Kuvempu’s reverence to 'Sri Aurobindo'

Compassion and divinity: Son-in-law K T Surendra talks of the spiritual strength he derives even today from the departed soul of Kuvempu VEENA BHARATI Deccan Herald, Sunday, April 25, 2004

"The first time I saw Kuvempu was in 1956, when he became the vice-chancellor of Mysore University. He came to meet my uncle Kadidaalu Manjappa (the then education minister) at the ministerial bungalow. Later, I went to England for higher studies and heard about Kuvempu through my father when he proposed his daughter to me!" Kuvempu himself performed the marriage rituals at a small gathering in Shimoga in 1969 and expressed gratefulness to Surendra for marrying his daughter! "For my wife Indukala, Kuvempu was more than a father. He was my wife's guru and more than a father figure, he was like a mother to her." Indukala who died of cancer five years ago has also written two books on Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Vivekananda.

He talks of Kuvempu’s reverence to 'Sri Aurobindo'. "He used to tell us that the previous night of Aurobindo's death he had seen a huge tree in his dream, which suddenly came falling down to earth. It was a way of spiritual and divine interconnection, which Kuvempu used to believe in. Similarly, he used to sit near the plants which had blossomed after my mother-in-law's death, because she had planted and nourished them." For Dr Surendra, Kuvempu was a great soul and an embodiment of compassion, divinity and spirituality.

Mother was both human and divine

A true homecoming. During the hundredth year of Mother’s homecoming, AJU MUKHOPADHYAY goes back to trace its historical significance. Deccan Herald Sunday, April 25, 2004

She came to India for the first time in 1914, met Sri Aurobindo and was convinced that her place of work was here. But the wind of cruel politics tore her away to Europe and Japan. After a long struggle, on April 24, 1920, she returned to India and settled forever in Pondicherry. This was the day of her homecoming. A painter, an occultist, an educationist, a musician, a writer and an organiser, Mother was both human and divine. With an ancestry of Egyptian and Turkish, she was a French by birth but Indian by predilection. India for her was her mother country. It was Barrister Paul Richard who first came to Pondicherry in 1910. He was highly impressed after meeting Sri Aurobindo and spoke and wrote about him very eloquently. In 1914 Paul along with Mirra Richards, now married, came to Pondicherry. Mirra met Sri Aurobindo for the first time on March 29, 1914, and received an absolute silence, which she had longed for a long time. At the very first meeting she recognised him as Krishna and the guru of her dream and the spiritual rapport between the two began.

Arya, the review, which which went on to publish some major portion of Sri Aurobindo’s works, was launched by both Richards and Sri Aurobindo on August 15, 1914.But the Richards earned British disfavour for their association with the most dangerous political refugee, Aurobindo Ghose and his comrades, including poet Subramania Bharati. With the outbreak of the First World War British pressure on the French to expel political refugees - including the Richards - from Pondicherry increased. Though the expulsion of the political refugees to Djibouti could be postponed and later dropped, Richards had to leave for France on February 22, 1915. Shocked at this expulsion, Mirra had left her soul here. “O Lord, what have I done that Thou has thrown me thus into the somber Night?” she exclaimed in her dairy note, while sailing to France. As Paul Richard was given as assignment to visit Japan and China the couple reached Yokohama, Japan, in 1916 and remained there for about four years. While in Japan, Paul Richard wrote a book in French, Au Japon, which was translated into English by Madame Mirra Richard. Paul dreamed about Asian Federation and urged Japan to free Asia from the British domination. When poet Tagore and his party visited Japan, it is reported that Richard tried to register their sympathies for the cause of Asia. He collaborated with Black Dragon Society, whose organ Asia Jiron honoured Aurobindo Ghose by publishing a flaming article on him with his picture. This society also gave shelter to Indian revolutionary leaders like Rashbehari Bose and others.

Finally in 1920 the couple sailed back to Pondicherry. The return contributed to great relief and high expectation in Madame Mirra Richard. As earlier, the Richards started to live in a separate house. But on November 26, of the same year, a cyclonic storm damaged the house where Mirra was living. So her belongings were shifted to the same house where Sri Aurobindo was living with some disciples. Gradually, she took charge of the household and her caring hands changed its shape. In course of time Sri Aurobindo introduced her as the Mother to his disciples. November 26, 1926, the day when Lord Krishna is supposed to have descended on Sri Aurobindo, is marked as the Siddhi Divas - the de facto birthday of Sri Aurobindo Ashram. According to excerpts from Mother's Agenda, Sri Aurobindo then called everyone and said, “I have resolved to withdraw from activity; She will be your Mother.....”, thus officially naming Mirra as the Mother. Immersed in sadhana, he never again came out in public.

If Sri Aurobindo was the founder of the ashram, Mother was its builder. She had a dream that she would create a little world where people would not be dogged by the imperative necessities of life, so that they could devote their time for the divine life. Ashram, according to her, was the beginning of the realisation of her dream. A School started in 1943 was upgraded in 1951. Auroville was founded in 1968. With the expansion of activities ashram produced its daily needs. Yoga and study centers were created throughout the country and abroad. Mother communicated with her innumerable children - ashramites who numbered 750 in 1952 itself, when K M Munshi, the leader and statesman visited the Ashram. Writing down his experiences following the visit Munshi wrote, in Sri Aurobindo Ashram: A Pilgrimage: “A tennis playing, silk-garmented lady of seventy-five … saluting the ashramites at march-past….

Mother was everywhere. She planned, she financed, she regulated, she drew up schemes of education, buildings and workshop… she knew every disciple intimately… almost invisible, played such harmonious tunes on this seven-fifty souled orchestra… The atmosphere of the Ashram was drawn out of a living and abiding influence… of a man who lived there for nearly four decades… but how long will this mighty influence last?'”In order to remove such misunderstandings Sri Aurobindo wrote- “An Ashram means the house or houses of a teacher or master of spiritual philosophy in which he receives and lodges those who come to him for the teaching and practice…. And ends with his life-time unless there is another teacher who can take his place.”Mother was the teacher who took his place and the ashram reached the pinnacle of its glory during her lifetime. The author can be contacted at ajum24@yahoo.co.in


ELIMINATING SEX-CONSCIOUSNESS: A dress to fit and be comfortable with

Peoples of different countries had different dresses with varied colours and shapes, which stroke wonder in one's heart. Dress is attuned to the climate of a country, a part of its culture. Indians in ancient time had two lengths of cloths as their main attire: Upper garment, uttariya and the lower one from the west, paridhana or vasana. In colder places a third garment was worn, draped like a mantle, called pravara. Differing in fashion of wearing, the same pieces of dresses, called dhoti, sari and chaddar were used to cover the body of all Indians of both sexes. Ladies in olden times perhaps kept the upper part of their bodies naked up to waist, as evidenced by the sculptures and paintings and confirmed by historians like A L Basham and James Ferguson. The Nayyar women of Kerala used to appear likewise in public until the recent past.In spite of innumerable foreign invasions the pith of Indian culture remained almost the same. In dress and fashion Muslim and Western influences have been more perceptible in recent time.Young ladies have almost discarded saris, mekhalas and such things. After salwar kameez, it is the time for trousers. It may be mentioned that trousers entered with the Sakas and Kushanas from the Central Asia.

The Mother introduced white shorts and shirts with kitty caps way back in 1944, for the girl students who took part in games and athletics. Not merely for convenience, the most potent point was to eliminate sex-consciousness among the young people. To her critic she said that she came to break the conventions and superstitions. But she respected all cultures. She herself learnt wearing kimono in Japan, veil in Algeria and sari in India. One takes from others when the wind of fashion blows, but it is better not to give up one's own cultural treasure altogether. In diversity remains the unity, not necessarily in uniformity. AM

Wisest man, Worst poet, any takers?

• The swadeshi movement was, from a Moderate point of view, a negation of the entire Congress project. As a partisan of the Moderates it gives me great satisfaction that Bengal’s greatest poet, Tagore, got it exactly right and her worst, Aurobindo Ghose, got it perfectly wrong.

Mukul Kesavan The Telegraph Sunday, May 29, 2005

• We move on to Aurobindo, who, again, at times propagated ideas uncannily similar to Islam, as in the wish to return to a Golden Age where all was truth and righteousness. Then we come to Vivekananda, to this writer the most ambivalent, and hence most appealing, of the four.

Ramachandra Guha The Telegraph Saturday, April 17, 2004

These are unreasonable remarks from fairly reasonable people. And, similar impressions have gained wide currency over the years through such supposed expert comments. By ticking off the versatile legacy of Sri Aurobindo in just one sentence is certainly cruel to his memory. It appears that he is still standing before the bar of the High Court of History.

Everybody is eminently entitled to her views but what is questionable is the methodology. It has become a fashion, or almost a compulsion of sorts, to mention the name of Sri Aurobindo as an appendage to others. But, why bring in his name at all, if only to show him in bad light?

For the fact is that, the very project of comparision in this manner, is arbitrary. Sri Aurobindo’s work in the political sphere begins when Swami Vivekananda is no longer there. Tagore is almost a spectator in the sidelines and Gandhi is yet to enter into the picture. And again, the tenor of their work, so dissimilar.

Each of the great men like these has contributed to areas of specific significance which come to form our national mosaic. But in manufacturing the synthetic metaphysics of The Life Divine and composing the epic, Savitri, Sri Aurobindo’s genius is unparalleled, not only in India but also in the whole world.

All writers may not be competent to perceive the nuances of poetry or philosophy. But then, they are expected to be honest enough not to beat someone with the wrong stick. It is only rarely that we read any independent assessment of Sri Aurobindo in the media. But his role is indispensable for the national regeneration everyone is hoping for.

Raja Subodh Mullick’s once palatial house

Heritage house entangled in legal web Statesman News Service KOLKATA, April 27, 2003 — Another case of playing the blame game while heritage crumbles to the ground — that approximately sums up the conservation saga of Raja Subodh Mullick’s once palatial house at 12, Raja Subodh Mullick Square near Wellington. The giant three-storied structure lies in a shambles, bearing the status of a disputed property. A tablet put up near the entrance by Calcutta University, which is in possession of the building, says that Sri Aurobindo usually resided in the building when he was in Calcutta, up to 1907, as a guest of Raja Subodh Mullick. The building, now bearing the look of a haunted house, is said to have boasted of intricately designed interiors and French paintings, among other expensive furniture.

Colonial rule challenged India in its very concept of civilization

Twilight of the Bengal Renaissance: R K Dasgupta and his quest for a world mind. By Subrata Dasgupta. — Soumitro Das The Statesman Oct 03,2005

British rule came as a shock to many thinking people in India, especially in Bengal. What was distinctive about British rule was that it manifested an overwhelming superiority in practically every sphere of human activity as compared to what India had on offer, whether it be science, education, law, culture and society. For a single Tagore the Europeans could boast of at least 50 great poets; for a single Shankaracharya, the Europeans could boast of at least 25 or 30 major philosophers. Besides European philosophy had totally freed itself from the burden of religious doctrine, right from the time of Plato and Aristotle. Europe, at least since the Renaissance had produced a brilliant artistic and scientific culture that will take us centuries to match. Macaulay was right when he remarked that a single shelf in a good European library could match the entire corpus of Indian literature and philosophy. The result was an abiding complex of inferiority vis -a- vis the British in particular and the West in general. This inferiority complex impacted on our culture in two different ways. One result was a mad scramble for certificates of excellence from Western writers and intellectuals.

R K Dasgupta is a typical product of the shock induced by colonial rule in Bengal and his quest for the world mind, as Subrata Dasgupta puts it, is just another quest to regain and recover the lost universality of Indian, specifically Hindu, culture. This loss of the universal continues to traumatize the Hindu mind uptil now. It is a question, for Dasgupta, to stand up with dignity to the cultural might of the West. It is, above all, a question of national pride.

Dasgupta takes a look at R K Dasgupta’s thinking on what is sometimes called the Bengal Renaissance. Here, R K Dasgupta, instead of relying on historians, either British or Indian, whom he reproaches of applying blindly the model of the European Renaissance, turns to a poet and a politico-religious figure to better understand the phenomenon. In Tagore and Sri Aurobindo, R K Dasgupta finds an emphasis on the indigenous element in the Bengal Renaissance rather than on Western influences. The spiritual dimension is also stressed. Once again, of asserting national pride. It is evident from R K Dasgupta’s thinking on this subject that colonial rule challenged India in its very concept of civilization, something that Muslim rule has never been able to do. (The reviewer is a freelance contributor)

Brahmabandhav Upadhyay

Felix Raj The Statesman Oct 03, 2005

Brahmabandhav was a fiery patriot from an early age. He had joined the Brahma Samaj influenced by Keshabchandra Sen and went to Sind to preach his new faith. In Sind he met Reverend Kalicharan Bandyopadhyay who inspired his conversion to Christianity. On 26 February 1891, Brahmabandhav was baptised by Mr Heaton, a clergyman of the Church of England. But soon, as a protest against the British Raj, he decided not to attend the Church services.

Influenced by Swami Vivekananda, Brahmabandhav retraced his steps back to Hinduism. To propagate Vedanta in the West and to enlist the sympathies of European savants in his cause, he travelled to Europe in 1902. He gave a series of lectures on Hinduism with a view to winning the authorities of the Church over to his side. He wanted to make Europe pay homage to Hindu thought.

Christian and Hindu, holy man and savant, prophet and revolutionary, Brahmabandhav Upadhyay was a paradoxical figure who played a key role in the struggle for India’s independence, alongside Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, Aurobindo Ghose and others. His fiery convictions and passionate rhetoric won him many admirers and branded him a dangerous revolutionary in the eyes of the British colonial establishment. He was an ardent nationalist, who died while under arrest — he had been arrested for alleged seditious activities — on 27 October, 1907. The author is professor of economics, vice principal, St. Xavier’s College and director, Goethals Indian Library and Research Society, Kolkata

Visit Pondicherry. Give time a break.

Smita Tripathi The Telegraph Saturday, August 06, 2005

If France was the single most important influence over Pondicherry before it became a part of India, the Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville now exert the same influence in giving Pondicherry its present character. The Ashram is in the heart of town while Auroville is 10 km away. While nearly 1,500 persons of different nationalities are Ashram members, almost 1,800 people belonging to 40 countries live in Auroville. Both the Ashram and Auroville are based on the philosophy of Shri Aurobindo, the revolutionary turned scholar, poet and seer and his spiritual partner, The Mother. Auroville is based on the ideal of human unity and is based on the principle of community living.

Both the Ashram and Auroville are, obviously, worth a visit. The Matrimandir, for instance, is a huge meditation hall in the centre of Auroville. It has been under construction for a long time and the outer globe is being covered with huge gold disks. You can’t really miss the influence of the Ashram or Auroville on Pondicherry since nearly half the shops sell products made by the Ashramites or Aurovillians and many eateries and guest-houses are run by them. If you want budget accommodation, check into one of the guest-houses run by the Ashram. They are well located and reasonably priced at around Rs 750 a night for an AC room. But they have their own rules like you have to be back by 10.30 pm. Is Pondicherry too out of the way to make the effort? Perhaps the Pondicherry Tourism slogan says it all — Visit Pondicherry. Give time a break.

A spiritual revolution

Statesman News Service COOCH BEHAR, Dec. 5. — The Joint Secretary and the International Secretary of the Sri Aurobindo Society, Pondicherry, Mr Gopal Bhattacharjee will visit the Dinhata Centre of the Society on 17 December, 2005. During his visit he will deliver a speech on transition from human life to divine life through Purna Yoga at Nripendra Narayan Memorial Library in Dinhata, Cooch Behar.

On behalf of the Dinhata Centre of the Sri Aurobindo Society Dr Balaram Basak said that Mr Bhattacharjee had visited more than 127 countries to spread the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. He is the founder member of Sri Aurobindo Society, UK and the only non-British citizen trustee of the Society. He is also the founder of the Society in Germany, USA, Lithuania, Canada, Bangladesh, Hungary and many other countries of the world. He also the represents in the United Nations Economic and Social Council, New York and Geneva. The Dinhata Centre of the Society started functioning recently. It is the second centre after Siliguri in North Bengal. There is arrangement for reading of the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, practice of meditation (dhyan) and discussions on implementation of the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the mother, Dr Basak said.

It may be mentioned here that Sri Aurobindo Society was founded in 1960 by the Mother to spread the teachings and ideals of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, their system of Integral Yoga, and to work for its fulfilment in all possible ways and for the attainment of a spiritual society as envisaged by Sri Aurobindo. It holds information and consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council and has been recognised by the government of India as a research institution.

Osho, Sri Aurobindo, and Immortality

Note, the following two posts (here combined in a single page), are taken from the auroconf mail list, and help to illustrate the fact that even most spiritual teachers and gurus absolutely do not understand what Sri Aurobindo was on about. I elsewhere refer to Da Free John (Adidam) in this regard. He was not the only one. Here is Osho's misunderstanding.

From Dave: Dear All I was searching the web for comments about Sri Aurobindo from various authors. I picked up the attached from www.Osho.org website.

Osho: I know about Sri Aurobindo, because he himself was teaching his whole life that his special work was to give methods to people to attain physical immortality. All old teachers have taught you spiritual immortality; that's not a big problem, because the spiritual element in you is already immortal. He used to say, "I am doing the real thing. The physical body, which is not immortal, I am going to make it immortal." And one day he died... The chief disciple, "the Mother" of the Sri Aurobindo ashram, finally found a solution to it. She said, "He is not dead, he has gone into deep samadhi, the deepest that anyone has ever gone. He will wake up again - he is simply asleep." So they made a marble grave for him, with all the comforts, because he was just sleeping and one day he was going to wake up...Then years passed, but he did not knock from the grave. People started suspecting, but the mother was over ninety, and she was still preaching physical immortality... Then one day she died. And it was very difficult for the believers, because the believers had some investment; their investment was their own immortality... I said, "But how long will it take? By that time you will all be dead! Even if they come.... You just go and open the grave, and you will know that it is no longer sleep. There are only skeletons, stinking of death, not the fragrance of immortality.

What are your intelligent thoughts on this?

from Prem: Mother and Sri Aurobindo never said that they were working on physical immortality. They said they were working on the next evolutionary step, the triple transformation: psychic transformation, spiritual transformation and supermental transformation . The first two are not new, and they stated that. The third has never yet been done in this universe or manifestation. Physical immortality would be a "minor consequence", it was not the goal...

The supermental transformation is about the consciousness beyond mind being as totally manifest as mind became in the animal. Supermental consciousness, is Truth consciousness, it is infinite and omnipotent. There are steps in that change and Mother said it would take 300 years after psychic transformation in the same body. Humanity was not willing to go as fast as was needed for Mother to achieve it in her current body. Sri Aurobindo sacrificed his body to avoid WWIII over Korea, and gave Mother the task to complete the transformation. Mother obviously did not complete it in that body. I was there the day she quote 'left', 17 Nov 1973, and when I went to the Ashram that morning to meditate there were all these long faced people. So I asked one of the students from the school who was helping people what happened. He said "Mother has left her body". He was very sad, but my heart knew and felt "Victory". She had achieved what was needed for the supermental transformation to still take place. When and how is to be unfolded. The Divine is in charge and yet humanity and each individual has free will.

There are still individuals who choose, the Great Peace, Unity, Oneness with God, and Service to the Work of Transformation, of the next evolutionary step. Is this some small miracle that takes place in a year or a decade? How hard is it for each of us to conquer anger? lust? jealousy? arrogance? ignorance? falsehood? On the other hand we have the help of the Divine, the promise that it shall be done, and in fact the promise that it is done, it must proceed in the time that it takes. I have no other reason to live. prem from the auroconf mail list Fri, 9 Apr 1999

from Kenny: There certainly is no accounting for what some sadly misinformed people will write or say, outside or inside the Ashram. Anyone who has taken the time to read what Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have written and said about this subject would know that the entire skreed was a gross misrepresentation of their work.

To put it as simply as possible, the goal of the Integral Yoga was, and is, transformation of the entire being so that it can manifest the Divine consciousness on Earth in increasingly undiminished forms on every level. Some of these had perhaps been achieved or attempted in the past and some, they contended, are new in the sense that they are part of an evolutionary process, whose time in the history of the Earth is just now beginning. Unlike many other spiritual paths that have consigned the body to being forever part of the duality, Sri Aurobindo and The Mother's vision included the transformation of the physical being by the Divine so that the very nature of the cells could be transformed. They stated that such a transformation would likely include an infinite flexibility in reflecting a higher consciousness and that the body would no longer be subject to the evolutionary laws that have governed it for millennia. They further stated this would likely include the ability to prolong life at will and other attributes.

However, Sri Aurobindo and The Mother also stated boldly and clearly that such changes were not, per se, the goal of their work. The goal of their work is a spiritual realization and transformation: all of the other things would be worked out by the consciousness itself as it evolved and manifested. They also stated that there is a particular state, being and force of the Divine consciousness of Truth that would be goal of this path, one that would be able to bridge the gap between the unmanifested Brahman/Satchidanada and the forever dualistic worlds of the manifested universe. Sri Aurobindo named this consciousness the Supramental Consciousness and said that this consciousness is the raison d'etre of the next steps in evolution, just has the Physical, Vital and Mental consciousness had been the raison d'etre for the previous steps in evolution.

It is the Supramental Consciousness that is the ultimate goal of the Integral Yoga. Whatever attainments other genuine yogis achieved in the past, both spiritual and physical, is wonderful and if some of them were able to achieve physical siddhis that prolonged their lives indefinitely, so be it. But unless these other past transformations were of the Supramental transformation, then they were different than what Sri Aurobindo and The Mother were envisioning and attempting. That is, if one chooses to accept Sri Aurobindo and The Mother's vision. If not, then everything is open to vastly different interpretation.

Of course, for human beings trapped in limited physical bodies, subject to decay and death and the fears and pain that are part of the human normal experience and condition, any hope for escape from an unwanted death and the loss that accompanies it, is supremely attractive. It certainly can be supposed that there have been those who have been attracted to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother's work in the hope that they could achieve the fulfillment of their fantasies of physical immortality. While Sri Aurobindo and The Mother were in their bodies, I'm sure that there were also those that pinned such hopes on them staying around in their bodies forever and that there were many followers who projected all kinds of ideas on them. I'm sure that if most of us were completely honest with ourselves, we might find some small or large part of ourselves that has also played with these thoughts. Such hopes and fears are normal and it should be part of any yoga to face them. -Kenny from the auroconf mail list Mon, 12 Apr 1999

The other worlds

Sri Aurobindo passed away 55 years back, on December 5, 1950. He is perceived as a great soul but his writings have yet to earn the reception they deserve. The vast body of his work and the difficult diction he employs, may be the reason to deter the common reader; but even the scholar is not enamoured enough of them. The most plausible factor that seems to be responsible is Sri Aurobindo’s insistence on spirituality while discussing secular themes such as politics, poetry, the arts, or education.

The convenient demarcation between secular and the sacred suits the academic approach. But for Sri Aurobindo this is a faulty notion because the causal aspect is eclipsed. The linkage between the two is less of the manner of an umbilical chord and more in the nature of interpenetrating imbrications. If our sensory and scientific construct of the world fails to accommodate such a picture, it must be understood as a lack.

Astronomy as an ancient passion has helped us to know about the outer universe. Astrology, too, by talking of stars and planets attunes us to their subtle influences. The different abodes of gods as described by various mythologies, also, permit us certain familiarity of the other worlds. But we rarely take their effect on our lives any seriously. And the task of Sri Aurobindo is to hammer the modern mind so as to rid it from secular superstitions.

The inner and the other worlds are a consistent theme in his poem, Savitri. Composed through the years from Quantum mechanics to nuclear holocaust, this modern epic puts a stamp of authority on the unseen fecund worlds and their inhabitants who are inextricably linked to our motions and emotions. To recognize this reality seriously, is what Savitri demands from its readers.

The different parts of our being and consciousness, as delineated by Sri Aurobindo in his Integral Yoga system, are nothing but the other worlds. We can well imagine our plights as puppets when disparate worlds are very much in the play to pull the strings. Somewhat similar to the insight offered by Baudrillard that it is the object which uses and employs us and not the other way round that we ordinarily perceive. But then, how do we benefit by this concept in our practical life?

That there runs a perpetual consonance between the seen and the unseen, might seem, at times, hard to digest, but a poetic impression can be allowed to swim aloft. The process should further deepen in the realm of creative imagination leading to a faint intellectual recognition. Since the notion runs counter to our egoistic autonomy, it is bound to take a long time to percolate down to the distant and defiant impulses. And regular recitation of Savitri helps here; its mantric effect casting its reach down to our body cells.

The Children of Crystal Vibration

The Mother and Sri Aurobindo felt that it could take another 300 years for conditions on Earth to be ready for supramental beings to incarnate. However, it seems to be clear to many observers that a transitional species is already here. Are these the ones that are being variously called the Indigo children, the Crystal Children, or the Children of Oz? Are these the ones who will launch humanity into a new era of consciousness, laying the groundwork for the emergence of the new species? Are these the ones that Sri Aurobindo so beautifully writes about?

I have known many, like myself, who have been on the path what has been termed "ascension.” We have done our inner work, we have cleansed our bodies, we have meditated, talked with angels and ascended masters, tried to build our "lightbodies,” expand our "merkabahs,” re-strand our DNA, and otherwise court physical immortality in every way imaginable . Still, we are susceptible to disease, and our bodies continue to age. There is much in our subconscious that is still unresolved, and we are still karmically tied into the planetary unconscious realms where reside the mighty illusions of darkness, falsehood, suffering and death.

Perhaps we are taking on a role that isn’t ours to take...yet. Perhaps we are to dream these possibilities and plant the seeds of hope, and others will come afterwards who will achieve these dreams and manifest these realities. The Mother claims that the supramental realms were first unified into her cellular body, and therefore the "mindfields" of the Earth on February 29, 1956. The Dream that is already present in the Supramental worlds was seeded into mass consciousness at that time, and each generation succeeds in taking it further. As our children and our children’s children complete their roles in healing the Earth, healing the splits between spirit and matter, and the ancient suffering we have borne as a result of this split, perhaps we will return as their children in the not so distant future in newly supramentalized bodies of light!

On a more immediate level, who are these new kids? What is their promise? Their minds think differently, their emotional bodies process feelings differently, their energy bodies are capable of holding stronger soul vibrations, and they have a new vision to share. They do not fit into mainstream society. Many of them appear to have special psychic and healing abilities, and need special support to control and develop these gifts. Drunvalo Melchizedek distinguishes between the Indigo children and the Super-Psychic children, whom I prefer to call the Violet children. Jimmy Twyman, in Emissary of Love, calls them Children of Oz, and speaks eloquently of his own experiences with this latter group, and the message they wish to share with the world.

As I see it, the Indigo children generally seem to range in age from the twenties into the forties, or even older, and includes the current generation of "lightworkers,” while the Violet children are younger, and carry a different mandate. The Violet kids do not need to read any of this to know what’s real. They are linked mind to mind in a global psychic link-up that reflects a new fifth-dimensional morphogenetic grid on Earth. In future generations, they may be the first to step into what Sri Aurobindo envisioned as "supramental consciousness.” They are also becoming known as the Crystal Children.

Steve Rother (www.lightworker.com) has been communicating for many years with a group of light beings who very fittingly call themselves The Group. They speak of the New Planet Earth that is coming, and also have a lot to say about these Crystal children. According to them, the Indigos came to shake up our old paradigms and to make room for the next wave in evolution, the 'Children of Crystal Vibration'. At the beginning of their messages in 1996, the Group said that if we could make the planet safe for their return they would come. Apparently, despite outward experiences, the planet must be getting safer, for recently they have said that the Crystal kids are starting to enter. The following selections are drawn from Steve Rother’s internet site, where the unabridged version is available at www.lightworker.com/beacons. This information resonates with me deeply, and also seems to harmonize with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s understandings of our future evolution.

At first, Crystal Children will tend to gather in groups where they can hold space for each other. They will form groups and grow together supporting each other energetically. They will do it all by themselves so parents of Crystal children will not need to worry about finding the best environment for their children. Expect to see groups of 'magical children' with abilities that exceed far beyond the norm you have known.

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother felt from their own experiences that the Supramental Earth now already exists in a different dimension than our own. Perhaps we might call this the Fifth Dimension. They felt that all that was needed to bring this dimension into planetary experience was to build the bridges. Perhaps the Crystal Children are the bridges. In time, as this consciousness deepens upon Earth, as they find each other and learn to work within the old structures of Earth, as the old structures give way to new structures that will sustain them and sustain supramental life upon the Earth, we might find ourselves at the threshold of a Collective Planetary Shift. The Sun-Eyed Children are the inheritors of this New Dawn!

Sourced from the website of www.thamarahua.com. Please visit our site and explore the secrets of your life through the amazing spiritual science of Nadi Astrology and view the great selection of articles on a broad range of topics. Author: Kiara Windrider: kiara@spiritwheels.com www.doorwaytoeternity.com

I must see God face to face

August 30, 1905

In a historic letter to his wife, Sri Aurobindo spoke about his inner life. He was, he said, possessed of three madnesses:

• Firstly, it is my firm faith that whatever virtue, talent, education, knowledge and wealth God has given to me, belongs to him.
• Secondly, I must see God face to face.
• Thirdly, whereas others regard the country as an inert mass and know it in terms of plains, fields, forests, mountains and rivers, I look upon my country as the mother; I worship and adore her as the mother.

I have the power to redeem this fallen race... the fire-power of the Brahmin which is founded in knowledge... I was born with it... It is to accomplish this great mission that God sent me to the earth.

He is a true Rishi and poet

November 30, 1919

I do not, even to this day, definitely know what is the political standpoint of Aurobndo Ghosh. But this I positively know, that he is a great man, one of the greatest we have and therefore liable to be misunderstood by his friends. What I myself feel for him is not mere admiration but reverence for his depth of spirituality, his largeness of vision and his literary gifts, extraordinary and imaginative insight and expression. He is a true Rishi and poet combined, and I still repeat my Namaskar which I offered to him when he was first assailed by the trouble which ultimately made him an exile from the soil of Bengal.

Rabindranath Tagore
wrote to The Modern Review

Sri Aurobindo Movement and the Bahá'í Faith

by Anil Sarwal

The Mother met Abdu'l-Bahá in Paris in 1913 during his second visit to France.[2] This period according to her own testimony was the most important for her spiritual growth.[3] She attended may Bahá'í meetings held at the homes of Monsieur and Mme Dreyfus Barney, M. and Mme. Scott and Miss Edith Sanderson. These were the early French Bahá'ís and some of them had taken pilgrimage to Akká. They were the constant companions of Abdu'l-Bahá whenever he visited France.

We also know that Sri Aurobindo himself had the knowledge of the mission of Bahá'u'lláh. Speaking to a disciple on March 7,1924 who told him that there were indications that Muslims fanaticism might disintegrate he commented that it would not be sufficient to "change their whole outlook. What is wanted is some new religious movement among the Mohammedans which would remodel their religion and change the stamp of their temperament. For instance, Bahá'ísm in Persia that has given quite a different stamp to their temperament."[11] Sri Aurobindo, though did not know very many details of the Bahá'í Faith, but he was aware of its growing influence in Europe and in the West. Talking of the religions in the United States of America, he says that Bahá'ís is just what suits the common mind. Talking of Islam, he emphasized that Mohammedans should turn towards the Bahá'í Faith: "If the Mohammedans get a religion of that sort it is much better than what they are having now.[13] Bahá'í Library Online

A Sage of Great Intellect

Near the beginning of this century the enlightened sage, Sri Aurobindo, enunciated a new truth which had not been expressed before. In his high states of mergence with the divine reality he saw that the time had come for a new stage in the evolution of mankind. He saw that according to the divine plan, humanity would not just merge into the divine but that it was also destined to manifest the divine right here on earth and that the time for that divine emergence into earth life was now.

Sri Aurobindo pointed out that the divine force permeates all matter in a form that we generally call nature. Consciousness and intelligence appear in matter which seems to be inconscient and unintelligent. The process of the divine spirit descending down into matter is called involution. The process by which the divine ascends back upwards out of matter is called evolution.On the earth, minerals formed and from that sprung life in the form of plants and animals.

• The origin of life was the first step in the release of the imprisoned consciousness.
• The second step in this evolution was the development of intelligence in men and animals. These two steps were taken in nature without a conscious will on the part of the evolving forms.

But in man, for the first time nature becomes able to evolve by a conscious will within the instrument itself. This inward will does not come from a merely mental process. Instead it comes through a transformation of the mental into a supra (or greater than) mental consciousness which allows the descent of a higher principle into the world for the first time. Sri Aurobindo dubbed that higher principle supramental mind. Supramental mind comes from a plane of manifestation far above the merely mental plane that humans come into contact with. Although the term mind is used, this plane far transcends the logic and intellect that ordinary mind can reach. Cosmic Harmony - The State of Enlightenment

Sri Aurobindo, utopian visionary

A highly educated political activist, Sri Aurobindo spent 40 years spreading the Integral Yoga philosophy. By Phil Catalfo

Poet, mystic, political activist, and utopian visionary, Sri Aurobindo emphasized the evolution of humankind toward its collective potential. Born in Calcutta in 1872, Aurobindo Ghose was taken at age 7 to be educated in England and spent the next 14 years there (including two at Cambridge), becoming fluent in Greek and Latin and proficient in German and Italian. He returned to India, entered government service, and later became a college educator (while studying Sanskrit and other Indian languages). He soon became engaged in the struggle for self-governance, publishing the influential polemical daily Bande Mataram. A succession of charges kept him jailed for several years, during which time he experienced a spiritual awakening prompted by his practice of "silent yoga."

Emerging from confinement in 1910, he began publishing an English weekly, the Karmayogin, and a Bengali weekly, the Dharma. He spent the remaining 40 years of his life writing, teaching, and propounding his philosophy of "Integral Yoga" in books on the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and such works as The Synthesis of Yoga. See The Essential Aurobindo, recently reissued by Lindisfarne Books. September/October: www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/741_1.cfm

Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga

A Seer-Poet to the poets, a divine Philosopher to mankind, a Master Yogi to his worshippers, an Avatar to his disciples? who is he? Sri Aurobindo.

Sri Aurobindo's Yoga is an ambrosial consciousness with infinite possibilities; it is a never-tiring march, a decisive and everlasting victory of Truth. The keynote of Sri Aurobindo's integral Yoga is evolution? evolution of consciousness in and through Matter. There is no shadow of doubt that Matter and Spirit are one. Spirit, when it is fast asleep, is Matter; Matter, when it is fully awakened, is Spirit. The integral Yoga is founded on an all-fulfilling experience which is anything but speculation and reasoning. An integral Yogi is he who has seen all the phases of existence and whose very life is full of variegated experiences and realisations.

A marvel-idealism and a highly practical divinity are housed in Sri Aurobindo. His are the experiences that may serve as humanity's royal road to a life worth living? a life of the Spirit, the Life Divine. Sri Aurobindo holds that physical work is in no way a bar to spiritual progress. On the contrary, he strongly feels that physical work is an aid to self-preparation for the full manifestation of the Divine both in oneself and upon the earth. Sri Aurobindo tells the world that it is not only possible but entirely practicable to work easily, incessantly, consciously, inwardly, outwardly, thus finally successfully. And in his opinion, life itself is a blessing of God through which man has to realise Him and be one with Him.

Sri Aurobindo's is the supernal Smile that reveals at once the embodiment of an infinite achievement and the future spiritual destiny of mankind. Invisible to the blind, yet invincible to the strong, and a wonderful practical hope to the four corners of the globe, is the power of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga. Sri Aurobindo is the ever-creative silent Bridge between God's Will and His Fulfilment. In the Integral Yoga, God-Realisation means merely standing at the shore of the vast sea of Consciousness. The fire-pure change of the inner and outer life means swimming in that sea. Manifestation of the Divine on earth means returning Home after having crossed the sea, bringing with you the Golden All. It is not a dream of God but His Decree that Heaven and Earth must fall supremely in love with each other.

He wants their marriage to take place sooner than immediately. Earth feels that she is inferior to Heaven. Heaven feels that he is superior to Earth. And because of their mutual hesitation, the day of their marriage is kept in abeyance. The Integral Yoga has made a significant choice. It wants not only to see and feel the conscious evolution of life, but also to embody a fully harmonised life of Matter and Spirit. An Integral Yogi is he who sacrifices his life to become a bridge between Earth and Heaven. He has foregone Heaven; he uplifts Earth. The aspirant in man is the cross-bearer. The Yogi in man is the crown-bearer. To say that Yoga is the realisation of God is not to say all. Yoga is the living union with God by self-affirmation and self-abnegation.

Sri Aurobindo tells a man that God-Realisation never obliges a man to kill all feelings, to make his heart a sterile wasteland and to pronounce a curse on the world. God is everything and in everything. Readiness in the Integral Yoga amounts to an aspiration that wishes to be expressed. Willingness amounts to an aspiration that has already been expressed. An unprecedented teaching of the Integral Yoga propounded by Sri Aurobindo is that man can have material prosperity alongside of his spiritual development. Give an ordinary man ten dollars. He will immediately wonder what he can buy with it to make life more pleasant. Give a sannyasi ten dollars. He will try to avoid taking it or else find some means by which he can do without it. Give an Integral Yogi ten dollars. Since he has neither attachment to nor repulsion from money, he will try to utilise it as a divine trustee.

To be unconscious of a spiritual opportunity is to starve one's spiritual Destiny. Difficulties in the Integral Yoga never indicate one's unworthiness. Behind each difficulty there is a possibility, nay, a blessing in disguise, to accept the test boldly and to come out successfully. In Yoga, all reactions are threatening but passing clouds. Human aspiration is the naked and permanent sword of the soul to stab through the weakness of human stuff and rise triumphant on the ashes of its conquests. Follow no other ideal than to materialise the power of perfection on earth.

Sri Aurobindo's Yoga is the tallest mango tree. His disciples and followers have to climb right up to the top of the tree and bring the mangoes down to earth. For if the fruit is taken at the top, it tastes sour; if taken at the foot of the tree, it tastes delicious. What is the actual meaning of coming into contact with God? It means that we shall become one with His universal existence. As after marriage a woman automatically possesses her husband's name, home, and wealth, even so, after our union with God we shall infallibly become one with His all-fulfilling Nature. Verily, in that Divine Hour we shall hear Sri Aurobindo's soul-stirring voice: "We are sons of God, and must be even as He. "

A strange coincidence: with the start of the first World War, shaking human life and culture to their foundations with its unprecedented horrors, the world-saving message of The Life Divine found publication. Sri Chinmoy

Sri Swami Satchidananda

His Holiness Sri Swami Satchidananda is one of the most revered Yoga Masters of our time. A much-loved teacher, well known in the world for his combination of practical wisdom and spiritual insight, he has given his life to the service of humanity, demonstrating by his own example the means of finding abiding peace within one's life and within one's self. His message of peace within all people and harmony among all faiths and countries has been heard worldwide. Born to a devout family in South India in 1914, Sri Swami Satchidananda spent his early years studying and working in such diverse fields as agriculture, cinematography, and electronics. He was successful in all of them, yet he chose to give up a personal life for a life dedicated to inner peace, spiritual knowledge and communion with God. He studied with some of India's greatest saints and sages: among them, Sri Ramana Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo, and his own spiritual master, the world-renowned Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj of Rishikesh, Himalayas. © Copyright Integral Yoga® Magazine swamisatchidananda yogaville

Sri Aurobindo at Sriganganagar

During his 3-years' stay at the border town of Sriganganagar, Rajasthan, Vijay Kumar Sharma has been instrumental in carrying the words of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo to many a people. Now that he is moving elsewhere, best wishes for his future plans of action.

A lesson from Sri Aurobindo

Martin Goodman 28.02.02

Every writer is a miracle of the human spirit working against the odds. The experience recalls one I had after the publication of In Search of the Divine Mother. That book faced a torrent of legal attack, people I interviewed gave me great and cutting dialogue for the book, but I cut it from the published version for fear of the consequences. In one section, however, I allowed that side of me to come to the fore ... my depiction of the Sri Aurobindo ashram. I showed off my eloquence in damming the whole place, suggesting people should step out of their ashram existence and dare t live in the real world. I thought it some of my finer writing.

Some time later I received my first and only vision of Sri Aurobindo. (For those who are puzzled by such sentences, please read my work - it's just the way life is!) Sri Aurobindo was the Indian sage (and coincidentally the writer of Savitri, the longest epic poem in English) around whom the ashram materialized in the early part of the 20th century. He was smiling, so I wasn't being admonished in the way I might have expected. He wasn't condemning the book itself. But he held a finger in the air and wagged it from side to side, and I knew what he was saying. I should not have been proud of myself for my attacks on the ashram. They were cheap shots, and the cleverness of the language was simply me being smug. It is as hard to live in an ashram as anywhere else, requires a great deal of consciousness, and was much more of an achievement than my taking sides against them. Mea culpa. I shall aim not to be snide in my writings or in these columns again.

Yogi Ramsuratkumar

Yogi Ramsuratkumar was born in a village near Varanasi, in North India. He was fascinated by the sacred river Ganga in an inexplicable way. Playing along the banks of the Ganga, brought him immense happiness. Even as a young boy he longed for the company of holy men, who thronged to the Ganga. Ffrom this association, the inner urge for true peace, began to produce ripples of spiritual longing. A Seemingly ordinary incident changed his outlook for good. It was the sight of the death of a bird - this brought home the message of the transitory nature of life. Slowly, God intoxication sopped his soul. One of the monks he met at this time suggested that he meet Sri Aurobindo of Pondicherry, in South India.Sri Aurobindo's "Lights on Yoga" widened his already mature inner vision. Merely being in Aurobindo Ashram brought Yogi into a state of divine madness. From there he was drawn to Sri Ramana Maharisi at Tiruvannamalai. L. RAMANI

Sri Chinmoy

Sri Chinmoy » Born Chinmoy Kumar Ghose in the small village of Shakpura in East Bengal (now Bangladesh) in 1931, Sri Chinmoy was the youngest of seven children. In 1944, after both his parents had died, 12 year-old Chinmoy entered the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, a spiritual community near Pondicherry in South India. Here he spent the next 20 years in spiritual practice - including long hours of meditation, practising athletics, writing poetry, essays and spiritual songs. Today, Sri Chinmoy serves as spiritual guide to students in some 60 countries around the world, encouraging a balanced lifestyle that incorporates the inner disciplines of prayer and meditation with the dynamism of contemporary life. Sri Chinmoy's life is an expression of boundless creativity. His vast output spans the domains of music, poetry, painting, literature and sports.

Bande Mataram

On October 16, 1905 — the day of Lord Curzon’s Partition of Bengal — is regarded as a turning point in British India’s history. Indian opinion has always viewed the viceroy’s act as a Machiavellian measure to ‘divide and rule’ India by tearing apart the province along communal lines, giving birth to a Muslim-majority province in the east. There was widespread protest throughout the country that the partition was politically motivated. Overnight, a new spirit of patriotism filled the air. Bonfires were made of British goods, swadeshi schools sprang up and indigenous companies began to manufacture swadeshi goods. So charged was the air that it became dangerous to appear in foreign clothing.

By day, brave young men came out on the streets to picket bazaars and enforce the boycott. At night, the streets were eerie and deserted; sometimes the flames of burning Manchester cloth could be seen glowing in the darkness. An aggressive new militancy was taking over the reins of nationalism. Even before sunrise on October 16, the day of the partition, Calcutta’s streets had begun echoing with the cries of ‘Bande Mataram’. Patriotic sentiments shot up to an all-time high. Virtual strangers stopped each other on the streets to tie rakhi, symbolising brotherhood.

By February 1906, the lean and fanatical Aurobindo Ghose had returned to Calcutta to set into motion revolutionary terrorism on Irish lines. He became the leader of the extremist group in the Congress party and was soon demanding “the absolute right of self-determination for the people of India”. Overnight, the towns and the countryside in Bengal were honeycombed with terrorist societies, the Dacca Anushilan alone boasting 500 branches. The severity of the agitation further aggravated the growing divide, drawing the Nawab of Dacca into closer cooperation with the Aligarh group of Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan, who had sought a separate platform for Muslims as early as in 1869. Historian professor Ikram, in his book Modern Muslim India and the Birth of Pakistan (Delhi, 1950), was prophetic when he said, “The Nawab’s invitation brought the Aligarh leadership to the heart of Muslim Bengal… which marked the turning point in the history of the subcontinent.” This was the genesis of Pakistan.

Nayana Goradia HindustanTimes.com » Editorial » The Big Idea » Story October 22, 2005 The writer is author of Lord Curzon: Last of the British Moghuls (OUP)

The mind of light

Aarset, Suzanne Harmon. The awakening of intuition: a guided journey in the Aurobindo tradition and its implications for the psychotherapist: Degree: ED.D.- 1981 / Boston University School Of Education; 0851 // ADD, VOL. X1981, 00001 PagesAdam M. Psychological interpretation of the Veda according to Sri Aurobindo - French - Herbert,J.: book review // Revue philosophique de la France et de l etranger, V105, N4, 1980.- Language: FRENCHAgarwal, Raghubir Saran (1903-). The splendour of Sri Aurobindo's muse.- Bikaner, India: Ratna Smriti Prakashan, 1983.- viii, 376 p.: ill.; 22 cm.- NOTES: Revision of the author's thesis (Ph. D.--Agra University) under the title: Poetic muse of Sri Aurobindo. Bibliography: p. [373]-376Agrawala, D.C. Sri Aurobindo and I.A. Richards as Theorists of Poetry. // Banasthali Patrika, Rajasthan, India. Article in: vol. 17-18, for 1971-72.- PAGES: 52-64.- LANGUAGE: EnglishAnand Mr. Aurobindo the critic of art // Journal of south asian literature, V24, N1, 1989. P104-113Anderson, Allan W. (1922-). Sacrifice; a comparative study of the concept in St. Gregory of Nyssa's Contemplation on the life of Moses and Shri Aurobindo's commentary On the VedaAnjaneyulu, D. A. Sri Aurobindo the Literary Critic. // Indian & Foreign Review, New Delhi-110001, India. Article in: vol. 10 no. 21, 1973.- PAGES: 20-21ff.- STANDARD NO: 0019-4379.- LANGUAGE: EnglisAxer, Jürgen (1949-). Integrale Erziehung: ein pädagogisches Konzept auf der Grundlage der Philosophie Sri Aurobindos.- Köln: Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, 1983.- 380 p.: ill.; 21 cm.- NOTES: Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--Universität zu Köln, 1983. Bibliography: p. 355-380.- ISBN: 3804686214B?hler, Arno (1963-). Das Ged. chtnis der Zukunft: Ans.tze zu einer Fundamentalontologie der Freiheit bei Martin Heidegger und Aurobindo Ghose.- Wien: Passagen Verlag, 1996.- 362 p. ; 24 cm. - SERIES: Philosophische Theologie ; 8.- NOTES: Includes bibliographical references (p. 355-362).- ISBN: 3851651952 Baird, Robert D. Book reviews -- Twentieth-Century Indian Interpretations of Bhagavadgita: Tilak, Gandhi, and Aurobindo by P. M. Thomas // Journal of Ecumenical Studies.- v27, n1, Winter 1990.- P. 164.- ISSN: 0022-0558Bakshi, Shiri Ram (1935-). Aurobindo Ghosh, revolutionary and reformerBanerjee, Siddheswar. A short treatise on ‘The life divine’.- 2nd ed.- Pondicherry, India: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, 1960.- v.; 19 cm. Banerjee, Sudhansu Mohan (1899). Vedanta as a social force: (the quest of a century from Rammohan to Sri Aurobindo) Based on lectures delivered for the Calcutta University in collaboration with the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture.- Calcutta: Calcutta University, 1972.- 169 p.; 21 cm. Banerji, Sanat Kumar (1911-). Sri Aurobindo and the future of man: a study in synthesisBarrett, Mary Ellin.; Lerner, Steve. Explorations: City of tomorrow. // Omni (New York, N.Y.) v. 9 (Nov. '86), n2, p. 28,94+ il.- ISSN: 0149-8711Bassuk, Daniel E. (1938-). Incarnation in Hinduism and Christianity: the myth of the God-man / foreword by Robert S. Ellwood.- United States: Humanities Press Int., 1987Basu A. Divine-life, Aurobindo experience // Journal of Dharma, V12, N4, 1987. P370-398Basu, A. Sri Aurobindo, A Garland of Tributes: [biographical matherials] Basu, Soumitra. Integral Health: A Conscious Approach to Health and Healing.- Includes planes of consciousness, the action of the psychic being, faith and healing, culture and society in relation to integral health, with illustrative case studies, glossary and index. 147p.- (ISBN 8170601576): 7.50Bazemore, Wallace Duncan (1926-). The elimination of the Hiatus between the divine and the non-divine in the philosophy of Aurobindo.- 1969.- iii, 303 leaves ; 29 cm.- NOTES: Thesis (Ph. D.)--Dept. of Philosophy, Stanford University, 1970. Bibliography: leaves 289-293. Photocopy. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms, 1971. 22 cm. // DAI, VOL. 31-04A, Page 1837, 00306 PagesBharati, Shuddhananda (1897-). Sri Aurobindo, the divine master.- [2d rev. ed.].- Pondicherry: Pundu Yuga Nilayam, 1948.- 104 p. 19 cmBharati, Shuddhananda (1897-). The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo.- Pondicherry: The BharathaShakti Nilayam, 1935.- 202 p. 16mBhatta, S. Krishna. Plays by Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950): A Survey// Visvabharati Quarterly, Santiniketan, West Bengal, India. Article in: vol. 39, 1973-74.- PAGES: 196-213.- STANDARD NO: 0042-7195.- LANGUAGE: EnglishBhattacharya, Abhoy Chandra (1927-). Sri Aurobindo and Bergson; a synthetic study.- [1st ed.].- Gyanpur: Jagabandhu Prakashan, 1972.- xx, 282 p. 22 cm.- NOTES: On jacket: A centenary publication. A revision of the author's thesis, Banaras Hindu University, 1950. Includes bibliographical references. (Number at Russian State Library IN 74-30/41)

The crest jewel of renascent India

Sri Aurobindo was a poet, politician and philosopher. His writings—philosophic and poetic—are Indian in spirit and Western in rhythm and colour. He was the greatest intellectual of our age and a major force for the life of the spirit. India will not forget his services to politics and philosophy. The world will remember with gratitude his invaluable works in the realms of philosophy and religion. Sri Aurobindo was one of the greatest of world figures. He was an inspiration to the nationalists of India. Looked at as a religious teacher, his writings will live as long as the world survives.

The crest jewel of renascent India, the bravest among the patriots, the sharpest among the intellectuals, and the subtlest among the seers, Sri Aurobindo fulfilled the glorious purpose of demonstrating to the world that real India, the India of the Vedic seers, could survive and absorb into herself all alien cultures, and that at the hands of one who knew the proper synthesis, Eastern and Western cultures could find their happy blend, without necessarily having to antagonize one another. Sri Aurobindo’s Life Divine—the divine life that he lived and preached—will live for ever, inspiring mankind. Posterity will hail him as a member of the galaxy of Vedic seers. May his Light ever shine. Sri Swami Sivananda

Mahayogi

I have been an admirer and humble student of Sri Aurobindo since my school days. I am happy to be the author of this brief study of his life, his Sadhana, and his teachings; and to be able to give it into the hands of those persons who knew him, as well as of those who have yet to know of him. R.R. Diwakar

Sri Aurobindo passes away

The Hindu dated December 6, 1950:
Sri Aurobindo (79), the great seer and thinker of modern India, passed away at 1-30 a.m. on December 3 in his Ashram at Pondicherry. Though in indifferent health for over two weeks, suffering from kidney trouble, his end came unexpectedly, suddenly. The passing of the renowned seer plunged all of Pondicherry and its environs into deep mourning.

Editorial comments: ``In an age of rampant materialism, incorruptible witnesses to the supremacy of the spirit are none too many. And when the great beacons go out, when a Gandhi, a Ramana, an Aurobindo withdraw from the mortal scene, the world is left visibly darker. ...Aurobindo's was a universal message and his marvellous mastery of the written word helped to secure for it respectful hearing across the barriers of race and language. For this prophet from India, the unity of the human family in Divine Consciousness was not merely a matter of faith; it was a goal practically to be realised.
``A shining page in our history records Aurobindo Ghosh's heroic part in the struggle for Indian freedom. Nurtured on the English poets, his ardent nature rallied early to the call of patriotism, spurning a life of elegant ease. He brought to public life a burning eloquence, a power of idealism, and a dynamic leadership which roused the land from end to end and destroyed that passive consent which had been the charter of Imperialism. But it was left to other hands to finish the great work which he had begun. Generations to come will honour his memory''.

Kosmic Journey

This blog will be devoted to the work of leading integral thinkers like Sri Aurobindo, J. Krishnamurti and Ken Wilber. It will contain exceprts from their writings and commentary. 20 Oct 2005 by Integral Thinker

All Life is Yoga

Not to separate life in the Spirit from life as a whole is a challenge. We give in to the tendency to separate, categorize, compartmentalize. It is true as the book of of Ecclesiastes states in the Hebrew Bible, “For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die…”(chap 3).

But it is also true that our lives are one interwoven whole. My attention may turn to one aspect of my life or another, but my life is one, each aspect deeply integrated with every other aspect. Sri Aurobindo, the twentieth century mystic sage from India once wrote, “All life is yoga.” Yoga is not something that I do with a part of my life, or at a certain time in my life, but rather the awareness that everything is or can be a spiritual practice, indeed needs to be. At times I may be more attentive to my inner life or at another time more aware of a cry for help. Each moment is an opportunity to live in the Spirit with awareness. It is not so much what I do but the awareness with which I do it. This entry was posted on Thursday, April 28th, 2005 at 7:05 pm and is filed under Life, Spiritual Wisdom.

Spiritual impersonality

According to Sri Aurobindo, “Yoga and knowledge are the two wings of the soul’s ascent.” He states, “By yoga is meant union through divine works done without desire, with equality of soul to all things and all men, as a sacrifice to the Supreme while knowledge is that on which this desirelessness, this equality, this power of sacrifices is founded.”

Thus desirelesness and equality are essential aspects of Yoga and they have their foundation in knowledge, which is not mental or intellectual, but “a luminous growth into the highest state of being….” In other words, this knowledge is acquired by self-experience, intuition, and self-revelation and not by the senses and the intellectual reasoning. Further it has been emphasized that with faith or Shraddhaa, Yoga, and knowledge, one may develop a spiritual personality, and master the lower self by the higher, the natural self by the spiritual. The role of Yoga in the development of human personality is to enable us to gain spiritual experience by passing beyond the mental level. We have to be liberated from the imperfections of our present nature, and live the life of a divine being by means of Yoga. In other words, development from ordinary personality into a spiritual impersonality is made possible through Yoga only. posted by Karma for life Sunday, July 31, 2005 at 11:26 PM

The Celestine Prophecy

A Review by aurodas on May 24, 2005

There are some striking similarities in the author’s work and the vision of The Mother who founded Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville in Southern India. She had undertaken body transformation by inner means and made, according to her own reports, great progress. Self evolution by opening to the new consciousness - which she said had descended in 1956 and had been growing on earth - was the method she advocated. Receiving universal energy, in similar lines to what the book has described, by contacting nature, was described by her as a preliminary step in the transformation of one of the parts of human being, the vital part – the other parts being the mental and the physical.

She had visualized an economy without money circulation for Auroville and the community was to meet every one’s basic material needs. According to her, the ultimate aim of evolution is transformation of the physical. It is an extremely painful and difficult work that would require prolongation of life and might take centuries to realise. But there is also a theory advanced by at least one notable author that she conquered death and crossed over to the invisible subtle body leaving behind her physical which was a un- transformable residue.

Though The Celestine Prophecy is too simplistic and fantastic in details to her own experiences in the path of transformation, the Mother would have been happy to note the popularity of a book published in the U.S with the idea of self evolution as its chief thrust. For, she had said, in 1971, at the instance of publishing in the U.S. of On the Way to Supermanhood a book written by her confidante that described the essence and contours of the future world: “I personally have the feeling there is a close and invisible connection between America’s aspiration, as it is now, and the book. I have the feeling that’s where the center of transformation will be.” Cleary The Celestine Prophecy is a significant book.

Human aspiration

Strong aspiration not only motivates us to act, it also attracts help. Sri Aurobindo, the great Indian teacher of the early 20th century, used to say that human aspiration calls down the force of divine grace, and that this force is what brings breakthrough. Grace comes from many sources, of course. When it comes from within, we experience it as inspiration. Grace also comes in the form of the help we get from other people. In fact, others can be a major source of the grace that leads us to change. posted by eyelash @ Tuesday, October 11, 2005

The Synthesis of Yoga

What's Missing in Today's World: Several months went by before we stumbled onto the collected works of a man named Sri Aurobindo, who lived through the first half of the last century. One book in particular, The Synthesis of Yoga, seemed to meet us exactly where we were. It not only spoke directly to the specific phenomena that had manifested in our being, but it put it into a structural context that lent meaning to our time on Earth. It was a gateway for which we will always be grateful. Sri Aurobindo, as it turns out, was far more than a holy man with extensive spiritual knowledge:

In that year [1906] he returned to his birthplace, Calcutta, as the first Principal of the new Bengal National College. He resigned that post because of his increasingly active involvement in the Nationalist Movement. Sri Aurobindo was the first of the Nationalist leaders to insist on full independence for India as the goal of the movement, and for several years he lent all his considerable abilities and energies to this struggle. This led to him being arrested on a charge of treason and being kept in solitary confinement for almost a year as an 'under trial' prisoner in Alipore jail. During this time he had a number of fundamental spiritual experiences which convinced him of the truth of the "Sanatana Dharma" - the ancient spiritual knowledge and practice of India.After he was acquitted and released, this spiritual awareness led him to take refuge from continuing pursuit by the British authorities in Pondicherry, then part of French India, where he devoted himself intensively to the exploration of the new possibilities it opened up to him. Supported by his spiritual collaborator, The Mother, and using his new-found spiritual capacities, he continued to work tirelessly for the upliftment of India and the world. When India gained its Independence on 15.8.1947, he responded to the request for a message to his countrymen by speaking of five dreams that he had worked for, and which he now saw on the way to fulfilment. posted by Michael Hawkins Tuesday, July 19, 2005@ 9:57:00 AM

Evolution Laboratory

Indian Utopia: Between the traditional villages of south India, with their thatched roofs and wood- canopied verandas, if you venture off the beaten track, you can stumble upon a strange township of futuristic buildings. It looks like the set of a 1960s science-fiction film. There are circular houses with roofs at bizarre angles, walls that slope outwards towards the ground, and slits for windows, like an artist's impression of a moonbase. There are square metallic houses held up on stilts over a smaller concrete lower storey. And it all centres around a giant golden metallic sphere, with dimples all over, rather like a huge golden golf ball. This is called the Matrimandir, or the Mother Temple. A sign on one of the roads points to the "Evolution Laboratory".

The neighbourhoods here have English names, including Aspiration, Certitude, Discipline and Grace. A public drinking fountain advertises "Dynamised water", and a poster beside it explains that "dynamisation" is the incorporation of energies in water that make it healthier, and that one way of achieving this is to make the water "listen" to Bach and Mozart. Rural India, where cows and chickens wander through the villages, and life often gives the impression it has changed little in centuries, is the last place you would expect to find all this. But this is not a film set or a theme park. Here, truth is stranger than fiction. This is Auroville, a living, working community of 1,800 people from 38 countries, who have given up their lives at home to come and live in what is a real-life Utopian project. posted by GoodLookiN! Thursday, August 25, 2005@ 3:21 PM 2 comments

Sri Aurobindo's study of Tamil

Sri Aurobindo, the great light that blazed across India during the first half of the twentieth century, debunked this theory of the North-South racial divide. He was a historian, philosopher, poet, mystic and yogi. Sri Aurobindo has written commentaries on the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and Indian society. Therefore, when Sri Aurobindo speaks, we listen.

Sri Aurobindo did not subscribe to the theory that the languages of North and South India are unrelated. Sri Aurobindo's study of Tamil led him to discover that the original connection between the Sanskrit and Tamil languages was “far closer and more extensive than is usually supposed.” These languages are “two divergent families derived from one lost primitive tongue.” And, “My first study of Tamil words had brought me to what seemed a clue to the very origins and structure of the ancient Sanskrit tongue.” (See The Secret of the Veda, V 10, Centenary Edition, p 36, 46). Sri Aurobindo also noted that a large part of the vocabulary of the South Indian languages (Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam) is common with Sanskrit.

For anyone who seriously wishes to pursue the topic of north-south division in India in the light of Sri Aurobindo, I recommend K. D. Sethna's The Problem of Aryan Origins, New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 1980 and 1992. Dr. Madan Lal Goel: Published on July 16, 2005

Jean Gebser

One of the 1st articles begins with the historic place of Jean Gebser in integral thought, so I am looking forward to this. (Although I'm already having a problem - there's a quote "Jean Gebser may be considered as the intellectual father of integral thought and discussion." This ignores the contributions of, say, Sri Aurobindo, who of course started with Integral Yoga.) At any rate, looking forward to reading and commenting on some of the articles.

by ebuddha at 06:17PM (PDT) on June 1, 2005 Permanent Link

Sri Aurobindo, Ken Wilber

Want to know more about evolutionary Pagan Panentheism? Jay over at Kensho Godchaser has the straight dope for you (even more here). 5.07.2005

"If the Goddess transcends the physical world (i.e., if our spirituality is panentheistic as opposed to pantheistic), it's a safe bet that She has a purpose which lays beyond it, but which is served by its existence. I agree with Sri Aurobindo, Ken Wilber and others that this purpose is evolutionary. The Goddess uses the physical world to exercise the matrix of all her possibilities. She involves herself into the universe, then evolves from this involution. All of history - human and otherwise - is the Goddess unfolding Her matrix as She evolves back to Herself. We are merely the latest step in this evolutionary journey."

Greater Psychology of Sri Aurobindo

It is a little known fact of Ernest Holmes life that one of his last teachers was the Indian mystic sage, Sri Aurobindo. The other night in the Troward class we were talking about the influences on Holmes life, beginning with Emerson at a time when Eastern philosophies were making their influence felt in America. AS a young man, working in California, holmes was inroduced to the lectures of Thomas Troward, the Queen's High Commissioner to India. Trowards work on Mental Science is clearly influenced by Hindu Cosmology. The clarity of his though is somewhat obscured by the Victorian language. A careful and sorry to say repeated exposure to it leads to a richness and a delicacy of thought and language that after repeated readings become like poetry. I have to say I rushed through it in ministerial training as just one more book to read, one more source, one more ...

Having taught the Edinburgh Lectures now ... many times. I love to jusy savour it. Anyway back to Aurobindo. We were having a conversation about all these influences the other day and on Saturday, one of my students who knew nothing of the conversation gave me a book on the "greater Psychology of Sri Aurobindo. Law of Attraction? Certainly not a co-incidence (No such thing). So here was Holmes steeped in the writings of Aurobindo at the end of his life in 1950.So i've launched myelf into the Greatar Philosophy. If there is anyone else out there reading or thinking or studying Aurobindo ... think about sharing your thoughts with meUntil then ... Yoga hunh? hmmmmmm? posted by Rev-T @ Sunday, June 12, 2005 5:57 PM 2 comments

Has Sri Aurobindo Ashram A Future?

Sri Aurobindo Ashram: Its Role, Responsibility and Future Destiny
(By Jugal Kishore Mukherjee; Published by Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Pondicherry)

Spiritual life is ever a divine battle. Those who opt for it have to battle against enemies of the spiritual way of life from outside as well as the enemies of promise within the spiritual fold. It is at this juncture that the 125th birthday of Sri Aurobindo gave a chance to analyse the problems that beleaguer the Ashram. Jugal Kishore Mukherjee’s Visada Yoga (Yoga of sorrow) literally gave birth to an intense heart-searching, and the result is a testament of faith in the future destiny of mankind as one of abiding Ananda consciousness. Jugalda is not willing to wound but he is not afraid to strike at the penury that often devastates the human heart. There is a poverty of the heart when it is rendered weak in sincerity, love, faith. Jugalda is quite conversant with the reasons that often create convulsions within a spiritual community which seeks to master material nature. Necessarily, as with the Tantric disciplines in the past, this way gets clouded due to the powers of Rajas and Tamas that hold sway over the material world. The danger of slipping into mere religiosity is very real and hence Jugalda’s self-questionings:

“Do many Ashramites still aspire after and make an effort for the acquisition of spiritual consciousness?

And if yes, who guide and illumine the sadhaks in their spiritual endeavour?

Can one contact the Presence of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo as a really living reality here?

Why are there at times serious conflicts in the Ashram?

Has the Ashram outlived its value as a spiritual institution?

Is there any fear of its transforming itself with the passage of time into a thriving cultural community, forgetting the pristine character given it by the Mother and Sri Aurobindo?”

Today the Ashram has 1200 regular inmates and also a good number of people from outside who participate in the Ashram life. However, in all this variety of external life (teaching, painting, plumbing, cooking, doll-making, to name but a few) there lies the danger of forgetting the primary goal. Genuflexion to the portraits or the Samadhi alone is not enough. Interweaving his argument with telling illustrations from The Life Divine, Jugalda seeks to educate the reader on the ideal group life where “the individuals constituting any collectivity should move away from their surface existence which is at present the field of unbridled play of ego and try to dwell more and more in their inner consciousnees.” Such an antahkarana-approach is not too easy to come by in this Age of Visual Culture. But then one has to exercise eternal vigilance not to succumb to the Tamas but hold on to “an ardent and one-pointed practice to reach the Goal”, though Jugalda finds this ideal conspicuous by its absence.

Jugalda understands the problems of those who deviate from the goal. There are reasons. The close concentration of a large number of people within a small space, the absence of a code of conduct spelt out in militarist terminology, a lack of stress on personal relationships are but some of them. Relationships have to work on the wavelength of the Divine and this is hard to achieve for human beings. And yet, Jugalda will neither compromise (no, our aim is not merely another cultural centre or religious retreat) nor give up the Aurobindonian ideal as an utopian dream. He finds many positive points for optimism. Freedom, yes. Permissiveness, no. Jugalda warns that permissiveness is an evil that should be rooted out on the spot. In the Ashram there are no subordinates. Everyone is a helper. The heads of sections are there only for administrative convenience.

Jugalda does not gloss over the negative details like the desire on the part of some Ashramites to move out of the Ashram often or the urge to acquire personal wealth. Though Sri Aurobindo and the Mother had no use for the Ascetic’s refusal, they did not favour superfluities in one’s life. There is then the question of man-woman relationships. Fortunately, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have dealt with all such wrong movements and have given firm directions. An Ashram life is meant for a growth in consciousness. Sri Aurobindo’s vision of a Deva Sangha saw a collectivity of aspirants pursuing the Integral Yoga for a rise in consciousness. The aim was never lost sight of even when the Ashram extended its parameters of action. The original afflatus that began the Ashram is still a guardian power, for Jugalda marvels that in spite of all the problems the Ashram life flows on smoothly and quietly.

Dr. Prema Nandakumar

Sabda Newsletter, August 2000

The terror and the tears

Anticipating Buber, he (Vyasa) saw history as the encounter of the temporal and the eternal, the empirical and the transcendental; and anticipating Berdyaev, he saw in history a divine programme for divinising human existence.

I hero worshipped [Sri] Aurobindo in my college days; but now half a century later, I am terribly disappointed.

• His discussion of time and eternity is wholly derived from that of Boethius;
• Page after page in [The] Life Divine is watered down Plotinus.
• His vision of History has the bookishness of Hegel’s tidy schema, Spirit fulfilling its schedule of progress with no problem whatever.

But history is fatefully open ended, for man can abuse his freedom to become an Asura and wreck himself too thereby. Man can regress to a cannibal, Bhima drinking Duhsasana’s blood. Man may commit race-suicide, as nearly happened in Kurukshetra where only 9 men survived out of 18 vast armies.

I am afraid [Sri] Aurobindo’s inflated rhetoric does not see the terror and the tears at the heart of things. I must confess your casual rating of Vyasa and Berdyaev vis-a-vis [Sri] Aurobindo shocked me. [Krishna Chaitanya (Dr. K.K.Nair)]

Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy

From an early age, Sri Aurobindo (1872 – 1950) was brought up in England. But the spirit of Indian nationalism dawned on him as soon as he returned from England, and he joined the political movement to free India from the shackles of the outside rulers. He was soon sentenced to jail, where, it is said, he had the vision of the Lord Krsna, a Hindu deity. This vision revolutionalised his life. On being freed from jail, he went to Pondicherry and sat in deep meditation for years. The truth that dawned on him was subsequently expressed in all his writings.

In Sri Aurobindo the two currents of intellectualism and spiritualism intermingled. He wrote about philosophy, no doubt. But all his philosophical writings were governed by his spiritual outlook. As he himself said, when he was left alone to fill up the sixty pages of the magazine Arya every month, he did not find the task difficult. He simply expressed in a rational, intellectual form what he had experienced in his practice of Yoga. It follows, therefore, that he was primarily a Yogi who turned his hand to philosophy from the viewpoint of a yogi. In other words, his philosophy was nothing but a thought-construction out of his unique conception of Yoga.

The guiding principle of Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy is to avoid two extremes: materialism ignoring spirit, which was prevalent in the West; and spiritualism neglecting matter, which was dominant in the East. True philosophy must rise out of a harmony or synthesis between the two… Sri Aurobindo firmly believed that there could not be any ascent of the world into the spirit without the complementary process of the descent of the spirit into the world. [Tapan Kumar Chakrabarti, Blackwell Companion, 1999; 621]