking of me, I consulted my atmosphere and saw that it was true, that even many times a day Xs thoughts were coming. So I know that he is concentrating on me, or something: it simply passes through me, and I answer automatically. But I dont particularly pay attention to X, unless you ask me a question about him, in which case I deliberately tune into him, then observe and determine whe ther its like this or like that. Whereas this vision the o ther day was something that thrust itself on me; I was in ano ther region altoge ther, in my inner contemplation, my concentrationa very strong concentrationwhen I was forced to enter into contact with this being whose vision I had and who was obviously a very powerful being. After telling me what he had to tell me, he went away in a very peculiar way, not at all suddenly as most people appear and disappear, not at all like that. When I first saw him, there was a living form the being himself was there but upon leaving (probably to see the effect, to find out whe ther he had truly succeeded in making himself understood), he left behind a kind of image of himself. Afterwards, this image blurred and it left only a silhouette, an outline, then it disappeared altoge ther leaving only an impression. That was the last thing I saw. So I kept the impression and analyzed it to find out exactly what was involved; all this was filed away, and then it was over. I began my concentration once again.
I intentionally carry everybody in my active consciousness for the work, and I do the work consciously; but the extent to which people in the world, or those who are here in the Ashram, are conscious of this or receive the results depends upon them, though not exclusively.
the o ther day, for example, though I no longer recall exactly when (I forget everything on purpose)but it was in the last part of the night I had a ra ther long activity concerning the whole realization of the Ashram, notably in the fields of education and art. I was apparently inspecting this area to see how things were there, so naturally I saw a certain number of people, their work and their inner states. Some saw me and, at that moment, had a vision of me. It is likely that many were asleep and didnt notice anything, but some actually saw me. the next morning, for example, someone who works at the theater told me that she had had a splendid vision of me in which I had spoken to her, blessed her, etc. This was her way of receiving the work I had done. And this kind of thing is happening more and more, in that my action is awakening the consciousness in o thers more and more strongly.
Naturally, the reception is always incomplete or partially modified; when it passes through the individuality, it becomes narrowed, a personal thing. It seems impossible for each one to have a consciousness vast enough to see the thing in its entirety.
You said that our way of receiving your work or becoming conscious of it does not exclusively depend upon us. What do you mean?
It depends upon the progress in the consciousness. the more the action is supramentalized, the more its reception is IMPOSED upon the consciousness of each one. the actions progress makes it more and more perceptible IN SPITE OF each ones condition. the milieu obviously limits and altersdistortswhat it receives, but the quality of the Work acts upon this receptivity and imposes itself on it in a more and more efficient and imperious way.
there is an interdependence between the individual progress and the collective progress, between that which works and that which is worked upon. It proceeds like this (gesture of intermeshing), and as one progresses, the o ther progresses. the progress above not only hastens the progress below but brings the two nearer toge ther, thus changing the distance in the relationship; that is, the distance will not remain the same, the ratio between the progress here and the progress above wont always be identical.
the progress above follows a certain trajectory, and in some cases the distance increases, in o thers it decreases (although on the whole, the distance remains relatively unchanged), but my feeling is that the collective receptivity will increase as the action becomes increasingly supramentalized. And the need for an individual receptivitywith all its distortions and alterations and limitationswill decrease in importance as the supramental influence increasingly imposes its power. This influence will impose itself in such a way that it will no longer be subject to the defects in receptivity.
***
(Shortly afterwards, concerning the experience of Wednesday, October 1: the divine Person beyond the Impersonal)
Before, I always had the negative experience of the disappearance of the ego, of the oneness of Creation, where everything implying separation disappearedan experience that, personally, I would call negative. Last Wednesday, while I was speaking (and thats why at the end I could no longer find my words), I seemed suddenly to have left this negative phenomenon and entered into the positive experience: the experience of BEING the Supreme Lord, the experience that nothing exists but the Supreme Lordall is the Supreme Lord, there is nothing else. And at that moment, the feeling of this infinite power that has no limit, that nothing can limit, was so overwhelming that all the functions of the body, of this mental machine that summons up words, all this was I could no longer speak French. Perhaps the words could have come to me in Englishprobably, because it was easier for Sri Aurobindo to express himself in English, and thats how it must have happened: it was the part embodied in Sri Aurobindo ( the part of the Supreme that was embodied in Sri Aurobindo for its manifestation) that had the experience. This is what joined back with the Origin and caused the experience I was well aware of it. And that is probably why its transcription through English words would have been easier than through French words (for at these moments, such activities are purely mechanical, ra ther like automatic machines). And naturally the experience left something behind. It left the sense of a power that can no longer be qualified,5 really. And it was there yesterday evening.
the difficultyits not even a difficulty, its just a kind of precaution that is taken (automatically, in fact) in order to For example, the volume of Force that was to be expressed in the voice was too great for the speech organ. So I had to be a little attentive that is, there had to be a kind of filtering in the outermost expression, o therwise the voice would have cracked. But this isnt done through the will and reason, its automatic. Yet I feel that the capacity of Matter to contain and express is increasing with phenomenal speed. But its progressive, it cant be done instantly. there have often been people whose outer form broke because the Force was too strong; well, I clearly see that it is being dosed out. After all, this is exclusively the concern of the Supreme Lord, I dont bo ther about itits not my concern and I dont bo ther about i the makes the necessary adjustments. Thus it comes progressively, little by little, so that no fundamental disequilibrium occurs. It gives the impression that ones head is swelling so tremendously it will burst! But then if there is a moment of stillness, it adapts; gradually, it adapts.
Only, one must be careful to keep the sense of the Unmanifest sufficiently present so that the various things the elements, the cells and all thathave time to adapt. the sense of the Unmanifest, or in o ther words, to step back into the Unmanifest.6 This is what all those who have had experiences have done; they always believed that there was no possibility of adaptation, so they left their bodies and went off.
***
(Towards the end of the conversation, about money:)
Money belongs to the one who spends it; that is an absolute law. You may pile up money, but it doesnt belong to you until you spend it. then you have the merit, the glory, the joy, the pleasure of spending it!
Money is meant to circulate. What should remain constant is the progressive movement of an increase in the earths productionan ever-expanding progressive movement to increase the earths production and improve existence on earth. It is the material improvement of terrestrial life and the growth of the earths production that must go on expanding, enlarging, and not this silly paper or this inert metal that is amassed and lifeless.
Money is not meant to generate money; money should generate an increase in production, an improvement in the conditions of life and a progress in human consciousness. This is its true use. What I call an improvement in consciousness, a progress in consciousness, is everything that education in all its forms can providenot as its generally understood, but as we understand it here: education in art, education in from the education of the body, from the most material progress, to the spiritual education and progress through yoga; the whole spectrum, everything that leads humanity towards its future realization. Money should serve to augment that and to augment the material base for the earths progress, the best use of what the earth can giveits intelligent utilization, not the utilization that wastes and loses energies. the use that allows energies to be replenished.
In the universe there is an inexhaustible source of energy that asks only to be replenished; if you know how to go about it, it is replenished. Instead of draining life and the energies of our earth and making of it something parched and inert, we must know the practical exercise for replenishing the energy constantly. And these are not just words; I know how its to be done, and science is in the process of thoroughly finding outit has found out most admirably. But instead of using it to satisfy human passions, instead of using what science has found so that men may destroy each o ther more effectively than they are presently doing, it must be used to enrich the earth: to enrich the earth, to make the earth richer and richer, more active, generous, productive and to make all life grow towards its maximum efficiency. This is the true use of money. And if its not used like that, its a vicea short circuit and a vice.
But how many people know how to use it in this way? Very few, which is why they have to be taught. What I call teach is to show, to give the example. We want to be the example of true living in the world. Its a challenge I am placing before the whole financial world: I am telling them that they are in the process of wi thering and ruining the earth with their idiotic system; and with even less than they are now spending for useless thingsmerely for inflating something that has no inherent life, that should be only an instrument at the service of life, that has no reality in itself, that is only a means and not an end ( they make an end of something that is only a means)well then, instead of making of it an end, they should make it the means. With what they have at their disposal they could oh, transform the earth so quickly! Transform it, put it into contact, truly into contact, with the supramental forces that would make life bountiful and, indeed, constantly renewedinstead of becoming wi thered, stagnant, shrivelled up: a future moon. A dead moon.
We are told that in a few millions or billions of years, the earth will become some kind of moon. the movement should be the opposite: the earth should become more and more a resplendent sun, but a sun of life. Not a sun that burns, but a sun that illuminesa radiant glory.
Puja: ceremony , invocation or evocation of a god (in this case, a tantric ritual ).
When the disciple became a Sannyasi and travelled in the Himalayas with the tantric Swami
In this vision, the d. ceased tantric guru of the guru who initiated Satprem appeared to Mo ther in a dark blue light and 'imposed' himself on her to tell her certain things.
the disciple's tantric guru.
We believe that Mo ther used the word 'qualified' in the sense of restrict, limit Or modifya limitless Power.
the vastness beyond the creation or the cosmic manifestation, the solid base upon which all the rest can unfold.
***
0 1958-10-06, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Certain relationships are entirely within me, entirely. It is not a relationship between individuals, but a relationship between states of beingwhich means that with the same individual there may be many different relationships. If it were a single whole but I am still not sure if there is a single person with whom the relationship is global.
So there are parts which are entirely within me, entirely there is no difference; they are myself. there are o ther parts with which I am conscious of an exchangea very familiar, very intimate exchange. And there are parts outside of me with which I still have relationships, not exactly as with strangers but merely as acquaintances; it is still necessary to observe their reactions in order to do the correct thing. And the ratio between these different parts is naturally different depending upon the different individuals.
***
--
Difficulties are sent to us exclusively to make the realization more perfect.
Each time we try to realize something and we encounter a resistance or an obstacle, or even a failurewhat appears to be a failurewe should know, we should NEVER forget, that it is exclusively, absolutely, to make the realization more perfect.
So this habit of cringing, of being discouraged or even feeling ill at ease or abusing oneself, saying, there, Ive done it again All this is absolute foolishness.
Ra ther, 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 1958-10-10, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
( the disciple asks to know what he must do and what his place is in the universal manifestation)
In all religious and especially occult initiations, the ritual of the different ceremonies is prescribed in every detail; all the words pronounced, all the gestures made have their importance, and the least infraction of the rule, the least fault committed can have fatal consequences. It is the same in material lifeif one had the initiation into the true way of living, one could transform physical existence.
If we consider the body as the tabernacle of the Lord, then medical science, for example, becomes the initiatory ritual of the service of the temple, and doctors of all kinds are the officiating priests in the different rituals of worship. Thus, medicine is really a priesthood and should be treated as such.
the same can be said of physical culture and of all the sciences that are concerned with the body and its workings. If the material universe is considered as the outer sheath and the manifestation of the Supreme, then it can generally be said that all the physical sciences are the rituals of worship.
We always come back to the same thing: the absolute necessity for perfect sincerity, perfect honesty and a sense of the dignity of all we do so that we may do it as it should be done.
If we could truly, perfectly know all the details of the ceremony of life, the worship of the Lord in physical life, it would be wonderfulto know, and no longer to err, never again to err. To perform the ceremony as perfectly as an initiation.
To know life utterly Oh, there is a very interesting thing in this regard! And its strange, but this particular knowledge reminds me of one of my Sutras1 (which I read out, but no one understood or understood only vaguely, like that):
It is the Supreme Lord who has ineluctably decreed the place you occupy in the universal concert, but whatever be this place, you have equally the same right as all o thers to ascend the supreme summits right to the supramental realization.
there is ones position in the universal hierarchy, which is something ineluctableit is the eternal lawand there is the development in the manifestation, which is an education; it is progressive and done from within the being. What is remarkable is that to become a perfect being, this positionwhatever it is, decreed since all eternity, a part of the eternal Truthmust manifest with the greatest possible perfection as a result of evolutionary growth. It is the junction, the union of the two, the eternal position and the evolutionary realization, that will make the total and perfect being, and the manifestation as the Lord has willed it since the beginning of all eternity (which has no beginning at all! ).
And for the cycle to be complete, one cannot stop on the way at any plane, not even the highest spiritual plane nor the plane closest to matter (like the occult plane in the vital, for example). One must descend right into matter, and this perfection in manifestation must be a material perfection, or o therwise the cycle is not completewhich explains why those who want to flee in order to realize the divine Will are in error. What must be done is exactly the opposite! the two must be combined in a perfect way. This is why all the honest sciences, the sciences that are practiced sincerely, honestly, exclusively with a will to know, are difficult pathsyet such sure paths for the total realization.
It brings up very interesting things. (What I am going to say now is very personal and consequently cannot be used, but it may be kept anyway:)
there are two parallel things that, from the eternal and supreme point of view, are of identical importance, in that both are equally essential for the realization to be a true realization.
On the one hand, there is what Sri Aurobindowho, as the Avatar, represented the supreme Consciousness and Will on earthdeclared me to be, that is, the supreme universal Mo ther; and on the o ther hand, there is what I am realizing in my body through the integral sadhana.2 I could be the supreme Mo ther and not do any sadhana, and as a matter of fact, as long as Sri Aurobindo was in his body, it was he who did the sadhana, and I received the effects. these effects were automatically established in the outer being, but he was the one doing it, not II was merely the bridge between his sadhana and the world. Only when he left his body was I forced to take up the sadhana myself; not only did I have to do what I was doing beforebeing a bridge between his sadhana and the world but I had to carry on the sadhana myself. When he left, he turned over to me the responsibility for what he himself had been doing in his body, and I had to do it. So there are both these things. Sometimes one predominates, sometimes the o ther (I dont mean successively in time, but it depends on the moment), and they are trying to combine in a total and perfect realization: the eternal, ineffable and immutable Consciousness of the Executrice of the Supreme, and the consciousness of the Sadhak of the integral Yoga who strives in an ascending effort towards an ever increasing progression.
To this has been added a growing initiation into the supramental realization which is (I understand it well now) the perfect union of what comes from above and what comes from below, or in o ther words, the eternal position and the evolutionary realization.
then and this becomes ra ther amusing like lifes play Depending upon each ones nature and position and bias, and because human beings are very limited, very partial and incapable of a global vision, there are those who believe, who have faith, or to whom the eternal Mo ther is revealed through Grace, who have this kind of relationship with the eternal Mo ther and there are those who themselves are plunged in sadhana, who have the consciousness of a developed sadhak, and thereby have the same relationship with me as one has with what they generally call a realized soul. Such persons consider me the prototype of the Guru teaching a new way, but the o thers dont have this relationship of sadhak to Guru (I am taking the two extremes, but of course there are all the possibilities in between), they are only in contact with the eternal Mo ther and, in the simplicity of their hearts, they expect Her to do everything for them. If they were perfect in this attitude, the eternal Mo ther would do everything for themas a matter of fact, She does do everything, but as they arent perfect, they cannot receive it totally. But the two paths are very different, the two kinds of relationships are very different; and as we all live according to the law of external things, in a material body, there is a kind of annoyance, an almost irritated misunderstanding, between those who follow this path (not consciously and intentionally, but spontaneously), who have this relationship of the child to the Mo ther, and those who have this o ther relationship of the sadhak to the Guru. So it creates a whole play, with an infinite diversity of shades.
But all this is still in suspense, on the way to realization, moving forward progressively; therefore, unless we are able to see the outcome, we cant understand a thing. We get confused. Only when we see the outcome, the final realization, only when we have TOUCHED there, will everything be understood then it will be as clear and as simple as can be. But meanwhile, my relationships with different people are very funny, utterly amusing!
Those who have what I would call the more outer relationship compared to the o ther (although it is not really so) the relationship of yoga, of sadhanaconsider the o thers superstitious; and the o thers, who have faith OI perception, or the Grace to have understood what Sri Aurobindo meant (perhaps even before knowing what he said, but in any event, after he said it), discard the o thers as ignorant unbelievers! And there are all the gradations in between, so it really becomes quite funny!
It opens up extraordinary horizons; once you have understood this, you have the keyyou have the key to many, many things: the different positions of each of the different saints, the different realizations and it resolves all the incoherencies of the various manifestations on earth.
For example, this question of Power the Powerover Matter. Those who perceive me as the eternal, universal Mo ther and Sri Aurobindo as the Avatar are surprised that our power is not absolute. they are surprised that we have not merely to say, Let it be thus for it to be thus. This is because, in the integral realization, the union of the two is essential: a union of the power that proceeds from the eternal position and the power that proceeds from the sadhana through evolutionary growth. Similarly, how is it that those who have reached even the summits of yogic knowledge (I was thinking of Swami) need to resort to beings like gods or demigods to be able to realize things?Because they have indeed united with certain higher forces and entities, but it was not decreed since the beginning of time that they were this particular being. they were not born as this or that, but through evolution they united with a latent possibility in themselves. Each one carries the Eternal within himself, but one can join Him only when one has realized the complete union of the latent Eternal with the eternal Eternal.
And this explains everything, absolutely everything: how it works, how it functions in the world.3 I was saying to myself, But I have no powers, I have no powers! Several days ago, I said, But after all, I KNOW WHO is there, I know, yet how is it that ? there, up to there ( the level of the head), it is all-powerful, nothing can resist but here it is ineffective. So those who have faith, even an ignorant but real faith (it can be ignorant but never theless it is real), say, What! How can you have no powers? Because the sadhana is not yet over.
the Lord will possess his universe only when the universe will have consciously become the Lord.
See Agenda 1957, p. 119
--
Mo ther added: ' the most beautiful part of the experience is missing... When I try to formulate something in too precise a way, all the vastness of the experience evaporates. the entire world is being revealed in all its organization down to the minutest details but everything simultaneouslyhow can that be explained? It's not possible.'
***
0 1958-10-17, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Mo ther brings with her the continuation of the first seven Sutras written by Her, probably in 1957.)
[See p. 119]
they are in two groups.
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.
That was the message of hope.
And then it continues (Mo ther reads):
8) All division in the being is an insincerity.
9) the greatest insincerity is to carve an abyss between ones body and the truth of ones being.
10) When an abyss separates the true being from the physical being, Nature immediately fills it with all the hostile suggestions, of which the most deadly is fear and the most pernicious, doubt.
I wrote that before reading Sri Aurobindos aphorism on the sentinels of Nature.1 I found it very interesting and I said to myself, Well! Thats exactly what came to me!
there is still one more (but it is not the last):
11) Allow nothing, nowhere, to deny the truth of your being: that is sincerity.
'If mankind only caught a glimpse of what infinite enjoyments, what perfect forces, what luminous reaches of spontaneous knowledge, what wide calms of our being lie waiting for us in the tracts which our animal evolution has not yet conquered, they would leave all and never rest till they had gained these treasures. But the way is narrow, the doors are hard to force, and fear, distrust and scepticism are there, sentinels of Nature to forbid the turning away of our feet from less ordinary pastures.'
Cent. Ed. Vol. XVII, p. 79
0 1958-10-25 - to go out of your body, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Concerning the disciple's tantric guru)
When X does his puja, I clearly see the particular form of the Mo ther he is invoking I see her descending.
Each one is in touch with the universal expression of an aspect or a will or a mode of the Supreme, and if one aspires for this, it is this that comes, with an extraordinary plasticity. And when that happens, I even become the Witness (not the witness in the way of the Purusha1: a witness far more infinite and eternal than the Purusha). I see what responds, why it responds, how it responds. This is how I know what people want (not here below, nor even in their highest aspiration). I see it even when the people themselves are no longer consciousor ra ther, not yet conscious (for me, its no longer, but anyway ), when they are not yet conscious of this identification somewhere. Even then I see it.
Its interesting.
they do pujas to all these forces or divinities, but it is not it is not the highest Truth. What Sri Aurobindo called the true surrender, the surrender to the Supreme, is a truth higher than that of relying solely upon oneself.
And that is what always brings in complications, conflicts. I was surprised that the atmosphere [of the Ashram] is filled with conflict when he is here but that is the reason.2
Why arent people conscious of this identification while having it in a part of their being?
Between the outer consciousness and the deepest consciousness there are truly holeswhich are missing links between states of being and which have to be built, but they dont know how to do it. So their first reaction when they go within is panic! they feel they are falling into night, into nothingness, into non-being!
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 fur ther, 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!
Purusha: the Being or the Self that witnesses and supports the Becoming.
the occult atmosphere of tantric pujas invokes forces that do not coincide with the completely different atmosphere and the completely different attitude of the supramental yoga.
***
0 1958-11-02, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Last night, I thought, My god! If I have to Individually, with this one or that one, by selecting the best, I could get somewhere, but this this mass.1 Swami had told me sohe told me immediately after his first meditation (collective meditation at the Ashram playground), he told me, the stuff is not good! (Mo ther laughs)
I didnt press the matter.
All this toge ther constitutes one collective entity, and the individual is lost in it. If I had to deal with this person or that person individually, it would be different. But all toge ther, taking them all toge ther as a collective entity, well, its not brilliant.
Mo ther is referring to the Ashram as a collectivity.
***
0 1958-11-04 - Myths are True and Gods exist - mental formation and occult faculties - exteriorization - work in dreams, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Concerning; the Agenda of August 9, 1958, on the gods of the Puranas)
the gods of the Puranas are merciless gods who respect only power and have nothing of the true love, charity or profound goodness that the Divine has put into the human consciousness and which compensate psychically for all the outer defects. they themselves have nothing of this, they have no psychic.1 the Puranic gods have no psychic, so they act according to their power. they are restrained only when their power is not all-powerful, thats all.
But what does Anusuya represent?2
She is a portrait of the ideal woman according to the Hindu conception, the woman who worships her husb and as a god, which means that she sees the Supreme in her husband. And so this woman was much more powerful than all the gods of the Puranas precisely because she had this psychic capacity for total self-giving; and her faith in the Supremes presence in her husb and gave her a much greater power than that of all the gods.
the story narrated in the film went like this: Narada, as usual, was having fun. (Narada is a demigod with a divine position that is, he can communicate with man and with the gods as he pleases, and he serves as an intermediary, but then he likes to have fun!) So he was quarrelling with one of the goddesses, I no longer recall which one, and he told her (Ah, yes! the quarrel was with Saraswati.) Saraswati was telling him that knowledge is much greater than love (much greater in that it is much more powerful than love), and he replied to her, You dont know what youre talking about! (Mo ther laughs) Love is much more powerful than knowledge. So she challenged him, saying, Well then, prove it to me.I shall prove it to you, he replied. And the whole story starts there. He began creating a whole imbroglio on earth just to prove his point.
It was only a film story, but anyway, the goddesses, the three wives of the Trimurti that is, the consort of Brahma, the consort of Vishnu and the consort of Shivajoined forces (!) and tried all kinds of things to foil Narada. I no longer recall the details of the story Oh yes, the story begins like this: one of the three I believe it was Shivas consort, Parvati (she was the worst one, by the way!)was doing her puja. Shiva was in meditation, and she began doing her puja in front of him; she was using an oil lamp for the puja, and the lamp fell down and burned her foot. She cried out because she had burned her foot. So Shiva at once came out of his meditation and said to her, What is it, Devi? (laughter) She answered, I burned my foot! then Narada said, Arent you ashamed of what you have done?to make Shiva come out of his meditation simply because you have a little burn on your foot, which cannot even hurt you since you are immortal! She became furious and snapped at him, Show me that it can be o therwise! Narada replied, I am going to show you what it is to really love ones husbandyou dont know anything about it!
then comes the story of Anusuya and her husb and (who is truly a husb and a very good man, but well, not a god, after all!), who was sleeping with his head resting upon Anusuyas knees. they had finished their puja (both of them were worshippers of Shiva), and after their puja he was resting, sleeping, with his head on Anusuyas knees. Meanwhile, the gods had descended upon earth, particularly this Parvati, and they saw Anusuya like that. then Parvati exclaimed, This is a good occasion! Not very far away a cooking fire was burning. With her power, she sent the fire rolling down onto Anusuyas feetwhich startled her because it hurt. It began to burn; not one cry, not one movement, nothing because she didnt want to awaken her husband. But she began invoking Shiva (Shiva was there). And because she invoked Shiva (it is lovely in the story), because she invoked Shiva, Shivas foot began burning! (Mo ther laughs) then Narada showed Shiva to Parvati: Look what you are doing; you are burning your husbands foot! So Parvati made the opposite gesture and the fire was put out.
Thats how it went.
--
Oh, the story was very lovely all along. there was one thing after ano ther, one thing after ano ther, and always the power of Anusuya was greater than the power of the gods. I liked that story very much.
It ended in a (Oh, the story was very long; it lasted three hours!) But really, it was lovely throughout. Lovely in the way it showed that the sincerity of love is much more powerful than anything else.
If I were to narrate the whole thing to you, there would be no end to it, but anyway, you get the idea.
***
(Shortly afterwards, the disciple again brings up the topic of August 9, where Mo ther had said that the gods are a good deal worse than human beings)
It should be said that we are speaking of the Puranic gods, because the Christians, for example, do not understand what this can mean. they have an entirely different conception of the gods.
It could apply to the old Greek mythology, though.
No, not uniquely. It could apply in many o ther eases. Even if the Christians dont understand, there are many o thers who will!
Those who have read a little and who know something o ther than their little rut will understand.
there is something similar between the Puranic gods and the gods of Greek or Egyptian mythology. the gods of Egyptian mythology are terrible beings they cut off peoples heads, tear their enemies to pieces!
the Greeks were not always tender ei ther!
In Europe and in the modern Western world, it is thought that all these gods the Greek gods and the pagan gods, as they are calledare human fancies, that they are not real beings. To understand, one must know that they are real beings. That is the difference. For Westerners, they are only a figment of the human imagination and dont correspond to anything real in the universe. But that is a gross mistake.
To understand the workings of universal life, and even those of terrestrial life, one must know that in their own realms these are all living beings, each with his own independent reality. they would exist even if men did not exist! Most of these gods existed before man.
they are beings who belong to the progressive creation of the universe and who have themselves presided over its formation from the most e theric or subtle regions to the most material regions. they are a descent of the divine creative Spirit that came to repair the mischief in short, to repair what the Asuras had done. the first makers created disorder and darkness, an unconsciousness, and then it is said that there was a second lineage of makers to repair that evil, and the gods gradually descended through realities that were ever moreone cant say dense because it isnt really dense, nor can one even say material, since matter as we know it does not exist on these planesthrough more and more concrete substances.
All these zones, these planes of reality, received different names and were classified in different ways according to the occult schools, according to the different traditions, but there is an essential similarity, and if we go back far enough into the various traditions, hardly anything but words differ, depending upon the country and the language. the descriptions are quite similar. Moreover, those who climb back up the ladderor in o ther words, a human being who, through his occult knowledge, goes out of one of his bodies ( they are called sheaths in English) and enters into a more subtle bodyin order to ACT in a more subtle body and so forth, twelve times (you make each body come out from a more material body, leaving the more material body in its corresponding zone, and then go off through successive exteriorizations), what they have seen, what they have discovered and seen through their ascensionwhe ther they are occultists from the Occident or occultists from the Orientis for the most part analogous in description. they have put different words on it, but the experience is very analogous.
there is the whole Chaldean tradition, and there is also the Vedic tradition, and there was very certainly a tradition anterior to both that split into two branches. Well, all these occult experiences have been the same. Only the description differs depending upon the country and the language. the story of creation is not told from a metaphysical or psychological point of view, but from an objective point of view, and this story is as real as our stories of historical periods. Of course, its not the only way of seeing, but it is just as legitimate a way as the o thers, and in any event, it recognizes the concrete reality of all these divine beings. Even now, the experiences of Western occultists and those of Eastern occultists exhibit great similarities. the only difference is in the way they are expressed, but the manipulation of the forces is the same.
I learned all this through theon. Probably, he was I dont know if he was Russian or Polish (a Russian or Polish Jew), he never said who he really was or where he was born, nor his age nor anything.
He had assumed two names: one was an Arab name he had adopted when he took refuge in Algeria (I dont know for what reason). After having worked with Blavatsky and having founded an occult society in Egypt, he went to Algeria, and there he first called himself Aa Aziz (a word of Arabic origin meaning the beloved). then, when he began setting up his Cosmic Review and his cosmic group, he called himself Max theon, meaning the supreme God (!), the greatest God! And no one knew him by any o ther name than these twoAa Aziz or Max theon.
He had an English wife.
He said he had received initiation in India (he knew a little Sanskrit and the Rig-Veda thoroughly), and then he formulated a tradition which he called the cosmic tradition and which he claimed to have received I dont know howfrom a tradition anterior to that of the Cabala and the Vedas. But there were many things (Madame theon was the clairvoyant one, and she received visions; oh, she was wonderful!), many things that I myself had seen and known before knowing them which were then substantiated.
So personally, I am convinced that there was indeed a tradition anterior to both these traditions containing a knowledge very close to an integral knowledge. Certainly, there is a similarity in the experiences. When I came here and told Sri Aurobindo certain things I knew from the occult standpoint, he always said that it conformed to the Vedic tradition. And as for certain occult practices, he told me that they were entirely tantric and I knew nothing at that time, absolutely nothing, nei ther the Vedas nor the Tantras.
So very probably there was a tradition anterior to both. I have recollections (for me, these are always things I have LIVED), very clear, very distinct recollections of a time that was certainly VERY anterior to the Vedic times and to the Cabala, to the Chaldean tradition.
But now, there is only a very small number of people in the West who know that it isnt merely subjective or imaginative ( the result of a more or less unbridled imagination), and that it corresponds to a universal truth.
All these regions, all these realms are filled with beings who exist separately in their own realms, and if you are awake and conscious on a given plane for example, if while going out of a more material body you awaken on some higher planeyou can have the same relationship with the things and people of that plane as with the things and people of the material world. In o ther words, there exists an entirely objective relationship that has nothing to do with your own idea of things. Naturally, the resemblance becomes greater and greater as you draw nearer the physical world, the material world, and there is even a moment when one region can act directly upon the o ther. In any case, in what Sri Aurobindo calls the kingdoms of the overmind, you find a concrete reality entirely independent of your personal experience; whenever you come back to it, you again find the same things, with some differences that may have occurred DURING YOUR ABSENCE. And your relationships with the beings there are identical to those you have with physical beings, except that they are more flexible, more supple and more direct (for example, there is a capacity to change the outer form, the visible form, according to your inner state), but you can make an appointment with someone, come to the meeting and again find the same being, with only certain differences that may have occurred during your absence but it is absolutely concrete, with absolutely concrete results.
However, you must have at least a little experience of these things to understand them. O therwise, if you are convinced that all this is just human fancy or mental formations, if you believe that these gods have such and such a form because men have imagined them to be like that, or that they have such and such defects or qualities because men have envisioned it that wayas with all those who say God is created in the image of man and exists only in human thoughtall such people wont understand, it will seem absolutely ridiculous to them, a kind of madness. You must live a little, touch the subject a little to know how concrete it is.
Naturally, children know a great dealif they have not been spoiled. there are many children who return to the same place night after night and continue living a life they have begun there. When these faculties are not spoiled with age, they can be preserved within one. there was a time when I was especially interested in dreams, and I could return exactly to the same place and continue some work I had begun there, visit something, for example, or see to something, some work of organization or some discovery or exploration; you go to a certain place, just as you go somewhere in life, then you rest a while, then you go back and begin againyou take up your work just where you left it, and you continue. You also notice that there are things entirely independent of you, certain variations which were not at all created by you and which occurred automatically during your absence.
But then, you must LIVE these experiences yourself; you yourself must see, you must live them with enough sincerity to see (by being sincere and spontaneous) that they are independent of any mental formations. Because one can take the opposite line and make an intensive study of the way mental formations act upon eventswhich is very interesting. But thats ano ther field. And this study makes you very careful, very prudent, because you start noticing to what extent you can delude yourself. therefore, both one and the o ther, the mental formation and the occult reality, must be studied to see what the ESSENTIAL difference is between them. the one exists in itself, entirely independent of what we think about it, and the o ther
That was a grace. I was given every experience without knowing ANYTHING of what it was all aboutmy mind was absolutely blank. there was no active correspondence in the formative mind. I only knew about what had happened or the laws governing these happenings AFTERWARDS, when I was curious and inquired to find out what it related to. then I found out. But o therwise, I didnt know. So that was the clear proof that these things existed entirely outside of my imagination or thought.
It doesnt happen very frequently in this world. And thats why these experiences, which o therwise seem quite natural, quite obvious, appear to be extravagant fancies to people who know nothing.
But if you transposed this to France, to the West, unless you frequent occult circles, people would look at you with And behind your back, they would say, That person is cracked!
***
(Later, the disciple asks Mo ther for some clarification on the essential difference between the occult reality and mental formations)
Once you have worked in this field, you realize that when you have studied a subject, when you have mentally understood something, it gives a special tonality to the experience. the experience may be quite spontaneous and sincere, but the simple fact of having known this subject and of having studied it gives a particular tonality; on the o ther hand, if you have learned nothing of the subject, if you know nothing at all, well, when the experience comes, the notation of it is entirely spontaneous and sincere. It can be more or less adequate, but it is not the result of a former mental formation.
What happened in my life is that I never studied or knew things until AFTER having the experienceonly BECAUSE OF the experience and because I wanted to understand it would I study things related to it.
It was the same thing for visions of past lives. I knew NOTHING when I would have the experience, not even the possibility of past lives, and only after having had the experience would I study the question and, for example, even verify certain historical facts that had occurred in my vision but about which I had no prior knowledge.
***
( then the disciple asks for details on going out of each successive body into the next, more subtle one)
there are subtle bodies and subtle worlds that correspond to these bodies; it is what the psychological method calls states of consciousness, but these states of consciousness really correspond to worlds. the occult process consists in becoming aware of these various inner states of being, or subtle bodies, and of mastering them sufficiently to be able to make one come out of the o ther, successively. For there is a whole hierarchy of increasing subtletiesor decreasing, depending upon the direction and the occult process consists in making a more subtle body come out from a denser body, and so forth, right to the most e thereal regions. You go out through successive exteriorizations into more and more subtle bodies or worlds. Each time it is ra ther like passing into ano ther dimension. In fact, the fourth dimension of the physicists is only the scientific transcription of an occult knowledge.
To give ano ther comparison, it could be said that the physical body is at the centerit is the most material and the most condensed, as well as the smallestand the more subtle inner bodies increasingly overlap the limits of this central physical body; they pass through it and extend fur ther and fur ther out, like water evaporating from a porous vase which creates a kind of steam all around it. And the more subtle it is, the more its extension tends to fuse with that of the universe: you finally become universal. It is an entirely concrete process that makes the invisible worlds an objective experience and even allows you to act in those worlds.
In Sri Aurobindo's and Mo ther's terminology, 'psychic' or 'psychic being' means the soul or the portion of the Supreme in man which evolves from life to life until it becomes a fully self-conscious being. the soul is a special capacity or grace of human beings on earth.
the film on August 5.
***
0 1958-11-08, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I found my message for the 1st of January It was quite unforeseen. Yesterday morning, I thought, All the same, I have to find my message, but what? I was absolutely like that, neutral, nothing. then yesterday evening at the class (of Friday, November 7) I noticed that these children who had had a whole week to prepare their questions on the text had not found a single one! A terrible lethargy! A total lack of interest. And when I had finished speaking, I thought to myself, But what IS there in these people who are interested in nothing but their personal little affairs? So I began descending into their mental atmosphere, in search of the little light, of that which responds And it literally pulled me downwards as into a hole, but in such a material way; my hand, which was on the arm of the chair, began slipping down, my o ther hand went like this (to the ground), my head, too! I thought it was going to touch my knees!
And I had the impression It was not an impression I saw it. I was descending into a crevasse between two steep rocks, rocks that appeared to be made of something harder than basalt, BLACK, but metallic at the same time, with such sharp edgesit seemed that a mere touch would lacerate you. It appeared endless and bottomless, and it kept getting narrower, narrower and narrower, narrower and narrower, like a funnel, so narrow that there was almost no more roomnot even for the consciousness to pass through. And the bottom was invisible, a black hole. And it went down, down, down, like that, without air, without light, except for a sort of glimmer that enabled me to make out the rock edges. they seemed to be cut so steeply, so sharply Finally, when my head began touching my knees, I asked myself, But what is there at the bottom of this this hole?
And as soon as I had uttered, What is there at the bottom of this hole? I seemed to touch a spring that was in the very depthsa spring I didnt see but that acted instantly with a tremendous power and it cast me up forthwith, hurled me out of this crevasse into (arms extended, motionless) a formless, limitless vast which was infinitely comfortablenot exactly warm, but it gave a feeling of ease and of an intimate warmth.
And it was all-powerful, with an infinite richness. It did not have no, it didnt have any kind of form, and it had no limits (naturally, as I was identified with it I knew there was nei ther limit nor form). It was as if (because it was not visible), as if this vast were made of countless, imperceptible pointspoints that occupied no place in space ( there was no sense of space), that were of a deep warm gold but this is only a feeling, a transcription. And all this was absolutely LIVING, living with a power that seemed infinite. And yet motionless.
It lasted for quite some time, for the rest of the meditation.
It seemed to contain a whole wealth of possibilities, and all this that was formless had the power to become form.
At the time, I wondered what it meant. Later, of course, I found out, and finally this morning, I said to myself, Ah, so thats it! It came to give me my message for the new year! then I transcribed the experienceit cant be described, of course, for it was indescribable; it was a psychological phenomenon and the form it took was only a way of describing the psychological state to oneself. Here is what I wrote down, obviously in a mental way, and I am thinking of using it as my message.
there was a hesitation in the expression, so I brought the paper and I want us to decide upon the final text toge ther.
I have not described anything. I have only stated a fact (Mo ther reads):
At the very bottom of the inconscience most hard and rigid and narrow and stifling, I struck upon an almighty spring that cast me up forthwith into a formless, limitless Vast, generator of all creation.
And it is again one more proof. the experience was absolutely the English word genuine says it.
Genuine and spontaneous?
--
And then it happened.
Suddenly, while I was speaking (it was while I was speaking), I felt, Well really, can anything be done with such material? then, quite naturally, when I stopped speaking, oh!I felt that I was being pulled! then I understood. Because I had asked myself the question, But what is HAPPENING in there behind all those forms? I cant say that I was annoyed, but I said to myself, Well really, this has to be shaken up a bit! And just as I had finished, something pulled meit pulled me out of my body, I was literally pulled out of my body.
And then, down into this hole I still see what I saw then, this crevasse between two rocks. the sky was not visible, but on the rock summits I saw something like the reflection of a glimmera glimmercoming from something beyond, which (laughing) must have been the sky! But it was invisible. And as I descended, as if I were sliding down the face of this crevasse, I saw the rock edges; and they were really black rocks, as if cut with a chisel, cuts so fresh that they glistened, with edges as sharp as knives. there was one here, one there, ano ther there, everywhere, all around. And I was being pulled, pulled, pulled, I went down and down and down there was no end to it, and it was becoming more and more compressing.1 It went down and down
And so, physically, the body followed. My body has been taught to express the inner experience to a certain extent. In the body there is the body-force or the body-form or the body-spirit (according to the different schools, it bears a different name), and this is what leaves the body last when one dies, usually taking a period of seven days to leave.2 With special training, it can acquire a conscious lifeindependent and consciousto such a degree that not only in a state of trance (in trance, it frequently happens that one can speak and move if one is slightly trained or educated), but even in a cataleptic state it can produce sounds and even make the body move. Thus, through training, the body begins to have somnambulistic capacitiesnot an ordinary somnambulism, but it can live an autonomous life.3 This is what took place, yesterday evening it was like that I had gone out of my body, but my body was participating. And then I was pulled downwards: my hand, which had been on the arm of the chair, slipped down, then the o ther hand, then my head was almost touching my knees! ( the consciousness was elsewhere, I saw it from outsideit was not that I didnt know what I was doing, I saw it from outside.) So I said, In any case, this has to stop somewhere because if it continues, my head (laughing) is going to be on the ground! And I thought, But what is there at the bottom of this hole?
Scarcely had these words been formulated when there I was, at the bottom of the hole! And it was absolutely as if a tremendous, almighty spring were there, and then (Mo ther hits the table) vrrrm! I was cast out of the abyss into a vastness. My body immediately sat straight up, head on high, following the movement. If someone had been watching, this is what he would have seen: in a single bound, vrrrm! Straight up, to the maximum, my head on high.
And I followed all this without objectifying it in the least; I was not aware of what it was nor of what was happening, nor of any explanation at all, nothing: it was like that. I was living it, thats all. the experience was absolutely spontaneous. And after this ra ther painful descent, phew! there was a kind of super-comfort. I cant explain it o therwise, an ease,4 but an ease to the utmost. A perfect immobility in a sense of eternity but with an extraordinary INTENSITY of movement and life! An inner intensity, unmanifested; it was within, self-contained. And motionless (had there been an outside, it would have been motionless in relation to that) and it was in a life so immeasurable that it can only be expressed metaphorically as infinite. And with an intensity, a POWER, a force and a peace the peace of eternity. A silence, a calm. A POWER capable of of EVERYTHING. Everything.
And I was not imagining nor objectifying it; I was living it with easewith a great ease. And it lasted until the end of the meditation. When it gradually began fading, I stopped the meditation and left.
Later, after I returned (to the Ashram), I wondered, What was that? What does it signify? then I understood.
Thats all.
--
At the very bottom of the inconscience most hard and rigid Because generally, the inconscience gives the impression, precisely, of something amorphous, inert, formless, drab and gray (when formerly I entered the zones of the inconscient, that was the first thing I encountered). But this was an inconscience it was hard, rigid, COAGULATED, as if coagulated to resist: all effort slides off it, doesnt touch it, cannot penetrate it. So I am putting, most hard and rigid and narrow ( the idea of something that compresses, compresses, compresses you) and stiflingyes, stifling is the word.
I struck upon an almighty spring that cast me up forthwith into a formless, limitless vast, generator of all creation. It was yes, I have the feeling that it was not the ordinary creation, the primordial creation, but the SUPRAMENTAL creation, for it bore no similarity to the experience of returning to the Supreme, the origin of everything. I had utterly the feeling of being cast into the origin of the supramental creation something that is already (how can it be expressed?) objectified from the Supreme, with the explicit goal of the supramental creation.
That was my feeling.
I dont think I am mistaken, for there was such a superabundant feeling of power, of warmth, of gold It was not fluid, it was like a powdering. And each of these things ( they cannot be called specks or fragments, nor even points, unless you understand it in the ma thematical sense, a point that occupies no space) was something equivalent to a ma thematical point, but like living gold, a powdering of warm gold. I cannot say it was sparkling, I cannot say it was dark, nor was it made of light, ei ther: a multitude of tiny points of gold, nothing but that. they seemed to be touching my eyes, my face and with such an inherent power and warmthit was a splendor! And then, at the same time, the feeling of a plenitude, the PEACE of omnipotence It was rich, it was full. It was movement at its ultimate, infinitely swifter than all one can imagine, and at the same time it was absolute peace, perfect tranquillity.
(Mo ther resumes her message)
I do not want to put the word Unless, instead of putting generator of all creation, I put of the new creation Oh, but then it becomes absolutely overwhelming! It is THAT, in fact. It is that. But is it time to say so? I dont know
Generator of the new creation
Later Mo ther added, 'stifling, suffocating.'
Later Mo ther fur ther explained: 'When one is exteriorized, this body-spirit retains a connection with the being that has gone out, and what has gone out has a power over itwhich is precisely why one isn't completely dead! the being that has gone out also has the power to make the body move.'
Later, Mo ther explained: 'I don't mean an autonomous will (it is the being that has gone out which has the power to make the body move), it has only acquired, through training, the capacity to express the will of the being with which it has kept a relationship through this link of the body-spirit which is broken only at death.'
Original English.
0 1958-11-11, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Mo ther arrives with a new change in her message for January 1, 1959: instead of 'an almighty spring that cast me up forthwith into a formless, limitless Vast, generator of the new world,' Mo ther puts 'a formless, limitless Vast vibrating with the seeds of a new world')
the objectification of the experience came progressively, as always happens to me. When I have the experience, I am absolutely blank, like a newborn baby to whom things come just like that. I dont know what is happening, and I expect nothing. How much time it has taken me to learn this!
there is no preliminary thought, preliminary knowledge, preliminary will: all those things do not exist. I am only like a mirror receiving the experience, the simplicity of a little child learning life. It is like that. And it is the gift of the Grace, truly the Grace: in the face of the experience, the simplicity of a little child just born. And it is spontaneously so, but deliberately too; in o ther words, during the experience I am very careful not to watch myself having the experience so that no previous knowledge intervenes. Only afterwards do I see. It is not a mental construction, nor does it come from something higher than the mind (it is not even a knowledge by identity that makes me see things); no, the body (when the experience is in the body) is like that, what in English is called blank. As if it had just been born, as if just then it were being born with the experience.
And only little by little, little by little, is this experience put in the presence of any previous knowledge. Thus, its explanation and its evaluation come about progressively.
It is indispensable if one doesnt want to be arbitrary.
So in fact, only the final wording is correct, but from the point of view of the historical unfolding, it is interesting to observe the passage. It was exactly the same phenomenon for the experience of the Supramental Manifestation. Both these things, the experience of November 7 and of the Supramental, occurred in the same way, identically: I WAS the experience, and nothing else. Nothing but the experience at the time it was occurring. And only slowly, while coming out of it, did the previous knowledge, the previous experiences, all the accumulation of what had come before, examine it and put it in its place.
This is why I arrive at a verbal expression progressively, gropingly; these are not literary gropingsit is aimed at being precise, specific and concise at the same time.
When I write something, I dont expect people to understand it, but I try to avoid the least possible distortion of the experience or the image in this kind of shrinking towards expression.
What is this spring?
the spring? It means exactly this: in the deepest depths of the Inconscient is the supreme spring that makes us touch the Supreme. It is like the Supreme making us touch the Supreme: that is the almighty spring. When you arrive at the very bottom of the Inconscient, you touch the Supreme.
So that is the shortest path!
Not the shortest path! Already for me, it was hard to touch the bottom of the Inconscient, but for o thers it would take an eternity.
It is something similar to what Sri Aurobindo has written in A Gods Labour.
Was it the Supreme at the very bottom of the Inconscient who cast you up directly to the Supreme?
Yes. Because at the very bottom of the Inconscient is the Supreme. It is the same idea as the highest height touching the deepest depth. the universe is like a circleit is represented by the serpent biting its tail, its head touching its tail. It means that the supreme height touches the most material matter, without any intermediary. I have already said this several times. But that was the experience. I didnt know what was happening. I expected nothing and it was stupendousin a single bound, I sprang up! If someone had had his eyes open, I assure you he would have had to laugh: I was bent over, like this, more and more, more and more, more and more, my head was just about to touch my knees when suddenlyvrrrm! Straight, straight up, my head upright in a single bound!
But as soon as you want to express it, it escapes like water running through your fingers; all the fluidity is lost, it evaporates. A ra ther vague, poetic or artistic expression is much truer, much nearer to the truth something hazy, nebulous, undefined. Something not concretized like a rigid mental expressionthis rigidity that the mind has introduced right down into the Inconscient.
This vision of the Inconscient (Mo ther remains gazing for a moment) it was the MENTAL Inconscient. Because the starting point was mental. A special Inconscientrigid, hard, resistantwith all that the mind has brought into our consciousness. But it was far worse, far worse than a purely material Inconscient! A mentalized Inconscient, as it were. All this rigidity, this hardness, this narrowness, this fixitya FIXITYcomes from the presence of the mind in creation. When the mind was not manifested, the Inconscient was not like that! It was formless and had the plasticity of something that is formless the plasticity has gone.
It is a terrible image of the Minds action in the Inconscient.
It has made the Inconscient aggressiveit was not so before. Aggressive, resistant, OBSTINATE. That was not there before.
Yes, thats it. It was not an original Inconscient. It was a mentalized Inconscient. With all that the mind has brought in in the way of OPPOSITIONof resistance, hardness, rigidity.
It would be interesting to mention this.
Because the starting point, precisely, was to look into the mental unconsciousness of these people. It was the mental Inconscient. Well, the mental Inconscient REFUSES to changewhich is not true of the o ther one; the o ther is nothing, it doesnt exist, it is not organized in any way, it has no way of being, whereas this one is an ORGANIZED Inconscientorganized by a beginning mental influence. A hundred times worse!
This is a very interesting point to note.
It is not the experience, which I had once before, of the original Inconscient. the experience I had this time is of the Inconscient that has undergone the influence of the Mind in creation. It has become It has become a FAR greater obstacle than before. Before, it did not even have the power to resist, it had nothing, it was truly unconscious. Now it is an Inconscient organized in its refusal to change!
It was a very new experience.
--
And this almighty spring is the perfect image of what is happeningwhat must happen, what will happenFOR EVERYONE: suddenly, one is cast forth into the vast.
***
0 1958-11-14, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Through my friends in Hyderabad, I can contact some people who are doing business in the forests of the Belgian Congo. I want to go there, alone and far away from everything.
But there is always this wretched question of money. I need it to leave and to pay for the journey. Afterwards, I will manage. Anyway, it is all the same to me; I am not afraid of anything any longer.
It seems to me that the sooner I leave the better, because of this hypocrisy I detest.2
Signed: Satprem
--
Do not flee the difficulty, face it courageously and carry home the victory.
My love is with you.
--
Due to the orange robes of the sannyasi.
Shortly afterwards, in the last days of November, Satprem would leave the Ashram once again.
***
0 1958-11-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Concerning an experience Mo ther had on November 13 in regard to the disciple's difficulties)
Truly speaking, perhaps one is never rid of the hostile forces as long as one has not permanently emerged into the Light, above the lower hemisphere. there, the term hostile forces loses its meaning; they become only forces of progress, they force you to progress. But to see things in this way, you have to get out of the lower hemisphere, for below, they are very real in their opposition to the divine plan.
It was said in the ancient traditions that one could not live for more than twenty days in this higher state without leaving ones body and returning to the supreme Origin. Now this is no longer true.
It is precisely this state of perfect Harmony beyond all attacks that will become possible with the supramental realization. It is what all those who are destined for the supramental transformation will realize. the hostile forces know it well; in the supramental world, they will automatically disappear. Having no more utility, they will be dissolved without our having to do anything, simply through the presence of the supramental force. So now they are being unleashed with a fury in a negation of everything, everything.
the link between the two worlds has not yet been built, but it is in the process of being built; this was the meaning of the experience of February 3 1958, 1: to build a link between the two worlds. For both worlds are indeed therenot one above the o ther, but within each o ther, in two different dimensions. Only, there is no communication between them; they overlap, as it were, without being connected. In the experience of February 3, I saw certain people from here (and from elsewhere) who already belong to the supramental world in a part of their being, but there is no connection, no link. But now the hour has come in universal history for this link to be built.
What is the relationship between this experience of February 3 and that of November 7 ( the almighty spring)? Is what you found in the depths of the Inconscient this same Supramental?
the experience of November 7 was a fur ther step in the building of the link between the two worlds. Where I was cast was clearly into the origin of the supramental creationall this warm gold, this tremendous living power, this sovereign peace. And once again I saw that the values governing the supramental world have nothing to do with our values here, even the values of our highest wisdom, even those we consider the most divine when we live constantly in a divine Presence: it is utterly different.
Not only in our state of adoration and surrender to the Supreme, but even in our state of identification, the QUALITY of the identification is different depending upon whe ther we are on this side, progressing in this hemisphere, or have passed to the o ther side and have emerged into the o ther world, the o ther hemisphere, the higher hemisphere.
the quality or the kind of relationship I had with the Supreme at that moment was entirely different from the one we have hereeven the identification had a different quality. One can very well understand that all the lower movements are different but this identification by which the Supreme governs and lives in us was the summit of our experience herewell, the way He governs and lives is different depending on whe ther we are in this hemisphere here or in the supramental life. And at that moment ( the experience of November 13), what made the experience so intense was that I came to perceive vaguely both these states of consciousness at once. It was almost as if the Supreme Himself were different, or our experience of Him. And yet, in both cases, it was a contact with the Supreme. It is probably how we perceive Him or the way in which we translate it that differs, but the fact is that the quality of the experience is different.
In the o ther hemisphere, there is an intensity and a plenitude which are translated by a power different from the one here. How can I formulate it?I cannot.
the quality of the consciousness itself seems to change. It is not something higher than the summit we can attain here, it is not one MORE rung, not that. Here, we have reached the end, the summit, but its the quality that is different. the quality, in the sense that a fullness, a richness, a power is there (this is a translation, you see, in our way), but there is a something that that eludes us. It is truly a new reversal of consciousness.
When we begin living the spiritual life, a reversal of consciousness takes place which for us is the proof that we have entered the spiritual life; well, yet ano ther occurs when we enter the supramental world.
And probably each time a new world opens up, there will again be a new reversal. This is why even our spiritual life, which is such a total reversal compared to ordinary life, seems something still so so totally different when compared to this supramental consciousness that the values are almost opposite.
It can be expressed in this way (but its quite approximate, more than diminished or deformed): its as if our entire spiritual life were made of silver, whereas the supramental life is made of goldas if our entire spiritual life here were a vibration of silver, not gold but simply a light, a light that goes right to the summit, an absolutely pure light, pure and intense; but in the o ther, in the supramental world, there is a richness and a power that make all the difference. This whole spiritual life of the psychic being and of all our present consciousness that appears so warm, so full, so wonderful, so luminous to the ordinary consciousness, well, all this splendor seems poor in comparison to the splendor of the new world.
I can explain the phenomenon like this: successive reversals such that an EVER NEW richness of creation will take place from stage to stage, making whatever came before seem so poor in comparison. What to us seems supremely rich compared to our ordinary life, appears so poor compared to this new reversal of consciousness. Such was my experience.
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 o ther 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.
(silence)
And each time, you have the feeling of having lived on the surface of things. Its a feeling that is repeated over and over again. With each new conquest, you feel that until then you had lived only on the surface of thingson the surface of the realization, on the surface of surrender, on the surface of power. It was only the surface of things, the surface of the experience. Behind the surface, there is a depth, and only when one enters into this depth does one touch the True Thing. And it is the same experience each time: what seemed a depth becomes the surface. A surface, with all that it entails of inaccuracy, yes, of artificialityartificialan artificial transcription. It feels like something not really alive, a copy, an imitation: its an image, a reflection, but not the Thing itself. You step into ano ther zone and you feel you have uncovered the Source and the Power and the Truth of things; then this source and power and truth in turn become an appearance, an imitation, a mere transcription in comparison to something concrete: the new realization.
(silence)
Meanwhile, we should acknowledge that we dont have the key, it is not yet in our hands. Or ra ther, we know quite well where it is, and there is only one thing to do: the perfect surrender Sri Aurobindo speaks of, the total surrender to the divine Will whatever happens, even in the dark of night.
there is night and sun, night and sun, and night again, many nights, but one must cling to this will for surrender, cling as through a storm, and put everything into the hands of the Supreme Lord. Until the day when the Sun shall shine forever, the day of total Victory.
the Supramental Ship.
***
0 1958-11-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Mo ther tries to find the origin of the disciple's difficulties)
I dont have all the information, o therwise certainly Two things made me see I saw them the o ther day. First of all, when you didnt understand my letter, for I wrote it to a part of you that without any doubt should have understood; I was referring to something o ther than what is seen and known by this part of you which is this center, this knot of revolt that seems to resist everything, that really remains knotted, in spite of your experiences and the strides you have made, as well as your openings. And what made me see is especially the fact that it resists experiences, it is not touched by experiences; this was the point that did not understand what I wrote. Because the part of you that had the experience must necessarily understand what I wrote, without the shadow of a doubt.
Time is needed
I had two visions which are certainly related to this. the most recent one was yesterday, and it concerned a past life in India. It is something that took place in India about one thousand years ago, perhaps a little more (I am not yet sure about this). And it contains both things. Its strange, both things toge ther the origin of the power of realization in this life and the obstacle to be conquered.
I had the last vision yesterday evening. You were much taller than you are now; you were wearing the orange robe, and you were backed up against a door of bronze, a bronze door like the door of a temple or a palace but at the same time it was symbolic (it was a fact, it actually took place like this, but at the same time it was symbolic). And unfortunately, it didnt last because I was disturbed. But it contained the key.
I was VERY HAPPY with the vision, for there was a great POWER, though it was ra ther 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 o ther 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.
And I saw that with the new Power, the supramental power That is something absolutely new It used to be thought that nothing had the power to eliminate the consequences of karma and that only by exhausting it through a series of actions could its consequences be transformed exhausted, eliminated. But I KNOW that with the supramental power it can be done without following all the steps of the process.
In any event, one point is clear: it is something that happened in India, and the origin of the karma and the remedy of the karma go toge ther. And it has to do with this initiation you received in Rameswaram.2
So the difficulty and the victory go toge ther. Its very interesting.
But what had I done in that life? What did I do? WHAT?!?
Yes, thats the point. I think I know, but I dont want to say anything without being sure.
(silence)
--
What is neededwhat is needed is simply endurance, the capacity to hold on, which means to stay still within. Not to yield to not to yield when you feel within yourself, I cant bear it.
And it seems to me that its relatively easier than when you have to confront the thing all alone.
If you can when the attack comes, if you can cling to something that knows, or to something in you that has had the experience, and if you can hold onto that memory, even if it is only a memory, and cling to that in spite of all that denies and revolts Above all not To keep your head as still as possible. And not follow the movement, not succumb to the vibration.
Because from what I have seen and from what I was told, I am sure that it is decisive, that what is offered to you is the possibility of a decisive victory, which means that it will no longer recur in the same way.
there is such an abyss between what one truly is and what we are that at times it is dizzying. But one must not let oneself become dizzy. One must not yield. One must remain like a rock until it passes.
Karma: positive (or negative) consequences of actions performed in past lives (every action is endowed with a self-perpetuating dynamism).
0 1958-11-22, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Even at a very young age, I had a kind of intuition of my destiny. I felt that something in me had to be exhausted, or that I had to exhaust myself. I dont know, as though I had to descend into the depths of the night to find the thing. I thought it was the concentration camps. Perhaps this was still not deep enough Do you see any meaning in all this?
It can hardly be formulated; these are merely impressions that follow one ano ther. I know that when you thought of leaving with Swami,1 I saw that a door was opening, that it was the truth, that this was IT.
My immediate impression was that you were being put in direct contact with this this sort of Fatality that here they call karma, which is the consequence yes, something that must be exhausted, something that remains in the consciousness.
This is how it works: the psychic being passes from one life to ano ther, but there are cases in which the psychic incarnates in order to to work out2 to pass through a certain experience, to learn a certain thing, to develop a certain thing through a certain experience. And so in this life, in the life where the experience is to be made, it can happen ( there may be more than one reason) that the soul does not come down accurately in the place it should have, some shift or o ther may occur, a set of contrary circumstancesthis happens sometimesand then the incarnation miscarries entirely and the soul leaves. But in o ther cases, the soul is simply placed in the impossibility of doing exactly what it wants and it finds itself swept away by unfortunate circumstances. Not only unfortunate from an objective standpoint, but unfortunate for its own development, and then that creates in it the necessity to begin the experience all over again, and in much more difficult conditions.
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.
At that point, sometimes a great courage is needed, sometimes a great endurance is needed, sometimes a true love is enough, sometimes, oh! if only faith were there, one thing, one tiny little thing is enough, and everything can be swept away. I have done it often; there are times when I have failed. But more often than not I have been able to remove it. But then, what is needed is a great, stoical courage or a capacity to endure and to SEE IT THROUGH. the resistance (especially in cases of former suicide), the resistance to the temptation of renewing this stupidity creates a terrible formation. Or else this habit of fleeing when suffering comes: flee, flee, instead of absorbing the difficulty, holding on.
But just this, a faith in the Grace, or an awareness of the Grace, or the intensity of the call, or else naturally the response the response, the thing that opens, that breaks the response to this marvelous love of the Grace.
It is difficult without a strong will; and above all, above all the capacity to resist the temptation, which was the fatal temptation throughout all ones livesbecause its power builds up. Each defeat gives it renewed force. But a tiny victory can dissolve it.
Oh, the most terrible of all is when one does not have the strength, the courage, something indomitable! How many times do they come to tell me, I want to die, I want to flee, I want to die.I say, But die, then, die to yourself! No one is asking you to let your ego survive! Die to yourself since you want to die! Have that courage, the true courage, to die to your egoism.
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)
So this is what I saw for you: that the crystallization of this karma occurred during a life in India in which you were put in the presence of the possibility of liberation and I dont know the details; I dont know the material facts at all. So far, I know nothing, I have only had a vision. I saw you there, as I told you, taller than you are now, in an Indian body, north Indian, for it was not dark but fair. But there was a HARDNESS in the being, the hardness born of a kind of despair mixed with rebellion, incomprehension and an ego that resists. That is all I know. the image was of you backed up against a bronze door: BACKED UP against it. I didnt see what had caused it. As I told you, something interrupted me, so I was unable to follow it.
the o ther indication is what I told you the o ther day. When you thought of leaving to join Swami, I immediately saw a stream of light: Ah, the road is opening up! So I said, It is good. And while you were away in Ceylon, I followed you from day to day. You called much more than the second time, when you were in the Himalayas; and with the physical hardships you were undergoing, I was very, very close to you I constantly felt what was happening.
And then I saw a GREAT light, like a glory, when you were at Rameswaram. A great light. And when you returned here, this light was upon you, very strong and imposing. But at the same time, I felt that it needed protectingto be shielded, protected that it was not yet established. Established, ready to resist all that decomposes an experience. I would have liked to have kept you apart, under a glass case, but then I saw that this would have drawbacks as well as advantages. Also, I liked the way you wanted to fight against an uncomprehending reception due to your orange robes and your shaved head. Of course, it was a much shorter path than the o ther, but it was more difficult.
And then, more and more, I felt that if what I saw, as I saw it, could be realized I saw two things: a journeynot at all a pilgrimage as it is commonly understooda journey towards solitude in arduous conditions, and a sojourn in a very severe solitude, facing the mountains, in arduous physical conditions. the contact with this majesty of Nature has a great influence upon the ego at certain moments: it has the power to dissolve it. But all this complication, all these organized pilgrimages, all that it brings in the whole petty side of human life which spoils everything
Yes, that whole journey was odious
--
the o ther thing was the tantric initiation. But I wanted the conditions of this initiation to be at least as favorable as those in Rameswaram, by which I mean conducted by someone very capable and as far as possible free from the whole formalistic and external side. A TRUE initiationsomeone who would be capable of pulling down the Power and putting you in conditions rigorous enough for you to be able to hold this Power, to receive it and hold it.
As soon as you had left, and since I was following you, I saw that nothing of the kind was going to happen, but ra ther something very superficial which would not be of much use. And when I received your letters and saw that you were in difficulty, I did something. there are places that are favorable for occult experiences. Benares is one of these places, the atmosphere there is filled with vibrations of occult forces, and if one has the slightest capacity, it spontaneously develops there, in the same way that a spiritual aspiration develops very strongly and spontaneously as soon as one lands in India. these are Graces. Graces, because it is the destiny of the country, it has been so throughout its history, and because India has always been turned much more towards the heights and the inner depths than towards the outer world. Now, it is in the process of losing all that and wallowing in the mud, but thats ano ther story it was like that and it is still like that. And in fact, when you returned from Rameswaram with your robes, I saw with much satisfaction that there was still a GREAT dignity and a GREAT sincerity in this endeavor of the Sannyasis towards the higher life and in the self-giving of a certain number of people to realize this higher life. When you returned, it had become a very concrete and a very real thing that immediately commanded respect. Before, I had seen only a copy, an imitation, an hypocrisy, a pretentionnothing that was really lived. But then, I saw that it was true, that it was lived, that it was real and that it was still Indias great heritage. I dont believe it is very prevalent now, but in any case, it is still there, and as I told you, it commands respect. And then, as I felt you in difficulty and as the outer conditions were not only veiling but spoiling the inner, well, on that day I wrote you a short note I no longer recall when it was exactly, but I wrote you just a word or two, which I put in an envelope and sent you I concentrated very strongly upon those few words and sent you something. I didnt note the date, I dont remember when it was, but its likely that it happened as I wished when you were in Benares; and then you had this experience.
But when you returned the second time, from the Himalayas, you didnt have the same flame as when you returned the first time. And I understood that this kind of difficult karma still clung to you, that it had not been dissolved. I had hoped that your contact with the mountains but in a true solitude (I dont mean that your body had to be all alone, but there should not have been all kinds of outer, superficial things) Anyway, it didnt happen. So it means that the time had not come.
But when here the difficulties returned and because of their obstinacy, their appearance of an inevitable fatality I concluded that it was a karma, although I knew it with certainty only now.
But I always had a presentiment of the true thing: that only a VERY COURAGEOUS act of self-giving could efface the thingnot courageous or difficult from the material point of view, not that there is a certain zone of the vital in you, a mentalized vital but still very material, which is very much under the influence of circumstances and which very much believes in the effectiveness of outer measuresthis is what is resisting.
That is all I know.
Generally, when the hour has come for a karma to be overcome and absorbed in the Grace, the image or the knowledge or the experience of the exact facts that are the origin of the karma come to me, and I can then perform the cleansing action.
For the time being, it is not yet there.
Only, and this is what I wrote to you the o ther 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. O therwise, 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.
Still, I feel the need to do somethingto do something.
TO DO something, yes, thats what has a hold on you.
Im rotting on the spot.
Eh?
--
Yes, thats it (silence) That is the knot of karma: that sensation, that perception, that is the knot of karma.
My perception is that I have something to do, I dont know what, and only afterwards
--
Yes, I dont know, this project of the Belgian Congo,4 for example, it seemed to me
Pardon me, but that is childishness!
I dont know. Thats not how I see it, in any case To live in the forest physically, an intense physical life where one is free, where one is pure, where one is far away Above all, to stop this thing from grinding on, finished with the head, and finished with thinking whatever it might be. If there is a yoga, it would be done spontaneously, naturally, physically, and without the least questioning from up thereabove all, a complete cessation of that ( the head).
the first tantric guru whom the disciple joined in Ceylon and with whom he travelled in the Himalayas.
Original English.
Mo ther specified: ' the subconscious memory of the past creates a kind of irresistible desire to escape from the difficulty, and you recommence the same foolishness, or an even greater foolishness.'
the disciple wanted to leave for the forest, the Congo, to do the most unlikely things there.
***
0 1958-11-26, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Extract from the last Wednesday class)
Basically, the vast majority of men are like prisoners with all the doors and all the windows shut, so they suffocate (which is quite natural), but they have with them the key that opens the doors and the windows, and they dont use it Certainly, there is a period when they dont know that they have the key, but even long after they do know it, long after they have been told, they hesitate to use it and doubt that it has the power to open the doors and windows, or even that it may be advisable to open them. And even once they feel that After all, it might be a good thing, a fear pursues them: What is going to happen once all these doors and these windows open? they become afraidafraid of losing themselves in this light and in this freedom. they want to remain what they call themselves. they love their falsehood and their slavery. Something in them loves it and remains clinging to it. they feel that without their limits, they would no longer exist.
That is why the journey is so long, so difficult. For if one would truly consent no longer to be, everything would become so easy, so swift, so luminous, so joyousthough perhaps not in the way men conceive of joy and ease. At heart, there are very few beings who are not enamored of struggle. there are very few who would consent to having no darkness or who can conceive of light as anything o ther than the opposite of obscurity: Without shadow, there would be no painting. Without struggle, there would be no victory. Without suffering, there would be no joy. That is what they think, and as long as they think like that, they are not yet born to the spirit.
***
0 1958-11-27 - Intermediaries and Immediacy, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Concerning the disciple's karma and the tantric discipline that he is following to dissolve this karma, Mo ther wonders why She herself had not been able to dissolve it directly and why it was necessary to resort to intermediaries)
I am used to seeing the process or the working of things more from a spiritual point of view, something more universal, whereas this needs to be seen from a detailed, occult point of view.
For example, one thing had always appeared unimportant to me in actionintermediaries between the spiritualized individual being, the conscious soul, and the Supreme. According to my personal experience, it had always seemed to me that if one is exclusively turned towards the Supreme in all ones actions and expresses Him directly, whatever is to be done is done automatically. For example, if you are always open and if at each second you consciously want to express only what the Supreme Lord wants to be expressed, it is done automatically. But with all that I have learned about pujas, about certain scriptures and certain rituals as well, the necessity for a process has become very clear to me. Its the same as in physical life; in physical life, everything needs a process, as we know, and it is the knowledge of processes that constitutes physical science. Similarly, in a more occult working, the knowledge and especially the RESPECT for the process seem to be much more important than I had first thought.
And when I studied this, when I looked at this science of processes, of intermediaries, suddenly I clearly understood the working of karma, which I had not understood before. I had worked and intervened quite often to change someones karma, but sometimes I had to wait, without exactly knowing why the result was not immediate. I simply used to wait without worrying about the reasons for this slowness or delay. Thats how it was. And generally it ended, as I said, with the exact vision of the karmas source, its initial cause; and scarcely would I have this vision when the Power would come, and the thing would be dissolved. But I didnt bo ther about finding out why it was like that.
One day I had mentioned this to X1 when he was showing me or describing to me the different movements of the pujas, the procedure, the process of the puja. I said to him, Oh, I see! For the action to be immediate, for the result to be immediate, one must acknowledge, for example, the role or the participation of certain spirits or certain forces and enter into a friendly relationship or collaboration with these forces in order to obtain an immediate result, is it not so? then he told me, Yes, o therwise it leaves an indefinite time to the play of the forces, and you dont know when you will get the result of your puja.
That interested me very much. Because one of the obstacles I had felt was that although the Force was acting well, there was a time lag that appeared inevitable, a time element in the work which seemed unavoidablea play left to the forces of Nature. But with their knowledge of the processes, the tantrics can dispense with all that. So I understood why those who have studied, who are initiated and follow the prescribed methods are apparently more powerfulmore powerful even than those who are conscious in the highest consciousness.
What interested me is that in their case (those who follow tantric or o ther initiations), what is doubtful is whe ther or not they can succeed in receiving the response of the true Power, the divine power, the supreme power; they do everything they can, but this question still remains. Whereas for me, it is the opposite situation: the Power is there, I have it, but how can I make it act here in matter? the process for making it act immediately was missingthough not totally; I know from the psychological standpoint, but there is something o ther than the psychological power, there is the whole play of conscious, individualized forces that are everywhere in Nature and that have the right to exist. Since it was created this way, it must express something of the supreme Will, o therwise He wouldnt have made use of intermediaries but in His plan, it is obvious that the intermediary has a legitimate place.
It is like the story X told me of his guru2 who could comm and the coming of Kali (something which seems quite natural to me when one is sufficiently developed); well, not only could he commend the coming of Kali, but Kali with I dont know how many crores of her warriors! For me, Kali was Kali, after all, and she did her work; but in the universal organization, her action, the innumerable multiplicity of her action, is expressed by an innumerable multitude of conscious entities at work. It is this individualization, as it were, that gives to these forces a consciousness and a certain play of freedom, and this is what makes all the difference in action. It is in this respect that the occult system is an absolutely indispensable complement to spiritual action.
the spiritual action is direct, but it may not be immediate (anyway, thats my experience). Sri Aurobindo said that with the supramental presence, it becomes immediate and I have experienced this. But this would then mean that the supramental Power automatically commands all these intermediaries, whereas if its not present, even the highest spiritual power would need a specialized knowledge to act in this realm, a knowledge equivalent to an occult or initiatory knowledge of all these realms. This is why I told X, Well, you taught me many things while you were here. there is always something to learn.
Of course, when the Supramental is here, it will be very different. I see it clearly: in moments when it is there, everything is turned inside out, and all this belongs to a world to the world of preparation. It is like a preparation, a long preparation.
It remains to be seen if all this has first to be mastered before there is even the possibility of holding the Supramental, of FIXING it in the manifestation. That is the great difference. For example, those with the power to materialize forces or beings lack the capacity to fix them, for these are fluid things which act and are then dissolved. That is the difference with the physical world where it is this condensation of energy that makes things (Mo ther strikes the arms of her chair) stable. All the things in the extraphysical realms are not stable, they are fluidfluid and consequently uncertain.3
the disciple's tantric guru.
the deceased guru of the disciple's guru.
A few days later, the disciple left on a journey, then Mo ther fell 'ill.' It was to be the first great turning in her yoga: the beginning of the yoga of the cells.
***
0 1958-11-28, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Extract from the last Friday class)
As it is, the physical body is really only a very disfigured shadow of the eternal life of the Self, but this physical body is capable of a progressive development; the physical substance progresses through each individual formation, and one day it will be able to build a bridge between physical life as we know it and the supramental life that is to manifest.
***
0 1958-11-30, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Here is the wherewithal to go to Hyderabad. Whatever you may decide, I will always be with you, invariably, in the truth of your being.
Signed: Mo ther
0 1958-12-04, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Until these last days, I still thought I could count on some outer solution to resolve my problem, but now I am up against a wall; I see that nothing can be DONE and the only solution is what you said one day: Consent no longer to be.
Mo ther, I have made many mistakes, I have often been rebellious and fallen into many holes. Help me to pick myself up, give me none theless 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.
If you want, I can return to the Ashram and throw myself headlong into the work in order to forget all this. there is a lot of work with Herberts things to correct, the revision of the Syn thesis of Yoga, your old Questions and Answers and the Dhammapada, and perhaps you would accept to take up our work toge ther again?
O therwise, if you consider it preferable to wait, I could go join Swami in Rameswaram, discarding all my little personal reactions towards him. And I would try my best to find again the Light of the first time and return to you stronger. I dont know. I will do what you say. All this really has to change. I dont know, moreover, whe ther Swami wishes to have me.
Mo ther, I need you, I need you. Forgive me and tell me what I should do.
--
I have just received your letter which I read with all my love, the love that understands and effaces. When you return here, you will always be very welcome, and we shall certainly take up our work toge ther again. I shall be happy, and it is very much needed. But first of all, it will be good for you to go to Rameswaram. I know that you will be welcome there. Stay there as long as necessary to find and consolidate your experience. Afterwards, come back here, stronger and better armed, to face a new period of outer and inner work. At the end of the labor is the Victory.
With all my confident love.
0 1958-12-15 - tantric mantra - 125,000, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Swami received me warmly and is doing all he can with all his heart. I am following his instructions to the letter for I believe that your grace is acting through him. Fur thermore, he is totally devoted to you and spoke of you as no one ever hashe understands many things. I was unfair in my reactions towards him.
At the new moon, when I felt very down, he gave me the first tantric mantraa mantra to Durga. For a period of 41 days, I must repeat it 125,000 times and go every morning to the Temple, stand before Parvati and recite this mantra within me for at least one hour. then I must go to the sanctuary of Shiva and recite ano ther mantra for half an hour. Practically speaking, I have to repeat constantly within me the mantra to Durga in a silent concentration, whatever I may be doing on the outside. In these conditions, it is difficult to think of you and this has created a slight conflict in me, but I believe that your Grace is acting through Swami and through Durga, whom I am invoking all the time I remember what you told me about the necessity for intermediaries and I am obeying Swami unreservedly.
Mo ther, 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; o therwise, 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: ei ther I will perish right here, or else I will emerge from this COMPLETELY changed. But something has to change. Mo ther, you are with me, I know, and you are protecting me, you love me I have only you, only you, you are my Mo ther. 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. Mo ther, 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 beo therwise I can no longer go on.
Mo ther, I believe I understand something of all that you yourself are suffering, and the crucifixion of the Divine in Matter is a real crucifixion. In this moment of consciousness, I offer you all my trials and little sufferings. I would like to triumph so that it be your triumph, one weight less upon your heart.
Forgive me, Mo ther, for all the pain I may have thrown on you, but I am confident that with your Grace I will emerge from this victorious, your child unobscured, in all the fibers of my being. Oh Mo ther, how alone you are to bear all our suffering if only I could remember this in my moments of darkness.
I am at your feet. You are my Mo ther, my only support.
--
Mo ther, 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.
***
--
I have just received your letter of the 15th. Yes, I know that the hour is critical. It has been grave here as well. I had to stop everything, for the attack upon my body was too violent. Now it is better but I have not yet resumed any of my outer activities, and I remain in my room upstairs. the battle continues in the invisible and I consider it decisive. You are a very intimate part of this battle. This is to tell you that I am with you in the most integral sense of these words. I know what you are suffering, I feel it but you must hold on. the Grace is there, all-powerful. As soon as it is possible and without going through one minute more than needed to transform that which has to be transformed, the trial will reach its end and we shall emerge into the light and joy. So never forget that I am with youin youand that WE SHALL TRIUMPH:
With all that love can bring of solace and endurance,
--
Do not be troubled about my body it is well on the way to recovery.
***
--
My very dear child, I am adding on to what I wrote you this morning to ask you to follow very scrupulously the indications given by Swamihe knows these things and has offered himself very sincerely as an instrument of action for my Grace.
When you invoke Durga, it is I you invoke through her, when you invoke Shiva, it is I you invoke through himand in the final analysis, to the Supreme Lord go all prayers.
With all my love.
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. Mo ther, 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.
Swami told me that the mantra to Durga is intended to pierce through into the subconscient. To complement this work, he does his pujas to Kali, and finally one of his friends, X, the High Priest of the temple in Rameswaram (who presided over my initiation and has great occult powers), has undertaken to say a very powerful mantra over me daily, for a period of eight days, to extirpate the dark forces from my subconscious. the operation already began four days ago. While reciting his mantra, he holds a glass of water in his hand, then he makes me drink it. It seems that on the eighth day, if the enemy has been trapped, this water turns yellow then the operation is over and the poisoned water is thrown out. (I tell you all this because I prefer that you know.) In any event, I like X very much, he is a very luminous, very good man. If I am not delivered after all this!
In truth, I believe only in the Grace. My mantra and all the rest seem to me only little tricks to try to win over your Grace.
Mo ther, love me. I have only you, I want to belong to you alone.
--
I have received your letter of the 24th. You did well to write, not because I was worried, but I like to receive news for it fixes my work by giving me useful material details. I am glad that X is doing something for you. I like this man and I was counting upon him. I hope he will succeed. Perhaps his work will be useful here, too for I have serious reasons to believe that this time occult and even definite magic practices aimed directly against my body have been mixed in with the attacks. This has complicated things somewhat, so as yet I have not resumed any of my usual activities I am still upstairs resting, but in reality fighting. Yesterday, the Christmas distribution took place without me, and it is likely that it will be the same for January 1st. the work, too, has been completely interrupted. And I do not yet know how long this will last.
Keep me posted on the result of Xs action; it interests me very much
I love you, my child, and I am near you with confidence and tenderness.
Doubt not of the Victory, it is certain.
Signed: Mo ther
0 1958-12-28, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
One sentence in your letter prompted much reflection; you write that Xs action might be useful here, too. After hesitating, I told Swami of the magic attack aimed directly against you.
If you wish, two things can be done to help your action: ei ther 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 Mo ther, 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 overwhelms 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 overwhelming 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 Mo ther, 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 o ther 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, nei ther 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.
the work can be done from here also, but naturally it will not be quite as effective. In that case, you would have to set a specific time to synchronize the action in Rameswaram and Pondicherry. Swami can also do something in his pujas. It is for you to decide, but I hope you will not want to prolong this battle unnecessarily.
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.
Mo ther, I am fighting beside you, for you, for your Victory.
--
I have just now received your letter of the 28th. On that day I definitely felt that there was a decisive change in the situation and I understood right away that you had spoken to Swami and also that what I had written to you gave you the opportunity to take a great step. I am very happy and can say with certitude that the worst is over. However, from several points of view, I infinitely appreciate Xs offer. And although I do not think it necessary, or even desirable, that they both come here (it would create a veritable revolution and perhaps even a panic among the ashramites), I am sure that their intervention in Rameswaram itself would not only be useful but most effective
Yes, everything has changed since you now understand that your battle is not only a personal battle and that by winning it, it is a real service you are rendering to the Divine Work.
Happy New Year, my dear child! I am sure it will bring us a decisive victory.
--
P.S. I shall propose to Swami to enter into contact with them at 8:45 p.m., if this time suits them.
***
0 1958 12 - Floor 1, young girl, we shall kill the young princess - black tent, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
object:0_1958 12 - Floor 1, young girl, we shall kill the young princess - black tent
author class: the Mo ther
--
(This note was written by Mo ther in English. It concerns an attack of black magic that threatened her life and in the end completely changed her outer existence. A new stage begins.)
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, ra ther 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 o ther 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.
I did not like the idea of something or somebody having the power to pull me like that so materially out of my body without my previous consent. That is why I gave some importance to the experience.
Mo ther withdrew on December 9. In fact, She had been unwell for already more than a month before withdrawing. On November 26, the last 'Wednesday class' took place at the playground; on November 28 the last 'Friday class', on December 6, the last 'Translation class'; on December 1, the end of Mo ther's tennis and the last visit to the playground. On December 9, She again went down for the meditation around the Samadhi. From December 10, Mo ther remained in her room for one month. A great period had come to an end. Henceforth, She would only go out of the Ashram building on rare occasions.
A disciple
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, Mo ther, 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.
His action upon you is to continue for ano ther five days, after which he is positive that you will be entirely saved. According to him, it is indeed a magic attack originating in Pondicherry, and perhaps even from someone in the Ashram!! He told me that this evil person would finally be forced to appear before you I am learning many interesting things from him.
Mo ther, by way of expressing to you my gratitude, I want to work now to open myself totally to your Light and become truly an egoless instrument, your conscious instrument. Mo ther, you are the sole Reality.
With love and gratitude, I am your child.
--
I have followed the vicissitudes of your struggle step by step and I know that it has been terrible, but my confidence in the outcome has not wavered for I know you are in good hands. I am so happy that X is taking good care of you, teaching you Sanskrit, speaking to you of the Tantra. It is just what I wanted.
His action here has been very effective and really very interesting. I still do not know whe ther someone has really done black magic, and the villain has yet to appear before me. But already several days ago the malefic influence completely disappeared without leaving any trace in the atmosphere. Also their mantric intervention did not stop at that, for it has had ano ther most interesting result. I am preparing a long letter for Swami to explain all this to him
the pain on the left side has not entirely gone and there have been some complications which have delayed things. But I feel much better. In fact, I am rebuilding my health, and I am in no hurry to resume the exhausting days as before. It is quiet upstairs for working, and I am going to take advantage of this to prepare the Bulletin1 at leisure. As I had not read over the pages on the message that we had prepared for the 31st, I have revised and transformed them into an article. It will be the first one in the February issue. I am now going to choose the o thers. I will tell you which ones I have chosen and in what order I will put them.
Satprem, my child, I am truly with you and I love you.
--
the Bulletin of Physical Education, which appeared quarterly.
***
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 ra ther 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.
Your last letter gave us great pleasure, knowing that you have finally recovered physically. But we deeply hope that you will not again take up the countless activities that formerly consumed all your timeso many people come to you egoistically, for prestige, to be able to say that they are on familiar terms with you. You know this, of course
As for myself, a step has definitely been taken, and I am no longer swept away by this painful torrent. Depressions and attacks still come, but no longer with the same violence as before. X told me that 2/3 of the work has been done and that everything would be purged in twelve days or so, then the thing will be enclosed in a jar and buried somewhere or thrown into the sea, and he will explain it all to me. I will write and tell you about it.
As for the true tantric initiation, this is what X told me: I will give you initiation. You are fit. You belong to that line. It will come soon, some months or some years. Shortly you shall reach the junction. When the time has come, you yourself will come and open a door in me and I shall give you initiation.1 And he made me understand that an important divine work was reserved for me in the future, a work for the Mo ther. the important practical point is that I have rapidly to develop my knowledge of Sanskrit. the mantra given to me seems to grow in power as I repeat it.
Sweet Mo ther, 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.
--
This morning, I received your letter I am very happy about all that X is telling you and that he has found you fit to receive the tantric initiation. It was my feeling, I could say my conviction, to which he gives an enlightened confirmation. So all is well.
As for my health and the Ashram, I infinitely appreciate what he has done and what he would like to continue to do. His visit will make me very happy, and if he comes in about one month, a few days before the darshan, there will be no need to find any excuse for his visit, for it will appear quite natural.
My health is progressing well, but I intend to be very prudent and not burden myself with occupations. Yesterday, I began the balcony darshan again, and it is all right. That is all for the moment.
I am taking advantage of this situation to work. I have chosen the articles for the Bulletin. they are as follows: 1) Message. 2) To keep silent. 3) Can there be intermediary states between man and super-man? 4) the Anti-Divine. 5) What is the role of the spirit? 6) Karma (I have touched this one up to make it less personal). 7) the Worship of the Supreme in Matter. Now I would like to prepare the first twelve Aphorisms3 for printing. But as you have not yet revised the last two, I am sending them to you. Could you do them when you have finished what you are doing for the Bulletin? It is not urgent, take your time. Do not disturb your real work for this in any way. For, in my eyes, this work of inner liberation is much more important.
You will find in this letter a little money. I thought you might need it for your stamps, etc.
--
the French translation of Sri Aurobindo's Thoughts and Aphorisms.
***
0 1959-01-21, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Here is what X told me: I have received a message from my guru.1 In my vision, the Mo ther was there, next to my guru, and she was smiling. My guru told me that your present difficulties are a period of testing, but I could already give you the first stage of tantric initiation and that for you, the three stages of initiation could be done in an accelerated way.
I will therefore give you initiation this Friday or Saturday, on the day of the full moon or the day before. This first stage will last three months during which you will have to repeat 1 lakh2 times the mantra that I will give you. At the end of three months, I will come to see you in Pondicherryor you will come here for a fortnight, and as soon as I have received the message from my guru, I will give you the second stage that will last three months as well. At the end of these three months, you will receive the full initiation. X warned me that the first stage I am to receive provokes attacks and tests but that all this disappears with the second stage. Forewarned is forearmed. For what reason I do not know, but X told me that the particular nature of my initiation should remain secret and that he will say nothing about it to Swami, and he added (in speaking of the speed of the process), But you will not be less than the Swami. (!!) there, I wanted you to knowbesides, you were present in Xs vision. All this happened at a time when I was in the most desperate crisis I have ever known. Sweet Mo ther, there is no end to expressing my gratitude to you, and yet with the least trial, I am reduced to nothing. Why have you so much grace for me?
I would like very much to return to Pondicherry for the February Darshan and once again begin working for you. Today I am sending a second lot to Pavitra and tomorrow I will start on the Aphorisms, for I do not want to make you wait any longer. I will send a third and final lot to Pavitra by the end of the month, in time for printing. I am very touched, sweet Mo ther, by your attention and the money you are sending me.
Sweet Mo ther, may my entire life be at your service, may my entire being belong to you. I owe you everything.
--
I was waiting to answer your letter of the 21st until the Friday and Saturday you mentioned had gone by. And then I felt that you were returning the Aphorisms, so I waited a bit more. I have just received them along with your letter of the 23rd, but I have not yet looked at them. Besides, if you intend returning for the February darshan, I think it would be preferable for us to revise the whole book toge ther. there will not be very much work on my side since the Wednesday and Friday classes were discontinued in the beginning of December, and I still do not know when they will resume.3 Right now, I am translating the Aphorisms all alone and it seems to go quickly and well. This could also be revised and the book on the Dhammapada prepared for publication.
For the time being, I am going downstairs only in the mornings at 6 for the balcony darshan and I immediately come back up without seeing anyone then in the afternoons, I go down once more at about 3 to take my bath and at 4:30 I come back up again. I do not yet know what will happen next month. I shall have to find some way to meet you so that we can work toge ther I am going to think it over.
I do not ask you to write me your news,4 because I know that these are things it is better not to write about. But you know that it keenly interests me.
My love is always with you, enfolding and upholding you.
the blessings of the Grace are upon you.
Signed: Mo ther
--
they would never resume.
About the tantric initiation.
***
0 1959-01-27, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
So X will to do a special work for you for eleven days, and if at the end of this period the suffering still persists, he will send me to Pondicherry to deliver something directly into your hands. I, too, would like very much to do something to alleviate your suffering.
By a special grace, X gave me both stages of the tantric initiation at the same time, although they are normally separated by several years; then if all goes well, he will give me the full initiation in 6 months. I have thus received a mantra, along with the power of realizing it. X told me that a realization should come at the beginning of the fifth month if I repeat the mantra strictly according to his instructions, but he again told me that the hostile forces would do all they could to prevent me from saying my mantra: mental suggestions and even illness. X has understood that I have work at the Ashram, and he has exempted me from the outer forms (pujas and o ther rituals), but never theless I must repeat my mantra very accurately every day (3,333 times, that is, a little more than 3 hours uninterrupted in the mornings, and more than 2 hours in the evening). I must therefore organize myself in such a way as to get up very early in the morning in Pondicherry, for in no case will your work suffer.
Apart from this, he has not yet entirely finished the work of purging that he has been doing on me for over a month, but I believe that everything will be completed in a short time from now.
Sweet Mo ther, I have a kind of fear that all these mantras are not bringing me nearer to you I mean you in your physical body, for it is not upon you physically that I was told to concentrate. Also, I almost never see you in my dreams any longer, or else only very vaguely. Last night, I dreamed that I was offering you flowers (not very pretty ones), one of which was called mantra, but I did not see you in my dream. Mo ther, I would like to be true, to do the right thing, to be as you want me to be.
I am your child. I belong to you alone.
--
Your very interesting letter of the 27th has just arrived.
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 o ther things.1
As I told you, I have resumed nei ther classes nor translations, and I still do not know when I will do so. So there is only the old work to finish up, but it will not take very long.
My body would also like to have a mantra to repeat. Those it has are not enough for it anymore. It would like to have one to hasten its transformation. It is ready to repeat it as many times as needed, provided that it does not have to be out loud, for it is very rarely alone and does not want to speak of this to anyone. Truly, the Ashram atmosphere is not very favorable for this kind of thing. You will have to take precautions so as not to be disturbed or interrupted in an inopportune way. Domestic servants, curious people, so-called friends can all serve as instruments of the hostile forces to put a spoke in the wheels. I will do my best to protect you, but you will have a lot to do yourself and will have to be as firm as an iron rod.
I am not writing you all this to discourage you from coming. But I want you to succeed; for me that is more important than anything else, no matter what the price. So, know for certain that I am with you all the time and more so especially when you repeat your mantra
In constant communion in the effort towards victory; my love and my force never leave you.
Signed: Mo ther
the tantric work.
***
0 1959-01-31, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
X knows very little about your true work and what Swami has been able to explain to him is ra ther inadequate, for I do not believe that he himself understands it very well. So I shall have to try to make myself understood quite clearly to X and tell him exactly and simply what it is you need. the word transformation is too abstract. Each mantra has a very specific actionat least I believe soand I must be able to tell X in a concrete way the exact powers or capacities you are now seeking, and the general goal or the particular results required. then he will find the mantra or mantras that apply.
My explanations will have to be simple, for X speaks English with difficulty, thus subtleties are out of the question. (I am teaching him a little English while he is teaching me Sanskrit, and we manage to understand each o ther ra ther well all the same. He understands more than he can speak.)
I do not want to mention this to Swami, as X is not very happy about the way Swami seizes upon every occasion to appropriate things, and particularly mantras (I will explain this to you when we meet again). It is especially the way he says I. Nothing very seriousit is Swamis bad side, though he has good ones too. You know that, however.
So I would like to speak to X knowledgeably, in a very precise way, and I am waiting only for you to tell me what I should say. the thing is too important to be approached lightly and vaguely.
As for my return to Pondicherry, I would like you yourself to decide. I am anxious to see you again, but I also think that it is not necessary to rush things, and the Darshan periods are heavy for you.
In principle, X will have finished his purging of me on February 6. So after that date I will do what you wish.
As for my mantra, I say it only partially now, but X will fix an auspicious day to begin it really according to the rules when I am in Pondicherry, for theoretically, one should not move once the work has begun. the 12th of February is an auspicious day, if you decide that I should return by then (or a little before to get things ready); o therwise ano ther date may be fixed later on.
Your letter, Sweet Mo ther, has filled me with strength and resolution. I want to be victorious and I want to serve you. I see very well that gradually I can be taught many useful things by X. the essential thing is first of all to lose this ego which falsifies everything. Finally, through your grace, I believe that I have passed a decisive turning point and that there is a beginning of real consecration and I feel your Love, your Presence. Things are opening a little.
Sweet Mo ther, I love you and I want to serve you truly.
--
P.S. All the old Questions and Answers will also have to be revised with you, perhaps not in their entirety, but certain problems need clarification. What a grace to be able to work with you!
***
--
I have received your letter of the 31st. In a number of ways it confirms my experience of these past days. We shall speak of all this when you return.
I have reflected a great deal on a possible mantra, and I have also seen the difficulty of receiving something that does not have a narrowing effect One must at least have an idea of the possibility (at least) of the supermind to understand what I need
As for your arrival here, the day you mentioned is the Saraswati Puja I will go downstairs to give blessings. If you arrive on the previous day, the 11th I will arrange to see you at 10 oclock, and then you can begin your mantra on the 12th.
Simply send me word to let me know if this is all right. Tell me also if you need money for your return, and how much, in time for me to send it.
As for the rest, we shall speak of it here.
So, until we meet soon.
Tell X that my body is on the way to complete recovery.
With my love and my blessings.
0 1959-03-10 - vital dagger, vital mass, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
( the disciple returned to the Ashram, but as he was very quickly seized again by his mania for the road, the Agenda of 1959, alas, is strewn with great gaps and is almost nonexistent. the following conversation is in regard to one of Mo ther's commentaries on the Dhammapada: 'Evil')
I spent a nighta night of battlewhen, for some reason or o ther, a multitude of vital formations of all kinds entered into the room: beings, things, embryos of beings, residues of beingsall kinds of things And it was a frightful assault, absolutely disgusting.
In this swarming mass, I noticed the presence of some slightly more conscious willswills of the vital plane and I saw how they try to awaken a reaction in the consciousness of human beings to make them think or want, or if possible, do certain things.
For example, I saw one of them trying to incite anger in someone so that this person would deliver a blowa spiritual blow. And this formation had a dagger in his hand (a vital dagger, you see, it was a vital being: gray and slimy, horrible), he was holding a very sharp dagger which he was flaunting, saying, When a person has done something like that (pretending that someone had done an unforgivable thing), this is what he deserves and the scenario was complete: the being rushed forward, vitally, with his dagger.
I, who know the consequences of these things, stopped him just in time I gave him a blow. then I had enough of all this and it was over, I cleaned the place out. It was almost a physical cleaning, for I had my hands clasped toge ther (I was in a semitrance) and I threw them apart in an abrupt movement, left and right, powerfully, as if to sweep something away, and frrt! immediately everything was gone.
But had that not happened I was watching, not exactly with curiosity, but in order to learnto learn what kind of atmosphere people live in! And it is ALWAYS like that! they are always pestered by HORDES of little formations that are absolutely swarming and disgusting, each one making its nasty little suggestion.
Take these movements of anger, for example, when someone is carried away by his passion and does things which, in his normal state, he would never do: he is not doing it, it is done by these little formations which are there, swarming in the atmosphere, just waiting for an occasion to rush in.
When you see them, oh! its suffocating. When youre in contact with that Really, you wonder how anyone can brea the in such an atmosphere. And yet people CONSTANTLY live in that atmosphere! they live in it. Only when they rise above are they NOT in it. Or else there are those who are entirely below; but those are the toys of these things, and their reactions are sometimes not only unexpected but absolutely dreadfulbecause they are puppets in the hands of these things.
Those who rise above, who enter into a slightly intellectual region, can see all this from above; they can look down at it all, keep their heads above and brea the; but those who live in this realm
Sri Aurobindo calls this realm the intermediate zone, a zone in which, he says, you can have all the experiences you wish if you enter into it. But it isnt (laughing) very advisable!and I understand why! I had that experience because I had just read what Sri Aurobindo says on this subject in a letter in this latest book, On Yoga; I wanted to see for myself what it was. Ah, I understood!
And I express this in my own way when I say1 that thoughts come and go, flow in and out. But thoughts concerning material things are formations originating in that world, they are kinds of wills coming from the vital plane which try to express themselves, and most often they are truly deadly. If you are annoyed, for example, if someone says something unpleasant to you and you react It always happens in the same way; these little entities are there waiting, and when they feel its the right moment, they introduce their influence and their suggestions. This is what is vitally symbolized by the being with his dagger rushing forward to stab youand in the back, at that! Not even face to face! This then expresses itself in the human consciousness by a movement of anger or rage or indignation: How intolerable! How ! And the o ther fellow says, Yes! We shall put an end to it!
It is quite interesting to watch it once, but it isnt very pleasant.
In this Commentary on the Dhammapada.
***
0 1959-03-26 - Lord of Death, Lord of Falsehood, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Concerning Satprem's most recent peregrinations and his fundamental rebelliousness, which periodically makes him take to the road)
Behind the Titan attacking us particularly now, there is something else. This Titan has been delegated by someone else. He has been there since my birth, was born with me. I felt him when I was very young, but only gradually, as I became conscious of myself, did I understand WHO he was and what was behind him.
This Titan has been specially sent to attack this body, but he cant do it directly, so he uses people in my entourage. It is something fated: all those around me, who are close to me, and especially those capable of love, have been attacked by him; a few have succumbed, such as that girl in my entourage who was absorbed by him. He follows me like a shadow, and each time there is the least little opening in someone near me, he is there.
the power of this Titan comes from an Asura. there are four Asuras. Two have already been converted, and the o ther two, the Lord of Death and the Lord of Falsehood, made an attempt at conversion by taking on a physical body they have been intimately associated with my life. the story of these Asuras would be very interesting to recount the Lord of Death disappeared; he lost his physical body, and I dont know what has become of him.1 As for the o ther, the Lord of Falsehood, the one who now rules over this earth, he tried hard to be converted, but he found it disgusting!
At times he calls himself the Lord of Nations. It is he who sets all wars in motion, and only by thwarting his plans could the last war be won This one does not want to be converted, not at all. He wants nei ther the physical transformation nor the supramental world, for that would spell his end. Besides, he knows We talk to each o ther; beyond all this, we have our relationship. For after all, you see (laughing), I am his mo ther! One day he told me, I know you will destroy me, but meanwhile, I will create all the havoc possible.
This Asura of Falsehood is the one who delegated the Titan that is always near me. He chose the most powerful Titan there is on earth and sent him specially to attack this body. So even if one manages to enchain or kill this Titan, it is likely that the Lord of Falsehood will delegate ano ther form, and still ano ther, and still ano ther, in order to achieve his aim.
In the end, only the Supramental will have the power to destroy it. When the hour comes, all this will disappear, without any need to do anything.
It was theon.
***
0 1959-04-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I come to renew before you the resolution that I took this morning at the Samadhi.1
Henceforth I refuse to be an accomplice to this force. It is my enemy. Whatever form it may take, or whatever supports it may find in my nature, I will refuse to yield to it and will cling to you. You are the only reality: that is my mantra. Anything that seeks to make me doubt you is my enemy. You are the only Reality.
And each time I feel the shadow approach, I will call to you, immediately.
May you never again suffer because of me. O Mo ther, purify me and open my heart.
--
P.S. Perhaps it would be good to tell you of the two supports that this force found in me during the most recent attack:
1) the fact that I am plagued by a lack of time and, occasionally, a certain repugnance for mental work. then the ensuing suggestion: to have a hut in Rameswaram and devote myself exclusively to inner development.
2) I am very pullednot constantly, but periodicallyby the need to write (not mental things) and exasperated by the fact that this Orpailleur is not published because I have not taken the time to carry out certain corrections. When I am in a good mood, I offer all this to you (is it perhaps a hidden ambition? But I am not so sure; it is ra ther a need, I believe) and when I am not in a good mood, I fume about not having the time to write something else.
Please, enlighten me, Sweet Mo ther.
--
Your resolution came straight to me. I sheltered it in the depths of my heart, and with my highest will, I said, So be it.
Just now, I received your letter confirming my experience. It is good.
I read your P.S. and I understand. This too confirms my feeling. I am not happy that you are plagued with work, and especially urgent work that has to be done quicklyit is contrary to the inner calm and concentration so indispensable for getting rid of ones difficulties. I am going to do what is necessary to change this situation. Besides, this is why I have been telling you recently that my work is not urgent. But this work for the Bulletin should stop for the moment.
the o ther point also has its element of truthwe shall speak of it later.
With all my love, I envelope you, my child, and I tell you, Have courage, the victory is certainnot a compromise or partial victory, but integral.
Signed: Mo ther
Sri Aurobindo's tomb in the Ashram courtyard.
***
0 1959-04-13, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Here is the outline for the book on Sri Aurobindo for the ditions du Seuil.1
It is a rough sketch, and in the actual process of writing, the proposed sequence may change according to the inner necessity, but these are the themes to be developed. So now T would like to know what you feel and if you see anything to be changed, added or deleted.
Your child, with love.
--
A French publishing house that had asked for a book on Sri Aurobindo to be included in their collection, 'Spiritual Masters.'
***
0 1959-04-21, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Above, beginning with the center between the eyebrows, the work has been done for a long time. there it is blank. For ages upon ages upon ages, the union with the Supreme has been realized and is constant.
Below this center is the body. And this body has indeed the concrete sensation of the Divine in each of its cells; but it needs to become universalized. Thats the work to be done, center by center. I understand now what Sri Aurobindo meant when he repeatedly insisted, Widen yourself. All this must be universalized; it is the condition, the basis, for the Supramental to descend into the body.
According to the ancient traditions, this universalization of the physical body was considered the supreme realization, but it is only a foundation, the base upon which the Supramental can come down without breaking everything.
***
0 1959-04-23, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I hope you wrote to X that it is agreed, that we expect him with his family early in the morning of the 30th, and that I am looking forward to our daily morning meditation during his stay.
Do tell him that all is well, that we are awaiting his arrival and that I am looking forward to these meditations.
With you always, with love and care.
0 1959-04-24, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
the divine perfection is always there above us; but for man to become divine in consciousness and act and to live inwardly and outwardly the divine life is what is meant by spirituality; all lesser meanings given to the word are inadequate fumblings or impostures.1
This text by Sri Aurobindo ( the Human Cycle, Cent. Ed. Vol. XV p. 247) was translated into French by Mo ther on the occasion of writing to Satprem.
***
0 1959-05-19 - Ascending and Descending paths, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
When you follow the ascending path, the work is relatively easy. I had already covered this path by the beginning of the century and had established a constant relationship with the SupremeThat which is beyond the Personal and the gods and all the outward expressions of the Divine, but also beyond the Absolute Impersonal. Its something you cannot describe; you must experience it. And this is what must be brought down into Matter. Such is the descending path, the one I began with Sri Aurobindo; and there, the work is immense.
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 Mo ther, 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 them they 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 o ther 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!
I could have begun this work on the body thirty years ago, but I was constantly caught up in this harassing ashram life. It took this illness2 to enable me truly to begin doing the sadhana of the body. It does not mean that thirty years were wasted, for it is likely that had I been able to start this work thirty years ago, it would have been premature. the consciousness of the o thers also had to develop the two are linked, the individual progress and the collective progress, and one cannot advance if the o ther does not advance.
I have also come to realize that for this sadhana of the body, the mantra is essential. Sri Aurobindo gave none; he said that one should be able to do all the work without having to resort to external means. Had he reached the point where we are now, he would have seen that the purely psychological method is inadequate and that a japa is necessary, because only japa has a direct action on the body. So I had to find the method all alone, to find my mantra by myself. But now that things are ready, I have done ten years of work in a few months. That is the difficulty, it requires time
And I repeat my mantra constantlywhen I am awake and even when I sleep. I say it even when I am getting dressed, when I eat, when I work, when I speak with o thers; it is there, just behind in the background, all the time, all the time.
In fact, you can immediately see the difference between those who have a mantra and those who dont. With those who have no mantra, even if they have a strong habit of meditation or concentration, something around them remains hazy and vague. Whereas the japa imparts to those who practice it a kind of precision, a kind of solidity: an armature. they become galvanized, as it were.
Original English.
In December 1958, when Mo ther stopped the Questions and Answers at the playground and thereafter left the Ashram building only rarely.
***
0 1959-05-25, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I can only repeat the prayer that I made to the Supreme Lord this morning:
May Your Will be done in all things and at every moment. And may Your Love manifest.
--
If it is to make me feel all my wrongs that you remind me of my solemn promise, then I am ready to acknowledge all these wrongs. I am guilty, without any extenuating circumstances, and I expect no indulgence.
I can easily understand that your task on this earth is not particularly encouraging and you must find our human matter stupid and rebellious. I do not wish to throw upon you more bad things than you already receive, but I wish you could also understand certain things. I am not made for this wi thered life, not made for putting sentences toge ther all day long, not made for living alone in my holefriendless, loveless, with nothing but mantras, and waiting for a better that never comes. For three years I have wanted to leave and each time I yielded out of scruples that you needed me, though also because I am attached to you. But after the [book on] Sri Aurobindo, there will be something else, there will always be something else that will make my departure look like a betrayal. I am fed up with living in my head, always in my head, with paper and ink. It was not of this that I dreamed when I was ten years old and ran with the wind over the untamed heaths. I am suffocating. You ask too much of me; or ra ther, I am not worth your expectation.
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 am not really bad, Mo ther, but I can no longer bear this life without love. That is all.
there is someone here who could have saved me, whom I could have loved. Oh, it has nothing to do with all those things you might imagine! My soul loves her soul. It is something very serene. We have known each o ther for five years, and I had never even dreamed of calling it love. But all the outer circumstances are against us. And I do not want to turn anyone away from you. Anyway, if I sink into the depths of the pit, or so I tell myself, it is no reason to drag someone else along with me. So this too is one more reason for me to leave. I cannot continue suffocating all alone in my corner. (It is useless to ask her name, I will say nothing.)
You are imposing a new ordeal on me by asking me to go to Rameswaram. For you, I have accepted. But I shall go there shea thed in my sturdiest armor and I will not yield, because I know that it is always to be begun again. I do not want to become a great Tantric or whatever else it may be. I want only to love. And since I cannot love, I am leaving. I will arrive in Rameswaram at 2 in the morning, and will leave again by the 11 oclock train.
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).
--
the aphorisms will be ready tomorrow.
I have nothing more to add.
--
This morning, the problem and its solution appeared to me very clearly; but since, for quite obvious reasons, I am both the judge and the accused in this matter, I cannot make a decision; not that my judgment would necessarily be egoistic, but it would have no authority.
Only someone who loves you and has the knowledge can find the true solution to the problem. X1 fulfills these conditions excellently. Go to him and simply be what you are, without blackening nor embellishing, with the sincerity and simplicity of a child. He knows your soul and its aspiration; speak to him of your physical life and of your need for space, solitude, untamed nature, the simple and free life. He will understand and, in his wisdom, will see the best thing to do.
And what he decides will be done.
--
the disciple's tantric guru.
***
0 1959-05-28, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I do not want you to suffer because of me, for there is already too much suffering in this world. I shall do what you wish. I will go to Rameswaram and I will stay there as long as X wants. I have seen that there is no happy solution. So I bow before the circumstances.
If it is not too tiring for your eyes, I would like you to read what follows. I want to tell you what I have seen, very clearly.
After the wave of rebelliousness this morning, I was seized by a great sadness, a great bitterness, as though I were being confronted with a profound injustice.
there is a spiritual destiny in me, but there are three o ther destinies so intimately bound up with it that I cannot cut off any one without mutilating something of my living soulwhich is why, periodically, these suppressed destinies awaken and call to meand the dark forces seize upon these occasions to sow chaos within and drive me to ruin everything since I cannot really fulfill myself. And the problem is insoluble.
1) there is the destiny of the adventurer: it is the one in me that needs the sea or the forest and wide open spaces and struggles. This was the best part of my childhood. I can sit on it and tell myself that the adventure is within, and it might work for a while. But this untamed child in me continues to live all the same, and it is something very valuable in me. I cannot kill it through reasoning, even spiritual reasoning. And if I tell it that everything lies within, not without, it replies, then why was I born, why this manifestation in the outer world? In the end, it is not a question of reasoning. It is a fact, like the wind upon the heaths.
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, Mo ther, 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 o ther need in me, and periodically it awakens and sprouts up to tell me that it too needs to brea the.
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 fur ther. 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 o ther 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 nei ther can I stifle this with reasoning.
So there remains the pure spiritual destiny, pure interiorization. That is what I have been trying to do for the last five years, without much success. there are good periods of collaboration, because one part of my being can be happy in any condition. But in a certain way this achievement remains truncated, especially when you base spiritual life on a principle of integrality. And these three destinies in me have their own good reasons, which are true: they are not inferior, they are not incidental, they are woven from the very threads that created the spiritual life in me. My error is to open the door to revolt when I feel too poignantly one or the o ther being stifled.
So you see, all this is insoluble. I have only to bow before these unfortunate circumstances. I perceive an injustice somewhere, but I have only to remain silent.
And I was also struck when you told me that I wanted to kick up a row. You so clearly implied that I was leaving the Ashram in a shoddy way. So that also froze me. I thought I had done my best and, in order to serve you, repressed as much as I could the o thers in me.
So there. I can find no solution. X will not understand, and I will not say anything to him. But I obey you because everything is futile and there is too much pain in this world, and also someone in me needs you, someone who loves you in his own way.
Signed: Satprem
--
I have read your letter in its entirety and I remain convinced that one day all the parts of your being, without excluding any, will be fully satisfied. But we shall see about that later.
For the moment, I only want to tell you, from the bottom of my heartwhich is so deeply touchedthank you.
With all my love.
--
I am sending you forthwith the note that I had prepared for tomorrow morning.
***
--
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 sheltered 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 o ther words than those I uttered.
***
0 1959-06-03, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Also, I explained to him that a mantra had come to you which you were repeating between 5 and 6 in particular, and I told him about this culminating point where you wanted to express your gratitude, enthusiasm, etc., and about the French mantra. After explaining, I gave him your French and Sanskrit texts. He felt and understood very well what you wanted. His first reaction after reading it was to say, Great meaning, great power is there. It is all right. I told him that apart from the meaning of the mantra, you wanted to know if it was all right from the vibrational standpoint. He told me that he would take your text to his next puja and would repeat it himself to see. He should have done that this morning, but he has a fever (since his return from Madurai, he has not been well because of a cold and sunstroke). I will write you as soon as I know the result of his test.
Regarding me, this is more or less what he said: First of all, I want an agreement from you so that under any circumstances you never leave the Ashram. Whatever happens, even if Yama1 comes to dance at your door, you should never leave the Ashram. At the critical moment, when the attack is the strongest, you should throw everything into His hands, then and then only the thing can be removed (I no longer know whe ther he said removed or destroyed ). It is the only way. SARVAM MAMA BRAHMAN [Thou art my sole refuge]. Here in Rameswaram, we are going to meditate toge ther for 45 days, and the Asuric-Shakti may come with full strength to attack, and I shall try my best not only to protect but to destroy, but for that, I need your determination. It is only by your own determination that I can get strength. If the force comes to make suggestions: lack of adventure, lack of Nature, lack of love, then think that I am the forest, think that I am the sea, think that I am the wife (!!) Meanwhile, X has nearly doubled the number of repetitions of the mantra that I have to say every day (it is the same mantra he gave me in Pondicherry). X repeated to me again and again that I am not merely a disciple to him, like the o thers, but as if his son.
This was a first, hasty conversation, and we did not discuss things at length. I said nothing. I have no confidence in my reactions when I am in the midst of my crises of complete negation. And truly speaking, at the time of my last crisis in Pondicherry, I do not know if it was really Xs occult working that set things right, for personally (but perhaps it is an ignorant impression), I felt that it was thanks to Sujata and her childlike simplicity that I was able to get out of it.
In any event, since I left Pondicherry, I have been living like a kind of robot (it began in the train); I am empty, void of the least feeling for whomever it may be. I keep going by a kind of acquired momentum, but actually I feel completely anes thetized.
Excuse my handwriting. I am writing to you lying on the floor of the dharamshala2 near Xs house, for the hut meant for me is not yet ready.
Suddenly, last evening, X went furiously on the warpath against the Indian Congress3 and with an irrefutable tone, like someone who knows, began making very interesting predictions.
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 ra ther 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 o ther is.
In any case, I had never heard him attacking the Congress as he did yesterday evening, almost violently.
That is all, Sweet Mo ther. In spite of my anes thesia, I think of you. (I am not blocked; on the contrary, it seems to me that the bond has been renewed since our last meeting, but I feel strangely empty.) I am unable to understand how you can love me. Oh Mo ther, I have truly to begin living, truly loving!
Your child,
--
As for the Sanskrit text and the mantra, I await your next letter.
For you, I fully approve of what he told you. Fervently, and with all my love, I pray that he will succeed in what he wants to do during these 45 days of meditation. This is really what I was counting on.
For what occurred here, I can say only one thing: when the Supreme Lord wants to save someone, He clo thes his will in every appearance necessary.
As for the emptiness you feel (which perhaps is already better): to those who complained of this sensation of inner emptiness, Sri Aurobindo always said that it is a very good thing; it is the sign that they are going to be filled with something better and truer.
I have carefully noted Xs predictions.
Certainly his political rage is not only understandable but justified. However, when one begins looking at things from the external viewpoint of the manifestation, they are not as simple as that. I cannot speak of all this in detail, but as an example I can tell you that here in Pondicherry, those who are maneuvering (and not without some hope) to oust the Congress are our worst enemies, the enemy of all that is disinterested and spiritual, and if they come to power, they would be capable of anything in their hate.
For all these world events, I always leave it to the Divine vision and wisdom, and I say to the Supreme: Lord, may Thy Will be done.
I hope to hear from you soon.
--
Yama: the god of Death in the Hindu pan theon.
A caravansary, or Indian style shelter.
Indian National Congress: the formative freedom organization against the British that became India's major political party under Jawaharlal Nehru after independence.
***
0 1959-06-04, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Regarding Xs predictions which I mentioned in yesterdays letter, X said something untranslatable which meant, Let us see Mo thers reactions for I told him that I had written it all to you. then he said, there are several o ther secret matters which I shall tell you. And he added, by way of example, I shall tell WHERE the atomic bombs will be cropped. So if these things interest you, or if you see or feel anything, perhaps it would be good to express your interest in a letter to me which I would translate for X. Spontaneously, I emphasized to X that it would undoubtedly facilitate your work to have details. But it is better that these things come from you, should you see any use in it.
As for me, X said, Something will happen.
--
Satprem, my very dear child, yesterday evening I received your second letter dated the 4th.
Regarding my mantra, I began repeating it yesterday before receiving your letter, and I felt that it was all right. So if X makes no alterations, it is not necessary to send it back to me. I receive the force X gives me without paper.
I do not know if it is an illusion, but on several occasions I felt that if X says this mantra, it will cure his fever.
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.
I am with you and wish to repeat to you: infinite is the Grace and invincible is the Love; be confident and will the victory, for this is what X means by your collaboration.
Signed: Mo ther
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 whe ther 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 fur ther 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 ra ther categorically that Russia would be swept away and that America would triumph.
2) X gave me certain details about his powers of prediction, but perhaps it would be better not to speak of this in a letter. On that occasion, he told me that he did not want to keep any secrets from me: I want you to know everything. I want you to be chief disciple in my tradition. When the time comes, you will understand what I mean. With you I have full connection, not only connection in my mind, but in my blood and body.
On ano ther occasion, he said to me, I am ALWAYS taking care of you. And when I asked him why he was taking such trouble for me, he replied, Because I have orders. This attention that comes to me from you and him surprises me, for I do not feel that I am good, and upon the least occasion I know that I am seriously prepared to quit everything because something in me is profoundly revolted by this excess of suffering, by a lack of love and flowering, by an excess of solitude. Yesterday evening, it was still fully there, with all my approval, and at such a time no one in the world can hold me back. It is this POINT OF SUFFERING that makes me want to turn my back on everything. Not to commit suicide: to turn my back.
X told me the story of my last three existences (ra ther grim), but I will write you about that in ano ther letter.
3) X has not yet begun his work with me nor for you, as he has been unwell until today. One evening, he made a very beautiful reflection concerning you and your mantra, but it is inexpressible in words, it was above all the tone in which he said, Who, who, is there a single person in the world who can repeat like that TRIOMPHE TOI MAHIMA MAHIMA? etc. And three or four times he repeated your mantra with such an expression
He has not yet done what he plans to do with your mantra in his puja, for he has been unwell and had to interrupt his pujas. But now he is better.
I have no o ther details to give you, except that I am not happy. the fact is that these last three years I have been tied down by my penury, o therwise I would be travelling along o ther roads, far from herewith no greater hope in my heart, but with space before me, at least. I am only here to render you service, but I do not know if I shall be able to repress my need for space much longerit has already been going on too long. This is the undisguised truth. But what can I do?I am tied down. If I truly loved, things would be different, but it seems I love no one, not even myself, and the only love of which I am capable, human love, is forbidden to me. So I can do nothing, not on any plane, and I have no hope in anything. Forgive me, I do not wish to pain you, but nei ther can I pretend any longer to be happy with my lot.
Signed: Satprem
0 1959-06-08, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Even before receiving your second letter in which you say that the mantra is all right, X told me this morning that he had repeated your mantra during his puja and that it was very good, that there is nothing to be changed: the vibration is good.
Here are a few additional indications regarding the forthcoming events.
As I appeared to be doubting, X told me, there is no suspicion [doubt], the war will take place in November (in fact, it is to occur some time between September and November), and for the rest of the talk, he had a tone of absolute certitude: the first atom bomb will fall in China. Russia will be crushed. It will be a victory for America. Not more than 2 or 3 atom bombs will be used. It will be very quick. And he repeated that the starting-point of the conflict would be situated in India due to the aggression of Pakistan, then of China.
the earthquake he mentioned promises to be a kind of pralaya (as X put it), for not only Bombay will be touched. This is what he said: America supports Pakistan, but the gods do not support Pakistan, and Pakistan will be punished by the gods. HALF of western Pakistan, including Karachi, will go into the sea. the sea will enter into Rajasthan and touch India also
X then said that India would side with America against the Communist bloc (in spite of Americas support to Pakistan), and fur thermore, that the day India sides with America, America will cease supporting Pakistan. In any case, it will be the end of Pakistan.
After I translated your letter to him, X told me that he would give me more details in two or three days.
I should write you what X has revealed about my last three lives, but I have nei ther the courage nor the desire to again speak of myself.
Your child,
--
P.S. X asked me questions about my family. I was prompted to speak to him of my mo ther (seeing her photo, you had said that you knew her very well, if you recall). He immediately said, You MUST go and see your mo ther. You will go in August and quickly come back by plane beginning September! Of course, I told him that all this seems like the highest fantasy to me, and that to begin with I had no money and would surely not ask you anything for that. He said, I shall ask my Mo ther. She will arrange everything.
***
--
I have a world of things to tell you about all I have heard, seen and done concerning you these past days. New doors of understanding have opened but all these things are impossible to write.
As for the mantra, since two days I am sure about it, and all is well.
I am extremely interested in everything X has revealed to you. But I cannot write about this ei ther.
--
the great secret is to learn to give oneself
With all my tenderness.
0 1959-06-09, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Forgive me for these last letters. I was suffering.
It seems to me that for months I have been far away from you. I no longer see you in my dreams, I no longer feel you. What, then is this path I am following?
In spite of all my revolts, I need you, I need truth, Light, and love. I feel I have already known all this, had all this, and that I have been dispossessed. Perhaps that is why I suffer.
--
I have received your good letter of the 9th, It warms my heart.
All these things that you needtruth, light, love, my presence in youyou have had them and you still have them, they have not withdrawn from you, but something came to veil them from your perception, and this is why you became unhappy. they are waiting just there, near you, in you, anxious for the shadow to vanish and for you to realize that they have not left you.
With all my love.
0 1959-06-11, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
As of yesterday evening I am a man delivered. It took only a very little word from X, and suddenly a weight seemed to have been lifted from me, and I knew at last that I would be fulfilled. All this is still so new, so improbable that I can scarcely believe it, and I wonder if by chance some evil blow is not still lurking in wait for me behind this promise of happiness; thus I shall be reassured only when I have told you everything, recounted all. But X has asked, me to wait a few more days before telling you this story, for he wants to give me certain additional details so that you may have all the elements, as accurately as possible.
But I did not want to wait any longer to express my gratitude. I am still not so sure how all this will turn out nor how this destiny that he predicts for me can be realized, but I want to repeat to you, with all my confidence: I am your child, may your will be done now and forever.
--
P.S. X is also to give me certain details for you about the forthcoming war.
***
0 1959-06-13a, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I have received your last two letters of the 10th and 11th. I told X what you wrote about this trip to France and that your finances are in an almost desperate state. He replied with perfect assurance, Soon it will increase, very soon it will change. I am obviously hesitant to accept your generous offer and I do not know what I should do. I had never thought of returning to France, except in a distant future. I dont know why X told me that I should return there, except perhaps because he felt who my mo ther is. I know that she is sad, that she believes me lost to her and thinks she will die without seeing me again. It would surely be a great joy to her. But o ther than that, I have no desire to go there, for each time I go to France, I feel like I am entering a prison. Naturally I would be happy for my mo thers joy; she is a great soul, but is this reason enough?
Sunday, 14th
X has decided that he wants to speak to you himself about my former existences and about what he has seen for the immediate future. He has therefore asked me to say nothing to you. Perhaps there are also elements he did not want to speak of to me. (X told me that now he feels capable of speaking in English with you.)
Ano ther thing: we happened to talk of Sri Aurobindo and Lele.1 Concerning Lele, X told me, He was a devotee of the Bhaskaraya School; this is why there is close connection I do not know if this is so, but X seemed to know.
For me, the inner things seem to have taken a better turn since X revealed certain things to me, but I prefer to say nothing. I dare not say anything since I know from experience that all this is as unstable as dynamite.
Your child,
--
Lele: the tantric guru whom Sri Aurobindo met in 1908 and who gave him mental silence and Nirvana.
***
0 1959-06-17, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I have received your card of the 13th. I dare not write, for everything is too confused as concerns the immediate realities.
the only thing that affirms itself with a certitude and a greater and greater force is my soul. I cling to It with all my strength. It is my only refuge. If I did not have that, I would throw my life overboard, for the outer circumstances and the immediate future seem to me impossible, unlivable.
I was touched by your blessings for Sujata and myself. But there lies ano ther impossibility.
these last days I have come to realize that to blame all my crises on the hostile forces is perhaps to oversimplify things. I understand better and better, for in my suffering, my soul is all I have and I rely on that alone; o therwise I could never bear all that I have borne, all that I still bear. I understand, too, that there was also a truth in the force which periodically impelled me to leave, the truth of that destiny in me which is not fulfilled in the Ashram.
Mo ther, I have suffered so much and prayed so much this last while that I am sure my soul cannot but arrange circumstances in such a way that somehow I may live at last that somehow EVERYTHING may truly become reconciled: not later on or one of these days, but soon for it cannot go on any longer; I am at my end.
Mo ther, 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,
--
P.S. Yes, I too am sure that the great secret is to give oneself, but perhaps this can be too easily misunderstood, and I do not believe that to give oneself means to mutilate oneself. As for the rest, well, my life obviously belongs to That and is meaningless except for That.
Would you please tell me whe ther I may really write to my mo ther that I am coming to see her?
0 1959-06-25, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
X told me to tell you what he has seen of my previous lives (but my impression is that he did not tell me everything and that there are elements about which he wants to speak to you personally).
To begin with, I must tell you a dream that I had here in Rameswaram a few days after my arrival. I was being pursued and I fled like an assassinit is a dream I have had hundreds of times for years, but in this dream, there was a new element: while being pursued, I climbed a kind of stairway to try to escape when suddenly, in a flash, I saw a feminine form hurtling into a void. I saw only the lower half of her body (with a kind of mauve-colored saree), because she was already falling. And I had the horrible sensation of having pushed this woman into the void, and I fled. I climbed, I climbed these stairs with my pursuers close at my heels, and the image of this falling woman gave me a horrible feeling. When I reached the top of the stairs, I tried to close a door behind me to stop my pursuers, but there they were, it was too late and I woke up.
the last time I was in Rameswaram, I had two o ther very poignant dreams, but I could not make out what they meant. In one dream I was strangling someone with my bare hands; it was an abominable feeling. And in the o ther, I saw, in a kind of nocturnal setting, a hanged man being taken down, with all kinds of people bustling about the corpse with lamps, and suddenly I knew that this hanged man was me.
I had said nothing to X about these various dreams before he told me the story of my last three existences: three times I committed suicide the first by fire, the second by hanging, and the third by throwing myself into the void. During the first of these last three existences, I was married to a very good woman, but for some reason I abandoned my wife and I was wandering here and there in search of something. then I met a sannyasi who wanted to make me his disciple, but I could not make up my mind, I was nei ther this side nor that side, whereupon my wife came to me and pleaded with me to take her back. Apparently I rejected herso she threw herself into the fire. Horror-stricken, I followed her, throwing myself into the fire in turn. That was when I created a connection with certain beings [of the o ther worlds] and I fell under their power. For two o ther lives, under the influence of these beings, the same drama was repeated with a few variations.
During the second of these last three existences, I was married to the same woman whom I again abandoned under the influence of the same monk, and I again remained between two worlds wandering here and there. Again my wife came to plead with me and again I pushed her away. She hung herself, and I hung myself in turn.
During my last existence, the monk succeeded in making me a sannyasi, and when my wife came to plead with me, I told her, Too late, now I am a sannyasi. So she threw herself into the void, and horror-stricken by the sudden revelation of all these dramas and of my wifes goodness (for it seems she was a great soul), I threw myself in turn into the void.
As for this last existence, you already know.
--
X gave me a new mantra. My body is exhausted from too much nervous tension. I am living in a kind of cellar with four inches of filth on the floor and walls, and two openings, one onto the street of the bazaar the o ther onto a dilapidated courtyard with a well. On my right lives a madwoman who screams half the day. there is only my mantra which burns almost constantly in my heart, and who knows what hope that some day the future will be happy and reconciled. there is also Sujata and you.
Your child,
0 1959-07-09, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
This handwritten note bore only this word and the date. Kalki is the name of the last Avatar who comes on a white winged horse to destroy the 'barbarians' (yavan) at the end of the Iron Age or the Kali Yuga, which is the period we are now passing through. His appearance marks the return of the Age of Truth, or the Satya Yuga.
7.9.59
0 1959-07-10, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
A moment ago I barely found the strength not to kill myself. Destiny has repeated itself once again, but this time it was not I who rejected her, as in past existences, it is she who rejected me: Too late. For a moment, I thought I was going to go crazy too, so much pain did I have then finally I said, May Thy Will be done, (that of the Supreme Lord) and I kept repeating, Thy Grace is there, even in the greatest suffering. But I am broken, ra ther like a living dead man. So be happy, for I will never wear the white robe that Guruji gave me.
You will understand that I do not have the strength to come to see you. My only strength is not to rebel, my only strength is to believe in the Grace in the face of everything. I believe I have too much grief in my heart to rebel against anything at all. I seem to have a kind of great pity for this world.
Well, this time I shall remain silent.
0 1959-07-14, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
This is what I should have told you this morning, but I was afraid. For the last month I have been afraid of you, afraid that you might not understand. But I cannot leave with this weight on me. I beg of you to understand, Sweet Mo ther. I want nothing bad, nothing impure. I feel I have something to create with Sujata, I feel she is absolutely a part of something I have to achieve, that we have something to achieve toge ther. For the five years we have known each o ther I have never had a single wrong thought but suddenly she opened my heart, which had been so completely walled-off, and this was like a wonder in me and at the same time a fear. A fear, perhaps because this love has been thwarted for so many lives.
Mo ther, 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. Mo ther, I am not at all sure of what must be, but I know that Sujata is part of this realization.
Thats all, Mo ther. Forgive me, but I am so afraid. For how is this possible in the Ashram? What would people say?
Mo ther, my whole soul writes you this. I swear there is in me a single great need of Love, beauty, nobility, purity. And we would work for you toge ther in joy at last.1
Your anxious child,
0 1959-08-11, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Letter from Mo ther to Satprem, on the road)
8.11.59
--
Now I can tell you that not for one hour have I left you; I have been constantly near you, hoping that your inner eyes would open and that you would see me, watching over you and enveloping you with my force and my love. It is within yourself that I want you to find the certitude, truth and joy.
Now I write you what I have wanted to tell you from the beginning: when you return to the Ashram, do not put on the orange robe1 again, return with the clothing X has given you
And we shall leave the care of deciding about the details of the future to the Supreme Lord.
With all my love and blessings.
--
the color worn by sannyasis.
***
0 1959-08-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
And now, today,1 I am writing you again because it is the day of great amnesties, the day when all past errors are effaced
With all my unvarying and eternal love.
0 1959-10-06 - Sri Aurobindos abode, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Thus the bird flew back once more...)
For the West, with all its outward development, a few centuries may be needed before the junction between the two worlds can be made. And yet these two worlds the physical world and the world of Truthare not distant from one ano ther. they are as if superimposed. the world of Truth is there, close by, like a lining of the o ther.
Shortly before the 15th of August I had a unique experience that exemplifies all this.1 For the first time the supramental light entered directly into my body, without passing through the inner beings. It entered through the feet (a red and gold colormarvelous, warm, intense), and it climbed up and up. And as it climbed, the fever also climbed because the body was not accustomed to this intensity. As all this light neared the head, I thought I would burst and that the experience would have to be stopped. But then, I very clearly received the indication to make the Calm and Peace descend, to widen all this body-consciousness and all these cells, so that they could contain the supramental light. So I widened, and as the light was ascending, I brought down the vastness and an unshakable peace. And suddenly, there was a second of fainting.
I found myself in ano ther world, but not far away (I was not in a total trance). This world was almost as substantial as the physical world. there were roomsSri Aurobindos room with the bed he rests on and he was living there, he was there all the time: it was his abode. Even my room was there, with a large mirror like the one I have here, combs, all kinds of things. And the substance of these objects was almost as dense as in the physical world, but they shone with their own light. It was not translucent, not transparent, not radiant, but self-luminous. the various objects and the material of the rooms did not have this same opacity as the physical objects here, they were not dry and hard as in the physical world we know.
And Sri Aurobindo was there, with a majesty, a magnificent beauty. He had all his beautiful hair as before. It was all so concrete, so substantialhe was even being served some kind of food. I remained there for one hour (I had looked at my watch before and I looked at it afterwards). I spoke to Sri Aurobindo, for I had some important questions to ask him about the way certain things are to be realized. He said nothing. He listened to me quietly and looked at me as if all my words were useless: he understood everything at once. And he answered me with a gesture and two expressions on his face, an unexpected gesture that did not at all correspond to any thought of mine; for example, he picked up three combs that were lying near the mirror (combs similar to those I use here, but larger) and he put them in his hair. He planted one comb in the middle of his head and the two o thers on each side, as if to ga ther all his hair over his temples. He was literally COIFFED with these three combs, which gave him a kind of crown. And I immediately understood that by this he meant that he was adopting my conception: You see, I embrace your conception of things, and I coif myself with it; it is my will. Anyway, I remained there for one hour.
And when I awoke, I didnt have this feeling of returning from afar and of having to re-enter my body, as I usually do. No, it was simply as though I were in this o ther world, then I took a step backwards and found myself here again. It took me a good half an hour to understand that this world here existed as much as the o ther and that I was no longer on the o ther side but here, in the world of falsehood. I had forgotten everythingpeople, things, what I had to do; everything had gone, as if it had no reality at all.
You see, its not as if this world of Truth had to be created from nothing: it is fully ready, it is there, like a lining of our own present world. Everything is there, EVERYTHING is there.
I remained in that state for two full days, two days of absolute felicity. And Sri Aurobindo was with me the whole time, the whole timewhen I walked, he walked with me, when I sat down, he sat next to me. On the day of August 15th, too, he remained there constantly during the darshan. But who was aware of it? A fewone or twofelt something. But who saw?No one.
And I showed all these people to Sri Aurobindo, this whole field of work, and asked him WHEN this o ther world, the real one that is there, so near, would come to take the place of our world of falsehood. Not ready. That was all he replied. Not ready.
Sri Aurobindo gave me two days of thistotal bliss. But all the same, by the end of the second day I realized that I could not continue to remain there, for the work was not advancing. the work must be done in the body; the realization must be attained here in this physical world, for o therwise it is not complete. So I withdrew from that world and set to work here again.
And yet, it would take little, very little, to pass from this world to the o ther, or for the o ther to become the real world. A little click would be enough, or ra ther a little reversal in the inner attitude. How should I put it? It is imperceptible to the ordinary consciousness; a very little inner shift would be enough, a change in quality.
It is similar with this japa: an imperceptible little change, and one can pass from a more or less mechanical, more or less efficient and real japa, to the true japa full of power and light. I even wondered if this difference is what the tantrics call the power of the japa. For example, the o ther day I was down with a cold. Each time I opened my mouth, there was a spasm in the throat and I coughed and coughed. then a fever came. So I looked, I saw where it was coming from, and I decided that it had to stop. I got up to do my japa as usual, and I started walking back and forth in my room. I had to apply a certain will. Of course, I could do my japa in trance, I could walk in trance while repeating the japa, because then you feel nothing, none of all the bodys drawbacks. But the work has to be done in the body! So I got up and started doing my japa. then, with each word pronounced the Light, the full Power. A power that heals everything. I began the japa tired, ill, and I came out of it refreshed, rested, cured. So those who tell me they come out of it exhausted, contracted, emptied, it means that they are not doing it in the true way.
I understand why certain tantrics advise saying the japa in the heart center. When one applies a certain enthusiasm, when each word is said with a warmth of aspiration, then everything changes. I could feel this difference in myself, in my own japa.
In fact, when I walk back and forth in my room, I dont cut myself off from the rest of the worldalthough it would be so much more convenient! All kinds of things come to mesuggestions, wills, aspirations. But automatically I make a movement of offering: things come to me and just as they are about to touch my head, I turn them upwards and offer them to the Light. they dont enter into me. For example, if someone speaks to me while I am saying my japa, I hear quite well what is being said, I may even answer, but the words remain a little outside, at a certain distance from the head. And yet sometimes, there are things that insist, more defined wills that present themselves to me, so then I have to do a little work, but all that without a pause in the japa. If that happens, there is sometimes a change in the quality of my japa, and instead of being fully the power, fully the light, it is certainly something that produces results, but results more or less sure, more or less long to fructify; it becomes uncertain, as with all things of this physical world. Yet the difference between the two japas is imperceptible; its not a difference between saying the japa in a more or less mechanical way and saying it consciously, because even while I work I remain fully conscious of the japa I continue to repeat it putting the full meaning into each syllable. But never theless, there is a difference. One is the all-powerful japa; the o ther, an almost ordinary japa there is a difference in the inner attitude. Perhaps for the japa to become true, a kind of joy, an elation, a warmth of enthusiasm has to be added but especially joy. then everything changes.
Well, it is the same thing, the same imperceptible difference, when it comes to entering the world of Truth. On one side there is the falsehood, and on the o ther, close by, like the lining of this one, the true life. Only a little difference in the inner quality, a little reversal, is enough to pass to the o ther side, into the Truth and Light.
Perhaps simply to add joy would suffice.
--
This o ther world you speak of, this world of Truth, is it the supramental world?
My feeling is that this life which Sri Aurobindo is living right now is not the full satisfaction of the supramental life for him.
In this o ther world, there was infinity, majesty, perfect calm, eternityall was there.
Perhaps it was joy that was missing.
Of course, Sri Aurobindo himself had joy. But I had the impression that it was not total and that this is why I had to continue the work. I felt that it could only be total when things here have changed.
See July 24-25.
0 1959-10-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
1) X spoke to me again of the war without my asking anything. He repeated, there will be war, and he again spoke of an attack on India by China
2) X spoke to me of the Ashrams financial difficulties and said I shall tell you the secret why there are such difficulties. I think he is going to speak to me today or tomorrow. In any case, he told me that he was working (I am preparing) to change these conditions, and he asked me if there had been any improvement as yet. I replied that I did not believe the situation had changed very much. He spoke as well of certain people in the Ashram, but I will tell you about this in person. He had a ra ther amusing way of speaking about people, people who pretend to worship the Mo ther but who keep their mind as a dustbin!
7) X wants to send me back to Pondicherry this Sunday (Sunday the 18th, arriving Monday the 19th morning). He says it is useless for me now to remain here any longer since his house is not ready and he can do nothing. But, he said, I will have you come to my house for 3 months and I shall give you a training by which you can know Past, Present and Future, and have the same qualifications as me!
8) He gave me certain methods to follow, about which I shall speak to you in person.
Sweet Mo ther, I have such a yearning for everything in my consciousness to harmonize and for the tantric discipline, the japa, etc., not to separate me from you. I want to be your child, open to you, without any contradictions. I would like so much to find your almost physical Presence within me again, as before. May all be clear, pure, one.
I would wish to be like Sujata, completely transparent, your child with her at your feet. Mo ther, 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 ano ther change. Oh, Mo ther! may the painful road be over, and may all be achieved in the joy of your Will.
Your child,
0 1959-11-25, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
there is a difference between immortality and the deathless state. Sri Aurobindo has described it very well in Savitri.
the deathless state is what can be envisaged for the human physical body in the future: it is constant rebirth. Instead of again tumbling backwards and falling apart due to a lack of plasticity and an incapacity to adapt to the universal movement, the body is undone futurewards, as it were.
there is one element that remains fixed: for each type of atom, the inner organization of the elements is different, which is what creates the difference in their substance. So perhaps similarly, each individual has a different, particular way of organizing the cells of his body, and it is this particular way that persists through all the outer changes. All the rest is undone and redone, but undone in a forward thrust towards the new instead of collapsing backwards into death, and redone in a constant aspiration to follow the progressive movement of the divine Truth.
But for that, the body the body-consciousness must first learn to widen itself. It is indispensable, for o therwise all the cells become a kind of boiling porridge under the pressure of the supramental light.
What usually happens is that when the body reaches its maximum intensity of aspiration or of ecstasy of Love, it is unable to contain it. It becomes flat, motionless. It falls back. Things settle downyou are enriched with a new vibration, but then everything resumes its course. So you must widen yourself in order to learn to bear unflinchingly the intensities of the supramental force, to go forward always, always with the ascending movement of the divine Truth, without falling backwards into the decrepitude of the body.
That is what Sri Aurobindo means when he speaks of an intolerable ecstasy1; it is not an intolerable ecstasy: it is an unflinching ecstasy.
0 1960-01-28, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
All these repetitions of the mantra, these hours of japa I have to do every day, seem to have increased the difficulties, as if they were raising up or aggravating all the resistances.
To the most stubborn goes the victory.
When I started my japa one year ago, I had to struggle with every possible difficulty, every contradiction, prejudice and opposition that fills the air. And even when this poor body began walking back and forth for japa, it used to knock against things, it would start breathing all wrong, coughing; it was attacked from all sides until the day I caught the Enemy and said, Listen carefully. You can do whatever you want, but Im going right to the end and nothing will stop me, even if I have to repeat this mantra ten crore1 times. the result was really miraculous, like a cloud of bats flying up into the light all at once. From that moment on, things started going better.
You have no idea what an irresistible effect a well-determined will can have.
Some difficulties remained, of course, but they stemmed more from what had to change within.
Actually, difficulties come from very small things; they may seem quite commonplace, totally uninteresting, but they block the way. they come for no earthly reasonsome detail, a word that comes rubbing against a sensitive spot, an illness in someone close to me, anything at all, and suddenly something in me contracts. then all the work has to be started afresh as though nothing had been done.
Of all forms of ego, you might think that the physical ego is the most difficult to conquer (or ra ther, the body ego, because the work was already done long ago on the physical ego). It might be thought that the form of the body is a point of concentration, and that without this concentration or hardness, physical life would not be possible. But thats not true. the body is really a wonderful instrument; its capable of widening and of becoming vast in such a way that everything, everything the slightest gesture, the least little taskis done in a wonderful harmony and with a remarkable plasticity. then all of a sudden, for something quite stupid, a draft, a mere nothing, it forgetsit shrinks back into itself, it gets afraid of disappearing, afraid of not being. And everything has to be started again from scratch. So in the yoga of matter you start realizing how much endurance is needed. I calculated it would take 200 years to say ten crore of my japa. Well, Im ready to struggle 200 years if necessary, but the work will be done.
Sri Aurobindo had made it clear to me when I was still in France that this yoga in matter is the most difficult of all. For the o ther yogas, the paths have been well laid, you know where to tread, how to proceed, what to do in such-and-such a case. But for the yoga of matter, nothing has ever been done, never, so at each moment everything has to be invented.
Of course, things are now going better, especially since Sri Aurobindo became established in the subtle physical, an almost material subtle physical.2 But there are still plenty of question marks the body understands once, and then it forgets. the Enemys opposition is nothing, for I can see clearly that it comes from outside and that its hostile, so I do whats necessary. But where the difficulty lies is in all the small things of daily material lifesuddenly the body no longer understands, it forgets.
Yet its HAPPY. It loves doing the work, it lives only for thatto change, to transform itself is its reason for being. And its such a docile instrument, so full of good will! Once it even started wailing like a baby: O Lord, give me the time, the time to be transformed It has such a simple fervor for the work, but it needs timetime, thats it. It wants to live only to conquer, to win the Lords Victory.3
One crore = 10 million.
--
'It wants to live only to conquer.' then the next day, Mo ther sent the following note to the disciple: 'Friday, 1.29.60yesterday, when I left you, the experience was there, but in my hurry to leave, the words did not come correctly, or ra ther they were incomplete (I had said, 'to live only to conquer'). What my body was experiencing was, 'Live to win the Lord's Victory.'
***
Prayers of the Consciousness of the Cells
0 1960-01-31, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Letter from Mo ther to the disciple concerning her former commentaries on the 'Dhammapada' at the Playground)
When I began the readings from the Dhammapada, I had hoped that my listeners would take enough interest in the practical spiritual side for me to read only one verse at a time. But quite quickly, I saw they found this very boring and were making no effort to benefit from the meditation. the only solution then was to treat the matter as an intellectual study, which is why I started reading chapter by chapter.
***
0 1960-03-03, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Experiences are coming at a furious pacefabulous experiences. If I were to speak now, its certain that I would not at all speak as I used to. Thats why we must date all these Questions and Answers, at least all which come before the [Supramental] Manifestation of February 1956, so that there will be a clear cut between those before and those after.
Only a few days ago, on the morning of the 29th, I had one of those experiences that mark ones life. It happened upstairs in my room. I was doing my japa, walking up and down with my eyes wide open, when suddenly Krishna camea gold Krishna, all golden, in a golden light that filled the whole room. I was walking, but I could not even see the windows or the rug any longer, for this golden light was everywhere with Krishna at its center. And it must have lasted at least fifteen minutes. He was dressed in those same clo thes in which he is normally portrayed when he dances. He was all light, all dancing: You see, I will be there this evening during the Darshan.1 And suddenly, the chair I use for darshan came into the room! Krishna climbed up onto it, and his eyes twinkled mischievously, as if to say, I will be there, you see, and therell be no room for you.
When I came down that evening for distribution,2 at first I was annoyed. I had said that I didnt want anybody in the hall, precisely because I wanted to establish an atmosphere of concentration, the immobility of the Spirit but there were at least thirty people in there, those who had decorated the hall, thirty of them stirring, stirring about, a mass of little vibrations. And before I could even say scat I had hardly taken my seatsomeone put the tray of medals on my lap and they started filing past.
But what is surprising is that in a flash, no one was there any longer. No one, you understand I was gone. Perhaps I was everywhere (but in fact I am always everywhere, I am always conscious of being everywhere at the same time), though normally there is the sense of the body, a physical center, but that evening there was no more center! Nothing, no one, not even the sense that there was no onenothing. I was gone. there was indeed something handing out the medals which felt the joy of giving the medal, the joy of receiving it, the joy of mutually looking at each o ther. It was simply the joy of the action taking place, the joy of looking, this joy everywhere, but me?Nothing, no one, gone. Only later, afterwards, did I see what had happened, for everything had disappeared, even the higher mind that understands and organizes things (by understand I mean contain, which contains things). That also was gone. And this lasted the entire distribution. Only when that [ the body] had gone back upstairs to the room did the consciousness of what is me return.
there is a line by Sri Aurobindo in Savitri which expresses this very well: to annul oneself so that only the Supreme Lord may be.
And there are many, many experiences like this. It is only a small, a very small beginning. This one in particular came to mark the new stage: four years have elapsed, and now four years to come. Because everything has focused on this body to prepare it, everything has concentrated on itNature, the Master of the Yoga, the Supreme, everything So only when its over, not before, will it really be interesting to speak of all this. But maybe it will never be over, after all. Its a small beginning, very small.
the Darshan on February 29, 1960, the first anniversary of the Supramental Manifestation.
On this first anniversary of the Supramental Manifestation, Mo ther distributed medals commemorating the occasion to the disciples filing past.
***
0 1960-03-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Here is the letter from the publisher. All comes from you, all is yours.
May I always serve you.
--
Publisher and friend are here one in telling you that LOrpailleur is a beautiful book whose richness and force have struck me even more this time than before when I read the first version. I cannot tell you how much your Job is my bro therin his darkness as in his light. the joy, the wild, irrepressible joy that furtively yearns and at times bursts forth, embracing all, this joy at the heart of the book burns the reader for a few, in any case, who are prepared to be inflamed. In the end, I cant say if LOrpailleur will or will not be noticed, if the critics will or will not bestow an article, a comment, an echo upon it, if bookstores will or will not sell it (poor orpailleur!). But what I know is that for a few readers2, 3, 10 perhapsyour book will be the cry that will rip them from their sleep forever. To your song, ano ther song in themselves will respond. Where, how shall this concert finish? Who knowsanything is possible!
My words are a bit disjointed but Im not in the mood to give an articulate discourse. Which is a way of saying, once again, how happy I amand grateful.
With my warmest regards,
0 1960-04-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
A few lines to tell you that I miss you. I truly realize more and more that I shall never be happy until I have disappeared in you entirely. there must be nothing left but That. I understand well enough, but Im so blocked, so thick. In any case, I think of you a lot and I really only live by this something that pulls me deep within. If that were not there, it would all be so absurd.
Ive booked my ticket to Rameswaram for the evening of the 13th, so I will probably reach there on the 15th.
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 Mo ther. You are truly my Mo ther, and I need you so much.
--
Things are better physically. But its always a terrible physical shock for me to take the train.
***
--
Your good letter of the 7th has arrived.
This inner fusion you speak of as a truth to be realized is already accomplished, absolutely perceptible to me. For long I have felt you as an integral part of my being; it seems to me that only some surface eddies prevent you also from feeling and living it.
0 1960-04-13, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
My friend here gave me the book Templier et Alchimiste [Templar and Alchemist] to read; its published by the group he is going to join in France. they too speak of the transmutation of matter and proclaim the end of homo sapiens and the birth of the superman.
I long to be with you and work on the book on Sri Aurobindo I want to put all my soul into it and, with your grace, create something inflaming.
Sweet Mo ther, I am your child. I want to belong to you more and more completely.
--
You spoke of the book on Sri Aurobindo; I too am happy that we shall do this work toge ther.
Yesterday was distribution. I am putting six handkerchiefs in this envelope for you and to give to o thers if you wish. I am also enclosing the April 24 message.
Always with you, in love and joy.
0 1960-04-14, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
the following passage, taken from the Revue des Deux Mondes of March 1960, was part of a course taught by Dimitri Manowilski in 1931 at the Lenin School of Political Warfare in Moscow:
Our turn will come in twenty to thirty years. To win, we need an element of surprise. the bourgeoisie should be lulled to sleep. therefore, we must first launch the most spectacular peace movement that has ever existed, replete with inspiring proposals and extraordinary concessions. the stupid and decadent capitalist countries will cooperate joyfully in their own destruction. they will jump at this new opportunity for friendship. As soon as their guard is down, we shall crush them beneath our closed fist.
(Quoted in the Revue Militaire d Information, December 1959.)
What does Mo ther think of this?
--
I read Mo ther the extract from the Revue des Deux Mondes. This was her comment:
It is quite possible that this is their original intention, I am aware of it. But they are wrong if they think it will turn out like that We shall see!
Love,
0 1960-04-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I was pained and shocked upon reaching Xs place to see him in such a horrible housea train station in miniature (and not as nice) with little pastries in garish yellow cement. Cement everywhere they even cemented the patio and uprooted the beautiful tree that was there. O Mo ther, its vandalism, its barbaric! You cannot imagine! Really, M has committed a terrible sin.
To compensate for that, however, I had the joy of finding your two letters. Yes, for some time I have been feeling your physical Presence more clearly. But then, why am I so blocked, where is the flaw? It constantly feels as though I am living at the outskirts of myself, or more precisely in a miniscule region of myself, and Im unable to be conscious of the resta perpetual amnesic. It is unpleasant and quite stupid. What is it that will explode this shell?
I am anxious to return to you.
0 1960-04-26, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
there are days when everything is so simple, when I see and feel that all one needs is to let oneself be carried and everything is light. I have really to be done with this me.
It will be a joy to be with you again and resume the work. Here, I am sparing as many hours as I can to correcting the Human Cycle I follow X perfectly in his inner life, unreservedly, but I have to force myself to follow him in his outer life.
Mo ther, I am at your feet, with my love and my gratitude.
0 1960-05-06, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
At times I sense theres an extraordinary secret to discover, just there at my finger tips; I feel that I am going to catch the Thing, to know
Sometimes, for a second, I see the Secret; there is an opening, and again it closes. then once again it is unveiled for a second and I come to know a little more. Yesterday the Secret was there completely clear, wide open. But its not something that can be explained: words are silly, it must be experienced.
Sri Aurobindo speaks of this Secret almost everywhere, especially in his Essays on the Gita. He tells us that in the Gita itself one gets glimpses of this thing which is beyond the Impersonal, beyond even the Personal behind the Impersonal, beyond the Transcendent.
Well, I saw this Secret I saw that the Supreme only becomes perfect in terrestrial matter, on earth.
Becomes is just a way of speaking, of course, for everything already is, and the Supreme is what He is. But we live in time, in a successive unfoldment, and it would be absurd to say that at present Matter is the expression of a perfect Divine.
I saw this Secret (which is getting more and more perceptible as the Supramental becomes clear), I saw it in the everyday, outer life, precisely in this very physical life which all spirituality rejects a kind of accuracy or exactitude right down to the atom.
I am not saying that the Divine becomes perfect in Matter the Divine is already there but that the SUPREME becomes perfect in Matter.
***
0 1960-05-16, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
If there is one fundamental necessity, it is humility. To be humble. Not humble as it is normally understood, such as merely saying, I am so small, Im nothing at allno, something else Because the pitfalls are innumerable, and the fur ther you progress in yoga, the more subtle they become, and the more the ego masks itself behind marvelous and saintly appearances. So when somebody says, I no longer want to rely on anything but Him. I want to close my eyes and rest in Him alone, this comfortable Him, which is exactly what you want him to be, is the egoor a formidable Asura, or a Titan (depending on each ones capacity). theyre all over the earth, the earth is their domain. So the first thing to do is to pocket your egonot preserve it, but get rid of it as soon as possible!
You can be sure that the God youve created is a God of the ego whenever something within you insists, This is what I feel, this is what I think, this is what I see; its my way, my very ownits my way of being, my way of understanding, my relationship with the Divine, etc.
And then they say, I want to close my eyes and see nothing but Him I want nothing more of the outer world. And they forget theres Love! That is the great Secret, that which is behind the Existent and the Non-Existent, the Personal and the ImpersonalLove. Not a love between two things, two beings A love containing everything.
In the early part of the century, I wrote Prayers and Meditations, and I too spoke of Him; but I wrote that with all my aspiration, all my sincerity (at least with all the sincerity of the conscious parts of my being) and I locked it up in a drawer so that no one would see it. It was Sri Aurobindo who later asked me to publish it, for it could be useful If I knew then, fifty years ago, what I know now, I would have been crushed! All this shame, all this unworthiness
After all, its good to know gradually, good to have some illusionsnot for the sake of illusions but as a necessary step along the way.
Everything comes at the right moment.
And what is wonderful is that at each moment the Grace, the Joy, the Light, the Love never cease pouring down in the very midst of all thisdespite the ego, despite the shame, despite the unworthiness. To be humble
***
--
I was sick two days ago with a cold and fever. I know whya point to be transformed. the body may have put too much zeal into it, so it teetered a little. But thanks to that, I had an interesting experience. X 1 had put his force on me to speed up the healing. And of course, according to each ones nature, the force gets colored, so to speakit clo thes itself in a different color. In me, this was translated by a new physical experience which lasted from 4 in the morning till 6:30, when I had to start speaking with people and deal with outer things. It was a kind of eternity, a kind of absolute PHYSICAL immobility which contained no possibility of illness within itas a matter of fact, nothing remained in this immobility, it was a sort of nirvana. But it did not keep me from going through all my usual motions of getting dressed.
I spent the whole day yesterday trying to understand this experience.
And in that kind of physical eternity (which lasted two and a half hoursits a long time for an experience), I was aware of something missing, something not there: the joy of the consciousness. Because throughout my life I have developed the habit of being conscious of everything, always, at each second. And the joy of the consciousness was not there. So I thanked the Grace that made me see that this kind of nirvana was quite simply physical tamas.2
(silence)
X has the power of rendering things very material thats his great power, which is why things get upset when he comes here. Overnight, someone progressing well comes to grips with difficulties; money on the way stops coming; you fall sick, things break downall because he has the power to give materiality to things from above. For, you see, you can go right to the height of your consciousness and from there sweep away the difficulties (at a certain moment of the sadhana, difficulties truly dont exist, its only a matter of nabbing the undesirable vibration and its over, its reduced to dust). And everything is fine up above, but down below its swarming. When X comes, its precisely all this swarming that becomes tangible.
the mastery must be a TRUE mastery, a very humble and austere mastery which starts from the very bottom and, step by step, establishes control. As a matter of fact, it is a battle against small, really tiny things: habits of being, ways of thinking, feeling and reacting.
When this mastery at the very bottom combines with the consciousness at the very top, then you can really begin doing some worknot only work on yourself but also the work for all.
the tantric guru.
Tamas: inertia. Later, Mo ther would discover that this is not tamas but something else.
0 1960-05-21 - true purity - you have to be the Divine to overcome hostile forces, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
object:0_1960-05-21 - true purity - you have to be the Divine to overcome hostile forces
author class: the Mo ther
--
What I call purity, the true purity, is not all those things morality teaches: it is non-ego.
there must be nothing but Him.
Him, not only because we have given Him everything and consecrated ourselves totally to Him (that is not enough), but Him because He has taken total possession of the human instrument.
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 o ther 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.
***
When X is here, I get the impression that things are going backwards instead of forwards. But once hes left, I suddenly leap ahead. And then I perceive that the progress is a real progress, that things won have really been won and they dont come undone again. That is Xs true power, a very material power. For I often feel that things could come into being, they could be realized in the consciousness above (and the vision is there, the Power is there, I have it the invisible power over the earth). But when you come down to the material plane, everything is uncertain. Whereas with X, once things have come down, they no longer dissipate. This is certainly why the Supreme put him on my path.
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.
Well, I tried hard but I couldnt really find the way. At times, I almost seemed to have it, a mere nothing would have been enough; it was just a matter of getting the knack (and at heart, this is what Power is all aboutto get the knack, to suddenly seize upon the means, the right vibration, what in India is called siddhi). Well, after his departure, all of a sudden it came. It happened while I was doing my japa, while I was walking up and down my room As if I were holding all that in my armsit was so concrete and lifting it up towards the Light, along with this ascending OM, rising from the very depths, OM!and I was carrying all these people, and it was spreading forth, PHYSICALLY spreading, and I was carrying the earth, I was carrying the whole universe, but in such a tangible, concrete wayall towards the Supreme Lord.
And this was not the invisible power: it was concrete, it was tangible, it was MATERIAL.
Pralaya: apocalypse, end of a world.
Formations, in occult language, refer to all the psychological movements and impulses, conscious or unconscious, constantly emanating from the disciples and o thers, and which leave an imprint in the subtle atmosphere or a wandering entity seeking to fulfill itself.
***
0 1960-05-24 - supramental flood, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
It happened last night. For approximately three hours, the physical ego disintegrated for the first time in such a total way.
Nothing remained but the Force, nothing remained but Sat-Chit-Ananda,1 and not only in the consciousness but in the physical sensation the divine Satchidananda spreading in a constant flood throughout the universe.
these experiences are always absolute, as long as they last; then, through certain signs that I know (I am accustomed to it), I notice that the body consciousness begins closing up again. Or ra ther, somethingevidently a Supreme Wisdomdecides its sufficient for this time and that the body has had enough. It ought not to break, which is why certain precautions are taken. So this comes in several little stages that I know quite well. the final one is always a bit unpleasant because my body gets into ra ther peculiar positions as a result of the work. As its only a sort of machine, towards the end I have some difficulty straightening my knees, for example, or opening my fingers I think they even make a noise, like something forced into one position whose life has become purely spontaneous and mechanical. there are plenty of people like that, plenty, who enter into trance and then can no longer get out by themselves; they get themselves into a certain position and someone has to free them. This has never happened to me; I have always managed to extricate myself. But yesterday evening, the experience lasted a very long time. there was even a little cracking at the end, as when people have rheumatism.
And during all this time, approximately three hours, the consciousness was completely, completely different. It was here, however; it was not outside the earth, it was on earth, but it was completely differenteven the body consciousness was different. And what remained was very mechanical; it was a body, but it could just as well have been anything. All this power of consciousness that for more than seventy years Ive gradually pushed into each of the bodys cells so that each cell could become conscious (and it goes on constantly, constantly), all this seemed to have withdrawn there only remained one almost lifeless thing. However, I could raise myself up from my bed and even drink a glass of water, but it was all so bizarre. And when I went back to bed, it took nearly forty-five minutes for the body to regain its normal state. Only after I had entered into ano ther type of samadhi2 and again come out of it did my consciousness fully return. It is the first time I have had an experience of this kind.
During those three hours, there was nothing but the Supreme manifesting through the eternal Mo ther.
But there was no consciousness of being Mo ther, nei ther eternal nor whatever: it was a continuous and all-powerful flood, and so extraordinarily varied, of the Lord manifesting Himself.
It was as vast as the universe, a continuous movement the movement of manifestation of something which was EVERYTHING at once, a single whole. there was no division. And such a variety of colors, vibrations, powersextraordinary! It was one single thing, and everything was within it.
the three Supreme Principles were very clearly there: Existence, Consciousness (an active, realizing consciousness) and Ananda. A universal vastness that kept going on and on and on
It moves and it doesnt move. How can you explain that? It was in motion, a constant, unceasing motion, and yet there was no shifting of place. I had the perception, or ra ther there was the perception, of something which WAS forever, which never repeated itself, nei ther began nor ended, which didnt shift places yet was always in motion.
Words cannot express it. No translation, none, not even the most subtle mental translation can express this. It was Even now the memory I have of it is inexpressible. You have to be in it to feel it, o therwise
However, to the consciousness it was very, very clear. It was nei ther mysterious nor incomprehensible, it was absolutely obviousthough untranslatable to our mental consciousness. For they were contradictory, yet they existed simultaneously, indistinguishable: they were not stacked one upon ano therit was all simultaneous. How can you explain that?! Its too difficult. It must be experienced.
You see, when something goes beyond thought, a sort of conception of it, or superconception ra ther, remains behind. But in this case, in my experience, there was no question of thoughtit was a question of physical sensation. It was not beyond thought, it was beyond sensation. I was LIVING this thing. And there was no more I. there was nothing but this thing, and yet there was a sensation. I cant explain it!
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.
And all this was absolutely egoless, without any personal reaction, nothing; there was nothing but the consciousness of the Supreme Action. It was the only thing existing.
And of course, the whole ordinary and higher mind (as well as the physical mind, it goes without saying, for that must be abolished before going into trance), everything here in the head, above the head, around the headabsolutely immobile.
After all that, towards the end of the night, at two in the morning, only a kind of faint suggestion was left: How can this statewhich I knew in trance, in samadhi, and which necessitates lying downbecome constant in a physical body which moves about? there is something to discover there. And what form will it take? For in my consciousness, you see, it is constantly like that, this universal flood, but the problem is IN the BODY: its the problem of the Force in its most material form.
And during the time my experience lasted, I had no feeling of anything exceptional, but ra ther simply the fact that after all its preparation, the body consciousness was ready for a total identification with Thatin my consciousness its always the same, a perpetual, constant and eternal state in that it never leaves me. Its like that, and it never varies. What diminishes the immensity of the Vibration are the limitations of the material consciousness which can color it and even sometimes change it by giving it a personal appearance. Thus, when I see someone and speak to him, for example, when my eyes concentrate on the person, I have almost the sensation of this flood flowing from me towards the person or of it passing through me to go onto the person. there is an awareness of the eyes, the body. And it is this which limits or even changes a little the immensity of the thing But already this feeling has almost disappeared; this immensity seems to be acting almost constantly. there are moments when I am less interiorized, when I am more on the surface, and it feels like its passing through a bodymoments when the body consciousness comes back a little. And this is what diminishes the thing.
This experience last night also enabled me to understand what X had felt during one of our meditations. He had explained his experience by way of saying that I was this mystic tree whose roots plunge into the Supreme and whose branches spread forth over the world,3 and he said that one of these branches had entered into himand it had been a unique experience. He had said, this is the Mo ther.
And now I understand that what he had seen and translated by this Vedic image was that kind of perpetual flood.
And you see, this experience he had, this contact between him and me, is just a point, a drop, its nothing; its merely something the consciousness puts into words, but the THING itself is universal. Last night it was universal; there was no room, no bed, no door and it was concrete, concrete, so concrete, with such a splendor! there was all the Joythis perpetual downpour in a limitless splendor.
I was reluctant to speak (because of this problem that remains hanging: to make it permanent, even in the active consciousness), and I said to myself that if I speak, it will create difficulties for me in finding the solution But its all right. I shall simply have to make a still greater effort, because something always evaporates when you speak.
Sat-Chit-Ananda: the three Supreme Principles, Existence (Sat), Consciousness (Chit), and Bliss (Ananda).
Samadhi: trance.
the Ashwatha Tree
Katha Upanishad, II, iii, 1.
0 1960-05-28 - death of K - the death process- the subtle physical, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
object:0_1960-05-28 - death of K - the death process- the subtle physical
author class: the Mo ther
--
K left his body. the operation had been extraordinarily, almost miraculously successfulone of those dreadful operations where they extract part of your body. He was quite all right for four days afterwards, then everything went wrong.
During the operation and just afterwards, I had simply put the Force on him, as I always do in such cases, so that everything would turn out for the best. then a few days ago, during my japa, a kind of order camea very clear orderto concentrate on him so that he would be conscious of his soul and able to leave under the best conditions. And I saw that the concentration worked wonderfully: it seems that during his last days he was ceaselessly repeating Ma-Ma-Ma1even while he was in a semi-coma.
And the concentration grew stronger and stronger. the day before yesterday it became very, very powerful, and yesterday morning, around half past noon, it pulled me inward; he came to me in a kind of sleep, a conscious sleep, and I even said almost aloud, Oh, K!
It lasted fifteen minutes; I was completely within, inside, as if to receive him.
But there is something interesting: when I went down at 2 p.m., I found the family had come to inform me that they had been notified by telephone that he had died at 11:45 a.m. Myself, I saw him come at 12:30.
So you see, the outer signs Its not the first time Ive noticed this the doctors observe all the outer signs, then they declare you dead, but youre still in your body!
In o ther words, he was still in his body.
So its probably during this period that people are resuscitated, as they say. It must be during this period, for they have not left their bodies, they are not really dead, though the heart may give every appearance of having stopped. So K left his body at around half past noon, and officially it was at 11:45. Forty-five minutes later, in o ther words.
And it takes place very gently, very gently (when its done right), very gently, very gently, smoothly, without any shock.
So this morning theyre burning him.
When theyre in too much of a hurry to burn them, sometimes they burn them alive! they should wait.
For theres a consciousness of the form, a life of the form. theres a consciousness, a consciousness in the form assumed by the cells. That takes SEVEN DAYS to come out. So sometimes the body makes abrupt movements when burnedpeople say its mechanical. Its not mechanical, I know its not.
I know it. I know that this consciousness of the form exists since I have actually gone out of it. Once, long back, I was in a so-called cataleptic state, and after awhile, while still in this state, the body began living again2; that is, it was capable of speaking and even moving (it was theon who gave me this training). the body managed to get up and move. And yet, everything had gone out of it!
Once everything had gone out, it naturally became cold, but the body consciousness manages to draw a little energy from the air, from this or that And I spoke in that state. I spoke I spoke very well, and besides, I recounted all I was seeing elsewhere.
So I dont like this habit of burning people very much.
I think they do it here (apart from entirely sanitary considerations in the case of people who have died from nasty diseases), here in India, mainly because they are very afraid of all these little entities that come from desires, impulsesthings which are dispersed in the air and which make ghosts and all kinds of things. All desires, all attachments, all those things are like pieces that break off (each one goes its own way, you see), then these pieces gain strength in the surrounding atmosphere, and when they can fasten on to someone, they vampirize him. then they keep on trying to satisfy their desires.
the world, the terrestrial atmosphere, is full of filth.
And people here are much more sensitive than in Europe because they are much more interiorized, so they are conscious of all these little entities, and naturally theyre afraid. And the more afraid they are, the more theyre vampirized!
I think that many of these entities are dispersed by fire that creates havoc.
I know one person, a boy who died here, who was burned before he had left! He had a weak heart, and not enough care was taken that is, they probably should not have operated on him. He was our engineer. He died in the hospital. Not a serious operation, an appendicitis, but his heart could not take up its natural movement.
But as he was accustomed to going out of his body, he didnt know! He even used to make experimentshe would go out, circle around in his room, see his body from outside, observe the difference between the subtle physical and the material physical, etc. So he didnt know. And its only when they burned his body
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.
And whenever we used to have meetings to decide on the construction of something or on repairs to be made, for example, I always felt him there and he influenced those who were present.
He wanted to live again; I managed to give him the opportunity. He was very conscious; the child isnt yet so.
But people are such fools, they are so ignorant!
Ma: Mo ther, in the languages of India.
It was at Tlemcen, in Algeria. While Mo ther was in trance, theon caused the thread which linked Mo ther to her body to break through a movement of anger. He was angry because Mo ther, who was in a region where she saw the 'mantra of life,' refused to tell him the mantra. Faced with the enormity of the result of his anger theon got hold of himself, and it took all Mo ther's force and all theon's occult science to get Mo ther back into her bodywhich created a kind of very painful friction at the moment of re-entry, perhaps the type of friction that makes new born children cry out.
***
0 1960-06-03, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Im a bit discouraged. Every night I slip into a black abyss from which I wake up in the morning drained. Not one second of conscious sleep. It takes me an hour to recuperate from my sleep. In fact, I am constantly on edge and the least thing exhausts my body.
But thats nothing. I would bear all the exhaustion quite willingly if there were at least a touch of something conscious. But nothing, as if I were as thick as a Paris concierge!
Mo ther, there is hardly an instant of my conscious life that I am not aspiring for more consciousness but theres still this abyss I slip into at night, as if nothing existed!
Pardon my grumblings. If only at least I knew what I could do to change all this.
--
the best rest is to enter into the inner silence for a few moments.
Blessings.
0 1960-06-04, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
If you wake up tired in the morning, it is due to tamas, nothing elsea dreadful mass of tamas. I became aware of this when I started doing the yoga of the body. And its inevitable as long as the body is not transformed.
Myself, I go to bed very early, at eight oclock. Its still quite noisy everywhere, but I dont mind; at least Im sure of no longer being disturbed. First you must stretch out flat and relax all your muscles, all your nervesyou can learn this easilybecome like a dishrag on the bed, as I call it; there should be nothing left. And if you can also do that with the mind, you get rid of a lot of idiotic dreams that make you more tired when you wake up than when you went to bed; they are the result of the cellular activity of the brain going on uncontrollably, which is very tiring. therefore, relax fully, bring everything to a complete, tensionless calm in which everything has stopped. But this is only the beginning.
Once Im relaxed, I have developed the habit of repeating my mantra. But its very strange with these mantras I dont know how it is for o thers; Im speaking of my own mantra, the one I myself foundit came spontaneously. Depending on the occasion, the time, depending on what I might call the purpose for repeating it, it has quite different results. For example, I use it to establish the contact while walking back and forth in my roommy mantra is a mantra of evocation; I evoke the Supreme and establish the contact with the body.
This is the main reason for my japa. theres a power in the sound itself, and by forcing the body to repeat the sound, you force it to receive the vibration at the same time. But Ive noticed that if something in the bodys working gets disturbed (a pain or disorder, the onset of some illness) and I repeat my mantra in a certain waystill the same words, the same mantra, but said with a certain purpose and above all in a movement of surrender, surrender of the pain, the disorder, and a call, like an openingit has a marvelous effect. the mantra acts in just the right way, in this way and in no o ther. And after a while everything is put back in order. And simultaneously, of course, the precise knowledge of what lies behind the disorder and what I must do to set it right comes to me. But quite apart from this, the mantra acts directly upon the pain itself.
I also use my mantra to go into trance. After relaxing on the bed and making as total a self-offering as possible of everything, from top to bottom, and after removing as fully as possible all resistance of the ego, I start repeating the mantra.1 After repeating it two or three times, I am in trance (at the beginning it took longer). And from this trance I pass into sleep; the trance lasts as long as necessary and, quite naturally, spontaneously, I pass into sleep. And when I come back, I remember everything. the sleep was like a continuation of the trance. And essentially, the only reason for sleep is to allow the body to assimilate the results of the trance, then to allow these results to be accepted throughout and to let the body do its natural nights work of eliminating toxins. My periods of sleep practically dont exist sometimes they are as short as half an hour or 15 minutes. But in the beginning, I had long periods of sleep, one or even two hours in succession. And when I woke up, I did not feel this residue of heaviness which comes from sleep the effects of the trance continued.
It is even good for people whove never been in trance to repeat a mantra (or a word, a prayer) before going to sleep. But the words must have a life of their ownby this I dont mean an intellectual meaning, nothing of the kind, but ra ther a vibration. And this has an extraordinary effect on the body, it starts vibrating, vibrating, vibrating and so calm, you let yourself go, like falling off to sleep. And the body vibrates more and more, more and more, more and more, and you drift off.
Such is the cure for tamas.
Its tamas that gives you a bad sleep. there are two kinds of bad sleep that which makes you heavy and leaden, as if the result of all your effort the day before were wasted, and that which exhausts you, as if you had spent the whole time fighting. And Ive observed that if you cut your sleep up into sections (it becomes a habit), the nights get better. In o ther words, you must be able to come back to your normal consciousness and your normal aspiration at certain intervals, come back to the call of your consciousness But you must not use an alarm clock. When in trance, its not good to be jolted.
Just as you are drifting off, you can make a formation and say, I shall wake up at such-and-such time (children do it very easily).
You should count on at least three hours for the first part of your sleep; for the last part, one hour is enough. But the first should be a minimum of three hours. In fact, it is best to remain in bed for at least seven hours; with six, you dont have the time to do much (of course, Im speaking from the standpoint of sadhana, to make the nights useful).
But for years toge ther I only slept 2 hours a night in all. I mean that my night consisted of 2 hours. And I went straight to Sat-Chit-Ananda and then came back: 2 hours were spent like that. But the body was tired. That lasted more than five or six years while Sri Aurobindo was still in his body. And during the day, I was all the time going into trance for the least thing (it was trance, not sleep I was conscious). But I clearly saw that the body was affected, for it had no time to burn its toxins.2
there would be many interesting things to tell about sleep, because its one of the things Ive studied the mostto speak of how I became conscious of my nights, for instance. (I learned this with theon, and now that I know all these things of India, I realize that he knew a GREAT deal.) But it bo thers me a lot to say II this, I that. Id ra ther speak of these things in the form of a treatise or an essay on sleep, for example. Sri Aurobindo always spoke of his experiences but rarely did he say Iit always sounds like boasting.
Sri Aurobindo said that the true or yogic reason for sleep is to put the consciousness back into contact with Sat-Chit-Ananda (I used to do this without knowing it). For some people the contact is established immediately, while for o thers it takes eight, nine, ten hours to do it. But really, normally you should not wake up till the contact has been established, and thats why its very bad to wake up in an artificial way (with an alarm clock, for example), because then the night is wasted.
As for me, my night is now organized. I go to bed at 8 oclock and get up at 4, which makes for a very long night, and its sliced into three parts. And I get up punctually at 4 in the morning. But Im always awake ten or fifteen minutes beforehand, and I review all that has happened during the night, the dreams, the various activities, etc., so that when I get up, I am fully active.
To make use of your nights is an excellent thing, for it has a double effect: a negative effect, in that it keeps you from falling backwards, from losing what youve gained (that is really painful); and a positive effect, in that you progress, you continue progressing. You make use of your nights, so theres no more residue of fatigue.
there are two things to avoid: falling into a stupor of unconsciousness, with all those things coming up from the subconscious and the unconscious that invade and penetrate you, and a vital and mental hyperactivity in which you pass your time literally fightingterrible battles. People come out of that black and blue, as if they had been beaten and they have been, it is not as if! And I see only one way outto change the nature of sleep.
Mo ther added:
'Or any word that has a power for you, a word spontaneously springing from the heart, like a prayer which sums up your aspiration.'
Unfortunately, Mo ther had us cut many things from this text. We regret the fact.
***
0 1960-06-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
they brought these people to Prosperity to introduce them to me. You know, I had precisely the impression that they feed only on banknotes! (Mo ther laughs) It makes you gray, oh! And dry like dead wood.
they came to see their son (son, son-in-law, nephew anyway, its the same person) about some businesssome money matter. then one of them asked to see me. I thought they would simply send some womannot at all: the whole group, face to face and in a circle, and they began lecturing me on business! So I had some fun. Once they had their say ( they werent moving, they were planted there), I told them, Listen, since you are here, it must be for SOMETHING! And then I gave them a lecture. But just imagine, one of them was so shaken that he asked to see me again this morning. the one who was shaken wore a handsome pink turban.
So I said, All right, let him come.
there. Now, what do you have to say?
Me? I have come with some work To say?
--
You look a little You were frowning at me at the balcony! (Mo ther laughs) But
No, its about your nights.1
--
It feels like something I cant get across. Im getting nowhere, Im always turning in circles, the same groove
Yes.
--
Hmm! But life is like that. Physical life is like that for everyone. This feeling of it turning round and round and round and round and its the same for people, objects, countries, the whole world.
Something changes, of course, but its so phew! I mean, at the speed its going, it will take us millions of years to make any perceptible progress. We might just as well say its not moving.
these days Ive been feeling very clearly this thing that doesnt move.
But just now You see, when I am in contact with younot when were sitting toge ther, but at the balcony or at the meditation or at any time at allthis contact is very good, very good, very luminous and clear. I wrote you that, and its getting more and more tangible. But when were HERE toge ther, it feels as though it doesnt move Something is preventing it from taking place HERE. So when you spoke (it was when you made a face), I looked.
It gives me the impression of something like Yes, thats it, like a cavemanOh (Mo ther speaks mockingly), surely one of the cave artists or poets or writers! the intellectual life of the caves, I mean! But the cave happens to be low and when youre in it, you are like this (Mo ther stoops over), but the whole time you want to stand up straight. That makes you furious. Thats exactly the feeling it gives menot a cave meant for a man standing on his two feet; its a cave for a lion or for for any four-legged animal.
Its symbolic. Im speaking symbolically.
--
Ah, thats what it is! Your cave it IS like that, its really like that, I understand why you feel you have to blast it with dynamite! But if you go right to the endright to the end theres no more top to the cave, its wide open to the stars. I can see it. Go to the very end. Its very dark. Its very dark and not very enticing, and it feels as if it may still be worse but it wont be worse. Go right to the end, and suddenly youll be able to stand up straight.
(long silence)
--
But thats how it is; I feel it is so (How can I put it?) there are always at least two ways of doing things. I have a very strong feelingvery strong that you want me to take you by the hand and go toge ther
Do you have that idea or not?
--
No, on the contrary, I have difficulty
But my little one, its useless to see me physically!
--
Yes, but thats so much better! Much better. That is the very obstacle for most people: they want to see me as I am but as I am, as my body is, its stupid. Its absolutely stupid.
No, no thats not what I mean. Im speaking of the relationship I have with you, the true onewhat I was telling you about just a moment ago. Because, you see, Im going to tell you everything! (Mo ther laughs) I have the impression that it would go much faster if I could pick you up, put you here (Mo ther touches her heart), carry you here and tell you, Calm yourself, listen! But its not possible (alas). Youre always fast on your feet with your head touching this very low ceiling. Myself, I cant be like that. Im not even sure (laughing) if my feet would get in!
Anyway, my child, its not that Im not trying I am trying. And its not that you cantyou can. Thats the problem You know, its as if you were stubbornly trying to turn the key the wrong way in the lock.
I dont know. I suppose its the ego.
What do you mean, the ego?
the ego, the knot, I dont know. I dont know what movement to make.
(silence)
And just imagine! the o ther day, in the middle of the night, I suddenly found myself inside you. Ah, so thats what hes like, I said. I woke up in the middle of the night with that. And right away I said to myself, But (laughing) but why is he like that!? And this lasted perhaps one or two minutes, maybe more. I was I felt like kicking out in every direction in a kind of rage. And the next second, I thought, But why all this? My goodness, its so easy; the remedy is simply to do this and immediately (I did what I always do, you seeits how I am constantly), quite simply, I melted into the Supreme. Enough of all thisand the very next second, everything was all right.
So then I thought, This surely must have had some effect (on the disciple). What has happened? I am I was literally in peace.
And thats really how it was Hmm, maybe thats what its like for an infant shut up in his mo thers womb, so he kicks about in every direction and for a long time. Hes had enough of being shut in.
--
(Mo ther looks at the disciple)
Good.
--
the disciple is still complaining about his nights.
the disciple means in meditationto imagine Mo ther in her physical form or to use her physical form as an 'object' of meditation. In fact, he was very afraid of getting caught.
***
0 1960-06-11, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
When a question is put to me, the answer does not come from a will; what happens is that materials come which I then use to give shape to the answer, but its only a shape. the thing itself is there, but it needs to be shaped. the difference between one and the o ther is ra ther like the difference between a picture and an apparition.
Sometimes the Force comes direct. And it picks up words, any words at all, that makes no difference; the nature of the words changes, and they become expressive BECAUSE of the power entering into them. This happens when I look directly at the thing.
But when a question is put to me, it comes coated with all the mental atmosphere of whoever is asking the question. And this coating is often a mere reflectionmuch of the life has been removed.
the same thing occurs, there is the same difference, when I say something and when I see it (for example, when I look at one of those essential problems that will be solved only when the world changes). When I look at that in silence, there is a power of life and truthwhich evaporates when its put into words. It becomes diminished, impoverished and of course distorted. When you write or speak, the experience disintegrates, its inevitable.
We need a new language.
For instance, if I have a vision (not a vision with pictures, not that, but something without any form or sound or words or the THING itself, when I live the thing), and then later I speak of it to someone I have a very tangible feeling of having to pull something to make it visible, perceptible and communicable the splendor goes.
We need new organs of expression It will come.
0 1960-06-Undated, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Isnt this reason enough to be discouraged? In any case, these questions are stirring in meand the vital is not happy [nor the mental, nor the physical].
Excuse me if I speak too frankly.
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
object:0_1960-07-12 - Mo thers Vision - the Voice, the ashram a tiny part of myself, the Mo thers Force, sparkling white light compressed - enormous formation of negative vibrations - light in evil
author class: the Mo ther
--
Last night something happened to me that I found quite amusing. I was awakened by a Voice, or ra ther it roused me from one trance to put me into ano ther. It happened at about 11 oclock. Not a human Voice. I dont exactly recall its words any longer, but it had to do with the Ashramits protection, its success, its power. And what was interesting was that when I woke up, I was in a state in which this formation that is the Ashram and the Force that is condensed here to realize what this Voice wanted, seemed a very tiny, tiny part of myself.
I heard the Voice and awoke with the feeling of this Power, this Light, this Force of realization concentrated here which sets everything in motion (as always, it is always the same, a Power in motion). It was a dazzling white light. But then, what I found funny was that there I was, quite in my natural state, and this, the Ashram, was a tiny, tiny part of myself. And throughout the whole experience, it remained like thata very tiny part of myself. Everything else was I cant say deconcentrated, but an entirely general, overall activity, as it normally is every night. And I saw the Ashram quite clearlyit was something special, made for special reasons, but whereas I seemed to have an immense body, that was very small, very small. It went on for an hour. Thats what I found amusing; the o ther things just happen, and they may be interesting, but this was so spontaneous; I was watching it (I dont know where my head was), I was looking down from above so tiny, so tiny.
What was me was up above, and the Ashram was It began just here ( the navel) and went that way (downwards), and it was encircled, to show that it was a special formationencircled in the inconscience of the terrestrial creation. And I was everything else, with the usual vibrations of power and light. And then one current and ano ther current and ano ther were passing into it, into this formation, and they kept going in and in and in, accumulating. they kept going in, and yet they did not come out, they did not leave. It was not an undulatory movement, but ra ther a pulsating movementit had no beginning, it didnt go out, and yet it kept moving. Its very difficult to describe.
the formation represented by the Ashram was located approximately here, at the height of the navel in relation to what I was but although the body was not delimited, it had certain attributes or undefined forms, each one of which was situated in relation to the o ther as though each represented one part of the body; each was symbolic of ei ther an activity or a part of the world or a mode of manifestation. So the formation started from about here, near the navel, and went down towards the appendix Here, Ill draw you a sketch:
Image 1
Its form was elongated, slanting downwards (it always has this form). At the top it looked like a head, then the lines disappeared down below. It had no openings. And then, it was surrounded by various dark sheaths, a very dark purple which is the color of protection. A sparkling light was entering into itit kept entering, but without making any holes. It passed right through everything, through the purplethrough everything. It passed through and entered inside, where there were sparklings of every color, like a cascade. there are always these cascades of forcesimilar to a cascading stream whose waters nei ther flow on nor disappear, but accumulate: an accumulation of energies, a condensation. And they accumulate without taking up any more space through a kind of compression. And inside, its moving, vibrating, vibrating, vibrating, it keeps coming and comingyou dont know where it comes from, but it keeps coming and accumulating.
It was a force with a sparkling white light at its center, the light which is the force of the Divine Mo ther, and as soon as it was well packed and concentrated inside, or condensed, it took on all the colorsvibrations of every color Like a materialization these colors were like a materialization of the Divine Force when it enters matter. (Just as matter is a condensation of energy, well, this seemed to be a condensation of Divine Force. Thats really the impression it gave.)
It reminded me of tantric things. I have seen tantric formations and how forces are systematically separated by themeach vibration, each color. Its very interesting. they are all one, and yet each is distinct. That is, they are separated in order to be distinguished and for each one to be used individually. Each one represents a particular action for obtaining something in particular. This is the special knowledge the tantrics have, I believe. Or its the reflection of their knowledge. And my impression is that when they do their pujas or say their mantras, what they are trying to do is recombine all that into the white light. Im not sure. I know they use each one separately for a separate purpose, but when they speak of their puja succeeding, it may mean that they have been able to recombine the light. But I say this very guardedly. For I would have to see X do his puja one day to really knowfrom afar Im not so sure. Its merely an impression.
This is what I am constantly seeing now, but along with this Divine Force or this Divine Consciousness that Sri Aurobindo speaks of when he says, Mo thers Force is with you. When it comes, it is sparkling white, perfectly white and perfectly luminous. And as it accumulates inside, it makes living vibrations of every color. And it goes on and on and on. Sometimes it lasts half an hour, three-quarters of an hour, an hournothing goes out. And it keeps constantly entering. And it piles up. Its as if it is all being accumulated or compressed toge ther.
So, the observing mind, the intelligence that watches, looked at all thisAh, thats what its like (an intelligence that watches without interfering in the least). Its like a spectator talking to himself.
So in my vision, my body was as big as the universe, and that ( the Ashram) was so tiny, so tiny.
***
--
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.
***
If no vibrations ever disappear, then what happens with all these horrible things coming from every corner of the world? Dont they pile up? Dont the bad vibrations take on a more and more enormous volume in the end?
they are transformed. And at times they are transformed almost immediately.
You cant see it or feel it till you concretely live the fact that all is divine, that HE is everywhere, in everything, always, in all that happens.
the first reaction is always a kind of shrinking before things which seem horrible, but if you can overcome that and really have the experience, everything changes.
And there are hundreds and hundreds of little experiences like that, like so many little stones marking the way. then you see that the two things are ALWAYS toge ther: the destructive and the constructive. You cant see one without seeing the o ther. A time comes when the effort is to conquer the negative parts of creation and death (as at the end of Savitri), and when you have conquered that, then youre above. And then if you look at all these things, even those which seem the most opposed to the Divine, even acts of cruelty done for the pleasure of cruelty, you see the Presence the Presence that annuls their effects. And its absolutely marvelous.
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.
there is a magnificence of realization which could not have been had this evil, this horror and this negation not been.
Our consciousness shrinks from these things which belong to the past and which are no longer in their place, so we feel disgust and revulsionbecause we are ignorant. But if we can raise ourselves above and be in contact with That the supreme Lightwhich is ALWAYS just behind, then this Light seems all the more supreme because it is so much its own opposite.
then you know.
You know, so there is no longer this uneasiness, this shrinking. You feel carried more and more by all that you reject; you are in a forward movement, fur ther and fur ther, higher, constantly fur ther.
***
0 1960-07-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
This is to tell you that I am seeing you more and more frequently during the night, and in the world where we meet toge ther we have established a kind of companionship in work.
Although it is still in a region of the physical mind, it is a mind striving towards a luminous organization and clearly aspiring to rise towards the higher realms.
And last night especially I had a very positive impression (a sort of feeling) that I can count on you.
Well see what can be done for the manuscripts on Sunday.
With all my tender affection.
0 1960-07-18 - triple time vision, Questions and Answers is like circling around the Garden, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
object:0_1960-07-18 - triple time vision, Questions and Answers is like circling around the Garden
author class: the Mo ther
--
Of course, were dating all these old Questions and Answers, but not everyone pays attention to dates. How can those old ones be mixed with the present things which are on an altoge ther different plane?
there is an experience in which one is entirely outside of time that is, ahead, behind, above, below, all these things are one and the same. And at the very moment the identification takes place, there is no longer any past, present or future. And really, its the only way to know.
As the experiences unfold, these old Questions and Answers give me the feeling of someone circling outside a garden while describing whats inside it. But a day comes when you enter the garden, and then you know a little better whats inside. And Im starting to enter. Im starting.
***
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
object: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
author class: the Mo ther
--
Something interesting happened last night exactly between ten and eleven. I was in some kind of vehicle. I didnt see the vehicle but I was in it. Someone in front of me was driving, though I could only see his back; I didnt bo ther about who it washe was simply the one meant to do it.
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 o ther 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 o ther side and the water came rushing just behind! It rushed down at a fantastic speed. We had made it. then, just on the o ther 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:
--
the water was flowing off towards the right. From time to time there were these fissured dips or depressions along the vehicles path where the water rushed through, and in fact it must have rushed through each one just as soon as I had sped past. It was most dangerous, for if you had reached there a second too late, the water would already have flooded in and you would no longer have been able to get across; it was such that with even only a few drops, you would no longer get across. Not that they were very wide, but And the water was pouring in (pouring in our words are very small), it was pouring in, and I could see it ahead, but then the vehicle would arrive at full speed and instead of stopping, in a wild roller coaster-like movement it would plunge through, vroom!just in time, exactly like a roller coaster. I always arrived just in time to get through. And then again the same thing, broken here and there (in this way there were many fissures, though Ive only drawn two; there were quite a few, five or six at least), and again we would dart across, then race on until we would reach the spot where I have drawn the water turning.
Right at the end, there was a place where the water had to turn to run downthis was the Great Passage. If you got caught in that, it was all over. You had to reach this spot and cross over before the water came. It was the only place you could get across. then a last plunge, and like an arrow shot from a bow, full speed ahead, I crossed over and there I was.
And once on the o ther side, without even a rise in ground level (I dont know why), it was immediately safe. And the current went on and on, waves upon waves, on and on, as far as the eye could see, but it was canalized here at the Great Turning; and as soon as it went past this point, the inundation was total, it spread out over something over the earth. And the current turnedit turned but I was already on the o ther side. And down below, everything was finished, the water rushed down everywhere. Only, as soon as I was on the o ther side, it could not touch me the water could not get across, it was stopped by something invisible, and it turned away.
Moreover, it seemed that everything had already been prepared, as if the way had been made to divert the water.
there, down below me, below the vehicle, I had the impression that it was the earth, it really seemed like the earth, and the water was rushing down towards it.
the vehicles path was not on earth, but up above (probably in interstellar regions!), a special path for this vehicle. And I didnt know where the water was coming from; I couldnt see its origin, which was off beyond the horizon. But it came raging down in torrentsnot precipitously like a waterfall, but ra ther like a rushing torrent. My path passed between the torrents of water and the earth below. And I saw the water before me, everywhere, in front and behindit was so extraordinary, for it looked like it was everywhere, you see, except along my path (and even then, there was some seepage). Water speeding everywhere. But there was a kind of conscious will in this onrush, and I had to reach the Great Passage before this conscious will. This water resembled something physical, but there was a consciousness, a conscious will, and I had to it was like a battle between the will I represented and that will. And I passed each fissure just in time. Only when I reached the Great Turning did I see the will that impelled this water. And I reached there just before it. And passed through at a fantastic speedlike lightning. Even time ceased I crossed over like a flash of lightning. And then, suddenly, respite and it was blue. A square.
At the time, I didnt know what it all meant. then this morning, I thought, It must have something to do with the world situation.
It had all the dimensions of something almost the earth seemed small in comparison, you see. It was similar to what happens here when water is unleashed on earth, during floods for instance, but on a much greater scale.
What was pleasing, and really quite interesting, was this tremendous speed, like an arrow, and I always arrived in time, just in time, just in time. Once I had crossed over to the o ther side (I clearly felt that nothing would be left, for it was such a powerful deluge), the danger was finished, there was no longer ANY possibility at all of being touchedthis was the main feeling. Everything was stopped. Nothing could touch.
I turned around and saw all this water rushing down, and I thought, Now lets see if we can do something here. there was someone behind who interested me, someone or somethingit was still something; it was very likable and had something of the blue color that was here on the o ther side. Not really individuals, but more like beings representative of something that was following me quite closely. When I was there, it also was there, but it could not keep up, it kept losing groundas my speed increased, its decreased. It could not keep up. But it interested me in a special way. Oh, hes so close (he or it); he might just make it, I thought. And at that moment, I saw that all this destructive will with its instrument of water, symbolically water, had rushed past and was spreading out everywhere. But there was still a chance of saving all those who were along this path. And thats immediately what I thought of, it was my first wish: Lets see if they can still get across, if I can manage to get them across. I remembered some especially dangerous spots (while speeding past, I had remarked, Oh, here we might still be able to do this, there that could still be donemy consciousness moved at the same speed, and I noted everything along the way), and once I was firmly there on the o ther side, I started sending back messages.
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 o thers cross these fissured places. But because I woke up, I didnt see what it was. So that stopped everything. Probably because I woke up ra ther abruptly, I could not see what it meant.
All this is a translation in human language, actually, because really it was
And it happened quite early in the nightat such an early hour, they are not visions or things you observe: they are things you do.
Ive been seeing for a long time that nights are actions. they are no longer images or symbols or representations they are all actions. And they take place certainly not on a human scale.
Does that indicate war?
--
S.M came the o ther day Hes quite informed about events as only the government knows them. He brings me government newsnot what they feed to the public. It doesnt look good. But as he has confidence, he wanted to know (so much confidence that he goes and tells Nehru and o thers, Oh, Mo ther said this, Mo ther said that. And it turns out true, fortunately!). So after describing things at some length, he asked my opinion.
Logically, according to reason, war seems unavoidable. But as he asked, I looked I looked at my nights, precisely, as well as o ther things. And then I said, I dont feel it. I dont feel any war.
And again this morning, when I looked at this vision, I asked myself, Will there be war?I dont feel it will be like that It may be worse.
You see, it didnt seem human.
I remember wandering about one night some time ago. Its no longer very clear, but one thing has remained I had gone out of India, and then when I returned to India, I found huge elephants installed EVERYWHEREenormous elephants. At that time I was not at all aware that the Communists in India had adopted the elephant as their symbol; I only learned that later. What does this mean, I said to myself. Does it signify the Indian army? But they did not resemble war elephants. these elephants were like immense mammoths, and they looked like they were settling down with all the power of a tremendous inertia. That was the impression something heavy in an inert and very tamasic way, forever immovable. I did not like this occupation. When I came back, I had a ra ther painful feeling, and for several days I wondered if it did not mean war. then by chance, in a conversation, I learned that the Communists had selected the elephant as their symbol whereas the Congress had chosen the bullock In my vision, I was moving (as I always do), I was moving among them, and nothing moved. And if I needed room, some of them even tried to stir a little.
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 o thers.
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.
A cataclysm?
Ah, that, weve already had some. From all around, people are proclaiming that in 1962, there will be some people have even foreseen the end of the earth, but thats foolish! For the earth was built with a certain purpose, and before things are done, it will not disappear.
But there may be some changes.
***
--
In fact, the Ashrams financial situation has never been so bad. Were living from day to day, minute to minute One day, it will crackall these things are connected (Mo ther is alluding to the vision of the flood She has just described).
I myself am clearly seeing it from the o ther side; I see a black, muddy forma black, black force. And I see the [Divine] Force acting on people and, miraculously, the money comesand then its like something armored1it seeps in with difficulty, a thin trickle from day to day.
Provided the sadhana works, thats all that is needed.
And in fact, periodically, in one way or ano ther, in one form or ano ther, I receive a kind of assurance, a promise that it will all go well.
--
When I read what Sri Aurobindo writes in the Syn thesis, how things should be and what they are now, when I see the two, thats when I feel were turning in circles.
Its more and more a universal yoga the whole earth and it is like that day and night, when I walk and when I speak and when I eat. Its constantly like that. As if the whole earth were its like kneading dough to make it rise.
But when I read his Yoga of Self-Perfection and see simply what we are phew! What yeast we would need to make all that rise!
--
And sometimes things stagnate, they seem so absolutely obscure and stupid. And then, if you simply go like this (gesture of offering), simply, trulydo it, not think itits instantly like a shower of bliss A tiny point, something very small which looks stubbornly stupid and obstinate, if only you do this (and if you want, you can): Take, take! Give it to Him, simply, like this, truly give it to Him: Its You, its Yours, take it, do with it what You want. And instantly, instead of this shrinking and this painful feelingWhat in the world can I do with all this?a shower, it comes like a shower. Truly Ananda. Of course, if you are stupid enough to call back the difficulty, it returns. But if you remain quiet, if you keep your head quiet, it goesfinished, cured. But there are thousands and thousands and thousands of such points
With my japa, Ive reached about seven lakhs2. I repeat it 1,400 times a day. But you must be much fur ther than I!3
--
No, but in the morning while walking, I see the difference. there is definitely a difference.
In the beginning, I said Id do a crore,4 and if that were not enough, Id do ten crore. And one crore will take 20 years!
We shall see.
--
You reach a point where there is no more worry, nei ther for yourself nor for the world nor anything. When you reach that, you are always smiling, you are always happy. And when something happens, it doesnt matter, you look at it with a smile, forever a smile.
So there you are, my child.
Mo ther means that the Ashramites themselves create the armor. See also X's reflections in an undated letter of May 1959.
One lakh = 100,000.
the disciple was doing about five hours of japa a day at this time, then later seven hoursuntil it cracked.
One crore = 10,000,000.
0 1960-07-26 - Mothers vision - looking up words in the subconscient, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
object:0_1960-07-26 - Mo thers vision - looking up words in the subconscient
author class: the Mo ther
--
I came out of the concentration at 4:10quite late. For I was VERY busy! I was in some sort of small house similar to my room, but it was at the top of a tower, for you could see the landscape from above. It was similar to my room here, with large windows. And I was much taller than I actually am, for there was a ledge below each window ( there was a cupboard below each window, as in my room), and this ledge came quite low on me; in my room, it comes up to my chest, whereas it was much lower in my vision. And from there oh, what beautiful landscapes! It was surrounded by such lovely countryside! there was a flowing river, woods, sunlightoh, it was really lovely! And I was very busy looking up words in the dictionary!
I had taken out a dictionary. there, its this one, I said. Someone was next to me, but this someone is always symbolic: each activity takes on a special form which may resemble someone or o ther. ( the people around me for the work here are like families in those worlds there; they are types, that iseach person represents a typeso then I know that Im in contact with all the people of this same type. If they were conscious, they would know that I was there telling them something in particular. But its not a person, its a type and not a type of character, but a type of activity and relationship with me.)
I was with a certain type, and I was looking for a word, I wanted to conjugate the verb vaincre [to conquer]: je vaincs, tu vaincs, il vaincgood, now nous vainquons, how do you spell that, nous vainquons? It was so funny! And I was looking it up in the dictionaryvainquons, how do you spell that?
And at the same time, I had the feeling of something completely arbitrary, and all this kind of knowledge seemed so unreala completely arbitrary convention corresponding to nothing luminous anywhere.
I was very oh, I was very, very anxious to know how je vaincs, tu vaincs goes nous vainquons, vous vainquez. And I woke up at 4:15 without having found it in the dictionary!
then when I woke up, I immediately said to myself, Hmm, its truehow would I spell that? It took me half a minute to remember. It was really funny!
Coming at the end of the night as it did, it means that its an exploration in some part or ano ther of a subconscious mental activity. And you can make so many discoveries there it is unbelievable! But its lovely. And rarely unpleasant. there was a time when it was very unpleasant, oppressive, full of effort and resistance. I would want to go somewhere, but it would be impossible; I toiled and struggled, but everything would go wrong the straight paths would suddenly plunge into an abyss, and Id have to cross the abyss. For years it was like that. Just recently, I looked back over this whole period But now it is over. Now its something its lovely, its enjoyable, its a little it has a childlike simplicity.
However, its not a personal subconscient, but a its more than the Ashram. For me, the Ashram is not a separate individualityexcept in that vision the o ther day,1 which is what surprised me. Its hardly that. Ra ther, it is still this Movement of everything, of everything that is included. So its like entering into the subconscient of the whole earth, and it takes on forms which are quite familiar images to me, but they are absolutely symbolic and very, very funny! It took a moment to see that vainquons is spelled q-u-o-n-s. And I wasnt sure! I meant to ask Pavitra for a dictionary which gives verb conjugations, for then if Im stuck on something while writing, I can look it up.
the o ther day I wrote somethingit was a letter I gave Pavitra to read. I think theres a spelling mistake, he said. Its quite possible, I answered, I make plenty of them. He looked it up in a splendid dictionary and, as a matter of fact, it was a mistake. I meant to ask him for a dictionary this morning.
Its very simple, actually; its a convention, a conventional construction somewhere in the subconscious brain, and you write automatically. But if you want to try to bring the light of a slightly higher reason into it, its terrible. It becomes meaningless, and you forget everything.
You have to be inside this automatic convention to remember; its very difficult (Mo ther laughs). So I make a lot of spelling mistakes (under her breath, in a mischievous tone) I think Ill ask him for his dictionary (laughter)!
Vaincre! I wanted to write to someone to proclaim the Victory. the idea was very clear, it was really lovely. then, in a second, I was stoppedHow do you spell vainquons? And how do you spell vaincs? the person next to me didnt know a thingnothing. Its spelled v-a-i-n, he said. So I said, No, I dont think so! (laughter) It went on like that, you know, it was so funny!
Are you good at spelling?
--
Yes, yes; its quite automatic, a kind of convention somewhere. But if you have the misfortune to step out of that and to look at it, its finished, you dont know anything any more.
the vision of July 12, 1960.
***
0 1960-08-10 - questions from center of Education - reading Sri Aurobindo, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Concerning two teachers at the Ashram's Center of Education who wrote Mo ther asking if 'only' Sri Aurobindo should be studied. Pavitra was present during this conversation.)
An eight page letternothing but passion.
--
Passion, passion but this passion and these reactions are the same, thing.
And then they stuff into it what they consider intellectual reasonings, but their intellectuality is not so terribly luminousanyway (Mo ther shows the letter) Here, Ill read this to you for your edification (!).
And finally, Sweet Mo ther, what I would really like to know is the purpose of our Center of Education. Is it to teach the works of Sri Aurobindo? And only these? All the works or some only? Or is it to prepare the students to read the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mo ther? Is it to prepare them for the Ashram life or for outside occupations as well? So many opinions are floating in the air, and even the old disciples from whom we expect some knowledge make so many contradictory statements
(Laughing, to Pavitra:) I suppose thats for you!
that we no longer know what to believe nor on what to base ourselves. So what should be our foundation upon which to work in the absence of a true and certain knowledge? Please enlighten us, Mo ther.
I answered. the letters must have left. I wrote (in English) that its not so much a question of organization as of attitudeto begin with. then I said, It seems to me that unless the teachers themselves get out of this ordinary intellectuality (!), they will never be able to fulfill their duty.
And this is what I wrote to Z (Mo ther reads):
It is not a question of preparing students to read these or some o ther works. It is a question of drawing all those who are capable of it out of the usual human routine of thought, feelings, action; of giving those who are here every opportunity to reject the slavery of the human way of thinking and acting; of teaching all those who want to listen that there is ano ther, truer way of living, and that Sri Aurobindo taught us to become and to live the true being and that the purpose of education here is to prepare the children for this life and to make them capable of it.
As for all the o thers, all those who want the human way of thinking and living, the world is vast and there is place there for everyone.
We do not want large numbers; we want a selection. We do not want brilliant students; we want living souls.
Once Ive drummed that into their heads long enough, they may end up understanding.
then Z asks about languages: should they choose ONE language or I dont know. And then, if only ONE language, which language? She said, Should it be a common or international language, or their [ the students] vernacular? I answered her, If only ONE language is known [well], it is better (international or common).1
these are matters of common sense I dont even know why they bring them up.
then they asked some questions about teaching literature and poetry. I answered them. And then, at the bottom, I added this:
If you carefully study what Sri Aurobindo has written on every subject
He wrote on EVERYTHING, there is not one subject on which he has not written! the point is to find it everywhere.
a complete knowledge of the things of the world can be easily achieved.
What I call studying is to take Sri Aurobindos books, where he quotes or speaks of one thing or ano ther, then have the corresponding bookswhen he quotes something, you must take the book it corresponds to; when he speaks of something, you must study the writings on that subject. This is what I call studying. then, after having read the corresponding works, you compare them with what Sri Aurobindo has said, and in this way there may be a beginning of understanding. If someone is very studious, he can review all that has ever been written or taught by going through Sri Aurobindos books. I mean this for someone who loves working.
I SEE this state of mind, this mental attitude Oh! Its its so repugnant. People are so afraid of taking sides, so afraid of appearing biased; they are so afraid of appearing to have faith, so afraid Oh, its disgraceful.
And I will keep hammering that into your heads till I enter right into them.
***
(Pavitra hands Mo ther a new French dictionary, the All-in-One)
Oh! French verbs!
(Pavitra:) Yes, Mo ther; in this dictionary each verb is shown the category it is in, how it is conjugated
the verbs
Take choyer [coddle, pamper], for example (Pavitra shows Mo ther), its conjugated like aboyer [snarl, bark].
What a comparison! (Mo ther laughs) Oh, they have such psychological subtleties!
But its especially for the spelling of verbs. I believe I know how to conjugate!
(Pavitra:) It has everythinghow to play bridge, how to play tennis, the art of carving a chicken
Fine.
--
Im continuing the Yoga of Self-Perfection. Its really something I shall never tire of saying its fabulous. Everything, absolutely everything, in detail, everything is there. And he foresawforesaw, gave the remedy; foresaw, gave the remedy; foresaw, gave
Have you read it?
--
Ill soon finish re-reading Essays on the Gita
Ah!
to prepare for the book.2 I havent quite finished, but nearly. Everyday I force myself to read (well, not exactly force )
But that one also is ex-traor-dinary!
Yes, there are many things.
What is so interesting in it is this insistence on the divinity of man If thatthis feeling of the inner divinitycould be established in oneself in a constant way (Ive seen this for most people I know), so MANY things would there is no need for any effort at all, things fall away from you like dust.
there is no need to react against difficulties; you are immediately pulled out of them, as if you were taken out like this (gesture of pulling someone out of a difficulty with her two fingers).
Original English.
Sri Aurobindo and the Transformation of the World, an initial book on Sri Aurobindo by Satprem that was never published. It was meant to be part of a certain 'Series of Spiritual Masters,' but finally Sri Aurobindo never took part.
***
0 1960-08-16, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Letter from Mo ther to Satprem regarding the first copy of his first book, L'Orpailleur)
8.16.60
--
opening the way
to o ther books
0 1960-08-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(While filing various old papers, notes, etc., Mo ther happens upon the plan for a film studio at the lake)
[Some five miles from Pondicherry.]
Its at the lake. the property belonged to the mission and at that time its manager was a very good friend of ours, even though he was a missionary. He said that he would arrange for us to have it. Everything was arranged, and I was to receive the money to buy it ( they asked for more than fifty or sixty thousand rupees1). But then the money didnt come and our missionary friend left. Hes no longer there; hes been replaced by someone else.
(Mo ther looks at a piece of paper) Calling Antonin Raymond2. the architect for the construction.
then there was also making ready temporary quarters for Z3. But then Z left; he died.
Thats what happensthings change. Its not that the project stops, but its forced to take o ther paths.
But this film project has been completely abandoned now, hasnt it?
--
But L has enlarged the program. (Mo ther indicates the plan) This is only a small part of his extensive total program. He is planning to have a school of agriculture, a modern dairy with grazing land theres a lot of agriculture, really a lotfruit orchards, large rice fields, many things. And then a ceramics factory. My ceramics factory will be at the far end of the lake, so as to utilize the clay the government has agreed; as they have to dig out the lake one day, we shall use the top soil for the fields. First well remove all the pebbles (you know, there are hills over there), which can be used for constructionits a mine of pebbles. After removing the pebbles, there will be holes which then well fill with earth from the lake. And below this earth is a thick and compact layer of clay which is so hard it cant be used for farmingits impossible but its wonderful for making ceramics. So right at the very end, in Indian territory,4 well have a large ceramics industry. On the o ther side, well have a little factory for firing clay.
All this is huge. A tremendous program.5
We can file it with the o ther things.
(Mo ther pauses at a note from February 10, 19566
It was in the beginning of February 56it was formidable. It was really formidable. All the asuric forces of destruction descended upon me they tried their best.
And naturally, they make use of all those around me!Its the only way of getting at my body.
Im used to it.
--
I no longer remember when this happened. Someone had put his hands on my shoulders I was a bit surprised. This person imagined that I would feel extraordinary things. I must have made a face (I wasnt expecting it, after all). then afterwards, someone asked me, What was your experience (!), what did you feel? I didnt answer. Once I was alone, this is what I wrote:
Something like what
--
he felt the weight
of the cross.
To this day I remember the experience. Truly, thats what I felt I did not intellectualize it. Exactly the impression of what Christ must have experienced when he felt the weight of the cross. It was the weight of a whole world of darkness, unconsciousness, universal bad will, total incomprehension, something And it really felt like that as if I were carrying a frightful weightwhich was frightful because of its darkness, not because of its weight. So I thought, Well, well. This must be how Christ felt when they laid the cross on him.
there are plenty of them! (Mo ther indicates a pile of various papers) In ano ther pile there must be as many again! It is a mania for collecting papers.
Oh no, sweet Mo ther! Fortunately they have been kept.
Oh! I have plenty of them, plenty. there must be many more boxes full.
***
(Soon afterwards, in regard to the filing of these notes)
With a lot of patience and time, it could all be organized, but Id have to be convinced that its worth the trouble. All these old papers are like dead leaves. We should make a bonfire.7
Oh, no!
YOU people may have this opinion, but its not mine. Ill tell you exactly the effect it has on me: whenever someone has wanted to arrange things, Ive always thought, Yes, it will be quite useful to arrange these things after my death!
But then Id ra ther not die if possible. And if I dont die, it will be perfectly useless, because that would then be the obvious proof of an uninterrupted ascent; consequently, what there will be at the very end will be much more interesting.
You alone have convinced me that the history of the way might be of some interest, so Im letting you do it Ive taken a very, very handsome file upstairs with all your notes in it.8 Its filling up; its going to be formidable! (Mo ther laughs) a frightful documentation.
Not at all!
--
You know, someone who appreciates this work tremendously is Nolini. Once he timidly asked me, Could I have a copy9? Fine, I said. Oh, he really appreciates it. And when I have something amusing like these most recent notes, I give him a copy. With that, hes happy. So he blesses you! (Mo ther laughs) Oh! Without you, this would never have been doneyou can be quite sure. Never.
***
(Getting up to leave, Mo ther holds in her hands the first copy of LOrpailleur which the disciple has just received from France and offered to Her)
Shall I take your book or ? Dont you want it?
--
Dont you want it? I like it very much, very much. Its a very good friend (Mo ther holds the book against her heart).
Oh, I must write a few letters here and there, to France (to announce the publication of the book). I already wrote to A, but I must write him again. Though I suppose he knows that it has come ou the should know. I told him to follow it with
I dont know if the book has come out yet. I believe its to appear in early September.
Oh, so this was only the harbinger.
I think so. That was their plan, in any case.10
Did you tell them that youve received it?
Yes, I sent them a note.
Did you tell them you were happy?
Yes, yes.
(Mischievously) Did you tell them Mo ther was happy? they couldnt care less! (Mo ther laughs)
(Unruffled) they dont exactly know who Mo ther is.
No, fortunately not! Fortunately, my child! Fortunately.
(Just at the doorstep, as She is leaving, Mo ther tells the disciple that She had seen three books, a trilogy, and the third one would be about Her. And She adds:)
Sri Aurobindo came during my japa to tell me, I will help him all through.
--
the architect who had already built 'Golconde,' the Ashram guest house.
An American filmmaker.
Pondicherry was a French enclave, under French administration. the neighboring territory was the Indian state of Madras, or Tamil Nadu.
Perhaps it was the beginning of Auroville.
This note has disappeared.
--
the future Agenda.
Of these conversations that make up the Agenda.
the French publishers, ditions du Seuil.
***
0 1960-08-27, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Its the same with the letters.
they assassinate me with their letters.
the little basket I put them in can no longer close! I take 45 minutes every morning upstairs to write letters. And I receive six, seven, eight, ten letters a day, so how can I manage? In the end, Sri Aurobindo spent the whole night writing letterstill he went blind.
Myself, I cant afford to do that, I have o ther things to do. And Im not keen on going blind ei ther. I need my eyes, they are my work instruments.
On top of that, there are all the people who want to see me. Now everyone wants to see me! And since they are happy after coming once, they ask to come again! If I were very disagreeable and told them (Mo ther laughs) but that cant be done.
We should not allow all this to upset us. there is but one thing to doremain in a state of constant peace, constant equanimity, for things are not they are not very pleasant. Oh, if you only knew all the letters they write me if you knew, first of all, the tremendous pile of stupidities that need never be written at all; then, added to that, such a display of ignorance, egoism, bad will, total incomprehension and unequalled ingratitude, and all this so candid, my child! they heap all this on me daily, you know, and it comes from the most unexpected quarters.
If this were to affect me (Mo ther laughs), I would long ago have been who knows where. I dont care at all, not at all, really not at allit doesnt bo ther me, it makes me smile.
--
So dont let yourself be upset I often think of you, for I know how very sensitive you are to all this. It is it is really ugly. A whole realm of human intelligence (its too great a compliment to call that intelligence), of the human mind, that is very, very repugnant. We must come out of that. It doesnt touch us. WE are elsewhereelsewhere. We are NOT in that rut! We are elsewhere, automatically.
Our head is above.
I myself see you outside, I feel you outside, I always meet you there.
***
0 1960-09-02, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
After leaving your room, X kept repeating, Very wonderful. then he explained to me that white rays were vibrating everywherealong the whole length of the Kundalini, white, yellow and blue, but especially white (he indicated the forehead in particular).
He looked quite ecstatic while speaking of his experience.
In conclusion, he said, Where is the Mo ther and where is X? meaning, I suppose, that all separation had disappeared.
With love.
0 1960-09-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
X has spoken to me several times of his lack of esteem for most people in the Ashram: Why does Mo ther keep all these empty pots? he says.
If he imagines for one moment that I believe all the people here are doing sadhana, he is grossly mistaken!
the idea is that the earth as a whole must be prepared in all its forms, including even those least ready for the transformation. there must be a symbolic representation of all the elements on earth upon which we can work to establish the link.1 the earth is a symbolic representation of the universe, and the group is a symbolic representation of the earth.
Sri Aurobindo and I had discussed the matter in 1914 (quite a long time ago), for we had seen two possibilities: what we are now doing, or to withdraw into solitude and isolation until we had not only attained the Supermind, but begun the material transformation as well. And Sri Aurobindo rightfully said that we could not isolate ourselves, for as you progress, you become more and more universalized, and consequently you take the burden upon yourself2 in any case.
And life itself has responded by bringing people forward to form a nucleus. Of course, we clearly saw that this would make the work a bit more complex and difficult (it gives me a heavy responsibility, an enormous material work), but from the overall point of view for the Workits indispensable and even inevitable. And in any case, as we were later able to verify, each one represents simultaneously a possibility and a special difficulty to resolve. I have even said, I believe, that each one here is an impossibility.3
But this way of seeing is too far removed from the state of mind and spiritual education in which X has lived,4 of course, for him to understand. Nor am I in favor of proselytizing (to convince X); it would disturb him quite needlessly. He has not come here for that. He came here for something special, something I wanted which he brought, and I have learnt it. Now its excellent, he is a part of the group in his own fashion, thats all. And in a certain way, his presence here is having a very good effect on a whole category of people who had not been touched but who are now becoming more and more favorably inclined. It was difficult to reach all the traditionalists, for example, the people attached to the old spiritual forms; well, they seem now to have been touched by something.
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 (Mo ther 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.
When Sri Aurobindo was here, I never bo thered about all this; I was constantly up above and I did what the Gita and the traditional writings advise I left it to Natures care. In fact I left it to Sri Aurobindos care. He is making the best use of it, I would say. He will manage it, he will do with it what he wants. And I was constantly up above. And from up there I worked, leaving the instrument as it was because I knew that he would see to it.
Actually, it was very different at that time because I was not even aware of any resistance or any difficulty in the outer being; it was automatic, the work was done automatically. Later on, when I had to do both thingswhat he had been doing as well as what I was doingit became ra ther complicated and I realized there were many what we could call gapsthings which had to be worked out, transformed, set right before the total work could be done without hindrance. So then I began. And several times I thought how unfortunate it was that I had never studied or pursued certain ancient Indian disciplines. Because, for example, when Sri Aurobindo and I were working to bring down the supramental forces, a descent from the mental plane to the vital plane, he was always telling me that everything I did (when we meditated toge ther, when we worked)all my movements, all my gestures, all my postures, all my reactionswas absolutely tantric, as if I had pursued a tantric discipline. But it was spontaneous, it did not correspond to any knowledge, any idea, any will, nothing, and I thought it was like that simply because, as He knew, naturally I followed.
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 o ther 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 (Mo ther 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 ra ther quickly, I didnt stay there long). So when I went inside X, I saw It was ra ther 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 o ther words, the physical mind. the cube on top was the largest and most luminous, and the least yieldingeven inflexible, you could say. the o thers 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.
When I got there, I felt a moment of anguish; my feeling was that nothing could be done. Not for him in particular, but universally, for all those in his categoryit seemed hopeless.6 If that was perfection, then nothing more could be done. This lasted only a second, but it was painful. And then I tried that is, I wanted to bring my consciousness down into the highest cubethis eternal, universal and infinite consciousness which is the first and foremost expression of the manifestation but nothing doing. It was impossible. I tried for several minutes and saw that it was absolutely impossible. So I had to make a curious movement (I couldnt get through it, it was impassable), I had to come back down into the so-called lower consciousness (not lower, actuallyit was vast and impersonal), and from there I came out and regained my equilibrium. This is what gave me that splitting headache I told you about. I came out of there as if I were carrying the weight the weight of an irreducible absoluteit was dreadful. Unfortunately, I was unable to rest afterwards, and as people were waiting to see me, I had to talkwhich is very tiring for me. And this produced a bubbling in my head, like a this dark blue light of power in matter was there, shot through with streaks of white and gold, and all this was flashing back and forth in my head, this way and that way I thought I was going to have a stroke! (Mo ther laughs)
This lasted a good half hour before I could calm it down, make it quiet, quiet. And I saw that this came from the fact that he wanted to bring the Power down, to transmit the Power into the physical mind! But as soon as Im put in contact with the Power, you understand, it makes everything explode! (Mo ther laughs) It felt exactly like my head was going to explode!
I felt better that night because I was concentrated, but my head was still hurting a little. then the following day I said to myself, or ra ther I told him inwardly, Whe ther you like it or not, I am bringing down whats up above; it is the only way I can feel comfortable! And I told you what happenedas soon as I sat down I was so surprised, for he didnt start doing what he had done the day before; I myself did the same thing, I participated, so to speak, in his will (so as to find out), but with the resolve to remain consciously in contact with the highest consciousness, as always, and to bring it down. And it came in a marvelous flood. He was quite happy, he did not protest! All the pain was gone, there was nothing left, it was perfect. Only towards the end of the meditation did he again want to start doing his little trick of enclosing my physical mind in this construction, but it didnt last I watched all this from above.
And he isnt aware of this, actually, he isnt aware at all. If he were told, he would absolutely deny it for him, its an opening onto Infinity! But in fact, its always like that, we are always shut in, each of useach one is enclosed inside certain limits which he doesnt feel, for should he feel it, he would get out! Oh, I know this feeling very well, for when I was with Sri Aurobindo I was open in this way (gesture towards the heights), and I always had this feeling of Yes, my child He tolerated me the way I was and waited for it to change. Thats truly how things are, you know. And now I feel my limits, which are the limits of the world as it is at present, but beyond that theres an unmanifested immensity, eternity and infinityto which we are closed. It merely seeps init is not the great opening. What I am trying to bring about is the great opening. Only when it has opened wide will there really be the (how should I put it?) the irreducible thing, and all the worlds resistance, all its inertia, even its obscurity will be unable to swallow it up the determining and transforming thing I dont know when it will come.
But this experience with X was really interesting. I learned many things that day, many things If you concentrate long enough on any one point, you discover the Infinite (and in his own experience he found the infinite), what could be called your own Infinite. But this is not what WE want, not this; what we want is the direct and integral contact between the manifested universe and the Infinite out of which this universe has emerged. So then it is no longer an individual or personal contact with the Infinite, its a total contact. And Sri Aurobindo insists on this, he says that its absolutely impossible to have the transformation (not the contact, but the supramental transformation) without becoming universalized that is the first condition. You cannot become supramental before being universal. And to be universal means to accept everything, be everything, become everythingreally to accept everything. And as for all those who are shut up in a system, even if it belongs to the highest regions of thought, it is not THAT.
But to each his destiny, to each his work, to each his realization, and to want to change someones destiny or someones realization is very wrong. For it simply throws him off balance thats all it does.
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.
Especially at the beginning, Sri Aurobindo used to shatter to pieces all moral ideas (you know, as in the Aphorisms, for example). He shattered all those things, he shattered them, really shattered them to pieces. So theres a whole group of youngsters7 here who were brought up with this idea that we can do whatever we want, it doesnt matter in the least!that they need not bo ther about all those concepts of ordinary morality. Ive had a hard time making them understand that this morality can be abandoned only for a higher one So, one has to be careful not to give them the Power too soon.
Its an almost physical discipline. Moreover, I have seen that the japa has an organizing effect on the subconscient, on the inconscient, on matter, on the bodys cellsit takes time, but by persistently repeating it, in the long run it has an effect. It is the same principle as doing daily exercises on the piano, for example. You keep mechanically repeating them, and in the end your hands are filled with consciousness it fills the body with consciousness.
I have a hard time making X understand that I have work to do when Im with him. He doesnt understand that one can work.
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 none theless 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, Mo ther asked me to do it; then he keeps quiet.
Yes, he doesnt dare say a thing He doesnt understand it very well. What funny ideas, eh! He must think I have funny ideas, but anyway In the end, he tells himself, Oh, its just because shes born in France that she is still carrying this burden!
Its quite funny.
Sri Aurobindo saw more clearly. He saidit was even the first thing he told the boys around him when I came in 1914 (he had only seen me once)he told them that I, Mirra (he immediately called me by my first name), was born free.
And its true, I know it, I knew it then. In o ther words, all this work that usually has to be done to become free was done beforehand, long agoquite convenient!
He saw me the next day for half an hour. I sat downit was on the verandah of the Guest House, I was sitting there on the verandah. there was a table in front of him, and Richard was on the o ther side facing him. they began talking. Myself, I was seated at his feet, very small, with the table just in front of meit came to my forehead, which gave me a little protection I didnt say anything, I didnt think anything, try anything, want anything I merely sat near him. When I stood up half an hour later, he had put silence in my head, thats all, without my even having asked himperhaps even without his trying.
Oh, I had tried for years I had tried to catch silence in my head I never succeeded. I could detach myself from it, but it would keep on turning But at that moment, all the mental constructions, all the mental, speculative structures none of it remaineda big hole.
And such a peaceful, such a luminous hole!
--
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.
Once it was done, it was done. It was well-rooted.
--
This lasted about half an hour. I quietly remained there I heard the noise of their conversation, but I wasnt listening. And then when I got up, I no longer knew anything, I no longer thought anything, I no longer had any mental constructioneverything was gone, absolutely gone, blank!as if I had just been born.
***
--
I went to inaugurate the sugar factory9 the o ther day. I had an amusing experience.
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
So I saw this I saw it moving about. And it kept coming and coming and coming, accumulating, piling up ( they work 24 hours a day, six days a weekonly on the seventh do they rest). So I thought that this angry force must have some effect on the peoplewho knows, maybe this is what creates accidents. For I could see that once the sugar cane was fully crushed and had gone back up the chute, this force that had been beaten out was right there. And this worried me a little; I thought that there must be a certain danger in doing such a thing! What saves them is their ignorance and their insensitivity. But Indians are never entirely insensitive in the way Westerners are they are much more open in their subconscious.
I didnt speak of it to anyone, but it caused me some concern. And just the next day the machine broke down! When I was informed, immediately I thought It was then repaired, and again it broke downthree times. then the following night, just before ten oclock I should mention that during the day I had thought, But why not attract these forces to our side, take them and satisfy them, give them some peace and joy and use them? I thought about it, concentrated a little, but then I didnt bo ther any fur ther. At ten oclock that evening, they came upon mein a flood! they kept coming and coming. And I was busy with them the whole time. they were not ugly (not so luminous ei ther! ), they were wholesome, straightforwardhonest forces. So I worked on them. This began exactly at 9:30, and for one hour I was busy working. After an hour, Id had enough: Listen, this is quite fine, youre very nice, but I cant spend all my time like this! We shall see what to do later for it absorbed my whole consciousness. they kept coming and coming (you understand what that means to a body?!). So at 10:30 I told them, Listen, my little ones, be quiet now, thats enough for today At 10:30, the machine broke down!
I found out, of course, because they log everything at the factory, so when they came to inform me of the breakdown the next morning, I asked them what time it had happenedexactly 10:30.
After that, I made a kind of pact with them the trouble, you see, is that there are constantly new ones. If only they were the same! they are constantly coming in new floods, so there was the need of a permanent formation over there. Ive tried to make this permanent formation, to take and absorb them, to calm them down and scatter them a little so they dont accumulate in one spot, which in the end could be dangerous.
I found this quite amusing.
the most recent incident took place a few days ago, for there was a general excitement in the factory due to the expected visit of a government minister during the day. That afternoon, exactly at half past three, I felt that I had to make a little concentration. So I paid attention and saw poor L11 praying to me. He was praying, praying, calling mesuch a strong call that it pulled me. I was having my bath (you know what happens when Im very strongly pulled Im stopped right in the very midst of a gesture, then the consciousness goes wandering off! And I cant do anything, it stops me dead. Thats exactly what happened to me in the bathroom). When I saw what was happening, I straightened things out. then they must have had their ceremony, for suddenly I felt, Ah, now it has calmed down, its all right. And I went on to something else.
the next day, L came to see me. He told me that shortly before 3:30, the machine had stopped once again, but this time it was quickly set right; they found out right away what had to be done. And then he told me that at 3:45 he had started praying to me that all should go well. Oh, I know! I said.
Things can be done in this way. In truth, a lot can be doneits mans ignorance that gets him in trouble.
With the Supramental World.
Original English.
--
Words of the Mo ther, p. 14 (January 15, 1933).
Traditional tantrism.
One of the Ashram secretaries.
Original English.
--
New Horizon Sugar Mills, which belongs to a disciple. the inauguration was on September 15.
Original English.
the disciple who manages the sugar factory.
***
0 1960-09-24, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Normally Im not there. And some people I hear, o thers I dont hear. But I hadnt imagined that it depended on this I thought I had lost my hearing. But just now I stopped everything, absolutely everything, I concentrated and tuned init became so clear!
Basically, it must be the same for my eyes. Sometimes I see wonderfully, and sometimes its blurred. It must be for the same reason I probably have to learn to concentrate!
Yes, laugh if you wantwhat I mean is concentrate on what Im doing. Not concentrate within Precisely, Im ra ther too concentrated!
0 1960-10-02a, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
My nights contain so many things that I dont always do the necessary work to remember that takes up a lot of time. Sometimes I get up during the night and sit there recalling precisely everything that has already happened, but that sometimes takes half an hour!and as urgent work still calls, I dont take the time to remember and it gets erased. But then, you know, with all thats coming you could write volumes!
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 ano ther content, ano ther life altoge ther: it carries its light, its understanding, its explanation within itselfyou look, and everything is explained.
It always gives me the feeling that I am shrinking a little, but its interesting. And its useful, for I am constantly moving about and doing things with people; it indicates to me what I have to say and do with each one. Its useful. But all the same, I miss the fullness and joy of the more impersonal Movement of forces.
Before going to bed, sometimes I say to myself, I will do what is necessary to spend my night in these great currents of force(because there is a way to do it). And then I think, Oh, what an egotist you are, my girl! So sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesntwhen theres something important to do, it doesnt happen. But all I have to do is concentrate in a certain way before going to sleep to spend my whole night in these very far from here, very far I cant say very far from the earth, for surely its in an intermediate zone between the forces from above and the earths atmosphere. Thats what it mainly is, in any case. Its a great universal current as well, but mainly its what descends and comes onto the earth, and it is permeating the earths atmosphere all the time, all the time, and it comes with this wide, overall visionit makes for wonderful nights I no longer bo ther about people at allat least not as such, but in a more impersonal way.
(silence)
I have been pestered my whole life by something similar to the sense of duty without its stupidity. Sri Aurobindo had told me that it was a censor, that I had with me a considerable one! It was constantly, constantly telling me, No, its not like that, its like this Oh, no! Its wrong to do that; be careful, dont be egotistical; be carefuldo this, do that. He was right, but I sent it away long agoor ra ther, Sri Aurobindo sent it away. But there remains the habit of not doing what I like. Ra ther, of doing what MUST be done, and whe ther its pleasant or not makes no difference.
This, too, Sri Aurobindo had explained to me. I used to tell him, Yes, you always speak of lifes delight, life for the sake of its delight. But as soon as I had the notion, as soon as I was put in the presence of the Supreme, it was: For Youexclusively what You want. You are the sole, the unique and exclusive reason for being. And that has remained, and this movement is so strong that even when you see, now I have ecstasy and ananda in abundanceeverything comes, everything. But even then, even when that is there, something in me always turns towards the Supreme and says, Does this TRULY serve You? Is it what You expect of me, what You want from me?
This has protected me from all seeking for pleasure in life. It was a wonderful protection, because pleasure always seemed so futile to meyes, futile; for the sake of your personal satisfaction. Later, I even understood how foolish it is, for you can never be satisfiedthough when youre small you dont yet know that. I never liked it: But is it really useful, does it serve some purpose? And I still have this attitude in regard to my nights. I have this widening of the consciousness, this impersonalization, this wonderful joy of being above all that. But at the same time I also have, Im here in this body, on earth, to do something I mustnt forget it. And this is what I have to do. But probably Im wrong!
Im waiting for the Lord to tell me clearly.
But when I say that, I always see Him smilinga smile its all very good to smile, but it encourages you more than it cures you!
Text written by Mo ther in French and English; it became the New Year's Message for 1961.
A photograph of Mo ther that accompanied the 1961 New Year's Message.
***
0 1960-10-02b, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
As I did not find the translation of the Message fully satisfying, I have continued pondering over it. then ano ther possibility, which MAY be better, presented itself. Here it is:
Ce monde merveilleux de flicit,
--
In this way we keep the word appel [call], which is strong. All I did was change the relative pronoun (at first you had translated it as qui, nos portes, attend notre appel2).
I dont know. Perhaps it is more incisive this way.
0 1960-10-08, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
there are moments while reading the Syn thesis of Yoga when I feel so clearly why he put this particular word in that particular place, and why it could not have been o therwise thats what makes the translation difficult.
For the placement of words is not the same in English and in French. In English, for example, the place an adverb occupies is of major importance for the precise meaning. In French also, but generally its not the same! If at least it were exactly the opposite of English it would be easier, but its not exactly the opposite. Its the same thing for the word order in a series of modifiers or any string of words; usually in English, for example, the most important word comes first and the least important last. In French, its usually the opposite but it doesnt always work!
the spirit of the two languages is not the same. Something always escapes. This must surely be why revelations (as Sri Aurobindo calls them) sometimes come to me in one language and sometimes in the o ther. And it does not depend on the state of consciousness Im in, it depends on what has to be said.
And the revelations would probably be more exact if we had a more perfect language. Our language is poor.
Sanskrit is better. Sanskrit is a much fuller and subtler language, so its probably much better. But these modern languages are so artificial (by this, I mean superficial, intellectual); they cut things up into little pieces and remove the light behind.
I also read On the Veda where Sri Aurobindo speaks of the difference between the modern mind and the ancient mind; and its quite obvious, especially from the linguistic point of view. Sanskrit was certainly much more fluid, a better instrument for a more global, more comprehensive light, a light containing more things within itself.
In these modern languages, its as if things are passed through a sieve and broken up into separate little bits, so then you have all the work of putting them back toge ther. And something is always lost.
But I even doubt that the modern mind, built as it now is, would be able to know Sanskrit in this way. I think they are cutting up Sanskrit as well, out of habit.
We need a new language.
--
the SOUND must be captured. there must be one sound at the origin of all language And then, to capture it and project it. To make it vibrate because it doesnt vibrate in the same way here as it does above.
That would be an interesting work.
the words must have a poweran expressive power. Yes, they should carry the meaning in themselves!
***
0 1960-10-11, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Im just now finishing the Yoga of Self-Perfection When we see what human life is and, even in the best of cases, what it represents in the way of imbecility, stupidity, narrowness, meanness (not to mention ignorance because that is too flagrant) and even those who believe themselves to have generous heart, for example, or liberal ideas, a desire to do good! Each time the consciousness orients itself in one direction to attain some result, everything that was in existence (not just ones personal existence, but this sort of collectivity of existences that each being represents), everything that is contrary to this effort immediately presents itself in its crudest light.
It happened this morning while I was walking back and forth in my room. I had finished my japa I had to stop and hold my head in my hands to keep from bursting into tears. No, it is too dreadful, I said to myself; and to think that we want Perfection!
then naturally there came as a consolation: only because the consciousness is getting closer to the REAL THING can it see all this wretchedness, and the contrast alone makes these things appear so mean.
And its true, those things I saw this morning which seemed so above all stupid and ugly (Ive never had a sense of morality at any time in my life, thank God! But stupid and ugly things have always seemed Ive always done my best to distance myself from them, even when I was very small). And now I see that these things which seem not only ridiculous but, well, almost shameful were considered, as I recall, remarkably noble earlier on and they represented an exceptionally lofty attitude in life the very same things. So then I understood that its quite simply a question of proportion.
And thats how the world isthings which now seem totally unacceptable to us, things we CANNOT tolerate, were quite all right in the past.
the day before yesterday, I spent the whole night looking on. I had read the passage by Sri Aurobindo in the Syn thesis on supramental time (wherein past, present and future coexist in a global consciousness). While youre in it, its marvelous! You understand things perfectly. But when youre not in it Above all, theres this problem of how to keep the force of ones aspiration, the power of progress, this power which seems so inevitableso inevitable if existence (lets simply take terrestrial existence) is to mean anything and its presence to be justified. (This ascending movement towards a progressive better that will be eternally better)How is this to be kept when you have the total vision this vision in which everything coexists. At that moment, the o ther becomes something like a game, an amusement, if you will. (Not everyone finds it amusing!) And when you contain all that, why allow yourself the pleasure of succession? Is this pleasure of succession, of seeing things one after the o ther, equal to this intensity of the will for progress? Words are foolish!
the effort to see and to understand this gripped me all night. And when I woke up this morning, I thanked the Lord; I said to Him, Obviously, if You were to keep me totally in that consciousness, I could no longer I could no longer do my work! How could I do my work? For I can only say something to people when I feel it or see it, when I see that its what must be said, but if I am simultaneously in a consciousness in which Im aware of everything that has led to that situation, everything that is going to happen, everything Im going to say, everything the o thers going to feel then how could I do it!
there are still many hundreds of years to go before it becomes entirely what Sri Aurobindo describes theres no hurry!
the mental silence Sri Aurobindo gave you in 1914, about which you were speaking the o ther day
It has never left. I have always kept it. Like a smooth white surface turned upwards. And at any moment at all You see, we speak like a machine, but there nothing moves; at any moment at all it can turn towards the heights. Its ALWAYS turned like that, but we can become aware of it being like that. then, if we listen, we can hear what comes from above. My active consciousness, which was here (Mo ther points to her forehead), has settled above, and it has never again moved from there.
I told this to Xor ra ther had someone tell himto see his reaction. And I realized that he did not understand in the least! Once Amrita asked him how he himself SAW and KNEW things. So he tried to explain; he told Amrita that he had to pull his consciousness upwards by a gradual effort, to go beyond the heart, beyond the throat center to pull it right up here ( the top of the head), and once there, youre divine, you know! All of a sudden, I understood that when I said it was there, above the head, it must have seemed absolutely impossible to him! For him, its the crown of the head1 (what they call the thousand-petalled lotus), just at the top of the head, whereas in my experience it opens, it rises and you go above, and then you settle there For a number of years it even changed my [physical] visionit was as if I were looking at things from above. It returns from time to time, too, as if suddenly I were seeing from above instead of from here, at eye level.
But the faculty of forming thoughts is now there, up above; its no longer here (Mo ther points to her forehead). And thats contrary to their teachings.
the tantrics recognize seven chakras,2 I believe. theon said he knew of more, specifically two below the body and three above. That is my experience as well I know of twelve chakras. And really, the contact with the Divine Consciousness is there (Mo ther motions above the head), not here (at the top of the head). One must surge up above.
Doing japa seems to exert a pressure on my physical consciousness, which goes on turning! How can I silence it? As soon as my concentration is not absolute, the physical mind starts upit grabs at anything, anything at all, any word, fact or event that comes along, and it starts turning, turning. If you stop it, if you put some pressure on it, then it springs back up two minutes later And there is no inner consent at all. It chews on words, it chews on ideas or feelingsinterminably. What should I do?
Yes, its the physical mind. the japa is made precisely to control the physical mind.
I myself use it for a very special reason, because You see, I invoke ( the words are a bit strange) the Lord of Tomorrow. Not the unmanifest Lord, but the Lord as he will manifest tomorrow, or in Sri Aurobindos words, the divine manifestation in its supramental form.
So the first sound of my mantra is the call to that, the evocation. With the second sound, the bodys cells make their surrender, they give themselves. And with the third sound comes the identification of this [ the body] with That, which produces the divine life. these are my three sounds.
And in the beginning, during the first months that I was doing the japa, I felt them I had an almost detailed awareness of these myriads of cells opening to this vibration; the vibration of the first sound is an absolutely special vibration (you see, above, there is the light and all that, but beyond this light there is the original vibration), and this vibration was entering into all the cells and was reproduced in them. It went on for months in this way.
Even now, when something or o ther is not all right, I have only to reproduce the thing with the same type of concentration as at the beginning for, when I say the japa, the sound and the words toge ther the way the words are understood, the feel of the wordscreate a certain totality. I have to reproduce that. And the way its repeated is evolving all the time. the words are the same, however, the original sound is the same, but its all constantly evolving towards a more comprehensive realization and a more and more complete STATE. So when I want to obtain a certain result, I reproduce a certain type of this state. For example, if something in the body is not functioning right (it cant really be called an illness, but when somethings out of order), or if I wish to do some specific work on a specific person for a specific reason, then I go back to a certain state of repetition of my mantra, which acts directly on the bodys cells. And then the same phenomenon is reproducedexactly the same extraordinary vibration which I recognized when the supramental world descended. It comes in and vibrates like a pulsation in the cells.
But as I told you, now my japa is different. It is as if I were taking the whole world to lift it up; no longer is it a concentration on the body, but ra ther a taking of the whole world the entire world sometimes in its details, sometimes as a whole, but constantly, constantlyto establish the Contact (with the supramental world).
But what you are speaking of, this sort of sound-mill, this milling of words interminably repeating the same thing, Ive suddenly caught it two or three times (not very often and with long intervals). It has always seemed fantastic to me! How is it stopped? Always in the same way. Its something that takes place outside, actually; its not insideits outside, on the surface, generally somewhere here (Mo ther indicates the temples), and the method is to draw your consciousness up above, to go there and remain therewhite. Always this whiteness, white like a sheet of paper, flat like a plate of glass. An absolutely flat and white and motionless surfacewhite! White like luminous milk, turned upwards. Not transparent: white.
When this mill starts turningusually it comes from this side (Mo ther indicates the right side of the head)it takes hold of any sound or any word at all, and then it starts turning, harping on the same thing. This has happened to me a dozen times perhaps, but it doesnt come from me; it comes from outside, from someone or something or some particular work. So then you take itas if you were picking it up with pincers, and then (She lifts it upwards), then I hold it there, in this motionless whiteno need to keep it there for long!
Arent you aware of this thing up above, this white plate at the crown of the head? Its what receives intuitions. Its just like a photographic plate, and its not even activethings pass right through it without our even realizing it. And then if you concentrate just a little, everything stops, everything stops.
A few days ago, I recall, I wanted to know something that was going to happen. I thought that with the consciousness of supramental time, I could find out I MUST find out whats going to happen. Whats going to happen?No answer. So I concentrated on it, which is what I usually do, I stopped everything and looked from abovetotal silence. Nothing. No answer. And I felt a slight impatience: But why cant I know?! And what came was the equivalent of (Im translating it in words), Its none of your business!!
So I understand more and more. Everythingthis whole organization, this whole aggregate, all these cells and nerves and sensorsare all meant uniquely for the work, they have no o ther purpose than the work; every foolish act that is done is for the work; every stupidity that is thought is for the work; you are made the way you are because only in that way can you do the work and its none of your business to seek to be somewhere else. Thats my conclusion. Very well, as You wish, may Your will be done!No, not be done; it IS done. As You wish, exactly as You wish!
And in the end, its quite fun.
***
(Concerning an old Question and Answer of July 4, 1956 at the Playground in which Mo ther speaks of her first realization of the Divine, in Paris)
Just as the shooting star flashed past, there sprang from my consciousness: To realize the divine union, for my body! And before twelve months were out, it was done.
I remember, it was at the door of our studio3 in Paris. I can still see it. Thats how I always remember the picture simply comes to me.
I am just finishing the Syn thesis of Yoga, and what Sri Aurobindo says is exactly what has happened to me throughout my life. And he explains how you can still make mistakes as long as you are not supramentalized. Sri Aurobindo describes all the ways by which images are sent to youand they are not always images or reflections of the truth of things past, present or future; there are also all the images that come from human mental formations and all the various things that want to be considered. It is very, very interesting. And interestingly enough, in these few pages I have found a description of the work I have spent my whole life doing, trying to SIFT out all we see.
I can only be sure of something once a certain type of picture comes, and then the whole world could tell me, But things didnt happen like that; I would reply, Sorry, but I see it. And that type of picture is certain, for I have studied it, I have studied their differences in quality and the texture of the pictures. It is very interesting.
***
Basically, I see more and more that the Supreme Consciousness makes use of ANYTHING AT ALL when the time comes.
In these Questions and Answers, for example, you had wanted to edit out the words Sweet Mo ther since people from the West might not understand. But then, we have just now received a letter from someone who suddenly had a very beautiful experience when he came across those words, Sweet Mo ther. He saw, he suddenly felt this maternal presence of love and compassion watching over the world. the moment had come and, precisely, it did its work. Its very interesting.
Mentally we say, Oh, that cant go. And even I am often inclined to say, Dont publish this, dont speak of something or o ther. then I realize how silly it is! there is something that uses everything. Even what may seem useless to usor perhaps worse than useless, harmfulmight be just the thing to give someone the right shock.
Original English.
Chakra: center of consciousness. 1) the crown of the head (sahasradala), 2) between the eyebrows (ajna), 3) the throat (vishuddha), 4) the heart (anahata) 5) the navel (manipura), 6) the abdomen (svadhishthana), 7) the base of the spine (muladhara).
Rue Lemercier.
0 1960-10-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
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!
Each thing carries within itself its own truthits absolute truth, so luminous and so clear. And if you are in contact with THAT, then everything falls into place so wonderfully; but men are NOT in contact with that, they are always in contact through their thought: what they think of something, what they feel about something, the meaning they attach to it (or sometimes its worse)but the highest they go is always the thought they have of it. Thats what creates all this mixture and all this disorderthings in themselves are very good, and then they get confused.
Z's work involved seeing Mo ther everyday to watch over her health and her food.
0 1960-10-19, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
( the day before 'Kali Puja,' the ritual festival devoted each year in India to the goddess Kali, the warrior aspect of the universal Mo ther)
She has already been here for two days and Oh, yesterday especially, she was so in such a mood!like a warrior. I said to her, But why not change them through through an excess of love?
So then she answered (I remember how she put it), First a good punch in the chest (she didnt say in the nose!), a good punch in the chest, and then when theyre down, gasping for air, theyre ready.
Thats one opinion!
--
Those people deny the reality of all physical needs.
Its quite all right when youve come TO the END, when you have totally mastered the body by means of the spiritual consciousness. But until then, I dont agree I do not at all agree.
Its the same as when X tells people, I am feeding you, so eat! And he serves you ten times more than you can put in. If you tell him, My stomach cant digest it, he answers that this is nonsense: Eat, and you will see! And in fact, up above that is, once youve mastered itits perfectly true. But we arent there yet, far from it! He himself is sick all the time.
then he would answer, Everyone is sick.But thats no reason.
Its very well to say, If you live in the Spirit, its not the same. Thats quite true, but MUCH later. For the last two years, I myself have been learning this, and I see how difficult it isone mustnt boast. And to say, Oh, its all the same to me, is a way of boasting. It SHOULD NOT be all the same to you. This body is not meant for usit wasnt for us that it was given, its for the Work, so consequently it must be in working order.
Thats what annoys me sometimes. Why not have this mastery? We SHOULD be masters of it. With consciousness, we should be able to be the masters of our bodies.
Yes, this was precisely the extraordinary thing Sri Aurobindo had. He made no effort But then he didnt use it on himself!
But for humans, this is something UNTHINKABLE.
--
And he did this he bore it all as if it were some unconsciousness, an ordinary illness, simply to keep me from knowing and he left at the very moment he had to leave. But
And I couldnt even imagine he was gone once he had gone, just there, in front of meit seemed so far away And then afterwards, when he came out of his body and entered into mine, I understood it all Its fantastic.
Fantastic.
Its its absolutely superhuman. theres not one human being capable of doing such a thing. And what what a mastery of his bodyabsolute, absolute!
And when it came to o thers he could remove an illness like that (gesture, as if Mo ther were calmly extracting an illness from the body with her fingertips). That happened to you once, didnt it? You said that I had done this for you but it wasnt me; he was the one who did it He could give you peace in the mind in the same way (Mo ther brushes her hand across her forehead). You see, his actions were absolutely On o thers, it had all the characteristics of a total mastery Absolutely superhuman.
One day, hell tell you all this himself.1
--
We can put it this way: the world was not ready. But to tell you the truth, it was the totality of things around him that was not ready. So when he SAW this (I only understood this afterwards), he saw that it would go much faster if he were not there.
And he was ABSOLUTELY right, it was true.
--
there was a difficult period.
(silence)
--
When he left, I said twelve days, twelve days.2 And truly, I gave it twelve days, twelve days to see if the entire Work Outwardly, I said, After twelve days I will tell you if the Ashram ( the Ashram was nothing but a symbol, of course), if the Ashram will continue or if it is finished.
And later (I dont knowit didnt take twelve days; I said that on December 9, and on the 12th it was all decidedseen, clear and understood), on the 12th, I saw people, I saw a few people. However, we began all the activities again only after 12 days from December 5. But it was decided on the 12th.
Everything was left hanging until the moment he made me understand the COMPLETE thing, in its entirety But thats for later on.
He himself will tell you, its truelater on.
He came to tell us this fifteen years later, as a matter of fact, while we were writing the Divine Materialism.
Mo ther stopped all her activities for twelve days from December 5, 1950, the day Sri Aurobindo departed.
***
0 1960-10-22, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Pavitra shows Mo ther a photograph of the house in which She lived in Paris, rue du Val de Grce)
Well, well! the house on Val de Grce! It looks inhabited, the windows have curtains in them. I lived therea small house, really very small, with a bedroom upstairs.
Here, this is the kitchen; here is the living room, this is the studio. And then behind the kitchen there was a small room that I used as the dining room, and it opened onto a courtyard. Between the dining room and the kitchen there was a bathroom and a small hallway. the kitchen is here; you went up three steps and then there was this small hallway with the stairs leading up to the bedroom. Next to the bedroom was a bathroom about as big as a thimble.
It is part of a huge house. theres a seven-story apartment building on each side, and the street is here.
It wasnt very big. the studio was ra ther largea beautiful room Thats where I received Madame David-Neelwe saw each o ther nearly every evening.
there was a considerable library in the studio; one whole end was given over to the librarymore than two thousand books belonging to my bro ther. there were even the complete works of several classical writers. And I had my entire collection of the Revue Cosmique, and my post card collection (it was down below)mainly post cards of Algeria, Tlemcen, nearly 200 of them. But there were five years of the Revue Cosmique. And written in such a French! How funny it was!
theons wife dictated it in English while she was in trance. Ano ther English lady who was there claimed to know French like a Frenchman. Myself, I never use a dictionary, she would say, I dont need a dictionary. But then she would turn out such translations! She made all the classic mistakes of English words that mustnt be translated like that. then it was sent to me in Paris for correcting. It was literally impossible.
there was this themanlys, my bro thers schoolmate; he wrote books, but he was lazy-minded and didnt want to work! So he had passed that job on to me. But it was impossible, you couldnt do a thing with it. And what words! theon would invent words for the subtle organs, the inner senses; he had found a word for each thinga frightful barbarism! And I took care of everything: I found the printer, corrected the proofsall the work for a long time.
they were stories, narratives, an entire initiation in the form of stories. there was a lot in it, really a lot. She knew many things. But it was presented in such a way that it was unreadable.
I also wrote one or two things, experiences I had noted down; they were ra ther interesting, which is why Id like to get them back. I had described some of my visions to Madame theon, and then she explained their meaning to me. So I would narrate the vision and give its explanation. That was readable and interesting, because there was some symbolism.
(Pavitra:) What was this Chronicle of KI?
It wasnt Ki but Chi, for he was the founder of China!those things were fantastic! the story was almost childish, but there was a whole world of knowledge in it. Madame theon was an extraordinary occultist. That woman had incredible faculties, incredible.
She was a small woman, fat, almost flabbyshe gave you the feeling that if you leaned against her, it would melt! Once, I remember I was there in Tlemcen with Andres fa ther, who had come to join usa painter, an artist. theon was wearing a dark purple robe. theon said to him, This robe is purple. No, its not purple, the o ther answered, its violet. theon went rigid: When I say purple, its purple! And they started arguing over this foolishness. Suddenly there flashed from my head, No, this is too ridiculous!I didnt say a word, but it went out from my head (I even saw the flash), and then Madame theon got up and came over to me, stood behind me (nei ther of us uttered a word the o ther two were staring at each o ther like two angry cocks), then she laid my head against her breastabsolutely the feeling of sinking into eiderdown!
And never in my life, never, had I felt such peaceit was absolutely luminous and soft a peace, such a soft, tender, luminous peace. After a moment, she bent down and whispered in my ear, One must never question ones master! It wasnt I who was questioning!
--
Suddenly the house had come into the atmosphere. Well, well, I said to myself; someone is thinking about that house.
***
I entered into your sleep last night. I saw you and told you certain things, I even gave you some explanations: You see, you must do it this way you must go like this I also said, One day, we shall meditate toge ther. But more precisely, you had once spoken to me about the problem in your physical mind that it keeps on turning interminably and you had told me that it happens during your japa. So last night I told you, I would like you to do your japa for a few minutes with me one day so that I may see what goes on inside you, in your physical mind.
But I wasnt speaking to you with words Everything I see at night has a special color and a special vibration. Its strange, but it looks sketched When I said that to you, for example, there was a kind of patch,1 a white patch, as I recallwhite, exactly like a piece of white papera patch with a pink border around it, then this same blue light I keep telling you aboutdeep blueencircling the rest, as it were. And beyond that, it was swarminga swarming of black and dark gray vibrations in a terrible agitation. When I saw this, I said to you, You must repeat your mantra once in my presence so that I may see if there is anything I can do about this swarming. And then I dont know whyyou objected, and this objection was red, like a tongue of fire lashing out from the white, like this (Mo ther draws an arabesque). So I said, No, dont worry, it doesnt matter, I wont disturb a thing2! (Mo ther laughs mischievously)
All this took place in a realm which is constantly active, everywhere; it is like a permanent mental transcription of everything that physically takes place they arent actually thoughts; when I see this, I dont really get the impression of thinking, but its a transcription its the result of thoughts on a certain mental atmosphere which records things.
And I see it all the time now. If someone is speaking or if Im doing something, I see the two things at the same time I see the physical thing, his words or my action, and then this colored, luminous transcription at the same time. the two things are superimposed. For example, when someone speaks to me, it gets translated into some kind of picture, a play of light or color (which is not always so luminous!)this is why most of the time, in fact, I dont even know what has been said to me. I recall the first time this phenomenon happened, I said to myself, Ah, so thats what these modern artists see! Only, as they themselves arent very coherent, what they see is not very coherent ei ther!
And thats how it worksit is translated by patches and moving forms, which is how it gets registered in the earths memory. So when things from this realm enter into peoples active consciousness, they get translated into each ones language and the words and thoughts that each one is accustomed tobecause that doesnt belong to any language or to any idea: it is the exact IMPRINT of what is happening.
I am constantly seeing this now.
And it is here, too, that I see the result of this confusion and excitement in the Ashramit jumps, jumps, jumps about. It keeps jumping on the same spot. there are machines like thatconstantly shaking; its exasperating.
***
For some time now Ive been experiencing a precise moment during my japa when something takes hold of me and I have all the difficulty in the world to keep from entering into trance. Yet I remain standing. Usually Im walking, but some things I say while leaning up against the windownot a very good place to go into trance! And it grabs me exactly at the same place each time.
Yesterday, I suddenly saw a huge living head of blue lightthis blue light which is the force, the powerful force in material Nature (this is the light the tantrics use). the head was made entirely of this light, and it wore a sort of tiaraa big head, so big (Mo ther indicates the length of her forearm); its eyes werent closed, but ra ther lowered, like this. the immobility of eternity, absolutely the repose, the immobility of eternity. A magnificent head, quite similar to the way the gods here are represented, but even better; something between certain heads of the Buddha and ( these heads most probably come to the artists). Everything else was lost in a kind of cloud.
I felt that this kind of yes, immobility came from there: everything stops, absolutely everything stops. Silence, immobility truly, you enter into eternity.I told him it wasnt time!
But I tried to understand what he wanted Its been difficult here in the Ashram for some timeeveryone is seized with a sort of frenzy, a weary restlessness. they are all writing to me, they all want to see me. It makes for such an atmosphere I react as well as I can, but Im not able to pass this on to them to keep them quiet ( the more tired and weary you are, the more calm you ought to remaincertainly not get excited, thats dreadful!). So I understood: this head had come to tell me, This is what you must give them.
But if I were to pass that on to them, theyd all think they were becoming rattle-brained, that they were losing their faculties, that their energy was spent. For they only feel energy when they spend it. they are incapable of feeling energy in immobility they have to be stirring about, they have to be spending it. Or else, it has to be pounded into them.
I looked at this problem yesterday; it occupied me for much of the day. And Im sure this head came to give me the solution. For me, its very easyat once three seconds, and everything stops, everything. But the o thers are stubborn! And yet Im positive, Im positive, I tell them, But relax; why are you on pins and needles like that? Relax! Its the only way to overcome your fatigue. But they immediately start feeling that theyll lose their faculties and become inert the opposite of life!
And this is surely what oriented my night, for I started my night looking at this problem: How can I make them accept this? For nei ther should they fall into the o ther extreme and slip from this weary agitation into tamas.3 Thats obvious.
But how many letters I receive from people telling me, I feel listless, all I want to do is sleep, to rest, not do anything. they go on complaining.
the experience I havewhat I mean by I is this aggregate here (Mo ther indicates her body), this particular individualityis that the more quiet and calm it is, the more work it can do and the faster the work can be done. What is most disturbing and time consuming are all these agitated vibrations that fall on me (truly speaking, each person who comes throws them on me). And this is what makes the work difficultit stirs up a whirlwind. And you cant do anything in this whirlwind, its impossible. If you try to do something material, your fingers stumble; if you try to do something intellectual, your thoughts get all entangled and you no longer see clearly. Ive had the experience, for example, of wanting to look up a word in the dictionary while this agitation was in the atmosphere, and everything jumps up and down (yet the lighting is the same and Im using the same magnifying glass), I no longer see a thing, its all jumping! I go page by page, but the word simply doesnt exist in the dictionary! then I remain quiet, I do this (Mo ther makes a gesture of bringing down the Peace) and after half a minute I open the dictionary: the very spot, and the word leaps out at me! And I see clearly and distinctly. Consequently I have now the indisputable proof that if you want to do anything properly, you must FIRST be calm but not only be calm yourself; you must ei ther isolate yourself or be capable of imposing a calm on this whirlwind of forces that comes upon you all the time from all around.
All the teachers are wanting to quit the schoolweary! Which means theyll begin the year with half the teachers gone. they live in constant tension, they dont know how to relax thats really what it is. they dont know how to act without agitation.
I think thats what this head came to tell me, and its precisely whats wrong in the Ashrameverything here is done in agitation, absolutely everything. So its constantly a comedy of errors; someone speaks, the o ther doesnt listen and responds all wrong, and nothing gets done. Someone asks one thing, ano ther answers to something elsebah! Its a dreadful con-fu-sion.
(silence)
--
(After the meditation)
Im going to tell you what I sawits very interesting. First, emanating from here (Mo ther indicates the chest), a florescence of every color like a peacocks tail spread wide; but it was made of light, and it was very, very delicate, very fine, like this (gesture). then it rose up and formed what truly seemed like a luminous peacock, up above, and it remained like that. then, from here ( the chest), what looked like a sword of white light climbed straight up. It went up very high and formed a kind of expanse, a very vast expanse, which was like a callthis lasted the longest. And then, in response, a veritable rain, like (no, it was much finer than drops) a golden lightwhite and goldenwith various shades, at times more towards white, at times more golden, at times with a tinge of pink. And all this was descending, descending into you. And here ( the chest), it changed into this same deep blue light, with a powdering of green light inside itemerald green. And at that moment, when it reached here ( the level of the heart), a number of little divinities of living golda deep, living goldcame, like this, and then looked at you. And just as they looked at you, there was the image of the Mo ther right at the very center of younot as she is commonly portrayed but as she is in the Indian consciousness Very serene and pure and luminous. And then that changed into a temple, and inside the temple there seemed to be an image of Sri Aurobindo and an image of me but living images in a powdering of light. then it grew into a magnificent edifice and settled in with an extraordinary power. And it remained motionless.
That is the representation of your japa.
Its beautiful.
I had to stop because there is something like time that exists herewhat a shame!
But it is very good.
And it shouldnt be difficult to keep that all the time.
I didnt notice you being bo thered by these things of the physical mind you had mentioned. However, I had first done this (gesture of cleansing the atmosphere), right at the beginning, so that nothing would come to disturb us Did you feel anything?
I felt that you were there. I felt your Force.
Ah! You felt it!
--
If you want to prevent these disturbances in your physical mind, then when you sit for japa You know my Force, dont you? Well then, wrap it around you, like this, twelve times, from top to bottom.
Original English.
Traditionally, one's mantra is never to be repeated before anyone except the guru.
Tamas: inertia.
0 1960-10-25, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
there is a black cloud over the ashram. Its origin is ra ther unique and very interesting.
S has a nephew in Bombay, and one day towards the end of August or beginning September, he told me an extraordinary story about this nephew, who had disappeared (he showed me his photographhe looks ra ther like a medium). He returned home two days later, I believe. Hed been found in a train in a hypnotic state; fortunately someone shook him and he suddenly woke up: Why am I here? What am I doing here? (He had no intention of travelling, you see; he had simply left his house to visit a neighbor in Bombay.) So he returned home without knowing what had happened to him. And he was quite bizarre, really ra ther off.
A few days later, this nephew had to go somewhere, I dont know where; he went down to the railway station and didnt return. Impossible to find out what had happened to him, he was nowhere to be found. Several days had passed when the family decided to send me his photograph and to tell me the story, adding that it was surely a sequel to the previous occurrence ( there must be some people doing hypnotism), and then they asked me where he was and what had become of him.
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 Mo ther so that She may see to ft. therefore, I concentrated a little.
About two weeks later (in o ther words, ten days or so before September 26), some more news the boys older bro ther, who lives in Ahmedabad (not Bombay), came to visit his mo ther, fa ther and grandmo ther ( theres also a grandmo ther), and he asked about his bro ther. He had come with a friend. Your bro ther 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 .
the day before their departure, the elder bro thers friend said he was going to visit the grandmo ther (she lives some hundred yards away). He went outand didnt return. Disappeared.
So of course they were terribly worried; they wondered what had happened. I had someone write to X, I concentrated, and four days later the boy ( the bro thers friend, that is) returned in a lamentable state: white, emaciated, barely able to speak. then he recounted his story:
On his way to the grandmo thers house, he passed by the station and went in to drink something. While drinking, two persons who were there started playing with some balls in front of him. He WATCHED. But suddenly, he felt very uneasy; he wanted to leave and ran towards an exit that opened onto the tracksit was closed and he could not get out. And these two people were just behind him; suddenly he lost consciousness: I dont know what happened to me after that.
He woke up in a railway station somewhere between Bombay and Poona, and he began telling them that he was hungry (he was with those same two persons). they punched him in the stomach and put a handkerchief over his nosehe again passed out! At Poona, he woke up again (hed lost his appetite by then!), and again they put the handkerchief over his nose. And it went on like that they kept on punching him a lot. When he woke up in the country on the outskirts of Poona, four men were around him arguing in a language he didnt know (his language is Gujarati). they were probably speaking in some o ther language, I dont know which oneit seems they were very dark. He didnt understand, but from various signs they made he could see that they were arguing about whe ther to kill him or not. Finally, they told him (probably in a language he could understand), Ei ther you join our gang, or well kill you. He grunted in reply so as not to commit himself. the o thers decided to wait for their chief (thus the chief wasnt there): Well decide after he comes. then just to make sure, they punched him a few more times in the belly and put the handkerchief over his noseout!
Sometime later (he doesnt know how long, for until he returned he had no sense of time), he woke up in a ra ther dark, low-roofed house way out in the country; there were five persons now, not four. they were busy eating, so he was careful not to budge. Mainly they were drinking ( they have prohibition there). Four of them were already dead drunk. So he got up to have a look. the fifth one, whom he hadnt seen before (he must have been the chief), was not yet totally drunk; when he saw the boy stirring, he let out a fearful growlso the poor boy threw himself flat in the corner and lay stillhe waited. After awhile, the fifth one (after downing ano ther bottle) was also dead drunk. So now that he saw them all fast asleep, he got up very cautiously and he said he ran for an hour and a half! A boy pummelled as he had been, who hadnt eaten for four days! I think thats a miracle.
After running for an hour and a half, he found himself back at the Poona station, he doesnt know how. He caught a train back to Bombay, scarcely knowing how he managed it.
When I found this out, I immediately thought, Good, this boy caught the formation2 X had made for the o ther one, and it got him back. For its really miraculous that he succeeded. But the o ther one, the nephew, was left stranded, nowhere to be found. It was obviously the same gang and the same method.
then the police got involved. they wanted to take him back to the countryside around Poona (naturally I suppose they nursed him in the meantime), but not much came out of it. Seems that wherever he remembered seeing these people, when he said he had seen them, he fainted. Finally, I was told the story, and the poor family wrote to me saying, Who are these demons with such a great power that even it withstands Mo thers force as well as that of Xand who are holding our son? So X was again informed and, knowing the story of the elder bro thers friend, he said, Ah, now I know where the o ther one is, and I hope it wont take too long. But then September 26 passedgeneral despair in the family. they wrote to me, and I concentrated.
It was just before Durga Puja,3 or just after I cant remember (dates and I dont go toge ther)no, it was after Durga Puja. So I went into a deep concentration and, as a matter of fact, I saw that a very powerful and dangerous rakshasic4 power was involved. And then, when I started walking for my japa upstairs in my room (I had given some thought to this story and tried asking for something to be done), I suddenly saw Durga before me raising high a lance of white light the lance of light that destroys the hostile forcesand She struck into a black swarming mass of men.
But then there came a frightful reaction. For one day I was nearly as sicknot quiteas two years ago5 ( they must have used the same mantra). And, you see, I who never vomit terrible vomitingeverything inside came out! Only now Im a bit more experienced than two years ago (!), so I set it right It happened here, downstairs, in the afternoon. I went right back up to my room (I didnt see anyone that afternoon), and I remained concentrated to try to find out what had happened. I saw that it came from therea backlash of those people trying to defend themselves.
I did what had to be done.
But unfortunately, this spread all over the Ashram, all over everyonea black cloud everywhere. It was ra ther troublesome!
But some days later, a telephone call: the boy was found in Ahmedabad and brought back to Bombay.
the boys story is fantastic! Its fantastic. He was thin, gray, empty-headed. I no longer recall all the details, but ultimately it was the same story: abducted from a railway station in the same way; he saw some people, an hypnotic state, and then no more recollection of what had happened to him, nothing at all. I dont know if they used a handkerchief on him as well, but he was hypnotized. they punched him also when he asked to eat. And after that, no more appetite! As if they removed all interest in eatingeven when there was food, he didnt touch it. And absolutely empty-headed.
However, he recalls them repeatedly telling him this: You have no family; that name is not yours; you are called by such-and-such-a-name ( they gave him ano ther name); you are all alone and depend exclusively upon us. But then, probably this boy had a slightly deeper consciousness, for although his brain did not seem to be working outwardly, something deep down was able to observe and remember.
Finally, they had him work as a waiter in a small caf in Ahmedabad, near the station. One day it even happened that his bro ther and his bro thers friend stopped by (he vaguely recalls having seen them) but he was incapable of speaking to them or of getting them to recognize him. Ano ther time, he tried to leave and headed towards the station, but after awhile he could no longer walk, he was suddenly stopped by something (he doesnt know what), and he had to go back. Thats how it wasquite a unique state. But one day, a friend of the bro ther stopped at this caf to drink something, and this same boy served him. He had changed a lot, but the o ther fellow recognized him all the same and asked, Whats your name? He saw that the boy seemed dazed and couldnt answer. So he didnt say anything but ran immediately to where the elder bro ther lived; they came back, took the boy into a corner and doused his face with seltzer water. It seems that then he started becoming more alive. then they led him away and informed the police.
I dont have any more details yet
(Here we introduce, paren thetically, the details of the story as Mo ther told them two months later)
I found out the details: this boy had to go to the station, but on his way, he went into a shoe store just next to the station to buy a pair of sandals. As he entered, he saw a man there choosing a pair of womens shoes for himself! This seemed strange to him: Whats this man doing buying and he WATCHEDsuddenly, nothing more. He lost consciousness and no longer knew what happened to him. And thats how the story begana man selecting womens shoes in a shop! He must do strange thingsprobably intentionallyto attract peoples attention. Naturally, out of curiosity, the boy started watching, and that was thatall of a sudden, blank, nothing more! And long afterwards he found himself far away in a train with this man. Hes here now with his mo ther they came to thank me. Its he who gave me the details. Hes a nice boy, but all this has left him with some anxiety, especially when he speaks of it. Hes trying to forget. He told me hed like to join the army and asked my permission. the boy feels a need for force and he has the idea that to be part of such a force would be good for him. (Of course, he didnt tell me all this, hes not that conscious. But thats what he feels the need to be supported by an organization of force.) So I encouraged him. I told him it was a good idea. His mo ther wasnt very happy! She feared he was leaping from the frying pan into the fire!
Ano ther curious detail is that after having taken away all his appetite and having put him in the caf as a waiter, they told him, Now you must eat, so he tried to eat, and for four days he vomited up everything he put init was completely black! After that, he was able to start eating a little. Its a fantastic story!
***
--
But I was mainly interested by the fact that I felt the danger these people representednot because they were brigands, but because they had some powerbrigands with a power and from what I saw, it was not merely an hypnotic power. there must have been a tantric force in it, o therwise they would not have been so powerful, and especially so powerful from a distance. I had said to myself, they MUST be caught. Which was why ( the Force kept on working, you see). And yesterday, the newspaper said that a gang of five men, eight women and half a dozen children had been arrested by the police in Allahabad for using what the newspaper called mesmeric means to rob people, attack them, etc. ( they were operating in Poona, Bombay and Ahmedabad, but they were caught in Allahabad). Probably when they realized that the boy was gone, they got frightened and fled to the North. And they were arrested in Allahabad I had made a very strong formation and had said, they MUST be caught.
As of now, I have no o ther news theyve been caught, so they cant do any wrong OUTWARDLY, but still their power is there. Were going to have to be And everyone here says the same thinglike a black veil of unconsciousness that has fallen upon us. Even those who arent accustomed to such things have felt it. Im presently cleaning the whole placeits not easy. Everything is upside down.
I had X informed. But I didnt tell him my difficulty (this mantra they threw on me to kill me), I didnt speak of that at all. For he had insisted, from the beginning he had said, Mo ther must see to it, only Mo thers grace can save them. And I understood their attack came just at the time of Durga Puja, so I understood that Durga had to intervene. So thats the story.
Things are not going so well for X ei ther; everywhere its grating. It was probably very important I am hopeful that it can bring some change.
But normally, shouldnt the mantra bounce back on them?
Obviously! Its boomeranging back on them. they must be having a ra ther hard time of it now, but too bad for them! they wont escape it.
I dont know whats going to happen to them they must have killed quite a few people. If thats discovered, theyll get what they deserve and well be rid of them theyll become little disembodied demons! Its less dangerous.
Unless they reincarnate somewhere else. Some people are always ready to accept demons, thats the trouble!
(No sooner had Mo ther finished telling this story than, by a curious coincidence, someone brought her a portrait drawn by P.K., one of the Ashram artists. Several days earlier, at about two in the morning during an uncommonly violent lightning storm, P.K. had suddenly SEEN amidst the flashes of lightning in the sky a ra ther terrible, demoniacal head in front of his very eyes. Having nothing else available, he hastily drew his vision in chalk on a schoolchilds slate, which is the portrait Mo ther speaks of here:)
Well, well! So P.K. is clairvoyant! Its him, for surethis is the being behind those people. Thats why they had so much power. And he came here because of tha the was furious. Quite a demon!
I also saw him that night. You fools with your small crackers, he said, I will show you what real crackers are!6and those flashes of lightning, such an astonishing violence Oh, he proclaimed all kinds of things, disasters, what not But these are very complex matters and its better not to go into detail.
(Some days later, Mo ther added the following:)
Merely by looking at that portrait, one child came down with fever!7
--
Oh, its terrifying! I dont know who had the stupid idea of showing this to the child, but after he saw it he had a fever for three days, with terrible chills. And I believe the artist too was sick after finishing his sketch.
***
--
Its so contrary not only to the education but to the make up of people from the West! For an Indian for a modern Indian it would be difficult, but for those who have kept something of the old tradition it would not be difficult. Its easy for children raised in a monastery or near the guru
(silence)
I looked and saw the realm which is under the influence of thought the power of thought on the body is tremendous! You cannot imagine how tremendous it is. Even a subconscious or sometimes unconscious thought acts and provokes fantastic results! Ive studied this. Ive been studying it IN DETAIL for the last two yearsits incredible! If I had the time one day to explain all this, it would be interesting.
Even tiny, the tiniest mental or vital reactionsso tiny that to our ordinary consciousness they dont appear to have the LEAST importanceact upon the bodys cells and can create disorders You see, when you observe carefully, you suddenly become aware of a very slight uneasiness, a mere nothing (when youre busy, you dont even notice it), and then if you follow this uneasiness to see what it is, you perceive that it comes from something quite imperceptible and insignificant to our active consciousness but its enough to create an uneasy feeling in the body.
Which is whyunless you are intentionally and constantly in what here is called the Brahmic consciousness it is practically impossible to control. And this is what gives the impression of certain things happening in the body independently of not only of our will but of our consciousness BUT IT IS NOT TRUE.
Only, there is all that comes from outside thats what is most dangerous. Constantly, constantlywhen you eat, you catch it oh, what a mass of vibrations! the vibrations of the thing you eat when it was living ( they always remain), the vibrations of the person who cooked it, vibrations of All the time, all the time, they never stopyou brea the, they enter. Of course, when you start talking to someone or mixing with people, then you become a bit more conscious of what is coming, but even just sitting still, uninvolved with o thersit comes! there is an almost total interdependenceisolation is an illusion. By reinforcing your own atmosphere (Mo ther gestures, as if building a wall around her), you can hold these things off TO A CERTAIN EXTENT, but simply this effort to keep them at a distance creates (Im thinking in English and speaking in French) disturbances.8 Anyway, now all this has been SEEN.
But I know in an absolute way that once this whole mass of the physical mind is mastered and the Brahmic consciousness is brought into it in a continuous way, you CAN you become the MASTER of your health.
This is why I tell people (not that I expect them to do it, at least not now, but its good they know) that its NOT a matter of fate, NOT something that completely escapes our control, NOT some sort of Law of Nature over which we have no powerit is not so. We are truly the masters of everything which has been brought toge ther to create our transitory individuality; we have been given the power of control, if only we knew how to use it.
Its a discipline, a tremendous tapasya.9
But its good to know in order to avoid this feeling of being crushed when things are still completely outside your control, this sense of fatality people have theyre born, they live, they die: Nature is crushing and we are the playthings of something much bigger, much stronger than us that is the Falsehood.
In any case, for myself, in my yoga, only after I KNEW that I AM the Master of everything (provided I know how to BE this Master and LET myself be this Masterprovided, that is, that the outer stupidity accepts to stay in its place), did I know that one could be the Master of Nature.
theres also this old idea rooted in religions of Chaldean or Christian origin of a God with whom you can have no true contactan abyss between the two. That is terrible.
That absolutely has to stop.
For with that idea, the earth and men will NEVER be able to change. This is why I have often said that this idea is the work of the Asuras,10 and with it they have ruled the earth.
Whereas whatever the effort, whatever the difficulty, whatever time it takes, whatever number of lives, you must know that all this doesnt matter: you KNOW you ARE the Master, that the Master and you are the same. All thats necessary is to know it INTEGRALLY, and nothing must belie it. Thats the way out.
When I tell people that their health depends on their inner life (an intermediate inner life, not the deepest), its because of this.
During the last two years, Ive been accumulating experiences IN theIR MINUTEST DETAILS, things that might seem most useless. You have to consent to that and not have a mania for greatness; you must know that where the key is found is in the tiniest effort to create a true attitude in a few cells.
the problem is that when you enter into the ordinary consciousness, these things become so subtle and require such a scrupulous observance that people are justified ( they FEEL justified) in having the attitude, Oh, its Nature, its Fate, its the Divine Will! But with that conviction, the Yoga of Perfection is impossible and appears as a mere utopian fantasy but this is FALSE. the truth is something else entirely.
(long silence)
When I say to someone, I shall take care of you, do you know what I do? I join his body to mine. And then all the work is done in me (as far as possibleessentially its possible, but there is a relativity because of time; but as far as possible ). So I find it very interesting to make cross-references and find out the results of my interventionnot so I can boast ( theres nothing much to boast about), but for the sake of the SCIENTIFIC study of the problem: to know how to proceed, how to discriminate, what is active and what isnt, what are the guide lines, etc.
And even if at the moment you dont feel very good, you are able to say, It doesnt matter; what we have to do, well do (this fear of not being able to do what has to be done is the most irksome), if at that moment you can sincerely say to yourself, No, I trust in the Divine Grace no, I will do what I have to do, and Ill be given the power to do it, or the power to do it will be created in me then that is the true attitude.
I feel thats what you give me.
the disciple's tantric guru.
In occult language, a 'formation' is a concentration of power towards a specific end. In this case, the tantric guru's formation to save the nephew.
the yearly ritual worship in honor of Durga, the universal Mo ther.
the rakshas are demons of the lower vital plane.
the attack of black magic in December 1958.
Original English. This happened at the time of 'Deepavali,' the Festival of Light, when people throughout India set off all kinds of fireworks.
Which is why we are not publishing it.
--
Asuras: demons of the mental plane.
***
0 1960-10-30, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(After a meditation with Mo ther on the occasion of the disciple's birthday. At the outset of the conversation, Mo ther had given the disciple a small lea ther wallet with an Egyptian fresco depicted on it.)
Let me see the wallet (Mo ther looks at it) Ah, so that has nothing to do with it!
As soon as the meditation began, I started seeing quite familiar scenes from ancient Egypt. And you, you looked a little different, but quite similar all the same the first thing I saw was their god with a head like this (gesture of a muzzle), with a sun above his head. A dark animal head with I know it VERY WELL, but I dont remember exactly which animal it is. One is a hawk,1 but the o ther has a head like (Mo ther makes the same gesture)
Like a jackal?
Yes, like a jackal, thats it. Yes, thats what it was. With a kind of lyre above its head, and then a sun.2
And this god was very intimately related to you, as if you were melted toge ther; you were like a sacrificial priest and at the same time he was entering into you.
And this lasted quite long (its what I saw most clearly and what I best remember). But there were many, many thingsold things that I know and certainly a VERY INTIMATE relationship which we had in the days of Egypt, at thebes.
Its the first time I saw this for youit was very, very
Was it by chance the wallet that brought this to mind? I wondered right at first. I had the impression of having given you something Egyptian, but I could no longer remember what it was Im happy it wasnt that! I hesitated for barely a moment, then said to myself, Why? And what came is that everything, even apparently accidental things, is organized by the same Consciousness for the same endsits obvious.
But I found this interesting, so I began looking, and I LIVED the scene, all kinds of scenes of initiation, worship, etc., for quite some time. When that lifted, a light much stronger than the last time (during the last meditation) came down, in a wonderful silence. (I might add that the first thing I did, at the beginning, was to try to establish a silence around you, to insulate you from o ther things so as to keep your mind quiet; it kept jumping a little, but once this light came down ) And it came down with a very hieratic quality and (how can I put this?) Egyptian in charactervery occult, very occult, very, very distinct, very specific, like this (gesture indicating a block of silence descending).
And then there came a long moment of absolutely motionless contemplation with something that now escapes meit may come back.
then suddenly I went into a little trance. And in it I saw you, but you were physically, you were on one plane, and then I saw ano ther man on a different plane (I saw him quite concretely; he was ra ther tall, broad-shoulderednot so tall as broad, with a dark, European suit). And he took your hands and started shaking them enthusiastically!but you were quite indifferent, just as you are now, dressed in Indian fashion and sitting cross-legged. He took both your hands and started shaking them! And then I distinctly heard the words: Congratulations, its a great success!it had to do with your book.3 And at the same time, I saw all sorts of people and things who were touched by your bookall kinds of people, obviously French, or Westerners in any case women, men. there was even one woman (she must have been an actress or a singer or anyway, someone whose life was she was even dressed for the stage, with some kind of tightsa beautiful girl!) and she said to someone, Ah, it has even given me a taste for the spiritual life! It was extremely interesting All kinds of things of this nature. And then once again I came out of this trance and In the end, I tried to do some certain thing for you and it turned out well. It turned out quite well.
But then, just before that, there was this powdering of golden light coming down. And as it descended, it was white with a touch of gold (but it was white) and it came down in a column, with such POWER! And then, just at the end, this powdering of gold came and settled into this white light which had remained there the whole timeoh, it was so abundant. A great power of realization. I had a hard time coming out of it! At the start, I had decided to come out of it at half past, so I came out, but still not completely
So there, my child. And you, what did you feel?
When I meditate with you When Im alone, there is never this power, this Its something else Sometimes its strong but it always lacks this particular quality. there are powerful moments when Im alone, but not like this.
Of course! Im also with you there in your room when you meditate, but it does make a difference
the physical vibration is important. the circumstances relating to the work of transformation make the physical vibration important. I feel it, for as soon as I want to do something with someone on the physical plane (physical, mind you), it all comes into the body. And the body is simply seized I see that absolutely physical vibrations are being used all the time. Its really so different. All the work which is done at a distance (gesture indicating action stemming from the mind)it acts, of course, but
You know, even now, all this (Mo ther touches her body, her hands) feels so vibrant and alive that its difficult to sense its limits as if it extends beyond the body in all directions. It no longer has any limits.
But its still not luminous in the dark. What is normally luminous in the dark is something else I had that when I was working with theon (after returning to France, we had group meditationsthough he didnt call it meditation, he called it repose, and we used to do this in a darkened room), and there was it was like phosphorescence, exactly the color of phosphorescent light, like certain fish in the water at night. It would come out [of the body], spread forth, move about. But that is the vital, it originates in the vital. It is a force from above, but what manifests is vital. Whereas now it is absolutely, clearly the golden supramental light in an extraordinary pulsation, vibrant in intensity But probably it still lacks a what theon used to call density, an agent that enables it to be seen in the dark and then it would be visibly gold, not phosphorescent.
But it is very, very concrete, very material.
--
Again last night, for a large part of the night, it was the body has no more limitsits only a great MASS of vibrations.
And the experience just now (during meditation) was somehow mixed with what I usually see at night (it was not a combinationor maybe it was a combination ), for it had that same light It was a kind of powdering, even finer than tiny dotsa powdering like an atomic dust, but with an EXTREMELY intense vibration but without any shifting of place. And yet its in constant motion Something shifting about within something that vibrates on the same spot without moving (something does move, but its subtler, like a current of tremendous power which passes through a milieu that doesnt move at all: ra ther, it vibrates on the same spot with an extreme intensity). But I dont exactly know how it is different from the present experience It becomes less golden at night, the gold is less visible, whereas the o ther colorswhite, blue and a sort of pinkare much more visible.
Oh, now I remember! It was PINK during the second phase, just afterwards, after Egypt! Oh, it was like like at the end of a sunrise when it gets very clear and luminous. A magnificent color. And it kept coming down and down, in a flood that part was new. Its something I see very rarely. It was not there at all the last time we meditated toge ther. And it came filled with such a joy! Oh! It was absolutely ecstatic. It lasted quite a long time. And from there I went into this trance where I saw (laughing) that man congratulating you! I heard him say (his voice is what roused me from my trance, and then I saw him), Congratulations, its a great success! (Mo ther laughs)
Its good. Well have these little meditations from time to time. For me, its pleasant, for I have nei ther to restrict nor contain nor veil myself. Its nice.
And I see whats coming down; its good.
And there is something very happy, very happy, which keeps repeating, Its good, its good! Happy and ra ther satisfied because of that.
My impression is that in a while, maybe not in such a distant future, well be able to do something, a sort of it will no longer be personal. We should be able to establish something.4
--
Yes, of course! But to be put back in order, it must become a bit stronger. the more fragile you are, the more it breaks down.
All I know is that HERE you must be very careful not to weaken the bodys resistance (I dont just mean in India, but here in the Ashram). Here, its important the base must be solid, for o therwise its difficult. the more the Force descendsas it has just now descended the more the body must be ra ther square. Its important.
Ive tried everything, you know, from complete fasting to a meat dieteverything, everything. Well, I noticed that you can have pleasant experiences while fasting, but its not good, it shouldnt be done these are all old ideas. No, the body must be solid, solid o therwise
(Mo ther gives the disciple a carnation, named by her Collaboration)
So, I wont see you again? No, too many people come in the afternoon, its not pleasant
Horus, the sun god, child of Isis and Osiris.
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 bro ther 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.
the terrestrial work to be accomplished through the Agenda.
***
0 1960-11-05, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
these things from the past its ra ther oddnow, once they come and Ive spoken of them, they get erased. As if they were returning one last time to say goodbye before going for good.
All these memories (actually theyre ra ther 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.
I have so totally forgotten a whole world of incidents and events that when someone reminds me of something ( the people around me have lived with me, so theyve seen things and remember them), I get the feeling that they are speaking of someone or something elseit no longer has any connection with me at all. And its the same with everything, whe ther near or far, which has brought to my consciousness whatever it had to bring, lost its utility anddisappeared. Only, these memories probably still have some utility for the o thers, so they remain. But for me its completely erased, absolutely, as if it had never been.
Its the only way to forget.
People often try to forget the past, but it doesnt work. Only once it has brought all the lessons that it was meant to bring into your life (its decanted, so you see the thing in its deepest truth), is its utility finished, and it disappears.
I am convinced that at heart Karma is simply all the things we havent used in the true way that we drag along behind us If totally and clearly we have learned the lesson which each event or each circumstance ought to have brought, then its finished, its utility is gone and it dissolves.
Its an interesting experience to follow and observe.
--
I went down into a place a place simply in the human consciousness, thus necessarily in my body I have never seen anything more timorous, fearful, feeble and mean! Its it must be a part of the cells, part of the consciousness, something that lives in apprehension, fear, dread, anxiety It was truly, truly dreadful.
And we carry that within us! We arent aware of it, its almost subconscious for you see, the consciousness is there to prevent us from yielding to thatits cowardly, and it can make you fall sick IN A MINUTE. I saw it, I saw things that had been cured and overcome in myself (cured in the true manner, not in an outer way), and then they return! Its cured, but then it begins again.
So then I went in search of its origin. Its something in the subconscientin the cells subconscient. Its roots are there, and on the least occasion And its so very, very ingrained that For example, you can be feeling very good, the body can be perfectly harmonious (and when the body is perfectly harmonious, its motions are harmonious, things are in their true places, everything works exactly as it should without needing the least attentiona general harmony), when suddenly the clock strikes, for example, or someone utters a word, and you have just the faint impression Oh, its late, Im not going to be on timea second, a split second, and the whole working of the body falls apart. You suddenly feel feeble, drained, uneasy. And you have to intervene. Its terrible. And were at the mercy of such things!
To change it, you have to descend into itwhich is what Im in the midst of doing. But you know, it makes for painful moments. Anyway, once its done, it will be something. When that is done, Ill explain it to you. And then Ill have the power to restore you to health.
***
0 1960-11-08, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(After a conversation with Z, a distant 'disciple' reputed for his loose morals and the object of numerous 'moralistic' or even so-called 'yogic' criticisms among the 'true disciples' in the Ashram)
He lives in a region which is largely a kind of vital vibration which penetrates the mind and makes use of the imagination (essentially its the same region most so-called cultured men live in). I dont mean to be severe or critical, but its a world that likes to play to itself. Its not really what we could call histrionics, not thatits ra ther a need to dramatize to oneself. So it can be an heroic drama, it can be a musical drama, it can be a tragic drama, or quite simply a poetic drama and ninety-nine times out of a hundred, its a romantic drama. And then, these soul states (!) come replete with certain spoken expressions (laughing) Im holding myself back from saying certain things!You know, its like a theatricals store where you rent scenery and costumes. Its all ready and waitinga little call, and there it comes, ready-made. For a particular occasion, they say, Youre the woman of my life (to be repeated as often as necessary), and for ano ther they say Its a whole world, a whole mode of human life which I suddenly felt I was holding in my arms. Yes, like a decoration, an ornament, a nicetyan ornament of existence, to keep it from being flat and dull and the best means the human mind has found to get out of its tamas. Its a kind of artifice.
So for persons who are severe and grave ( there are two such examples here, but its not necessary to name them) there are beings who are grave, so serious, so sincere, who find it hypocritical; and when it borders on certain (how shall I put it?) vital excesses, they call it vice. there are o thers who have lived their entire lives in a yogic or religious discipline, and they see this as an obstacle, illusion, dirtyness (Mo ther makes a gesture of rejecting with disgust), but above all, its this terrible illusion that prevents you from nearing the Divine. And when I saw the way these two people here reacted, in fact, I said to myself, but you see, I FELT So strongly that this too is the Divine, it too is a way of getting out of something that has had its place in evolution, and still has a place, individually, for certain individuals. Naturally, if you remain there, you keep turning in circles; it will always be (not eternally, but indefinitely) the woman of my life, to take that as a symbol. But once youre out of it, you see that this had its place, its utilityit made you emerge from a kind of very animal-like wisdom and quietude that of the herd or of the being who sees no fur ther than his daily round. It was necessary. We mustnt condemn it, we mustnt use harsh words.
the mistake we make is to remain there too long, for if you spend your whole life in that, well, youll probably need many more lifetimes. But once the chance to get out of it comes, you can look at it with a smile and say, Yes, its really a sort of love for fiction!people love fiction, they want fiction, they need fiction! O therwise its boring and all much too flat.
All this came to me yesterday. I kept Z with me for more than half an hour, nearly 45 minutes. He told me some very interesting things. What he said was quite good and I encouraged him a great dealsome action on the right lines which will be quite useful, and then a book unfortunately mixed with an influence from that artificial world (but actually, even that can be used as a link to attract people). He must have spoken to you about this. He wants to write a kind of dialogue to introduce Sri Aurobindos ideasits a good idealike the conversations in Les Hommes de Bonne Volont by Jules Romain. He wants to do it, and I told him it was an excellent idea. And not only one typehe should take all types of people who for the moment are closed to this vision of life, from the Catholic, the fervent believer, right to the utmost materialist, men of science, etc. It could be very interesting.
This is what you see in life, its all like thateach thing has its place and its necessity. This has made me see a whole current of life I was very, very involved with people from this milieu during a whole period of my existence and in fact, its the first approach to Beauty. But it gets mixed.
(Mo ther remains silent a moment)
Symbolically, in life, we might think of tamas as the earth ( the solid and obdurate earth), and this intervention of the vital is water flowing onto it. But when first it touches the earth, it stirs up mud! theres no reason to protest, for its like that. And thereby the earth becomes less hard and resistant, and it begins receiving.
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 ANO theR 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.
(silence)
I have experienced all kinds of things in life, but I have always felt a sort of lightso INTANGIBLE, So perfectly pure (not in the moral sense, but pure light!)and it could go anywhere, mix everywhere without ever really getting mixed with anything. I felt this flame as a young childa white flame. And NEVER have I felt disgust, contempt, recoil, the sense of being dirtiedby anything or anyone. there was always this flamewhite, white, so white that nothing could make it o ther than white. And I started feeling it long ago in the past (now my approach is entirely differentit comes straight from above, and I have o ther reasons for seeing the Purity in everything). But it came back when I met Z (because of the contact with him)and I felt nothing negative, absolutely nothing. Afterwards, people said, Oh, how he used to be this, how he used to be that! And now look at him! See what hes become! Someone even used the word rotten that made me smile. Because, you see, that doesnt exist for me.
What I saw is this world, this realm where people are like that, they live that, for its necessary to get out from below and this is a wayits a way, the only way. It was the only way for the vital formation and the vital creation to enter into the material world, into inert matter. An intellectualized vital, a vital of ideas, an artist; it even fringes upon or has the first drops of Poetrythis Poetry which upon its peaks goes beyond the mind and becomes an expression of the Spirit. Well, when these first drops fall on earth, it stirs up mud.
And I wondered why people are so rigid and severe, why they condemn o thers (but one day Ill understand this as well). I say this because very often I run into these two states of mind in my activities ( the grave and serious mind which sees hypocrisy and vice, and the religious and yogic mind which sees the illusion that prevents you from nearing the Divine)and without being openly criticized, Im criticized Ill tell you about this one day
Youre criticized?
Yes, but naturally without daring to criticize me openly. But Im aware of it. On the one hand, they see it as a kind of looseness on my part (oh, not only for thatmany things!). And on the o ther hand,1 you know well enough; it applies to o ther things, slightly different areas, its not exactly the same, but in this area theyre also severe. Im even told that there are some people who shouldnt be in the Ashram.
My reply is that the whole world should be in the Ashram!
But as I cannot contain the whole world, I have to contain at least one representative of each type.
they also find I give too much time and too much force (and maybe too much attention) to people and things that should be regarded with more severity. That never bo thered me much. It doesnt matter, they can say what they like.
But since Zs visit yesterday, and this morning on the balcony Oh, its so I had already seen this long agothis whole milieu that is not very pretty and I had said, Well, its all right, thats how it is, and I didnt discuss it fur ther: Thats how it is, and absolutely the whole world belongs to the Lord IS the Lord! And the Lord made it so, and the Lord wants it so, and its quite all right. then I put it aside. But with his visit yesterday, it found its placesuch a smiling place. And theres a whole world of things of life which have found their true place in this waywith a smile!
(silence)
--
How strange it is! You have the feeling of ascending, of a progress in consciousness, and everything, all the events and circumstances of life follow one ano ther with an unquestioning logic. You see the Divine Will unfolding with a wonderful logic. then, from time to time, there appears a little set of circumstances (ei ther isolated or repeated), which are like snags on the way; you cant explain them, so you put them aside for later on. Some such accidents have been quite significant, but they dont seem to follow this ascending line of the present individuality. theyre scattered along the way, sometimes repeated, sometimes only once, and then they vanish. And when you go through such an experience, you sense that they are things put aside for later on. And then, all of a sudden (especially during these last two years when I have again descended to take all that up), all of a sudden, one after ano ther, all these snags return. And they dont follow the same curve; ra ther, its as if suddenly you reach a certain state and a certain impersonal breadth that far surpasses the individual, and this new state enters into contact with one of those old accidents that had remained in the deepest part of the subconscientand that makes it rise up again, the two meet in an explosion of light. Everything is explained, everything is understood, everything is clear! No explanation is needed: it has become OBVIOUS.
This is entirely ano ther 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.
these things are like landmarks along the ascending path: you go forward step by step, and sometimes its painful, sometimes joyful, or with a certain amount of toil that bears witness still to the presence of the personality or the individuality and its limitations ( the Questions and Answers are full of this)but the o ther thing is different, completely different: the o ther thing is an overflowing joy, and not only the joy of knowing but the joy of BEING. An overflowing joy.2
there, my child.
If you werent there, all these things would never get said.
I dont know why. I dont know why I wouldnt say them. But I know why I say them to you I already gave you a hint. 3 I told you, didnt I, that there was a reason.
Yes, but you didnt tell me what it was!
(Mo ther laughs) Because its not that kind of reason, not a reason that can be explained!! No, its a its the same thing, a contact.
I know I told you that I had had a vision, but you didnt understand what I told you that day. It was a vision of the place you occupy in my being and of the work we have to do toge ther. Thats really how it is. these things [that I tell you] have their utility and a concrete life, and I see them as very powerful for world transformation theyre what I call experiences (which is much more than an experience because it extends far beyond the individual)and its the same whe ther its said or not said: the Action is done. But the fact that it is said, that it is formulated here and preserved, is exclusively for you, because you were made for this and this is why we met.
It doesnt need a lot of explaining.
And, even with Sri Aurobindo, even with him I didnt speak of these things for I wouldnt waste his time, and I found it quite useless to burden him with all this. I would tell him I always described my visions and experiences at night I always recounted that to him. And he would remember (I myself would forget; the next day, the whole thing would be gone), he would remember; then sometimes, long afterwards, even years afterwards, he would say, Ah, yes! You had seen that back then. He had a wonderful memory. While myself, I would already have forgotten. But those were the only things I told him, and even then only when I saw that it had a very sure, very superior quality. I didnt bo ther him with a whole jumble of words. But o therwise . even Nolini,4 who understands well I never, never felt even the (its not the need) not even the POSSIBILITY.
I dont want to tell you this too precisely, to expand on it, for these things cannot be explained. I want you tonot know nor think it, but feel it suddenly, like a little electric shock within that leaps forth.
It will come.
--
Its the mind thats terrible. Its a nuisance. To have an experience like the one I told you about a little while ago you have to tell it, Okay, be quiet; be quiet now, be calm. But if its left on its own and youre unfortunate enough to listen to it, it spoils everything. This is what you must learn to do.
But effort is not of much use, my child, its (long silence) its you can call it grace, or you can call it a knacktwo very different things, yet it has something of each.
--
And the more you try, the more fidgety it gets.
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.
Mo ther is referring to traditional tantrism.
Later coming back to the experience She has just described, Mo ther added the following: 'It's a very interesting experience. It's a very powerful lever for abolishing the moral point of view in its narrowest forms. And this is precisely what I encounter all the time in peopleyou see, all those who make a spiritual effort bring me truckloads of morality!'
Original English.
the most senior disciple in the Ashram.
***
0 1960-11-12, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(It has not stopped raining for the last 20 days ... )
Chittagong was hit by a cyclone, there were tidal waves somewhere else the cyclone went up the wrong side!for according to Xs predictions, it was Karachi that should have disappeared.
He said only in 1962 or 1963 would Karachi totally disappear. And three-fourths of Bombay underwater!
And just a while ago some volcanoes erupted, so the sea rose and swept away all kinds of things in Japan and all along its path, but it didnt come all the way to India. When I was in Japan, one island was swallowed up just like that, along with its 30,000 inhabitants, glub!
You see, it amuses them; its the way these beings amuse themselvesonly its on ano ther scale, thats all. they look at us like ants, so whats it matter to them! If they dont like it, too bad for them. Only, ants cant protest, or at least we dont understand their protests! Whereas when we ourselves protest, we can make ourselves heard. We have the means to make ourselves heard.
We can be heard?
Certainly, we CAN be heard. So far I never said anything. It even surprised me, for I had never paid it any attention, I was quite away from all that: its raining?so what, its raining, it happens. Its not raining?so what, its not raining, its the same thing. And then gradually people started mentioning that should it continue, they wouldnt be able to do their exercises, and they wouldnt be ready for December 2.1 then I started receiving desperate lettersone person even told me he was doing his puja underwater! So I answered by saying, Take it as the Lords blessing but Im not sure he appreciated it! And then I learned that 200 houses [in the Ashram]200!are leaking. Naturally, each one is in a great hurryits terribly urgent! So perhaps I shall file a complaint and ask them what they mean by this!
Actually, if communications are interrupted, it can be troublesome Let us see.
--
Speaking of which, I looked at Ts most recent questions on the Aphorisms again. All these children havent the least sense of humor, so Sri Aurobindos paradoxes throw them into a kind of despair! the last aphorism went something like this: When I could read a wearisome book from one end to the o ther with pleasure, then I knew I had conquered my mind.2 So T asked me How can you read a wearisome book with pleasure?!! I had to explain it to her. And on top of that, I have to take on a ra ther serious tone, for were I to reply in the same ironic fashion, they would be totally drowned! It throws them into a terrible confusion!
Its a lack of plasticity in the mind, and they are bound by the expression of things; for them, words are rigid. Sri Aurobindo explained it so well in the Secret of the Veda; he shows how language evolves and how, before, it was very supple and evocative. For example, one could at once think of a river and of inspiration. Sri Aurobindo also gives the example of a sailboat and the forward march of life. And he says that for those of the Vedic age it was quite natural, the two could go toge ther, superimposed; it was merely a way of looking at the same thing from two sides, whereas now, when a word is said, we think only of this word all by itself, and to get a clear picture we need a whole literary or poetic imagery (with explanations to boot!). Thats exactly the case with these children; theyre at a stage where everything is rigid. Such is the product of modern education. It even extracts the subtlest nuance between two words and FIXES it: And above all, dont make any mistake, dont use this word for that word, for o therwise your writings no good. But its just the opposite.
(silence)
--
Yes, everything is getting mildewed, everything you touch. Im sleeping in a damp bed; to walk on the woolen carpets upstairs is like walking on mossin the forest! For myself, I dont mind.
theres a certain sensibility which makes any increase in humidity felt. Before it starts raining, even several hours before, it feels like there are drops falling on my body. I can always say when its going to rain. Its entirely physical, actually, merely a heightened sensitivity. It feels like very tiny drops (you know, like drizzle), the feeling of a very fine spray falling on the body. And yet the sky is clear; I say, Hmm, its going to rain. And it rains I felt it. I feel the water, and it never fails to come a few hours later.
(silence)
You asked me just now if we have a say in the matter. Well, last year I didnt go out; I had no intention of going to the Sportsground or to the theater for the December 2 program, but I was often asked to see that the wea ther be good. So while I was doing my japa upstairs, I started saying that it shouldnt rain. But they werent in a very good mood! (When I used to go out myself, it had an effect, for it kept the thing in check, and even if it had been raining earlier, that day it would stop.) So they said, But you arent going out, so what does it matter. I said I wascounting on it. then they answered, Are you prepared to have it rain the next time you go out?Do what you like, I replied. And when I went out on November 24 for the prize distribution, there was a deluge. It came pouring down and we had to run for shelter in the gymnasiumeveryone was splashing around, the band playing on the verandah was half-drenched, it was dreadful! the day before it hadnt rained, the day after it didnt rain. But on that day they had their revenge!
I dont want that to happen this time. Once is enough. So Im going to see about it.
--
But its explained very well in Savitri! All these things have their laws and their conventions (and truly speaking, a really FORMIDABLE power is needed to change anything of their rights, for they have rightswhat they call laws) Sri Aurobindo explains this very well when Savitri, following Satyavan into death, argues with the god of Death.3 Its the Law, and who has the right to change the Law? he says. And then comes this wonderful passage at the end where she replies, My God can change it. And my God is a God of Love. Oh, how magnificent!
And by force of repeating this to him, he yields She replies in this way to EVERYTHING.
Its all right for winning a Victory, but not for stopping the rain for one day!
So Im trying to come to an understanding, to reach an agreement these are very complicated matters (!). For its a whole totality You see, we are trying something here which really is contrary to all those laws and practices, something which disturbs everything. So they propose things that have me advancing like this (sinuous motion), without disturbing things too much, and without having to call in forces (Mo ther makes a gesture of a lance thrust into the pack) forces a bit too great, which may disturb things too much. Like that, we can keep tacking back and forth.
A while ago You know that I have TREMENDOUS financial difficulties. In fact, I have handed the whole matter over to the Lord, telling Him, Its your affair; if you want us to continue this experience, well, you must provide the means. But this upsets some of them, so they come along with all kinds of suggestions to keep me from having to to resort to something so drastic. they suggest all kinds of things; some time ago they said, What about a good cyclone, or a good earthquake? A lot of damage to the Ashram, a public appeal that would bring in some funds! (Mo ther laughs) Yes, its of this order! And its all quite clear and definitewe have veritable conversations!
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 (Mo ther 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 fur ther away. then I moved. And even now, it comesfrom o thers ( theres not just one, you see, there are many): How about a good flood? A roof collapsed the o ther 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 o ther 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.
He wrote this in a letter, I believe, and he spoke of this system of compensation for example, those who take an illness on themselves in order to have the power to cure; and then theres the symbolic story of Christ dying on the cross to set men free. And Sri Aurobindo said, Thats fine for a certain age, but we must now go beyond that. As he told me (its even one of the first things he told me), We are no longer at the time of Christ when, to be victorious, it was necessary to die.
I have always remembered this.
But things are PULLING backwardsphew, how they pull! the Law, the Law, its a Law. Dont you understand, its a LAW, you cant change the Law.
But I CAME to change the Law.
then pay the price.
(silence)
What can make them yield?
Divine Love.
Its the only thing.
Sri Aurobindo has explained it in Savitri. Only when Divine Love has manifested in all its purity will everything yield, will it all yieldit will then be done.
Its the only thing that can do it.
It will be the great Victory.
(silence)
On a small scale, in very small details, I feel that of all the forces, this is the strongest. And its the only one with a power over hostile wills. Only for the world to change, it must manifest here in all its fullness. We have to be up to it
Sri Aurobindo had also written to the effect, If Divine Love were to manifest now in all its fullness and totality, not a single material organism would but burst. So we must learn to widen, widen, widen not only the inner consciousness (that is relatively easyat least feasible), but even this conglomeration of cells. And Ive experienced this: you have to be able to widen this sort of crystallization if you want to be able to hold this Force. I know. Two or three times, upstairs (in Mo thers room), I felt the body about to burst. Actually, I was on the verge of saying, burst and be done with. But Sri Aurobindo always intervenedall three times he intervened in an entirely tangible, living and concrete way and he arranged everything so that I was forced to wait.
then weeks go by, sometimes even months, between one thing and ano ther, so that some elasticity may come into these stupid cells.
So much time is wasted. We are oh! We are so hard! (Mo ther hits her body) As hard as a rock.
But three times now, Ive really felt that I was on the verge of falling apart. the first time it brought a fever, a fever so I dont know, as if I had at least 115!I was roasting from head to toe; everything became red hot, and then it was over. That was the day when suddenlysuddenly I was You see, I had said to myself, All right, you must be peaceful, lets see what happens, so then I brought down the Peace, and immediately I was able to pass into a second of unconsciousness and I woke up in the subtle physical, in Sri Aurobindos abode.4 there he was. And then I spent some time with him, explaining the problem.
But that was really an experience, a decisive experience (it was many months ago, perhaps more than a year ago).
So I explained the problem to Sri Aurobindo, and he replied (by his expression, not with words, but it was clear), Patience, patiencepatience, it will come. And a few days after this experience, by chance I came upon something he had written where precisely he explained that we are much too rigid, coagulated, clenched for these things to be able to manifestwe must widen, relax, become plastic.
But this takes time.
--
I have quite the feeling that I myself do nothing at all, absolutely nothing. the only thing I do is this (gesture of offering upwards), constantly this, in everythingin thoughts, feelings, sensations, in the bodys cells, all the time: You, You, You. Its You, its You, its You Thats all. And nothing else.
In o ther words, a more and more complete, a more and more integral assent, more and more like this (gesture of letting herself be carried). Thats when you have the feeling that you must be ABSOLUTELY like a child.
If you start thinking, Oh, I want to be like this! Oh, I ought to be like that! you waste your time.
the Ashram's annual physical education demonstration at the Sportsground.
the actual aphorism reads: 'When I read a wearisome book through and with pleasure, yet perceived all the perfection of its wearisomeness, then I knew that my mind was conquered.'
Yama: the god of Death. He is also the guardian of the Law.
Night of July 24, 1959.
0 1960-11-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I dont know if its due to Zs visit1 or simply if the time had come and things converged (because thats what generally happens), but a whole period of the past is coming up again and its not a purely personal past, for it includes all the acquaintances I used to have, a whole collection of things that represents not only my individual life but something ra ther collective (as it always is; each of us is always a collectivity but we arent aware of it, and if anything were taken away, it would unbalance the whole). A whole set of things that were absolutely wiped clean from the memory (it must have been buried somewhere in the subconscient or the semi-conscientin any case, something more unconscious than the subconscient), and it has all come back up. Oh, things such things If just two weeks ago someone had asked me, Do you remember that? I would have replied, No, not at all! And its coming from every side. Oh, such mediocrity! (mediocre in the way of consciousness, experiences and activities) and so gray, so dull, so flat! Only this morning, while getting ready for the balcony, I thought, Is it possible to live like that?!
And then it became so clear that behind all this there was always the same luminous Presence, this Presence that is everywhere, always, watching over everything.
And as I look now at the things of life, at people, at this totality, I see that its identically the same thing when seen from there, from that consciousness its so drab, dull, insipid, gray, uninteresting, lifeless Oh, all of life, WHATEVER IT IS, is like that when seen from that consciousness!
So I understood that this must correspond to a certain realm of experience; I understood all those who say, If it has to be like this, if it can never be o therwise, then (this opposition, this abyss between a TRUE life, a TRUE consciousness, a TRUE activity, something living, powerful, fulfilling and life as it now is), if there must always be this difference between the physical expression as it is or as it can be in the present circumstances, and the true life, then For if despite everythingdespite this tremendous distance Ive covered in my life ( these memories go back more than sixty years) and all the evolutionary effort upwards I have made since that time IN MATTER (Im not speaking of leaving Matter behind, but IN MATTER, IN action)if that doesnt fur ther reduce this gap between the true consciousness and the possible material realization, then I understand I understand why people say, Its hopeless. (Of course, this hopeless is meaningless to me.)
But I (how can I put this?) I lived their experience, I lived it; and even events which seem quite extraordinary when seen from afar, which is the way they appear to most people, even historical things which have fur thered the earths transformation and its upheavals the crucial events, the great works, you might sayare woven from the SAME fabric, they are the SAME thing! When you look at all this from afar, on the whole it can make an impression, but the life of each minute, of each hour, of each second is woven from this SAME fabric, drab, dull, insipid, WITHOUT ANY TRUE LIFEa mere reflection of life, an illusion of lifepowerless, void of any light or anything that resembles joy in the least. Oh! if it has always to remain like that, then we dont want any of it.
Such is the feeling it gives.
For me its different, because I KNOW that it can and must become something else. But then all this Consciousness which is there and in which I live and which has this world vision must come forward and manifest in the vibration of EACH secondnot in a whole which looks interesting when seen from afar; it must enter the vibration of each second, the consciousness of each minute, o therwise
(silence)
--
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 mewhe ther its like this or like that makes no difference to me; Im only doing my work, thats all), I was already conscious, but never theless 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 o ther 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 nei ther air nor life nor light there 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 nei ther 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)
And its still the same thing; only now Im up here (Mo ther gestures above the head), Im here, so its quite ano ther matter.
I am no longer looking out at the sky from below, but from up above I am looking, as if each look at each thing seen established the Contact.
It was like that this morning at the balcony.
the rainy season expresses this state of things so well: a constant descent of luminous sweetness (sweetness is not the right word there must be a Sanskrit word for it, but this is all we have! ) in this endless gloom.
***
(Soon afterwards, Mo ther comes back to the same theme)
It all began the day I received the news of Zs arrival. All right, I thought, heres a chunk of life sent back to me for clarifying. I must work on it. But it didnt stop there Its strange how all this past had been swept clean I could no longer remember dates, I couldnt even remember when Z had been here before, I no longer knew what had happened, it had all been wiped cleanwhich means that it had all been pushed down into the subconscient. I didnt even know how I used to speak to him when I saw him, nothing, it was all gone. All that had remained alive were one or two movements or facts which were clearly connected to the psychic life, the psychic consciousness but just one or two or three such memories; all the rest was gone.
So a whole slice of my life came back, but it didnt stop there! It keeps extending back fur ther and fur ther, and memories keep on coming, things that go back sixty years now, even beyond, seventy, seventy-five years they are all coming back. And so it all has to be put in order.
Its quite odd, for this was not a personal consciousness, it was not someone remembering his lifethis is what I found most interesting; what came were pieces, little chunks of lifes construction, a collection of people and circumstances. And it is impossible to separate the individual from all that is around him, its clear! It all holds toge ther like (if you change one thing, everything is changed) it holds toge ther like an agglomerated mass.
I had seen this earlier from ano ther angle. In the beginning, when I started having the consciousness of immortality and when I brought toge ther this true consciousness of immortality and the human conception of it (which is entirely different), I saw so clearly that when a human (even quite an ordinary human, one who is not a collectivity in himselfas is a writer, for example, or a philosopher or statesman) projects himself through his imagination into what he calls immortality (meaning an indefinite duration of time) he doesnt project himself alone but ra ther, inevitably and always, what is projected along with himself is a whole agglomeration, a collectivity or totality of things which represent the life and the consciousness of his present existence. And then I made the following experiment on a number of people; I said to them, Excuse me, but lets say that through a special discipline or a special grace your life were to continue indefinitely. What you would most likely extend into this indefinite future are the circumstances of your life, this formation you have built around yourself that is made up of people, relationships, activities, a whole collection of more or less living or inert things.
But that CANNOT be extended as it is, for everything is constantly changing! And to be immortal, you have to follow this perpetual change; o therwise, what will naturally happen is what now happensone day you will die because you can no longer follow the change. But if you can follow it, then all this will fall from you! Understand that what will survive in you is something you dont know very well, but its the only thing that can survive and all the rest will keep falling off all the time Do you still want to be immortal?Not one in ten said yes! Once you are able to make them feel the thing concretely, they tell you, Oh no! Oh no! Since everything else is changing, the body might as well change too! What difference would it make! But what remains is THAT; THAT is what you must truly hold on to but then you must BE THAT, not this whole agglomeration. What you now call you is not THAT, its a whole collection of things..
Formerly, that was my first stepa long time ago. Now its so very different I wonder how it was possible to have been so totally blind as to call that oneself at any moment in ones life! Its a collection of things. And what was the link by which that could be called oneself? Thats more difficult to find out. Only when you climb above do you come to realize that THAT is at work here, but it could work there as well, or as well here, or here, or here At times there is suddenly a drop of something (Oh, I saw that this morningit was like a drop, a little drop, but with SUCH an intense and perfect light ), and where THAT falls it makes its center and begins radiating out and acting. THAT is what can be called oneselfnothing else. And THAT precisely is what enabled me to live in such dreadfully uninteresting, such nonexistent circumstances. And at the moment when you ARE that, you see how that has lived and how that has used everything, not only in this body but in all bodies and through all time.
At the core, this is the experience; it is no longer knowledge. I now understand quite clearly the difference between the knowledge of the eternal soul, of life eternal through all its changes, and this CONCRETE experience of the thing.
Its very moving.
It was strange, this morning I came a few minutes late. (I blamed the clocks which werent working, but it wasnt the clocks which were to blame!) I was getting dressed when suddenly all this came upon me I had a moment of it may have lasted one or two minutes, just a few minutes, not long.Oh, the emotion I had during the experience was it was very absorbing.
It was no longer this (that is, life as it is on earth) becoming conscious of That ( the eternal soul, this portion of the Supreme as Sri Aurobindo said); it was the eternal soul seeing life in its own way but without separation, without any separation, not like something looking from above that feels itself to be different How strange it is! Its not something else, its NOT something else, its not even a distortion, not even Its losing its illusory quality as described in the old spiritualities thats not what it is! In my experience, there was there was clearly an emotion I cant describe it, there are no words. It wasnt a feeling, it was something like an emotion, a vibration of such TOTAL closeness and at the same time of compassion, a compassion of love. (Oh, words are so pitiful! ) One was this outer thing, which was the total negation of the o ther and AT the SAME TIME the o ther, without the least separation between them. It WAS the o ther. So what was born in one was born in the o ther as well, in this eternal light. A sweetness of identity, precisely, an identity that was necessarily such total understanding with such perfect love but love says it poorly, all words are poor! Its not that; its something else! Its something that cannot be expressed.
I lived that this morning, upstairs.
And this body is oh, how feeble and how poor it is. All it finds to express itself are the tears that come to its eyes! Why?I dont know.
It has a lot to do before it is strong enough to LIVE that.
This was still there, like a sweetness, when I came to the balcony And the notion that people, objects, life, that all that are different is unthinkable! It is not possible. Even thought is so strange!
(silence)
I often find leaving the balcony difficult. And its only this same gentleman (you know, the censor) who starts telling me, Youre keeping them there in the rain just because youre in ecstasy; youre just letting them stand there drenched and getting a crick in the neck looking up in the air. Arent you going to let them go?When he insists too much, I go back inside.
Maybe thats why hes still there. O therwise, if I forgot (Mo ther laughs)
Conversation of November 8, the 'artist' disciple with loose morals.
***
0 1960-11-26, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Your force cured me in one hour in a spectacular way. I would understand if you had merely cured my flu, for thats something more general, and with a good general vibration it can be removed; but the force acted with an astonishing precision and accuracy: first it wiped out my flu, then it touched a toothache thats been hurting for the last three days, and in five minutes that was gone. Finally, I had a pulled ligament which for three or four years now has periodically given me pain (a thigh ligament where it joins the pelvis, to be precise) and this last week it was hurting so much that I found it difficult to sit cross-legged for meditation. And then I felt the force come and touch just there, exactly at this point, and the pain vanished. And yet the problem was of an organic nature, not some general illness!
(Mo ther remains silent a moment, then says:)
Not last night but the night before, I touched at least one of the causes (at that time it felt like the cause) of a certain powerlessness to act directly on Matter You see, when the Will and the Power come, they are extremely effective everywhere UP TO A CERTAIN REGION (in o ther words, whe ther people are receptive or not, open or not, makes no differencewhen the Will is applied it is all-powerful UP TO a certain region) but once it arrives here, at the most material material, its efficacy depends on many thingsand a power which depends on something is no power! For a long, long time I have been searching for the reasons behind this powerlessness. Ive located a few, one after ano ther, and upon these points there was an immediate effect. But some things resisted (oh, quite a number, in a number of ways), for example it had difficulty acting on illnesses, on the cells, on doubt (not mental doubt, but ra ther the doubt of the physical consciousness which cant accept certain things that seem impossible to itwhat Sri Aurobindo calls disbelief,1 not a mental doubt, but the disbelief of the physical consciousness which cant accept what is contrary to its own nature and its own working). And as for illnesses, sometimes it has an immediate effect, but sometimes it drags on and has to follow its so-called normal course. On all these three points, I clearly felt that something was hampering it. these are the Enemys strongholds; all that doesnt want the Divine seizes upon it and even the working of the Power coming from above is obstructed, for when it must work here in the body, it is stopped or deformed or altered or diminished.
All this goes on in the subconscient; these are things that were pushed out of the physical consciousness down into the subconscient, so theyre there and they come back up whenever they please.
Two nights ago (no, three the night before Darshan), I had one of those experiences that that leaves you pensive the whole day
(silence)
It was still there when I went down for Darshan, and in spite of all my will to be friendly and pleasant, I was like a rock, looking at that I cant speak of it now, for its the key to SOMETHING VERY GREAT.
(silence)
Its the very point where Nature (I mean the passive side of the force of manifestation) is a slave to the hostile forces. there is a point where She is dominated by them. And this must be cured before the Power from above, the Power of the Shakti, can pass through everything, dominate everything, and be infallible
I saw the thing, the experience took place, but sometimes it takes long for all the consequences to be worked out.2
But immediately, the following dayDarshan dayas the thing developed (you see, something was working inside), I could again turn my attention to the people who were there. And oddly enough, just when you came, there was suddenly a kind of little shock, like an electric shock, and a spark leapt out. And at that moment the Power acted for perhaps a split second You see, there has been this bad karma, this old formation around you for a very long time, and it hadnt I recall telling you several years ago, I shall be able to cure such cases as yours only when the Supramental descends. And this feeling of incapacity, of something resisting, was still present, still aliveof not having the right power to dominate it. But just as you went by, for a second, there was this flash of like a spark when two electric wires touch. It was a golden spark, a resplendent lightzzzt! And it leapt out. Ah! I thought; its good.
That was it.
then afterwards, when you wrote that you were sick, I thought, Well, well! What does it mean? I didnt answer, I didnt say a thing, but when I went back upstairs and started walking for my japa, I brought back this experience of the Darshanthis moment during the Darshan and I felt that it had left something behind ( the effect was not total or absolute, but something had been left), and I decided that through this I would try to make you feel better.
I felt your intervention very clearly. I was really in a bad way, but when I came out of the japa, I knew it was cured. there is still something in the leg that pulls a little, but it has practically disappeared.
Its the memory, the memory in the cells.
Good; its good. Im happy. Its the first such experience.
Before I fell sick, I had a peculiar dream. I was here in the corridor, and someone quite dark came to tell me that Mo ther wanted me to change my work. And I recall trying with all my might to ask him, But why, why? Finally you arrived. You were there at a table with some o thers. I was quite annoyed because all these people upset me, they were hindering me from being with you. And you said to me very clearly, Its time this gentleman goes. perhaps this gentleman represented a part of my being which had to disappear or change, but anyway you asked me to do something extremely difficultl felt a very great difficulty doing it. I even remember, in my dream, having left you for an instant, as if I wanted to leave the Ashram, then I must have walked up and down for a while. Finally, I must have made an enormous effort to come back and sit next to you on a bench which symbolically was very hard the next morning I woke up with the flu.
So, its very simple. the sickness was due to one part of your being going faster than the rest. A part of the physical consciousness probably remained behind, and that created this imbalance and triggered the sickness.
It took a huge effort in my dream.
--
You see, Im doing the sadhana really along a a path that has never been trod by anyone. Sri Aurobindo did it in principle. But he gave the charge of doing it in the body to me.
That was the wonderful thing when we were toge ther and all these hostile forces were fighting ( they tried to kill me any number of times. He always saved me in an absolutely miraculous and marvelous way). But you see, this seemed to create very great BODILY difficulties for him. We discussed this a great deal, and I told him, If one of us must go, I want that it should be me.
It cant be you, he replied, because you alone can do the material thing.3
And that was all.
--
After that (this took place early in 1950), he gradually You see, he let himself fall ill. For he knew quite well that should he say I must go,5 I would not have obeyed him, and I would have gone. For according to the way I felt, he was much more indispensable than I. But he saw the matter from the o ther side. And he knew that I had the power to leave my body at will. So he didnt say a thing, he didnt say a thing right to the very last minute
(silence)
Once or twice I heard certain things about him and I told him (for I told him all I saw or heard), and I said that I was that these suggestions were coming from the Enemy and that I was violently fighting against them. then he looked at metwicehe looked at me, nodded his head and smiled. And thats all. Nothing more was said. How strange! I thought. And thats all. then I myself must have forgotten. You see, he wanted me to forget.
I only remembered afterwards.
--
And then things dont happen at all as they do in ordinary life for three or four minutes, sometimes five or ten minutes, Im a-bo-minably sick, with every sign that its all over.
(silence)
But its only to make me find the to make me go through the experience and to find the strength. And also to give the body this absolute faith in its Divine Realityto show it that the Divine is there and that He wants to be there and that He shall be there. And its only at such moments as thesewhen logically, according to the ordinary physical logic, its all over that you can seize the key.
You have to go right through everything without flinching.
I havent told this to anyone until now, especially not to those who take care and watch over me, for I dont want to terrify them. Besides, Im not so sure of their reactionsyou understand, if they started getting frightened, it would be terrible. So I dont tell them. But it has happened at least five or six times, usually in the morning before going down to the balcony, just when I dont have the time And it has to be done quickly, for I have to be ready on time!
Its very, very interesting. But then, you see, at such moments the concreteness of the Presence6concrete to the touch, really to the material touchis extraordinary!
How many more such experiences will be necessary? I dont know, you see, Im only building the path.
(silence)
Dont write all this down, erase it, because Ill speak of it lateronce its over, when Ive reached the end. I dont want it to fall into anyones hands by accident. And for you, keep it in your consciousness.
(silence)
Im telling you all this because of what happened the o ther day. Its with such experiences that the the true Power is acquired.
And then, at the same time, some ra ther interesting things are happening. Imagine, X is starting to understand certain things that is, in his own way he is discovering the progress I am making; hes discovering it as a received teaching (through subtle channels). He wrote a letter to Amrita two or three days ago in which he translates in his own language, with his own words and his own way of speaking, exactly my most recent experiencesthings that I have conquered in a general way.
This interests me, for these things do not at all enter through the mind (he doesnt receive a thing there, hes closed there). So in his letter he says that this thing or that is necessary (he describes it in his own words), and he adds, This is why we must be so grateful to have among us the the great Mo ther7 (as he puts it), the great Mo ther who knows these things.Good! I said to myself. (It had to do with something specific concerning the capacity for discrimination in the outside world, the different qualities and different functions of different beings, all of which depends on ones inner construction, as it were.) So I see that even this, even these physical experiences, is received (and yet I hadnt tried, I had never tried to make him receive it); it merely works like this, you see (gesture of a widespread diffusion), and the experience is veryhow should I say?drastic, with a kind of (power of radiation). Imperative.
Original English.
0 1960-12-02, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
A sort of unification is taking place [in you], as if you had become a more uniform whole within-without. I dont know how to explain thisit feels more unified, more organizeduniform. Not some parts more developed and o thers less so, some more luminous and o thers less so; its much more uniform, and uniform even in the vibration, a kind of really a uniformity in all its movements, responses, vibrations, light. And this kind of powdering of the new light which I see is much more widespread. Its as if everything, everything what is happening is really a work of unifyingstabilizing, unifying. And this powdering of golden light has completely enveloped you, with this same blue light in your japa, with different intensities of powerboth are there. Like a unifying of the consciousness, as if all the less receptive elements were starting to open, thereby creating a much more homogeneous whole. I dont know how your nights are, but
Not very conscious.
0 1960-12-13, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
During these last days, I was face to face with a problem as old as the world which had taken on an extraordinary intensity.
Its what Sri Aurobindo calls disbelief, and its located in the most material physical consciousness it isnt doubt (which mainly belongs to the mind), it is almost like a refusal to accept the obvious as soon as it doesnt belong to the little daily routine of ordinary sensations and reactionsa sort of incapacity to accept and recognize the exceptional.
This disbelief is the bedrock of the consciousness. And it comes with a (thought is too big a word for such an ordinary thing) a mental-physical activity which makes you (I am forced to use the word) think things and which always foresees, imagines or draws conclusions (depending on the case) in a way which I myself call DEFEATIST. In o ther words, it automatically leads you to imagine all the bad things that can happen. And this occurs in a realm which is absolutely run-of- the-mill, in the most ordinary, restricted, banal activities of lifesuch as eating, moving in short, the coarsest of things.
Its fairly easy to manage and control this in the realm of thought, but when it comes to those reactions that rise up from the very bottom theyre so petty that you can barely express them to yourself. For example, if someone mentions that so-and-so ate such-and-such a thing, immediately something somewhere starts stealing in: Ah, hes going to get a stomach-ache! Or you hear that someone is going somewhereOh, hes going to have an accident! And it applies to everything; its swarming down below. Nothing to do with thought as such!
Its quite a nasty habit, for it keeps the most material state in a condition of disharmony, disorder, ugliness and difficulty.
I tried every possible way To get out of it is relatively easy. But then it doesnt change.
the problem appeared again to me very intensely when I read Sri Aurobindos the Yoga of Self-Perfection. I was confronted with a whole formidable world to be transformedto transform what is already luminous is quite easy, but to transform that! ughthis stuff of life, so low and so coarse, so ordinary its much more difficult.1
For the last several days, Ive been at grips fighting with it. How can I stop this idiotic, coarse and above all defeatist automatism from constantly manifesting? Its truly an automatism; it doesnt respond to any conscious will, nothing. So what will it take to ? And its QUITE INTIMATELY related to the bodys illnesses ( the old habits the body has of coming out of its rhythmic movement, of entering into confusion) the two things are very intimately linked.
Im deep in the problem.
For me, the problem doesnt mean explaining the thing (its easy to explain), but controlling, mastering and transforming it. That will take some time.
We shall see.
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, Mo ther 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.'
Mo ther may be alluding to the following passage from the Syn thesis of Yoga: ' there is nothing to be done with this fickle, restless, violent and disturbing factor but to get rid of it whe ther by detaching it and then reducing it to stillness or by giving a concentration and singleness to the thought by which it will of itself reject this alien and confusing clement.'
Cent. Ed., Vol. XX, p. 300.
the tantric guru. During his periodic visits to the Ashram, Mo ther used to give him almost daily meditations.
***
0 1960-12-17, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Mo ther gives the disciple a cadamba flower which she has named 'Supramental Sun'a striking orange ball consisting of innumerable stamens)
Its beautiful, isnt it? Its all toge ther, but its innumerable. Its ONE thing going in all directions. And what a color! the tree is glorious.
Nature is a marvelous inventoreverything She does is beautiful. I dont believe that man has succeeded in producing anything so perfect. Later, its true, some new species were developed by him, but never theless Nature still remains the origin.
Yes, ugliness seems to begin with man.
I think that even what seems to us ugly in animal and vegetal nature appears so only because of the limitations of our own understanding. But really, as soon as man enters the scene phew!
Yes, I have always felt that in Nature one can live in beauty, always. But then once man shows up, something gets thrown out of joint. Its the mind, actually. What gives birth to ugliness is really the intrusion of the mind in life. I wonder if it was necessary, if it could not have been immediately harmonious. But it appears not.
Even stones are beautiful; they are always beautiful in one way or ano ther. When life appeared, there were some forms that were a little difficult, but not to that extent, not like certain human mental creations. Of course, there may have been some animal species which were ra ther but they were more monstrous than actually ugly. And most probably, it only seems like that to our consciousness. But the mind And its the same for all these ideas of sin, of wrong, of all thatits a falsehood. But it was man who invented falsehood, wasnt it? the mind invented falsehood: to deceive! to deceive! And its a curious fact that animals domesticated by man have also learned to lie!
the curve
Anyway, we have to go beyond all that.
--
So many people are satisfied with their falsehood, their ugliness, their narrowness, all of it. theyre quite satisfied. When theyre asked to be something else
This realm that Im now investigating, oh! I spend whole nights visiting certain places, and there I meet people I know here materially [in the Ashram]. So many are PERFECTLY satisfied with their their infirmities, their incapacities, their ugliness, their powerlessness.
And they protest when you want them to change!
Even last night I went down into it It was so gray and dull and phew! Banal, lifeless. When they are told that, they retort, No, not at all! Things are quite all right as they are, its you who is living in a dreamland!
Well get out of it one day.
But you cannot get out as long as it all seems quite natural to you. Whats most unfortunate is when you resign yourself to it. You realize this when you go back to earlier states of consciousness; you see that it all seemed, if not quite natural, at least almost inevitable thats how things are, you must take them as they are. And you dont even think about it; you take things as they are, you EXPECT them to be what they are; its the stuff of our daily lives, and it keeps repeating itself endlessly. And the only thing you learn is to hold on, hold on, not let yourself be shaken, to go right through it alland it feels endless, interminable, almost eternal. (However, once you understand what eternal is, you see that this CANNOT be eternal, for o therwise )
But this particular state of endurancethis endurance that nothing can upsetis very dangerous. And yet its indispensable; for you must first accept everything before having the power to transform anything.
Its what Sri Aurobindo always said: FIRST you must accept EVERYTHINGaccept it as coming from the Divine, as the Divine Will; accept without disgust, without regret, without getting upset or impatient. Accept with a perfect equanimity; and only AFTER that can you say, Now lets get to work to change it.
But to work to change it before having attained a perfect equanimity is impossible. Thats what I have learned during these last years.
And for every detail, its the same. First, May Thy Will be done; then, afterwards, the Will of tomorrow and then those things will disappear. But first, one must accept.
Thats why it takes so long. Because those who readily accept are they get encrusted and buried under it; they no longer move. And those who see the future and what must be have a hard time accepting; they pull back, they kick and protestso they dont have any power.
***
(Soon afterwards, concerning the conversation of November 5 on the subconscious roots in the cells that can make everything fall apart in a second: To change it, you have to descend into it it makes for painful moments Once its done, Ill have the power )
When was this? November 5? And now its December 17 Well, its still continuing!
there should be machines to graph the curves, for its so sometimes it goes like this (gesture of a very steep ascent) and at such moments you feel, Ah! now Ive caught the thing. And then back it fallstoil. Sometimes it even feels like youre falling in a hole, really a hole and how are you ever going to get out? But that ALWAYS precedes a rapid ascent and a revelation or illumination: Ah, how wonderful! Ive finally got it!
And that goes on for weeks and weeks.
To have the exact curve or the REAL history, wed have to note down everything at each minute, for its a CONSTANT work thats taking place. You see, the outer activities are becoming almost automatic, whereas this goes on behind Im speaking, yet at the same time this is going on behind.
Its a sort of oscillationreally, its so interestingbetween two extremes, one of which is the all-powerfulness and capital or primordial importance of the Physical, and the o ther its utter unreality.
And its constantly going back and forth between the two (seesaw motion). And both are equally false, equally true.
It goes back and forth between the two all the timea kind of curve like an electric arc between them; it goes up, it goes down, it falls and then climbs back up. In a flash comes the clear vision that the universal realization will be achieved along with the perfection of the material, TERRESTRIAL world. (I say terrestrial, for the earth is still something unique; the rest of the universe is differentso this blown up speck of dust becomes of capital importance!) then, at ano ther moment, eternity for which all the universes are simply the expression of a second, and in which all this is a sort ofnot even an interesting game, but ra ther a breathing in and out, in and out And at such a moment, all the importance we give to material things seems so fantastically idiotic! And it goes in and out In this state, everything is obvious and indisputable. And in the o ther state, everything is obvious and indisputable. But between the two there is EVERY combination and every possibility.
(silence)
And the problem is to hold both of them so PERFECTLY toge ther that they are no longer in opposition. For one second, it comesah!just a thousandth of a secondah, yes!and then its over, its gone. And you have to begin again.
(silence)
And particularly, this sense of whats important and not important is something which vanishes, leaving no trace at all. You are left like that, with nothing. there is no SCALE in importance that is entirely our mental imbecility. Ei ther nothing is important or EVERYTHING is EQUALLY important.
the speck of dust, there, which you sweep away, or ecstatic contemplationits ALL the SAME.
***
0 1960-12-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
For a while, there was a Muslim girl close to me (not a believer, but her origins were Muslim; in o ther words, she wasnt at all Christian) who had a special fondness for Santa Claus! She had seen pictures of him, read some books, etc. then one year while she was here, she got it into her head that Santa Claus had to bring me something. He has to bring you something for Christmas, she told me.
Try, I replied.
I dont know what all she did, but she prayed to him to bring me money. She fixed a certain sum. And on Christmas Eve, exactly this sum was given to me! And it was a large sum, several thousand rupees. Exactly the amount she had specified. And it came on that very day in quite an unexpected way.
I found it very interesting.
--
(Soon afterwards, concerning the last conversation of December 17a speck of dust which you sweep away, or ecstatic contemplation, Its all the same)
If I could only note all this down Its been so interesting all morning, right from the starton the balcony, then upstairs while walking for my japa! And it was on this same theme (experience of the speck of dust) This habit people have (especially in India, but more or less everywhere among those who have a religious nature), this habit of doing all things religious with respect and compunction and no mixing of things, above all there should be no mixing; in some circumstances, at certain times, you MUST NOT think of God, for then it would be a kind of blasphemy.
theres the religious attitude, and then theres ordinary life where people do thingsworking, living, eating, enjoying life; they regard these as the essentials, and as for the rest, well, when theres time they think about it. But what Sri Aurobindo brought down, precisely I remember at Tlemcen, theon used to say that there was a whole world of things, such as eating, for example, or taking care of your body, that should be done automatically, without giving it any importanceits not the time to think of things divine.(!) Thats what he preached. So you have the religious attitude of all the religious types, and then ordinary life I found both of them equally unsatisfactory. then I came here and told Sri Aurobindo my feeling; I said that if someone is truly in union with the Divine, it CANNOT change no matter what he does ( the quality of what youre doing may change, but the union cant change no matter what youre doing). And when he said that this was the truth, I felt a relief. And that feeling has stayed with me all through my life.
And now, all these different attitudes which individuals, groups and categories of men hold are coming from every direction (while Im walking upstairs) to assert their own points of view as the true thing. And I see that for myself, Im being forced to deal with a whole mass of things, most of which are quite futile from an ordinary point of viewnot to mention the things of which these moral or religious types disapprove. Quite interestingly, all kinds of mental formations come like arrows while Im walking for my japa upstairs (Mo ther makes a gesture of little arrows in the air coming into her mental atmosphere from every direction); and yet, Im entirely in what I could call the joy and happiness of my japa, full of the energy of walking ( the purpose of walking is to give a material energy to the experience, in all the bodys cells). Yet in spite of this, one thing after ano ther comes, like this, like that (Mo ther draws little arrows in the air): what I must do, what I must answer to this person, what I must say to that one, what has to be done All kinds of things, most of which might be considered most futile! And I see that all this is SITUATED in a totality, and this totality I could say that its nothing but the body of the Divine. I FEEL it, actually, I feel it as if I were touching it everywhere (Mo ther touches her arms, her hands, her body). And all these things nei ther veil nor destroy nor divert this feeling of being entirely this a movement, an action in the body of the Divine. And its increasing from day to day, for it seems that He is plunging me more and more into entirely material things with the will that theRE TOO it must be done that all these things must be consciously full of Him; they are full of Him, in actual fact, but it must become conscious, with the perception that it is all the very substance of His being which is moving in everything
It was quite beautiful on the balcony this morning
A sweetness, a sensation (both toge ther) a sensation of eternity, and a sweetness! I wonder if its even possible for anything to escape That!
--
Its a FACT. Its not a thought, not something you observeyou arent a witness: its A FACT which is LIVED. So if you want to translate the experience, youd have to say the most paradoxical of things, like Sri Aurobindoso paradoxical that they are almost offensive to reason! Yes, more, far more than paradoxical.
***
0 1960-12-23, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Mo ther arrives from a meditation with X, the tantric guru)
I come empty-handed
--
I sat down shortly before ten oclock for meditation. I was in my normal state and I was interested to see if there would be any difference from earlier times. And really, at first there was no difference at all. then slowly, slowly, I felt this type of smiling and serene peace that I live in entering into the body. the cells are still not always conscious of it (sometimes they feel a sort of tension of life I dont know what to call it). theyre conscious of their existence and of what it means and of the Energy that is acting (yes, conscious of the Action and the Energy that acts), but during the meditation THAT descended and there was an extraordinary relaxation. Not the relaxation that comes with surrender,1 which I normally feel before sleeping, but the relaxation that comes from a kind of serene, immutable and eternal joy. At that moment the body felt it could remain like that forever! Oh, how nice I feel! it said. And as a matter of fact, Im not sure but I think he felt the meditation was over, whereas I was still I felt him stirring, so I stopped.
there was a marked difference.
For when something isnt right, a pressure always comes down on the body from above, the pressure of the descending Force. But in this case it wasnt that at all; ra ther, it was like this (Mo ther holds her palms upwards in an attitude of total surrender), but beatific in that it lives in itself, it is existence in itself and thats all.
I came here in that state directly after the meditation, and when I sat down You see, I didnt even have the (naturally there is no question of idea) I dont know, not even the instinct to pick up a flower for you, you understand? And when I sat down here, the consciousness of the column of Light started coming. there was no more personality, no more individuality: there was only a column of Light descending right into the very cells of the body and thats all.
then it gradually became conscious of itself, conscious of BEING this column of Light. And then the ordinary consciousness slowly returned.
(silence)
Its interesting for me to come here soon after the meditation, for its as if I were objectivizing my experience. O therwise Id be within, like that (gesture), and theres no longer any (you see, I say Ibut at that moment it doesnt exist!) and even the BODY feels this way, a kind of immutable and beatific eternity, and thats all.
I tell you, not even When I arrived, I said to you, My hands are empty; merely the contact with your atmosphere made me say it. But o therwise the my, the handsnone of it had any meaning.
Its interesting.
0 1960-12-25, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
And I want also to tell you how grateful I am. You think of us even in the smallest human detailsgrateful is not even the word. Simply, may I serve you better, may I better give of myself.
With love.
0 1960-12-31, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
(Mo ther usually improvised on the harmonium the morning of January 1 before reading the New Year's Message. She has come the day before to try out the instrument.)
Lets see How many months has it been? I havent touched this instrument for at least eight months! And now tomorrow I have to playdont feel like it. Anyway, since I must, I must! Well meditate on it ( the New Years Message1)you know what it is, for we worked on it toge ther and then Ill see if something comes.
(silence)
This throng looks more like a chaos. A dreadful confusion. But from next week people will start leaving. the crowning day will be January 6, which is Epiphany (but we have made it into a day for the offering of the material world to the Divine: the material world giving itself to the Divine)it will be the climax,2 and I shall then see you on the 7th. After that, well work hard! But until then, no workmy heads in a kind of soup Oh, if you only knew! Its dreadful what people bring me, what they ask
(Mo ther sits at the harmonium)
Oh, my dress is caught under one of the stool legs. Are you strong?
Oh yes!
--
X seemed happy about his visit this time. We had long meditations of half an hourhe never seemed to want to leave at all! there was above all a kind of extremely calm universalization. An absolute and universal calm in all the cells of the body. I dont know if it was only me, but it seemed he was in the same stateunable to move, quite content, smiling. Once I heard the clock chime, and as I thought it was time and that perhaps he was ready to leave, I looked; he had removed the mala3 that he wears around his neck and I found him doing japa. As soon as he saw me looking, he quickly put it back on!
But whats most surprising is that with me, not a word, nothing, nei ther he nor I. And it seems to be just as comfortable for him as it is for me!
--
On the 6th, everyone will finally be gone. But tomorrow is going to be dreadful; I have to sit there for at least two hours distributing calendars. And on top of that, there are all these controversies over the music they play at the library each week. Some say that its very good, o thers that its very bad ( the usual things). And each party has pleaded his case. they told me that theyll give me a concert at Prosperity4 so that I may judge for myself. Its all recorded. Im afraid it will be ra ther noisy For myself, I know quite well how to get out of it I think of something else! But its going to I can see it already. Didnt I tell you were in a chaos? Well, I have the feeling that this is going to beat all.
How do you mean a chaos?
Noise, movement, confusion, people Noise always gives me the impression of chaos, always.
I must say that downstairs on Darshan days people chat, look each o ther over, see how he or she is dressedits like a county fair around the Samadhi.
Yes, its truewhos there, who isnt, how he looks, whos he with Oh!
(silence)
--
Oh, but you know, night after night, night after night, I SEE how things which in their truth are so simple become complicated here in the human atmosphere. Really, its so interesting; I have visions you see, the thing in its truth is so simple its stupefying, and then here it becomes so complicated, painful, exhausting, upsetting.
But its enough to take one step behind to come out of it all.
Ill tell you about that Wait, we still have three minutes; I want to tell you one of my most recent visions (but its almost the same thing every night):
I was in my home, somewherea world whose light is like a sun (golden with scarlet reflections); it was very beautiful. It was in a town, and my house was in that town. I wanted to take to someone some not presents, but things he needed. So I got everything toge ther, prepared it all, and then loaded my arms with all the packages (I had taken my own time to arrange everything nicely), and I went out when the whole town was completely deserted there was not a soul on the streets. A complete solitude. And such a sense of well-being, of light and force! Yes, really a kind of felicity, for no reason. And instead of weighing me down, it seemed as if my packages were pulling me! they pulled me on in such a way that each step was a joy, like a dance.
This lasted the whole time I was crossing the town. then I came to a border, right at the beginning of ano ther part where I was to take my packages; there, just a little below me, I saw a house under construction the house belonging to the person to whom I had to deliver these presents ( the symbolism in all this, of course, is quite clear).
As I approached the house, but still from some distance, I suddenly saw some men busy at work. then instantly instantly this road which was so vast, sunlit and smoothso smooth to the feet oh, it became the top level of a scaffolding. And what is more, this scaffolding was not very well made, and the closer I came the more complicated it got there were planks jutting out, beams off balance. In short, you had to watch every single step to keep from breaking your neck. I began getting annoyed. Moreover, my packages were heavy. they were heavy and they so saddled my arms that I was unable to hold onto anything and had constantly to do a balancing act. then I began thinking, My God, how complicated this world is! And just at that moment, I saw a young person coming along, like a young girl dressed in European clo thes, with a hat on her head all black! This young person had white skin, but her clo thes were black, and she wore black shoes on her small white feet. She was dressed all in blackblack, all in black. Like complete unconsciousness. She also came carrying packages (many more than me), and she came hopping along the whole length of the scaffolding, putting her feet just anywhere! My God, I said to myself, shes going to break her neck!But not at all! She was totally unconscious; she wasnt even aware that it was dangerous or complicateda total unconsciousness. But her unconsciousness is what allowed her to go on like that! I watched it all. Well, sometimes its good to be unconscious! then she disappeared; she had only come to give me a demonstration (she nei ther saw me nor looked at me). And looking down at the workers, I saw that everything was getting more and more complicated, more and more, more and more and there wasnt even any ladder by which to get down. In o ther words, it was getting unbearable. then something in me rebelled: Ah, no! Ive had enough of all thisits too stupid!
And IMMEDIATELY, I found myself down below, relieved of my packages. And everything was perfectly simple. (I had even brought the packages along without realizing it.) All, all was in order, very neat, very luminous, very simplesimply because I had said, Ah, no! Ive had enough of this business! Why all these stupid complications!5
But these are not dreams, they are types of activitymore real, more concrete than material life; the experience is much more concrete than ordinary life.
I have had hundreds of such examples Its not always the same scene. the scenes are different, but the story is always the same the thing, in its truth, is absolutely luminous, pleasant, charming; then as soon as men get involved, it becomes an abominable complication. And once you say, No! Ive had enough of all thisits NOT TRUE! it goes away.
there have been similar stories in dreams with X. I saw him when he was very young (his education, the ideas he had, how he was trained). And the same thing happened. I was with him but Ill tell you that ano ther time6 And then at the end, Id had enough and I said, Oh, no! Its too ridiculous! and with that I left the house. At the door was a little squirrel sitting on his haunches making friendly little gestures towards me. Oh! I said, heres someone who understands better!
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.'
--
the room where Mo ther distributed to the disciples their needs (soap, paper, etc.) on the first of each month.
Mo ther later discovered that this world of complications is the symbol of the physical mind.
Mo ther later narrated the end of her 'dream' with X:
'It was his house, and it was ra ther complicated to enter. I was saying a mantra or japa when X came along; he had a ... a terribly reproachful air! then he smelled my hands: 'It's a bad habit to wear perfume. (Mo ther laughs) You cannot live a spiritual life when you wear perfume.' then I looked at him and thought, 'My God, does he have to be so backward!' But it annoyed me, so I said, 'Very well, I'm going.' When I got near the door, he started saying, 'Is it true you have been married several times, and that you've been divorced?' then a kind of anger entered me (laughing) and I told him, 'No, not just once, but twice!' thereupon, I left. All the old ideas...
After that was when I saw the little squirrel.'
***
0 1961-01-07, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I came down at 9:30 sharp, thinking half an hour would be enough to cross the corridor and get here. Apparently not!
(Mo ther gives Satprem a rose.) This is the Tenderness of the Divine for for himself! the tenderness He has for his creation. Creation I dont like that word, as if it all were created from nothing! It is He himself, creating with all his tenderness. Some of these roses get quite big; theyre so lovely!
And I am how to put it? Nothing we say is ever absolutely true, but, to stretch it a bit, while I am not worried, not perturbed, not discouraged, I feel I cant get anything done; I spend all my time, all my time, seeing people, receiving and answering lettersdoing nothing. I havent touched my translation1 for over a week. T. sent me her notebook with questions and I had it for two weeks before I found time to answer.2 Nothing is ready for the Bulletin except what you have done.
Its a pity you have no time to do your work.
Even the translation. You know, when I am tired and work on the translation I feel rested. But, oh, all these letters! Even the best of them are stupid. Anyway. When I came here just now there was someone waiting to see me I told him to come at 11: 00, and by then there will be 700 people waiting for me to come out. they are already ga thered around the Samadhi.3
Well, enough grumbling. Lets get to work.
--
(Later, during the course of the conversation, Mo ther remarked:)
Understanding the Syn thesis of Yoga is quite simple: I have only to be silent for a moment, and Sri Aurobindo is here.
Its not this bodys understanding: HE is here!
Mo ther generally worked a little every day on the French translation of the Syn thesis of Yoga.
the notebook in which a young woman disciple asked questions on Sri Aurobindo's Thoughts and Aphorisms. Later, Mo ther preferred answering verbally Satprem's questions on the aphorisms. This allowed her to speak of her experiences freely without the restrictions imposed by a written reply. these 'Commentaries on the Aphorisms' were later partially published in the Bulletin under the title Propos. Here they are republished chronologically in their unabridged form.
Where Sri Aurobindo's body lies, in the Ashram courtyard.
0 1961-01-10, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have a stack of unread letters this high and an even bigger stack Ive read but havent answered. How can I work on the Aphorisms when I am constantly hounded by people pulling on me simply because they have written! If I dont answer immediately, they say (not in words, but ): So youre not answering my letter!
these are not very favorable conditions!
Everything is in an awful confusion.
--
What is the next aphorism?
49To feel and love the God of beauty and good in the ugly and the evil, and still yearn in utter love to heal it of its ugliness and its evil, this is real virtue and morality.1
Do you have a question?
How can one collaborate in curing the evil and ugliness seen everywhere? By loving? What is the power of love? What effect can an individual consciousness, acting alone, have on the rest of mankind?
How to collaborate in curing evil and ugliness? We can say that theres a kind of hierarchic scale of collaboration or action; a negative cooperation and a positive cooperation.
To begin with, theres what could be called a negative way, the way expounded by Buddhism and similar religions: the refusal to see. To be in a state of such purity and beauty that there is no perception of evil and ugliness. Its like something that doesnt touch you because it doesnt exist in you. This is the perfection of the negative method.
It is quite elementary: never take notice of evil, never speak of the evil present in o thers, 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.
Never theless, it ought to be a very general rule; yet its critics have a reply: If you dont see evil you can never cure it. If you leave someone to his squalor he will never emerge from it. (Its not exactly true, but its how they legitimize their actions.) In this aphorism, Sri Aurobindo has anticipated these objections: it is not through ignorance or unconsciousness or indifference that you fail to see evilyou can see and even feel it, but you refuse to collaborate in spreading it by giving it the force of your attention or the support of your consciousness. And for that, you must yourself be above the perception and sensationable to see evil or ugliness without suffering, without feeling shocked or troubled. You see them from a height where such things do not exist, yet you have the conscious perception of them they dont affect you, you are free. This is the first step.
the second step is to be POSITIVELY conscious of the supreme Goodness and Beauty behind all things and supporting all things, permitting them to exist. Once you have seen Him, you can perceive Him behind the mask and the distortioneven ugliness, even cruelty, even evil are a disguise for that Something which is essentially good or beautiful, luminous, pure.
With this comes TRUE collaboration. For when you have this vision, this awareness, when you live in this consciousness, you also get the power to PULL That into the manifestation on earth and put it into contact with what, for the time being, distorts and disguises; thus the deformation and disguise are gradually transformed by the influence of the Truth behind.
Here we are at the top rung on the scale of collaboration.
Put this way, there is no need to bring the principle of love into our explanation. But if we want to know or understand the nature of the Force or Power that permits and accomplishes this transformation (specially in the case of evil, but for ugliness to some extent as well), we see that of all powers, Love is obviously the mightiest, the most integralintegral in that it applies to all cases. Its even mightier than the power of purification which dissolves bad wills and is, in a way, master over the adverse forces, but which doesnt have the direct transforming power; because the power of purification Must FIRST dissolve in order to form again later. It destroys one form to make a better one from it, while Love doesnt need to dissolve in order to transform: it has the direct transforming power. Love is like a flame changing the hard into the malleable, then sublimating even the malleable into a kind of purified vapor. It doesnt destroy: it transforms.
Love, in its essence and in its origin, is like a white flame obliterating ALL resistances. You can have the experience yourself: whatever the difficulty in your being, whatever the weight of accumulated mistakes, the ignorance, incapacity, bad will, a single SECOND of this Lovepure, essential, suprememelts everything in its almighty flame. One single moment and an entire past can vanish. One single TOUCH of That in its essence and the whole burden is consumed.
Its easy to understand how someone who has this experience can spread it and act upon o thers, since to have it you must touch the unique, supreme Essence of the whole manifestation the Origin and the Essence, the Source and the Reality of all that is; then you immediately enter the realm of Unity where there is no more separation among individuals: its a single vibration that can repeat itself endlessly in outer forms.2
If you go high enough, you come to the Heart of everything. Whatever manifests in this Heart can manifest in all things. This is the great secret, the secret of divine incarnation in an individual form. For in the normal course of things, what manifests at the center is only realized in the outer form with the awakening and RESPONSE Of the will within the individual form. But if the central Will is constantly, permanently represented in one individual, he can then serve as an intermediary between that Will and all beings, and will FOR theM. Whatever this being perceives and consciously offers to the supreme Will is replied to as if it came from each individual being. And if individuals happen to be in a more or less conscious and voluntary relationship with this representative being, their relationship increases his efficacy and the supreme Action can work in Matter in a much more concrete and permanent way. This is the reason for these descents of what could be called polarized consciousnesses that always come to earth for a particular realization, with a definite purpose and missiona mission decided upon before the actual embodiment. these mark the great stages of the supreme incarnations upon earth.
And when the day comes for the manifestation of supreme Lovea crystalized, concentrated descent of supreme Love that will truly be the hour of Transformation, for nothing will be able to resist That.
But as its all-powerful, a certain receptivity must be prepared on earth so its effects are not devastating. Sri Aurobindo has explained it in one of his letters. Someone asked him, Why doesnt this Love come now?, and he replied something like this: If divine Love in its essence were to manifest on earth, it would be like an explosion; for the earth is not supple enough or receptive enough to widen to the measure of this Love. the earth must not only open itself but become wide and supple. Matternot just physical Matter, but the substance of the physical consciousness as wellis still much too rigid.
***
Wouldnt it be better if each time you answered these questions on the Aphorisms verbally?
Ah, thats always better! With pencil and paper I have to look at what Im writing and it holds me back like a leash.
then why dont you just speak? T or Z could come and listen to you they would be overjoyed!
Oh no, my child, you dont see at all! To speak I must have a receptive atmosphere! the idea of talking aloud all alone in my room would never occur to me. Sound doesnt come: what comes is a direct transmission and if I manage to connect it to my hand and write its transmitted, although it always gets somewhat pulled down. I can be doing anything at all, it doesnt matter, but it must be something that doesnt monopolize my attention, like brushing my hair in the morning for example: then it comes directly and nothing stops it! But I would never think of uttering a word! That only happens when I find some receptivity in front of me, something I can use.
What I say to people depends entirely upon their inner state. Thats precisely why I had such enormous difficulty at the Playground3 the atmosphere was so mixed! It was a STRUGGLE to find someone receptive so I could speak. And if Im in the presence of people who understand nothing, I cant say a word. On the o ther hand, some people come prepared to receive and then suddenly it all comes but usually theres no tape-recorder!
I have replied endlessly, I have given all sorts of explanations about the organization of the School, about World Union,4 about the true way to organize industry (its true functioning)so many things! If all that were compiled we could publish brochures! Sometimes Ive spoken three-quarters of an hour non-stop to people who listened with delight and were receptive but quite incapable of making a written report of it. At times like that we could have used one of your machines! But when things are organized in advance, it may well be that nothing comes out at allmentalizing stops the flow. If I is in front of me, I cant say anything to her because she doesnt understand. I already have trouble writing to herwhat I have to say is always brought down a bit; but if she were here in the room and I had to speak to her, nothing at all would come out!
No, when we feel like it and when she doesnt raise any question about an aphorismat least not an impossible questionwell do this: I will speak here, its much easier for me. This way things come that I havent seen before; while when I write like that, they are usually things Ive seen on o ther occasions (not that I try to recall them, they are there and simply come back). But when theres a new contact, something new always comes.
***
(A little later, Mo ther made the following remark concerning the Agenda of December 13, 1960, where she speaks of the physical Minds. disbelief and defeatist reactions as intimately linked to the bodys illnesses.)
This defeatist Mind is still functioning and in full swing!
--
Sri Aurobindo's aphorisms appear in the Cent. Ed. Vol. XVII, pp. 79-159.
Later, Satprem asked Mo ther, 'Is it a single vibration that CAN REPEAT itself endlessly or that REPEATS itself endlessly?' Mo ther replied: 'I meant several things at once. This single vibration is in static latency everywhere but when you realize it consciously you have the power to make it active wherever you direct it; that is, one doesn't "move" something, but makes it active by the insistence of the consciousness wherever you focus it.'
Twice a week, during the period of the Playground Talks, Mo ther would publicly reply to questions put to her by the disciples assembled at the Ashram Playground.
World Uniona 'movement' launched through the personal initiative of a disciple.
***
0 1961-01-12, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
What is the next aphorism?
50To hate the sinner is the worst sin, for it is hating God; yet he who commits it glories in his superior virtue.
Do you have a question?
When we enter a certain state of consciousness, we plainly see that we are capable of anything and that ultimately there is no sin not potentially our own. Is this impression correct? And yet certain things make us rebel or disgust us. We always reach some inadmissible point. Why? What is the true, effective attitude when confronted with Evil?
there is no sin not our own.
You have this experience when for some reason or o ther, depending on the case, you come into contact with the universal consciousness not in its limitless essence but on any level of Matter. there is an atomic consciousness, a purely material consciousness and an even more generally prevailing psychological consciousness. When, through interiorization or a sort of withdrawal from the ego you enter into contact with that zone of consciousness we can call psychological terrestrial or human collective ( there is a difference: human collective is restricted, while terrestrial includes many animal and even plant vibrations; but in the present case, since the moral notion of guilt, sin and evil belongs exclusively to human consciousness, let us simply say human collective psychological consciousness); when you contact that through identification, you naturally feel or see or know yourself capable of any human movement whatsoever. To some extent, this constitutes a Truth-Consciousness, or at such times the egoistical sense of what does or doesnt belong to you, of what you can or cannot do, disappears; you realize that the fundamental construction of human consciousness makes any human being capable of doing anything. And since you are in a truth-consciousness, you are aware at the same time that to feel judgmental or disgusted or revolted would be an absurdity, for EVERYTHING is potentially there inside you. And should you happen to be penetrated by certain currents of force (which we usually cant follow: we see them come and go but we are generally unaware of their origin and direction), if any one of these currents penetrates you, it can make you do anything.
If one always remained in this state of consciousness, keeping alive the flame of Agni, the flame of purification and progress, then after some time, not only could one prevent these movements from taking an active form in oneself and becoming expressed physically, but one could act upon the very nature of the movement and transform it. Needless to say, however, that unless one has attained a very high degree of realization it is virtually impossible to keep this state of consciousness for long. Almost immediately one falls back into the egoistic consciousness of the separate self, and all the difficulties return: disgust, the revolt against certain things and the horror they create in us, and so on.
It is probableeven certain that until one is completely transformed these movements of disgust and revolt are necessary to make one do WITHIN ONESELF what is needed to slam the door on them. For after all, the point is to not let them manifest.
In ano ther aphorism, Sri Aurobindo says (I no longer recall his exact words) that sin is simply something no longer in its place. In this perpetual Becoming nothing is ever reproduced and some things disappear, so to speak, into the past; and when its time for them to disappear, they seemto our very limited consciousness evil and repulsive: we revolt against them because their time is past.
But if we had the vision of the whole, if we were able to contain past, present and future simultaneously (as it is somewhere up above), then we would see how relative these things are and that its mainly the progressing evolutionary Force which gives us this will to reject; yet when these things still had their place, they were quite tolerable. However, to have this experience in a practical sense is impossible unless we have a total vision the vision that is the Supremes alone! therefore, one must first identify with the Supreme, and then, keeping this identification, one can return to a consciousness sufficiently externalized to see things as they really are. But thats the principle, and in so far as we are able to realize it, we reach a state of consciousness where we can look at all things with the smile of a complete certainty that everything is exactly as it should be.
Of course, people who dont think deeply enough will say, Oh, but if we see that things are exactly as they should be, then nothing will budge. But no! there isnt a fraction of a second when things arent moving: theres a continuous and total transformation, a movement that never stops. Only because its difficult for us to feel that way can we imagine that by our entering certain states of consciousness things would not change. Even if we entered into an apparently total inertia, things would continue to change and we along with them!
Ultimately, disgust, rebellion and anger, all movements of violence, are necessarily movements of ignorance and of limitation with all the weakness that limitation implies. Rebellion is a weakness, for its the feeling of an impotent will. When you feel, when you see that things are not as they should be, then you rebel against whatever is out of keeping with your vision. But if you were all-powerful, if your will and your vision were all-powerful, there would be no opportunity to rebel! You would always see that all things are as they should be! That is omnipotence.1 then all these movements of violence become not only useless but profoundly ridiculous.
Consequently, there is only one solution: by aspiration, concentration, interiorization and identification, to unite with the supreme Will. And that is both omnipotence and perfect freedom. Its the only omnipotence, the only freedomall the rest are approximations. You may be en route, but its not That, not the total thing.
If you make the experiment, you will come to see that this supreme freedom and this supreme power are accompanied by a total peace and an unfaltering serenity; if you notice any contradictionrevolt, disgust or something inadmissiblethis indicates that some part in You is not touched by the transformation, is still en route: something still holding on to the old consciousness, thats all.
In this aphorism, Sri Aurobindo speaks of those who hate sinners that one mustnt hate sinners.
Its the same problem seen from ano ther angle, but the solution is the same.
But the difficulty isnt so much not hating the sinner, but not hating the virtuous! Thats far more difficult! Because one readily understands sinners, those poor people, but the virtuous.
Actually, what you hate in them is their self-righteousness, only that. After all, theyre right not to do evil they cant be blamed for that! But whats hard to tolerate is their sense of superiority, the way they look down their noses at all these poor fellows who are no worse than they!
Oh, I could cite a few shining examples!
Consider the case of a woman with many friends, and these friends are very fond of her for her special capacities, her pleasant company, and because they feel they can always learn something from her. then all of a sudden, through a quirk of circumstances, she finds herself socially ostracizedbecause she may have gone off with ano ther man, or may be living with someone out of wedlockall those social mores with no value in themselves. And all her friends (I dont speak of those who truly love her), all her social friends who welcomed her, who smiled so warmly when passing her on the street, suddenly look the o ther way and march by without a glance. This has happened right here in the Ashram! I wont give the details, but it has happened several times when something conflicted with accepted social norms: the people who had shown so much affection, so much kindness oh! Sometimes they even said, Shes a lost woman!
I must say that when this happens here. In the world at large it seems quite normal, but when this happens here it always gives me a bit of a shock, in the sense that I say to myself, So theyre still at that level!
Even those who claim to be broad-minded, above these conventions, immediately fall right into the trap. And to ease their consciences they say, Mo ther wouldnt allow that. Mo ther wouldnt permit that. Mo ther wouldnt tolerate such a thing!to add a fur ther inanity to the rest.
This state is very difficult to get out of. It is really Pharisaismthis sense of social dignity, this narrow-mindednessbecause no one with an atom of intelligence would fall into such a hole! Those who have traveled through the world, for instance, and seen for themselves that social mores depend entirely upon climatic conditions, upon races and customs and still more upon the times, the epoch they are able to look at it all with a smile. But the self-righteous oooh!
This is a primary stage. As long as you havent gone beyond this condition, you are unfit for yoga. Because truly, no one in such a rudimentary state is ready for yoga.
--
I am going downstairs on the 21st, for Saraswati Puja.2 they have prepared a folder with a long quotation from Savitri and five photos of my face taken from five different angles.
the title of the folder is the line from Savitri that gave me the most overpowering experience of the entire book (because, as I told you, as I read, I would LIVE the experiencesreading brought, instantly, a living experience). And when I came to this particular line I was as if suddenly swept up and engulfed in ( the is wrong, an is wrongits nei ther one nor the o ther, its something else) eternal Truth. Everything was abolished except this:
For ever love, O beautiful slave of God3
--
When asked later about the meaning of this somewhat elliptical statement, Mo ther said: ' there are two stages. the first involves a mental (and possibly intuitive) vision of what will be (perhaps in an immediate future), and this is what we call seeing things "as they should be." the o ther is an identification with the supreme Will and the perception that at each second everything is exactly as the Supreme wants it to be, that it is the precise expression of the Supreme. the first is a vision of what is coming and says, "That's how things should be." But we overlook the distance between what presently exists and what is coming. While if we go high above and become one with the Consciousness of the supreme Will, we see that at every instant, at every moment in the universe, all is exactly as it should beexactly as the Supreme wants it to be. That is Omnipotence.'
Saraswati represents the universal Mo ther's aspect of Knowledge and artistic creativity. On this occasion, Mo ther would go down to the Meditation Hall and the disciples would silently pass in front of her to receive a message. This year they would receive a folder containing five photographs of Mo ther.
Savitri, Vol. 29, XI.I.702.
0 1961-01-17, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Our self-deception is always in good faith! We always act for the welfare of o thers or in the interests of humanity and to serve you (that goes without saying!). How exactly do we deceive ourselves?
I would like to ask you a question in turnbecause there are two ways of understanding your question. It can be taken in the same ironic or humorous tone that Sri Aurobindo has used in his aphorism when he wonders at mans capacity for self-deception. That is, you are putting yourself in the place of the self-deceiver and saying, But I am of good faith! I always want the welfare of o thers the interests of humanity, to serve the Divine (of course!). then how can I be deceiving myself?
But actually, there are really two quite different forms of self-deception. One can be very shocked by certain things, not for personal reasons but precisely because of ones goodwill and ardor to serve the Divine, when one sees people misconducting themselves, being egoistical, unfaithful, treacherous. there comes a stage when one has mastered these things and doesnt permit them to manifest IN ONESELF; but to the extent that one is in contact with ordinary consciousness, ordinary viewpoints, ordinary life and thought, their possibility is still there, latent, because they are the inverse of the qualities one is striving for. And this opposition always exists until one has risen above and no longer has ei ther the quality or the defect. As long as one has virtue, one always has its latent opposite. the opposition disappears only when one is beyond virtue and sin.
But until then, there is this kind of indignation stemming from the fact that one is not entirely above: its a period when one totally disapproves of certain things and would be incapable of doing them. And up to this point, there is nothing to say, unless one gives an external, violent expression to his indignation. If anger interferes, it indicates an entire contradiction between the feeling one wants to have and this reaction towards o thers. Because anger is a deformation of vital power originating from an obscure and thoroughly unregenerate vital,1 a vital still subject to all the ordinary actions and reactions. When an ignorant, egoistic individual will exploits this vital power and encounters opposition from o ther individual wills around it, then under the pressure of opposition this power changes into anger and tries to obtain through violence what could not be achieved by the pressure of the Force alone.
Anger, moreover, like all forms of violence, is always a sign of weakness, impotence and incapacity. Here the deception comes from the approval one gives it or the flattering adjective one covers it with; for rage can be no more than blind, ignorant and asuricopposed to the light.
But this is still the best of cases.
there is ano ther case where peoplewithout knowing it or because they WANT to ignore italways pursue their personal interests, their preferences, their attachments, their concepts; people who are not entirely consecrated to the Divine and make use of moral and yogic ideas to conceal their personal motives. these people doubly deceive themselves: not only do they deceive themselves through their outer activities, their relations with o thers, but they also deceive themselves about their personal motives; instead of serving the Divine they are serving their own egoism. And this happens constantly, constantly! One serves his own personality, his egoism, while pretending to serve the Divine. This is no longer even self-deception: its sheer hypocrisy.
This mental habit of always cloaking everything with a favorable appearance, of giving all movements a favorable explanation, is at times so flagrant that it can fool nobody but oneself (although it may occasionally be subtle enough to create an illusion). It is a sort of habitual self-exoneration, the habit of giving a favorable mental excuse, a favorable mental explanation for all one does, all one says, all one feels. For example, someone with no self-control who strikes ano ther in great indignation and is ready to call it divine wrath! Righteous2 is perfect, because righteous immediately introduces this element of puritanical moralitywonderful!
This power of self-deception, the minds craft in devising splendid justifications for any ignorance or folly whatsoever, is tremendous.
And its not a random experience coming now and then, its something you can witness minute by minute. You generally see it far more readily in o thers! But if you watch yourself carefully, you will catch yourself a thousand times a daylooking at things in a favorable way: Oh, its NOT the same thing! And besides, its NEVER the same for you as it is for your neighbor!
For Sri Aurobindo and Mo ther, the 'vital' represents the regions of consciousness or the centers of consciousness below the mind between the throat and the sex center, i.e. the whole region of emotions, feelings, passions, etc., which constitute the various expressions of the Life-Energy.
Throughout the Agenda, words Mo ther originally spoke in English are italicized.
0 1961-01-19, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It wont tire you if I read these texts?
No. Its purely physical. Its because people. When I came down, I felt fine. Only they kept me standing there, on and on. When I am seated, its all right; but beyond a certain point, speaking also becomes difficult.
***
After the work:
I think it would be wiser if I went back upstairsalthough if I leave here too early, people will be waiting for me and Ill have to see them before going up. We could meditate a little; as soon as I meditate, everything is fine.
(meditation)
0 1961-01-22, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Mo ther had been unwell the past few days. She speaks here of the causes behind the physical disorder.)
Ah! How are you?
Youre the one who should be asked that!
Im all right.
--
I saw it last night oof! It was a kind of artificial hurricane created by semi-human beings (that is, they have human forms but they arent men). they created the storm to cut me off from my home. But everything and everyone was disruptedit must have been going on for a ra ther long time. Finally last night it became quite amusing: I kept attempting to get to my home which was up above, but each time I tried to find a way everything was blocked by try to imagine, artificial, mechanical and electric thunderstorms, and then things made to cave in. All of it was artificial, nothing real, and yet terribly dangerous.
At last I found myself in a big place down below where there was a row of houses, all kinds of things, and it was absolutely essential that I go back upwhen suddenly a somewhat indistinct form (ra ther dark, unluminous) came to me and said, Oh, dont go there, its very bad, very dangerous! theyve set it all up in a terrifying way: none can withstand it! You mustnt go there, wait a bit. And if you need something, do come, you know I have everything you need! (Mo ther laughs) its a little old and dusty but youll manage! then she led me into a huge room filled with objects piled one on top of ano ther, and in one corner she showed me a bathtubmy child, it was a marvel! A splendid pink marble bathtub! But it was unused, dusty and old. Well just wipe it off, she said, and youll be able to use it! She showed me o ther areas for washing and dressing, there was everything one could possibly need. You can use it all. Dont go up there! I looked at her closely. She struck me as having a tiny face, it was oddit wasnt a form, it was it was a form and yet it wasnt! As imprecise as that. then I clasped her in my arms and cried out, Mo ther, you are nice! (Mo ther laughs) I knew then that she was material Mo ther Nature.
After that I felt quite at ease. the battle was overit was over FOR the MOMENT, because they werent finished: they continued their uproar on the o ther side; but I didnt have to go there anymore.
It has been deferred because I was still down below; I had not yet returned to the upper levels. Anyhow.
But they are furious! there is evidently a whole alignment of forces ( they must be vital forces) between here and my domain. theyre furious! they set up explosions, demolitions. And I could see all the settings they were quite artificial, nothing real, but dangerous none theless.
All in all, it was ra ther amusing.
You were disrupting their work, is that it?
Yes, I am disrupting their work I know perfectly well that I am disrupting their domination of the world! All these vital beings have taken possession of the whole of Matter (Mo ther touches her body)life and action and have made it their domain, this is evident. But they are beings of the lower vital, for they seemed artificial they didnt express any higher form, but an entire range of artificial mechanisms, artificial will, artificial organization, all deriving from their own imagination and not at all from a higher inspiration.1 the symbol was very clear.
And I saw my own domain through them and through it all; I saw my domain: I can see it!, I said. But no sooner would I start on my way than the path would be lost, I no longer saw it, I couldnt see anymore where I was going. It became almost impossible to get my bearings there: hundreds and thousands of people, thingsutter confusion. An incoherent immensity and violent, what violence!
I felt something last night.
--
Ah, you felt them too!
At one point, it seized me here in the belly as if it wanted to rip something out.
Yes, yesoh, what violence, what fury!
--
I remained perfectly tranquil, there was nothing else to do; I knew it meant a battle. I was perfectly tranquil, but I could no longer eat, I could no longer rest, do japa2 or walk, and my head felt as though it would burst. I could only abandon myself (Mo ther opens her arms in a gesture of surrender), enter into a very, very deep trance, a very deep samadhithis is something one can always do. But that was the only thing left to me. Ideas were just as clear as ever (all that is above and doesnt budge), but my body was in a very bad way. It was a fight, a fight at each second. the least thing, just to walk a step, was a struggle, an awful battle!
then last night I saw the symbol, the image of the thing. But what was it? It was an element in the most material Matter,3 because it was deep down below; yet despite it all, Mo ther Nature was in charge there: she was familiar with everything, knew everything and it was all at her disposalabsolutely the most material Nature. And she herself had no light, but was very, very she had a concealed power that was completely invisible.
Each time I set out to leave her domain and ascend above, it triggered a hurricane. I would pass this way and the storm started up, pass that way, unleash a gale. Finally she approached me and said very gently, very sweetly, in a most unassuming way, No, dont go there, dont go! Dont try to return to your home. they have set up a dreadful hurricane! And artificial: there were explosions like bombs everywhere, and even worse, like thunderbolts. One could see the artificial tricks and electrical effects they were using to create their thunder, but it was on a tremendous scale!
It isnt over.
I simply consented to stay there. You will have all you need, stay here quietly. And what beautiful things she had, lovely things! they were unused and dusty. (It was surely the symbol of ancient realizationsrealizations of the ancient Rishis, things like that. Who knows?) they were first class, but completely neglected and thick with dust, like material objects left unusedwhich no one knew HOW to use. She put them at my disposal: Look, look, let me show you! there was a tremendous accumulation of things, piled in such great confusion that one couldnt see. Yet the marvel of it was that when she led me to a corner to show me something, everything immediately moved aside and order was restored, so that the object she wanted to show me stood out all by itself. And oh, a thing of beauty! Made of pink marble! A pink marble bathtub of a shape I didnt recognizenot Roman, not antique (not modern, far from it!)how beautiful it was! And whenever she wanted to show me something in this untidy and cluttered room full of objects piled one on top of ano ther, they would organize themselves, take their proper place, and all became neat. You will just have to dust them off a bit, she said. (Mo ther laughs)
But Im not surprised it came down on you.
Oh, I felt it! It was very violent. It came down on me three times and I told myself, Hmm, someone is cleaning out! It felt like something was being removed from me that shouldnt be there. But the third time I doubted it was you because it became so violent, particularly around the abdomen, like something being torn out of me. Strange. Vibrations, nothing but vibrations very, very violent.
For me it was in the head (not last night but over the past few days), when I was trying to do my japaoh, it was as though my head would burst! All the nerves were not just tense (Mo ther touches the nape of her neck), but cramped. And my head felt as if boiling oil were being poured inside it; it was about to explode, and I couldnt see clearly.
Something was obviously bent on preventing me from going down for the distribution.4 But by an act of will I went down. I will do it, I said. But it was difficult. there were moments when it sidled up to me: Now youre going to faint, and then, Now your legs will no longer be able to walk. Now. It kept coming like that. So I kept repeating the japa the whole time, and it was touch-and-go right up to the end. Finally I couldnt distinguish people, I saw only shapes, forms passing by, and not clearly. When the distribution was over, I got up (I knew I had to get up), I stood up without flinching and stepped down from the chair without faltering. But I was not careful and when I turned away from the light in the room to go towards the staircasean abrupt blackout. Not the blackout of a faintmy eyes no longer saw. I saw only shadows. Ah! I said to myself, where is the step?! And to avoid missing it, I clutched the railing. What a commotion that made! Champaklal came rushing up, thinking I was about to fall!
Anyhow.
--
Evidently all the vital forces who have taken the habit of ruling the earth (last night it had the proportions of the earth, it wasnt universal) are the very ones who refuse to listen; they dont at all like what I am doing.
You see, personal surrender and devotion is an excellent solution for the individual, but it doesnt work for the collectivity. For example, as soon as I am alone and lying on my bedpeace! (Ah, I forgot! they had invented yet ano ther thing: making my heartbeats irregular. Every three or four beats it would stop; then it would start up again, pounding as if I had been struck. Three, four beats, a faint little beat, then stop then, bang! Blow after blow. One more of their extraordinary inventions!) But, as soon as I stretch out and make a total surrender of all the cellsno more activity, nothingeverything goes well. But I am well aware that this surrender has an effect on the action only to the extent that the Supreme Lord has decided upon the action, and those movements stretch over long periods of time5: all sorts of things may happen before the final Victory is won. Because, for us, the scale is very small; even if it were of terrestrial proportions, it would be a very small scale; but on a universal scale. these forces have their place and their action, their universe, and as long as their place and their action are maintained, they will be here. So before their action can be exhausted or become useless, many things can happen.
Individually, however, there is almost instantaneous bliss. But this is not a true solution its a solution in the long run, by repercussion. To have true comm and here in this world, all of that must be mastered.
And this is the confusion made by all those people who believed that their what they called their personal salvation was the salvation of the worldits not true at all! It isnt trueits a PERSONAL salvation.
(silence)
But all of that is wonderfully, accurately expressed and EXPLAINED in Savitri. Only you must know how to read it! the entire last part, from the moment she goes to seek Satyavan in the realm of Death (which affords an occasion to explain this), the whole description of what happens there, right up to the end, where every possible offer is made to tempt her, everything she must refuse to continue her terrestrial labor it is my experience EXACTLY.
Savitri is really a condensation, a concentration of the universal Mo ther the eternal universal Mo ther, Mo ther of all universes from all eternityin an earthly personality for the Earths salvation. And Satyavan is the soul of the Earth, the Earths jiva. So when the Lord says, he whom you love and whom you have chosen, it means the earth. All the details are there! When she comes back down, when Death has yielded at last, when all has been settled and the Supreme tells her, Go, go with him, the one you have chosen, how does Sri Aurobindo describe it? He says that she very carefully takes the SOUL of Satyavan into her arms, like a little child, to pass through all the realms and come back down to earth. Everything is there! He hasnt forgotten a single detail to make it easy to understand for someone who knows how to understand. And it is when Savitri reaches the earth that Satyavan regains his full human stature.
these seem to be the forces ruling the subconscious mechanisms or reactions of the body: all the automatism produced by evolution and atavismwhat might be termed evolutionary habits. This is the 'descending path,' which started forty years earlier, as Mo ther said (or the 'physical plunge' referred to by Sri Aurobindo), leading to the pure cellular consciousness.
Japa: the continuous repetition of a mantra. Mo ther's mantra is a song of the cells, the sole material or physical process used by her for awakening the cells and stabilizing the Supramental Force in her body.
Later, Mo ther specified: ' these are elements in the material substance entirely possessed by adverse forces and opposed to the transformation.'
On the previous day, January 21, Saraswati Puja, Mo ther had given a message and photos to each disciple.
Later, on the 27th, Mo ther 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 ra ther 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 overwhelming 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 yesterday afternoon, when I went upstairs to walk,1 a couple of things occurrednot personal, but of a general natureconcerning, for instance, certain old-fashioned conventions having to do with women and their particular nature (not psychological, physical)old ideas like that which had always seemed utterly stupid to me suddenly provoked a kind of reprobation completely out of proportion to the fact itself. then one or two o ther things2 happened in regard to certain people, certain circumstances (nothing to do with me personally: it came from here and there). then suddenly, I saw a Force coming (coming, well, manifesting) which was the same as that thing I had felt within me but even bigger; it began whirling upon the earth and within circumstances oh, like a cyclone of compact power moving forward with the intention of changing all this! It had to change. At all costs, it must change!
I was above, as usual (Mo ther points above her head, indicating the higher consciousness), and I looked at that (Mo ther bends over, as if looking down at the earth), and said to myself, Hmm, this is getting dangerous. If it continues like this, it will result in in a war or a revolution or some catastrophea tidal wave or an earthquake. So I tried to counteract it by applying the highest consciousness to it, that of a perfect serenity. And I saw especially that this consciousness has been missioned to transform the earth through the Supermind and by the supramental Force, avoiding all catastrophes as far as possible: the Work is to be done as luminously and harmoniously as the earth would allow, even by going at a slower pace if need be. That was the idea. And I tried to counteract that whirlwind power with this consciousness.
(long silence)
I must say that after this, when I read the Secret of the Veda as I do each evening. In fact, I am in very close contact with the entire Vedic world since Ive been reading that book: I see beings, hear phrases. It comes up in a sort of subliminal consciousness, a lot of things are from the ancient Vedic tradition. (By the way, I have even come to see that the pink marble bathtub I told you about last time, which Nature had offered me, belongs to the Vedic world, to a civilization of that epoch.3) there were there are alwaysSanskrit words coming up, sentences, bits of dialogue. This is of interest, because I realized that what I had seen the o ther day (I told you about it) and then what I saw yesterday that whole domainwas connected to what the Vedas call the dasyus the panis and the dasyus4 the enemies of the Light. And this Force that came was very clearly a power like Indras5 (though something far, far greater), and at war with darkness everywhere, like this (Mo ther sketches in space a whirling force touching points here and there throughout the world), this Force attacked all darkness: ideas, people, movements, events, whatever made stains, patches of shadow. And it kept on going, a formidable power, so great that my hands were like this (Mo ther clenches her fists). Later when I read (I happened to be reading just the chapter concerning the fight against the dasyus), this proximity to my own experience became interesting, for it was not at all intellectual or mental there was no idea, no thought involved.
the remainder of the evening passed as usual. I went to bed, and at exactly a quarter to twelve I got up with the feeling that this presence in me had increased even fur ther and really become ra ther formidable. I had to instill a great deal of peace and confidence into my body, which felt as though it wasnt so easy to bear. So I concentrated, I told my body to be calm and to let itself go completely.
At midnight I was lying in bed. (And I remained there from midnight until I oclock fully awake. I dont know if my eyes were open or closed, but I was wide awake, NOT IN TRANCEI could hear all the noises, the clocks, and so forth.) then, lying flat, my entire body (but a slightly enlarged body, exceeding the purely physical form) became ONE vibration, extremely rapid and intense but immobile. I dont know how to explain this, because it did not move in space but was a vibration (that is, it wasnt motionless); yet it was motionless in space. And the exact form of my body was absolutely the most brilliant white Light of the supreme Consciousness, the consciousness OF the Supreme. It was IN the body and it was as though in EACH cell there was a vibration, and it was all part of a single BLOCK of vibration. It extended this much beyond the body (gesture indicating about six centimeters). I was absolutely immobile in my bed. then, WITHOUT MOVING, without shifting, it began consciously to rise upwithout moving, you understand: I remained like this (Mo ther holds her two joined and motionless hands at the level of her forehead, as if her entire body were mounting in prayer)consciously like an ascension of this consciousness6 towards the supreme Consciousness.
the body was stretched out flat.
And for a quarter of an hour, the consciousness rose, rose, without moving. It kept rising up, up, upuntil the junction was made.
A conscious junction, absolutely awake, NO TRANCE.
Thus the consciousness became the ONE Consciousness: perfect, eternal, outside time, outside space, outside movement beyond everything, in I dont know, in an ecstasy, a beatitude, something ineffable.
(silence)
It was the consciousness OF the BODY.
I have had this experience before in exteriorization and trance, but this time it was the BODY, the consciousness of the body.
It remained like that for a certain time (I knew it was a quarter of an hour because the clock chimed), but it was completely outside time. It was an eternity.
then, with the same precision, the same calm, the same deliberate, clear and concentrated consciousness (absolutely NOTHING MENTAL), I began to come back down. And as I was descending, I realized that all the difficulty I had been fighting the o ther day and which had created this illness was absolutely ended, ANNULLEDmastered. Actually, it was not even mastery but the non-existence of anything to be mastered: Simply the vibration from top to bottom; yet there was nei ther high nor low nor any direction.
And it went on like that. After this, Slowly, Still WITHOUT MOVING, everything went back into each of the different centers of the being. (Ah, let me say paren thetically that it wasnt AT ALL the ascent of a force like the ascent of the Kundalini! It had absolutely nothing to do with the Kundalini movement and the centers, it wasnt that at all.) But while re-descending, it was as though WITHOUT LEAVING THIS STATE, without leaving this state which remained conscious ALL the time, this supreme Consciousness began to reactivate the different centers: first here (Mo ther points to the center above the head and then touches the crown of the head, the forehead, throat, chest, etc.) then there, there, there. At each there was a pause while this new realization organized everything. It organized and made the necessary decisions, sometimes down to the most minute details: what had to be done in this case or said in that case; and all of that TOGE theR, at once, not one by one but seen entirely as a whole. It kept on descending I noted many things, it was extremely interestingdown and down, far ther and far ther, right to the depths. Everything went on at the same time,7 simultaneously, and at the same time this supreme Consciousness was organizing everything separately.8
This descending reorganization ended exactly when the clock struck one. At that moment I knew that I had to go into trance for the work to be perfected, but until then I was wide awake.
So I slipped into trance.
I came out of this trance two hours later, at 3 a.m. And during these two hours I saw with a new consciousness, a new vision, and above all a NEW POWERI had a vision of the entire Work: all the people, all the things, all the systems, all of it. And it was it was different in appearance (this is only because appearances depend upon the needs of the moment), but mainly it differed IN POWERA considerable difference. Considerable. the power itself was no longer the same.9
A truly ESSENTIAL change in the body has occurred.
I see that the body will have tohow can I express it? It will have to accustom itself to this new Power. But essentially the change has been accomplished.
Its not it is far, very far from being the final change, theres a lot more to be done. But we may say that its the conscious and total presence of the supramental Force in the body.
(silence)
When I got up today, I was going over all this to myself, and my first instinct was not to speak of it, to observe and see what would happen; but then I received a distinct and precise Command to tell it to you this morning. the experience had to be noted down just as it occurred, recorded in its exact form.
In the body now, there is a very clear not only a certitude, but a feeling that a certain omnipotence is not far away, and that very soon when it sees (it sees it! there is only one It in this whole affair, which is nei ther he nor she nor), when it sees that something must be, it automatically will be.
there is still a long, long way to go. But the first step on the way has been taken.
***
--
there is a terrible epidemic in the countrya triple epidemic.
Does a servant come to your house? No one is sick in his family? Because what happens is that they dont want to lose their jobs or their salary, so they dont warn you. they may have smallpox or measles or chickenpox and they dont take the slightest care to wash or change their clo thes; they come to your house and of course they bring along the disease. So the number of cases keeps multiplying and multiplying. I have been meaning to tell Pavitra to be careful of that little character who works for himeven ordinarily I dont like to see him running around here. Its strange how it sullies the atmosphereoh, you cant imagine! Almost all of them, almost all!
Its not at all the same as in the West, in Europe or America, not at all. Basically, the people in those countries are made of the same stuff as we are. But here thats not the case, because for centuries it never changeda Brahmin, for example, always remained a Brahmin, a Kshatria was always a Kshatria and all his servants were Kshatrias. It stayed in the family, in the sense that in each caste the servantsoften poor relativesbe longed to that same caste. From a social standpoint this might not have been too pleasant, but as far as atmosphere was concerned, it was very good. This was changed, however, first by the Muslim invasion, and then especially by the British.
the British, you see, were served only by pariahs (in fact, its we Europeans who named them that!). But they were not actually pariahs by birth, they became pariahs out of HABIT.
I have studied the problem very closely, because when you come from Europe you bring all your European ideas with you and you dont know or understand a thing about the way it really is. I immediately came into contact with Brahmin servants and pariah servants, but I didnt know that some were Brahmins and o thers pariahs, nobody had told me anything; it depended upon the people I was with and the places I went. But the contact, the atmosphere (gesture of fingering the air). You know, I didnt even need to touch them physically! there was such a difference that I asked Sri Aurobindo, But what is it? So he explained the whole thing to me.
You see, originally these pariahs were people who took their delight ( their pleasure) in filth and falsehood, in crime, in violence and robberyit was a joy for them. they had castes among themselves; there is still a caste of brigands nearby I once went to their village to have a lookpeople who always keep a dagger on them, they love to play with daggers. they stea l not so much out of need as out of pleasure. And dirty- they abhor cleanliness! And they will lie even if they have to contradict themselves fifteen minutes later, for the sheer delight of lying.
What an atmosphere it creates! Its palpable (Mo ther fingers the air).
I had a woman here with me who was born among these people. She had been adopted by Thomas ( the French musician who composed the comic-opera, Mignon). they had come to India and found this little girl who at the time was very young; she was only thirteen, quite pretty and nice. So they took her back to France with them as a nanny and treated her as one of their own children. She was cared for, educated, given everything, treated absolutely like one of the family; she remained there for twenty years. Moreover, she was gifted with clairvoyance and could tell fortunes by reading palms, which she did remarkably well. She even worked for a while in a caf, the Moulin-Rouge or a similar place, as a Hindu Fortune Teller! What a maharani she was, with her magnificent jewelsand beautiful, as well. In short, she had completely left all her old habits behind.
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 did there 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 ei ther 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 any case, I really tried my best, with all the power I had, all the knowledge I had, because I liked this girl a lot, it wasnt at all a question of charity, I found her very interesting. But I watchedwith a kind of horror, reallyas this past repossessed her more and more, more and more each day, until we were finally obliged to dismiss her, to tell her, Go. Yes, I understand, she replied, I cant stay here.
She lived in France from the age of thirteen, with all that those people did for her! (It was Ambroise Thomas, I remember now. they were so kind to her.) And naturally she had picked up very fine manners the outer appearances were all there.
All this is just to tell you that some contacts are not very favorable. And I understand full well: I could never tolerate people like that coming into my room sometimes it would take me hours and hours to put things right!
--
there was a time when we had only a minimum of servants here and they always remained apartwe never had an epidemic. I dont know for how many years it wasyears and years while Sri Aurobindo was herewe never had a single case of an epidemic disease. It began when people started coming here with children; necessarily they brought their servants along with them, who went to the bazaar and even to the movies and here and there. then everything came in.
But now the situation is bad. there are something like thirty cases of measles, four or five of smallpox and some chickenpox as well. You must be careful. I need you in good health, o therwise well have to stop everything!
there are places where it happens like that: suddenly everything stopsno more school, no more mail, no more trains. I remember a poor little village in Japan where they had a flu epidemic, the first of its kind. they didnt know what it was and the whole village fell ill. It was winter, the village was snowed in and there was no more communication with the outside ( the mail came only once every fifteen days). the postman arrived and everyone was dead, buried beneath the snow.
I was there in Japan when it happened.
A little vale of snowno one left.
--
Satprem later asked Mo ther what she meant by these 'things,' and Mo ther replied: 'For example, there was a certain man's attitude with respect to life and to the Divine, and what he thought of himself, and so forth. You see, what came was a whole range of characters and one particular action of one man, and then something else came up.... How to explain? ... these are POINTS OF WORK which come to me, things that present themselves in the atmosphere for me to seethings I see and which have to be acted upon.'
A few days later, Mo ther rectified: 'I have looked at the experience again and realized that it's not Vedic but pre-Vedic. the experience put me into contact with a civilization prior to the Vedas the Rishis and the Vedas are a kind of transition between that vanished civilization and the Indian civilization which grew out of the Vedic Age. It was yesterday [January 26] that I perceived this, and it was quite interesting.'
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.
the body-consciousness.
Later, Mo ther added: 'All the experiences took place one after the o ther, but the new experience did not cancel the preceding one. the Consciousness this supreme Unity that I hadremained all the time, to the very end, even while the o ther centers were awakening. And each center that awakened was a kind of addition, taking away nothing from what had come before. So at the end it was all simultaneous: a kind of global consciousness total and simultaneousof everything.... You see, while rising up (one is obliged to say "rising" and "descending" for o therwise one would never be understood), while "rising up" to reach this supreme Consciousness, all the rest was annulled, there was only That. When the supreme Consciousness was realized, it remained ALL the time, continuously, to the very end, it did not move; but meanwhile, the o ther centers began to awaken one after ano ther. And each awakening center assumed its place but canceled nothing ei ther of what had come before or of what was about to come, so that when I reached the end, all of it toge ther was a simultaneous whole the Supreme Consciousness.' When Satprem asked if this Supreme Consciousness was the 'New Consciousness,' Mo ther replied, 'Not "new!" One can't say "new"Supreme Consciousness.'
This entire experience and Mo ther's insistence that it all happened 'without moving,' unlike the experience of the ascent of the Kundalini, suggests that it is the supramental consciousness concealed in the depths of the cells, that somehow emerges and traverses all the layers until the junction is made with the most material body-consciousness.
Later, Mo ther added: ' the Power that was acting was no longer the power that had been acting previously.'
Mo ther frequently addressed Satprem as 'mon petit' or 'petit,' terms of endearment she used for very few o ther people. We have unfortunately been unable to find English equivalents that capture the nuances of Mo ther's simple 'petit' and 'mon petit,' and so have decided to leave them in the original French wherever they appear.
***
0 1961-01-27, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(On the moralistic reactions of someone who thought that certain acts 'angered' God:)
they are only too eager to believe that God can get angry with them! I try to dispel this notion as much as I can, because its not trueit isnt true.
(long silence)
--
Since the last experience [January 24] I see it daily. the following day, probably for reasons connected with the bodys development and adaptation, I was ra ther seriously illwhat is usually called painfully ill: the body was suffering a lot, or WOULD HAVE suffered a lot had it been in its former normal consciousness. Thats where I saw the differencea fantastic difference!
I was perfectly conscious (now when I say I, it refers to my body, I am not speaking of the whole higher consciousness), the body was perfectly conscious of its suffering, the reason for its suffering, the cause of its suffering, everything and it did not suffer. You understand, the two perceptions were there toge ther: the body saw the disorder, saw the suffering just as it would have felt it a few weeks earlier, it saw all that (saw, knew I dont know how to express itit was conscious, it was aware) and it did not suffer. the two awarenesses were absolutely simultaneous.
there is now a kind of VERY PRECISE knowledge of the whole inner mechanism for all thingsand what has to be done materially. This is developing, as a flower blossoms: you see one petal open and then ano ther and then ano ther; it is proceeding like that, slowly, taking its time. Its the same process for the Power.
To illustrate this, an interesting thing came upyesterday, I think. (All these experiences come to show me the difference, as if to give proof of the change.) Someone had had a dream about me whispered to him by the adverse forces for specific reasons (I wont go into the details). He was much affected by it, so he wrote down the dream and gave it to me. I was carrying his letter along with all the o thers, as I usually do, but suddenly I knew I had to read it right away: I read it. then I saw the whole thing with such clarity, precision, accuracy: how it had come about, how the dream had been produced, its effect the whole functioning of all the forces. As I read along and it went on unfolding, I did what was necessary for him (he was present at the time) in order to undo what the adverse forces had done. then at the end, when I had finished, said everything, explained what it was all about and what had to be done, something SO CATEGORICAL came into me (I cannot verbalize this kind of experience, it is what I call the difference in power: something categorical). I took the letter, uttered a few words (which I wont repeat) and said, You see, its like this: so much for that, and I ripped the letter a first time. then, thats for that, I tore it a second time and so on. I ripped it up five times and the fifth time I saw that their power was destroyed.
I have done these things beforeits a knowledge I already hadand it always had its effect when I did them; its not that I am passing from powerlessness to power, not at all. But its this kind of yes, something definite, absolutea kind of absolute in vision, in knowledge, in action and ABOVE ALL in powera kind of absolute that doesnt need to conquer obstacles and resistances, but ANNULS the resistance automatically. then I saw that something had truly changed.
(After a digression, Mo ther gives ano ther example of the change:)
I told you something concerning the power of the will, didnt I?
Well, yesterday I saw R. He was asking me questions about his work and particularly about the knowledge of languages (hes a scholar, you know, and very familiar with the old traditions). This put me in contact with that whole world and I began speaking to him a little about what I had already said to you concerning my experience with the Vedas. And all at once, in the same [absolute] way as I told you, when I entered into contact with that world a whole domain seemed to open up, a whole field of knowledge from the standpoint of languages, of the Word, of the essential Vibration, that vibration which would be able to reproduce the supramental consciousness. It all came, so clear, so clear, luminous, indisputable but unfortunately there was no tape recorder!
It was about the Word, the primal sound. Sri Aurobindo speaks of it in Savitri: the essence of the Word and how it will express itself, how it will bring in the possibility of a supramental expression that will take the place of languages. I began by speaking to him about the different languages, their limitations and possibilities; and I warned him against the deformations imposed on languages with the idea of making them a more flexible means of expressing something else. I told him how completely ridiculous it all was, and that it didnt correspond at all to the truth. then little by little I began ascending to the Origin. So yesterday again, I had this same experience: a whole world of knowledge, of consciousness and of CERTAINTYprecluding the least possibility of contradiction, discussion, or opposition; the possibility DOES NOT EXIST, it doesnt exist. And the mind was absolutely silent and immobile, listening with obvious pleasure because these things had never before come into my consciousness; I had never been concerned with them in that way. It was completely newnot new in principle but completely new in action.
the experiences are multiplying.
A sound that can bring in the supramental Force?
Yes. While speaking, you see, I went back to the origin of sound (Sri Aurobindo describes it very clearly in Savitri: the origin of sound, the moment when what we called the Word becomes a sound). So I had a kind of perception of the essential sound before it becomes a material sound. And I said, When this essential sound becomes a material sound, it will give birth to the new expression which will express the supramental world. I had the experience itself at that moment, it came directly. I spoke in English and Sri Aurobindo was concretely, almost palpably, present.
Now it has gone away.
--
Oh, ano ther little example. You know those photos I distributed on the 21st for the Saraswati Puja) Amrita told me he was going to send them to X,1 I but I told him, No, dont bo ther. ( the 21st was a terrible day for me. All the dasyus of the world were in league against me, trying to stop me I understood this afterwards, when I saw those things.2 So thats what it is! I said to myself, Thats what has been going on!) then after the night of the 24th, I went down for balcony-darshan3 with such a foursquare certaintyyou know, cubic: such a cubic certainty and I said to Amrita, You can send him those photos today, without an explanation, without a word, with nothing but a feeling of certainty, a kind of definite and absolute THATS HOW IT IS.
And that is a change, truly a change.
the tantric guru.
the Vedic or pre-Vedic experience of the artificial hurricane and the pink marble bathtub.
Balcony-darshan: up to 1962, Mo ther appeared every morning on the first-floor balcony to be seen by the disciples assembled on the street below.
***
0 1961-01-29, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
53 the quarrels of religious sects are like the disputing of pots, which shall be alone allowed to hold the immortalizing nectar. Let them dispute, but the thing for us is to get at the nectar in whatever pot and attain immortality.
What is this nectar of immortality?
This consciousness of immortality is OUR becoming conscious of the realms where immortality exists; but to bring immortality into the physical consciousness requires not only a transformation of physical consciousness but a transformation of physical substance as well. So.
***
(Concerning the last conversation where Mo ther spoke of the essential Sound, or the Word of the Vedic Rishis:)
I promised Nolini I would show him this.
Yes, Mo ther, this is a problem. Often when you tell me things of such importance I feel I benefit from them quite egoisticallycould they be shown to Pavitra now and then? Do you want them to be kept absolutely confidential, or may I show them to Pavitra occasionally?
It depends. You can tell Sujata whatever you like.
--
But o therwise. 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 o therwise, 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.
--
It continues. Now they have begun attacking my legs they always have to find something new!
Your legs are giving you trouble?
For a long time. It began in the middle of November. I saw the symbol of it only recently,1 but the battle itself has been going on since mid-November.
(silence)
--
Yes, yes, of course, its inevitable. But you must call in tranquillity, thats the only thing. It keeps coming and coming from all sides; but when you feel things going badly, when youre uneasy or thoroughly upset, you must remember to call in tranquillity.
But its about you, directed against you, all sorts of suggestions that make me.
--
We must keep going right to the end, thats all theres nothing else to do.
Experience of January 22 ( the artificial hurricane).
0 1961-01-31, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Concerning the experience related on January 24, of the supramental Force reorganizing the activity of each center of consciousness. the experience ended in a deep trance: 'I slipped into trance...')
I neglected to mention something very important.
At the moment of my coming out of the trance, I had a very concrete, positive perception (not a mental understanding, it didnt come from the beings intellectual part, the part that understands and explains everything and Is symbolized, I think, by Indra; it wasnt in any way conveyed through that higher intelligence, it wasnt mental). A kind of perception (not really a sensation, it was more than a sensation) of the almost total unimportance of the external, material expression of the bodys condition: the consciousness OF the BODY was absolutely indifferent to external, physical signs, whe ther they were like this or like that ( the BODYS consciousness was what had experienced the identity). And this body-consciousness had the perception of the EXTREME RELATIVITY of the most material expression.
I am translating it to make myself understoodit wasnt like that at the time of the experience. Suppose, for example, that there was a disorder here or there in the body, not actually an illness (because illness implies some important inner factor such as an attack or the necessity for some transformation, many different things), but the outer expression of a disorder, such as swollen legs or a malfunctioning liver not an illness, a disorder, a functional disorder. Well, it was all utterly unimportant: IT IN NO WAY CHANGES the BODYS TRUE CONSCIOUSNESS. Although we are in the habit of thinking that the body is very disturbed when its ill, when something is going wrong, its not so. It isnt disturbed in the way we understand it.
then what is disturbed if not the body?
Oh, its the physical mind, this stupid mind! It makes all the trouble, always.
It isnt the body at all?
No! the body is VERY enduring.
then what suffers?
Suffering also comes through the physical mind, because if this entity is calmed down, we no longer sufferexactly what happened to me!
the physical mind, you see, makes use of the nervous substance; if we withdraw it from the nervous substance, we no longer feel anything, for thats what gives us the perception of sensation. We know something is wrong, but we no longer suffer from it.
This was a very important experience. Afterwards (especially yesterday afternoon and this morning), I gradually began to realize that this kind of indifferent detachment is the ESSENTIAL condition for the establishment of true Harmony in the most material Matter the most external, physical Matter (Mo ther pinches the skin of her hand).
This experience has been like a stagean indispensable stage for establishing this complete detachment; an indispensable stage so that the harmony of the body-consciousness (which came with the bodys experience of the Divine) might have its effect upon the most external, superficial part of the body.
(silence)
This is the logical consequence of the research I have been doing for a long time now on the cause of illnesses and how to overcome them.
This ought to be noted down, because its important. It has seemed all the more important to me these last two days. Beginning yesterday evening, there was a whole series of experiences, and this morning I came to a certain conclusion, whose starting point, I realized, was that experience I had upon coming out of trance.
the rest will come later.
It was the very moment I was coming out of the trance, at 3 a.m.I came out of it with that1; it was the first contact. I had forgotten to mention this to you because it took on importance only very recently.
***
(A little later, concerning the Saraswati Puja photos that Mo ther first refused to send to X on the 21st, then decided to send on the 25th, with a kind of imperative cubic certainty.)
X has replied. He said something like this, which Amrita translated: I have received the photos. It is a I dont know whe ther he said illumination or flame, ascending towards the Truth, leading towards the Truth. Thats the impression it gave him: that it was leading somewhere.
Thats goodhe received it as I sent it.
But would it really have made a difference to send these photos on the 21st, as Amrita wanted, ra ther than later?
Ah, yes! (How to explain?) On the 21st, these photos could still have created a kind of difficulty in Xs consciousness (a semiconscious difficulty) because of all the obstacles, all the contradictions, all that was coming to put up a figh the is very sensitive to these things and I didnt want to put him in contact with that realm. Later, though they had been given a good thump on the head (Mo ther abruptly bangs down both hands) and were keeping still. then I said, All right, now you can send them.
I always avoid putting him in contact with the realm of conflicts and contradictions because he is extremely sensitive and it causes him difficulties. Thats why I said, No, dont bo ther. Afterwards, it was fine!
(silence)
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 o ther 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.
***
(After the work, Mo ther begins speaking of her translation of the Syn thesis of Yoga.)
A few days ago I had an experience related to this. For some time I had been unable to work because I was unwell and my eyes were very tired. And two or three days ago, when I resumed the translation, I suddenly realized that I was seeing it quite differently! Something had happened during those days (how to put it?) the position of the translation work in relation to the text was different. My last sentence was all I had with me, because I file my papers as I go along, so I went back to it along with the corresponding English sentence. Oh, look! I said, Thats how it goes! And I made all the corrections quite spontaneously. the position really seemed different.
Its not yet perfect, its still being worked on, but when I read it over, I saw that I had truly gone beyond the stage where one tries to find a correspondence with what one reads, an appropriate expression sufficiently close to the original text (thats the state I was in before). Now its not like that anymore! the translation seems to come spontaneously: that is English, this is French sometimes very different, sometimes very close. It was ra ther interesting, for you know that Sri Aurobindo was strongly drawn to the structure of the French language (he used to say that it created a far better, far clearer and far more forceful English than the Saxon structure), and often, while writing in English, he quite spontaneously used the French syntax. When its like that, the translation adapts naturallyyou get the impression that it was almost written in French. But when the structure is Saxon, what used to happen is that a French equivalent would come to me; but now its almost as if something were directing: That is English, this is French.
It was there, it was clear; but its not yet permanent. Something is beginning. I hope its going to become established before too long and that there will be no more translating difficulties.
Meanwhile, I am interested in seeing how it functions in your mind. I think that after some timeperhaps not too long from nowwe will be able to do this work toge ther in an interesting way.
the trouble is the time shortage. there isnt enough time!3
Oh, yes, this is very, very annoying, my child! You dont need to tell me! I have never in my life had enough time. Whatever I do, whe ther I am speaking to someone, organizing something, doing a particular work, the time is always too short, and I have the feeling, Oh, if I could only do that quietly! Anything, no matter what, becomes interesting if it can be done calmly, with the right attitude and the right concentration. Yet we are perpetually hurried by the next thing coming along.
But this is a shortcoming. And I know it, I know it I will find the solution. And when I have found it, it will be.
But time isnt elastic! If the days had three more hours in them it would be perfect!
Ye es but its because we are still too bound up in the outermost form of things. You cant imagine the difference this makes! One does the SAME thing in exactly the same way, the motion is identical, but in one case it takes time, while in the o ther case it doesnt.
I have experienced this very concretely. In the mornings, for instance, I have a very short time, very limited and very fixed, to get to the balcony for darshan, and there are a number of completely material things I must do beforehand. Its quite natural to feel that time must always be the same but its not true. Its not trueeven I am astonished!
With my japa the contrast is the same, its absolutely astounding: I feel I am saying the words in the same way, with the same sound, exactly the same rhythm, but in some cases, with a particular inner attitude, the time by the clock is different! Yet never theless, bound up as we are in our physical Matter, we imagine it has taken exactly the same amount of time! Thats what is so strange, this extraordinary relativity vis--vis the clock.
This must be what they tried to express by Joshua making the sun stand still.
there is something there to be found. Something extraordinary. How wonderful it will be when we find it!
there are a few secrets like that I feel them as secrets. And now and then its as though I am given an example, as though I am being told, You see, thats really how it is. And I am dumbfounded. In ordinary language, one would say, Its miraculous! But it isnt miraculous, it is something to be found.
And we shall find it!4
--
That = the perception of the almost total unimportance of the external, material expression of the body's condition.
the Vedic hymns translated by Sri Aurobindo
cf. On the Veda, Cent. Ed., X.241, ff.
Once again, Satprem was doing seven hours of japa daily.
In the equations of Einstein's theory of Relativity, quantities as 'immutable' as the mass of a body, the frequency of a vibration, or the time separating two events, are linked to the speed of the system where the physical event takes place. Recent experiments in outer space have allowed the validity of Einstein's equations to be verified. Thus a clock on a satellite in constant rotation around the Earth will measure sixty seconds between two audio signals, while an identical clock on Earth measures sixty-one seconds between the same two signals: time 'slows down' as speed increases. It is like the story of the space traveler returning to Earth less aged than his twin: you pass into ano ther 'frame of reference.'
It is striking that Mo ther's body-experiences very often parallel recent theories of modern physics, as if ma thematical equations were the means of formulating in human language certain complex phenomena, remote from our day to day reality, which Mo ther was living spontaneously in her bodyperhaps 'at the speed of light.'
***
0 1961-01-Undated, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Regarding the ego and the ancient religious initiations which taught: 'You are That' or 'You are the All.')
A moment comes when self-observation is no longer possible.
Even in these expressions All is You or You are the All (and the same holds for You are the Divine or the Divine is you), there is still something watching.
A moment comesit comes in flashes and doesnt easily remainwhen its the All who thinks, the All who knows, the All who feels, the All who lives. theres not evennot even the feeling that you have reached this state.
then it is good.
But up to this point there is still a small corner [of the I] somewheregenerally the observer, the witness who is watching.
(silence)
--
Its not correct to say that you know you have no more ego. the only correct thing would be to affirm that you are ON the WAY to having no more ego.1
This fragment possibly dates from 1958.
0 1961-02-04, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Here, I have brought you two flowers. they have two different yet very typically Indian fragrances: this one is Straightforwardness,1 and this is Simplicity.2 I have always found that this one (Mo ther holds out the Simplicity) has a cleansing fragrance: when you brea the it, ah, everything becomes cleanits wonderful! (Mo ther brea thes in the flowers fragrance.) Once I cured myself of the onset of a cold with itthis can be done when you catch it at the very beginning. It fills you completely, the nose, the throat. And this [Straightforwardness] is right at the o ther end of the spectrum. I find it very, very powerfulstrange, isnt it?
Its not at all sweet-smelling.
--
Its largely the fragrances that have made me give flowers their significance. I find these studies quite interesting; it corresponds to something really TRUE in Nature.
Once, without telling me anything, someone brought me a sprig of tulsi.3 I smelled it and said, Oh, Devotion! It was absolutely a a vibration of devotion. Afterwards, I was told its the plant of devotion to Krishna, consecrated to Krishna.
Ano ther time, I was brought one of those big flowers (which are not really flowers) somewhat resembling corn, with long, very strongly scented stalks.4 I smelled it and said, Ascetic Purity! Just like that, from the odor alone. I was later told it was Shivas flower when he was doing his tapasya.5
these people have an age-old knowledge the ancient Vedic knowledge which they have preserved. In o ther words, it is something CONCRETELY TRUE: it doesnt depend at all on the mind, on thought or even on feelingsits a vibration.
What about this flower, this long corn-like stalk?
--
And interestingly enough, its smell is fantastically attractive to snakes; it makes them come from far away to nest in the shrubs. And as you know, the serpent is the power of evolution, it is Shivas own creature; he always puts them on his head and around his neck because they symbolize the power of evolution and transformation. And snakes like this flower; it often grows near rivers, and wherever there is a cluster of the plants you are sure to discover snake nests.
I find this very interesting, for WE didnt decide it should be like this: these are conscious vibrations in Nature. the fragrance, the color, the shape, are simply the spontaneous expressions of a true movement.
What does the serpent represent physically? What does it embody in the material world?
the vibration of evolution.
I dont mean symbolically, but physically, materially: the animal itself.
A formidable concentration of vitalityof all animals, the serpent has the most vitality. Its tremendous! And energy progressive energy, energy of movement (progressive in the mechanical sense). Its meaning has been changed to a psychological one, but its a force of movement.
then why do these creatures always seem so evil to us?
the Christians say its the spirit of evil, but this is due to a lack of understanding.
theon always told me that the true interpretation of the Biblical story of the serpent in the Garden of Eden is that humanity wanted to pass from a state of animal-like divinity to the state of conscious divinity by means of mental development, symbolized by eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. And this serpent, which theon always said was iridescent, reflecting all the colors of the prism, was not at all the spirit of evil, but the power of evolution the force, the power of evolution. And it was natural that this power of evolution would make them taste the fruit of knowledge.
Now, according to theon, Jehovah was the chief of the Asuras,6 the supreme Asura, the egoistic God who wanted to dominate everything and keep everything under his control. And of course this act made him furious, for it enabled mankind to become gods through the power of an evolution of consciousness. And thats why he banished them from Paradise.
Although told in a childish manner, theres a great deal of truth in this story, a great deal.
(silence)
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 ano ther 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.
I have had several experiences demonstrating my power over snakes (not so much as over catswith cats its extraordinary!). Long ago, I often used to take a drive and then stop somewhere for a walk. One day after my walk, as I was getting back into the car to drive away ( the door was still open), a very large snake came out, right from the spot I had just left. He was furious and heading straight towards the open door, ready to strike (luckily I was alone, nei ther the driver nor Pavitra were there, o therwise). When the snake had come quite near, I looked at him closely and said, What do you want? Why have you come here? there was a pause. then he fell down flat and off he went. I hadnt made a move, only asked him, What do you want? Why have you come here? You know, they have a way of suddenly falling back, going limp, and prrt! Gone!
How many, many experiences there were during those days at Tlemcen! Surely youve heard them. Were you there when I told the story about the big toad? A huge toad, covered with warts. No? the sitting room was upstairs in theons house ( the house was built on a hillside) and it was connected by large open doors to a small terrace that sat almost on top of the hill. I played the piano in this room every day. And one day, what did I see hopping in through the open bay windows but an enormous black toadenormous! He sat down on his backside right in the entrance and puffed up his throat: poff! poff! And for the whole time I played, he stayed there going Poff! poff!, as though in a state of delight! When I finished, I turned around and he gave me one last Poff! and hopped away. It was comical!
theon also taught me how to turn aside lightning.
Is it possible?!
--
Oh (laughing), he had a formidable power! theon had a formidable power. One stormy day ( there were terrible thunderstorms there), he climbed to the high terrace above the sitting room. Its a strange time to be going up there, I said to him. He laughed, Come along, dont be afraid! So I joined him. He began some invocations and then I clearly saw a bolt of lightning that had been heading straight towards us suddenly swerve IN the MIDST OF ITS COURSE. You will say its impossible, but I saw it turn aside and strike a tree far ther away. I asked theon, Did you do that? He nodded.
Oh, that man was terriblehe had a terrible power. But quite a good external appearance!
--
And do you know how he received me when I arrived there? It was the first time in my life I had traveled alone and the first time I had crossed the Mediterranean. then there was a fairly long train ride between Oran and Tlemcenanyway, I managed ra ther well: I got there. He met me at the station and we set off for his place by car (it was ra ther far away). Finally we reached his estatea wonder! It spread across the hillside overlooking the whole valley of Tlemcen. We arrived from below and had to climb up some wide pathways. I said nothingit was truly an experience from a material standpoint. When we came in sight of the house, he stopped: Thats my house. It was red! Painted red! And he added, When Barley came here, he asked me, Why did you paint your house red? (Barley was a French occultist who put theon in touch with France and was his first disciple.) there was a mischievous gleam in theons eyes and he smiled sardonically: I told Barley, Because red goes well with green! With that, I began to understand the gentleman. We continued on our way uphill when suddenly, without warning, he spun around, planted himself in front of me, and said, Now you are at my mercy. Arent you afraid? Just like that. So I looked at him, smiled and replied, Im never afraid. I have the Divine here. (Mo ther touches her heart.)
Well, he really went pale.
there were all kinds of stories in the countryside, terrible stories.
One day I will find his photo and show it to you; he is there with a big dog he called Little Boy, a dog that could exteriorizehe would dream and go out of his body! This dog had a kind of adoration for me. (I should mention that at a fixed time in the afternoons I used to meditate and go into trance. When it was finished I would go out walking with theon, and the dog always came with us, usually coming to fetch me in my room.) One day I was lying on a divan in trance when I felt his cold muzzle nudging my hand to wake me. I opened my eyes no dog. Yet I had positively, clearly felt his cold muzzle. So I got ready, went downstairs, and who did I find fast asleep on the landing but Little Boyhe was in trance as well! He had come to wake me in his sleep. When I reached the landing he woke up, shook himself and trotted off.
It was an interesting life.
We used to go for walks in the nearby countryside to see the tombs (it was a Muslim country). I no longer recall their Arabic name, but there is always a guardian at Muslim tombsa sage, like the fakirs of India, a kind of priest responsible for the tomb. Pilgrims go there as well. theon was friendly with one particular sage, and would speak with him and tell him things (at these times I would see the mischief in theons eyes). One day, theon took me along. (According to Islamic tradition I should have been fully covered, but I always went out in a type of kimono!) theon addressed the sage in Arabic; I didnt understand what he said, but the sage rose, bowed to me very ceremoniously and went off into ano ther room, returning with three cups of sweetened mint tea (not teacups, they put it in special little glassesextremely sweet tea, almost like mint syrup). the sage was watching me, I was obliged to take it.8
the pine tree story is also from Tlemcen.
Someone had wanted to plant pine treesScotch firs, I think and by mistake Norway spruce were sent instead. And it began to snow! It had never snowed there before, as you can imagineit was only a few kilometers from the Sahara and boiling hot: 113 in the shade and 130 in the sun in summer. Well, one night Madame theon, asleep in her bed, was awakened by a little gnome-like beinga Norwegian gnome with a pointed cap and pointed slippers turned up at the toes! From head to foot he was covered with snow, and it began melting onto the floor of her room, so she glared at him and said:
What are You doing here? Youre dripping wet! Youre making a mess of my floor!
--
the Lord of the Snow.
Very well, replied Madame theon, I shall see about that when I get up. Now go away, youre spoiling my room!
So the little gnome left.
But when she awoke, there was a puddle of water on the floor, so it couldnt have been a dream. And when she looked out the window, all the hills were snow-covered!
It was the first time. they had lived there for years but had never seen snow. And every winter after that, the hillsides would be covered with snow.
(silence)
--
She was English and he. I dont know whe ther he was Polish or Russian (he was of Jewish origin and had to leave his country for that reason). But they were both European.
It was a very interesting world. Really, what I saw there. Well, once you left, you would ask yourself, Was I dreaming?! It all seemed so fantastic!
But when I recounted these experiences to Sri Aurobindo, he told me it was quite natural: when you have the power, you live in and create around yourself an atmosphere where these things are possible.
Because it is all here, it just hasnt been brought to the surface.
So, its time to go and we still havent workedonce again Ive been talking away! Dont bo ther noting it all down; Ive told it just for you, for your personal entertainment!
--
No. Besides, there are things. there are things I dont want to speak of because (and I havent said them, ei ther) because, after all, he taught me a lot.
(long silence)
So, mon petit. Sri Aurobindo always said the greatest obstacle to true understanding and participation in the Work is common sense. He said thats why Nature creates madmen from time to time! they are people not strong enough to bear the dismantling of this petty stupidity called common sense.
Its time to go now. Do you have anything to say?
--
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 ano ther angle.
But its truly a burden.
Well, I am going on with the work, and what I would recommend to all those with the capacity and possibility to follow me is to remain very calm, dont fret, dont be troubled. And if you feel a little depressed, dont pay any attention to it; live quietly from minute to minute, without worrying about anythingit will pass. It will pass.
Naturally, the more calm and confident you are, the more quickly it will pass. Thats all.
I can assure you that you are well fastened, very well indeed; you are automatically caught up in my whole forward movement. So dont worry. Begin your book on Sri Aurobindo.
--
It doesnt matter! Put your ideas down on paper. there are things you already know you want to say. Put it all on paper. I assure you it will do you good. I have seen it several times recently and I wanted to tell you: begin your book on Sri Aurobindo! Begin anywhere at all, at any point the middle, the end, the beginningit doesnt matter! Whatever you feel you have to say, write it down. Its good to keep yourself occupied like that now, during this period. And for our next meetings you can work a little on the Syn thesis of Yoga and we will look at it toge ther instead of you always making me talk! I have increased your work, there will be no end to it. If it goes on like this, there will never be an end!
Fortunately!
So, mon petit, dont worry. You are SURE, sure not only to advance but to reach the goal. And as for this troubled mind, keep it occupied with the book on Sri Aurobindo.
Good-bye now, petit. Dont worry.
--
Hymenan therum, a tiny yellow flower like a miniature daisy.
Ocimum sanctum (Basil).
--
Asura: demon of the mental plane embodying the forces of division and darkness.
Tlemcen: a town in nor thern Algeria.
the story doesn't seem to end here, but perhaps Mo ther did not wish to say anything fur ther.
***
0 1961-02-05, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
If this swelling of the legs is useful for Thy work,
let it be.
0 1961-02-07, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Mo ther reads the following letter aloud in English, before sending it to a disciple.)
You ask me what you must do. It would be better to ask what you must be, because the circumstances and activities in life have not much importance. What is important is our way of reacting towards them.
This is where it begins.
Human nature is such that when you concentrate on your body you fall ill; when you concentrate on your heart and feelings you become unhappy; when you concentrate on the mind you get bewildered.
(Laughing) And its absolutely true!
there are two ways of getting out of this precarious condition.
One is very arduous: it is a severe and continuous tapasya. It is the way of the strong who are predestined for it.
the o ther is to find something worth concentrating upon that diverts your attention from your small, personal self. the most effective is a big ideal, but there are innumerable things that enter into this category. Most commonly, people choose marriage, because it is the most easily available (Mo ther laughs). To love somebody and to love children makes you busy and compels you to forget your own self a little. But it is rarely successful, because love is not a common thing.
O thers turn to art, o thers to science; some choose a social or a political life, etc., etc.
But here also, all depends on the sincerity and the endurance with which the chosen path is followed. Because here also, there are difficulties and obstacles to surmount.
So, in life, nothing comes without an effort and a struggle.
And if you are not ready for the effort and the struggle, then it is better to accept the fact that life will be dull and unsatisfactory, and submit quietly to this fact.
Thats for the complainers.
(long silence)
And its absolutely truetrue at each stage, on all levels. Whatever level you have attained, even the very highest, if you concentrate on that [ the body], it is finished! And all the difficulties begin, you know, with that very concentration that tries to draw down Light and Poweryogic concentration itself.
So it would seem that if one wants to use his individuality, his body, to transform the whole that is, if one wants to use his bodily presence to act upon the universal corporeal substance theres no end to it. No end to the difficulties, no end to the battle BATTLE!
(silence)
--
You see, as long as there are currents swirling within youswirling in the mind or the vitalyou tell yourself that these currents are the cause of all the difficulties. But when there is nothing any longer? When there is a serene and immutable peace but still you are relentlessly houndedoh, with such ferocity! You cannot imagine.
(silence)
--
It has been good for it (not externally, but inwardly, for its state of consciousness: the body-consciousness), it has done the body some good, but. Now its like this (Mo ther opens her hands in a gesture of total surrender). For each blow it receives (its a bludgeoning, my child!), for each blow, it remains like this (same gesture). Yesterday, to make it happy, I wrote down something like this (concerning its latest difficulty): If this present difficulty is useful (its the body addressing the Lord, and the Lord. its a perpetual adoration: all the cells vibrate, vibrate with the joy of Love; yet despite that ), if this or that difficulty is useful for Your Workso be it. But if it is an effect of my stupidity (its the body speaking), if its an effect of my own stupidity, then I beseech You to cure me of this stupidity as quickly as possible.
It doesnt ask to be cured of the illness! It doesnt ask, it is ready; All right, it says. As long as I can keep going, I will keep going. As long as I can last, I will last. But thats not what Im asking for: I am asking to be cured of my stupidity. I believe this is what enables it to yes, what gives it the necessary endurance.
Thats enough. I said I wouldnt say anything! You see how you are. When Im up in my room, I always tell myself, Not a word today! I dont want to start saying unpleasant things. And then.
Unpleasant?
--
When we used to discuss all these things and the difficulties of the path, Sri Aurobindo told me (he was comparing his body to mine): I dont have the stuff of such endurance. I was not cut out like thatyour body is solid! (gesture)
What trials it has gone through! And its so docile, so docile, it doesnt complain.
So, my child, if your body has some trouble, just tell yourself they are sympathy pains (Mo ther laughs), then you wont be troubled. Thats all.
***
0 1961-02-11, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
55Be wide in me, O Varuna; be mighty in me, O Indra; O Sun, be very bright and luminous; O Moon, be full of charm and sweetness. Be fierce and terrible, O Rudra; be impetuous and swift, O Maruts; be strong and bold, O Aryama; be voluptuous and pleasurable, O Bhaga; be tender and kind and loving and passionate, O Mitra. Be bright and revealing, O Dawn; O Night, be solemn and pregnant. O Life, be full, ready and buoyant; O Death, lead my steps from mansion to mansion. Harmonise all these, O Brahmanaspati. Let me not be subject to these gods, O Kali.1
He invokes all these Vedic gods and tells each one to take possession of him; and theN he tells Kali to free him from their influence! It is very amusing!
Its written in black and white, but the people here read and dont understand what theyre reading, and thats a pity. they have to be told, This means that!
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.
(silence)
For Sri Aurobindo, the important thing was always the Mo ther. As he explained it, the Mo ther has several aspects, and certain aspects are still unmanifest. So if he has represented the Mo ther by Kali in particular, I believe its in relation to all those gods. Because, as he wrote in the Mo ther, the aspects to be manifested depend upon the time, the need, the thing to be done. And he always said that unless one understands and profoundly feels the aspect of Kali, one can never really participate in the Work in the worldhe felt that a sort of timid weakness makes people recoil before this terrible aspect.
***
--
the trouble is, they hinder my work (Mo ther indicates her legs). Not the work up in my room there, on the contrary, it is going well, very well, clear, precise. Yesterday again I worked on the translation of the Syn thesis of Yoga, and it was so pleasant. So pleasant.
You see, I cant stand up; and these people persistently try to keep me standing. But I cant remain standing, its all out of order. Anyway, it doesnt matter, it will pass.
Last night I had a dream about you that made a vivid impression on me. Its probably absurd, but it was so real! You had called me because you were going to leave your body: you had decided to leave and you wanted somehow to say good-bye. It was so real! I came to you and for a moment you placed my head on your knees, and I was filled with light; it was very tender. But at the same time, I knew you were saying good-bye, you were going to leave your body, and I wept in my dream. then I went to sit in a corner because there were o ther people who probably had come to see you as well. I remained in that corner, strickenit seemed so real, you understand! Just then, aman I didnt know entered the room (I knew he was French), a stranger dressed all in black, and he started making a loud commotion. He was smoking a pipe,2 a very coarse man, and he wanted to make all the people there, the disciples, get out of the room .3 It was so real! I awoke with a start and almost cried aloud, Ah, its a dream! Its only a dream!
Oh, it was that real!
Yes, it was that real! It was during the first hours of sleep, at 11:40 p.m. It was very, very vivid I awoke with a start, exclaiming to myself, Ah! Its only a dream!But it seemed so TRUE! It left a deep impression on me. I remained awake for a long time, wondering, What can this mean? You had a tiny, pinched face (you were dressed all in white), such a pinched face, very (how can I express it?) emaciated, as though you were suffering.
(Mo ther remains silent for a long while, then replies.) Quite evidently, the adverse forces are not only trying to convince everyone but me too, that this is how its going to turn out.
But I have as yet had no indications.
I have asked to be forewarned, not for reasons of. It can happen any time at all, I am always ready. I can do nothing more for the work than what I am doing now, and I havent a single practical measure to take because I have already taken them all. So that isnt why, but to AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE to withdraw from the body all that has been put into it. there is such an accumulation inside it of force, consciousness, power, oh! All the cells are impregnated and it would take some time if it all had to be taken out.
But I have had no indication of this, nei ther by night nor by day, nei ther awake nor in tranceno indication. the indication ra ther points to all that must be clarified, purified so the physical may keep what it received from that experience [of January 24, 1961].
From an ordinary standpoint, I believe the situation is dangerous, because (laughing) the doctor refuses to tell me what the consequences might be. I asked him but he wouldnt tell me, so thats what it must mean! But I really have no indications and I hope I wont be told, Now you must go, only at the very last minute!
the body doesnt ask (its so docile), it doesnt even ask for its sufferings to stopit adapts to them. Its mainly my contact with people that makes the thing difficult: when I am all alone upstairs, everything goes well, quite well. But when I spend one or one and a half hours in the afternoon seeing people, afterwards I feel exhausted. That, obviously, is whats making the thing difficult. But the body doesnt complain. It doesnt complain, its ready. the o ther day when it went back upstairs, it felt a bitwell, at the end of its resources, as though it had pushed itself to the limit. It said to the Lord (and it said this so clearly, as though the consciousness of the cells were speaking; I noted it down): If this (I cant call it an illness there is no illness! Its a condition of general disequilibrium), if this condition is necessary for Your Work, then so be it, let it go on. But if its an effect of my stupidity (you see, its the BODY saying, If its because I dont understand or I am not adapting or not doing what I should or not taking the proper attitude), if it is an effect of my stupidity, then truly I pray that. It asks only to changeto know and to change!
It is attached to nothing: none of its habits, none of its ways of being-nothing. It says in all sincerity, I ask only for the Light, only to change. That is its state. it has never, never said, Oh, Im tired, Ive had enough! Bah! Its not like that. It is attached to nothing for a long, long time it has ceased to have desiresit is attached to nothing at all, to nothing. there isnt a single thing for which it says, Oh, I cant do without that! Not one. It doesnt care-if something comes, it takes it; if it doesnt come, the body doesnt think about it. In o ther words, its truly good-natured. But if this isnt sufficient, then it doesnt know and it says, If there is something I cant do or I dont know or I am not doing It asks for nothing more than to make the necessary effort!
(silence)
It all began with some extremely violent attacks. So if your dream is not premonitory, then it must be the result of their formation, by which they intend to disseminate the conviction everywhere, as much as possible, that this is the end. Two years ago, when I had to retire to my room, a formidable campaign was set into operation upon all the Ashram people; and all those who were a little receptive, ei ther in dreams or through an openness to suggestions, heard it clearly announced: On the 9th of December of this year [1958], Mo ther will leave. theres no doubt about it, its sure. It was said to me as well: This will be the end, you will leave. It was repeated to everybody, everybody, a great many people heard it they were virtually awaiting it. And this is why (you know how extremely ill I was at the time, I was really ill), this is why I didnt react, but all the same I didnt go to the lake [ the lake estate where Mo ther was to have gone on the 9th of December], because I told myself, If anything happens there, it will be awkward I had better not go. But still I knew it wasnt true, I knew it.
Now this kind of attack has stopped, it is no longer like that. But there are beings who send dreams. For example, some dreams were sent to Z (who, as you know, is quite clairvoyant), in which she was told I would be broken to pieces. She was very upset and I had to intervene. Is your dream of this nature, or are you being forewarned? I dont know, I cant say. If the doctor were asked, perhaps he would say that if it continues like this, obviously (you see, one thing after ano ther is getting disorganized), if it continues in this way, how long can the body last?
But this body feels so strongly that it exists ONLY because the divine Power is in it. And constantly, for the least thing, it has only one remedy (it doesnt think of resting, of not doing this or that, of taking medicine), its sole remedy is to call and call the Supremeit goes on repeating its mantra. And as soon as it quietly repeats its mantra, it is perfectly content. Perfectly content.
(silence)
Two nights ago, I saw a formation of illness over the entire Ashram, a kind of adverse formation trying to prevent me from leaving my room, and I had to hide to get out, leave clandestinely. Oh, what a terrible atmosphere, so heavy, so grayeverybody was ill. And this formation had some actual effects because many people fell ill who normally never do. It is an adverse formation and theres no reason to concede its victory; its simply a force which doesnt want us to succeed, of courseso we need not pay attention.
the trouble is, if I were thirty or forty years old, people wouldnt be affected. But unfortunately they think about how old I am all the time and it creates a bad atmosphere. After all, they keep saying, Mo ther is old and. All the usual nonsense.
But I know differently and so does my bodyto me its all foolishness and has no importance. For instance, when Vinoba Bhave came to see me4 ( the man who takes care of poor people), he looked at me and said, Oh, youll live a hundred years! And I simply said, Yes, it all seemed so natural. At that moment, there wasnt even (how to put it?) the least intimation of a doubt. Of course its a clich, but never theless, he said it; afterwards he told people that this was what he had felt. And it seems completely natural I know if my body can last till its a hundred (a little less than twenty years more), then we will be on the o ther side the difficulty will be over.
I ra ther feel that your dream is ano ther part of this present mass attack, but.
there was one bizarre little detail: someone told me you were leaving because you had swallowed something I understood it to be a grain of rice and that was why you had to leave! You had swallowed something and that was making you leave.
(After a long silence) This would ra ther indicate those who disapprove of my non-asceticism. It would seem to originate from those particular forces.
You see, theres a curious fluctuation possibly indicating that your dream is part of the present attack which continues with such violence. the night before last, between midnight and half-past, there was a formidable attack. When I emerged from it, I felt that something had lifted, a victory had been won and that the bodys condition had improved. It happens like that, the horizon clears and this Certainty comes with. ( the presence is always hereSri Aurobindo and I are toge ther almost every night but the night when I saw that formation, the illness spell over the Ashram, Sri Aurobindo was quite sick in his bed, just as I saw him in 1950.) So when it lifts, all is well: once again there is harmony, there is joy, there is force and again the whole thing continues, the effort continues, consciously. Yet there is a kind of fluctuation: it will go on like that for a few moments or a few hours and then suddenly everything becomes muddled again and I am beset by a fatigue. A fatigue which is I cant say almost unbearable, because nothing in the consciousness feels it to be unbearable but it makes me like this (Mo ther clenches her fist tightly in a tension to hold on).
For example, at five-thirty in the evening, after Ive spent an hour and a half here with people, its a labor to climb the stairs; and by the time I get upstairs, I feel strained to the breaking point. then I begin to walk (I dont stop, I dont rest), I immediately begin to walk with my japa, and within half an hour, pfft! it has lifted.
But the bodys fatigue doesnt go: its there its contained but it is there.
Yet I havent the slightest impression that the horizon is blockedyou know, that the end is at hand, that the condition has to be changed and the Work begin again on ano ther plane and in ano ther way; in o ther words, that everything attempted so far would have been only a preparation for for later. I still dont have that feeling. If I ever do, I will say, Very well, thats quite all right with me, but I dont have this feeling. Will I ever have it? I dont knowusually (laughing), I know these things! For instance, I know for certain when someone is going to die, even before theres the least indication. So.
In the present case, of course, the body is always saying, I am ready for everything I will do anything at all; yet I still cant say that it has this. Its trying to be completely pure according to the spiritual conceptit doesnt sense its separate personality. More and more, year after year, it has been striving to feel only the divine Presence, the divine Life, the divine Force and the divine Will, all within itself; and to feel that without them it is nothing, it doesnt exist. This is fully realized in its consciousness ( the conscious part). In the subconscient and inconscient,5 obviously it is not realized o therwise, logically, it shouldnt be ill.
the whole disorder evidently originates from the subconscient and inconscient; all the more so as it came with various indications (sent by the hostile forces but this can always be useful, provided you are careful) saying, Yes, everything is going well in your higher centers, but(because the different points of attack have clearly followed the order of the centers). Four or five days ago, or maybe a week, before this latest difficulty occurred, I saw little beings coming out of the subconscient and saying, Ah! Your legs havent had any trouble for a long time! Its the turn of the lower centers! I swept it all away, of course, but.
Taken this way, it could be an indication that all this needs a somewhat brutal preparation in order to be put in the necessary condition.
(silence)
the most violent attack came immediately after that experience [of January 24]. But of all the experiences in my life, this was the most wonderful for the simple reason that it was NOT EVEN preceded by an aspiration, not even an aspiration from the body it came directly as the Supreme Will, bang! (Mo ther bangs down her hands in an irresistible gesture) And then there was nothing, nothing but the thing, WITHOUT ANY PERSONAL PARTICIPATION WHATSOEVER: no will, no aspiration, not even the satisfaction of itnothing. It was. I was (in my higher consciousness) filled with wonder at the ABSOLUTENESS of the experience. It came, a thing DECREED and eternallike that (same irresistible gesture).
(silence)
This detachment, as I told you, came afterwards (it was evidently indispensable); and as soon as it came, everything began to get disorganized. Well, the detachment must surely have come so that. Actually, my immediate impression was: so that I wouldnt get worried and say to myself, Oh, now it wont work any morethis is the end. So I wouldnt worry. All right, I said, dont bo ther with it.(gesture of surrender, hands opened upwards) And for the first two or three days I was absolutely detached, watching and not bo thering about it. Its only with this last attack on my legs. Because the rest of it tired me and made me ill but it didnt hinder my work; but things become difficult when the legs dont function.
We shall see, mon petit! Well see whats going to happen (Mo ther laughs).
--
No, no I know that! I tell you, it can only be one of two things: ei ther a good kick from the Enemy who is still trying to find a support in someones mentality, or else premonitory.
I certainly hope not!
Yes, the grain of rice ra ther makes me think o therwise that it comes from that quarter.
We shall see, we shall see! We have only to wait. One day we are sure to know!
--
I know for certain that if I can keep going until 1964, then. That isnt long, but it will be dangerous until 1964. Its these years in particular: 61, 62 63 is better, 64 is decidedly better, and from 1965, we should be on the safe side.
But truly speaking, the minute one completely emerges from the ordinary mind, NO EXTERIOR SIGN IS A PROOF, absolutely none. there is absolutely no standard to go bynei ther splendid good health nor good equilibrium, nor an almost general disorganizationnone of these. All depends exclusivelyexclusivelyon what the Lord has decided. Exclusively. Consequently, if one remains very quiet, one is sure to know what He has decided.
When I am perfectly tranquil, I immediately live in a beatific joy where questions dont arise there are no questions! One asks for nothingone LIVES! One lives happily, and thats all. theres no, Will it be like this? Will it be like that?how childish! there are no questions, questions dont arise. One is a beatitude manifesting, that is all.
All the rest is unimportant.
Basically, if we were capable of. When I am up in my room, its very easy, very easy: it comes and what is a little more difficult is getting out of that state. there I am, like this (gesture of blissful abandonment), and when I feel its time to go downstairs or I have something to do or someone is coming with lunch or whatever, then its a little difficult; o therwise, I am like that (same gesture). Whats difficult is my contact with the Ashram people. As soon as I go down and simply that, having to fidget on my feet, giving people flowers. And they are so unconsciously egotistical! If I dont go through the usual concentration on each one of them, they wonder, What is it? Whats wrong? Have I done something? And and it turns into a big drama.
O therwise, concentration is very good, it doesnt tire mewhen my body is not drained, when it isnt constantly aware that it exists because it hurts here, hurts there, aches here, aches there (pain is what gives it a sense of existing), when the body is able to forget itself, things go well, its nothing. Now the Force passes through me without causing fatigue, while many years ago, too much Force created tension; but its not like that now, not at allon the contrary, the body feels better when a lot of force has passed through it.
I dont know. We shall see.
--
To realize what one has to realize, it is absolutely indispensable to be TOTALLY free of all ties with the ordinary, false consciousness common to material body-consciousness the consciousness of the body-substancederiving from the subconscient and the inconscient. This must not only be mastered (it has been mastered for a long time)but there must be complete independence so that it no longer has the power to provoke any reaction at all. But we arent there yet, its still not like that, and as long as it isnt, we are not on the safe side. But when all the bodys cells, even in their most subconscious reactions, will come to know what I myself know, that the Supreme alone exists, when they will know that, it will be goodnot before. As I told you just now, they still have ordinary reactions: If I have to stay on my feet, (this isnt a thought; Im obliged to use words, but it isnt a thought), If I have to stay on my feet, Im going to get tired; if I do too much, Ill be tired, if I do this, it will have that consequence, if. This stupid, automatic little mechanism. its not yet THAT, not yet 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 (Mo ther 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 o ther 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.
Something from that experiencean effect, a vibratory effect, so to speakhas not left. But the totality of the experience is not here the whole time, its not established. I had a reminder of it one night, but not for very long; all at once, for a brief moment, this same vibration came, and my entire body was nothing o ther than this Vibration.
It didnt last longer than a quarter of an hour and it wasnt as total.
--
This particular period was very bad last year too.6 there was a tremendous opposition because of February 29th [first anniversary of the supramental manifestation]. But always a little before Darshans7 or days for special blessings there is a new outbreak of adverse attacksalways.
Well, mon petit, we have done nothing but talk. Its time to go and we havent done anything!
there is one question I would very much like to ask you How can all this work you are doing on your body, this work of consciousness, act upon the corporeal substance outside you? How is it generally valid?
In the same way as alwaysbecause the vibration spreads out! Thats how it works.
For example, each time I have been able to master something, I mean find the true solution for an illness or a malfunctioning ( the TRUE solution, not a mental one, not some ordinary knowledge, but the spiritual solution: the vibration that will UNDO the wrong working or set you on your feet again), it has always been very easy for me to cure the same thing in o thers, through the emission of this vibration.
Thats how it works. Because all substance is ONE. All is onewe constantly forget that! We always have a sense of separation, and that is total, total falsehood; its because we rely on what our eyes see, on (Mo ther touches her hands and arms, as if to indicate a separate body, cut off from o ther bodies). That is truly Falsehood. As soon as your consciousness changes a little, you realize that what we see is like an image plastered over something. But its not true, NOT TRUE AT ALL. Even in the most material Matter, even a stoneeven in a stoneas soon as ones consciousness changes, all this separation, all this division, completely vanishes. these are (how to put it?) modes of concentration (something akin to yet not quite that), vibratory modes WITHIN the SAME THING.8
( the clock strikes) Oh, now I must go!
--
Anyway, I dont need to tell you that the best attitude to take regarding this dream is: May Your Will be done, and tranquil, tranquil.
You can even receive the answer yourself and know where this dream comes fromsimply turn towards the supreme Truth, remain like that (immobile) and say, May Your Will be done. It has to go very high, very high, to the highest, to that which is supreme Freedom. And then, if you are absolutely silent, you will have, not a thought or a word, but a kind of feeling, and you will know.
For me, at the moment, your dream does not correspond to a precise fact.
So good-bye, mon petit.
(Mo ther gets up to leave when suddenly, turning upon the threshold, She looks at Satprem with her eyes like diamonds and, in a tone of voice he has never heard before, as if it were a Command from above, says:)
In any case, one thing: never forget that what we have to do, we shall do; and we shall do it toge ther because we have to do it toge ther, that is alllike this, like that, in this way, in that way (Mo ther tilts her hand from right to left as though to indicate this side of the world or the o ther, life or death), it has no importance. But this is the true fact.
there, petit.
Kali symbolizes the destroying or warrior-like aspect of the universal Mo ther: it is she who severs all bonds ... out of love.
the 'pipe' is obviously symbolic.
As a matter of fact, twelve years laterin May 1973we were indeed all forced to 'get out.'
--
the terminology used by Mo ther and Sri Aurobindo is distinct from the terminology of Western psychology. This is how Sri Aurobindo defines 'inconscient' and 'subconscient': 'All upon earth is based on the Inconscient, as it is called, though it is not really inconscient at all, but ra ther a complete "sub"-conscience, a suppressed or involved consciousness, in which there is everything but nothing is formulated or expressed. the subconscient lies between this Inconscient and the conscious mind, life and body.'
Cent. Ed., XXII, p. 354
Three years earlier, in 1958, Mo ther had told Satprem that February and March were 'bad months,' and she had spoken of cyclical movements in Nature like those in the individual consciousness, with alternating periods of difficulty and progress.
Four times a year, for 'darshan,' visitors poured into the Ashram to pass one by one before Mo ther (and formerly Sri Aurobindo as well) to receive her look.
Since 'Bohr's atom' at the beginning of the century, which with its electrons orbiting around a central nucleus like planets around a sun was to have been the ma thematical model representing the ultimate constituent of matter, nuclear physicists have discovered many new elementary particles in the universe: from leptons to baryons, with neutrinos, pions, kaons, psi and khi particles in between!
A recentand unifying (!) theory postulated by the American Nobel Laureate, Murray Gell-Mann, would reduce this somewhat startling enumeration to more reasonable proportions through the introduction of a unique sub-particle constituting all matter: the quark. Never theless, there would still exist several kinds of quarks (e.g., 'strange,' 'charmed,' 'colored' in red, yellow and blue) for accommodating the various qualities of matter. A proton, for example, would consist of three quarks: red, yellow and blue. However, it should be noted that quarks are basically ma thematical intermediaries to facilitate the comprehension or interpretation of certain experiments thus far unexplained. Moreover, the simple question still remains, even if they do exist materially: 'What are quarks made of?'
Never theless, a ma thematical model resulting from a recent theory that attempts to represent our material universe strangely resembles Mo ther's perception, for it postulates a milieu consisting entirely of electromagnetic waves of very high frequency. According to this theory, Matter itself is the 'coagulation' of these waves at the moment they exceed a certain frequency threshold; our perception of emptiness, of fullness, of the hard or the transparent, being finally due only to the differences in vibratory frequencies'vibratory modes within the same thing.'
But what is this 'same thing'?
In the end, the Agenda is simply Mo ther's long quest in search of the reality of Matter: what is Matter... truly? the 'transformation', perhaps, means simply to 'un-cover' what is actually there.
***
0 1961-02-14, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Sri Aurobindo speaks here of the higher soul.1 Yet we cant translate it by me suprieure, as if there were an inferior soul, can we?
Sri Aurobindo wants to make the distinction between the progressive soul ( the soul which has experiences and progresses from life to life), what can be called the lower soul, and the higher soul, that is, the eternal, immutable and divine soulessentially divine. He wrote this when he was in contact with certain theosophical writings, before I introduced theons vocabulary to him. For theon, there is the divine center which is the eternal soul, and the psychic being; similarly, to avoid using the same word in both cases, Sri Aurobindo speaks in later writings of the psychic being and of the divine center or central being the essential soul.
What if we translate it la partie suprieure de lme, [ the higher part of the soul], ra ther than me suprieure?
then the soul would appear to be divided!
***
(After the work, when it is time to leave, Mo ther makes the following remark:)
Later on there will be a lot to say.
(silence)
--
the Syn thesis of Yoga, Cent. Ed., Vol. XX, p. 303.
***
0 1961-02-18, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Oh, the o ther day I had some zinnias (Endurance)literally works of art, as though each petal had been painted, and all toge ther so harmonious and so varied at the same time. Oh, Nature is wonderful! In the end, we are just copycats, and clumsy ones at that.
(after a moment of silence)
Well, thats all. the situation remains the same.
And your legs?
Right in the subconscient, a subconscient oh, hopelessly weak and dull and (how to put it?) enslaved to a host of thingsenslaved to EVERYTHING. It has been unfolding before me night after night, night after night, to show me. Last night, it was indescribable! It goes on and onit seems to have no limits! Naturally, the body feels the effects of this, poor thing! It is the bodys subconscient, but its not personalit is personal and not personal: it becomes personal only when it enters the body.
You cant imagine the accumulation of impressions recorded and stored in the subconscient, heaped one on top of ano ther. Outwardly, you dont even notice, the waking consciousness isnt aware of it; but they come in, they keep on coming and coming, piling up hideous!
So well see how long this is going to last. I understand why people have never tried to change it: stir up that quagmire? No! It takes a lot (laughing), a lot of courage! Oh, its so easy to escape, so easy to say, None of that concerns me. I belong to higher spheres, it doesnt concern me.
--
But is it necessary to descend to the same level as all these subconscious things? Cant they be acted upon from above?
Act from above. My child, I have been acting from above for more than thirty years! It changes nothingor if it changes it doesnt transform.
then one must descend to that level?
Yes. By acting from above, one can keep these things under control, hold them in place, prevent them from taking any unpleasant initiatives, but thats not. To transform means to transform.
Even mastery can be achievedits quite easy to do from above. But for the transformation one must descend, and that is terrible. O therwise, the subconscient will never be transformed, it will remain as it is.
One can even pose as a superman! (Mo ther laughs) But it remains like that (gesture in the air), its not the real thing. Its not the new creation, its not the next step in terrestrial evolution.
You might as well say, Why are you in a hurry? Wait for Nature to do it. But Nature would take a few million years and in the process squander away a host of people and things. A few million years are unimportant to hera passing breeze.
(silence)
Anyhow, I was sent here to do this work, so I am trying to do it, thats all. I could have. If it hadnt been for the work, I would have left with Sri Aurobindo; there you have it. I remained only for the sake of the workbecause it was there to be done and he told me to do it and I am doing it. O therwise, when one is perfectly conscious, one is far less limited without a body: one can see a hundred people at the same time, in a hundred different places, just as Sri Aurobindo is doing right now.
If I may ask, has Sri Aurobindo remained quite conscious of material things?
Completely. (Mo ther reflects a moment) Well, completely material, noonly through me. He is conscious of material things through me, not directly. He is very conscious in the subtle physical, but thats not quite the same, not quite (Mo ther makes a vague gesture), there is a difference.
To give a ra ther curious example, there was a kind of spell of illness over the Ashram, stemming mainly from peoples thoughts, from their way of thinking. It was quite widespread and it was horrible, gloomy, full of fear, pettiness, blind submission, oh! Everyone was in a state of expectation.1 In short, the atmosphere was such that there was an attempt to prevent me from leaving my room I had to sneak out! It was disgusting! Well, on the very night I saw the spell over the Ashram, Sri Aurobindo was lying sick in his bed, just as I had seen him in 1950. Normally, we spend almost every night toge ther, doing this, seeing that, arranging things, talkingits a kind of second life behind this one, and it makes existence pleasant. But that night when I had to sneak out of my room (in my nightgown!), and people were trying to find me to (laughing) force me back into bed, he was lying sick in bedand this struck me hard, for it means these things still affect him in his consciousness. He was in a kind of trance and not at all well. It didnt last, but none theless.
Oh, the things that can collect there,2 ugh!
(silence)
I hope you arent noting down all these unpleasant things Im saying, because its really not encouraging.
It isnt encouraging, but its relevant. Its part of the battle.
Oh, yes! That, surely! (Mo ther laughs)
If we spoke only of success. And besides, we share these difficulties, more or less.
the day victory is won, all this will become infinitely interesting. But why speak of it if the victory isnt won? It just makes ano ther lengthy description of failures.
I dont believe in failure.
--
It is something which has not come to fruition because the time for it has not come; but what is done is done. It is not a defeat: what is gained is gained.
But I dont at all believe it wont bear fruita fruition is inevitable!
For the moment, I havent been told. Well see. No one (I mean no one with authority) has announced to me it would be a failure. But we shall see.
the worlds outer evolution is moving ahead so rapidlyin terms of scientific developments that this change CANNOT be put off for millions of years. Mans inner development needs to catch up with all that, doesnt it?
Yes, surelyoh, yes!
--
She saw your publishers in Paris and they told her they are impatiently awaiting (Mo ther is mocking) your book on Sri Aurobindo.
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.
the o ther day you were telling me to start this Sri Aurobindo from any point at all.
Yes, cant you write that way?
--
Oh, yesterday or the day before, I had the occasion to write a sentence about Sri Aurobindo. It was in English and went something like this: In the worlds history, what Sri Aurobindo represents is not a teaching nor even a revelation, but a decisive ACTION direct from the Supreme.
(silence)
I tell you this because just now as we were speaking about the book and you were saying it would come all at once in a single flow, I saw a kind of globe, like a suna sun shedding a twinkling dust of incandescent light ( the sun was moving forward and this dust came twinkling in front of it), like this (gesture). It came towards you, then made a circle around you as if to say, Here is the formation. It was magnificent! there was a creative warmth in it, a warmth like the sunsa power of Truth. And here again, I was given the same impression: that what Sri Aurobindo has come to bring is not a teaching, not even a revelation, but a FORMIDABLE action coming direct from the Supreme.
It is something pouring over the world.
Your book should convey this feelingwithout stating it. Convey the feeling, transmit ittransmit this solar light.
(silence)
Our means are very poor, its true; if what I have just seen (and what Im still seeing right now) could be expressed what an absolutely splendid cover it would make for your book! But the best we can do is flat, flat, flat. Oh, our means are so poor!
***
--
A great deal has been brought to light since that experience. It has been the starting point for such turmoil, even physically, such strong jolts that I might have wondered, Was I dreaming or was it real?. And more and more I am coming to understand that this is the INDISPENSABLE preparation in the most material world for that experience to become definitively established, to express itself outwardly, constantlythis is obvious.
If the experience remained permanently, it would be something very close to omnipotence. I felt at the time that there was no such thing as an impossibility: it was truly the sensation of omnipotence. It is not omnipotence, because there is always a greater Omnipotence (one knows this only in the higher realms). But in terms of the material world, it was clearly something very, very different from all that has ever been seen or heard or told by all extant traditionsit all seems like the babbling of a child in comparison. At that moment itself there was only the Something which sees, decidesand it is done.
(silence)
--
It has given the physical consciousness a certain self-confidence in the sense that when I see something now, I am sure of it, there are no hesitations: Is this right or not? Is this true, is this.All that has vanishedwhen I see, there is certainty. That is, there has really been a great change in the material CONSCIOUSNESS; but that formidable power is not there. I tell you, had that power stayed here, had I remained constantly as I was during those hours that night, well, many things would obviously have changed.
All this must be a preparation; there is a lot to be cleared out before the experience can be firmly established. Thats logical, it is quite natural.
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 o ther 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 (Mo ther 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, o therwise 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 (Mo ther laughs).
And the same goes for their stories about attachments and desiresmy god! theres nothing to it! Imagine, with anything concerning my body, through all this horror of the subconscient, NOT ONCE have I had to bear the consequence of a desire; I have always had to bear the consequences of the battle against lifes unconscious and malicious resistances, but not once has something come up like that (gesture of something resurging from below) to tell me, You see! You had a desire, now heres the result of it! Not oncevery, very sincerely.
Thats really not the difficulty the difficulty is that the world is not ready! the very substance one is made of (Mo ther touches her body) shares in the worlds lack of preparationnaturally! Its the same thing, the very same thing. Perhaps there is a tiny bit more light in this body, but so little that its not worth mentioning-its all the same thing. Oh, a sordid slavery!
(silence)
I want you to have enough time to write your book, because I feel that Sri Aurobindo is interested in it the sun that came a while ago was from him. I feel he is interested and confident you can do it.
What have you reread?
Essays on the Gita.
Oh, what a treasure that isa gold mine!
And part of the Secret of the Veda, as well as two o ther things because they contain many of Sri Aurobindos letters: I re-read Zs book on Sri Aurobindo, since there are many letters in it, and.
Yes, only unfortunately he has tampered with it.
With the letters?!
Sri Aurobindo had made certain statements about me in those letters, and Z deleted them. (Anyway, it makes no difference for your book, because Im not at all keen on having any statements about me published.)
But Z is not honest. He hasnt been honest at all. We were forced to intervene once or twice because his deletions distorted the meaning. We finally told him (for the book published here), We wont publish it unless you restore these things.
(silence)
--
Oh, in that, too, there are a lot of. I myself wasnt present, so I dont know what Sri Aurobindo said, but I have a kind of feeling. Just recently they wanted to publish something similar in Mo ther India6Conversations with me noted by A. Luckily it was sent to me first: I Cut EVERYTHING! Such platitudes, my child! Oh, it was disgusting. I said, This is impossible. I have NEVER spoken like that, never! It was flat, flat, flat, with a superficial, word-for-word understanding! Oh, horrible, horrible. Whatever passes through people is terribly, terribly loweredpopularized, made commonplace.
Anyhow. Only Sri Aurobindo can speak of Sri Aurobindo. And as for their notes, its still Sri Aurobindo A la Z, or Sri Aurobindo A la A, and all the more so since Sri Aurobindo wrote in very different ways depending upon the person he was writing to (gesture indicating different levels).
Well, if you feel the time will be found, it will surely be found.
Not only do I feel it, Im set on it.
--
Tomorrow Ill be going down for handkerchief distribution7to wipe away the tears! (Mo ther laughs like a mischievous little girl and goes out.)
Note that a few days earlier [ the night of February 12], a disciple had a very symbolic dream in which she saw all the disciples ga thered near the Ashram's main gate with an air of consternation, as though something had happened to Mo ther.
In the subconscient.
In French, the word 'chouer' means both 'to fail' and 'to run aground.'
Sri Aurobindo et la Transformation du Monde [Sri Aurobindo and the Transformation of the World], a book that Editions du Seuil had asked Satprem to write and subsequently refused on the pretext that it did not conform to the 'spirit of the collection.' This book would never see the light of day. Satprem would later write ano ther book entitled Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness.
A long-time disciple (Suzanne Karpeles) and a member of the cole Franaise d'Extrme Orient.
A monthly review published by the Ashram.
On the Sunday preceding each Darshan (this February 21st, Mo ther would be 84), Mo ther used to distribute saris, napkins or handkerchiefs to the disciples.
***
0 1961-02-25, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This one is the Constant Remembrance of the Divine.1 This is Life Energy2 and Purified Life Energy.3 then Faithfulness4: the peace of FaithfulnessFaithfulness to the Divine, of course, thats understood! This is Divine Solicitude5; this is the Aspiration for Transformation,6 and the response: see how beautiful it islike velvet! its the Promise of Realization.7 Here is Light Without Obscurity,8 and finally Realization9 the first flower from the tree at Nanteuil.10
there you are.
You can easily make a speech using flowers and I have noticed that this can effectively replace the old Vedic images, for instance, which no longer hold meaning for us, or the ambiguous phraseology of the ancient initiations. Flower language is much better because it contains the Force and is extremely plasticsince its not formulated in words, each one is free to arrange and receive it according to his own capacity. You can make long speeches using flowers!
I have nothing more to say now, except that the same situation prevails.
the Darshan went ra ther well, much better than I was expecting; but the following two days it was difficult here [in the body]. then one night (I dont remember which), I I cant say grumbled, but (it wasnt my body grumbling, it is very docile and doesnt protest), but I sometimes find that well, I found it a little exaggerated that day. All the same, I said, this may be demanding a bit too much of it! And then (Mo ther laughs) the whole night through, each time I awoke and looked (not with my physical eyes), I saw serpents! they were drawn up straight in a circlemagnificent cobras with white bellies, pearl gray backs and flecks of gold on their hoods! they surrounded me, watching, exactly as though they were saying, All the necessary energy is there! You neednt worry! So I concluded that this whole affair11 must have its utilityit cant be simply the bodys lack of plasticity and incapacity to receive. It must have a usefulness but what? I havent understood. Perhaps I will get the explanation later, once its over.
And the next afternoon, I closed my eyes while I was bathing and what did I see but an enormous, magnificent cobra! It gazed at me, almost smiling, and stuck out its tongue! Good, I said, then everything is all right! (laughing) I have only to hold on.
So, thats all I have to say.
--
theres an American living in Madras, a ra ther important man, it seems, and an intimate friend of Kennedy, the new President. He has read and reread all of Sri Aurobindos books and is extremely interested. He wrote to Kennedy that he would like him to come here so he can bring him to the Ashram. This man has posed a very interesting question, drawing an analogy. Deep in a forest, a deer goes to quench its thirst; no one is aware of it, yet someone who has made a special study of deer hunting would know by the tracks that the deer had passed bynot only what particular type of deer, but its age, size, sex, etc. Similarly, there must be people with a spiritual knowledge analogous to that of hunters, who can detect, perceive, that a person is in touch with the Supermind, while ordinary people know nothing about it and wouldnt notice. So he asks, I would like to know by what signs such a person can be recognized?
It is a very intelligent question.
I replied very briefly in English. I havent brought my answer with me, but I can tell you right away that there are two signstwo certain, infallible signs. I know them through personal experience, for they are two things that can ONLY come with the supramental consciousness; without it, one cannot possess themno yogic effort, no discipline, no tapasya can give them to you, while they come almost automatically with the supramental consciousness.
the first sign is perfect equality as Sri Aurobindo has described it (you must know it, theres a whole chapter on equality, samat, in the Syn thesis of Yoga)exactly as he described it with such wonderful precision! But this equality (which is not equanimity) is a particular STATE where one relates to all things, outer and inner, and to each individual thing, in the same way. That is truly perfect equality: vibrations from things, from people, from contacts have no power to alter that state.
In my reply I mentioned this first, though I didnt give him all these explanations. I put it in a few words as a kind of test of his intelligence, and in a somewhat cryptic form to see if he would understand.
the second sign is a sense of ABSOLUTENESS in knowledge. As I have already told you, I had this with my experience of January 24. This state CANNOT be obtained through any region of the mind, even the most illumined and exalted. Its not a certainty, its (Mo ther lowers both hands like an irresistible block descending), a kind of absoluteness, without even any possibility of hesitation ( theres no question of doubt), or anything like that. Without (how to say it ?). All mental knowledge, even the highest, is a conclusive knowledge, as it were: it comes as a conclusion of something elsean intuition, for instance (an intuition gives you a particular knowledge, and this knowledge is like the conclusion of the intuition). Even revelations are conclusions. theyre all conclusions the word conclusion comes to me, but I dont know how to express it. This isnt the case, however, with the supramental experiencea kind of absolute. the feeling it gives is altoge ther uniquefar beyond certainty, it is (Mo ther again makes the same irresistible gesture) it is a FACT, things are FACTS. It is very, very difficult to explain. But with that one naturally has a complete power the two things always go toge ther. (In my reply to this man I didnt speak of power because the power is almost a consequence and I didnt want to speak of consequences.) But the fact remains: a kind of absoluteness in knowledge springing from identityone is the thing one knows and experiences: one is it. One knows it because one is it.
When these two signs are present (both are necessary, one is incomplete without the o ther), when a person possesses both, then you can be sure he has been in contact with the Supermind. So people who speak about receiving the Light well, (laughing) its a lot of hot air! But when both signs are present, you can be sure of your perception.12
(silence)
It is quite evident that with these two things, you truly its what Sri Aurobindo says: you step into ano ther world, you leave this entire hemisphere behind and enter ano ther one. Thats the feeling.
the day its established, it will be good.
(silence)
And it results nei ther from an aspiration nor a seeking nor an effort nor a tapasya nor anything else: it comes, bang! (same irresistible gesture) And when it goes away, something like like an imprint in the sand remainsin the consciousness. the consciousness is like a layer of sand on which the experience has left an imprint. If you stir about too much, the imprint vanishes; if you remain very still, it. But its only an imprint. And it cant be imitated. Whats marvelous is that it cant be imitated! All the rest, all the ascetic realizations, for example, can be imitated, but you cant imitate this, it is there is no equivalent.
Its like the extraordinary feeling I had in my experience that night [January 24] the individuality, even in its highest consciousness, even whats known as the atman13 and the soul, had nothing to do with it. For it comes like this (same gesture), with an absoluteness. there is NO individual participationits a decision coming from the Supreme.
Its the same thing for the rest: all your aspiration, all your tapasya, all your efforts, all that is individualabsolutely no effect. It comes, and there it is.
there is only one thing you can doANNUL YOURSELF as much as possible. If you can annul yourself completely, then the experience is total. And if your disappearance could be constant, the experience would be constantly there but thats still far away. I dont know if all this (Mo ther looks at her body).
(silence)
Obviously, the body needed a test, a VERY SEVERE test, because from a personal viewpoint, its the only explanation I can find for all these disorders. there are many explanations from a general viewpoint, but. Anyway, I will know the day I am toldall these imaginings are useless. But from a personal viewpoint. You see, for a long time (more than a year now, probably almost two), this body hasnt felt its limits.14 It is not at all its former self; it is scarcely more than a concentration now, a kind of agglomeration of something; it is not a body in a skinnot at all. Its a sort of agglomeration, a concentration of vibrations. And even what is normally called illness (but it is not illness, these are not illnesses, they are functional disorders), even these functional disorders dont have the same meaning for the body as they have for the doctor, for instance, or for ordinary people. Its not like that, the body doesnt feel it like that. It feels it ra ther as as a kind of difficulty in adjusting to some new vibratory need.
(silence)
Formerly, when it couldnt do its work, the body had a kind of impatiencea feeling that despite all its aspiration and goodwill to be a fit instrument, these disorders were barring the way. Even this has completely gone.
Now the body has a kind of extraordinary smile for everything. At the end of the day, with the accumulation of everything coming from the people I have seen and the work I have done, when I have to push and pull myself just to climb the stairs because my legs are like iron rods, without any will (thats the most terrible part: they dont respond to the will), even at times like these, when my arms are what pull me up the stairs (no longer my legs), the body doesnt protest, doesnt protest. then it begins walking back and forth for japa. And after half an hour of walking, things are infinitely better (Mo ther makes a gesture of the Force descending into her body).
(silence)
But the body itself doesnt know why this is happening. And in fact, it finds it unnecessary to try: its like that because its like that. And were it called upon, it would say, Very well, when conditions ought to be o therwise, they will be o therwise. Thats exactly its position.
(silence)
--
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 ra ther 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.
Almost (I say almost because the body hasnt had every experience), but almost all pains can be reduced to something absolutely negligible. (Of course, some pains it hasnt had, but it has had a sufficient number!) Its this anxiety resulting from a semi-mental vibration ( the first stirrings of Mind) that complicates everything, everything! For example, take this difficulty I mentioned of climbing the stairs: in the doctors consciousness or anyone elses, pain causes it. According to their ordinary reasoning, pain is what tenses the nerves and muscles so one can no longer walk but this is absolutely FALSE. Pain does not prevent my body from doing anything at all. Pain isnt a factor, or ra ther its a factor that can be easily dealt with. Its not that: it is Matter; Matter (probably cellular matter, or) losing its capacity to respond to the will, to will-power. But why? I dont know! It depends upon the particular disorganization; but why is it like that? I dont know. Now each time I climb the stairs, I am trying to find the means of infusing Will in such a way that this lack of response doesnt last but I still havent found it. Although theres all this accumulated force and power and will (a tremendous accumulation, I am BA theD in it, the whole body is ba thed in it!), yet for some reason it doesnt respond. Here and there, groups of cells fail to respond, and the Force cannot act. So what must be found is.
(silence)
Even in this, right now, in what I am saying, theres a sense of tapasya; theres the whole inner consciousness making the body do a tapasya. But my knowledge and my certainty (what I KNOW) is that it may be a necessary preparation, but it is NOT what accomplishes the work.15 Ra ther, it is something acting like that (Mo ther abruptly turns her hand over to indicate a reversal of states). And when it goes like that, it is done, all is done. All is done.
Are these disorders necessary for it to become like that? I have my doubts. I have my doubts. But the question cant even be asked, because what it implies seems to verge on a fatalism having no truth in itselfit is not a fatalism, not at all. What is it? Something that defies expression.
(silence)
Even the body, the body itself, has the constant perception of bathing in the vibration of the CONCRETE divine Presence; so certainly from a psychological standpoint there is not the slightest shadow in the picture. Even from the material standpoint, this Presence is here. Yet although it is here, felt, perceived and experienced, there is still this disorder! (I call it disorder.)
(long silence)
--
What Sri Aurobindo calls the Great Secreta GREAT secret.
the day we find it things will change.
(silence)
How clearly one sees and knows that even the HIGHEST, the most luminous intelligence can understand nothing, nothingit is idiotic to try.
(silence)
All our aspirations, all our seekings, all our ascents always remind me of that flower I gave you the o ther day16: its something like that (Mo ther makes a vague, e thereal gesture), vibrating, vibrating, vibrating, very luminous, very delicate, essentially very lovely (silence) but it is not THAT (Mo ther again turns her hand over to indicate an abrupt reversal). It is not That.
(silence)
It is the VERY NATURE that changes, it is something else.
Always, when this feeling of absolutenessan absolutecomes (in whatever realm it may be), it carries EVERYTHING within it, it is.
--
Even absolute is not strong enough (Mo ther makes a gesture of a solid block descending). That is why one speaks of an irrevocable, irremediable absolute but I dont know how to express it. And NOTHING BUT this Absolute exists, there is nothing else. there is only that.
And everything is there in it.
When that comes, all is well.
--
So, mon petit, I have talked the whole time and we still havent done anythingano ther day without working! (Mo ther laughs)
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 o thers, although occasionally Ive said something to Nolini, but his receptivity is fuzzy (I dont know whe ther 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!
Well, thendo you need anything? Nothing? Petit, when I have something especially good for lunch, I always feel like giving it to you!
Lonicera japonica (Japanese Honeysuckle).
Chrysan themum, yellow.
Chrysan themum, white.
Quisqualis indica.
--
One of the Ashram houses.
the physical disorder that had principally attacked Mo ther's legs.
the following is the exact text of Mo ther's reply to this American gentleman:
Two irrefutable signs prove that one is in relation with the Supermind:
1) A perfect and constant equality
--
To be perfect, the equality must be invariable and spontaneous, effortless, towards all circumstances, all happenings, all contacts, material or psychological, irrespective of their character and impact.
the absolute and indisputable certainty of an infallible knowledge through identity.
Mo ther then made the following commentary regarding the 'impact' of circumstances, happenings, etc.:
' there is no longer this kind of opposition between what is an agreeable impact and what is a disagreeable one. there are no more "agreeable" things and "disagreeable" things: they are simply vibrations one registers. Usually when people receive a shock they do this (gesture of recoil), then they reflect, concentrate, and finally restore peace. But equality does not mean that! That's not what it is. the state must be SPONTANEOUS, constant and invariable.'
Atman: the Self or Spirit.
Here Mo ther gradually goes into trance and all the rest of this conversation will take place in a state of trance.
I.e., it is not through any effort or tapasya that the true change is brought about.
Barringtonia speciosa ('Supramental Action').
0 1961-02-28, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have brought you the exact text of that sentence on Sri Aurobindo I told you about the o ther day.1 It was in reply to a letter.
You know this mental habit (which people take for mental superiority!) of lumping everything toge ther on the same level: all the teachings, all the prophets, all the sects, all the religions. You know the habit: We are not prejudiced, we have no preferencesits all the SAME THING. A dreadful muddle!
Its one of the biggest mental difficulties of this age.
Anyway, in reply to this nonsense, I have said: Your error, to be precise, is that you go to the theosophical Society, for example, with the same opening as to the Christian religion or to the Buddhist doctrine or with which you read one of Sri Aurobindos booksand as a result, you are plunged into a confusion and a muddle and you dont understand anything about anything.
And then the reply came to me very strongly; something took hold of me and I was, so to say, obliged to write: What Sri Aurobindo represents in the worlds history is not a teaching, not even a revelation; it is a decisive action direct from the Supreme.2
Its not from me. It came from there (gesture upwards). But it pleased me.
See conversation of February 18: 'Sri Aurobindo is an Action...'
0 1961-03-04, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Look, its Enthusiasm, see how beautiful it is! It must be put in water right away, o therwise. It needs vital force and water is vital force. Its lovely! What fantasy! And this one is the Consciousness one with the Divine Consciousness,1 but supramentalizedbeginning to be supramentalized. And here is a very pretty Promise of Realization2, and heres Balance3 and the Peace of Faithfulness.4
there you are, mon petit.
Now then, anything to ask?
(silence)
Oh, its dreadful, each one (Mo ther is referring to the disciples). Well, never mind.
Im not so late today.
--
Listen, mon petit, you dont need to ask, I will tell you right away. Sri Aurobindo has written somewhere that the movement of world transformation is double: first, the individual who does sadhana6 and establishes contact with higher things; but at the same time, the world is a base and it must rise up a little and prepare itself for the realization to be achieved (this is putting it simply). Some people live merely on the surface they come alive only when they stir about restlessly. Whatever happens inside them (if anything does!) is immediately thrown out into movement. Such people always need an outer activity; take J. for example: he fastened onto Sri Aurobindos phrase, World Union, and came to tell me he wanted.
He has been like that since the beginning (gesture expressing agitation), and he had a go at a considerable number of things but none ever succeeded! He has no method, no sense of order and he doesnt know how to organize work. So World Union is simply to let him have his way, like letting a horse gallop.
I used to send him around to the various centers (because he had to do something!), and he would visit, speak to people I dont know about what. And during one of his trips to Delhi he happened to meet Z, who had been sent by the government of India to the Soviet Union, where it seems he delivered an extraordinary speech (it must have been extraordinary, because I have been receiving letters from everywhere, including America, asking for the text of this sensational speech in which he apparently spoke of human unity). So Z returned with the idea of forming a World Union, and J. and Z met. Fur thermore, they were encouraged by S.M.7 and even by the Prime Minister,8 who probably had a special liking for Z and had given him a lot of encouragement. Thats how things began.
I treated it as something altoge ther secondary and unimportantwhen people need to gallop, I let them gallop (but I hadnt met Z). then J. and Z left toge ther on a speaking-tour of Africa and there things began to go sour, because Z was working in one way and J. in ano ther. Finally, they were at odds and came back here to tell me, World Union is off to a good startwith a quarrel! (Mo ther laughs) Z was saying, Nothing can be done unless we base ourselves EXCLUSIVELY on the teaching of Sri Aurobindo and the Mo ther and they are behind us giving support. And J. said, No, no! We are not sectarian! We accept all ideas, all theories, etc. I replied, and as it happens, I said that Z was right, though with one corrective: he had been saying that people had to recognize us as their guru. No, I said, its absolutely uselessnot only useless, I refuse. I dont want to be anybodys guru. People should simply be told that things are to be done on the basis of Sri Aurobindos thought.9
So they kept pulling in opposing directions. Eventually they tried to set something up (which still didnt hold toge ther), 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 ra ther intelligent and I have some control over her, so I will try to stop her from writing nonsense.
they also had a sudden brainstorm to affiliate with the Sri Aurobindo Society. But the Sri Aurobindo Society has absolutely nothing to do with their project: its a strictly external thing, organized by businessmen to bring in moneyEXCLUSIVELY. That is, they want to put people in a position where they feel obliged to give (so far they have succeeded and I believe they will succeed). But this has nothing to do with working for an ideal, it is COMPLETELY practical.10 And of course, World Union has nothing to offer the Sri Aurobindo Society: they would simply siphon off funds. So I told them, Nothing doingits out of the question!
But your name is there as President of the Sri Aurobindo Society, they said. My name is there to give an entirely material guarantee that the money donated will really and truly be used for the Work to be done and for nothing else; its only a moral and purely practical guarantee. these people arent even asked to understand what Sri Aurobindo has said but simply to participate. Its a different matter for those in World Union, who are working for an ideal: they want to prepare the world to receive (laughing) the Supermind! Let them prepare it! It doesnt matter, they will achieve nothing at all, or very little. Its unimportant. Thats my point of view and I have told them so.
In addition, I told them it was preferable not to hold any functions here they 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. Never theless, 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!
It serves as a test, my child, a very good test! there are many things like that.
For example, theres someone here, Mridou (you know her, shes as round as a barrel11), who gossips to everybody. She had quite a clientele for a long time because she used to make Indian sweets and the Europeans went to her place for snacks. She is a woman who, when there isnt any gossip, invents it! She tells all the dirt imaginable to all her visitorsa fact which was brought to my attention. I recall that a long time ago Sir Akbar from Hyderabad warned me, You know, shes the second Mo ther of the Ashram, be careful! Its a good test, I replied, people who dont immediately sense what it is arent worthy of coming here!
Well, with J. its the samefrom an intellectual viewpoint, its the very same thing: if people are taken in by what he says, it means theyre not ready AT ALL.
But the danger isnt to be taken in, but to be disgusted by it!
Disgusted? But that amounts to the same thing!
theyll say, So thats Sri Aurobindo!
then it proves they have never read anything by Sri Aurobindo. Its unimportant. No, its even better than unimportant: its a test. This place is full of tests, full, full, full! People dont realize. One can see it happening, as though it were done on purpose just to trip people up (not really on purpose, but thats how it acts). It protects me from hordes of good-for-nothings! I am not eager to have a lot of people here.
Ano ther thing that shocked me was in their journal.
Ive never seen itfull of stupidities?
Its outrageous! First of all, they use Sri Aurobindos name, putting it on a level with Vinoba Bhave or Dr. Schweitzer or who knows what o ther sage; then at the end they launch an appeal for people to enroll! So the reader is left wondering, But I thought Sri Aurobindo. You understand, this indiscriminate mixture, this diminishing.
I wrote them a letter where I stuck this nonsense of theirs right under their noses.
Listen to this appeal: If the opportunity offered by this movement appeals to you, if you have the feeling that you are one of those who have been prepared to collaborate in the spiritual adventure, we invite you to write to us, enrolling yourself as a member of World Union.
Im going to send this to V, asking her innocently, Has this appeared in your journal? Because it would be better if it didnt: we dont make propaganda. Oh, I am hard on them, you know!
But it doesnt matter, we must always keep smiling, mon petit. In the end, good always comes out of such thingsits a sorting-out! A splendid, splendid sifter!
the truth is, VERY FEW people are ready to be here, very few. We have taken in all typeswe accept, we accept, we acceptafterwards, we sift. And the sifting goes on more and more. Actually, we accept everything, the entire earth, and then (gesture) theres a churning. And everything useless goes away.
the opposition is clearly becoming stronger and stronger, a very good signit means we are advancing. But circumstances are growing more and more difficult: the least thing becomes an opportunity to demonstrate bad will and spiteon the part of the government, on the part of people here and so on. Seen from a superficial viewpoint, we are more than ever in the soup. But this makes my heart rejoice! I take it as a sign that we are getting nearer.
Dont let it trouble you, you must always smile. Smile, be absolutely above it allabsolutely.
--
I told them. Because at World Union they asked me what their mistake had been ( they didnt state it so candidly, but in a roundabout way), and I replied (not so candidly, ei thernot exactly in a roundabout way, but in general terms). I told them their mistake was being unfaithful and I explained that to be unfaithful means to put everything on the same level (thats when I sent them those lines12). I told them, Your error was in saying: One teaching among many teachingsso let us be broad-minded and accept all teachings. So along with all the teachings, you accept every stupidity possible.
But if someone is taken in, it proves hes at an elementary stage and unready.
Oh, Ive had all sorts of examples! All these errors serve as tests. Take the case of P.: for a long time, whenever someone arrived from the outside world and asked to be instructed, he was sent to P.s room. (I didnt send them, but they would be told, Go speak to P.!) And P. is the sectarian par excellence! He would tell people, Unless you acknowledge Sri Aurobindo as the ONLY one who knows the truth, you are good for nothing! Naturally (laughing), many rebelled! (You see, out of lazinessso as not to be bo thered with seeing people or answering their questionsone says, Go find so-and-so, go ask so-and-so, and passes off the work to ano ther.) Well, it was finally understood that this wasnt very tactful, and perhaps it would be better not to send visitors to P., since so many had been put off. But actually. I was told about it afterwards and I replied, Let people read and see for theMSELVES whe ther or not it suits them! What difference does it make if theyre put off! If they are, it means they NEED to be put off! Well see later. Some of them have come full circle and returned. O thers never came backbecause they werent meant to. Thats how it goes. Basically, all this has NO importance. Or we could put it in ano ther way: everything is perfectly all right.
(silence)
Each one of us must learn his lesson thats a different matter. WE are not perfectly all right because we can be bettercircumstances are simply the outgrowth of what we are, nothing else. And we neednt worry I never worry myself!
Whats more, I find it so funny! A time comes when all such things seem so childish, so stupid, so meaningless! What difference can it make! As long as people are still at that level, thats where they are. the day they get away from it, they too will smile!
Of course, I have a kind of responsibility because people expect me to organize everything, so I try to put things in their place. Thats why I told them I preferred they didnt hold seminars here, because it appears a bit I didnt say parasitic, but its like (laughing) a toadstool growing on an oak tree!
***
(Mo ther begins the work. A mosquito bites her and she remarks:)
Oh, I dont like that! You know, I have filariasis in my legs. Yes, I think so theres every reason to believe it! (Mo ther laughs) But it doesnt matter, it will go away I think. I dont like to be bitten on account of the germs; but during the day theres nothing for them to pick up they only pick up germs around midnight.
there are no mosquitoes upstairs.
(Mo ther resumes the work.)
***
(At the doorway, as she is leaving:)
Each time I have a Cheerfulness,13 I will bring it to you. It is a GREAT FORCE, a great force.
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!(Mo ther laughs) then my walk became so amusing! I was watching them come in as I walked Indra and all the o ther godsand they were hard at work. Delightful!
Hibiscus, double flower, light pink.
--
A movement launched by some disciples for ' the unification of the world.'
Sadhana: spiritual quest and discipline.
--
This is the text of Mo ther's reply to J.: 'I have read Z's account and your own letter on this subject. in the faith of his devotion, he must have been quite offended. the truth in what he says is that any idea, WHATEVER its degree of truth, is ineffective if it does not also carry the power acquired through realization, by a real change of consciousness. And if the proponent of this idea does not himself have the realization, he must seek the backing of those who have the power. On the o ther hand, what you say is true: an idea ought to be accepted on the basis of its inherent truth and not because of the personality expounding it, however great this personality may be. these two truths or aspects of the question are equally true but also equally incomplete: they are not the whole truth. Both of them must be accepted and combined with many o ther aspects of the question if you want to even begin to approach the dynamic power of the realization. Don't you see how ridiculous this situation is? Three people of goodwill meet in the hope of teaching men the necessity for a "World Union" and they are not even able to keep a tolerant or tolerable union among themselves, because each sees a different angle of the procedure to be followed for implementing their plan.'
Although it began as a fund-raising organization for the needs of the Ashram and Auroville, this 'strictly external thing,' which had 'nothing to do with working for an ideal,' would, after Mo ther's departure, coolly declare itself the 'owner' and guide of Auroville.
Sri Aurobindo's old cook.
'... What Sri Aurobindo represents is not a teaching, not even a revelation, it is an ACTION direct from the Supreme.'
See conversation of February 18, 1961
0 1961-03-07, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Mo ther arrives late ... as usual. Crossing the corridor was like crossing through a jungle and has taken her almost one hour.)
How long it has taken me oh, its disgraceful! Ill have to start coming down at 9 a.m., but then I wont get anything done upstairs, thats the problem.
But Mo ther, the earlier you come down, the more of your time theyll take!
Anyway.
I have brought you a whole discourse! (Mo ther gives Satprem some flowers) First, the goal of the Vedas: Immortality.1 That was their goal: the Truth that led to Immortality. Immortality was their ambition. I dont think it was physical immortality but I am not sure, because they do speak of the forefa thers and this refers to the initiatory tradition prior to the Vedas as well as the Kabbala, and immortality on earth is spoken of there: the earth transformedSri Aurobindos idea. So although they didnt explicitly state it, perhaps they knew.
(Mo ther gives more flowers) This one is more on the personal side: Friendship with the Divine2, the friendly relationship you can have with the Divineyou understand each o ther, you dont fear each o ther, youre good friends! And this one is a wonder! (Mo ther gives Divine Love Governing the World3) What strength! Its generous, expansive, without narrowness, pettiness, or limitationswhen that comes.
***
(After the work, towards the end of the conversation:)
Ive been feeling lazy! I have received an abominable avalanche of letters, three-quarters of which are useless but I have to look at them to know whe ther theyre useless or not, so it takes up my morning before coming downstairs. I usually translated the Syn thesis of Yoga in the afternoons, or answered questions, but nowadays I go into concentration at that time: I dont do anything. I want to cure my legs.
I am determined to cure myself they told me it was incurable. the doctors poison you to cure you (as they poisoned our poor S.), and thats no cure! When they dont feel the need to show off in front of the patient, they openly acknowledge that it isnt at all sure that their medicines cure: they merely make you inoffensive to o thers! But I dont believe in it I dont believe in doctors, I dont believe in their remedies and I dont believe in their science ( they are very useful, they have a great social utility, but for myself, I dont believe in it).
I knew when I caught it: it was at the Playground.4 Certain people poisoned me with a mosquito bite the instant the mosquito bit me, I knew, because it so happens I am a little bit conscious! But I controlled it like this (gesture of holding the disease in abeyance and under control), so it couldnt stir. Probably it would never have stirred if I hadnt had that experience of January 24 and the body didnt need to be made ready. For the body to be ready, a host of things belonging to the dasyus, as the Vedas say, cant be stored inside it! these are very nasty little dasyus (laughing), they have to be chased away!
When the disease came back, I said to myself, Very well, this means it must be dealt with in a new way.
(silence)
the body is waging a magnificent battle, oh, a magnificent battle! And its faring quite well.
Its a ra ther difficult business and could last a long time: I dont want it to stay dormant and then resurface with the next attack of this or that. So I am proceeding slowly and cautiously, which means it takes time: I concentrate and work on it for one hour after lunch every day. (I used to do my translation then, but since Im at least two or three years ahead of the Bulletin, it doesnt matter, I wont be delaying the work! I have almost finished the Yoga of Divine Love; now theres only the Yoga of Self-Perfection thats quite a job, oh! I miss itthis translation was my pleasure.) But the work on the body is useful something must be attempted in life; we are here to do something new, arent we?!
But were you bitten like that by accident?
--
Mon petit, I dont claim to be totally universal, but in any case I am open enough to receive. You see, given the quantity of material I have taken into my consciousness, its quite natural that the body bears the consequences. there is nothing, not one wrong movement, that my body doesnt feel5; generally, though, things are automatically set in order (gesture indicating that Mo ther automatically purifies and masters the vibrations coming to her). But there are timesespecially when it coincides with a revolt of adverse forces who dont want to give up their domain and enter into battle with all their mightwhen I must admit its hard. If I had some hours of solitude it would be easier. But particularly during the period of my Playground activities, I was badgered, harassed; I would rush from one thing to the next, one thing to the next, I had no nights to speak ofnights of two and a half or three hours rest, which isnt enough, theres no time to put things in order.
Under those conditions I could only hold the thing like this (same gesture of muzzling the illness or holding it in abeyance).
All the same, wasnt it a mosquito that bit you?
Yes, it was a mosquito.
It was a mosquito but there was an INSTANTANEOUS, localized poisoning. It was hideous! I knew it when I got the bite and I tried but it was at the Playground, I was busy and I couldnt do anything about it until an hour or an hour and a half later. then it was too late, it was already circulating in the blood.
I have had three bites like that, but not of the same thing; I knew this last bite was filariasis. It was on the arm. Since my legs are covered when I am outside they dont get bitten; but my arms.
Long ago when Sri Aurobindo was still here, I was once bitten by a mosquito that had just come from a leper. He was sitting on the street corner, although I didnt know it at the time (I was in my bathroom, just opposite the corner). Suddenly I was bitten here, on the chin, and I knew IMMEDIATELY: Leprosy! Within a few seconds it became terriblehideous! I did what was necessary at once (as I was in the bathroom, I had what I needed). then I suddenly got the impulse to go and look out the window there was the leper. And I understood: the mosquito had been kind enough to fly from him to me! But in that instance I was able to check it right away (it lasted three or four days)I say check because they claim leprosy sometimes takes fifteen years to surface, so. But now it has been more than fifteen years (Mo ther laughs), so its finished!
No, the difference, the great difference, is that when one is conscious, the thing is KNOWN immediately and one can react.
Thats all, mon petit.
Yesterday I sent you something ( there wasnt much of it, just a taste): its a bit of the pistachio puree they make for me. Concentrated food.6 Its funny I have got it into my head to make you a gourmand! (Mo ther laughs) Good-bye, mon petit.
Gomphrena globosa (purple Amaranth).
--
Until 1958, Mo ther 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.
Mo ther is referring to the movements of consciousness, both good and bad, of those whom she has accepted as disciples and taken into her consciousness.
Mo ther was already seeking the 'new food.'
***
0 1961-03-11, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have to fight to get out of there! I began to scold them all, saying they were wasting all my time then I was able to come. O therwise, impossible.
(Satprem puts a cushion under Mo thers feet)
Its almost a luxury these days!
When was it? Not last night, but the night before, I was with you; and while I was with you I heard the clock strike. I didnt count, but I told myself, Its 4 oclock! and got out of bed. One hour later I saw that it was 4 a.m.: I had risen at 3, and by then we had been toge ther for quite a long time. I had gone where? I dont know. I was living some place (certainly somewhere in the Mind) and we were toge ther, we had been working toge ther, doing all sorts of things and spending a lot of time toge ther I dont know for how long because time there isnt the same.
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!
But I woke up one hour too early!1
Oh! (Mo ther notices the flowers in her hands) This is Supramental Beauty,2 this is Supramental Victory and this is the Endurance3 needed to get there and the Promise.4 then this one is a lily that grows here (Mo ther looks at it for a long time) and inside I have put Attachment for the Divine5I brought it for you because its so lovely.
What are we working on today? (Mo ther looks at Sri Aurobindos Aphorisms) Ive already begun replying!
--
56When, O eager disputant, thou hast prevailed in a debate, then art thou greatly to be pitied; for thou hast lost a chance of widening knowledge.
How fine! Many things could be said.
What use are discussions? in general, those who like to discuss need the stimulation of contradiction to clarify their ideas.
Its a thing I live almost constantly: I have people like that around me!
Its clearly the sign of a rudimentary intellectual stage.
But if you can witness a discussion as an impartial spectator (I mean even if you are involved in the discussion), you can always gain a lot from it by considering a question or a problem from several points of view; and by trying to reconcile opposing opinions, you can broaden your ideas and rise to a more comprehensive syn thesis.
What is the best way to make o thers understand what you feel to be true?
By LIVING it there is no o ther way.
--
58 the animal, before he is corrupted, has not yet eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; the god has abandoned it for the tree of eternal life; man stands between the upper heaven and the lower nature.
Do you have a question?
Was there actually an earthly paradise? Why was man banished from it?
From an historical viewpoint (not psychological, but historical), based on my memories (only I cant prove it, nothing can be proved, and I dont believe any truly historical proof has come down to usor in any case, it hasnt been found yet), but according to my memories. (Mo ther shuts her eyes as if she were going off in search of her memories; she will speak all the rest of the time with eyes closed.) Certainly at one period of the earths history there was a kind of earthly paradise, in the sense that there was a perfectly harmonious and perfectly natural life: the manifestation of Mind was in accordwas STILL in complete accord and in total harmony with the ascending march of Nature, without perversion or deformation. This was the first stage of Minds manifestation in material forms.
How long did it last? Its hard to say. But for man it was a life like a sort of flowering of animal life. My memory is of a life where the body was perfectly adapted to its natural surroundings. the climate was in harmony with the needs of the body, the body with the demands of the climate. Life was wholly spontaneous and natural, as a more luminous and conscious animal life would be, with absolutely none of the complications and deformations brought in later by the mind as it developed.
I have a recollection of this life, for I relived it when I first became conscious of the life of the entire earth; but I cant say how long it lasted or what area it covered I dont know. I only remember the conditions at that time, the state of material Nature and the human form and human consciousness, and this state of harmony with all the o ther elements of the earth: harmony with animal life and a great harmony with plant life there was a kind of spontaneous knowledge of how to use the things of Nature, the qualities of plants, fruits and all that vegetal nature could offer. there was no aggressiveness, no fear, no contradictions or frictions, and no perversion the mind was pure, simple, luminous, uncomplicated.
It was certainly with the progress of evolution, the march of evolution, when the mind began to develop for and in itself, that ALL the complications, all the deformations began. Indeed, this story of Genesis that seems so childish does contain a truth. the old traditions like Genesis resembled the Vedas in that each letter6 was the symbol of a knowledge; it was the pictorial rsum of a traditional knowledge, just as the Veda contains a pictoral rsum of the knowledge of its time. But whats more, even the symbol had a reality in the sense that there was truly a period when life upon earth ( the first manifestation of mentalized Matter in human forms) was still in complete harmony with all that preceded it. It was only later that.
the tree of knowledge symbolizes this kind of knowledge a material knowledge, no longer divine because its origin was the sense of division and this is what began to spoil everything. How long did this period last? I am unable to say. (Because my recollection is of an almost immortal life; it seems that it was through some sort of evolutionary accident that the destruction of forms became necessary for progress.) And where did it take place? From certain impressions (but these are only impressions), it would seem that it was in the vicinity of ei ther this side of Ceylon and India or the o ther, I dont know exactly (Mo ther indicates the Indian Ocean ei ther west of Ceylon and India or to the east between Ceylon and Java), although certainly the place no longer exists; it must have been swallowed up by the sea. I have a very clear vision of the place and a consciousness of that life and its forms, but I cant give precise material details. Did it last for centuries, was it ? I dont know. To tell the truth, when I was reliving those moments I wasnt curious about such details (for one is in ano ther mental state where there is no curiosity about material details: all things turn into psychological facts). It was something so simple, luminous, harmonious, far removed from all our usual preoccupationsthose very preoccupations with time and space. It was a spontaneous life, extremely beautiful, and so close to Naturea natural flowering of animal life. there were no oppositions or contradictions, nothing of the kindeverything happened in the best way possible.
(silence)
A similar memory has recurred several times under different circumstancesnot exactly the same scene and the same images, because it wasnt something I was seeing but A LIFE I was living. During a certain period, at any time, night or day, I would experience a particular state of trance in which I was rediscovering a life I had lived. I was fully conscious that this life had to do with the first flowering of the human form upon earth, the first human forms able to incarnate the divine being from above. This was the first time I could manifest in a particular terrestrial form (not a general life but an individual form); that is, for the first time, through the mentalization of this material substance, the junction between the higher Being and the lower being was made. I have lived that several times, and always in a similar setting and with quite a similar feeling of such joyous simplicity, without complexity, without problems, without all these questions. It was the blossoming of a joy of lifenothing but that; love and harmony prevailed: flowers, minerals, animals all got along toge ther perfectly.
Things began to go wrong only a LONG time afterwards, long after (but this is a personal impression), probably because certain mental crystallizations were necessary, inevitable, for the general evolution, so that the mind might prepare itself to move on to something else. That was when oh, it seems like a fall into a pitinto ugliness, darkness! Everything became so dark, so ugly, so difficult, so painful. Really really the sense of a fall.
(silence)
theon used to say it wasnt (how to put it?) inevitable. In the total freedom of the manifestation, this voluntary separation from the Origin is the cause of all the disorder. How to explain it? Words express these things so poorly. We can call it inevitable because it happened! But outside of this creation, a creation can be imagined (or could have been) where this disorder would not have occurred. Sri Aurobindo saw it in approximately the same way: a sort of accident, as it were but an accident allowing the manifestation a far greater and more total perfection than if it had never occurred. But this is all still in the realm of speculation, and useless speculation at that. In any case, the experience, the feeling, is that all at once (Mo ther makes the gesture of a brutal fall) oh!
For the earth it probably happened like that, all at once: a sort of ascent, then the fall. But the earth is a tiny concentrationuniversally, its something else.
(silence)
the recollection of those times is stored somewhere in the terrestrial memory, that region where all the earths memories are inscribed. Those who contact this memory can tell you that the earthly paradise still exists somewhere.7 But it doesnt exist materially. I dont know, I dont see it.
(silence)
Of course, these things can always be explained symbolically. theon explained mans exile like this: when the Being the hostile Beingassumed the position of the Lord Supreme in relation to the terrestrial realization, he didnt want humanity to progress mentally and gain a knowledge permitting it to stop obeying him! That is theons occult explanation.
According to theon, the serpent wasnt the spirit of evil at all: it was the evolutionary Force. And Sri Aurobindo fully agreed; he used to tell me the same thing: the evolutionary power the mental evolutionary poweris what drove man to gain knowledge, a knowledge of division. And its a fact that along with the sense of Good and Evil, man became conscious of himself. Naturally, this ruined everything and he couldnt stay: it was his own consciousness that drove him out of Paradisehe could no longer stay.
then was man banished by Jehovah or by his own consciousness?
these are just two ways of seeing the same thing!
In my view, all these old Scriptures and ancient traditions have a graduated content (gesture showing different levels of understanding), and according to the needs of the epoch and the people, one symbol or ano ther was drawn upon. But a time comes when one goes beyond these things and sees them from what Sri Aurobindo calls the o ther hemisphere, where one realizes that they are only modes of expression to put one in contacta kind of bridge or link between the lower way of seeing and the higher way of knowing.
A time comes when all these disputesAh, no, this is like this, that is like thatseem so silly, so silly! And there is nothing more comical than this spontaneous reply so many people give: Oh, thats impossible! Because with even the most rudimentary intellectual development, you would know you couldnt even think of something if it werent possible!
(silence)
--
Truly, they have ruined the earth, they have ruined it they have ruined the atmosphere, they have ruined everything; and for it to become something like the earthly paradise again, ohh! What a long way to gopsychologically, above all. Even the very structure of Matter (Mo ther fingers the air around her), with their bombs and their experiments and their oh, they have made a mess of it all! they have truly made a mess of Matter.
Probably no, not probably, its absolutely certain that this was necessary for kneading matter, churning it, to prepare it to receive THAT, the new thing yet to manifest.
Matter was very simple and very harmonious and very luminous not complex enough. This complexity is what ruined everything, but it will lead to an INFINITELY more conscious realizationinfinitely more conscious. And when the earth again becomes as harmonious, simple, luminous, puresimple, pure, purely divine then, with this complexity added, something can be achieved.
(Mo ther gets up to leave)
It doesnt matter. Fundamentally, it doesnt matter. Yesterday, while I was walking I was walking in a kind of universe that was EXCLUSIVELY the Divineit could be touched, felt: it was within, without, everywhere. For three-quarters of an hour, NOTHING but that, everywhere. Well, I can assure you, at that moment there were certainly no more problems! And what simplicitynothing to think about, nothing to want, nothing to decide: to BE, be, be! (Mo ther seems to dance) To be in the infinite complexity of a perfect unity: all was there but nothing was separate; all was in movement yet nothing changed place. Truly an experience.
When we become like that, it will be very easy.
--
Ah, there were many flowers just like that in the landscape of this earthly paradisered, and so beautiful!
This enigmatic experience was actually very important, as Mo ther will later explain (on March 17): Mo ther was leaving behind the subjection to mental functioning, symbolized by this place where Pavitra was working.
Salmon-colored hibiscus.
--
This is the origin of such legends as Shangri-la. But 'psychics' most often confuse two planes of reality, attri buting to their SUBTLE vision a physical reality which it does not have or no longer has: they have merely entered into contact with the memory of a place for places, like beings, have a memory.
At first, Mo ther had said, 'But it's impossible.' then, laughing, she had the word deleted.
***
0 1961-03-14, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I havent done anything, havent worked, answered questions or prepared anything for the Bulletinnothing at all.
You saw the people waiting in the corridor; when I left the o ther day they kept me there three-quarters of an hour and when I finally went upstairs I was ill. Not really ill but not well. So once again its all called into question.
Mo ther goes on to the work and listens to the reading of an old Talk of September 26, 1956, to be used in the Bulletin. In it she speaks of moments of opening in the yoga:
then there are days when you are in contact with the divine Consciousness, with the Grace, and all is tinged, colored by this Presence, and things which usually seem dull to you become charming and pleasant all is alive, all is vibrant. At o ther moments you are clouded, closed, you no longer feel anything, everything loses its flavor you are like a walking block of wood.
It comes and goes along the way, you dont keep it permanently; its like crossing a zone, a perfumed zone, and then its past for the moment, its over. A fleeting caress.
***
After the work:
Generally speaking, the progress is undeniable, but the physical body has a terrible need of rest. Its annoying, for it prevents me from working.
How to explain it? Its ra ther strange: the cells attitude and their state of consciousness is changing with extraordinary rapidity; yet from the ordinary viewpoint of health, there is no corresponding progress, quite the contrary. One could say things arent going too well, but I see clearly that its not true. I see that it isnt true, its only an appearance but reconciling the two is difficult.
I have been honored with a form of filariasis which occurs perhaps not once in a million cases. the doctor isnt tearing his hair out because thats not his way, but he is perplexed.
Yet the cells sense so perfectly that. All the experiences in the subconscient at night are quite clear proofs that a a WORLD of things and vibrations is being cleaned outall the vibrations opposed to the cellular transformation. But how can one poor little body do all that work! the body is quite aware of being a sort of accumulation and concentration of things (yet there is inevitably a selectionMo ther laughsbecause if everything had to be worked out in one center like this [her body] it would be it would be impossible!). Oh, if you knew how deeply and perfectly convinced these cells are, in all their groups and sub-groups, each one individually and within the whole, that everything is not only decreed but executed by the Divine, everything! they have a kind of constant awareness so filled with a conscious faith in His infinite wisdom, even when there is what the ordinary consciousness calls suffering or pain. Thats not what it is for the cellsits something else! And the result is a state of yes, a state of peaceful combat. there is a sense of Peace, the vibration of Peace, and simultaneously an impression of being (how to put it?) on the alert, in constant combat. Taken all toge ther it creates a ra ther odd situation.
And within oh! Its like waves, constantly, the equivalent of those nuances of color I was speaking about, waves of this joy of life, the joy of life rippling past, touching; but instead of being. At times, you see, the body is in a sort of equilibrium (what we, in our ordinary outer consciousness, call equilibrium that is, good health), and then this joy is constant, like swells on the sea (Mo ther shapes great waves): it seems to flow on behind everything; it comes and shows its face for a moment, then vanishes. In the very tiny things of lifeyes, physical life the joy of these things, the joy life contains, this luminous, special kind of vibration, rises up as if to remind us that its here; it is here, it mustnt be forgotten, its here but its kept down by this tension.
then, from time to time, everything seems to be on the edge of a precipice; the body doesnt fall simply because it keeps its balance but without this higher state of perfect faith, one would surely fall!
All toge ther, as a whole, its something so peculiar!1
--
there is the sense of all things being organized, concentrated and arranged according to a rhythm, and if one manages to maintain the equilibrium of this rhythm, something permanent results.
(Mo ther remains absorbed within herself) the equilibrium of this rhythm the progressive, ascending equilibrium of this rhythmis what, for Matter, must constitute Immortality.
Yet even so.
In o ther words, this coexistence or simultaneity of joy and tension, combat and peace, progress in the cellular consciousness and physical disequilibrium, form a physiological whole which is ... strange.
***
0 1961-03-17, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Aphorism 57Because the tiger acts according to his nature and knows not anything else, therefore he is divine and there is no evil in him. If he questioned himself, then he would be a criminal.
What might be mans true, natural state? Why does he question himself?
Man on earth1 is a transitional being and as a consequence, in the course of his evolution, he has had several successive natures following an ascending curve which they will continue to follow until he touches the threshold of the supramental nature and is transformed into a superman. This curve is the spiral of mental development.
We tend to apply the word natural to all spontaneous manifestation not resulting from a choice or a preconceived decision that is, with no intrusion of mental activity. Thats why a man with an only slightly mentalized vital spontaneity seems more natural to us in his simplicity. But this naturalness bears a close resemblance to the animals and is quite low on the human evolutionary scale. Man will not recapture this spontaneity free of mental intrusion until he attains the supramental level, until he goes beyond the mind and emerges into the higher Truth.
Up to that point, all his modes of being are naturally natural! But with the minds intrusion, evolution was, if not falsified, then deformed, because by its very nature the mind was open to perversion and it became perverted almost from the start (or to be more exact, it was perverted by the asuric forces). And what appears unnatural to us now is this state of perversion. At any rate, its a deformation.
You ask why man questions himself, but this is the nature of the mind!
Along with the mind came individualization, an acute sense of separation and a more or less precise feeling of a freedom of choiceall of that, all these psychological states, are the natural consequences of mental life and open the door to everything we see now, from the worst aberrations to the most rigorous principles. Mans impression of being free to choose between one thing and ano ther is the deformation of a true principle that will be totally realizable only when the soul or psychic being becomes conscious in him; were the soul to govern the being, mans life would truly be a conscious expression of the supreme Will translated individually. But in the normal human state, such a case is still extremely rare and doesnt seem at all natural to ordinary human consciousness it seems almost supernatural!
Man questions himself because the mental instrument is made for seeing all possibilities and because the human being feels he has freedom of choice and the immediate consequences are the notions of good and evil, right and wrong, and all the ensuing miseries. This cant be called a bad thing: its an intermediate stagenot a very pleasant stage, but never theless it was certainly inevitable for a total development.
***
Between 2 and 3 oclock this morning, I had an experience something resurging from the subconscient: it was appalling, my child, the disclosure of an appalling inefficiency! Disgraceful!
the experience occurred in a place corresponding to ours [ the main Ashram building], but immense: the rooms were ten times bigger, but absolutely one cant say empty they were barren. Not that there was nothing in them, but nothing was in order, everything was just where it shouldnt be. there wasnt any furniture so things were strewn here and therea dreadful disarray! Things were being put to uses they werent made for, yet nothing needed for a particular purpose could be found. the whole section having to do with education [ the Ashram School] was in almost total darkness: the lights were out with no way to switch them on, and people were wandering about and coming to me with incoherent, stupid proposals. I tried to find a comer where I could rest (not because I was tired; I simply wanted to concentrate a little and get a clear vision in the midst of it all), but it was impossible, no one would leave me alone. Finally I put a tottering armchair and a footstool end-to-end and tried to rest; but someone immediately came up (I know who, Im purposely not giving names) and said, Oh! This wont do at all! It CANT be arranged like that! then he began making noise, commotion, disorderwell, it was awful.
To wind it all up, I went to Sri Aurobindos rooman enormous, enormous room, but in the same state. And he appeared to be in an eternal consciousness, entirely detached from everything yet very clearly aware of our total incapacity.
He hadnt eaten (probably because no one had given him anything to eat), and when I entered, he asked me if it was possible to have some breakfast. Yes, of course! I said, Ill go get it, expecting to find it ready. then I had to hunt around to find something: everything was stuffed into cupboards (and misplaced at that), all disarrangeddisgusting, absolutely disgusting. I called someone (who had been napping and came in with sleep-swollen eyes) and told him to prepare Sri Aurobindos breakfast but he had his own fixed ideas and principles (exactly as he is in real life). Hurry up, I told him, Sri Aurobindo is waiting. But hurry? Impossible! He had to do things according to his own conceptions and with a terrible awkwardness and ineptitude. In short, it took an infinite amount of time to warm up a ra ther clumsy breakfast.
then I arrived at Sri Aurobindos room with my plates. Oh, said Sri Aurobindo, it has taken so long that I will take my bath first. I looked at my poor breakfast and thought, Well, I went to so much trouble to make it hot and now its going to get cold! All this was so sordid, so sad.
And he seemed to be living in an eternity, yet fully, fully conscious of of our total incapacity.
It was so sad to see how good-for-nothing we were that it woke me up, or ra ther I heard the clock strike (like the o ther day, I didnt count and leapt out of bed; but I quickly noticed that it was only 3 oclock and lay back down). then I began looking and told myself, If we really have to emerge from all this infirmity before anything can truly be well done, then we have quite a long road to travel! It was pitiful, pitiful (first on the mental, then on the material plane), absolutely pitiful. And I was depending on these people! (Sri Aurobindo was depending on me and therefore on them.) Good god, I said, if I only knew where things were kept! If they had just let me handle things, it could have been done quickly. But no! All those people had to be involved Oust as we always depend on intermediaries in real life).
It made me wonder.
--
When I told you last time about that experience [of March 11, with Pavitra] the night I met you and was saying good-bye, I neglected to mention one very important point, the most important, in fact: I was leaving the subjection to mental functioning permanently behind That was the meaning of my departure.
For a very long time now I have been watching all the phases of the subjection to mental functioning come undone, one after ano ther 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!
One thing after ano ther, one thing after ano ther! This subconscient is interminable, interminable, if you only knew I am skipping the details-such stupidity, oh! This person I wont name, who so clumsily prepared breakfast, told me, Ah, yes, Sri Aurobindo is a little morose today, he is depressed. I could have slapped him: You fool! You dont understand anything! And Sri Aurobindo, although he didnt want to show it, was completely aware of our incapacity.
(silence)
Now I should say-if its any consolation that each time something like this comes into my consciousness at night, things go better afterwards. It is not useless, some work has been donecleaning, cleaning, cleaning out. But theres quite a lot to do!
Does this have an effect on peoples consciousness I mean their outer consciousness?
Ah not much!
Yes and no in the sense that I do manage to bring about a general progress. Some individuals are receptive, sometimes astonishingly so, receiving the exact suggestion exactly where its needed, but such a person is one in a hundred-even that is an exaggeration.
A sort of power over circumstances does come to me, however, as if I could rise above it all and give the subconscient a bit of a work-over. Naturally this has some results: entire areas are brought under control. Thats the most important thing. Individuals get the repercussions later because they are very very coagulated, a bit hard! A lack of plasticity.
Take the case of this man Im not naming Ive been training him, working with him, for more than thirty years and I still havent managed to get him to do things spontaneously, according to the needs of the moment, without all his preconceived ideas. Thats the point where he resists: when things have to be done quickly he follows his usual rule and it takes forever! This was illustrated strikingly that night. I told him, Just look: its there its theREhurry up and warm it a little and Ill go. Ah! He didnt protest, didnt say anything, but he did things exactly according to his own preconceptions.
Its a terrible slavery to the lower mind, and so widespread! Oh, all these goings-on at the School, my child, all the teaching, all the teachers.2 Terrible, terrible, terrible! I was trying to turn on the switches to give some light and not one of them worked!
Of course, these scenes are slightly exaggerated because they are seen in isolation from the rest; within the whole many things crisscross and complete each o ther, diminishing each o thers importance. But in an experience like last nights, things are taken singly and shown in isolation, as through a magnifying glass. And after all its a good lesson.
Inefficiency. All right, then.
And it all exists PRIMARILY because each individual is shut up in his own little personal formation (Mo ther forms an eggshell), a formation of the most ordinary mind, the mind that fabricates the details of everyday life; its like being cramped into a narrow prison.
Satprem later asked if this 'on earth' wasn't superfluous and Mo ther replied: 'This precision is not superfluous; I said "on earth" meaning that man does not belong only to the earth: in his essence, man is a universal being, but he has a special manifestation on earth.'
Here, Mo ther had a passage deleted.
0 1961-03-21, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Last night I had two consecutive experiences showing with extreme precision that black magic is at the root of all this (Mo ther is speaking of both general and personal difficulties, in the Ashram and in her body).
First of all, on the mental plane ( the physical-mind, the material mind) I saw an individual. I am not entirely certain of his identity (when I saw him last night I didnt associate him with anyone in particular) but from his outer appearance he is evidently a sannyasi. He was pursuing me, blocking my way and trying to stop me from doing my work (it was a long, long affair). But I was very conscious and could foresee everything he was about to do, so it had no effect. After a long while I emerged from this I had something else to do and I leftand on my way home he was everywhere, hiding and trying to catch me; but he didnt succeed in doing anything. And I knew he had been acting in this manner for a long time.
then I woke up (I always wake up three or four times during the night) and when I went back to bed I had an attack of what the doctor and I have taken to be filariasis but a strange type of filariasis, for as soon as I master it in one spot it appears in ano ther, and when I master it there it reappears somewhere else. Last night it was in the arms (it lasted quite a while, between 2:30 and 4 a.m.); but I was fully conscious, and each time the attack came, I went like this (gestures over the arms, to drive away the attack) and my arms were not affected at all. When it was over, I consciously entered the most material subtle physical, just beyond the body. I was sitting in my room there (an immense, cubic room) reading or writing something, when I heard the door open and close, but I was busy and didnt pay attention, presuming it was one of the people usually around me. then suddenly I had such an unpleasant sensation in my body that I raised my head and looked, and I saw someone there. Do you know how the magicians in Europe dress, in short satin breeches and a shirt? He was wearing something like that. He was Indian, tall and ra ther dark, with slicked-down hairwhat you would normally call a handsome young man. He seemed to have been drawn1 there becausehe was standing in front of me staring into space, not looking at me. And the moment I saw him, there was the same sensation in all my cells as I have with what Ive been calling filariasis (its a special, minute kind of pain) and simultaneously all the cells felt disgusta tremendous will of rejection. then I sat up straight (I didnt stand up) and said to him as forcefully as possible, How do you dare to come in here! I said it so loudly that the noise woke me up! I dont know what happened then, but things went much better afterwards.
the moment I saw this person I knew he was only an instrument, but a well-paid instrumentsomeone paid a great deal to have him do that! I would recognize him again among hundreds I can still see him I see him more clearly than with physical eyes. He is an unintelligent man with no personal animosity, merely a very well-paid instrumentsomeone is hiding behind him, using him as a screen.
Before that experience, as part of the attack, I also got a sore throat. I didnt believe it would manifest, but around 9:30 this morning when I came downstairs for meditation with X,2 it did. Its nothing at all, though. the whole time I was with X (and even before, when I was waiting for him), it was halted completelyeverything in that room came to a halt. It started up again only after he left and I came here. But its nothing.
X told me he has been doing something for me in his puja3since December, it seemsso this morning I thought he should know about the experience and I sent Amrita to tell him. He replied to Amrita that this confirmed his certainty that Z has been making black magic against me since December. He had been told that Z was practicing black magic in Kashmir. Could this be the same person I saw before [during the December 1958 attack]? Since it was someone who concealed his identity, I cant say but this form was robed as a sannyasi. Perhaps its he, I dont know. I reserve my judgment because I dont know personally. But this is what X said, and hes going to redouble his efforts.
Thats the situation.
I had a talk with the doctor this morning and he told me, In fact, your case of filariasis has some symptoms missing and o thers that dont normally exist. He was a bit perplexed because its impossible for him to understand what it might be if its not filariasis. I said that perhaps (because as I told you, I did have filariasis some years ago, but brought it under control) perhaps its being used as a base for this attack.
Of course, there are certain symptoms which never appear with filariasis. And the doctor has been astounded at the control Ive had over it: it began in the feet, I checked it there; it went higher, I checked it there; then it went higher still and I continued to control it. Finally, the o ther day, it tried to get into the arms, but it couldnt hold outand last night there was a real riot! (Mo ther laughs) So perhaps its the deformation or transposition of some sort of mantric effort, like last time in 58 when there was an attempt to make me throw up all my blood but only food came out! Its probably something similar. My impression (Ive had it from the start) is that they have made a try at thrombosis (you know, when something blocks the circulation). Besides, it seems that X asked the doctor if blood-poisoning might be involved, so he must have seen this possibility. there has been absolutely nothing of the kind, but there has been an effort to block the circulation in the veins, probably an adaptation of the magic attack. And along with this have come all the usual things: all the usual suggestions, all the usual prophecies [about Mo thers departure]. But for me, these are the normal facts of life, thats all. I am used to it. It has no importance.
Do you really believe Z could be behind this magician you saw?
--
I hadnt thought of it at allnot at all. I have seen Zs thoughts several times, but not in this form: very, very angry thoughts but simply trying to catch my attention.4 But this was something else. X said it was Z, thats what X saw. He doesnt seem to have attached the slightest importance to my magicianobviously this person was just a screen. It must be someone who knows magic and is being used by ano ther as an instrument. But when I saw it all this morning, I must say I didnt once think of Z. Its only X who said so.
But Z I dont know how to explain my relationship with him. He is sheltered by a light of benediction, so. When he was here I opened the doors for him to a realization he was incapable of having, something light years beyond him; and it gave him an appalling ambition, totally spoiling everything. From this point of view, its a great blessing for him; even if he becomes a dreadful Asura, it will come to a good end! It doesnt matter, its not important. Thats why this morning, even when I heard what X said about Z, it was the same thing: this great Light of the supreme Mo ther going out towards Z. His magic is not important, but if he indulges in it, too bad for him. It doesnt concern me: its Xs business and X is doing whats necessary and I believe (laughing) he hits hard!5
(silence)
When I came down this morning I didnt want my cold to disturb the meditation with X, and this immobility came (Mo ther brings down her fists, showing a solid mass descending). Its what he uses for healing and I must say that the same thing happens to me, even when it doesnt come from him: a Force that seizes everything, stops everythingno more vibrations, an immobility.
I had told N. to knock at the door when he arrived with X, but he didnt do itluckily I heard the door opening. I stood up, still in that state and almost fell over! X must have thought I was having a spell of weakness or something, because I was holding onto the arms of the chair, and when I took his flowers, my hands were trembling I wasnt in my body. And afterwards, ah, what a concentration! We remained in it for about thirty-five minutes. It was SOLIDan extraordinary solidity! I didnt want to waste time waiting for it to subside before coming here, and you must have seen how I was when I arrived: like a sleepwalker! I said to the people I passed in the corridor, Im coming back, Im coming back! Thats all I could say, like an idiot.
(silence)
I wanted to tell you about this because its an indication. Its better to say such things as soon as they happen, to be sure of being accurate.
This stupid cold in the middle of the night. It was the start of the attack.
And now the door is open thats not so good! (Satprem gets up to close the door.)
(Mo ther laughs) No! Im not cold, Im hot!
Yes, but theres a draft.
Im hot! Its a congestion.
--
Who can do it, then? there is no one here. Thats why I wish greater attention would be paid in publishing translations of Sri Aurobindo.
Yes, its a problem. Thats why I dont categorically tell you not to do it, because after all, he shouldnt be massacred!
--
You cant imagine how difficult things are now! You have to hold on tight: everything is difficult, everything. Its not an individual problem: everything is grating everywhere, as though there were sand in all the gears. And things are reaching a kind of climax now.
We simply have to hold on and endureno movement. the remedy is the same as for an illness: no movement.7
It will pass.
--
the tantric guru.
Puja: ceremony, invocation or evocation of a god (in this case, a tantric ritual).
Z was Satprem's first guru when he became a sannyasi. then Z tried to exert his control over Satprem and predicted to Mo ther that he would never remain in the Ashram. Finally Satprem broke with him and Z went away furious.
Satprem has never believed for a minute that Z practiced black magic against Mo ther: it must have been something or someone else.
0 1961-03-25, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(On the previous day, Satprem had written a letter to Mo ther complaining of never having any concrete experiences. After a meditation toge ther, this is what Mo ther replied.)
[This letter has disappeared.]
--
It seemed made of transparent alabasterhard, harder than stone. It was the result of an individualization that was my impressionan individualization that has become very hardened. It has tried to become entirely transparent but has no tangible contact with thingsthings enter only through the higher regions, through intellectual perceptions (not intellectual, a sort of mental vision). And I began to bang on it!
It was mainly on your right side I banged on it. But strangely enough, it didnt break it became supple, but then it lost its beauty. (It was so beautiful, as though sculptured!) I tried to pass through it, but to do so (this is what I found interesting), instead of passing through at this level ( the chest), the psychic plane the level of the souls vibration I had to climb up above and then descend; and finally, without even realizing it, I found myself inside I had entered through sheer force of concentration. there, at the vital level, the emotional vital (solar plexus), I put two flowers: one very large Endurance in the Most Material Vital [zinnia] and ano ther flower like the one X just gave me [cosmos] but bigger and pure white (it concerns sexual movements, light in sexual movements). But curiously enough, I passed inside through a trance; I was quite busy trying to make it more fluid when all at once, poof! I found myself inside. But since I entered through a trance it became completely objective: no more thought, nothing. And I saw I had put these two flowers there (at the levels of the abdomen and chest), one more active, a very large, dark purple Endurance flower, and ano ther much smaller, pure white, slightly lower down. While I was watching this I think the clock must have struck something pulled me and it all faded away.
And I found it interesting that when I received your letter yesterday evening I concentrated for a moment, almost out of curiosity: Why doesnt he ever feel he has an experience? Why doesnt he feel anything? I wanted to know precisely what type of experience would give you the feeling of having an experience!
If I could receive the Light: if I could SEE this Light; if I could see the vastness opening before my eyes.
then its in the realm of visions, of conscious perception.
Yes, conscious perception, visiono therwise, nothing ever happens!
I understand! But yesterday when I was concentrating, I seemed to be sitting right in front of you again; and in the same way, with my left side, I was banging, banging on that absolutely rigid thing on your right. I was astonished: Why am I banging? (I had no intention of banging!) It was strange. the left side isnt like that, its the right.
But now I have done some damage!
--
Strangely enough, Ive received the same complaint from S. He says, I dont have any experiences. What kind of experience do you have? I asked. He replied, I sit in meditation and what comes is peace, peace, peace its always the same thing!(Some people would be very happy with that, but him.) I asked him, What experience do you want? To be conscious, he told me, to be conscious of the Divine, conscious of the divine Presence! And I always answer him, Its because your mind is barricaded. (Mo ther forms a geometrical figure) He is so convinced that he knows! He tells me, No! Its not that. He doesnt believe me!
At any rate, I have had no results with him, nor with X.
Several times in my life I have met with the particular phenomenon of having an absolutely exceptional and unique experience and at the same time feeling that a part of my being was unaware of it! I would tell myself, if I hadnt been both here and there at the same moment (Mo ther indicates two different levels in her consciousness), I might have had all these experiences and never known it! And this happened not just once but many times. Some were utterly unique, like certain ancient Vedic experiencesutterly unique. When I recounted them to Sri Aurobindo, he told me, Oh, its extremely rare! Some people try all their lives to attain that. And it happened to me not just once but often: the experience took place there (gesture above) and something up there knew, and yet there was something down here that would never have known if the o ther hadnt (same gesture). Never theless the total experience was there.
Its very difficult to explain, its extremely subtle.
--
Of course, all of you would be perfectly justified in replying, What good does that do if were not aware of it! But it must be a phenomenon like the one I described. I am looking for the reason something which refuses the knowledge. A part of the being is refusingalthough not consciouslyto become aware of the experience.
Can I do something practical about it?
Its ra ther. It may be something more in the line of childlike candor, childlike simplicity and candorwhere there is now a very intellectualized consciousness.
It is something very much on its guard, that doesnt want to be duped or be a victim of imagination.
0 1961-03-27, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Mo ther brings along a note she had written the same morning concerning a meditation with X, the tantric 'guru':)
the extreme subjectivity of experiences is very disconcerting.
Yesterday, while waiting for X, I was as usual in communion with the Supreme in his aspect of Love. Suddenly I felt X arriving and spontaneously, like a Veda, a movement of gratitude for his great goodwill arose from my heart, and it was formulated as a prayer to the Supreme: Give him [X] the bliss of Your Love and the joys of Your Truth.
For a long time X has said nothing about his meditations with me, but just yesterday he told N. that he had some difficulty at the start of the meditation due to the presence of an adverse force, and it took him five minutes to overcome it!
Evidently he was in a completely different state of consciousness.
--
And for me the experience was so clear! So lovely and so spontaneous! And its the first timeat the very beginning of our relationship, I had often concentrated on X to thank him for what he had done, but this is the first time it came like that: such a sweet, sweet atmosphere, so luminous, so radiant. then in the afternoon N. tells me this [that an adverse force was present in the atmosphere]!
I had felt NOTHING. Nothing.
You know he said someone has been doing black magic against me; but I have never felt anything of the sort in the room where we meditate, because I make a point of coming half an hour early and this of course clears the atmosphere: everything is always ready when he arrives, in silence, in perfect peace. Hasnt he always told you that when he comes into that room he enters ano ther world, like Kailas?1 And thats the way it has always been. If there has been a change, its that now its even more like thatbecause (how to put it?) its more stable. Before, it fluctuated a bit: it came, went, came. But now its like a tranquil mass (Mo ther lowers her arms) that doesnt stir. Yesterday in particular, this was the experience: I felt him coming (when he is about to come in, I always sense something drawing me outward a little so that I wont be completely in trance and can stand up), and this prayer came so spontaneously, oh! And then (laughing) in the afternoon N. tells me, Oh, X said he had some difficulty at the start of todays meditationa hostile force was present and it took him five minutes to clarify the atmosphere!
It gave me the impression you get in outer life: all the pieces more or less dovetail but with no inner unity theres not ONE thing, not one, that is true, essentially and always true. We know it is like that outwardly, of course; but I have always felt that with people who have an inner life, one could attain a kind of identity of vibration and knowledge but no!
Very well, I said, if thats how it is..
All yesterday evening I was wondering, Is it hopeless? Thats obviously not true, I know very well its not hopeless. Yet what does it need to be different? Clearly nothing less than the supramental transformation. Well, theres still quite a long way to go.
I was under the impression, for example, that when I thought something (not actually thought, but when I had an inner perception) X could receive it; particularly when I had such a feeling for him and summoned the Force, made the Force come down, my impression was that he knew it!
But if its like that.
--
Because truly it was truly the best I could have done for someone! It came so spontaneously! And then (laughing) he comes in and feels a hostile force!!
He was evidently on ano ther plane entirely.
What ruffles me is that someone like X, who has worked on himself, ought to have felt it. Why do I feel it? Because since I have been doing all this work on my body, it senses things and it is never mistaken. I have had repeated proof that it is never mistaken. When a higher vibration comes, it feels it right away! But I must say that this has only been the case since the body became very universalized. However, I was under the impression that X must have been somewhat universalized to have the powers he has, but now I dont know.
Its not that I was disappointed by his way of being, certainly not; but it has suddenly confronted me with a terrible problem: Is it impossible to live a truth in material consciousness? Is it really impossible? An absolute, I mean an absolute truthnot something entirely subjective and relative, each one living his own truth in his own manner. Will one person always be like this and the o ther like that and the third like something else? So that only by putting all the pieces toge ther do we actually amount to anything and yet to what?! Is it completely impossible for absolute truth to manifest in the present state of Matter? This is the problem that has seized me.
Why? Probably because I was ready to face it. But it has been posed so intensely. It was so intense that it was painful.
It reinforces what the old Schools have always taught but Sri Aurobindo rejected it! Sri Aurobindo told us precisely that the Truth could be lived IN material life. Of course, there must be a change of consciousness, but I thought.
(silence)
My bodys consciousness has changed that much I know. Not totally, of course, but enough to feel that theres no separation, that vibrations are unpartitioned there are no partitions! And I felt this very strongly with X: that when we were face to face in meditation there was no longer any difference between us, that this Vibration I was feelingthis Vibration of a strong and very solid, very balanced peacewas the same for him as for me. I didnt feel that I was here and he was there. I had only to shut my eyes and there was no difference between us. (This doesnt happen just with him: I feel it with everyone; but I am aware of how it is with o thers, I can sense why they dont feel it.) But I was under the impression that he, at least, would have felt it I must have been mistaken! This incident came to tell me I was mistaken.
Still, it surprises me. Because sitting in that room, one has the feeling (I say one, its probably I dont know what it is), I thought he had the same feeling I did: oh, it could last an eternity! Its like that: tranquil, tranquil, peaceful, balanced, strong. On o ther occasions there was a kind of movement: it came, went, came, went; but this time (Mo ther stretches forth her arms as if time had stopped) and I am like that (not the I here, the I above), I see it like that. then just as the clock is about to strike, when the half-hour is finished, something comes and tells my body, Now! A tiny shock, and two or three seconds later the clock strikes. I always feel beforehand, Now its over. O therwise there would be no reason for it to endits so peaceful! And not something diluted, as it were, but strong, compact. Compact. then that tiny shock and the body comes to attention: Ah, Im going to have to move! And always after about two seconds, the clock strikes. I open my eyes, look at X and wait. Three or four seconds later, or after a minute or two, he opens his eyes, bows to me and gets up. then I get up. Its always the same. So I dont know why. I dont understand what goes on in his consciousness. I no longer understand.
Im not so sure about what he said to N.
--
He doesnt speak about these things with N. Perhaps N. has confused two different times or. Because Xs way of expressing himself can seem very vague when you dont know him well, especially when it concerns time and place. This attack may not have occurred during the meditation with you, but beforeh and or elsewhere.
I dont know, because N. said quite categorically: X told me that on arriving for this mornings meditation he had some difficulties and it took him five minutes to get over it; an adverse force was present. N. was quite positive and I even made him repeat it. Are you sure, I asked him, that it didnt happen when X came to you? No, N. replied, X met that force theRE. He said theRE! Yet that it could have been there, with all the force, light and peace that descended is incomprehensible to me. Because the first thing I do when I sit down is to make a thorough cleaning.
It ruffles me because its like a negation of my power. Till yesterday I had never experienced anything of the kind! On the 29th, you know, it will be forty-seven years since I first came here3thats not exactly yesterday! And ever since I began working with Sri Aurobindo, I have had the sense of this Power, it has never left me; so. It is disconcerting to have this kind of episode come up after such a long time.
Ill try to speak with X and find out exactly what happened.
That risks a terrible misunderstanding; be careful. Perhaps he wont even remember what he said anymore. Its difficult with X because he doesnt say things with his mindit just comes like that, and then he forgets. You know how it is. Something may have made him speak. For instance, I know that with N. he almost always says unpleasant things about people and situations and this entirely results from N.s atmosphere. I have told N., He speaks like that because of your inner attitude. To one person he will say one thing, to ano ther something completely different on the same subjectit depends a great deal on who hes talking to. No, I havent told you all this for you to speak with X about it, I have told you because it has posed a serious problem for me.
Its best to wait and see. I put a certain force into that note I wrote this morning (I wrote it at a very early hour) and you know that a formation4 is created when I write; I willed it to go to himand he may have received it. Well see what happens. Its better not to speak of it because it might speaking is too external.
On o ther occasions (as I have told you) I had difficulties with X on the mental plane; now all that has cleared up, cleared up very well. But this present situation is on ano ther plane, so lets wait. Perhaps probably it will clear up.
(silence)
I probably needed the experience. You remember that type of detachment I spoke of when I had that experiencewhen the BODY had that experience of January 24, 1961well, it has increased to such an extent that it now applies to anything and everything linked with action on earth. This detachment was probably necessary. It began with something like things dissolving (Mo ther makes a gesture of crumbling something between her fingers); certain kinds of links between my consciousness and the Work were dissolving (not links with me, because I dont have any, but with the body; the whole physical consciousness, all that attaches it to the things in its environment, to the Work and to the entourage I spoke to you about that in regard to physical immortality; well, thats what is happening now). Its like things dissolvingdissolving, dissolving, dissolving. And its more and more pronounced. During these last days, things have been becoming increasingly difficultdifficulties have been coming one after ano ther, one after ano ther. Formerly, I had the power to get a grip on them and hold them (Mo ther tightens her grip as though mastering circumstances); but now that this type of detachment has begun, things drift away everywhereeverywhere, everywhere.
So this episode with X is probably part of the same process. What has been affected is a certain confidence in the REALITY of the Power, the REALITY of spiritual action; there seems to be no communication between here (above) and there (below).
Does that mean youre breaking all contacts with the earth?
No, thats not it. Things go on. I dont know, I have no idea. I cant say exactly what it is, but. Its a. Dont know. In any case, it seems obvious that the NATURE of the contact must become very different. Because in proportion to this detachment, the reality of the Vibration and especially the vibration of divine Lovekeeps growing and growing (out of all proportion to the body, even) in a FORMIDABLE manner, formidable! the body is beginning to feel nothing but that.
Is this detachment necessary, then, for divine Love to be established? I dont know.
Yes, its as if I were living, as if the BODY were living (despite all the illnesses and attacks, all the ill will besetting it), living in a bath of the divine vibrationbathing in something immenseimmense, immense limitless, and so stable! the body lives in it like this (gesture as if Mo ther were floating). So even when there is what we call physical pain, even when there are blows to morale (like having a cashier ask you for money and you have none to give him5), well, despite it all, despite all the possible complications (coming all at the same time), EVERYTHING, everything that happens now, even things which seem extremely unpleasant to our mental conceptions or our mental reactions, everything is a bath, a bath of the vibration of divine Love. So much so that if I didnt control my body, I would be smiling at everything all the time like an idiot. A beatific smile for everything (I dont show it because I control myself).
(silence, the clock strikes the hour)
No, no: do not brood about it. Let it be, it will work out. It will work out the way it has to work out.
X is sensitive mentally, but to what degree? And to what degree do things crystallize differently for him because of all his ideas?
--
And truly, with the feeling that ALL one has lived, all one has known, all one has done, all of it is a perfect illusion thats what I was living yesterday evening.
And then.
Its one thing to have the spiritual experience of the illusion of material life (some find this painful, but I found it so wonderfully beautiful and happy that it was one of the loveliest experiences of my life); but now the whole spiritual construction as one has lived it is becoming a total illusion! Not the same illusion, a far more serious illusion.
If That was not there. Obviously, That [divine Love] is here, like a mattress placed so you wont break your neck when you fall. Thats precisely the feeling: this experience of the vibration of divine Love is the mattress so you dont break your neck!
So, petit, dont brood; whatever your difficulties may be (laughing), you can tell yourself they are only beginning!
And Im not exactly a baby; I have been here forty-seven years, and for something like yes, certainly for sixty years I have been doing a conscious yoga, with all that memories of an immortal life can bring and see where I am! When Sri Aurobindo says you must have endurance, I think he is right!
This path is not for the weak, thats for sure.
I believe this body has suffered as much as a body can bear without going to pieces, and it keeps going, it has never asked for mercynot once has it said, No, its too much, not once. It says, As You will, Lord: here I am.
--
Well, Im never going to tell people that its just a promenade! No, its nothing like a promenade. Some say, Oh, youre too severe! But too bad for them; its better to tell the truth, isnt it?
We mustnt get discouraged.
the absolute certainty of the Victory is unquestionable; but I am not speaking at the scale of our bounded mind. Its up to us to CHANGE TACKthis is whats expected of us, to change tack and not keep going round in circles.
there you are, petit.
Its a process of tempering, you knowwe get tempered.
And theres no point in giving up, because it would just have to be started all over again next time. What I always say is: Heres the opportunitygo right to the end. Its no use saying, Ah, I cant, because next time it will be even more difficult.
A region high in the Himalayas, also known as the abode of Shiva.
Note that N. will try to be the future 'proprietor' of Auroville. Already Mo ther was surrounded by lies on all sides.
On March 29, 1914.
In the occult sense, a 'formation' signifies a concentration of power or force directed towards a particular goal. it is like a bullet of force going inexorably to its target. In fact, all beings are constantly making 'formations' with their thoughts and desires, but these formations have scarcely any power o ther than that of clinging to the one who has made them or returning upon him like a boomerang.
the following undated note (which could date from this or any number of o ther times!) was found among Mo ther's scattered papers: Now the situation has become very critical, all the reserves have been swallowed up, there are debts, many important works remain unfinished and the daily life has become a problem. It is the subsistence of more than 1,200 people which is in question.
***
0 1961-04-07, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
X hears about it from the doctor. He asks the doctor and the doctor tells him whatever he likes. X says to him, I will completely cure her, and the doctor replies, Thats impossibleit cant be cured! So X says, You have no faith, and the doctor replies, Youre living in illusions!
the truth is that the body is holding its own quite well. But its a formidable affair. they1 are multiplying by the millions; so you can see it will take time to get rid of them! they circulate throughout the body, sometimes for two, three or four hours at night, pricking and stinging from inside out; they prick like fiery needles. And they go everywhere, in the legs, the trunk, the arms theyre really having fun! But anyway, its subsiding: the legs are better. Its not quite right yet, but its coming along. Its nothing.
***
--
Each time X comes here, all the difficulties rise up to their maximum, they seem to become absolute. And I understand why: his power acts in a domain full of human pettiness. What a domain! Oh, awful! And were not out of it yet: quarrels, divisions, misunderstandings, bad will. I fully understand that it all has to come up in order to be healed. But it gives me a tremendous amount of work!
Anyway.
In your case, it is very clear: each time he comes, everything seems to go askew. And the only reason for it is the conflict between the force he brings down (of course, when he comes I encourage it to come down!), and the inner resistances; and this creates the Contradiction, which becomes more and more pronounced.
It speeds up the work, but at the same time it makes it a bit taxing.
As for him, even now his way of working consists in eliminating all obstaclesjust the opposite of what Sri Aurobindo was doing. Sri Aurobindo used to envelop them, like this (Mo ther opens her arms to embrace everything), and then act upon them so that they would no longer be obstacles. But the first thing X said when he first came to the Ashram was, Oh, there are a lot of elements which shouldnt be here! And he would talk about a purge: eliminate, eliminate, eliminate. But if you eliminate everything from life which is unresponsive to the Divine, what will be left?
He certainly hasnt understood Sri Aurobindos yoga. And its useless to try to explain anything to him.
He began to understand after a year, and he understands much better now. But he is shut up in his construction. He doesnt have the kind of personality that can see the earth as something very small. And thats basically what is needed with Sri Aurobindo: the earth must be seen as just a small field of experience within an eternity.
But that is difficult.
--
(After the work, Mo ther embarks on ano ther topic.)
I am continuing my reading of the Veda. I had to stop for some days because of a sore throat. But anyway, Im starting again.
the Vedas, after all, were written by people who remembered a radical experience, which must have taken place on earth at a given moment, as an example of what was to come. (This always happens in the yoga: a first radical experience comes like a herald of the future realization.) So in the terrestrial yogain the yoga of the earth, of the planet earth there was a moment when it came; they who are called the forefa thers must have created, through their effort and their yoga, at least an image of the supramental realization. And those who wrote the Vedas, who composed all these hymns, remembered or kept the tradition of that experience. And oh, mon petit, it had the same effect on me as when I read the Yoga of Self-Perfection in the Syn thesis of Yoga (Mo ther catches her breath): there is such a gulf between what we are, what life on earth and human consciousness now are, even among the most enlightened, the most advanced, and THAT!
I dont know if its because I have been so violently attackedbludgeonedby all these malevolent energies, but in any case, I sensed acutely the FORMIDABLE immensity of what has to be done in order for THAT to be realized.
(silence)
When external difficulties subside, when the body becomes passive and quiet, when it is not constantly demanding attention, then you can LIVE in this supramental consciousness and it does not seem so difficult; you feel it is so victorious in its essence that it will end all difficulties.
But for this to come about, you must remain for a while on those higher reaches and not be constantly, constantly dragged down below where you have to fight each minute simply to LASTto last in all ways: not just personally, but collectively.2 Its a minute-to-minute bout, simply to last. And how long do we have to last for the thing to be done?
It is a difficult period.
And there has been a decline in everyones health. Many people are sick. the illnesses are of a more serious nature there has been a decline.
You have to look at all this with a smile, of course (and I do), but I must say that the enthusiastic side (you know, that fire of enthusiasm) has been dampened. Well, theres no need to get excitedit will take time.
We just have to keep on going, keep on moving: one step after ano ther, one step after ano ther, one step after ano ther, without asking how many steps its going to take, or recalling how many weve taken.
What we really have to do is come alive from minute to minute, living always in the present moment, stubbornly, like this (Mo ther puts a fist on the arm of her chair, then ano ther, and so on, in a slow, dogged, unrelenting march).,
Yet Sri Aurobindo seemed to say that things would be easier once the Supermind came down.
Yes. Yes, obviously! But easier than what, mon petit?
I dont know. I have reread some of his writings where he seemed to say the work would be easier. What happened, why isnt it like that? He seemed to be saying everywhere: things will be easier, the work will be easier
Yes. But easier is only relative.
--
Its not something miraculous, you know. To be really satisfied, the human mind always needs some kind of miracle. In its thought, the miraculous is associated with the Divine. I know, because I was born like that. I felt like that when I was very young. And only because life has dealt me some extremely brutal denials have I come to this kind of sober and reasonable attitude. You know (I told you this the o ther day), its disgusting! (Mo ther laughs) All the bloom has gone banished by the hard knocks of life. For I was born with this feeling that yes, that Truth is something miraculous, which has only to show itself to prevail.
It would be like thatwithout the adverse forces.
the universe would be like that, if it had not been for the deviation of the adverse forces I see it very clearly. the perversion, the cold-blooded and cruel perversion of sheer malevolent will keeps it from being like that. Thats what intervenes. they all call it an accident, but a lot of good that does us! the fact is there.
the adverse force is what keeps the Divine from blossoming miraculously whenever He appears. Because I know that wherever Matter is not under the influence of this adverse will to any degree, it blossoms immediately. And everything in the human heart, in human consciousness, in human thought, all that is slightly sheltered from this adverse influencesheltered by the psychic, the divine Presenceblossoms, becomes immediately becomes marvelous, without any obstacleall the obstacles come from that source. So its all very well to call it an accident, but.
Its obviously reparable, theres no doubt about that, but at what price? And how it complicates things!
We are told it will be all the more beautiful later I am absolutely sure of this I dont doubt it for a minute, but.
the world as it is, really say what you like, even upon the most perfect heights, its woeful. It is woeful.
there have been moments, you know, in supreme experiences of perfect union in a wondrous Love, when I have turned towards the worldsimply turned the consciousness for a second towards the world as it is (with the aspiration, I remember, for EVERYTHING to participate) and in that state of ecstasy, really, there were tears of burning sorrow. It happened just like that.
theoretically, it shouldnt be that way, but in fact it is. Something will never be perfect until this accident has been abolished.
That is my experience.
And to come to this experience I had to pass through a state of the most supreme indifference, where the whole terrestrial manifestation is an illusion; I passed through that, I had my experience BEYOND that. And beyond that at the moment of supreme ecstasy came fiery tears of grief.
(silence)
--
But the indispensable foundation is truly an indomitable courage and unflinching endurancefrom the most material cells of the body to the highest consciousness, from top to bottom, entirely. Without that, were pretty useless.
And I am really in the most favorable conditions, because my body says yes. It says yes, yes, yesit doesnt complain. This may be the sense behind all this illness and difficulty. Not a single day of complaint.
the night before last I was again awakened at midnight (not awakened: I came out of my trance) with those stings burning from inside out, from the tips of the feet up to here, everywhere, in the back it lasted four hours, non-stop. Well, my body didnt once complain. Not once did it ask for it to stop; it just kept quiet, saying: Thy Will be done. And not only saying it but FEELING it, quietlyfour hours of minuscule tortures. It didnt say a thing.
Saying nothing is elementary for me! But the body didnt say anythingit didnt even fidget; it didnt even have, you know, that feeling of, When will it be over? Nothing. It just stayed quiet, quiet. I was like a statue in my bed, stinging from head to toe. So I really cant complain! the instrument I have been given is of truly good quality. An unflinching goodwill.
But without any doubt, this is diabolical.
--
And if you really want to please me (I believe you do!), if you want to please me, concentrate on the book on Sri Aurobindoyou cant imagine how much I am interested! And as I LOOK, I see into the future (not with this little consciousness), I see that its a thing of GREAT importance. It will have a great action. So, I want to clear the way for you now, for us to have time.
I will surely need a quiet mind to prepare the work.3
Yes, yes of course.
To finish this reading and assimilate it quietly. I dont feel capable of writing at all, unless I can receive the inspiration.
But you will receive it!
--
I havent the slightest doubt. Its a certainty, a certainty.
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 (Mo ther laughs).
--
Note that just a few days earlier, the Ashram coffers were completely empty. Mo ther had sold the last of her jewels: 'It is not for the upkeep of any [Ashram] department that I have sold my jewels; it is for food, lodging [of the sadhaks] and wages for domestic servants.'
Satprem is referring to the enormous amount of material work he had in addition to seven hours of daily japa.
***
0 1961-04-08, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
After more than a month I have resumed my translation [of the Syn thesis 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 Syn thesis 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.
***
( then Mo ther listens to a reading from the 1960 Agenda. At the end, Satprem remarks, as though to excuse himself for noting some apparently irrelevant details.)
All these things are interwoven, you seeeach time, you seem to be adding a touch. Even a detail that doesnt seem relevant by itself becomes part of a gradually emerging picture when seen with the whole.
Yes, of course. But its basically a description of my sadhana, thats all, and I always say that it will be interesting only if I go through to the end.
Bah!
When I reach the end or when something truly concrete is realized, then it will become interesting, but not before.
But still, the story of the journey is interesting!
Until something is realized, its nothing at all.
--
(Later, concerning the disciples very traditionalist guru who falls ill each time he comes to the Ashram:)
He seems to understand better. In his own way, he is progressiveunfortunately, it always makes him sick! the Force is too great for his body to bear.
He is used to maintaining a kind of poise, the poise of the traditional attitude of indifference towards everything material: Its an illusion, it has no importance, theres no need to be concerned with it. Nature is acting, not 1; Nature is acting and Nature is built like that, so why bo ther about it, why worry. Thats how he lived until he came here, and its why he had this attitude of indifference. But here it began to change. And of course his body isnt used to it; it has difficulty keeping up, it lacks plasticity.
the first thing he did was to go see the Doctor and ask him to heal his ear, heal his stomach, heal. So the Doctor told him, But why do you eat just anything at any time of day? Naturally youre sick. And then he was constantly running up against our ways of organizing material things herepeople like him dont organize, they dont care, they just let things drift. Regarding his son, for instance, the Doctor told him, Its because you dont look after him. If you did, this wouldnt happen. And X very bluntly replied, But why!?
theres a gap.
***
0 1961-04-12, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But there is a way.
You know, I made a pact with cats, with the King of the Catsit goes back very, very far. And its extraordinary (it happened in Tlemcen, entirely on the occult plane), extraordinary! For certain reasons, the King of the Cats gave me a power over these creaturesand its true. Only I have to see them.
We shall try.
--
What do these animals represent in the terrestrial manifestation? theyre so strange.
Cats are vital forces, incarnations of vital forces. the King of the Cats that is, the spirit of the speciesis a being of the vital world.
For instance, cats can very easily incarnate the vital force of a dead person. I have had two absolutely astounding experiences of this.
the first was with a boy who was a Sanskritist and had wanted to come to India with us. He was the son of a French ambassadoran old, noble family. But he learned that his lungs were bad, and so he joined the Army; he enlisted as an officer, just at the start of the 1914 war. And he had the courage of those who no longer cling to life; when he received the order to advance on the enemy trenches (it was incredibly stupid, simply sending people to be slaughtered!), he didnt hesitate. He went. And he was hit between the two lines. For a long time, it was a no mans land; only after some days, when the o ther trench had been taken, could they go and collect the dead. All this came out in the newspapers AFTERWARDS. But on the day he was killed, of course, no one was aware of it.
I had a nice photo of him with a Sanskrit dedication, placed on top of a kind of wardrobe in my bedroom. I open the door and the photo falls. ( there was no draft or anything.) It fell and the glass broke into smi thereens. Immediately I said, Oh! Something has happened to Fontenay. (That was his name: Charles de Fontenay.) After that I came back down from my room, and then I hear a miaowing at the door ( the door opened onto a large garden courtyard1). I open the door: a cat bursts in and jumps on me, like that (Mo ther thumps her breast). I speak to him: What is it, whats the matter? He drops to the ground and looks at meFontenays eyes! Absolutely! No one elses. And he just stayed put, he didnt want to go. I said to myself, Fontenay is dead.
the news came a week later. But the newspapers gave the date when they had moved out of the trenches and been killedit had been on that day.
(silence)
the o ther story dates far ther back. I was living in ano ther house (we had the whole fifth floor), and once a week I used to hold meetings there with people interested in occultism they came to have me demonstrate or tell them about occult practices. there was a Swedish artist, a French lady and a young French boy, a student and a poet. His parents were decent country people who bled themselves white to pay for his life in Paris. This boy was very intelligent and a true artist, but he was depraved. (We knew about it, but it was his private life and none of our business.) One evening, when four or five of us were to meet, this boy didnt turn up, although he had said he would. We had our meeting anyway and didnt think much about itwe thought he must have been busy elsewhere. Around midnight, when the people were leaving, I open the door. A big black cat was sitting in the doorway and, in a single bound, it jumps on me, just like that, all curled up in a ball. So I calm it down, I look at itAh, the eyes! they were this boys eyes. (I no longer recall his name.) Right away (at the time we were all involved in occultism), we knew something had happened; he had been unable to come and the cat had incarnated his vital force.
the next day, all the newspapers were full of a vile murder: a pimp had murdered this boyit was disgusting! Something utterly vile. And it had happened at the very moment he should have come the concierge had seen him going into the house with this pimp. What happened? Was it just for money or for something elsevice? Or what?
But both times, the incarnation was so (how to put it?) powerful that the eyes changed; the eyes of the cat changed completely into the eyes of the dead person. Unmistakable. Both came to me and both times there was the same movement, the same kind of feline howlyou know how they sound.
But I have had some cats. I had a cat who was the reincarnation of the mind of a Russian woman. I had a vision of it one day, it was so strangethis woman had been murdered at the time of the Russian Revolution, along with her two little children. And her mind entered a cat here. (How? I dont know.) But this cat, mon petit. I got her when she was very young. She would come and lie down, stretched out like a human being, with her head on my arm! (I used to sleep on a Japanese tatami on the floor.) And she would stay there, so well-behaved, didnt stir all night long! I was really amazed. then she had kittens, and wanted to give birth to them lying stretched out, not at all like a cat. It was very difficult to make her understand that it couldnt be done that way! And one night after she had had her kittens, I saw her I saw a young woman in furs, with a fur bonnetyou could just see a tiny human face; she had two little ones and she came to me and placed them at my feet. Her whole story was there in her consciousness: how she and the two children had been murdered. And then I realized she was the cat!
the cat wouldnt leave her kittens for a moment! Not for anything. She wouldnt eat, wouldnt go outside to relieve herself, nothing: she stayed put. So I told her, Bring me your kittens. (If you know how to handle them, cats understand very well when theyre spoken to.) Bring me your little ones. She looked at me, went and brought one of her kittens, and placed it between my feet. then she went to fetch the o ther one and placed it between my feet (not beside, between my feet). Now you can go out, I told her. And out she went.
I had ano ther cat named Kiki. He had a wonderful color and was just like velvet. We used to have meditations and he would come, get up on a chair and go into trance; he would make the brusque movements of trance during the meditation. And I had to rouse him out of it, o therwise he wouldnt wake up!
Once this cat was stung by a scorpion. A foolhardy youngster, he used to play with scorpions. I had to rescue him one day; I came onto the verandah just when he was playing with a big scorpion. I caught the cat, put him on my shoulder and killed the scorpion. But ano ther time I wasnt there, and he was stung. He came inside, done for. I clearly saw the signs that he had been poisoned by a scorpion. I put him on a table and went to call Sri Aurobindo. Kiki has been stung by a scorpion, I said. (He was dying, almost in a coma.) Sri Aurobindo pulled up a chair, sat down facing the table and began to gaze at Kiki. This lasted about twenty or twenty-five minutes. then suddenly the cat relaxed completely and fell asleep. When he woke up, he was entirely cured.
Sri Aurobindo didnt touch him, he didnt do anything; he simply gazed at him.
I had ano ther cat I called Big Boy. Oh, how beautiful he was! Enormous! A tail like the train of a gown. He was beautiful! Since there were all kinds of cats prowling around, including a big fierce tomcat who was extremely vicious, I was very afraid for this one when he was little and I got him used to spending his nights inside (which is hard for a cat to do). I forbade him to go out. So he spent his nights inside and when I got up in the morning, he got up too and came and sat down in front of me. then I would say, All right, Big Boy, you can go, and he would jump out the window and go off but never before. And this is the one who was poisoned.
Because later on he would go roaming about; he had become terribly strong and would prowl around everywhere. At that time I was living in the Library house, and he would go off as far as the Ashram street ( the Ashram didnt belong to us yet, the house was owned by all kinds of people), but when I would go out on the terrace across from Champaklals kitchen and call, Big boy! Big Boy! although he couldnt hear it, he could sense it, and he would come back galloping, galloping. He always came back, unfailingly. the day he didnt come back, I got worried; the servant went looking for himand found him moaning, vomiting, poisoned. He brought him to me. Oh, really! it was. He was so nice! He wasnt a thief or anythinghe was a wonderful cat. Someone had laid out poison for god knows what cat, and he ate it. I showed him to Sri Aurobindo and said, He has been killed.
Before that, I lost ano ther 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 wi thering away. We replaced it with a little copper pod tree with yellow flowers.
these animals are so nice when you know how to handle them.
When I moved here to the Ashram, I said, We cant bring any cats into this house, its quite impossible. This was after Big Boys death, and we had had enough of cats. I gave away the o thers, but the first one, the mo ther of the whole line, was old and didnt want to leave, so I felt her behind. She stayed in a house over there, within the Ashram compound. And one dayshe was very old and could no longer move I saw her come dragging in and sit down on that terrace on the o ther side. (Now you cant see it any more the Service Tree has hidden it completely but in those days you could see it very clearly.) She came and sat down over there where she could watch me until she died. Quietly, without moving, she died watching me.
All these cat stories! If we had photographs, we could make a pretty little album of cat stories.
And extraordinary, extraordinary details! Showing such intelligence, oh! This woman I mean this cat who had been a womanif you knew how she brought up her children, oh! With such patience, such intelligence and understanding! It was extraordinary. One could tell long, long stories: how she taught them not to be afraid, to walk along the edge of walls, to jump from a wall to a window. She showed them, encouraged them, and finally, after showing and encouraging them very often (some would jump, o thers were afraid), she would give them a push! So of course they would jump immediately.
And she taught them everything. To eat, to. This cat would never eat before they had all eaten. She would show them what to do, give each one what it needed. And once they had grown up and she didnt have to look after them anymore, if they kept coming back she would send them away: Go away! Your turn is over, its finished. Go out into the world! And she would take care of the new ones.
Once one of her kittens was ill. She was pretty and gray colored, clear gray like a very soft fur, very pretty. She had caught this cat sickness and was lying down. And the mo ther was teaching all the little ones not to come near her; she would make them go all the way around, as if her instinct told her it was contagious. And you would see them ( the sick kitten was right in their way) going all the way around, never coming near.
these cat stories went on for years and years.
And it isnt true that they dont obey! Its just that we dont know how to handle them. Cats are extremely sensitive to the vital force, to vital power, and they can be made perfectly obedientand with such devotion! Cats are said to be nei ther devoted nor attached nor faithful, but thats not true at all. You can have quite a friendly relationship with them.
And, an incredible thing this cat was very pretty, but she had a wretched tail, a tail like an ordinary cat; and one day when I was with her at the window, one of the neighbors cats wandered into the gardenan angora with three colors, three very prominent colors, and such a beautiful tail trailing behind! So I said (my cat was just beside me), Oh! Just see how beautiful she is! What a beautiful tail she has! And I could see my cat looking at her. My child, in her next litter she had one exactly like that! How did she manage it? I dont know. Three prominent colors and a magnificent tail! Did she hunt up a male angora? Or did she just will for it intensely?
they are really something, you cant imagine! Once, when she was due to give birth and was very heavy, she was walking along the window ledge and I dont know what happened, but she fell. She had wanted to jump from the ledge, but she lost her footing and fell. It must have injured something. the kittens didnt come right away, they came later, but three of them were deformed ( there were six in all). Well, when she saw how they were, she simply sat on themkilled them as soon as they were born. Such incredible wisdom! ( they were completely deformed: the hind paws were turned the wrong way round they would have had an impossible life.)
And she used to count her little ones. She knew perfectly well how many she had. I just had to tell her, Keep only two or threealthough the first time there were only three, which was still too many, yet it was absolutely impossible not to let her keep them all. But later on I had to chide her. I didnt take them from her, but I would speak to her, convince her: Its too much, youll be ill. Just keep these. See how nice these two are. Take care of them.
Oh, what lovely cat stories! That was a whole period for many, many years. Many years.
Mind you, I would never have considered having any, but two cats were already there when I came to the house. they were not very interesting cats, but they became the parents of the one I just told you about (those boys who were living with Sri Aurobindo had already had some experience; they knew quite a few things about cats), and that was the origin of all the cats I had here. But people (you know how simplistic they always are!) believed I had some special attachment for cats, so then of course everybody started keeping cats! It was no use my telling them, No, its a particular study were making I wanted to see, to learn certain things, and I learned what I had to but now that I have moved to ano ther house, the cat era is over; the old friends are gone, only the younger generation is left. I gave them all away and said) Thats enough. But its hard to make people understandsome people here have 25 cats! Thats unreasonable! Its not the way to deal with cats. You have to look after them as I did, and then it becomes interesting.
there was one I know I SAW it: when he died there was already the embryo of a psychic being, ready for a human incarnation. I made them progress like wildfire.
Well, petit.
0 1961-04-15, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Later, after the work:)
All kinds of things are coming up from the subconscient. We seem to be constantly descending instead of ascending.
Oh, the subconscient! Every night its a real invasion of things that are so the WHOLE subconscient keeps coming up, coming up, coming upnot just mine but everybodys. there seems to be no end to it.
But now I have the knack of forgetting I just forget. Because when I used to remember, I had to fight for entire days. So as soon as I wake up, I erase it right away: go away! Gone!
But all night long I am fully conscious of a lot of things they cant be called trivial, but. Oh, its as though everything that can comes to tell me: You think there will be a supramental transformation? Well then, just look: there is this and that and that and this, this one and that one, this circumstance, that thing, the world, people, things. Oh, a deluge!
And in the evening before going to sleep I read the Vedas, which aggravates the situation. Because those people rememberei ther they have heard of it, or they remember it themselvesa supramental realization; and they describe it all so beautifully that it makes you feel very far from it, so very, very far.
After that, I spend hours concentrated in prayernot exactly prayer but (gesture palms turned upwards), like that, beseeching.
What has been achieved now is that I am absolutely detached from EVERYTHING. From everything, beginning with my body and including the work, ideas, conceptions, even the [people], all, all of them. It all seems to me so utterly dull and nonexistent.
Before, I used to find joy in a beautiful idea or a beautiful experienceall that is finished. I am in a state where nothing, absolutely nothing has any value except ONE SINGLE THING.
--
I could say something formidable (Mo ther is about to speak, then restrains herself). But its not true, its not like that. If I say it, it will become something else.
Its better to say nothing.
--
Low? No, you arent low I see you too, among the things I am looking at, and it isnt true. No, you are much better than you were! (Mo ther laughs)
(silence)
But you know, what seems to have gone is all this illusory enthusiasm we confuse with. Sri Aurobindo speaks of it very often, and each time I read that sentence of his its like an icy shower (Mo ther laughs). I no longer know the exact wording, but he uses two words: illusory hopes all the human illusory hopes. It goes plunk! Well, all that has entirely gone. When I saw it I deliberately rejected it. Yes, I said to myself, we are always trying to cheer ourselves up with hopes.
(Mo ther turns towards the tape recorder) Dont keep all that. Its not worth it, dont keep it. Its quite useless. Take it out.
This is merely a passing phase, thats all.
--
Take a real break for some time, and then.
Its impossible. I cant. Even two years ago, when I was really sick and took to my room for the first time, I couldnt let the work go. I cant do it. Its not possible.
But surely there are things you could cut down?
Yes, if I could cut down a bit it would help.
--
On the 24th, how long will it be? Forty-one years since I came here. And I havent moved since.
Its really strange: there is no space between that time and now. I dont know how to explain it. I have no feeling of time, none at all, none.
(long silence)
I live in the constant feeling of PUSHING against a world of tremendous obstacles, with the certainty thatsuddenly the resistance will give way and there will be enlightenmentno, far more than that!
Thats all.
--
All night long and whenever my attention is not being drawn away by something or o ther and even then, its there as if behind a veil I am nothing but a force that pushes. Thats what I have become.
(silence)
--
Actually it is because, without knowing it, you are becoming aware of the true Self, and that awareness always produces a sense of betrayal. But its nei ther you nor I nor he nor anything o ther than THAT which is being betrayed. All that we are is a betrayal of That. This is what it is. And we are constantly pushing, pushing, pushing to go beyond.
Its all right. Dont worry. When you are a little upset, you only have to think: Oh, Mo ther is here, and she will do the work.
And dont have any more toothaches. I dont like you to have toothaches!
0 1961-04-18, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
the subconscient is seething.
We shall see.
--
I stumbled upon a sentence from Sri Aurobindo yesterday or the day before. From the occult standpoint it has to do with a ra ther important problem, and I would really like some light on this question: the man who slays is only an occasion, the instrument by which the thing done behind the veil becomes the thing done on this side of it.
It means exactly this (I am going back to the preceding sentence): Who can protect the one whom God has already slain?1 He has already been slain by God. When God has decided that someone is to be slain, nothing can protect him or keep him from being slain. And Sri Aurobindo adds: the man who slays (because it is not God who slays directly, he uses a man), the man who slays is only a circumstance, the instrument through which the thing decided by God behind the veil is accomplished materially here.
these are political texts from the revolutionary period, concerning bomb attacks against the English. And then he says that the man God has protected can never be touched. However hard you try, you will never be able to slay him. But who can protect the man God has already slain? He has already been slain by God. And man is simply the instrument used by God to do here what has been done there (it has ALREADY been done there). Its very simple.
Yes, I quite understand. But in general, does EVERYTHING that happens here first get played out on the o ther side in some way? Its an occult problem, and fur thermore a problem of freedom.
According to my experience both things are simultaneous, so to speak. Its we who introduce the notion of time, but the notion of time doesnt exist on the o ther side.
For example, if I were asked how much time it takes for a thing decided upon there to be realized here, I would answer that it is absolutely indeterminate. That is my experience. I always give the following example because its so clear: Thirty-five years before India became free, I saw that she was free. It was already done. And I have also seen things which for us are almost instantaneous something is decided there and realized almost instantly here. And there are all sorts of possibilities between these two extremes, because the notion of time is not at all the sameso we cant judge. It is facile to say that what you are seeing will happen in a year or in a week or in an hour but in fact, this is impossible. It depends upon the case and certain factors which are part of the whole.
In one chapter of the Syn thesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo says that there is a state of consciousness in which all is from all eternityeverything, without exception, that is to be manifested here.
In detail?
In a certain state of consciousness (I no longer remember what he calls it I think its in the Yoga of Self-Perfection), one is perfectly identified with the Supreme, not in his static but in his dynamic aspect, the state of becoming. In this state, everything is already there from all eternity, even though here it gives us the impression of a becoming. And Sri Aurobindo says that if you are capable of maintaining this state,2 then you know everything: all that has been, all that is and all that will bein an absolutely simultaneous way.
But you must have a firm head on your shoulders! Reading some of these chapters in Self-Perfection, I thought it would be better if it didnt fall into just anyones hands.
Anyway, in this state the feeling of uncertainty completely disappears (he explains it very well).
We think its BECAUSE we do such and such a thing that something else happens. (And how frequently, too!) People are constantly saying and writing: do this and that will happen. But the fact that this person speaks and the o ther one acts is also absolutely decreed.
If we could really get this into our heads, it would probably make them swim.
But things as they are wouldnt be changed at all. I have had a very clear experience of this: the absoluteness of all that is materially; everything we think we are doing, or are planning, or intending, doesnt change anything about anything. But then, I was intent upon understanding what difference there can be between the true and the false state, SINCE MATERIALLY EVERYTHING IS EXACTLY AS IT SHOULD BE. (We think that things are like this or like that because of certain reactions we have, but our very reactions are as absolute and decreed as the thing itself.) And yet.
I have had this experience, and I remember it even went on for several days; I saw all material circumstances as an absolutean absolute that we perceive as an unfolding, but which is an eternally existing absolute. I had this experience, and at the same time I had a very clear perception of what falsehood is the lie; what, from the psychological, the mental point of view, Sri Aurobindo, translating from the Sanskrit, called crookedness.3 We attribute the course of circumstances to our psychological reactionsand indeed, they are used momentarily because everything collaborates ei ther consciously or unconsciously to make things be what they have to be but things could be what they have to be without the intervention of this falsehood. I lived in that consciousness for several days, and it became apparent that this was what separated falsehood from truth. In this state of knowledge-consciousness, the distinction can be made between falsehood and truth; and when seen in that truth-consciousness, material circumstances change character.
Now I no longer have the experience of that state except as a memory, so I cant formulate it accurately. But what was very clear and comes very oftenvery oftenis the perception of a superimposition of falsehood over a real fact. This brings us back to what I was telling you some time ago,4 that everything is very simple in its truth, that human consciousness is what complicates everything. But the former was an even more total experience of it.
It is very interesting from the standpoint of death. I saw it once so clearly when someone (I no longer remember whom) had left his body. the word death and all these human reactions seemed so foolish! So senseless, ignorant, stupidfalse, without reality. there was simply something that shifted, like this (Mo ther draws a curve showing a shift of consciousness from one mode of being to ano ther), and then we, in our false consciousness, made a drama out of it. But it was simply something evolving (same gesture).
Let me tell you about a recent occurrence. E. had sent a telegram saying that she had a perforated intestine (but it must have been something else because they operated on her only after several days, and when you are not operated on immediately in such cases, you die). Anyway, it was very serious and she was on the threshold of death that much is certain. She wrote me a letter the day before the operation (what is interesting is that now she doesnt even remember what she wrote). It was a magnificent letter saying that she was conscious of the Divine Presence and of the Divine Plan. Tomorrow they will operate on me, she said. And I am entirely aware that this operation has ALREADY been done, that it is a fact accomplished by the Divine Will; o therwise it could be a fatal ordeal. And she said she was conscious of the supreme Wills action, in a perfect peace. It was a magnificent letter. And the whole thing went off almost miraculously; she recovered in such a miraculous way that the surgeon himself said, I must congratulate you, to which she replied, How surprising! You did the operation! Yes, he said, we did the operation, but it is your body that willed to be healed, and I congratulate you for your bodys willpower. Of course she wrote to me that she knew who had been there to see that all went well. And this feeling of the thing being already accomplished is a beginning of the consciousness Sri Aurobindo speaks of in the Yoga of Self-Perfection, where one is simultaneously both here and there. Because, as Sri Aurobindo says, some people have managed to be entirely there, but what he has called the realization is to be both there and here simultaneously.
Of course, one might wonder what the meaning of everything here is, if it has all been already accomplished above, on an occult plane, and we are merely re-enacting it.
No, no!
--
No! Thats exactly our falsehood! What we see is not the THING; its a reflection, a distorted image in our consciousness. the thing itself exists outside this reflection, and in that existence it doesnt have the character we attri bute to it. Once we have grasped this, we understand that we can get out of ito therwise, we could never get out!
there is a universal unfolding, the true unfolding, that of the Supreme Lord who watches (this is the best way to put it) his own unfoldment. But for some reason or o ther, there has been a deformation of consciousness which makes us see this unfolding as something separate, a more or less adequate expression of the Divine Will. But it isnt so! It is the very unfolding of the Divine within Himselfwithin Himself, from Himself, for Himself. And its simply our falsehood that makes a separate thing of it the very fact of objectifying (what WE call objectification) is already a falsehood.5
I have had this particular consciousness in flashes. the difficulty is that in expressing it, we use all our mental faculties, and they themselves are falseso we are cornered. Because when you follow through. Whatever you say,If this, if that, if the o theris all part of our general stupidity. Going right to the end of it, you are suddenly like this: Ah! (Mo ther remains suspended midway in her sentence) there is nothing more to do, not a move to make.
Only, as I have told you, practically speaking this experience can be dangerous. When it came, you see, one part of me was having the experience, and one part wasnt yet ready for it. Well, I was awake enough to tell myself, the part experiencing this prevails and keeps the rest calm, yet if the preparation had not been adequate, it could have produced an imbalance. And if by mischance someone without sufficient strength had the possibility of picking up something of that, well, he would lose his head.
This has made it very clear to me why certain things can illuminate some people (I have clearly seen it) and drive o thers utterly madcompletely destroy their balance. You might say to me, then its because they had to go mad! Yes, evidently.
But even if its put in absolute terms, the relationships remain exactly the same.6 You see, the initial impulse is to say, Whats the use of doing anything? But look here, the very fact that you might want to do something is part of the general determinism! Because we always keep something back and wont admit it into the total scheme of things, o therwise. there is no way to get out of it thats just the way it is.
And Sri Aurobindo explains this in such a complete, total and compact way, that there is no escape; so this so-called incapacity, this idea of still being incapable of emerging from ones divided state, becomes false.
But you have to have a firm head on your shoulders. You must always be able to refer to THAT (pointing above) and then here, silence (Mo ther touches her forehead): peace, peace, peace, stop everything, stop everything. Dont try, above all, dont try to understand! Oh, there is nothing more dangerous! We try to understand with an instrument not made for understanding, thats incapable of understanding.
In any case, for your question its very simple: we dont need to go to these extremes!
No, I wasnt putting the problem on a metaphysical plane but on an occult one as if the play were acted out occultly and we were executing it materially.
For us, it seems like that.
--
When I used to speak at the Playground, I tried to explain this one day I was facing the same problem: what really is? And clearly, it is utterly impossible to understand with the mind. But I had a vision of a kind of infinite Eternity through which the Supreme Consciousness voyages7; and the path this Consciousness travels is what we call the manifestation. And this vision explained absolute freedom, it explained how both thingsabsolute freedom and absolute determinismcould coexist in an absolute way. the image in my vision was of an eternal Infinity in which that Consciousness voyagesone cant even say freely, because freely would imply that it could be o therwise.
All who experience this say that the first movement of the manifestation, or the creation (creation, manifestation, objectification: all these words are imperfect) is CHIT, Consciousness that becomes Power. Consequently, Consciousness goes voyaging along in SAT, in Beingstatic, eternal, infinite and necessarily outside time and space and this movement of Consciousness is what produces time and space within this Infinity and Eternity.8 This leads to the understanding that things can simultaneously be absolutely free and absolutely determined.
This vision I had is of no value to anyone else, but it gave me a kind of satisfaction, a kind of peace (for a while).
--
I go on reading the Vedas and I see quite well how beautiful it is and how effective it must have been for those people, what a power for realization these hymns must have had! But for me.
Yet for a time I was in contact with all these gods and all these things, and they had an entirely concrete reality for me; but now I read and I understand, but I cannot live it. And I dont know why. It still hasnt triggered the experience. You see, experience for me the constant, total and permanent Experienceis that there is nothing o ther than the Supremeonly the Supreme that the Supreme alone exists. So when they speak of Agni or Varuna or Indra it doesnt strike a chord. However, what the Vedas succeed in doing very well is to give you the perception of your infirmity and ineptitude, of the dismal state we are in now; it succeeds wonderfully in doing that!
Yesterday, this ardor of the Flame was thereburning all to offer all. It was absolutely concrete, an intensity of vibrations; I could see the vibrationsall the movements of obscurity and ignorance were cast into that. And I recall a time when I was translating these hymns to Agni with Sri Aurobindo, and Agni was real for me. Well, yesterday it wasnt that, it wasnt the god Agni, it was a STATE OF BEING. It was a state of the Supreme, and as such, it was intimate, clear, intense, vibrant and living.
(silence)
Only just towards the end of the night, after 2 a.m., does all this subconscient rise up to be relived. And with such a new and unexpected perception, oh! Its incredible! It changes all values and relationships and reactions (Mo ther shapes great movements of shifting forces); its like a chessboard absolutely unexpected!
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)
Well, obviously to establish contact with and manifest what the people of the Vedas called the Truth, I still have a lot of things to change a lot.
And yet its a fact that I am in the state where nothing exists any longer but the Divine, the Supreme the Supreme in every vibration, in everything I do, everything I feel. But in some way it must still be conditioned by my consciousness, since since its not yet the Truth.
(long silence)
Something is happening there (Mo ther touches her head); something is taking shape, being worked on. Every day, twice a day, during my long evocation-invocation-aspiration (or prayer, if you like), I say to the Supreme Lord, Take possession of this brain. (I dont mean thought, I mean thisMo ther points to her headthis substance inside.) Take possession of it!
Once during the night, I went exploring inside this head; some cells still had fresh imprints of things registered during the day for whatever reason they hadnt had time to be combined into the whole, so they showed up as tiny, very clear images, minuscule things utterly devoid of any mental or psychological movementsimply like tiny photographic images. there were three or four images like that, and it was so shocking to see them in this Presence that all at once I said to myself, Am I going mad?! It was that shocking. And I had to bring in a peace, a peacenot to make the movement of possession stop, but to accompany it simultaneously with a mighty peace so I wouldnt tell myself, Youre losing your head. Thats how shocking it was.
A tiny, very tiny image, just like a little photograph, clear! Everything else was in a vibration of transformationsplendid!
You know, mon petit, you really must have your feet on the ground, be very solid, firmly balanced, and not get carried away!
But you seem to be saying that the ideas which govern or underlie our progress are more or less false moral ideas; so what should underlie our progress? What would make us say: this is good or not good, useful or not useful for progress?
Thats just itnone of it is necessary!
Now I know that its not necessary at allnot at all. Simply the aspiration must be constantly like this (gesture of a rising flame). Aspiration that is, knowing what you want, wanting it. But it cannot be given a definite form; Sri Aurobindo has used certain words, we use o ther words, o thers use still o ther words, and all this means nothing they are simply words. But there is something beyond all words, and that for me, the simplest thing ( the simplest to express) is, the Supremes Will.
And its the Supremes Will FOR the EARTHwhich is quite a special thing. I am in a universal consciousness at the moment and the earth seems to me to be a very tiny thing, like this (Mo ther sketches a tiny ball in the air) in the process of being transformed. But this is from the standpoint of the Work, its ano ther matter.
But for those who are here, we can say, It is what the Supreme Lord is preparing for the earth. He sent Sri Aurobindo to prepare it; Sri Aurobindo called it the supramental realization, and to facilitate communication we can use the same words. Well, this movement (gesture of a rising flame) towards That must be constantconstant, total. All the rest is none of our business, and the less we meddle with it mentally, the better. But THAT, that Flame, is indispensable. And when it goes out, light it again; when it falters, rekindle itall the time, all the time, ALL the TIMEwhen sleeping, walking, reading, moving around, speaking all the time.
the rest doesnt matter, one can do anything (it depends on people and their ways of thinking). You can just ask people like X, they will tell you: You can do anything at allit doesnt matter in the least. Only you mustnt feel its you doing it, thats all. You have to feel that Nature does it. But I dont much approve of this system.
the important thing is the flame.
(silence)
Actually, in these scenes from the subconscient presented during the night, there were things I had believed ill-omened in my lifeyet suddenly I saw the vibration of this aspiration arising, with such a power and intensity EVEN theRE. Oh, I said, how mistaken we are!
And this aspiration depends nei ther on the state of health nor. Its absolutely independent of all circumstances I have felt this aspiration in the cells of my body at the very moment when things were at their most disorganized, when, from an ordinary medical standpoint, the illness was serious. the cells theMSELVES aspire. And this aspiration has to be everywhere.
When one is in this state, there is no need to worrynothing else matters (Mo ther bursts into laughter).
'Whom God protects who shall slay? Whom God has slain who shall protect?'
the Ideal of the Karmayogin, Cent. Ed., Vol. III p. 354
Satprem had assumed that this state of consciousness was accessible only through a kind of trance or samadhi and that when Mo ther said one had to be capable of 'maintaining this state,' she meant that one should be capable of bringing it back here, into the waking consciousness. However, Mo ther rectified: 'It is a state with no "here" or " there". I have had this experience in the waking consciousness and both perceptions ( the true and the false) were simultaneous.'
the Rishis distinguished between the 'straight' (almost in the optical sense: that which allows the ray to pass straight through) and the twisted or crooked consciousness.
Agenda I of December 31, 1960.
Satprem remarked that this sentence might be interpreted in an 'illusionist' sense (i.e., that the objectification of the material world would be a falsehood), and Mo ther replied: 'No, it's not the objectification that is a falsehood, but our conception of the objectification as being something o ther than THAT. When we say that "He objectifies," well, we are thinking something that is not the truth-that is no longer the truth.'
Later, Mo ther clarified this sentence as follows:
We always reserve a part of ourselves for looking and observing; but if we were capable of including everything, without exception, all the relationships would remain the same I have experienced this.
Remain the same?
the same as those we have, but without the falsehood.
An illustration of this is the well-known story about the man who refused to move out of the path of an elephant on the pretext that he was Brahman and that Brahman had told him to stay put. And the mahout replied, 'But Brahman has told me that you should get out of the way and let the elephant Brahman pass.' Although childishly simplified, it's the same thing. It's because we look 'in this way' yet not , in that way' at the same time, and above all, because we don't look at EVERYTHING at the same time. From the minute we could be integral in our perception, all relationships would remain the same, but instead of being in a state of ignorance, we would experience them in a state of knowledge.
Would remain the same? You mean they would physically be the same as they are now, but would be seen in a different way?
That's it. I don't know if we will ever be able to express ourselves with our present vocabulary! ... We need ano ther language!
In 'Questions and Answers,' February 5, 1958 ( the 'Great Voyage of the Supreme').
Once again, Mo ther's experience coincides with modern science, which is beginning to discover that time and space are not fixed and INDEPENDENT quantitiesas, from the Greeks right up to Newton, we had been accustomed to believe but a four-dimensional system, with three coordinates of space and one of time, DEPENDENT UPON the PHYSICAL PHENOMENA DEVELOPING theREIN. Such is 'Riemann's Space,' used by Einstein in his General theory of Relativity. Thus, a trajectoryi.e., in principle, a fixed distance, a quantity of space to be traversed-is a function of the time taken to traverse it: there is no straight line between two points, or ra ther the I straight' line is a function of the rate of speed. there is no 'fixed' quantity of space, but ra ther rates of speed which determine their own space (or their own measure of space). Space-time is thus no longer a fixed quantity, but, according to science, the PRODUCT ... of what? Of a certain rate of unfolding? But what is unfolding? A rocket, a train, muscles?... Or a certain brain which has generated increasingly perfected instruments adapted to its own mode of being, like a flying fish flying far ther and far ther (and faster and faster) but finally failing back into its own oceanic fishbowl. Yet what would this space-time be for ano ther kind of fishbowl, ano ther kind of consciousness: a supramental consciousness, for example, which can be instantaneously at any point in 'space' there is no more space! And no more time. there is no more 'trajectory': the trajectory is within itself. the fishbowl is shattered, and the whole evolutionary succession of little fishbowls as well. Thus, as Mo ther tells it, space and time are a 'PRODUCT Of the movement of consciousness.' A variable space-time, which not only changes according to our mechanical equipment, but according to the consciousness utilizing the equipment, and which ultimately utilizes only itself; consciousness, at the end of the evolutionary curve, has become its own equipment and the sole mechanism of the universe.
***
0 1961-04-22, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Soon afterwards, concerning X, who had stated that the most recent attacks against Mo ther, and even those of two years earlier when she had been forced to withdraw to her room, were the result of black magic, and that certain members of the Ashram were DIRECTLY responsible for them, or in any case, had served as intermediariesas a switchboard, to quote himin connection with an outside magician.)
I have been racking my brains, but really, I cant hit on who, IN the ASHRAM, could be doing magic against me! Having bad thoughts is very widespread, but that doesnt matter in the least.
Yet I dont understand how someone might be doing something positively evil, to the extent that X says, they will repent of it. I dont understand it, I just dont. Because usually when people are like that, they cant stay, they go. Certain people have left for just that reason. Its like this story of black magic performed at the Ashram the first time I fell ill two years ago; I cant believe it, because it would prove that I am totally unconscious! And I dont think I am.
I know all the people here. I know everything thats going on, I see it night and day. But I havent seen this. Yes, there are ill-intentioned people, but they are even obliged to tell me so! there are people who oh, they almost wish I would leave, because they feel my presence as a constraint! they tell me so very frankly: As long as youre here, were obliged to do the yoga, but we dont want to do the yoga, we want to live quietly; so if you werent here, well, we wouldnt have to think about yoga anymore! But they are a bunch of fools with no power in them at all. As I said, they are even forced to tell me their true feelings.
there are manymanywho think I am going to die and are making preparations so as not to be left completely out on the street when I go. I am aware of all this. But its childishnessif I leave, they are right; if I dont, it doesnt matter!
(silence)
I had a vision last night which lasted for a long timeit was ra ther 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 (Mo ther 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
(Mo ther comes in with a book by Alice Bailey, 'Discipleship in the New Age,' which had recently been sent to her. Pavitra is present and shows Mo ther a brochure he has received, 'World Goodwill Bulletin,' and protests against this proliferation of movements all claiming to work towards 'world union,' and proselytes making so-called 'spiritual' propaganda without having found, within and by themselves, the true spiritual foundation. Mo ther goes on.)
But these people just cant get out of their education! Here is a lady [A. Bailey], quite renowned, it seems (shes dead now), who became the disciple of a Tibetan lama and she still speaks of Christ as the sole Avatar! She just cant get out of it!
And each one has the absolute Truth!
(Laughing) But it made me so angry (why, I dont know). Not anger, but a kind of oh, its exasperating!
And I am surrounded by people who tell me, Im sending your message to so-and-so, they MUST come here, they HAVE to meet you. Oh! Im going away! I said to myself, Im going to hide somewhere. Ive had enough.
It began with this famous World Union1 and now the Sri Aurobindo Society2 is meddling in it! they have put toge ther a brochure saying, We will facilitate your relations with the Mo ther!! Luckily, the draft was sent to me. I said, I do not accept this responsibility. I agreed to be President because money is involved and I wanted to be a guarantee that all these people who make propaganda dont put the money into their own pockets for their personal use; so I agreed to be Presidentto guarantee that the money would really go to work for Sri Aurobindo, thats all. But no spiritual responsibility; I have nothing to teach to anyone, thank God!
(Pavitra.) But Mo ther, A. has also been bitten by the propaganda bug; in the by-laws he sent, he put: the goal of the Centre dEtudes de Sri Aurobindo [Sri Aurobindo Study Center, in Paris] is to steer people towards Pondicherry and the Mo ther.
Ooh! OH! How dreadful. How dreadful. He too!
--
Im going to make a declaration: I am not the leader of a group, I am not at the head of an Ashram. Oh! Its disgusting.
And thats not all. This J.M., who thinks herself highly intelligent, has written a letter saying, It is exactly the same teachingexactly. Its always exactly the same teaching! they are abysmally ignorant.
(Satprem:) they jumble everything up.
Yes. they have no discrimination. As long as the words are there, thats itits enough!
And what an atmosphere it all makes phew!
the first thing I did this morning was to open this book by Alice Bailey (Ive had it for several days, I had to have a look at it). So I looked Ah, I saidwell, well! Heres a person whos dead now, but she was the disciple of a Tibetan Buddhist lama and considered a very great spiritual leader, and she writes, Christ is the incarnation of divine love on earth. And thats that. And the world will be transformed when Christ is reborn, when he comes back to earth. But why the devil does she put Christ? Because she was born Christian? Its deplorable.
And such a mixture of everythingeverything! Instead of making a syn thesis, they make a pot-pourri. they scoop it all up, toss it toge ther, whip it up a little, use a bunch of words that have nothing to do with one ano ther, and then serve it to you!
And they want to shove me in there, too! No thanks.
After this, I received the draft of the Sri Aurobindo Societys brochure to be distributed among all disciples, all society members, in order to encourage them. Well, that was the last straw! Oh, the most asinine propaganda! And plump in the middle of a bunch of o ther things (which had nothing to do with me), I come across this: We have the great fortune to have the Mo ther among us, and we propose to be the intermediary for all who wish to come into direct contact with her! they wanted to print this and distribute it, just like that! So I took my brightest red ink and wrote: I do not accept this responsibility, you cannot make this promise. And that was that. I cut it. And now heres A., doing the same thing!
(silence)
--
Already, with all the people here. (But I never told them they were my disciples, I told them they were my children and with children, to begin with, theres no need to do everything they want!) I already waste all my time answering their letters, which are worse than stupid. What questions they askquestions already answered at least fifty timessimply for the pleasure of writing! So now Ive stopped answering. I write one or two words, and thats it.
No, its disgusting!
(Satprem.) theres this passage on propaganda by Sri Aurobindo I sent to the World Union people. It should really be published everywhere. Do you remember it? I dont believe in propaganda.3
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.
(Pavitra.) Yes, but now its resurging in the form of the Sri Aurobindo Society.
Ah, no! Thats not the same thing at all, they have nothing to do with each o ther. Nothing. they wanted to merge: I refused. I told them, You have nothing to do with each o ther. You, World Union, are idealists (!) wanting to realize your ideal externally (without any foundation), while they are businessmen, practical people, wanting to bring money to the Ashram, and I fully agree with that, because I need it.
Its ano ther thing entirely.
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 o ther 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
Well, his jaw dropped! People imagine that by the simple fact of being here they become disciples and apprentice yogis! But its not true.
So, now Im not angry any more!
Its especially this mental paucity everywhere they say, Oh, they have the same ideas as we do! Oh, they teach the same thing! Oh!Deplorable.
(silence)
--
Here, this is Grace.5 Here, Balance6 (how lovely!). Here, Light without Obscurity.7 And this is purity: an Integral Conversion8 (in the cup of this flower, Mo ther has placed two o ther flowers: Service9 and Sri Aurobindos Compassion10), an integral conversion, with Sri Aurobindo, with his compassionhis compassion which gives us the opportunity to serve him.
Oh, mon petit, we need to say something a bit intelligent, dont you think? Im counting on you.
--
Now and then, I feel like saying outrageous things. I almost said, How well I understand Sri Aurobindowho passed to the o ther side!
I have no intention of doing so, none at all. Not that Im the least bit interested in all this outer jumble, not for that, but I promised Sri Aurobindo I would try. So.
So, thats that.
--
Ah, but thats far more difficult than talkingfar more! Far more, infinitely more difficult than talking. If you are a bit clear, transparentits enough just to be like this, at a given moment (gesture of opening upwards), to catch the Light, and then you can talk about it. Once you have seen it, you dont forget it. But to do.
This paucity, this narrowness. Its relatively easy to get out of mental paucity, mental narrowness: one has only to pierce a hole, go beyond, and view things from above; and yes, immediately, it all widens. Thats relatively easy. But this vital and PHYSICAL paucity, material narrowness ohh!
For mental narrowness, we know the meansone has only to go beyond itwe know the means. But this (Mo ther touches her body), however much one keeps bringing in, bringing in, bringing in the Light and the Force. Yes, for a few moments one can live a universal life, even in the sensations but in the body.
(silence)
For obviously it has to be done in this life. the bodys progress cant be preserved, can it?
Of course not thats just it!
It could be, yes, but to no avail. If all these cells which have become so conscious have to break up. It would result in cells that are conscious, but mixed with. What would it amount to, mixed with the sum total of all the unconscious cells of the earth? It would be useless.
Yes, it would be useless; I mean, perhaps after millions of years it would gradually snowball and have some effect but thats just how Nature functions when left to her own interminable wayit is not yoga.
But once you have effected the transformation in your own body, will it be transmittable to o thers? Will your experience and your realization be transmittable?
Its a question of contagion. Spiritual vibrations are quite clearly contagious. Mental vibrations are contagious, and to a certain extent even vital vibrations are contagious (not often in their finer effects, but anyway, its cleara mans anger, for instance, spreads very easily). Well then, the quality of cellular vibrations should also be contagious.
But the difficulty. You see, so far as Mind is concerned, the whole yoga has been donelike a path blazed through the virgin forest. And since it has been done, its relatively simple: the landmarks are there and one follows them. But here, nothing has been done! One doesnt know which end to take hold ofno one has ever done it! [186] You meet all the same obstacles before which o thers have simply said, Its impossible. Sri Aurobindo explains that its not impossible, but nothing more. And he himself hadnt done it.
No, for the least little thing, the whole mechanism has to be discovered, and discovered in a realm of the most total ignorance, where, really, unconsciousness is the most unconscious and ignorance the most ignorant.
(silence)
--
After the work:
Our habitual state of consciousness is to do something FOR something. the Rishis, for example, composed their hymns with an end in view: life had a purpose for them, the end was to find Immortality or Truth. But at any level whatsoever, there is always a goal. Even we speak of the supramental realization as the goal.
Just recently, though, I dont know what happened, but something seemed to take hold of me (how to say it?) this perception of the Supreme who is everything, everywhere, who does everythingwhat has been, what is, what will be, what is being doneeverything. And suddenly there was a kind of not a thought or a feeling, it wasnt that; it was ra ther like a state: the unreality of the goalnot unreality, uselessness. Not even uselessness: the nonexistence of the goal. And even what I was saying just nowthis will to make the experiment lingering in the body even this has gone!
Its something I dont know.11
there used to be a kind of mainspring, which had its raison dtre and so persisted: do this to arrive at that, and this leads to that (its more subtle, of course); but this mainspring suddenly seems to have been abolished, because it became useless.
Now a kind of absoluteness prevails at each and every second, in each movement, from the most subtle, the most spiritual, to the most material. the sense of linking has disappeared: that isnt the cause of this, and this isnt done for that; there is no there one is heading towardsit all seems.
(silence)
Is this, perhaps, how the Supreme sees? Perhaps that is what it is: the supreme perception, an absolute.
Ra ther curious.
--
the sense of connection has gone, the sense of cause and effect has goneall that belongs to the world of space and time.
Each each what? What is that that? You cant say a movement, you cant say a state of consciousness, you cant say a vibration (all this still belongs to our ordinary mode of perception), so you say thingthing means nothing. Each thing carries in itself its own absolute law.
Oh, how clumsy all this is! But what is clear, completely clear, is the total absence of cause and effect and of goal, of intentionpurpose. there is no (Mo ther makes a horizontal motion) this kind of connection doesnt exist; its like this (Mo ther makes a vertical motion which towers over and embraces everything at once).
And so, in an individual consciousness its expressed by an infinitesimal pointa physical body and everything dependent on it; but its exactly the same thing as the Supreme Point and everything depending on that. Its the same thing. It is only like the shifting of a glanceif it can be called a glancelike a needle point occupying no space.12 And yet it is the same consciousness: is it consciousness? Something like that. It is not consciousness as we understand it, nor is it perception; it is a kind of will to see (good God, what words!), and with such absolute freedom and omnipotence: it can be this or that, or yet ano ther, and it is EXACTLY the same thing.
Dont try to understand!
--
But what can be translated is this kind of sensation that the sequence of cause and effect, of purpose, of goal, all seems to be very far below, very, very DISTANT, very humanperhaps divine, too (from the viewpoint of the gods it may be like this also, I dont know), because in the consciousness of the universal Mo ther it is still there, there is still this ardent love to serve: To do Your Will. That is still there, so its there with the gods also.
(silence)
--
It came last night. It came slowly, but last night it was very strong: no more sequence, no more linking of cause and effect, no more goal, no more purpose, no more intentiona kind of Absolute which does not exclude the creation. It is not Nirvana, it has nothing to do with Nirvana (I know Nirvana very well, Ive had itjust yesterday evening, for instance, while walking for japa, and even this morning. You see, I begin by an invocation to the Supreme under his three aspects, and no sooner have I uttered the sound, TAT when all is abolished: Nirvana. And the last few days I have noticed that its instantaneous, so easy! Oh, a delight! Bah!). But its not Nirvana, its beyond that; it contains Nirvana and it contains the manifested world and it contains everything else; all the appearances and disappearances13all of that is contained in it.
Something.
Something which has nei ther cause nor effect nor prolongation (Mo ther makes a horizontal motion) nor purpose nor intentionintention to do what?! there is nothing to be done! Its like this (Mo ther makes the same vertical motion as before).
I hope Im not driving you to a lunatic asylum! (Mo ther laughs)
--
What is most interesting is that everything stays the same. Everything stays the same. You see how it is I can do anything, I talk to you, I joke. Everything stays the same, it doesnt make a change in anything.
My problem begins when I ask myself how its going to change!
there it is, petit. I think we would do well to keep all this secret.14
See conversation of March 4.
After Mo ther's departure, this 'Society' would try to appropriate Auroville: 'Auroville is a project of the Sri Aurobindo Society.' (sic)
the following is the exact text referred to, an extract from one of Sri Aurobindo's letters: 'I don't believe in advertisement except for books etc., and in propaganda except for politics and patent medicines. But for serious work it is a poison. It means ei ther a stunt or a boom and stunts and booms exhaust the thing they carry on their crest and leave it lifeless and broken high and dry on the shores of nowhereor it means a movement. A movement in the case of a work like mine means the founding of a school or a sect or some o ther damned nonsense. It means that hundreds or thousands of useless people join in and corrupt the work or reduce it to a pompous farce from which the Truth that was coming down recedes into secrecy and silence. It is what has happened to the "religions" and is the reason of their failure....'
2.10.1934
--
Mo ther gradually goes into trance and 'follows the experience.'
It seemed to us that Mo ther's experience, related while in a deep trance, could be likened to that of the Rishis, who spoke of 'an eye extended in heaven.'
the creations and 'destructions' of this world or of all worlds.
This 'secret' is no doubt part of the Secret which this entire Agenda seeks to track down. So where to stop? And if we are indiscreet, who knows whe ther the secret of man is not some simian indiscretion!
***
0 1961-04-29, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Some fragments of this conversation were originally published in Mo ther's 'Commentaries on the Aphorisms' of Sri Aurobindo. Considering it too personal, Mo ther had not wanted the unabridged text to appear even in her Agenda. However, we felt it should be kept. This conversation's starting point was the following aphorism:)
59One of the greatest comforts of religion is that you can get hold of God sometimes and give him a satisfactory beating. People mock at the folly of savages who beat their gods when their prayers are not answered; but it is the mockers who are the fools and the savages.
Poor T.! She asked me, What does it mean (laughing) to give God a satisfactory beating? How is this possible? I still havent answered. And then she added ano ther question: Many people say that Sri Aurobindos teachings are a new religion. Would you call it a religion? You understand, I began to fume!
I wrote (Mo ther reads her answer):
Those who say that are simpletons and dont even know what theyre talking about! It is enough to read everything Sri Aurobindo has written to know that it is IMPOSSIBLE (underlined) to found a religion upon his writings, since for each problem, for each question, he presents all aspects and, while demonstrating the truth contained in each approach, he explains that to attain the Truth a syn thesis must be effected, overpassing all mental notions and emerging in a transcendence beyond thought.
Your second question, therefore, makes no sense! Fur thermore, if you had read what appeared in the last Bulletin,1 you could never have asked it.
Let me repeat that when we speak of Sri Aurobindo, it is not a question of teaching nor even of revelation, but of an Action from the Supreme; upon this, no religion whatsoever can be founded.
This is the first blast.
the second is:
Men are such fools (laughing: it doesnt get any better!) that they can change anything at all into a religion, so great is their need for a fixed framework for their narrow thought and limited action. they dont feel secure unless they can affirm: This is true and that is not but such an affirmation becomes impossible for anyone who has read and understood what Sri Aurobindo has written. Religion and yoga are not situated on the same plane of the being, and the spiritual life can exist in its purity only if it is free from all mental dogma.
People must really be made to understand this.
--
they are all always readyeven in the Ashramready to create a religion.
Yes, the people T. is talking about are Ashramites.
they are just as dogmatic as Catholics or Protestants.
Yes, its the SAME thing. the same thing.
It means they have understood nothing.
But this: How can one give God a beating? (Mo ther laughs a lot). Its funny, isnt it!
--
Do you have the English text? We may have somewhat popularized it?
the English word is beating: a good beating.
Beating? then thats just it: une racle!
Religion always has a tendency to humanize, to create a God in the image of mana magnified and glorified image, but essentially always a god with human attributes. And this (laughing) creates a sort of intimacy, a sense of kinship!
T. has taken it literally, but its true that even the Spanish, when their god doesnt do what they want, take the statue and throw it in the river!
there are people here who do the same thing. I know some people who had a statue of Kali in their house (it was their family divinity), and all kinds of calamities befell them, so the last generation became furious and took the idol and threw it into the Ganges. they are not the only ones there have been several cases like that. And to cap it all, one of them even asked my permission before doing it!
Creating a god in the image of man gives you the possibility of treating it as you would treat a human enemy.
there could be many things to say.
But these idols arent merely human creations they are self-existent, arent they?
Oh, Ive had some very interesting revelations on this point, on the way people think and feel about it. I remember someone once made a little statue of Sri Aurobindo; he gave it a potbelly and anyway, to me it was ridiculous. So I said, How could you make such a thing?! He explained that even if its a caricature for the ordinary eye, since its an image of the one you consider God, or a god, or an Avatar, since its the image of the one you worship, even if only a guru, it contains the spirit and the force of his presence, and this is what you worship, even in a crude form, even if the form is a caricature to the physical eye.
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.
Europeans dont have the inner sense at all. To them, everything is like this (gesture), a surfacenot even that, a film on the surface. And they cant feel anything behind. But its an absolutely real fact that the Presence is there I guarantee it. People have given me statuettes of various gods, little things in metal, wood or ivory; and as soon as I take one in my hand, the god is there. I have a Ganesh2 (I have been given several) and if I take it in my hand and look at it for a moment, hes there. I have a little one by my bedside where I work, eat, and meditate. And then there is a Narayana3 which comes from the Himalayas, from Badrinath. I use them both as paperweights for my handkerchiefs! (My handkerchiefs are kept on a little table next to my bed, and I keep Ganapati and Narayana on top of them.) And no one touches them but me I pick them up, take a fresh handkerchief, and put them back again. Once I blended some nail polish myself, and before applying it, I put some on Ganapatis forehead and stomach and fingertips! We are on the best of terms, very friendly. So to me, you see, all this is very true.
Only.
Narayana came first. I put him there and told him to stay and be happy. A while later, I was given a very nice Ganapati; so I asked Narayana I didnt ask his permission, I told him, Dont be angry, you know, but Im going to give you a companion; I like you both very much, theres no preference; the o ther is much better looking, but you, you are Narayana! I flattered him, I told him pleasant things, and he was perfectly happy.
It has always been like that for mealways. And I have never, never had the religious sense at allyou know, what people call this kind of what they have in religions, especially in Europe. I see only the English word for it: awe, like a kind of terror. This always made me laugh! But I have always felt whats behind, the presences behind.
I remember once going into a church (which I wont name) and I found it a very beautiful place. It wasnt a feast or ceremony day, so it was empty. there were just one or two people at prayer. I went in and sat down in a little chapel off to the side. Someone was praying there, someone who must have been in distressshe was crying and praying. And there was a statue, I no longer know of whom: Christ or the Virgin or a Saint I have no idea. And, oh! Suddenly, in place of the statue, I saw an enormous spider like a tarantula, you know, but (gesture) huge! It covered the entire wall of the chapel and was just waiting there to swallow all the vital force of the people who came. It was heart-rending. I said to myself, Oh, these people there was this miserable woman who had come seeking solace, who was praying there, weeping, hoping to find solace; and instead of reaching a consciousness that was at least compassionate, her supplications were feeding this monster!
I have seen o ther things but I have rarely seen anything favorable in churches. Here, I remember going to M I was taken inside and received there in quite an unusual waya highly respected person introduced me as a great saint! they led me up to the main altar where people are not usually allowed to go, and what did I see there! An asura (oh, not a very high-ranking one, more like a rakshasa4), but such a monster! Hideous. So I went wham! (gesture of giving a blow) I thought something was going to happen. But this being left the altar and came over to try to intimidate me; of course, he saw it was useless, so he offered to make an alliance: If you just keep quiet and dont do anything, I will share all I get with you. Well, I sent him packing! the head of this Math5. It was a Math with a monastery and temple, which means a substantial fortune; the head of the Math has it all at his disposal for as long as he holds the position and he is appointed for life. But he has to name his successor and as a rule, his own life is considerably shortened by the successorthis is how it works. Everyone knew that the present head had considerably shortened the life of his predecessor. And what a creature! As asuric as the god he worshipped! I saw some poor fellows throw themselves at his feet (he must have been squeezing them pitilessly), to beg forgiveness and mercyan absolutely ruthless man. But he received meyou should have seen it! I said nothing, not a word about their god; I gave no sign that I knew anything. But I thought to myself, So thats how it is!
Ano ther 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 fea thers), 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, nei ther 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 aware they 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 its strange.
--
In churches, I dont know. I havent been to them very often. I have been to mosques and templesJewish temples. the Jewish temples in Paris have such beautiful music; oh, what beautiful music! I had one of my first experiences in a temple. It was at a marriage, and the music was wonderfulSaint-Saens, I later learned; organ music, the second best organ in Pariswonderful! I was 14 years old, sitting high up in the galleries with my mo ther, and this music was being played. there were some leaded-glass windowswhite, with no designs. I was gazing at one of these windows, feeling uplifted by the music, when suddenly through the window came a flash like a bolt of lightning. Just like lightning. It enteredmy eyes were openit entered like this (Mo ther strikes her breast violently), and then I I had the feeling of becoming vast and all-powerful. And it lasted for days.
Of course, my mo ther was such an out-and-out materialist, thank God, that it was impossible to speak to her of invisible thingsshe took them as evidence of a deranged brain! Nothing counted for her but what could be touched and seen. But this was a divine grace I had no opportunity to say anything. I kept my experience to myself. But it was one of my first contacts with. I learned later that it was an entity from the past who had come back into me through the aspiration arising from the music.
But I have rarely had an experience in churches. Ra ther the opposite: I have very often had the painful experience of the human effort to find solace, a divine compassion falling into very bad hands.
One of my most terrible experiences took place in Venice ( the ca thedrals there are so beautifulmagnificent!). I remember I was painting they had let me settle down in a corner to paintand nearby there was a (what do they call it?) a confessional. And a poor woman was kneeling there in distresswith such a dreadful sense of sin! So piteous! She wept and wept. then I saw the priest coming, oh, like a monster, a hard-hearted monster! He went inside; he was like an iron bar. And there was this poor woman sobbing, sobbing; and the voice of the o ther one, hard, curt. I could barely contain myself.
I dont know why, but I have had this kind of experience so very often: ei ther a hostile force lurking behind and swallowing up everything, or else manruthless man abusing the Power.
In fact, I have seen this all over the world. I have never been on very good terms with religions, nei ther in Europe, nor Africa, nor Japan, nor even here.
(silence)
At the age of eighteen, I remember having such an intense need in me to KNOW. Because I was having experiences I had all kinds of experiences but my surroundings offered me no chance to receive an intellectual knowledge which would have given me the meaning of it all: I couldnt even speak of them. I was having experience after experience. For years, I had experiences during the night (but I was very careful never to speak about them!)memories from past lives, all sorts of things, but without any base of intellectual knowledge. (Of course, the advantage of this was that my experiences were not mentally contrived; they were entirely spontaneous.) But I had such a NEED in me to know! I remember living in a house (one of these houses with a lot of apartments), and in the apartment next door were some young Catholics whose faith was very they were very convinced. And seeing all that, I remember saying to myself one day while brushing my hair, these people are lucky to be born into a religion and believe unquestioningly! Its so easy! You have nothing to do but believehow simple that makes it. I was feeling like this, and then when I realized what I was thinking (laughing), well, I gave myself a good scolding: Lazybones!
To know, know, KNOW! You see, I knew nothing, really, nothing but the things of ordinary life: external knowledge. I had learned everything I had been given to learn. I not only learned what I was taught but also what my bro ther was taughthigher ma thematics and all that! I learned and I learned and I learned and it was NOTHING. None of it explained anything to menothing. I couldnt understand a thing!
To know!
It was to happen to me two years later when I met someone who told me of theons teaching.
When I was told that the Divine was within the teaching of the Gita, but in words understandable to a Westerner that there was an inner Presence, that one carried the Divine within oneself, oh! What a revelation! In a few minutes, I suddenly understood all, all, all. Understood everything. It brought the contact instantly.
(silence)
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.
(silence)
I have had discussionsnot discussions, exchanges of viewswith prelates. there was one cardinal in particular. I told him my experience, what I KNEW. He replied, Whe ther you want to or not, you belong to the Church; because those who know belong to the Church. And he added, You have the knowledge we are taught when we become cardinals. Nobody has taught me anything, I said, this is my experience. then he repeated, Whe ther you like it or not, you belong to the Church. I felt like telling him a thing or two, but I didnt.
O therwise, you just keep turning in circles, oh, caught by the form, locked in by the form!
I remember a good-hearted priest in Pau [Sou thern France] who was an artist and wanted to have his church decorateda tiny ca thedral. He consulted a local anarchist (a great artist) about it. the anarchist was acquainted with Andrs fa ther and me. He told the priest, I recommend these people to do the paintings they are true artists. He was doing the mural decorationsome eight panels in all, I believe. So I set to work on one of the panels. ( the church was dedicated to San Juan de Compostello, a hero of Spanish history; he had appeared in a battle between the Christians and the Moors and his apparition vanquished the Moors. And he was magnificent! He appeared in golden light on a white horse, almost like Kalki.6) All the slaughtered and struggling Moors were depicted at the bottom of the painting, and it was I who painted them; it was too hard for me to climb high up on a ladder to paint, so I did the things at the bottom! But anyway, it all went quite well. then, naturally, the priest received us and invited us to dinner with the anarchist. And he was so nicereally a kind-hearted man! I was already a vegetarian and didnt drink, so he scolded me very gently, saying, But its Our Lord who gives us all this, so why shouldnt you take it? I found him charming. And when he looked at the paintings, he tapped Morisset on the shoulder (Morisset was an unbeliever), and said, with the accent of Sou thern France, Say what you like, but you know Our Lord; o therwise you could never have painted like that!
Well.
In short, I have known people from everywhere, I have been everywhere, I have seen and heard everything. It was very strange, very strange. And I didnt do it on purpose, but just because the Lord willed it.
What experiences!
--
I wanted to carry on with my mornings program, but I couldnt. theres a mound of letters, all in a muddle! Oh, these people hereletter upon letter, letter upon letter, urgent needs to see me.
I thought we would prepare a reply to T., but then I chatted away.
But surely much of this could be used? Ill note down whats publishable make a selection.
Oh, yes, definitely do that. But I am not keen on keeping all thatits much too personal. It involves a lot of people and a lot of things, and I dont want. Ive told it to you, thats all. Keep it for yourselfnot even for the Agenda, its not necessary. If you enjoy it, you can keep it thats all. I told it to you just like thatprobably because I felt like chatting!
I could say many o ther things which would be almost the opposite of all Ive just said! It all depends on the orientation. If I really started talking, you know, I would seem like I dont know what, something like a lunatic, because with equal sincerity and equal truth, I could say the most opposing things.
And experiences! I have had the most contradictory experiences! Only one thing has been continuous from my childhood on (and the more I look, the more I see how continuous it has been): this divine Presence and in someone who, in her EXTERNAL LIFE, might very well have said, God? What is this foolishness! God doesnt exist! So you understand, you see the picture.
You know, its a marvelous, marvelous grace to have had this experience so CONSTANTLY, So POWERFULLY, like something holding out against everything, everything: this Presence. And in my outward consciousness, a total negation of it all. Even later on, I used to say, Well, if God exists, hes a real scoundrel! Hes a wretch and I want nothing to do with this Creator of ours. You know, the idea of God sitting placidly in his heaven, creating the world and amusing himself by watching it, then telling you, How well done! Oh! I said, I want nothing to do with that monster!
(Mo ther gets up)
So there we are, mon petit.
I dont see you at the balcony anymoreyou dont come?
Im a little groggy.
--
No, its not to ask you to come I just want to know, if by chance I dont find you in the crowd, whe ther youre there and I am just not seeing you.
I could come, but.
--
I still have five or six days of work left on the book.
Which one?
Pavitras book. Its a huge task. But anyway I feel your Forceo therwise
Good.
No, when I dont see you at the balcony, I send the Force to your room, I pack it off to you there!
Thats exactly what Ive been telling myself (laughing): he must be groggy!
Bulletin of April 1961: 'What Sri Aurobindo represents in the world's history is not a teaching, not even a revelation; it is a decisive action direct from the Supreme.'
Ganesh (or Ganapati): the first son of the Supreme Mo ther, represented with an elephant trunk and an ample belly. Ganesh is the god who presides over material realizations (over money in particular). He is also known as the scribe of divine knowledge.
Narayana: ano ther name of Vishnu, one of the gods of the Hindu trinity. He watches over the creation, whereas Brahma is the creator and Shiva the destroyer.
Rakshasa: demon of the vital plane, as opposed to an asura, a demon of the mental world.
Math: monastery.
Kalki: the last Avatar. He rides a white horse.
***
0 1961-05-02, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
there is obviously a force at work.
When Sri Aurobindo was here, the work was done in ano ther way; there was such an impression of hovering above difficulties, of acting on them from above. It was so strong that even rebellious elements, even things which were not going well, even they were dominated from above and they could not manifest they stayed like that. And as they could not manifest, they faded quietly away.
I have seen people (people from outside) who were enemiesall their enmity was pacified, pacified, pacified. they were unable to do any harm, even when they wanted to. Everything was made innocuous in that way. And it was the same thing here in the Ashram; as always, people had wrong movements and wrong thoughts, but all this, too, was dominatedit was pacified, pacified.
I had continued to work in the same way. But now its as if everything has been engulfed. And the number of ugly things, petty movements, nasty reactionseverywhere, everywhere, in everyone, oh! I am swamped with letters, and such letters! Such letters!
And I dont see, I really do not see why all that needs to manifest in order to disappear. Because before, when it didnt manifest, it faded away by itself; but now it creates problems and problems and problems. (For me they are not problems but stupidities; they are problems and complications for o thers.) And its so useless! So much time is lost, so much time coping with stupid reactions. I dont know why.
And nothing can be done until its over.
--- Grep of noun the
absinthe
accessory after the fact
accessory before the fact
accessory during the fact
acts of the apostles
agrippina the elder
agrippina the younger
alexander the great
alexander the liberator
alfred the great
anointing of the sick
apex of the sun's way
apostle of the gentiles
aquarius the water bearer
arcuate artery of the kidney
arcuate vein of the kidney
aries the ram
ark of the covenant
armenian secret army for the liberation of armenia
army for the liberation of rwanda
army of the confederacy
army of the pure
army of the righteous
artery of the labyrinth
artery of the penis bulb
artery of the vestibule bulb
ascension of the lord
association for the advancement of retired persons
athanasius the great
atrium of the heart
attila the hun
attorney general of the united states
basil the great
bathe
battle of the aisne
battle of the ardennes bulge
battle of the bismarck sea
battle of the bulge
battle of the chemin-des-dames
battle of the coral sea
battle of the little bighorn
battle of the marne
battle of the philippine sea
battle of the somme
battle of the spanish armada
bearer of the sword
bel and the dragon
bench lathe
bethe
billie the kid
bird-on-the-wing
book of the prophet daniel
bottom of the inning
boy orator of the platte
breach of the covenant of warranty
breach of the peace
break of the day
breughel the elder
bureau of the census
burning at the stake
calanthe
cancer of the blood
cancer of the liver
cancer the crab
canute the great
capital of the bahamas
capital of the dominican republic
capital of the netherlands
capital of the philippines
capital of the russian federation
capital of the ukraine
capital of the united kingdom
capital of the united states
capricorn the goat
carlos the jackal
castle in the air
catherine the great
central artery of the retina
cervical glands of the uterus
chairman of the board
chancellor of the exchequer
charles the bald
charles the great
church of the brethren
chute-the-chute
circumflex artery of the thigh
cirrhosis of the liver
city of the angels
cock of the rock
commission on the status of women
commonwealth of the bahamas
comptroller of the currency
congregation of the inquisition
constantine the great
constitution of the united states
cooper union for the advancement of science and art
coronoid process of the mandible
cosimo the elder
counsel to the crown
creme de menthe
crown-of-the-field
crux of the matter
cyrus the elder
cyrus the great
cyrus the younger
darius the great
day of the month
day of the week
dead hand of the past
defender of the faith
democratic front for the liberation of palestine
democratic republic of the congo
department of the federal government
department of the interior
department of the treasury
detachment of the retina
dionysius the elder
disease of the neuromuscular junction
disease of the skin
disturbance of the peace
doctor of the church
dog in the manger
economic commission for asia and the far east
edward the confessor
edward the elder
edward the martyr
embryoma of the kidney
emmanthe
empire state of the south
end of the world
epistle of paul the apostle to philemon
epistle of paul the apostle to the colossians
epistle of paul the apostle to the ephesians
epistle of paul the apostle to the galatians
epistle of paul the apostle to the philippians
epistle of paul the apostle to the romans
epistle of paul the apostle to titus
epistle to the colossians
epistle to the ephesians
epistle to the galatians
epistle to the hebrews
epistle to the philippians
epistle to the romans
equal protection of the laws
equality before the law
estate of the realm
ethelred the unready
executive office of the president
false lily of the valley
fast of the firstborn
father of the church
father of the submarine
feast of the circumcision
feast of the dedication
feast of the unleavened bread
federal islamic republic of the comoros
fenestra of the cochlea
fenestra of the vestibule
ferdinand the catholic
ferdinand the great
fibrocystic disease of the breast
fibrocystic disease of the pancreas
fire-on-the-mountain
first epistle of paul the apostle to the corinthians
first epistle of paul the apostle to the thessalonians
first epistle of paul the apostle to timothy
first epistle to the corinthians
first epistle to the thessalonians
first lord of the treasury
flash in the pan
fly in the ointment
followers of the phrophet
food and agriculture organization of the united nations
frankfurt on the main
fraud in the factum
fraud in the inducement
frederick the great
freedom of the press
freedom of the seas
friend of the court
fruit of the poisonous tree
full-of-the-moon
full phase of the moon
gall of the earth
gates of the arctic national park
gateway to the west
gemini the twins
gentiana pneumonanthe
genus calanthe
genus emmanthe
genus oenanthe
genus rhodanthe
gill-over-the-ground
goethe
great seal of the united states
gregory the great
hair of the dog
hans albrecht bethe
hans bethe
hardening of the arteries
hen-of-the-woods
hen of the woods
henry the great
herbert blythe
herod the great
holbein the elder
holbein the younger
hole-in-the-wall
horse of the wood
hub of the universe
hyperbilirubinemia of the newborn
icing the puck
immaculate conception of the virgin mary
induration of the arteries
industrial workers of the world
isabella the catholic
islamic jihad for the liberation of palestine
ivan the great
ivan the terrible
jack-by-the-hedge
jack-in-the-box
jack-in-the-pulpit
jack the ripper
jaundice of the newborn
johann wolfgang von goethe
john the baptist
john the divine
john the evangelist
judgement on the merits
judgement on the pleadings
judgment on the merits
judgment on the pleadings
julian the apostate
just the ticket
justice of the peace
justinian the great
kamehameha the great
kick in the butt
king of the germans
king of the herring
kingdom of the netherlands
kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate
knight of the round table
knight of the square flag
kong the master
lady-of-the-night
lady of the house
lady with the lamp
lap of the gods
lathe
lautaro faction of the united popular action movement
law of the land
left atrium of the heart
lens of the eye
leo the great
leo the lion
lethe
letter of the alphabet
libra the balance
libra the scales
lily-of-the-valley tree
lily of the incas
lily of the nile
lily of the valley
lobe of the lung
loop-the-loop
looseness of the bowels
lorenzo the magnificent
louis the bruiser
louis the far
louis the german
louis the great
louis the pious
louis the quarreller
louis the stammerer
louis the wideawake
lucy in the sky with diamonds
man-of-the-earth
man in the street
man of the cloth
man of the world
mean deviation from the mean
middle of the roader
mithridates the great
mumble-the-peg
music of the spheres
neck of the woods
new phase of the moon
noah and the flood
object of the verb
oblique vein of the left atrium
oenanthe
office of the dead
old-man-of-the-woods
old man of the mountain
on the qui vive
on the road
one of the boys
order of the day
order of the purple heart
organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons
organization of the oppressed on earth
otto the great
out-of-the-box thinking
over-the-counter drug
over-the-counter market
over-the-counter medicine
over-the-shoulder bombing
over the counter security
over the counter stock
pain in the ass
pain in the neck
party to the action
party to the transaction
paul the apostle
peer of the realm
pellitory-of-the-wall
pepin the short
periodic apnea of the newborn
peter the great
phase of the moon
physiological jaundice of the newborn
pieter brueghel the elder
pisces the fishes
pit of the stomach
pitt the elder
pitt the younger
pittsburgh of the south
pleading in the alternative
pliny the elder
pliny the younger
pompey the great
popular democratic front for the liberation of palestine
popular front for the liberation of palestine
popular front for the liberation of palestine-general command
posterior vein of the left ventricle
prayer of azariah and song of the three children
precession of the equinoxes
president of the united states
privilege of the floor
queen of the may
queen of the night
rain-in-the-face
rameses the great
ramesses the great
ramses the great
regression toward the mean
rejoicing in the law
rejoicing of the law
rejoicing over the law
republic of the congo
republic of the gambia
republic of the marshall islands
republic of the philippines
republic of the sudan
respiratory distress syndrome of the newborn
revelation of saint john the divine
rhodanthe
richard the lion-hearted
richard the lionheart
right atrium of the heart
right to the pursuit of happiness
ring-around-the-rosy
river lethe
robert the bruce
roll in the hay
roof of the mouth
round-the-clock patrol
round ligament of the uterus
sacrament of the eucharist
sagittarius the archer
saint andrew the apostle
saint edward the confessor
saint edward the martyr
saint james the apostle
saint john the apostle
saint matthew the apostle
saint peter the apostle
saint vincent and the grenadines
scathe
scipio the elder
scorpio the scorpion
scourge of the gods
scythe
second epistle of paul the apostle to the corinthians
second epistle of paul the apostle to the thessalonians
second epistle of paul the apostle to timothy
second epistle to the corinthians
second epistle to the thessalonians
secretary of state for the home department
secretary of the interior
secretary of the navy
secretary of the treasury
sense of the meeting
sermon on the mount
seven wonders of the ancient world
seven wonders of the world
ship of the line
sign of the cross
sign of the zodiac
simon the canaanite
simon the zealot
sinbad the sailor
skeleton in the closet
skeleton in the cupboard
slip of the tongue
snake in the grass
snow-on-the-mountain
spathe
spin the bottle
spin the plate
spin the platter
st. basil the great
st. edward the confessor
st. edward the martyr
st. james the apostle
st. john the apostle
st. john the baptist
st. matthew the apostle
st. peter the apostle
st. vincent and the grenadines
stan the man
star of the veldt
state of the art
state of the vatican city
station of the cross
stations of the cross
stick-in-the-mud
strauss the elder
strauss the younger
supreme court of the united states
survival of the fittest
swathe
talk of the town
tarquin the proud
tarzan of the apes
taurus the bull
the absurd
the admirable crichton
the alps
the boot
the city
the devil
the flood
the gambia
the great calamity
the great charter
the great compromiser
the great hunger
the great starvation
the great unwashed
the hague
the halt
the hill
the holy see
the hots
the indies
the irish famine
the like
the likes of
the nazarene
the netherlands
the pamirs
the pits
the shits
the skinny
the star-spangled banner
the states
the street
the tempter
the three estates
the trots
the true
the venerable bede
the virgin
the way of the world
the ways of the world
thea
theaceae
theanthropism
theater
theater company
theater critic
theater curtain
theater director
theater in the round
theater light
theater of operations
theater of the absurd
theater of war
theater prompter
theater stage
theater ticket
theatergoer
theatre
theatre curtain
theatre director
theatre of operations
theatre of war
theatre stage
theatre ticket
theatregoer
theatrical
theatrical agent
theatrical performance
theatrical poster
theatrical producer
theatrical production
theatrical role
theatrical season
theatricality
theban
thebe
thebes
theca
thecodont
thecodont reptile
thecodontia
theelin
theft
theia
theism
theist
thelarche
thelephoraceae
thelonious monk
thelonious sphere monk
thelypteridaceae
thelypteris
thelypteris dryopteris
thelypteris hexagonoptera
thelypteris palustris
thelypteris palustris pubescens
thelypteris phegopteris
thelypteris simulata
thematic apperception test
thematic vowel
theme
theme park
theme song
themis
themistocles
then
thenar
theobid
theobroma
theobroma cacao
theocracy
theodicy
theodolite
theodor mommsen
theodor schwann
theodor seuss geisel
theodore dreiser
theodore dwight weld
theodore francis powys
theodore harold white
theodore herman albert dreiser
theodore roosevelt
theodore roosevelt memorial national park
theodore samuel williams
theodosius
theodosius i
theodosius the great
theogony
theologian
theological doctrine
theological system
theological virtue
theologiser
theologist
theologizer
theology
theophany
theophrastaceae
theophrastus
theophrastus philippus aureolus bombastus von hohenheim
theophylline
theorem
theoretical account
theoretician
theorisation
theoriser
theorist
theorization
theorizer
theory
theory of dissociation
theory of electrolytic dissociation
theory of evolution
theory of games
theory of gravitation
theory of gravity
theory of indicators
theory of inheritance
theory of organic evolution
theory of preformation
theory of probability
theory of punctuated equilibrium
theory of relativity
theosophism
theosophist
theosophy
theoterrorism
therapeutic
therapeutic abortion
therapeutic cloning
therapeutic rehabilitation
therapeutics
theraphosidae
therapist
therapsid
therapsida
therapy
theravada
theravada buddhism
there
theremin
thereness
theresa
theridiid
theridiidae
therm
thermal
thermal barrier
thermal emission
thermal equilibrium
thermal pollution
thermal printer
thermal reactor
thermal resistor
thermal spring
thermalgesia
thermel
thermic fever
thermidor
thermion
thermionic current
thermionic emission
thermionic tube
thermionic vacuum tube
thermionic valve
thermionics
thermistor
thermoacidophile
thermobaric bomb
thermobia
thermobia domestica
thermocautery
thermochemistry
thermocoagulation
thermocouple
thermocouple junction
thermodynamics
thermodynamics of equilibrium
thermoelectric thermometer
thermoelectricity
thermogram
thermograph
thermography
thermogravimeter
thermogravimetry
thermohydrometer
thermojunction
thermometer
thermometrograph
thermometry
thermonuclear bomb
thermonuclear reaction
thermonuclear reactor
thermonuclear warhead
thermopile
thermoplastic
thermoplastic resin
thermopsis
thermopsis macrophylla
thermopsis villosa
thermopylae
thermoreceptor
thermoregulator
thermos
thermos bottle
thermos flask
thermosetting compositions
thermosetting resin
thermosphere
thermostat
thermostatics
thermotherapy
thermotropism
theropod
theropod dinosaur
theropoda
thesaurus
theseus
thesis
thespesia
thespesia populnea
thespian
thespis
thessalia
thessalian
thessalonian
thessalonica
thessaloniki
thessaly
theta
theta rhythm
theta wave
thetis
theurgy
thevetia
thevetia neriifolia
thevetia peruviana
thomas the doubting apostle
tithe
toad-in-the-hole
top of the inning
top of the line
transurethral resection of the prostate
tree of the gods
trespass on the case
turn of the century
twilight of the gods
vestibule of the ear
vestibule of the vagina
vice president of the united states
virgo the virgin
war between the states
war of the austrian succession
war of the grand alliance
war of the league of augsburg
war of the roses
war of the spanish succession
wars of the roses
water on the knee
water under the bridge
wayland the smith
whiskey on the rocks
whisky on the rocks
wild lily of the valley
will-o'-the-wisp
william the conqueror
wisdom of jesus the son of sirach
withe
woman of the house
woman of the street
xerxes the great
yeoman of the guard