4th of April - Darshan of Sri Aurobindo's First Residence

 

Sri Aurobindo: A Life Sketch

Sri Aurobindo: A Life Sketch

SRI AUROBINDO, IN HIS OWN WORDS

Sri Aurobindo was born in Calcutta on August 15, 1872. In 1879, at the age of seven, he was taken with his two elder brothers to England for education and lived there for fourteen years. Brought up at first in an English family at Manchester, he joined St. Paul's School in London in [1884] [MS 1885. See Table 1, page 565.—Ed.] and in 1890 went from it with a senior classical scholarship to King's College, Cambridge, where he studied for two years. In 1890 he passed also the open competition for the Indian Civil Service, but at the end of two years of probation failed to present himself at the riding examination and was disqualified for the Service. At this time the Gaekwar of Baroda was in London. Aurobindo saw him, obtained an appointment in the Baroda Service and left England in [January], 1893.
Sri Aurobindo passed thirteen years, from 1893 to 1906, in the Baroda Service, first in the Revenue Department and in secretariat work for the Maharaja, afterwards as Professor of English and, finally, Vice-Principal in the Baroda College. These were years of self-culture, of literary activity—for much of the poetry afterwards published from Pondicherry was written at this time—and of preparation for his future work. In England he had received, according to his father's express instructions, an entirely occidental education without any contact with the culture of India and the East. [It may be observed that Sri Aurobindo's education in England gave him a wide introduction to the culture of ancient, of mediaeval and of modern Europe. He was a brilliant scholar in Greek and Latin. He had learned French from his childhood in Manchester and studied for himself German and Italian sufficiently to read Goethe and Dante in the original tongues. [He passed the Tripos in Cambridge in the first division and obtained record marks in Greek and Latin in the examination for the Indian Civil Service.]] [Sri Aurobindo's note.]
At Baroda he made up the deficiency, learned Sanskrit and several modern Indian languages, assimilated the spirit of Indian civilisation and its forms past and present. A great part of the last years of this period was spent on leave in silent political activity, for he was debarred from public action by his position at Baroda. The outbreak of the agitation against the partition of Bengal in 1905 gave him the opportunity to give up the Baroda Service and join openly in the political movement. He left Baroda in 1906 and went to Calcutta as Principal of the newly-founded Bengal National College.
The political action of Sri Aurobindo covered eight years, from 1902 to 1910. During the first half of this period he worked behind the scenes, preparing with other co-workers the beginnings of the Swadeshi (Indian Sinn Fein) movement, till the agitation in Bengal furnished an opening for the public initiation of a more forward and direct political action than the moderate reformism which had till then been the creed of the Indian National Congress. In 1906 Sri Aurobindo came to Bengal with this purpose and joined the New Party, an advanced section small in numbers and not yet strong in influence, which had been recently formed in the Congress...
The new-born Nationalist party put forward Swaraj (independence) as its goal as against the far-off Moderate hope of colonial self-government to be realised at a distant date of a century or two by a slow progress of reform; it proposed as its means of execution a programme which resembled in spirit, though not in its details, the policy of Sinn Fein developed some years later and carried to a successful issue in Ireland…Sri Aurobindo hoped to capture the Congress and make it the directing centre of an organised national action, an informal State within the State, which would carry on the struggle for freedom till it was won. He persuaded the party to take up and finance as its recognised organ the newly-founded daily paper, Bande Mataram, of which he was at the time acting editor. The Bande Mataram, whose policy from the beginning of 1907 till its abrupt winding up in 1908 when Aurobindo was in prison was wholly directed by him, circulated almost immediately all over India. During its brief but momentous existence it changed the political thought of India which has ever since preserved fundamentally, even amidst its later developments, the stamp then imparted to it. But the struggle initiated on these lines, though vehement and eventful and full of importance for the future, did not last long at the time; for the country was still unripe for so bold a programme.
Sri Aurobindo was prosecuted for sedition in 1907 and acquitted. Up till now an organiser and writer, he was obliged by this event and by the imprisonment or disappearance of other leaders to come forward as the acknowledged head of the party in Bengal and to appear on the platform for the first time as a speaker. He presided over the Nationalist Conference at Surat in 1907 where in the forceful clash of two equal parties the Congress was broken to pieces. In May, 1908, he was arrested in the Alipur Conspiracy Case as implicated in the doings of the revolutionary group led by his brother Barindra; but no evidence of any value could be established against him and in this case too he was acquitted. After a detention of one year as undertrial prisoner in the Alipur Jail, he came out in May, 1909, to find the party organisation broken, its leaders scattered by imprisonment, deportation or self-imposed exile and the party itself still existent but dumb and dispirited and incapable of any strenuous action. For almost a year he strove single-handed as the sole remaining leader of the Nationalists in India to revive the movement. He published at this time to aid his effort a weekly English paper, the Karmayogin, and a Bengali weekly, the Dharma. But at last he was compelled to recognise that the nation was not yet sufficiently trained to carry out his policy and programme. For a time he thought that the necessary training must first be given through a less advanced Home Rule movement or an agitation of passive resistance of the kind created by Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa. But he saw that the hour of these movements had not come and that he himself was not their destined leader. Moreover, since his twelve months' detention in the Alipur Jail, which had been spent entirely in the practice of Yoga, his inner spiritual life was pressing upon him for an exclusive concentration. He resolved therefore to withdraw from the political field, at least for a time.
In February, 1910, he withdrew to a secret retirement at Chandernagore and in the beginning of April sailed for Pondicherry in French India… During all his stay at Pondicherry from 1910 to the present moment [This "Life Sketch" was written in 1930 and published in 1937. Sri Aurobindo's retirement lasted until his passing in December 1950.—Ed.] he has remained more and more exclusively devoted to his spiritual work and his sadhana. In 1914 after four years of silent Yoga he began the publication of a philosophical monthly, the Arya. Most of his more important works, those published since in book form, the Isha Upanishad, the Essays on the Gita, and others not yet published, the Life Divine, the Synthesis of Yoga, [These two works, and many others, have since been published in book form.—Ed.] appeared serially in the Arya. These works embodied much of the inner knowledge that had come to him in his practice of Yoga. Others were concerned with the spirit and significance of Indian civilisation and culture, the true meaning of the Vedas, the progress of human society, the nature and evolution of poetry, the possibility of the unification of the human race. At this time also he began to publish his poems, both those written in England and at Baroda and those, fewer in number, added during his period of political activity and in the first years of his residence at Pondicherry. The Arya ceased publication in 1921 after six years and a half of uninterrupted appearance.
Sri Aurobindo lived at first in retirement at Pondicherry with four or five disciples. Afterwards more and yet more began to come to him to follow his spiritual path and the number became so large that a community of sadhaks had to be formed for the maintenance and collective guidance of those who had left everything behind for the sake of a higher life. This was the foundation of the Sri Aurobindo Asram which has less been created than grown around him as its centre. Sri Aurobindo began his practice of Yoga in 1905. At first gathering into it the essential elements of spiritual experience that are gained by the paths of divine communion and spiritual realisation followed till now in India, he passed on in search of a more complete experience uniting and harmonising the two ends of existence, Spirit and Matter. Most ways of Yoga are paths to the Beyond leading to the Spirit and, in the end, away from life; Sri Aurobindo's rises to the Spirit to redescend with its gains bringing the light and power and bliss of the Spirit into life to transform it. Man's present existence in the material world is in this view or vision of things a life in the Ignorance with the Inconscient at its base, but even in its darkness and nescience there are involved the presence and possibilities of the Divine. The created world is not a mistake or a vanity and illusion to be cast aside by the soul returning to heaven or Nirvana, but the scene of a spiritual evolution by which out of this material Inconscience is to be manifested progressively the Divine Consciousness in things. Mind is the highest term yet reached in the evolution, but it is not the highest of which it is capable. There is above it a Supermind or eternal Truth-consciousness which is in its nature the self-aware and self-determining light and power of a Divine Knowledge. Mind is an ignorance seeking after Truth, but this is a self-existent Knowledge harmoniously manifesting the play of its forms and forces. It is only by the descent of this supermind that the perfection dreamed of by all that is highest in humanity can come. It is possible by opening to a greater divine consciousness to rise to this power of light and bliss, discover one's true self, remain in constant union with the Divine and bring down the supramental Force for the transformation of mind and life and body. To realise this possibility has been the dynamic aim of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga.

Source:  http://www.sacar.in/sri-aurobindo-life-sketch.php

DECEMBER 5 - SRI AUROBINDO'S MAHASAMADHI DAY Sri Aurobindo leaves his body on December 5, 1950.

// ॐ आनंदमयि चैतन्यमयि सत्यमयि परमे //
DECEMBER 5 - SRI AUROBINDO'S MAHASAMADHI DAY
Sri Aurobindo leaves his body on December 5, 1950.

...we have to turn to the Mother for a glimpse into what happened at that climactic moment. "He had accumulated in his body much supramental Force, and as soon as he left... You see, he was lying on his bed, I stood by his side, and in a way althogether concrete - concrete with such a strong sensation as to make one think that it could be seen - all this supramental Force which was in him passed from his body into mine. And I felt the friction of the passage. It was extraordinary. It was an extraordinary experience."
..."As soon as Sri Aurobindo withdrew from his body, what he has called the Mind of Light got realized in me," the Mother said to K.D. Sethna.
- The Mother - The Story of Her Life
Sri Aurobindo went into mahasamadhi in 1950 and left the world "not the way of all flesh", i.e. like human beings before him and still do, but in the words of the Mother, "he was not forced to leave his body; he has chosen to do so."
- Beyond Man: The Life and Work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother

On 5th December 1950 at 1:26 a.m. he left his body and by morning the entire body was seen to be suffused with a golden-crimson hue, so fresh and so magnificent, lifting us from the pall of gloom to a mute wonder. This Supramental Light remained for five days at a stretch and many people witnessed the magnificent and unique phenomenon. A mortal body generally shows signs of decomposition within twenty-four hours, but for five days Sri Aurobindo's body remained intact with no signs of discoloration or decomposition.
Gradually, on 9th December, the light began to fade, and in the evening the body was put in a rosewood box and laid to rest in the Ashram courtyard under the cool shade of the Service Tree.
-Nirodbaran

THE UNPARALLELED POETS—RISHI AUROBINDO AND RABINDRANATH TAGORE

THE UNPARALLELED POETS—RISHI AUROBINDO AND RABINDRANATH TAGORE
(Written by Rajiv Roy in 'Meghalaya Times'. Posted in Writers Column)



Is there a common cord between two of India’s greatest sons—Sri Aurobindo and Rabindranath Tagore? The philosopher, spiritualist, poet, yogi Maharishi (Sri) Aurobindo and on the other hand and equally versatile Nobel Laureate Tagore was aware of each other in many fronts. (Sri) Aurobindo remains one of the greatest architects of India’s freedom struggle and giver of the most authentic statement on Indian philosophy after Shankar besides being a Mahayogi and a great poet of the spirit. Tagore was fully aware of this as was (Sri) Aurobindo of Tagore. “Today when we look at them against the perspective of time, we can see (Sri) Aurobindo the poet and prophet of the Eternal Day for the human race and Tagore, a soulful poet of the dawn jealously guarding the nobility of purpose with purity of means and they together symbolizing the Incredible India or India eternal,” said Dr BB Dutta, former Shillong parliamentarian and a follower of (Sri) Aurobindo’s philosophy and Tagore’s literary works.

(Sri) Aurobindo was 11 years younger than Tagore (b. 1861). After his arrival at Calcutta from Baroda, he met Tagore in 1906 at his Jorasanko House. He went there in response to an invitation sent by Tagore for dinner. Some say it was their first meeting. But it may not be so as (Sri) Aurobindo was occasionally visiting Calcutta from Baroda in connection with organizing a revolutionary movement for freedom of India. “His writings in Induprakash (since 1893) ‘New Lamp for the Old’ airing radical ideas and in opposition to the current thinking of the Congress stalwarts had already created a tremendous impact among the intelligentsia of those days. This invitation to dinner where Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, a Japanese artist and some other prominent people were present is an indication that Tagore had started holding him in high regards,” said Dutta. Tagore frequently visited the ‘Sanjivani’ Office and there also he and (Sri) Aurobindo occasionally met. When (Sri) Aurobindo joined ‘Bande Mataram’ as its Editor, Tagore became an avid reader of it the main attraction being what was flowing from the pen of (Sri) Aurobindo. 'Bande Mataram' reached such a height that it became the focus of the entire Indian nation and Tagore wrote to his son, Rathindranath who was studying in USA that henceforth instead of sending ‘The Statesman’ he would send him the ‘Bande Mataram’. (Sri) Aurobindo became the Principal of the National College founded by the National Council of Education and Professor of History and Tagore became the Professor of Bengali. “Obviously a close association developed between the two,” asserts Dutta.

On September 23rd, 1907, Apurba Bose was sentenced to three months in prison as the printer of ‘Bande Mataram’ for printing seditious articles. But (Sri) Aurobindo was acquitted for lack of proof that he was the author. But as he was acquitted, Tagore came to congratulate him and said in Bengali with a smile, “What! You have deceived us!” (by not going to jail). Aurobindo replied in English, “Not for long, will you have to wait”. Nalini Kanta Gupta, a close associate and disciple of (Sri) Aurobindo has dwelt on the natural affinity between these two geniuses. He says, “Both were poets, nay, seer poets. Tagore, the poet of the dawn and (Sri) Aurobindo, the poet and prophet of the Eternal Day, a new Dawn and Day for the human race.” Firmly rooted to the great heritage, both Tagore and (Sri) Aurobindo had the vision of a great future for their motherland and to realize that both considered her freedom as the basic necessity to recover her greatness. The writings and utterances of both of them created a psychological revolution—a revolution that began almost overnight during the Swadeshi days and the first decade of the 20th century. “Both of them joined the movement, led it in their own way and distanced themselves from active struggle to carry out their separate missions, they felt they have been entrusted with. These two master-souls were at one in the central purpose of their life,” said the former parliamentarian.

As Santiniketan grew with Tagore, a prolific creative writer, a poet and a social activist, so grew Pondicherry Ashram with (Sri) Aurobindo, poet, philosopher and a Mahayogi with Mother, his spiritual collaborator playing the role of a social activist. Tagore was so touched by the soul-stirring writings of (Sri) Aurobindo leading with a rare courage and conviction that he himself called on (Sri) Aurobindo and read out to him his heart’s homage, of which the majestic opening lines are “Rabindranath, O Aurobindo, bows to thee!/O friend, my country’s friend, O voice incarnate, free,/Of India’s soul!” On Tagore’s literary genius, (Sri) Aurobindo says, “... His work is a constant music of the over passing of the borders, a chant–filled realm in which the subtle sounds and lights of the truth of the spirit give new meanings to the finer subtleties of life”. Singling out a particular poem of Tagore, (Sri) Aurobindo once wrote, “But the poignant sweetness, passion and spiritual depth and mystery of a poem like this, the haunting cadences subtle with a subtlety which is not of technique but of the soul and the honey-laden felicity of the expression, there are the essential Rabindranath and cannot be imitated because they are things of the spirit and one must have the same sweetness and depth of soul before one can hope to catch any of these desirable qualities.”

Furthermore: “One of the most remarkable peculiarities of Rabindra Babu’s genius is the happiness and originality with which he has absorbed the whole spirit of Vaishnava poetry and turned it into something essentially the same and yet new and modern. He has given the old sweet spirit of emotional and passionate religion an expression of more delicate and complex richness voice-full of subtler and more penetratingly spiritual shades of feeling than the deep-hearted but simple early age of Bengal could know.”

Dutta concludes by saying that certain coincidences and correspondences in the lives of these two master-souls must not be missed as they came together in the tumultuous days of 1905 partition of Bengal and were on the crest wave of India’s first nationalist resurgence. “Tagore has described World War I as “Yuga-Sandhi, the dying of the old age of night to the dawning of a new with its blood red sunrise emerging through the treble of death, sorrow and pain.” To Sri Aurobindo, this World War was a cataclysm intended by nature to affect a fast break in the old order to usher in the new,” he said.

(*Article sourced from http://meghalayatimes.info/index.php/writer-s-column/27276-the-unparalleled-poets-rishi-aurobindo-and-rabindranath-tagore)

MAHATMA GANDHI’S ABORTED 1934 ATTEMPT TO MEET SRI AUROBINDO

MAHATMA GANDHI’S ABORTED 1934 ATTEMPT TO
MEET SRI AUROBINDO

In 1934, Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the Indian freedom struggle, sought to meet Sri Aurobindo because they had never met in person before. The latter declined the request because he didn’t want to break the seclusion that he had been observing since 1926. Strangely, the Mother who had no such restriction also declined to meet him. By combining the correspondence available in the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi with the records in the Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo, it is possible to build a complete picture of why this important meeting never transpired. One of Mahatma Gandhi’s letters seen below also furnishes us with a second-hand account of daily life in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

For those who may not know, from 1906 to 1910 Sri Aurobindo had risen to become a prominent leader in India’s freedom struggle against British rule. He retired to Pondicherry in April, 1910 after receiving a Divine command (“adesh”) to abandon political life and devote himself to spiritual transformation. In 1915, Gandhi, who had been fighting for the rights of Indian immigrants in South Africa for about two decades, returned to India and within a few years became the undisputed leader of the Indian freedom struggle. For many years, the national leadership continued to hope that Sri Aurobindo would one day return to lead the freedom struggle. In 1920, Gandhi had wired Sri Aurobindo to accept the nomination for the president of the upcoming Congress session but the latter turned down the request (1).

In November 1933, Gandhi embarked on a nation-wide tour as part of his campaign against untouchability and the caste system. Since his tour was to take him to Pondicherry, he sought to use the opportunity to have a face-to-face conversation with Sri Aurobindo. He wrote to Govindbhai Patel, an Ashram inmate, to facilitate the meeting:

December 25, 1933

Bhai Govindbhai,

On receipt of your letter I inquired and learnt that an invitation had been received from Pondicherry, and most probably I shall be visiting the place. If I go, I should certainly like to call on Shri Aurobindo. It would be a great disappointment to me if I could not see him. If, therefore, you can arrange for a meeting without much fuss, please do so. After the programme is finalized, I also will write and request for an interview (2)

Govindbhai put the matter before Sri Aurobindo who politely declined:

28 December 1933

Govindbhai Patel: Here is a postcard from Gandhi. If you think he can receive something from you, please grant him permission to meet you.

Sri Aurobindo: You will have to write that I am unable to see him because for a long time past I have made it an absolute rule not to have any interview with anyone—that I do not even speak with my disciples and only give a silent blessing to them three times a year. All requests for an interview from others I have been obliged to refuse. This rule has been imposed on me by the necessity of my sadhana and is not at all a matter of convenience or anything else. The time has not come when I can depart from it. (3)

Gandhi again pressed Sri Aurobindo for a few minutes of his time:

2 Jan 1934

M. K. Gandhi: . . . Perhaps you know that ever since my return to India I have been anxious to meet you face to face. Not being able to do that, I sent my son to you. Now that it is almost certain that I am to be in Pondicherry, will you spare me a few minutes & see me! I know how reluctant you are to see anybody. But if you are under no positive vow of abstinence, I hope you will give me a few minutes of your time. . . .

Sri Aurobindo replied to him courteously:

Dear Mahatmaji

It is true that I have made no vow, for I never make one, but my retirement is not less binding on me so long as it—and the reason for it—lasts. I think you will understand that it is not a personal or mental choice but something impersonal from a deeper source for the inner necessity of work and sadhana. It prevents me from receiving you but I cannot do otherwise than keep to the rule I have adhered to for some years past. (4)

Sri Aurobindo’s letter was delayed so Gandhi had to write again to Govindbhai:

January 12, 1934

Bhai Govindbhai,

I have written to you saying that I had written a long letter to Shri Aurobindo. I have received no reply till today. I have written to you in reply to your English letter, too, and said that you may ask me any questions you wish to when we meet. (5)

Sri Aurobindo surmised (correctly) that his letter must have been intercepted by the British intelligence agency. Gandhi was being closely monitored by the British to ensure that he kept his pledge of eschewing political agitation during the untouchability tour. Reports of his talks and actions were continuously filed by low-level observers and traveled all the way to the secretary of state for India in Whitehall in England. (6)

12 January 1934

Govindbhai Patel: Gandhi writes that he has not yet received Sri Aurobindo’s answer. I hear that he asked at least a line in Sri Aurobindo’s hand; and that Sri Aurobindo has written a full letter in his own hand—which he does not usually do. Is this a fact?

Sri Aurobindo: Yes. I wrote to him a short letter explaining the nature of my retirement and regretting that I could not break my rule so long as the reason for it existed. It was addressed to Bangalore I believe and ought to have reached him, unless it has been pocketed by the C.I.D. I suppose even if he had left Bangalore it would have been forwarded to him. You can write and inform him of the fact. (7)

Since he could not meet Sri Aurobindo, Gandhi wondered if he could meet the Mother instead and also tour the Ashram.

January 21, 1934

Bhai Govindbhai,

It seems my stay in Pondicherry will be a very brief one. But if I can, I should very much like to see Mother and to go round the Ashram. Sri Aurobindo’s letter reached me yesterday after a good deal of wandering. I cannot follow all that you say in your letters. I may say this for myself, that nothing is dearer to me in this world than the search for truth (8).

Govindbhai put Gandhi’s new request before Sri Aurobindo.

24 Jan 1934

Govindbhai Patel: I am sure he will prolong his stay to see the Mother. And the Mother is Mother after all, let him have Her touch. I am sure he is not going to bother Mother by political topics. If he talks at all, he will talk about his search after Truth.

Sri Aurobindo: With his programme it is impossible. Also I do not see any utility. You must on no account ask him to delay his departure, that is quite contrary to what we wish. His search for Truth is on fixed lines of his own and the Mother can say nothing to help him there—nor has he said that he wants any help—and the Asram would hardly please him since it is run on quite unascetic lines contrary to his ideal (9).

Sri Aurobindo turned down the request because Gandhi’s political and spiritual ideals were markedly different from those espoused by him and the Mother. Inspired by Tolstoy, Gandhi had adopted an extreme form of ascetism; he used to observe fasts regularly ; he had given up cow’s milk because of its alleged aphrodisiac properties and switched to drinking goat’s milk. There were differences on the political front as well. During his political career, Sri Aurobindo had advocated a vigorous industrialisation of the country to free India from its dependence on British goods while Gandhi who preferred a simple rural life wanted everyone to make their own clothes at home by spinning cotton on the charkha (the spinning-wheel). Sri Aurobindo had advocated passive resistance as long as the ruling power, the British, did not turn violent, in which case the resistance had to become more active and aggressive (10). By contrast, Gandhi favoured the use of Ahimsa (non-violence) in all circumstances in the fond hope that it would melt the aggressor’s heart. He even asked Jews to practice the same method against Hitler. Hitler, on the other hand, had once advised Lord Irwin, Viceroy of India from 1926-1931: “All you have to do is to shoot Gandhi” (11).

Since he did not receive any favourable reply from Sri Aurobindo, Gandhi decided against visiting Pondicherry :

February 3, 1934

Bhai Govindbhai,

I have your letter. A new programme has been drawn up, in which the visit to Pondicherry has been dropped. I must confess that I do not have the same curiosity that you have. I have respect for all individuals. I have known about Sri Aurobindo since a long time. You have many Gujaratis there. There are others, too. I would want to know something of an ashram which shelters so many people. It was in order to satisfy this desire that I made the attempt. But that is over now. It would have given me some satisfaction if I could have at least met you all. (12)

Gandhi then wrote a letter to Vallabhbhai Patel (another Indian leader) informing him of the reluctance of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother to meet him:

February 5, 1934

Vallabhbhai Patel

The attempt which I made to see Shri Aurobindo was for the sake of the Gujaratis in Pondicherry. His refusal was courteous. He said that he saw nobody. The Revered Mother did not reply at all. My visit to that town has been dropped now. In a way I am glad that it has been. (13)

In the meanwhile, a notice had been put up in the Ashram prohibiting members from attending Gandhi’s meetings, as we learn from the following exchange.

On 9 February 1934

Disciple: It seems some people from the town went to see Gandhi and asked him why he had cancelled his visit to the Asram. Gandhi is supposed to have said that it was because Sri Aurobindo was not willing to see him, after which he showed a copy of the notice which was put on our notice board—the one prohibiting members of the Asram from attending Gandhi’s arrival procession, etc. I don’t believe Gandhi actually had a copy of the notice but some people in town must have known of it.

Sri Aurobindo: That is all nonsense. Gandhi’s decision not to come here was made before the notice was put on the board. My decision to issue the notice and his decision not to come may have coincided —but how could he know it except by telepathy?

Disciple: In one of his letters to Govindbhai, Gandhi said that he would be much disappointed if he did not see Sri Aurobindo. If that was the case, I wonder why he couldn’t wait till the 21st to have Darshan.

Sri Aurobindo: I suppose the disappointment was nothing more than a phrase —meaning, I would so much have liked to see what kind of a person you are. If I have read his last letter to Govindbhai aright, his request was dictated by curiosity rather than anything else. If anybody expected him to come here seeking for Truth, it was absurd—he has his own fixed way of seeing things and is not likely to change it. (14)

Plans changed again. Gandhi decided to visit Pondicherry on February 17, 1934 (15). Sri Aurobindo still refused to allow Gandhi to meet the Mother!

16 Feb 1934

Govindbhai Patel: As he has written to me to inform you, shall I answer that the Mother cannot see him or shall I remain silent? If he enquires about seeing Mother, shall I say that she will not be able to see him?

Sri Aurobindo: You can tell him that just now the circumstances are such that it is impossible for the Mother to receive his visit (16).

Given the series of blanket refusals, Sri Aurobindo then asked Govindbhai to personally meet Gandhi to alleviate any misunderstanding.

Disciple: Yesterday Gandhi asked permission to see the Mother. I heard that Mother asked Govindbhai to meet him and explain her inability to see him.

Sri Aurobindo: Gandhi wrote to Govindbhai and from his letter it seemed as if he were still expecting to see the Mother and the Asram or at least expecting an answer. In view of this persistence we sent Govindbhai to explain to him that it was impossible for the Mother to receive his visit (17).

The rationale behind this stubborn reluctance to receive Gandhi becomes apparent in a subsequent letter that Gandhi wrote after meeting Govindbhai. It seems that the Ashram was being closely watched by the British. Welcoming Mahatma Gandhi at this juncture might have imperiled the friendly relations that the Ashram enjoyed with the French government which ruled over Pondicherry. In this letter, we also get a glimpse of daily life in the Ashram.

February 19, 1934

Letter to Vallabhbhai Patel

I visited Pondicherry. I could see nobody there. Mother didn’t reply at all. But Govindbhai came and saw me when I was in another place. He told me the whole story. The Ashram is being watched, and so there was some risk even in letting me visit the place. Half the number of the inmates are Gujaratis. Govindbhai was also in the Ashram formerly. The daily routine in this Ashram is as follows: They get up at five in the morning. Every sadhaka has a separate room for himself. There are about 150 sadhakas. They come from everywhere. Among them are Dilip (Kumar Roy) and Harin Chattopadhyaya, the husband of Kamaladevi. The Ashram has rented about 40 houses. The food is similar to that provided in our Ashram. Shri Aurobindo comes out only on three days in the year. Shri Aurobindo and Mother don’t sleep at all. Shri (Aurobindo) does recline in an armchair between 3.30 a.m. and 4.30 a.m., but he does not sleep. The sadhakas have to send up their diary every day. They can ask questions. Letters from Shri (Aurobindo) and Mother are delivered to them four times a day. Between them, they write about 200 letters daily. No letter remains unattended to. Shri (Aurobindo) knows innumerable languages. He reforms sadhakas through secret influence on their minds. Harin Chattopadhyaya has given up drinking, etc. Liquor and meat are forbidden in the Ashram. This is the description given by Govindbhai, and he has invited me to join the Ashram. I hope you will be satisfied with this (18).

Sri Aurobindo and the Ashram which came up later in Pondicherry had been under British surveillance since 1910. It was in 1937, when a Congress government came to power in the Madras Presidency (roughly equivalent to today’s Tamil Nadu state) that the surveillance finally came to an end. Doraiswamy Iyengar, a disciple of Sri Aurobindo and a lawyer by profession, made the request to the Premier of Madras Presidency, C. Rajagopachari to have it ended (19).

(Source: https://auromere.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/mahatma-gandhis-aborted-1934-attempt-to-meet-sri-aurobindo)

SHAHEED DIWAS

SHAHEED DIWAS

While paying homage to the great Indian freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai, Sri Aurobindo said: “Happy is he, for his Mother has accepted his service and given it the highest reward for which a patriot can hope, the privilege of not merely serving but suffering for her.”

He went on to say: “Lala Lajpat Rai has gone from us, but doubt not that men stronger and greater than he will take his place. For when a living and rising cause is persecuted, this is the sure result that in the place of those whom persecution strikes down, there arise, like the giants from the blood of Raktabij, men who to their own strength add the strength, doubled and quadrupled by death or persecution, of the martyrs for the cause.”

These words of Sri Aurobindo, though said for for Lalaji, stand true for his worthy successors—Martyrs Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru—in India’s freedom struggle. The anniversary of the deaths of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru on March 23, 1931, is marked as Martyr’s Day. Their execution spurred many youth throughout India to take up the revolutionary path, playing a vital role in energizing the fight against the British empire. On Martyrs’ Day, also known as ‘Shaheed Diwas’ or ‘Sarvodaya Day’, Indians pay homage to the eternally young 23-year-old Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev and 22-year-old Rajguru who infused such youthful blood in the fight for India’s independence. May the countrymen never forget the ideals for which such heroes laid down their lives! May this country never forget their supreme sacrifice!

 

 

MRINALINI DEVI Sri Aurobindo’s Relationship with His Earthly Consort

MRINALINI DEVI
Sri Aurobindo’s Relationship with His Earthly Consort

Sri Aurobindo married Mrinalini Devi (March 6, 1887—December 17, 1918), the eldest daughter of Bhupal Chandra Bose and Gopalkamini Devi in April 1901. During Sri Aurobindo’s imprisonment in connection with the Alipore Bomb Trial and then later after Sri Aurobindo shifted to Pondicherry, Mrinalini Devi stayed with her parents at Shillong. A young cousin of Mrinalini Devi wrote an anecdote about her, which also finds mention in the biography of Mrinalini Devi by Nirod Da:
“During these last 8 years, occasional letters from Sri Aurobindo were her only solace and support, Shillong was a hilly place, one of the loveliest spots of Nature. Mrinalini would wander about in the garden in her leisure time. One day I asked her, ‘Didi, you seem to love flowers best of all!’ She replied, ‘You know, your Gurudev was like a flower. I used to smell the fragrance of flowers in his presence.’ [The Mother also has said that a lotus-fragrance used to emanate from Sri Aurobindo’s body.] One evening meandering through a pine wood, Mrinalini sat upon a hillock. From there, the range of hill-tops beyond was exposed to view, clear like an enormous picture. Looking at the beautiful scene, Mrinalini fell into a meditative mood. I also enjoyed the charm of the place, but since her meditation lasted too long I got fidgety. When she opened her eyes, I asked her, ‘Didi, there is so much beauty all around us and you pass the entire period in darkness!’ She answered, ‘Silly boy, you don’t know that this infinite splendour helps me to plunge into the source of its beauty. You were annoyed perhaps! You know, in your Gurudev’s heart is a heavenly city many times more beautiful than this outer beauty.’”

Nirod Da writes further: “As regards Sri Aurobindo, I seem to have stumbled upon the key to the deeper mystery concealed behind his apparently futile marriage. The letter he wrote to Bhupalbabu [Mrinalini Devi’s father] after Mrinalini’s demise holds that key; here is the letter:

My dear father-in-law,
I have not written to you with regard to the fatal event in both our lives; words are useless in face of the feelings it has caused, if even they can express our deepest emotions. God has seen good to lay upon me the one sorrow that could still touch me to the centre. He knows better than ourselves what is best for each of us, and now that the first sense of the irreparable has passed, I can bow with submission to His divine purpose. The physical tie between us is, as you say, severed; but the tie of affection subsists for me. Where I have once loved, I do not cease from loving. Besides, she who was the cause of it, still is near, though not visible to our physical vision.

It is needless to say much about the matters of which you write in your letter. I approve of everything that you propose. Whatever Mrinalini would have desired, should be done and I have no doubt this is what she would have approved of. I consent to the chudis (gold bangles) being kept by her mother; but I should be glad if you would send me two or three of her books, especially if there are any in which her name is written. I have of her only her letters and a photograph.
Aurobindo”

Nirod Da goes on to explain his thoughts in the following words: “I find this letter extremely interesting, full of surprises. It is underlined with hitherto unknown aspects of Sri Aurobindo’s life and throws overboard our accustomed notions or conceptions about him. It is therefore a precious document. I shall try to probe the deeper meanings as I have understood them, knowing very well that my interpretations may be met with a strong disbelief and dubbed romantic fancy.

First of all, the letter is written in a very simple style and restrained in tone. It has a classical sublimity and is vibrant with a poignant pathos. People can be easily deceived about its inner richness. It is a masterpiece in the genre of letter- writing.

Sri Aurobindo addresses the recipient as ‘my dear father- in-law’. The first surprise is that one who had apparently snapped all worldly relations and had been living in a supreme consciousness, admitted still the old bond, unlike any other yogi. Next, we discover that he had maintained an intermittent connection with his wife also, though in the correspondence I have quoted earlier, he had said that once one becomes a yogi, the past relations belong to the past. He called his wife to join him in his sadhana. Also in his Calcutta period, he hoped that his separation from Mrinalini would end and they would pursue their sadhana together, somewhat like Sri Ramakrishna keeping his wife Sarada Devi with him after he had attained his siddhi. If that is so, how are we to understand Sri Aurobindo’s earlier statement that marriage becomes a thing of the past when the husband takes up yoga? Would it mean that though the wife lives with the husband, the basis of the relationship is entirely spiritual as in the case of Sri Ramakrishna? We cannot find any other satisfactory solution to the apparent contradiction. Also it is consonant with Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga where all relations are sublimated into a higher consciousness, not rejected. Then comes the stupendous phrase, ‘The one sorrow that could still touch me to the centre’, rising in a crescendo to ‘where I have once loved, I do not cease from loving’, and reaching the climax in the last phrase, ‘She who is the cause of it’, cannot but bewilder us and show how deep was Sri Aurobindo’s love for Mrinalini. We are likely to ask ourselves, ‘One who had realised Nirvana, had the cosmic experience of Vasudeva and other high experiences, can he still harbour or be subject to such human emotions?’ We would have brushed the matter aside as a fictitious story, had the letter not carried Sri Aurobindo’s own signature. I shall not enter into a controversy over the genuineness of the feelings expressed in the letter, but humbly state that we know very little of the great Enigma that was Sri Aurobindo. … Besides, we, the attendants of Sri Aurobindo have seen on the one hand his vast Impersonal Self high-seated above the turmoils of the world and on the other, his aspect of the Person who, before his passing, embraced passionately his devoted servant Champaklal. That would have been indeed incredible, had we not witnessed it with our own eyes. There are other mysteries we have seen before which his unbelievable shedding of a few tears pale into insignificance.

SRI AUROBINDO AND ‘BANDE MATARAM’ NEWSPAPER

SRI AUROBINDO AND ‘BANDE MATARAM’ NEWSPAPER

Introduction
Bipin Pal, who had been long expounding a policy of self-help and non-cooperation in his weekly journal, now started a daily with the name of ‘Bande Mataram’, but it was likely to be a brief adventure since he began with only Rs. 500 in his pocket and no firm assurance of financial assistance in the future. He asked Sri Aurobindo to join him in this venture to which a ready consent was given, for now Sri Aurobindo saw his opportunity for starting the public propaganda necessary for his revolutionary purpose.

Organ of Indian Nationalism
Sri Aurobindo called a meeting of the forward group of young men in the Congress and [they] decided then to organise themselves openly as a new political party joining hands with the corresponding group in Maharashtra under the proclaimed leadership of Tilak and to join battle with the Moderate party which was done at the Calcutta session. He also persuaded them to take up the Bande Mataram daily as their party organ and a Bande Mataram Company was started to finance the paper, whose direction Sri Aurobindo undertook during the absence of Bipin Pal who was sent on a tour in the districts to proclaim the purpose and programme of the new party. The new party was at once successful and the ‘Bande Mataram’ paper began to circulate throughout India.

Absolute Independence as the Aim
Sri Aurobindo’s first preoccupation was to declare openly for complete and absolute independence as the aim of political action in India and to insist on this persistently in the pages of the journal; he was the first politician in India who had the courage to do this in public and he was immediately successful. The party took up the word ‘Swaraj’ to express its own ideal of independence and it soon spread everywhere; but it was taken up as the ideal of the Congress much later on at the [Lahore] session of that body when it had been reconstituted and renovated under Nationalist leadership. The journal declared and developed a new political programme for the country as the programme of the Nationalist Party, non-cooperation, passive resistance, Swadeshi, Boycott, national education, settlement of disputes in law by popular arbitration and other items of Sri Aurobindo’s plan.

The ‘Bande Mataram’ was almost unique in journalistic history in the influence it exercised in converting the mind of a people and preparing it for revolution.

A Force None Dared to Ignore
“‘Bande Mataram’ ... at once secured for itself a recognised position in Indian journalism. The hand of the master was in it, from the very beginning. Its bold attitude, its vigorous thinking, its clear ideas, its chaste and powerful diction, its scorching sarcasm and refined witticism, were unsurpassed by any journal in the country, either Indian or Anglo-Indian. It at once raised the tone of every Bengali paper, and compelled the admiration of even hostile Anglo-Indian editors. Morning after morning, not only Calcutta but the educated community almost in every part of the country, eagerly awaited its vigorous pronouncements on the stirring question of the day. It even forced itself upon the notice of the callous and self-centered British press. Long extracts from it commenced to be reproduced week after week even in the exclusive columns of the ‘Times’ in London. It was a force in the country which none dared to ignore, however much they might fear or hate it...”
—Bipin Chandra Pal

Voice of Nationalist Extremism
“It had a full-size sheet, was clearly printed on green paper, and was full of leading and special articles written in English with a brilliance and pungency not hitherto attained in the Indian Press. It was the most effective voice of what we then called nationalist extremism.”
—Extract from S. K. Ratcliffe, a previous editor of ‘The Statesman’, in a letter to the Manchester Guardian of 28 December 1950

Fiery Words
“...The words of Bande Mataram will drive out your fear; steel your arms with the might of thunder; fire will course through your veins...”
—Brahmabandhav Upadhyay in ‘Sandhya’ newspaper

Intellectual Feast
“... I spare no opportunity of recommending your excellent paper to my friends as well as those whom I meet. For me it is generally an intellectual feast and it is my earnest desire that nothing will happen to mar its usefulness. It is doing a splendid service. May it live long is the earnest prayer...”
—Lajpat Rai wrote (on 4 May 1907, just five days before his deportation)

Teacher of a whole Nation
“Bande Mataram... was a force in the country which none dared to ignore, however much they might fear or hate it, and Aravinda was the leading spirit, the central figure, in the new journal. The opportunities that were denied him in the National College he found in the pages of the ‘Bande Mataram’, and from a tutor of a few youths he thus became the teacher of a whole nation…”
—Bepin Chandra Pal

Real Editor of Bande Mataram
“Sri Aurobindo was undoubtedly the real editor of the Extremist paper, the Bande Mataram, but still remained at large, partly owing to the number of 'prison editors' on his staff... the man who inspired official circles with the greatest alarm, because his influence, though least spoken of, was most profound...”
—Henry Nevinson

[Photos and text courtesy the website www.sriaurobindoinstitute.org]

The four powers of the Mother

CHAITRA NAVARATRI—Festival of the Divine Mother

The Festival of Nine Nights ('nava-raatri') this year begins today on March 28 and ends on Ram Navmi on April 5, 2017. The significance of Navaratri festival is that the divine power restored Dharma. Observed in the lunar month of Chaitra, Goddess Shakti is worshiped in nine forms on nine days, according to the Hindu calendar. Navaratri Puja begins with Shubh Muhurat time on the same date as Gudi Padwa and Ugadi, celebrated as New Year in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh respectively.

During the festival, the Supreme Mother in nine of her most prominent forms is worshipped, invoking all the aspects of the Divine in the form of the Universal Mother, commonly referred to as ‘Durga’, which literally means the remover of miseries of life. She is also referred to as ‘Devi’ (goddess) or ‘Shakti’ (energy or power). It is this energy, which sustains the work of creation, preservation and destruction. Sri Aurobindo says the following of the Universal Mother and the Individual Mother:

“The universal and individual Mother are the same—these are two aspects of the Supreme Mother—but the differentiation is for the multiple action and play. So also one feels the self as one’s own self in an individual way but also that there is the same self individualised in others and all are one.”

During these nine days, we will be interspacingly present the Four Aspects of the Mother, as identified by Sri Aurobindo, by which she manifests herself in this eternal cycle of creation.

SRI AUROBINDO ON THE MAHALAKSHMI ASPECT OF THE MOTHER

SRI AUROBINDO ON THE MAHALAKSHMI ASPECT OF THE MOTHER

“Wisdom and Force are not the only manifestations of the supreme Mother; there is a subtler mystery of her nature and without it Wisdom and Force would be incomplete things and without it perfection would not be perfect. Above them is the miracle of eternal beauty, an unseizable secret of divine harmonies, the compelling magic of an irresistible universal charm and attraction that draws and holds things and forces and beings together and obliges them to meet and unite that a hidden Ananda may play from behind the veil and make of them its rhythms and its figures. This is the power of MAHALAKSHMI and there is no aspect of the Divine Shakti more attractive to the heart of embodied beings. Maheshwari can appear too calm and great and distant for the littleness of earthly nature to approach or contain her, Mahakali too swift and formidable for its weakness to bear; but all turn with joy and longing to Mahalakshmi. For she throws the spell of the intoxicating sweetness of the Divine: to be close to her is a profound happiness and to feel her within the heart is to make existence a rapture and a marvel; grace and charm and tenderness flow out from her like light from the sun and wherever she fixes her wonderful gaze or lets fall the loveliness of her smile, the soul is seized and made captive and plunged into the depths of an unfathomable bliss. Magnetic is the touch of her hands and their occult and delicate influence refines mind and life and body and where she presses her feet course miraculous streams of an entrancing Ananda.”
—SRI AUROBINDO

SRI AUROBINDO ON MAHESHWARI ASPECT OF THE MOTHER

SRI AUROBINDO ON MAHESHWARI ASPECT OF THE MOTHER

“Imperial MAHESHWARI is seated in the wideness above the thinking mind and will and sublimates and greatens them into wisdom and largeness or floods with a splendour beyond them. For she is the mighty and wise One who opens us to the supramental infinities and the cosmic vastness, to the grandeur of the supreme Light, to a treasure-house of miraculous knowledge, to the measureless movement of the Mother’s eternal forces. Tranquil is she and wonderful, great and calm for ever. Nothing can move her because all wisdom is in her; nothing is hidden from her that she chooses to know; she comprehends all things and all beings and their nature and what moves them and the law of the world and its times and how all was and is and must be. 

 

A strength is in her that meets everything and masters and none can prevail in the end against her vast intangible wisdom and high tranquil power. Equal, patient and unalterable in her will she deals with men according to their nature and with things and happenings according to their force and the truth that is in them. Partiality she has none, but she follows the decrees of the Supreme and some she raises up and some she casts down or puts away from her into the darkness. To the wise she gives a greater andmore luminous wisdom; those that have vision she admits to her counsels; on the hostile she imposes the consequence of their hostility; the ignorant and foolish she leads according to their blindness. In each man she answers and handles the different elements of his nature according to their need and their urge and the return they call for, puts on them the required pressure or leaves them to their cherished liberty to prosper in the ways of the Ignorance or to perish. 

 

For she is above all, bound by nothing, attached to nothing in the universe. Yet has she more than any other the heart of the universal Mother. For her compassion is endless and inexhaustible; all are to her eyes her children and portions of the One, even the Asura and Rakshasa and Pisacha and those that are revolted and hostile. Even her rejections are only a postponement, even her punishments are a grace. But her compassion does not blind her wisdom or turn her action from the course decreed; for the Truth of things is her one concern, knowledge her centre of power and to build our soul and our nature into the divine Truth her mission and her labour.”
—SRI AUROBINDO

 

 

SRI AUROBINDO ON MAHAKALI ASPECT OF THE MOTHER

SRI AUROBINDO ON MAHAKALI ASPECT OF THE MOTHER

“MAHAKALI is of another nature. Not wideness but height, not wisdom but force and strength are her peculiar power. There is in her an overwhelming intensity, a mighty passion of force to achieve, a divine violence rushing to shatter every limit and obstacle. All her divinity leaps out in a splendour of tempestuous action; she is there for swiftness, for the immediately effective process, the rapid and direct stroke, the frontal assault that carries everything before it. Terrible is her face to the Asura, dangerous and ruthless her mood against the haters of the Divine; for she is the Warrior of the Worlds who never shrinks from the battle. Intolerant of imperfection, she deals roughly with all in man that is unwilling and she is severe to all that is obstinately ignorant and obscure; her wrath is immediate and dire against treachery and falsehood and malignity, ill-will is smitten at once by her scourge. Indifference, negligence and sloth in the divine work she cannot bear and she smites awake at once with sharp pain, if need be, the untimely slumberer and the loiterer. The impulses that are swift and straight and frank, the movements that are unreserved and absolute, the aspiration that mounts in flame are the motion of Mahakali. Her spirit is tameless, her vision and will are high and far-reaching like the flight of an eagle, her feet are rapid on the upward way and her hands are outstretched to strike and to succour. For she too is the Mother and her love is as intense as her wrath and she has a deep and passionate kindness.”
—SRI AUROBINDO

 

Sri Aurobindo's Arrival at Pondicherry—4 April 1910

Sri Aurobindo came to Pondicherry on 4 April 1910 to pursue a spiritual goal—the goal of supramental transformation—never before successfully attempted by anyone. While engaged in the freedom struggle in Bengal, Sri Aurobindo received an adesh (a divine command) to go to Pondicherry. In one of his letters to a disciple he wrote:

“Pondicherry is my place of retreat, my cave of tapasya, not of the ascetic kind, but of a brand of my own invention.”

This day marks a most significant event which led to a revolution in the destiny of Man, bringing in the possibility of a New World, a New Humanity whose life will be based on a higher consciousness. From the moment of his arrival at Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo was constantly engaged in the tremendous work of laying the foundations of this new world.

He said:
“We do not want to exclude any of the world’s activities. Politics, trade, social organisation, poetry, art, literature—all will remain. But all will be given a new life, a new form...”

And then, his call for working collectively to achieve this goal:
“If we are spread out everywhere as individuals, something no doubt will be done; if we are spread out everywhere in the form of a Sangha*, a hundred times more will be accomplished.”
[*Sangha: a collective body, divine fellowship]

 

Sri Rama Navami

Eight days after the Hindu New Year is the birthday of Sri Rama, one of the two most popular and highly revered incarnations of Lord Vishnu. Sri Rama is said to have been born at noon on this day. This year, it falls on 05 April.

Many devotees of Sri Rama observe the Rama-navami vrata (the penance of Rama-navami) which commences from the previous night with fasting. The occasion is also celebrated with many religio-cultural programmes like Paaraayana or ceremonial recitation of the epic Ramayana (usually spread over the nine days from Ugadi or the Hindu Calendar New Year), Hari-kathaa (musical discourse on mythological stories on Hari, an epithet of Vishnu), classical music or devotional songs, etc.

Here are Sri Aurobindo's revealing words on Sri Rama and his role on earth:

“Rama… was the Avatar of the sattwic mind—mental, emotional, moral—and he followed the Dharma of the age and race.”

“[Rama's] business was to destroy Ravana and to establish the Rama-rajya—in other words, to fix for the future the possibility of an order proper to the sattwic civilised human being who governs his life by the reason, the finer emotions, morality, or at least moral ideals, such as truth, obedience, co-operation and harmony, the sense of domestic and public order,—to establish this in a world still occupied by anarchic forces, the Animal mind and the powers of the vital Ego making its own satisfaction the rule of life, in other words, the Vanara and Rakshasa. This is the meaning of Rama and his life-work…”

“…it was Rama's business to make the world safe for the ideal of the sattwic human being by destroying the sovereignty of Ravana, the Rakshasa menace. All this he did with such a divine afflatus in his personality and action that his figure has been stamped for more than two millenniums on the mind of Indian culture, and what he stood for has dominated the reason and idealising mind of man in all countries, and in spite of the constant revolt of the human vital, is likely to continue to do so until a greater ideal arises.”

Sri Rama Navami

MAHAVIR JAYANTI

MAHAVIR JAYANTI



Mahavir Jayanti, also known as Mahavir Janma Kalyanak, is the most important religious holiday for Jains. It celebrates the birth of Mahavira, twenty-fourth and the last 'Tirthankara' of present time cycle. This year Mahavir Jayanti is being observed on April 9.

Mahavira was born into royalty as the son of King Siddartha of Kundgraam and Queen Trishala. During pregnancy, mother Trishala was believed to have had a number of auspicious dreams, all signifying the coming of a great soul.

Local statues of Mahavira are given a ceremonial bath called the ‘abhisheka’. During the day, many Jains engage in some sort of charitable acts in the name of Mahavira while others travel to temples to meditate and offer prayers.

Sri Aurobindo says: “… it is the great saints and religious personalities that stand at the head in India and present the most striking and continuous roll-call of greatness.” The Rishi in ancient India was the outstanding figure with the hero just behind, while in later times the most striking feature is the long uninterrupted chain from Buddha and Mahavira to Ramanuja, Chaitanya, Nanak, Ramdas and Tukaram and beyond them to Ramakrishna and Vivekananda and Dayananda.

Also about Jainism, he says: “Why cannot one love or experience [the Cosmic Divine or the Transcendent Divine] concretely? many have done it. And why assume that He is immobile, silent and aloof? The Cosmic Divine can be as close to one as one’s own self and the Transcendent as intimate as the closest friend or lover. It is only in the physical consciousness that there is some difficulty in realising it.

The Jain realisation of an individual godhead is all right so far as it goes…”

(*Painting on Mahavir by Rajendra Kamble; Information on Mahavir Jayanti sourced from Wikipedia)

WORDS OF SRI AUROBINDO

“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 to 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.”
—Sri Aurobindo
21.04.1933

 

Thoughts and Aphorisms
'Thoughts and Aphorisms' by Sri Aurobindo are numbered 1 to 547 (as per the Fifth Edition published in 1982). This Thought/Aphorism is numbered 409, under the section titled 'Bhakti'.


 

 

GOOD FRIDAY & EASTER DAY

Easter, the principal feast of the Christian year commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is celebrated this year on April 14. The Easter holiday begins with the 40-day observation of Lent that began on Ash Wednesday and will end at midnight on Holy Saturday before Easter Sunday. The Octave of Easter extends from Easter Sunday to the following Sunday. White garme... See More

 

Yoga and Life

YOGA & LIFE
TIPS FOR GOOD HEALTH

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have often written and spoken at length on various topics and also about some very practical solutions to problems for those who are searching for a light to guide them in their actions. YOGA & LIFE is a series that will address many such topics that affect us in our everyday lives.

TIPS FOR GOOD HEALTH will provide great insights into the ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of keeping our bodies in good health, as given by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

 

 

Integral Yoga

Jaikrishna Public Library, Uttarpara (West Bengal), where Sri Aurobindo delivered his famous speech on May 30, 1909.

Devotees heart speaks

On 24 April 1939, Nishtha had her first darshan of Sri Aurobindo with the Mother sitting on his right. Fulfilled was her heart’s desire, fulfilled was her soul’s craving! She wrote to her friend Lois: “Since seeing Sri Aurobindo and the Mother together, I have been surer than ever that their way is my way—that my soul brought me here where it belongs.” She spent her days in the Ashram in prayer and meditation. She was assigned work in the flower garden of the Ashram and she also helped in typing Sri Aurobindo’s writings on her Corona typewriter. Another privilege that she enjoyed was washing Sri Aurobindo’s dishes.
 

SAVITRI—A Legend and a Symbol

“The Earth-Goddess toils across the sands of Time.”
BOOK I: The Book of Beginnings, CANTO IV: The Secret Knowledge, p. 50

The writing of ‘SAVITRI’ extended over much of the later part of Sri Aurobindo’s life. The earliest known manuscript is dated 1916. The original narrative poem was recast several times in the first phase of composition. By around 1930, Sri Aurobindo had begun to turn it into an epic with a larger scope and deeper significance. Transformed into ‘A Legend and a Symbol’, SAVITRI became his major literary work which he continued to expand and perfect until his last days. — with Situ Soumya, Soumya Situ Soumya Situ, Ankit Soumya and Soumya Somprakash.


 

 

LIGHT DIVINE

Sadhak: What is the relation of human love to Divine love? Is the human an obstacle to the Divine love?

THE MOTHER: Love is one of the great universal forces; it exists by itself and its movement is free and independent of the objects in which and through which it manifests. It manifests wherever it finds a possibility for manifestation, wherever there is receptivity, wherever there is some opening for it. What you call love and think of as a personal or individual thing is only your capacity to receive and manifest this universal force. But because it is universal, it is not therefore an unconscious force; it is a supremely conscious Power. Consciously it seeks for its manifestation and realisation upon earth; consciously it chooses its instruments, awakens to its vibrations those who are capable of an answer, endeavours to realise in them that which is its eternal aim, and when the instrument is not fit, drops it and turns to look for others. Men think that they have suddenly fallen in love; they see their love come and grow and then it fades—or, it may be, endures a little longer in some who are more specially fitted for its more lasting movement. But their sense in this of a personal experience all their own was an illusion. It was a wave from the everlasting sea of universal love.

…Love, the eternal force, has no clinging, no desire, no hunger for possession, no self-regarding attachment; it is, in its pure movement, the seeking for union of the self with the Divine, a seeking absolute and regardless of all other things. Love divine gives itself and asks for nothing. What human beings have made of it, we do not need to say; they have turned it into an ugly and repulsive thing. And yet even in human beings the first contact of love does bring down something of its purer substance; they become capable for a moment of forgetting themselves, for a moment its divine touch awakens and magnifies all that is fine and beautiful. But afterwards there comes to the surface the human nature, full of its impure demands, asking for something in exchange, bartering what it gives, clamouring for its own inferior satisfactions, distorting and soiling what was divine.

To manifest the Divine love you must be capable of receiving the Divine love. For only those can manifest it who are by their nature open to its native movement. The wider and clearer the opening in them, the more they manifest love divine in its original purity; the more it is mixed with the lower human feelings, the greater is the deformation. One who is not open to love in its essence and in its truth cannot approach the Divine. Even the seekers through knowledge come to a point beyond which if they want to go farther, they are bound to find themselves entering at the same time into love and to feel the two as one, knowledge the light of the divine union, love the very heart of knowledge. There is a place in the soul’s progress where they meet and you cannot distinguish one from the other. The division, the distinction between the two that you make in the beginning are a creation of the mind: once you rise to a higher level, they disappear.