There can be no enslavement to old formulas

Anirban said...Two words universal & futuristic are keys to whatever the Savitri Erans undertake keeping before them the guiding light of Sri Aurobindo & The Mother. There can be no enslavement to old formulas for the Savitri Erans; anything they do must be inspired with these two important & defining qualities - universal & futuristic. Thanks Tusarji for the presentation of such a succint yet deep manifesto! 9:43 AM

Tusar N Mohapatra said...Your mention of "no enslavement to old formulas" reminds me of the ever-inspiring Students' Prayer: "Make of us the hero warriors we aspire to become…" 11:47 AM

Sri Aurobindo’s twelve and the Mother’s six

Re: 18: The Wonderful Boon by RY Deshpande

on Sun 22 Apr 2007 06:28 AM PDT Profile Permanent Link

With this instalment we complete Part One of Savitri. It is interesting that this should be the eighteenth article in the series covering the spiritual biography of Savitri. In Vyasa’s narrative of Savitri, as we have in the Mahabharata, Aswapati does yajna-tapasya for eighteen years at the end of which the Goddess Savitri appears from the Fire-Altar and gives him a boon, of a radiant daughter, kanyā téjasvinī, as sanctioned by the Creator-Father Brahma himself.

There are eighteen parts of the monumental Mahabharata itself, with hundreds of cantos and some two hundred-thousand shlokas in it. There are eighteen chapters of the Gita. Coincidentally, there are eighteen steps in Savitri Bhavan’s building that has come up in the first phase of its construction. We may also say with some justification that, Aswapati’s yoga-tapasya in Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri has eighteen cantos covering the individual, the universal and the transcendental attainments, leading finally to the boon from the Divine Mother. Eighteen is supposed to be a wholesome number in several respects, particularly when we see that it is made up of Sri Aurobindo’s twelve and the Mother’s six. RYD

Sri Aurobindo is more than his works, prose or poetry, including perhaps Savitri

Re: 09: Her Mortal Birth by RY Deshpande

on Thu 19 Apr 2007 06:58 AM PDT Profile Permanent Link

Avatar and Grace On my previous comment-posting there have come a few thought-provoking observations from Rich, Debashish and Rakesh. In the following I am trying to make my response to them in a more generalised manner. It so turns out that this discussion will also prove helpful in looking at the passage we have in this article, Her Mortal Birth.

The word ‘Avatar’ appears only twice in The Life Divine. In either case the context is different—it is not vis-à-vis Avatar as an Incarnation of the Divine. This absence of the concept of Divine Incarnation in Sri Aurobindo's very major work cannot be taken as he not recognising the necessity of Avatarhood in the evolutionary process. We have also another interesting situation: the word ‘Grace’ does not appear even once in The Life Divine. But the fruit of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga without the Divine Grace is inconceivable. In this connection, let us first read a couple of passages from his little masterpiece, The Mother:

There are two powers that alone can effect in their conjunction the great and difficult thing which is the aim of our endeavor,—a fixed and unfailing aspiration that calls from below and - a supreme Grace from above that answers.

*** For the grace of the Divine Mother is the sanction of the Supreme and now or tomorrow its effect is sure, a thing decreed, inevitable and irresistible.

*** The supramental change is the thing decreed and inevitable in the evolution of the earth-consciousness; for its upward ascent is not ended and mind is not its last summit. But the change may arrive, take form and endure, there is needed the call from below with a will to recognise and not deny the Light when it comes, and there is needed the sanction of the Supreme from above. The power that mediates between the sanction and the call is the presence and power of the Divine Mother. The Mother's power and not any human endeavour and tapasya can alone rend the lid and tear the covering and shape the vessel and bring down into this world of obscurity and falsehood and death and suffering Truth and Light and Life divine and the immortal's Ananda.

What this situation, of the absence of 'Grace' and 'Avatar' in its deeper occult connotation, means is that, Sri Aurobindo is more than his works, prose or poetry, including perhaps Savitri. And didn’t he say, apropos of his Arya-writing, that had he continued it, not for seven but seventy years, still his knowledge would not have been exhausted? In The Life Divine he has taken a certain stand to present a certain point of view for a certain type of the soul-need, which does not make it sole or absolute or exclusive in every sense. This is true in other works also. The question is, of one’s perception, perceptions which can be different for different individuals. When this is recognised, there should not be any necessity of thrusting one viewpoint on the other, which will be fallacious, fundamentalist, un-Aurobindonian. Eschewing it is broadening, even globalising, one’s consciousness for a greater spiritual progress. Let me just quote here quickly a few passages from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s writings. ---

Sri Aurobindo on Himself

There are two sides of the phenomenon of Avatarhood, the Divine Consciousness and the instrumental personality. The Divine Consciousness is omnipotent but it has put forth the instrumental personality in Nature under the conditions of Nature and it uses it according to the rules of the game—though also sometimes to change the rules of the game. If Avatarhood is only a flashing miracle, then I have no use for it. If it is a coherent part of the arrangement of the omnipotent Divine in Nature, then I can understand and accept it.

*** Let me make it clear that in all I wrote I was not writing to prove that I am an Avatar! You are busy with your reasonings with the personal question, I am busy with more with the general one. I am seeking to manifest something of the Divine that I am conscious of and feel—I care a damn whether that constitutes me an Avatar or something else. That is not a question which concerns me. By manifestation, of course, I mean the bringing out and spreading of that Consciousness so that others also may feel and enter into it and live in it. (8 March 1935)

*** I have a strong faith that you are the Divine Incarnation. Am I right? Follow your faith—it is not unlikely to mislead you.

[This is the closest he can be said to have admitted he being an Avatar. There are a couple of other corroborative suggestions.]

The Mother on Sri Aurobindo

(From a meditation written on the day after the Mother first saw Sri Aurobindo)

It matters little that there are thousands of beings plunged in the densest ignorance, He whom we saw yesterday is on earth; his presence is enough to prove that a day will come when darkness shall be transformed into light, and Thy reign shall be indeed established upon earth. O Lord, Divine Builder of this marvel, my heart overflows with joy and gratitude when I think of it, and my hope has no bounds. My adoration is beyond all words, my reverence is silent. (30 March 1914)

*** What Sri Aurobindo represents in the world’s history is not a teaching, not even a revelation; it is a decisive action direct from the Supreme. (14 February 1961)

*** What Sri Aurobindo represents in the history of the earth’s spiritual progress is not a teaching, not even a revelation; it is a mighty action straight from the Supreme. (15 August 1964)

*** He has come to bid the earth to prepare for its luminous future. (15 August 1964)

*** Sri Aurobindo has brought to the world the assurance of a divine future.

*** Sri Aurobindo has come on earth not to bring a teaching or a creed in competition with previous creeds or teachings, but to show the way to overpass the past and to open concretely the route towards an imminent and inevitable future. (22 February 1967)

*** Sri Aurobindo does not belong to the past nor to history. Sri Aurobindo is the Future advancing towards its realisation. Thus we must shelter the eternal youth required for a speedy advance, in order not to become laggards on the way. (2 April 1967)

*** Sri Aurobindo came to tell the world of the beauty of the future that must be realised.He came to give not a hope but a certitude of the splendour towards which the world moves. The world is not an unfortunate accident, it is a marvel which moves towards its expression. The world needs the certitude of the beauty of the future. And Sri Aurobindo has given that assurance. (27 November 1971)

*** The red lotus is the flower of Sri Aurobindo, but specially for his centenary we shall choose the blue lotus, which is the colour of his physical aura, to symbolise the centenary of the manifestation of the Supreme upon earth. (21 December 1971)

*** Sri Aurobindo came upon earth to announce the manifestation of the supramental world and not merely did he announce this manifestation but embodied also in part the supramental force and showed by example what one must do to prepare oneself for manifesting it. The best thing we can do is to study all that he has told us and endeavour to follow his example and prepare ourselves for the new manifestation. This gives life its real sense and will help us to overcome all obstacles. Let us live for the new creation and we shall grow stronger and stronger by remaining young and progressive. (30 January 1972)

*** Sri Aurobindo is an emanation of the Supreme who came on earth to announce the manifestation of a new race and a new world: the Supramental. Let us prepare for it in all sincerity and eagerness. (20 June 1972)

*** Sri Aurobindo came on earth from the Supreme to announce the manifestation of a new race and the new world, the Supramental. Let us prepare for it in all sincerity and eagerness. (15 August 1972)

*** Man is the creation of yesterday. Sri Aurobindo came to announce the creation of tomorrow: the coming of the supramental being. (15 August 1972)

*** Sri Aurobindo incarnated in a human body the supramental consciousness and has not only revealed to us the nature of the path to follow and the method of following it so as to arrive at the goal, but has also by his own personal realisation given us the example; he has provided us with the proof that the thing can be done and the time is now to do it.

*** In the eternity of becoming, each Avatar is only the announcer, the forerunner of a more perfect realisation. And yet men have always the tendency to deify the Avatar of the past in opposition to the Avatar of the future. Now again Sri Aurobindo has come announcing to the world the realisation of tomorrow; and again his message meets with the same opposition as of all those who preceded him. But tomorrow will prove the truth of what he revealed and his work will be done. (21 February 1957)

*** You must understand that what Sri Aurobindo represents in the world’s history, is not a teaching, not even a revelation; it is a decisive action direct from the Supreme. And I am just trying to fulfil that action. (1961)

*** What is the Divine? The Divine is what you adore in Sri Aurobindo. (28 March 1932)

*** (Mother designated the red lotus as the flower of Sri Aurobindo and the white lotus as her own. 2 February 1930) Red lotus—symbol of the manifestation of the Supreme upon earth. White lotus—symbol of the Divine Consciousness.

*** Under the painting of a red lotus by Champaklal, Sri Aurobindo wrote: Avatar. Knowing that Red Lotus represents Sri Aurobindo—White Lotus represents Aditi, the Mother—we have here a private disclosure made by Sri Aurobindo. ---

Perception of Avatarhood is an individual matter, and it may be governed by the cultural, historical, philosophical, religious, even temporal, spiritual factors. But there is also a hope that these factors can be set aside when one comes in contact with the inner or higher reality which, and nothing else, should indeed count for an individual. If this is done then we keep all danger away from us, rather all danger is kept away from us.

In this context, let me make another observation here. In the April 2007 issue of Auroville Today we have the following statement, a statement which rather stunned me greatly: “…there's a danger that an over-reliance on the psychic being and surrender to the Divine, as it is practised… can devolve into passivity.” I must say that there can never be over-reliance on the psychic being and surrender to the Divine. Wasn’t that the Mantra of the Mother, particularly “What Thou Willest, What Thou Willest” when she was busy with the cellular transformation? If somewhere, and sometimes,—and it is immaterial where that somewhere could be and when that sometimes was or will be,—it is not practised ‘properly’ it cannot be the fault of the principle, of the occult and spiritual truth that is there behind it. RYD

There is absolutely no basis to claim the integral yoga is not a Religion

Re: Re: 09: Her Mortal Birth by Rich

on Thu 19 Apr 2007 09:29 AM PDT Profile Permanent Link

Your right Deshpande choosing to believe in the perception of the Avatar is largely an individual and cultural matter. I am also not trying to argue my perception of the matter is the absolute correct one. My view is also very nuanced and may even be conceived as contradictory because while I can very much appreciate the role of the Avatar in the Essays on the Gita I find it unnecessary to posit it into message of the Life Divine

Since I often hear from Devotees that Sri Aurobindo yoga is not a religion (and both he and Mother have also declared this) what I am saying is if one chooses to call Sri Aurobindo an Avatar and elects to believe that he and Mother were direct incarnations of the Divine and advance this argument in discourse, then there is absolutely no basis to claim his integral yoga is not a Religion with a capital R. rc

ps (the statement you refer to in Auroville Today I find just plain silly)

The danger of avatarhood as a concept breeding religious fanaticism

Re: Re: 09: Her Mortal Birth by Rich

on Wed 18 Apr 2007 02:32 PM PDT Profile Permanent Link

RYD: It seems that there was an intense aspiration invoking the divine birth; possibly, the three wise men must have invoked it. It was so in the case of Rama, and so too must have been in the case of Jesus. Ramakrishna, it is said, saw the coming of Vivekananda. Great supernatural events occurred prior to the arrival. Was there something of the kind in the case of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother? Who knows? But there must have been, and there is no doubt about it. Great forces gather up when the Divine is poised to take such a birth.

RC: As I have expressed here before I personally have reservations about declaring anyone including Sri Aurobindo an Avatar. Although this maybe quite proper to argue this within the Indic or Vedantic tradition, it presents numerous obstacles for comprehension in a forum which does not automatically accept these particular metaphysical validity claims, and so limits the dialog to the circle of believers.

In addition I find it rather contradictory when speaking of the possibilities of human evolution to assert that further human evolution is only possible due to direct Divine intervention! This line of thinking would need to posit not only Avatars that take the form of Homo Sapiens, but also prior forms of Cro Magnon, Homo Erectus, Homo Habilis, or for that matter to avataric RNA, enzymes and proteins and while this maybe an attractive venture for some, I simply dont see the need to posit metaphysical claims to explain human evolution (at least up to this point).

The fact that Sri Aurobindo does not mention the term Avatar in the Life Divine which is arguably his most complete treatise of his ideas on matter, spirit and evolution is quite telling. In fact, in the following passage from On Himself makes it quite clear that he regarded the question of Avatarhood as meaningless. (although it seems his followers were more concerned with this then was he) In response to a letter from a follower he writes:

"Let me make it clear that in all I wrote I was not writing to prove I am an Avatar! You are busy in your reasonings with the personal question, I am busy more with the general one. I am seeking to manifest the Divine that I am conscious of and feel - I care a damn whether that constitutes me an Avatar or something else. That is not the question which concerns me. By manifestation of course I mean bringing out and spreading of that consciousness so that others may feel and enter into it and live in it." (p150)

by Debashish on Wed 18 Apr 2007 03:21 PM PDT Profile Permanent Link Rich, I'm not sure your quote proves that Sri Aurobindo regarded the question of avatarhood as meaningless in general or even meaningless to human or any evolution. What it does prove is that he considered the question of whether he himself was an avatar as meaningless to himself. On the general meaning if any of avatarhood both he and the Mother have written much elsewhere. And on its relation to evolution, avatarhood in the Aurobindonian view represents a symbolic break in the structures of avidya and the open-endedness of the infinite and conscious universe.

Of course, it may not be "necessary" to introduce avatarhood to explain biological evolution (natural selection and survival are enough) just as it is not "necessary" to introduce spirit to explain consciousness or reincarnation to explain the afterlife but then it is not even "necessary" to posit the reality of matter to explain consciousness. All these belong to the domain of possibilities within the mind so long as one has not awoken to the reality of other faculties of knowledge based in spiritual experience and the self-knowing of consciousness.

One of the premises of the Life Divine is that Truth does not follow any necessity in its manifestations but gives birth to temporal forms of necessity (structure) as expressions of its self-delight through what one might call real-symbols. Regarding the danger of avatarhood as a concept breeding religious fanaticism, I agree but that needs not dismissal but hermeneutics, other ways of dealing with the interpretation of truth to the ignorance. DB

by Rich on Wed 18 Apr 2007 05:02 PM PDT Profile Permanent Link Unfortunately the religious fanatic does not normally avail themselves of any hermeneutic method, but stone cold literalism. The second part of the matter is that once you start positing a founder of a movement as an Avatar any claims you make that your teaching or yoga is not a "Religion" become mute. Sri Aurobindo actually considered the role of Avatar quite significant and this certainly comes through in his commentaries on text within the tradition of Hinduism such as the Essays on the Gita (one of my all time favorites). However, that he did not see it fit to introduce the notion of avatarhood into The Life Divine is significant in itself especially regards the hermeneutic method one would apply to it rc

The golden event which occurred on 29 February 1956

Re: 08: A Shrine for the God of Love by RY Deshpande

on Fri 13 Apr 2007 04:07 AM PDT Profile Permanent Link

The birth of the new world The birth of the new world took place half an hour after the supramental manifestation, the golden event which occurred on 29 February 1956. About the manifestation,—it was a manifestation and not just a descent,—the Mother wrote in her diary the same day the following:

This evening the Divine Presence, concrete and material, was there present amongst you. I had a form of living gold, bigger than the universe, and I was facing a huge and massive golden door which separated the world from the Divine. As I looked at the door, I knew and willed, in a single movement of consciousness, that the time has come, and lifting with both hands a mighty golden hammer I struck one blow, one single blow on the door and the door was shattered to pieces. Then the supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow.

This happened during the common meditation on Wednesday, in the evening, in the Ashram Playground. Later she added, in November 1957, that it was an event which was a forerunner of the birth of a new world. In the South, in India, there is a belief that great things happen on Wednesdays and it was the golden Wednesday on which this happened. Such awareness!

When asked as when exactly did the birth of the new world take place, the Mother replied: “half an hour later.” First the supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow and then half an hour later took place the birth. The sequence is perfect: there could not have been the new birth if the old Light was still present—that would have been incongruous and strange, self-defeating. Only when the Light got fixed, did the new birth occur. Isn’t that wonderful, the working of super-logic in the great sequence of time?

On 25 September 1957 a question was put to the Mother: “When the Supreme Lord told you to make the world, how did you know what had to be done?” She answered: “I had nothing to learn for that, because the Supreme Lord contains everything in Himself: the whole world, the knowledge of the world and the power to make it. When He decided that there should be a world, He first brought forth the knowledge of the world and the power to make it and that is me, and then He commanded me to make the world.”

God the wise and the mighty—that is the constant refrain of the Holy Scripture! “He first brought forth the knowledge of the world”—that was Sri Aurobindo. The Avatar and his executive Shakti coming together in their full power of manifestation can alone carry out triumphantly such a fundamental world-transforming task. This has now happened; the task has been accomplished. Such indeed was the divine Siddhi in this creation obtained by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Glory to the twin Avatar! Glory to the Lord of the Creation! RYD

I will not try to escape from the work Thou hast given me

Re: 08: A Shrine for the God of Love by RY Deshpande

on Mon 09 Apr 2007 09:00 AM PDT Profile Permanent Link

A work she had to do There were six creations in the past and they were dissolved, as they did not succeed in establishing here the divine sovereignty. The earth carried psychic memory of the failures and had reservation about the present attempt also, says the Mother. But this time it will not be so—particularly when the Supermind has descended and made its station in the earth’s subtle-physical. The work now goes on in the efficacy of the Mantra: “What Thou Willest, What Thou Willest.” But did the Mother discover it, this Mantra, so late in the day, in the seventh creation? If so, why after such a long and tortuous experiment, after much travail and suffering and pain, why it took that kind of a turn? What could have been the occult reason in this late discovery?

One has no knowledge of it, of the pros and cons governing the thousand operations involved in it. But it was in the physical, in the tough obstinate physical, in the physical’s dark and gross mind, rigidly antagonistic and fixed, that she discovered it, the Mantra dynamic and powerful in the very cells of the body. That is its true power. They, the good aspiring cells, began hymning “What Thou Willest, What Thou Willest.” They opened out to the supreme Will and started participating in its joy. Never had it happened earlier.

This happened with the strategic ‘passing away’ of Sri Aurobindo, at 1.26 am on 5 December 1950, the “Death’s tremendous hour”. Sri Aurobindo made a conscious entry into the World of Death. The Mother told Dr Sanyal, Sri Aurobindo and her physician, in the same year, 1950, the following: “People do not know what a tremendous sacrifice Sri Aurobindo has made for the world. About a year ago, while I was discussing things, I remarked that I felt like leaving this body of mine. He spoke out in a very firm tone, ‘No, this can never be. If necessary for this transformation, I might go, you will have to fulfil our Yoga of supramental descent and transformation.’ ” The comment was written down from memory and approved by her afterwards.

Later, she said: “It was this, the work that Sri Aurobindo had given me. Now I understand.” She elaborated it in her conversation, dated 14 March 1970:

…And I see now, I see how his departure and his work so... so vast, yes, and so constant, in the subtle physical, how much, how much it has helped! How much it has (Mother makes a gesture of kneading Matter) helped to prepare things, to change the physical structure. All the experiences that others have had, which were in order to come in contact with the higher worlds, left here below the physical as it is.... How to say it? From the beginning of my life till Sri Aurobindo’s departure, I was in the consciousness that one can go up, one can know, one can have all the experiences (indeed, one did have them), but when one came back into this body... it was the old mental laws, for-mi-da-ble, which ruled things. And then, all these years have been years of preparation—preparation—liberation and preparation, and these days now it has been... ah! the physical recognition, made by the body, that it has changed. It has to be “worked out”, as it is said, it has to be realised in all the details, but the change is done—the change is done. That is to say, the material conditions elaborated by the mind, fixed by it (Mother closes her two fists), that appeared to be inevitable to such an extent that those who had a living experience of the higher worlds thought that one must flee from the world, give up this material world if one wanted to live in the truth (that is the basis of all these theories and faiths); but now it is no longer like that. The physical is capable of receiving the higher Light, the Truth, the true Consciousness and of manifesting it. It is not easy, it needs endurance and will, but a day will come when this will be quite natural. It is just, just the door opened—that is all, now one must go on…

The concern is, the physical life being governed by the higher consciousness, a job which is “difficult… hard… painful”.

But the marvellous thing is: “This body, it is... perfectly peaceful and happy: it is ‘What Thou willest’.” Indeed, unimaginable it is, “How much he has worked since he left! Oh! all the while, all the while.”

Physical transformation, the opening of the physical to the divine Presence—that is the work, a work that can be done only in “What Thou Willest, What Thou Willest.” In it the work of transformation of the consciousness becomes rapid, in it is assured the complete success.

Let us read the Mother’s prayer dated 7 March 1932: “My Lord, I will not try to escape from the work Thou hast given me. Wherever Thou placest my consciousness, it will remain without any attempt to rise to the blissful heights. Even if Thou willest it to be in the mud of the most material nature, it will stay there peaceful and at rest. But wherever it is, it cannot but be without aspiring towards Thee, opening to Thy influence and calling Thee down into itself as the sole reality of its existence.”

Savitri has a work to do. The issue of her soul is, in the face of Ignorance and Death, to hew the ways of Immortality, immortality of the physical. But this has to happen after reckoning all the facts of existence, the spirit’s will and the cosmic forces operating in tandem as well as in opposition. The accomplishment and the victory of the “What Thou Willest, What Thou Willest” lies in Savitri doing the Shakti Yoga under the direct command of the supreme Consciousness-Force herself. There in it is settled her soul’s issue. RYD

The divine Savitri is poised to take the mortal birth

Re: 08: A Shrine for the God of Love by RY Deshpande

on Sun 08 Apr 2007 01:34 PM PDT Profile Permanent Link

Divine Savitri poised for mortal birth The divine Savitri is poised to take the mortal birth. It looks as though the things meant to happen on this “precarious earth” must now start happening, things both gainful and adverse. Suddenly the parameters undergo an unhappy poignant change, even as Savitri should face the realities of this blind suffering world. Her sight that needed no physical eyes must function through the sense-formed eyes, and her heart beat in a dull slumberous heart, her breath be fastened to human breath: Savitri’s transcendental vision must enter into the ophthalmic vision and her super-life the small little organic life. She who was free from all these earthly limitations must accept them now. There is transience, there is fragility, there is sorrow and suffering all around, and Savitri cannot escape them if her concern is the sense of the enduring and the strong and the joyous and the pleasant. There is the heavy darkness in terrestrial things and she must bring the superconscient light even to the crude and the physical. How else can the way to the bright and the felicitous be hewed? Wasn’t it for this that she accepted the mortal birth?

To win or lose the godlike game for man, Was her soul’s issue thrown with Destiny’s dice.Was she ruled by the uncertainties of Destiny? Less of ‘yes’ but more of ‘no’, the assertive and emphatic ‘no’. In the earthly destiny there is also the divine design as far as she is concerned. And yet it is not all tailored for her, that all will happen automatically. The issue is Ignorance-and-Death pitched against Immortality. Her soul has to measure up to meet it. Everything is arranged and yet, paradoxically, everything has got to be worked out, in every detail. Savitri is great and mighty, Savitri is perfect with the perfection that can enshrine the God of Love. However there is another greatness and another might, perfect in the absoluteness of its imperfection, the all-devouring Void who assumes the shape of Death to accost her.

Can there be any better food for Death than Love? And so he puts all his strength to possess it. That is the harsh existential issue and Savitri cannot wish it away. The absoluteness of that imperfection does not touch her in her transcendental home, but it has its colossal sway in the cosmic functioning. Savitri has to more than match herself with it, match in the trueness of her love. And the odds are hidden from her sight. She has to face her soul’s issue thrown with Destiny’s dice—not by Destiny, Destiny per se, but Destiny used by someone else. She has to prepare herself to meet the challenge by doing Yoga, Yoga directly under the guidance of the supreme Shakti, her superconscient self. She has discovered Love, but Love’s safety in her rests in her holding the divine Power in her spirit and in her soul. Narad comes to initiate her on the path, that she may succeed in hewing the ways of Immortality in this mirky transient and sorrowful world, dominated by Death. One day she will be standing on a dangerous brink, “carrying the world’s future on her lonely breast”. She might lose, she might fail—and the outcome is unknown even to Narad. Will it be extinction or eternal life in the Good of the Great—who knows what shall be the end? Narad foretells: Even if God seems to leave her to her lone strength, (Savitri, p. 462)

Privileged are those who will enter into its courtyards, its majestic halls, climb up the impressive ramps

Re: 08: A Shrine for the God of Love by RY Deshpande

on Wed 04 Apr 2007 04:46 AM PDT Profile Permanent Link

"Life is but a dream whose shapes return," wrote T.S. Eliot in The Waste Land. Is there an escape from the dream, then? The Modernist can be critical, incisive; he has inner depth, with a powerful inner mind but without inner life and inner physical, a mind howsoever subtle or powerful but with no solution to offer. Extend it to the technology-produced possibilities and the picture is as much if not more bleak. Will the Phantom of Delight ever become the reality of our soul and our spirit?

Sri Aurobindo has opened out the prospects, but an enabling effort from our part is essential. Will we put that in? He has given the Theory of Future Poetry; he has also demonstrated it by conducting his classes in the Department of Poetry, in the ‘30s; he has himself worked out its fullest scope, in sonnets and in Savitri, for instance. If it is not practised any further, it is not his fault; nor would that situation discredit his propositions. The future poetry is the Poetry of the Creative Spirit and it can be written only if we grow spiritually. One will have to wait till that happens, but happen it must if there are post-human destinies.

The Perfect Shrine—Matrimandir—is for tomorrow and privileged are those who will enter into its courtyards, its majestic halls, climb up the impressive ramps, and exceptionally so who will sit in the sanctum sanctorum. There is awaiting the eternal Muse, the eternal Beatrice, the eternal Savitri. RYD