Monday, August 27, 2007

The body actually becomes universal, it develops a sort of cantagion with all other bodies

An excellent book that summarises the whole extraordinary account of Spramentalised transformation is The Mind of the Cells, by Mirra's chief disciple and confidante, Satprem. Unfortunately this book, invaluable for bringing together under relevant headings the Mother's own accounts of her experiences, is also padded with Satprem's comments, which at time are inanely Darwinistic (or rather pseudo-Darwinistic); as if this spectacular transformation of existence were no more significant than the evolution or appearance of any of the innumerable life-forms to grace this planet - such as the first amphibian or first hominid.
Perhaps we should not judge Satprem too harshly for this reductionism; he is after all only expressing the inconceivable in terms of the current mythology of his day, just as the founders of Zoroastrianism and Christianity explained similiar phenomenon in the terms of the mythology of their day: miraculous intervention by an external supernatural deity. Both explanations are absurd, because they rely on limited human understanding to try to express or define the Infinite. But the Infinite, the Supreme, can only really be expressed or defined on its own terms.
And if we still do insist on pigeon-holing it, at least we should use the more sophisticated metaphysics of occult cosmologies, rather than those of religion or materialistic science. Here I have tried to let the experience speak for itself as much as possible, and only drawn parallels with theologies or metaphysical systems when they are obvious.
The Mother referred to this other state of being not only as "the Supermind' but also more poetically or intuitively as "the divine state", "the all-powerful state", or someties just "love" or "that" [Satprem p.32]
As understood by Satprem (here he seems to be on the ball):
"Physical laws are not as we think, physical illness and death are not as we think and feel them. All our sensations and perceptions of the physical world are false....Leaving the false perception doesn't lead to Nirvana or to heaven or to death; it leads to the true physical reality, true matter...as it is. To another life in matter."
[Satprem, The Mind of the Cells, p.104]
While as early as 1930 Mirra said:
"The real change in consciousness will be the one that changes the PHYSICAL conditions of the world and makes it an entirely new creation"
[quoted in Satprem The Mind of the Cells, p.112]
As Satprem explained, this "other" world was no longer "other", but rather it was our own, but seen and lived differently. The Mother used different terminology in struggling to describe the new state of existence; originally it was "the subtle physical", then "the true physical", "true matter", "the other state in matter". [p.164]
But perhaps the most bizarre thing of all (at least to mundane consciousness) about this new state there is no longer the dichotomy between life and death that so characterises our present existence. I confess that I am unable to make sense of this, but I present it anyway, if only because of the strange parallel with the Zoroastrian and later Judaeo-Christian idea of immortality as a sort of bodily resurrection or transcendence of death. This is in contrast to the dualistic and spiritualistic idea of the body dying and the soul or spirit continuing in some aetherial heaven or spirit-realm. As the Mother explained in 1962:
"I spent at least two hours in a world...the subtle physical, where the living and the dead are side by side without feeling the difference!...There were...what We call "living people", and what WE call "dead people": they were there together, moved together, played together. And all that was in a lovely light, quiet, very pleasant indeed..."
[The Mind of the Cells p.168]
Ponders Satprem:
"who are these "living people" strolling about and socialising with the "daed"?....We have hardly heard any living person describe his physical wanderings with "dead people". Does it mean that, without our knowledge, a part of our being already communicates with that world...,where laws are not the same, where "death" is not the same, but which is nonetheless a physical world according to Mother's experience? Could it be that our body knows better than we do?"
And indeed,
"Could there be a place in physical, material consciousness - let's say the next earthly consciousness - where life and death change in nature? That would really mean a new state on earth: not life as we know it nor death as we know it."
[Satprem, The Mind of the Cells, p.170]
The consensus between the religious (Zoroastrian-Judaeo-Christian) idea of the future Divine world as the overcoming of death, with what is presented here raises the question: did the great founders of these religions, such as Zoroaster and Jesus, glimpse or have an insight into this process, but this knowledge was then distorted by their followers, who tried to make it into a sort of physical immortality of the self-centered ego and a denial of spiritual worlds (e.g. modern fundamentalist Protestantism)?
It seems that this universal self appears as a universal body; and a universal body that has a constant restoring or healing task. Here again we look to the record of the Mother:
"I am conscious of my body, but I don't mean this (Mother touches her body): I am conscious of THE body - it could be anyone's body! I am conscious of these vibrations of disorder, which come most often in the form of suggestions of disorder: a suggestion of hemorrage for example....The battle begins to be fought...between what we can call "the will to hemorrage" and the reaction of the cells of the body....But suddenly, the body is seized with a very strong determination and proclaims an order, an immediately the effect begins to be felt and everything returns gradually to normal. All this happens in the material consciousness. My body ahas all the physical sensations except the (actual) hemorrage....A few days later, I receive a letter from someone, and in the letter is the whole story: the attack, the hemorrhage, and suddenly the being is seized with an overpowering determination and hears the words - the very words uttered HERE. In the end he is cured, saved. In the end he is cured, saved....And so I began to realise that my body is everywhere! You see, it is not just a matter of these cells: they are cells in, who knows how many, perhaps hundreds or thousands of people...It is THE body..."
[quoted in Satprem The Mind of the Cells, pp.51-2]
Thus the body actually becomes universal, it develops a sort of cantagion with all other bodies. Explains Mirra:
"I am inundated with things coming from outside! And what a mixture! From all sides, all people, and not only here: from far, far away on earth, and sometimes far back in time...in the past, things coming from the past to be set straight....It's a constant labour....As though ne were perpetually coming down with a new disease and had to find a cure for it...."
[Satprem, p.53]
page by M.Alan Kazlev page uploaded 21 June 1998, last modified 6 July 2004 Kheper Home Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Home

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

The entire form of Savitri has descended en mass from the highest region

Re: 18: The Wonderful Boon
by RY Deshpande on Mon 20 Aug 2007 09:20 AM PDT Profile Permanent Link
But let recall here what the Mother has said about Savitri: “The entire form of Savitri has descended en mass from the highest region.” It has descended, Savitri-like, in its auspicious form, varam rūpam, and therefore to live in it is to live in its preciousness, is to constantly make progress in the possibilities of the widening spirit. If Aswapati is the Truth of God in the truth of existence, Savitri is the Truth of God in the truth of action. The double incarnation therefore means the Truth of God in the dynamism of its vast being. Nothing can stand against it. Savitri is, says the Mother:
• The daily record of the spiritual experiences of the individual who has written.
• A complete system of yoga which can serve as a guide for those who want to follow the integral sadhana.
• The yoga of the Earth in its ascension towards the Divine.
• The experience of the Divine Mother in her effort to adapt herself to the body she has taken and the ignorance and the falsity of the earth upon which she has incarnated.
It is well said that in Savitri there is “a core of revealed truth that no extrinsic force has power to enlarge or diminish.” Yet there are certain aspects which need be re-looked into, aspects necessitated by the circumstances in which have appeared in the printed book. But the most important procedure for us is: Let us live in Savitri who shall give us the truth and the things of the truth. RYD

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Sometimes I help to do the flowers for the important days at the center

Today, 07:35 AM sujakalyan Join Date: Jun 2007
City: dubai State: dubai Country: United Arab Emirates Posts: 201 Referrals: 0
is there any devotee of pondicherry mother and aurobindo
hi frndsis there any devotee of pondicherry aurobindo ashram mother!!
__________________by esuj sujakalyan #2 (permalink)
Today, 09:47 AM MeenLoch Join Date: Feb 2007
City: Houston State: Texas Country: India Posts: 25 Referrals: 0
Re: is there any devotee of pondicherry mother and aurobindo
Hello,I have been visiting ashram for 4 years now.Got initiated by sum1. Liked her teachings. Now I have moved to US. We can share rresources like websites and books. MeenLoch #3 (permalink)
Today, 10:27 AM SHASHU Join Date: May 2007
City: Mumbai State: Maharashtra Country: India Posts: 11 Referrals: 0
Re: is there any devotee of pondicherry mother and aurobindo
Hello.... Dear Suja.....I am a devotee of Mother......since many years. I had been once to Pondi...Whenever i see mother's photo...feel that she just looks thru you...Have you read an article in "Mangayar Malar" about Mother... Its really great and she looks cho chweet in her child wood days....rgd sshashu SHASHU #4 (permalink)
Today, 11:24 AM Pravina Join Date: Sep 2005
City: london State: middlesex Country: United Kingdom Posts: 96 Referrals: 0
Re: is there any devotee of pondicherry mother and aurobindo
Hello SujaI go to the AuroMira center in London. Sometimes i help to do the flowers for the important days at the center. I have started to read a couple of books by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. regards pravina

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

That is the faith every sadhak must have at the bottom of his heart

Like hope for the forsaken.. August 14th, 2007 mahesh
..does arrive the words of my Master,
“Anything else one may doubt but that he who desires only the Divine shall reach the Divine is a certitude and more certain than two and two make four. That is the faith every sadhak must have at the bottom of his heart, supporting him through every stumble and blow and ordeal.”
This is the first birthday, August 15th, of Sri Aurobindo I have ever stayed awake and conscious and remembered. Head over here for the darshan card. del.icio.us Tags: , No Comments » Sri Aurobindo, meaning, india, philosophy Permalink Posted by mahesh

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Van Vrekhem’s child-like approach to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother

Yoga of Self-perfection PREMA NANDAKUMAR
BEYOND MAN —Life and Work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother: Georges Van Vrekhem; Rupa & Co., 7/16, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110012. Rs. 395. Originally published in Dutch, an English version of Beyond Man was brought out by HarperCollins in 1997. The present edition is an exact (and perhaps photographic) reprint. Some spelling mistakes have been set right.
Ten years ago it was very refreshing to read Van Vrekhem’s child-like approach to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. The same holds true today as we turn the pages steadily to learn about these two brilliances who brought back the Vedic spirit of exploration to our days with the promise that life on Earth can definitely be transformed into the life divine.
Beyond mind Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950), poet, patriot, translator and journalist, dedicated his life to the yoga of Self-perfection. A Vedic scholar, his insights assured him that mankind which had evolved from matter through life to mind was now poised for another breakthrough beyond mind. What kind of new creation would be this “supramental” being? He did not elaborate but gave convincing leads referring to the intuitive and illumined flashes that raise man’s reception beyond the mental plane. The Mother (Mirra Alfassa, 1878-1973), occultist and artist came to India in March 1914, met Sri Aurobindo and decided to pursue his yoga which chimed in with her own reflections on man and future man.
Most of the followers of Aurobindonian yoga simply accept them as incarnations of the Divine. A few have reservations. Should we call them a dual power? Was the Mother a disciple of Sri Aurobindo or his equal? And what is this “Supermind”? Despite Sri Aurobindo dissuading his disciples, the questions persisted. Apparently they continue to, as we can notice from the tenor of Beyond Man. Fortunately, Van Vrekham is not interested in polemics.
Laboratory of Yoga The Ashram was certainly a laboratory of Yoga. The aim was “to transform and immortalise the material body” and of course, this is not achieved in one day! And the higher the aim, the greater the impediments from “asuric” forces. The times were also confounding because of the World War and India’s own struggle to become independent. However, the yogic force of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother were not used in vain, and all was fairly well with the world in general and India in particular when Sri Aurobindo attained Mahasamadhi.
But the “sadhana” continued and the Mother extended the Ashram’s aegis in terms of an International Centre of Education and Auroville. These were her ways to express to the world the Supramental Truth about man’s future. Having lived in Auroville for decades, the author has not only read a lot but “listened” to an assortment of voices. As an Aurobindonian poet wrote at that time: “A light is lit in everyone, and those/ emblazon the Living Flame.” The Aurobindonian yoga being a collective yoga, this conclusion is inevitable. Having listed the questions, Beyond Man signs off with the seal of faith: “The Great Change in evolution is happening around us and within us, whether we want it or not.” For a world caught in despair and defeatism, this is nectarean hope. The Hindu Book Review Tuesday, Aug 14, 2007

Monday, August 13, 2007

Even the physical shall reveal the dynamic reality on which it is founded

Re: 18: The Wonderful Boon RY Deshpande Sun 12 Aug 2007 07:34 AM PDT Profile Permanent Link The most auspicious form of Savitŗ, the Light of the Supreme
tat savitur varam rūpam jyotih parasya dhīmahi. yannah satyéna dīpayét.
Let us meditate on the most auspicious form of Savitŗ, on the Light of the Supreme which shall illumine us with the Truth.
This is Sri Aurobindo’s Gayatri Mantra. The meditation is on the auspicious form Savitŗ, of the Sun-God, on varam rūpam, on the Sun of divine Light, the Light of the Supreme, parasya jyotih. The Mantra affirms that the Light shall illumine us with the Truth. It shall illumine all the parts of our being, even the very physical. In it shall be our true progress, our authentic progress. The threefold reality of Sat-Chit-Ananda shall express itself in this creation. Even the physical shall reveal the dynamic reality on which it is founded; it shall participate in its gleaming modalities, in its modes and means and methods, lend itself to the manifesting Truth and the Right and the Vast, satyam-ŗtam-bŗhat.
The operative phrases in the Mantra are the auspicious form, varam rūpam, and the supreme Light, parasya jyotih, the best, excellent, beautiful, precious, choicest, finest, royal, princely form, full of nobility and elegance and charm, full of benevolence and graciousness, varam rūpam, and the supreme Light that never dims, that never casts shadow, the transcendental Light, parasya jyotih, the Light from which all lights come, the Sun in which, from which are born all the million suns. The implication of the Mantra is that of physical transformation achieved by the agency of the supreme Light.
The Vedic-Upanishadic Rishis had the knowledge of this supreme Light, Vijnan. They knew that it is the source and the support of the entire creation. But about the manifestation of the dynamic Truth in this mortal world, in mŗtyuloka, they did not have the sure definite working intuition. They did not know the way towards physical transformation. Perhaps at that time it was too early to realise it collectively, here in this death-bound world. Now Sri Aurobindo, by his unique yoga-tapasya, has prepared the required ground. He has made it a reality in the evolutionary manifestation. He has invoked the supreme Grace to incarnate here. She must come here and take up the difficult work in her own hand, take charge of things and events. She alone can bring about that transformative miracle. That creative power should bring truth and light and force and bliss to the mortal world, to this creation presently governed by death. That will be her work, its fulfilment. Savitri is the incarnate power who shall establish divinity in the terrestrial phenomenon. The coming down of that Grace is the birth of Savitri. This is what Aswapati prayed for and this is what the Boon grants.
But let us look at the auspicious form, varam rūpam, of the revelatory Gayatri Mantra significantly incorporated in the Boon, the divine Wisdom, sonnet-wise, describing it as follows, those fourteen lines:
All mights and greatnesses shall join in her; Beauty shall walk celestial on the earth, Delight shall sleep in the cloud-net of her hair And in her body as on his homing tree Immortal Love shall beat his glorious wings. A music of griefless things shall weave her charm; The harps of the Perfect shall attune her voice, The streams of Heaven shall murmur in her laugh, Her lips shall be the honeycombs of God, Her limbs his golden jars of ecstasy, Her breasts the rapture-flowers of Paradise. She shall bear Wisdom in her voiceless bosom, Strength shall be with her like a conqueror’s sword And from her eyes the Eternal’s bliss shall gaze.
Whereas the ancient Vedic Mantra was an invocation addressed to the Sun-God, full of excellent heavenly radiance, that he may inspire and urge our right intelligence, we have here in Sri Aurobindo a prayer for the physical opening to the supramental Light and Force. But the physical’s is the task which the incarnate Wisdom must carry out in this world of dark and anguished mortal world.
In the power and intensity of that Mantra, of varam rūpam, even as the Mother’s yoga-tapasya progressed in the physical, after the supramental manifestation on 29 February 1956, the body’s cells opened to the Presence and started chanting spontaneously the divine Name, with the prayer
O Supreme Lord of the universe, we implore Thee, give us the strength and the beauty, the harmonious perfection needed to be Thy divine instruments upon earth.
The Mother saw that the physical is not only capable of receiving the higher Light, but has the certitude that it can manifest the true Consciousness. How marvellous—the Boon coming from the divine Wisdom!
Sri Aurobindo explains the significance of the Mantra as follows:
Brahman in the Vedas signifies ordinarily the Vedic Word or Mantra in its profoundest aspect as the expression of the intuition arising out of the depths of the soul or being. It is a voice of the rhythm which has created the worlds and creates perpetually. All world is expression or manifestation, creation by the Word…. And the word of creative Power welling upward out of the soul is also brahman. The Vedic poets regarded their poetry as mantras; they were the vehicles of their own realisations and could become vehicles of realisations for others…. Anything that carries the Word, the Light in it, spoken or written can light this fire within, open a sky, as it were, bring the effective vision of which the Word is the body.
The Word, or Brahman the Creator of the Worlds, can thus express itself in us, embody the auspicious strength, varam balam, of the spirit to make progress in its widening manifestation. Savitri which itself is a divine Boon achieves it through the divine Boon given to Aswapati. But in terms of its reality-content, of the mantric Savitri, we might as well say that the Mother had already written it in 1911 itself, when she addressed her prayer to the Sun of Truth.
In a talk given to a women’s association, dated 15 December 1911, the Mother expresses a very remarkable wish of hers. She proposes to the members of the association to make a resolution to raise themselves
… each day, in all sincerity and goodwill, in an ardent aspiration towards the Sun of Truth, towards the Supreme Light, the source and intellectual life of the universe, so that it may pervade us entirely and illumine with its great brilliance our minds and hearts, all our thoughts and our actions.
The Mantra is striking in several respects when we also realise that the Mother received it, indeed, even before she met Sri Aurobindo in 1914. This was in Paris when she was just 33,—showing us that “the Mother had been spiritually conscious from her youth.” The ardent invocation to the Supreme Light to “pervade us entirely and illumine us with its great brilliance” is certainly the imploration, as well as the defining assertion, with which both Sri Aurobindo and the Mother started their work even before they came together in Pondicherry, the destined meeting place.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Both the Gayatris were given by the Kshatriya Seer-Rishis

Re: 18: The Wonderful Boon by RY Deshpande
on Sat 11 Aug 2007 09:53 AM PDT Profile Permanent Link
The twenty-four lines of the boon
The speech of the divine Wisdom granting a boon to Aswapati consists of twenty-four lines, a Mantra by itself, with the transforming power to dynamise the mortal world in the truth-movement, dynamise it in every respect, to render to it the truth-rhythm, to make transcendental satyam and ŗtam its operative basis. “Savitri is a Mantra of the transformation of the world,” says the Mother; that Mantra, the revelatory Word with the force to realise what it pronounces, is quintessenced in this divine Utterance. There are about twenty-four thousand lines in Savitri, which could actually mean that each line of the Boon represents one thousand lines of this “sacred poem of delight”.
Twenty-four thousand lines of Savitri, twenty-four lines of the Boon, twenty-four syllables of the Sanskrit Gayatri Metre, the Gayatri Chhanda—each syllable expanded to one line of the Boon, and each line of the Boon to one thousand lines of Savitri, all these seem to be loaded with deep connotations, luminously occult in their character, and in their power of realisation. And just imagine! The Boon appears in the twenty-fourth canto of Savitri, Book Three Canto Four.
Here is the celebrated Gayatri Mantra given by the Vedic Rishi Vishwamitra, chanted through the long aeons of time: (Rig Veda III:62:10)
tat savitur varéņyam bhargo dévasya dhīmahi dhiyo yo nah prachodayāt
Let us meditate on the Creator-Sun, full of excellent god-radiance, that he may inspire and urge our right intelligence.
And here is Sri Aurobindo’s Gayatri Mantra, given sometime during the early 1930s:
tat savitur varam rūpam jyotih parasya dhīmahi yannah satyéna dīpayét
Let us meditate on the most auspicious form of Savitŗ, on the Light of the Supreme which shall illumine us with the Truth.
But it should be noted that Vishwamitra’s Gayatri has, not twenty-four as is the tradition, but only twenty-three syllables, at times permitted by the metrical rules. In contrast to that, the Gayatri of Sri Aurobindo has exactly twenty-four syllables. It is interesting to note that both the Gayatris were given by the Kshatriya Seer-Rishis. RYD

Friday, August 10, 2007

Sri Aurobindo is magnet

If you are not a regular visitor to Pondicherry, you might start wondering why you even chose to come here. But have patience. This chaos has beauty and rhythm in it and would vanish as soon as you turn into the Ashram Area, near the beach, which was our destination.
This is the point where the contrast between the two parts of the town hits my senses. The tranquility is almost deafening. It goes so deep into the mind and heart that it starts hurting. As my breathing deepens the place fills me with energy. Not the bubbly boisterous kinds, but an energy that comes with being at peace with yourself. The harmony of the place with nature almost sings to you; only that you don’t hear the music, you feel it.
To feel this Aura one does not need to be a devotee who follows the teachings and sayings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. The Place Pondicherry treats everyone alike and treats everyone to its divine healing power. The place calls you and then calls you back. It talks to you. Two of my friends, first time visitors to the place, made phone calls to family and friends and told them that they must come and experience the place. That’s how Pondicherry is. Experience! Feeling! Posted by Ansh at Friday, August 10, 2007
Wise-Owl comments: on 9 Aug 07 21:23:00 PM Hello Anshie., One more >> Feather to Sri Aurobindo He is magnet. If his thoghts have mooved one more person then imagine all those who have visited him when he was alive . He still for many like me is always alive. in every nook and corner of my room where i live he is present in various form. Sri Aurobindo is the name spells determinaton, faith, that no guru in the modern universe can be compared. he is still alive. I have seen his mortal remains even after a month it was as if he is in a long sleep. a smile in his face and one can feel the inner strength he passes to us in wavy form. god bless you

Monday, August 06, 2007

The concept of evolution is rapidly becoming a new onto-theology

Re: Untold Potentialities: India and the Third World. by Richard Hartz (2)
by Rich on Sun 05 Aug 2007 12:51 PM PDT Profile Permanent Link
Evolution: The past Aum conference did inestimable good in opening the integral yoga to a wider community of like minded individuals. However the terms: evolution, evolutionary, evolved were thrown about so often in connotations which usually invoked the notion of superior, spirituality or the G word itself that it almost felt this was to be the basis of a new religion . In fact many times one could substitute the word God for the word evolution and the meaning wold be the same. After Barbara Marx Hubbard's final presentation it occurred to me that the concept of evolution was rapidly becoming a new onto-theology.