Sri Aurobindo Study Course (Pramod Ranjan Sen Endowment)

TALK December 18 at Sri Aurobindo Bhavan, 8 Shakespeare Sarani; 6 pm: Sri Aurobindo Study Course (Pramod Ranjan Sen Endowment) by Dr V. Ananda Reddy of Sri Aurobindo Centre for Advanced Research, Pondicherry. Subject: Four aspects of Savitri. Front Page > Calcutta > Timeout The Telegraph. Tuesday , December 18 , 2007

Miracles are natural happenings in the life of a devotee

Our Indian scriptures are not story books or disposable paperbacks. They are storehouses of knowledge, eternally relevant and universally pertinent...

The court scene of dice vitiates the atmosphere. It is a game of lies where men and women throng to see the worst happening. A court of justice turns into a casino and the eldest daughter-in-law becomes a human stake. Gambling is an addiction inspired by greed and sustained by pride. The gambler does not know that he is not playing but is indeed the victim of foul play. The devotion in Draupadi proves that miracles are natural happenings in the life of a devotee — what sage Aurobindo means when he writes the logic of the infinite is magic for the finite! Mahabharata current account Prema Pandurang FE Home - Story: Sunday , December 16, 2007

She was able to run her family because of The Mother

BY N. THYAGARAJAN

Perhaps Vadivukarasi is one of the very few actresses like Sita and Sulakshana who could fit in charming and glamorous mothers' role in films and tv serials as well and this is the reason why she is most sought after nowadays by producers. Very recently, after her mother's role in the film Sivaji for Rajnikanth she has come back to act in small-screen soaps...

Vadivukarasi is now busy with the schedules with various Tamil films and is also acting in mega-serials like Megala and Gauravam. She gratefully acknowledges Mother Aurobindo's blessing makes her to feel lightly whatever be the obstacles that come in her way. She said that she had lost all her earnings over a row with her husband in the year 2003 and she was able to run her family because of the Mother. She had acted in many other serials like Archanai Pookal, Kudumbam, Agal Vilakku, Amman, Muhurtham and a dozen of other soaps won her name. Posted by N.THYAGARAJAN at 5:20 AM FILMS-CHANNELS

Even though all the significances were given by the Mother, Sri Aurobindo's touch is undoubtedly felt

BLOSSOM LIKE A FLOWER
Spiritual Significance of flowers

This blog is dedicated to present the Spiritual significances of flowers given by the Mother in Sri Aurobindo ashram. The Mother gave spiritual significances to more than 800 flowers. This is an attempt to present each flower with its significance, comment given by the Mother on the significance, the botanical name of the flower,common name, and its colour or colours and if necessary the description of the flower.

Even though all the significances were given by the Mother, Sri Aurobindo's touch is undoubtedly felt since the spiritual significances of the flowers correspond to His incisive psychological analysis of the different planes of consciousness and parts of our being. Growing in contact with the flowers may also be a part of Integral Yoga since the Mother used flowers as a help in sadhana, teaching us how to master and transform our lower nature and realise the highest possibilities that await us...Posted by Aravind D Reddy at 8:41 PM Saturday, December 8, 2007

Sri Aurobindo came to earth and is here to change the Earth and bring in Joy and Life and Light and conquer Death

The Withdrawal 1 from All choice by Barindranath Chaki

My soul unhorizoned widens to measureless sight,

My body is God’s happy living tool,

My spirit a vast Sun of deathless light.

[Sri Aurobindo]

They say that Sri Aurobindo passed away on 5th December 1950. Even, it is said that it was His withdrawal. Did He really pass away, away from us, from the Humanity and the World? Did He pass into ignominy and ignorance and Darkness, into Death? Did He really withdraw Himself from the Mankind, from His Work of the Supramental Manifestation and Transformation?

In 1956, one of my teachers, son of one who closely knew Sri Aurobindo and remained in the Ashram, asked me the question: why did He die? At that time, I could not explain the matter or meet the challenge thrown to me. But the question lived in me and forced me to find the answer in course of time.

Majority of the people, now and then, took it and believed and knew it as a great withdrawal of a great Person, of a great Divine Person, who endeavored to cause descent of the Supermind and Manifestation of the Supramental Consciousness and Force. Indeed, the very event was beyond human words. Sri Aurobindo’s “Withdrawal” was a necessity for the Supramental Descent on earth.

Prior to that, Sri Aurobindo was ill. His illness continued and it caused a deep concern in the Ashram. Dr Nirodbaran and Dr Sanyal looked after his treatment. The illness prolonged. The Mother told Dr Sanyal: “He is fully conscious within, but he is losing concern in himself.” Champaklal, however, asked Sri Aurobindo : “Are you not using your Force?” The Master replied : “No.” Dr Nirodbaran asked then: “if you don’t use you Force, how is the disease to be cured?” The reply was: “Can’t explain, you won’t understand.”The reply, if possible for us, to the human question about the Withdrawal would have also been—“You won’t understand.”

As K D Sethna puts it, Sri Aurobindo was both a Pilgrim of Day and also of Night. He went to the Highest height of Consciousness and, as well, he went to the lowest of the planes of Darkness and Inconscience, in order to kindle the Light there and accelerate the Transformation of the Earth and the mankind. He had to combat with Death, so that in due course, in the Next Evolution, Death comes to an end.

I made an assignation with the Night;

In the abyss was fixed our rendezvous:

In my breast carrying God’s deathless light

I came her dark and dangerous heart to woo.

I left the glory of the illumined Mind

And the calm rapture of the divinised soul

And travelled through a vastness dim and blind

To the grey shore where her ignorant waters roll.

I walk by the chill wave through the dull slime

And still that weary journeying knows no end;

Lost is the lustrous godhead beyond Time,

There comes no voice of the celestial Friend,

And yet I know my footprints’ track shall be

A pathway towards Immortality.

[A Pilgrim of Night : Sri Aurobindo]

The Mother wrote on 9th December, which is for the mankind the mantra of rejuvenation and of starting anew from the stupefaction that resulted from His “Withdrawal”:

“To THEE who hast been the material envelope of our Master, to THEE our infinite gratitude. Before THEE who hast done so much for us, who hast worked, struggled, suffered, hoped, endured so much, before THEE who hast willed all, attempted all, prepared, achieved all for us, before THEE we bow down and implore that we may never forget, even for a moment, all we owe to THEE.”

As everybody knows, this has been inscribed on the Samadhi. This inscription has been addressed to “the material envelope” of Sri Aurobindo, but not to Sri Aurobindo himself.

Sri Aurobindo is a Being and a Consciousness and a Force that cannot die. His coming to earth was, and is, a Hope for the Earth and the Mankind, a Promise by the Supreme for the conquest of Ignorance and Darkness and Death on earth, a Dream to be fulfilled.

Sri Aurobindo did never leave us. His Presence is always with us here on earth. His "Withdrawal” was simply the act of leaving the body. The Mother wrote on 7th December 1950:

“Lord, this morning Thou hast given me the assurance that Thou wouldst stay with us until Thy work is achieved, not only as a consciousness which guides and illumines but also as a dynamic Presence in action. In unmistaken terms Thou hast promised that all of Thyself would remain here and not leave the earth atmosphere until earth is transformed. Grant that we may be worthy of this Presence and henceforth everything in us be concentrated to the fulfilment of Thy sublime work.”

The Mother has even said that "Sri Aurobindo has come to announce to the world the beauty of the future that will be realized. He has come to bring not a hope but the certainty of the splendour towards which the world is moving. The world is not an unfortunate accident: it is a miracle moving towards its expression."

Thus, Sri Aurobindo is not only a Hope, He stands for a certitude — the certainty that through further Evolution and Progress, there will come the conquest of Ignorance and Darkness and Death. He embraced Death, so that Death and Darkness and Ignorance shall be conquered on earth. The Dream which Sri Aurobindo has bought for us is positively a Future Reality.

He dies that the world may be new-born and live.

[Savitri]

He is a turning point in the Evolution, in the Next Evolution. With his Descent on earth, the New Evolution has begun. He came to earth and is here to change the Earth and bring in Joy and Life and Light and conquer Death. He made a supreme sacrifice and left His Body, so that the Way is open to conquer Ignorance and Darkness and Death on earth.

He who has found his identity with God

Pays with his body’s death his soul’s vast light.

His knowledge immortal triumphs by his death.

[Savitri]

Sri Aurobindo’s sacrifice has been sufficiently and greatly fruitful, as The Mother continued His Work, which is also Her Work, and then there was the Supramental Descent on earth on the 29th February 1956. And then began the Supramental Manifestation on earth. The Mother walked into the New Body on 17-11-1973. [Ref: The Transition— The Seventeenth November, by Barin Chaki]. There has been some progress, in the meantime, in the transition from Man to Superman. The Mother has said on 15 April 1972 :

The transition from man to the supramental being is accomplished through the overman. There may be a few overman - there are - who will actually make that transition.

[Mother’s Agenda]

Barin Chaki

8-12-2007

Reference: The Withdrawal by Barin Chaki

Written on 5th December and revised on 7th and 8th.

Yogi Ravindra

Thursday, December 6, 2007
Sri Aurobindo & Mother Meera's teachings - Yogi Ravindra

Yogi Ravindra, Chachaji is a yogi from India. He is a retired professor of Philosophy and Commerce. He has spent 15 years with Mother Meera at Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry India. http://www.sriaurobindoashram.org

He has assisted individuals on their spiritual path as well as in family life.He lives in Madhya Pradesh,India. Posted by Universal Servant at 1:11 PM The Gateway To Eternity

Savitri and Mother is one and undivided personality

[Savitri] The Growth of the Flame
from savitri by sri aurobindo by Joydip Chakladar

They felt a larger future meet their walk;

She held their hands, she chose for them their paths:

They were moved by her towards great unknown things,

Faith drew them and the joy to feel themselves hers;

They lived in her, they saw the world with her eyes.

What a beautiful metre it is packed with our own experiences....!!

It describes exactly our relationship with Mother. Specially the line "She held their hands, she chose for them their paths:". It's so true for anybody who has felt the presence of Mother. It's very hard to put this experience in words yet it is so true that looking at Mother we feel the larger future which is embracing humanity slowly and gently. It's so great to be part of that larger future of humanity when we see a new human race with a new conciousness evolving from the old.

Sri Aurobindo in this metre, has put this experiences of every common man who loves Mother, so beautifully in words which is almost "next to impossible" to put in words. Every part of experiences in this metre, describes the picture of our meeting with Savitri's presence in the form of Mother. We are move towards great unknown things like supramental transformation, transformation of human race into a divine race. And there is continous growth of faith towards Mother and the joy to be one with her.

And then we reach in a situation where we start seeing the world from Mother's eyes .. a world full of beauty, harmony, peace, bliss and creativity in multifarous direction.

Infact this entire set of metres, help us to come into a very important conclusion that Savitri and Mother is one and undivided personality.

The Divine within

ned said, on November 17th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
When will we stop clinging to authoritarian leaders, religious or otherwise? When we are totally surrendered to the only true authority, the Divine within.

Believing with Reason from The Stumbling Mystic by ned

...like the criticism that atheists like Daniel Dennett put forth: that most people don’t believe in God, only in beliefs about God. Authentic faith develops as a result of lived experience. It is not dependent on beliefs and intellectual constructs.

It was her friendship with Dilip Kumar Roy which brought her to the Ashram

The first tremor of the Light—by Sahana Devi
by RY Deshpande on Fri 16 Nov 2007 08:18 PM PST Permanent Link
[In the Ashram Sahana Devi wrote, long ago, mystic poetry in Bengali; the present piece of hers is a translation in English by Nolini Kant Gupta. Will our lotus-scented senses awake and will we hear the cry of the Spaces? But for that to happen a golden vision should flutter over our eyelids. For that to happen should begin our dream-journey. Let’s prepare ourselves for that journey. Let's respond to its mysterious yet calm evocative utterance, to that which is so deep beneath it, in its golden hush. RYD]

Re: The first tremor of the Light—by Sahana Devi
by RY Deshpande on Sat 17 Nov 2007 08:13 PM PST Profile Permanent Link
Sahana Devi was one of the few earliest members of the Ashram. She came in 1928 and lived here until she passed away in 1990. She was the niece of Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das and it was in his house that, in her girlhood, she had seen Sri Aurobindo for the first time, after the Alipore Bomb Case trial was over and he had been released (1908-09). C. R. Das had successfully defended Sri Aurobindo who was charged by the then British Government for his acts of sedition. Before coming to the Ashram, Sahana Devi not only knew Rabindranath Tagore very well but was an authority on Rabindra Sangeet. In fact, such enchanting was her voice that she was called as “the Nightingale of Bengal”. It was her friendship with Dilip Kumar Roy which brought her to the Ashram. Her inner call for a life of sadhana was so strong that she gave up everything in this pursuit.

The adventure of consciousness and joy

Sri Aurobindo or The Adventure of Consciousness

Many of the westerners who have settled in Auroville came after reading an excellent introduction to what is really being attempted here, in the form of the book with the above named title. The book was written by (French) Satprem in the late nineteen-sixties at the request of the Mother. Its name is derived from a line in Sri Aurobindo's epic poem 'Savitri', referring to "the adventure of consciousness and joy".

In the intro it says:
In this century, so hurried, incoherent, full of riches which dominate us more than they serve, we have need of a true mastery, of that joy which comes of this mastery. But our psychology knows yet only the surfaces of being, and our imported orientalisms illumine some obscure depths which may perhaps be all right for the cross-legged sage, but not for the beleaguered men we are.

This book has been written from a Western point of view and for those who yearn for a truth of Life and not only a truth with eyes closed. It presents just one aspect of Sri Aurobindo, the most practical one. We only hope it will lead the reader to explore for himself Sri Aurobindo, and perhaps, with him, find the perfect harmony of East and West, of inner freedom and outer mastery.

And further on:
--- Now, Sri Aurobindo shows us how to make a double discovery of which we are in urgent need if we want not only to give outlet to our stifling chaos but to transform our world. For, following step by step with him his prodigious exploration - his technique of inner spaces, if one may venture to put it thus - we are led to the greatest discovery of all times, to the door of the Great Secret which must change the face of the world, namely, that consciousness is power.

The book has been widely translated. For more information, refer to the AVI Centre in your country, or go to http://sriaurobindoashram.org/home.htm www.auromere.com

Home > Coming to Auroville > Joining Auroville > The Adventure

Auro-Mirran-centric view of spirituality

The Limitations of Religionism from The Stumbling Mystic by ned

I of course have an Auro-Mirran-centric view of spirituality — and I don’t think anyone else even comes close to them in terms of just how fulfilling and complete their philosophy is — but I have no problems with others who choose different paths. I think each soul has its own calling depending on a number of different factors. And lesser Light always seeks greater Light, so if one is so convinced that their path is the most complete and most universal or integral, then one must live it and time will tell if that conviction can stand the test of lived experience or not. If this yoga that I am practicing is not the most universal one, then I will gladly welcome a day when I will be consumed by an even wider spiritual path. I do not think that the spiritual transmission ended at Sri Aurobindo and the Mother — of course not. As Sri Aurobindo says: “Our life is a march to a Victory never won.”

Sri Aurobindo and The Mother suggested to read their works with your heart, not your head

Adventures in Exploring a New Faith (by Mrs. G.) from One Cosmos

I was raised in a secular Jewish home, but even as a young child I was a seeker and wanted to know God. I even went to a variety of different services with neighbors and with my grandparents, and was exposed early on to Reform Judaism and the Episcopalian church, as well as a 70's style of spiritual seeking with looser parameters, but based on Christianity.

Currently, I'm a devotee of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. I don't have any problem with that practice for myself, and I've been very faithful to it, for lack of a better term. I'm a true believer, you could say. But once Tristan arrived, I now have him to consider. Magic 8 ball kept saying, "answer hazy, ask again later." I knew The Mother would let me know what to do when the time came, and recently, she did...

When I was first exposed to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, they each suggested to read his work with your heart, not your head. That's not exactly how they said it, but the idea was not to intellectually try to understand and analyze each concept, but to notice how you respond in your heart and soul to what you're reading. I took this approach this morning... Thanks! Leslie (Mrs. G)

Toward a truly suprarational and transformational spirituality

I tend to be biased against religion, which usually makes my interaction with religious people difficult, if not impossible. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother also came down hard on religion, with Sri Aurobindo going so far as to say:

There are two for whom there is hope, the man who has felt God’s touch and been drawn to it and the sceptical seeker and self-convinced atheist; but for the formularists of all the religions and the parrots of free thought, they are dead souls who follow a death that they call living.

But of course they also acknowledged the role religion had played in providing humanity with a moral foundation. Their vision encompassed the past, the present and the future, and as a result they were able to maintain a certain detachment that would allow them to criticize religion without anger, ill-will or resentment. The rest of us are nowhere near that level of enlightenment. I generally have a hard time tolerating religious apologetics and the like, which always strike me as shallow and superficial, based on very weak intellectual foundations (and hardly any authentic spiritual ones). I particularly have little or no tolerance for religious justifications or apologetics for sexism.

I guess I am just reminding myself that this is something that I need to work on — my biases against religion and the anger and ill-will they generate within me, which is an obstacle to my own self-giving. May God’s grace help me overcome these weaknesses. My Anti-Religion Biases from The Stumbling Mystic by ned

He whose transcendence rules the pregnant Vasts

Eternal, he assents to Fate and Time / Immortal dallies with mortality / The All-Conscious ventured into Ignorance / He whose transcendence rules the pregnant Vasts / Prescient now dwells in our subliminal depths / The Absolute, the Perfect, the Alone / Has entered with his silence into space / He has made this tenement of flesh his own

(Sri Aurobindo).

Or, if you prefer an unassailable digital redoubt, "The One emerged from the Zero and proceeded to create the 1 and 0, which evolved and transcended themselves in the Cosmic 3." To be continued.... posted by Gagdad Bob at 10/18/2007 09:09:00 AM

We will miss this departed scholar from Bankikodla in Karnatak

Re: Prof Mangesh V Nadkarni
by Ranjan N Naik on Sun 14 Oct 2007 09:15 AM PDT Profile Permanent Link
Late Shri Mangesh V Nadkarni from Bankikodla earned M.A degree in English from Pune University and his PhD in English Literature from the UCLA, California US (year 1970). He was a Professor at Central Institute of English, Hyderabad, National University of Singapore(1985-93) and he was also one of the Chief Disciples of Aurobindo at Pondicherry.

I'm deeply saddened to hear the news about the death of Dr. Mangesh Vital Nadkarni, from our village. My thoughts are with his family (his wife and two daughetrs in the US) during this difficult time. I do remember meeting and chatting with Dr. Nadkarni, his wife and children at his Hyderabad house in the year 1986. Last month after many years, I got an opportunity to talk to him on phone while he was touring Bangalore on Savitri discourse he had undertaken since his departure as a professor of English. I wished I would meet him this time in the USA. I know we will miss this departed scholar from Bankikodla. May his soul rest in peace.

-Ranjan Naik, PhD (Mathematics) from Bankikodla.
Reply
by RY Deshpande on Mon 15 Oct 2007 02:42 AM PDT Profile Permanent Link
Dear Dr Ranjan Naik

It is interesting that you are from the same village Bankikodla in Karnatak wherefrom late Prof Mangesh V Nadkarni hailed. That prompts me to request you to write about your early associations with him, the family background, its culture, his village friends, community relationships, his school career, games, sports activities or whatever other aspects you might be able to recall. I shall be very happy to post it if you can send it as an article to me. Please indicate here, in fact I would urge you to do. We were pretty close here during the last fifteen years or so. My wife and Mrs Nadkarni are great friends and she will communicate your feelings to her. Presently her daughters are also here. Thanks RYD

The Mother and Sri Aurobindo were not interested in numbers

Ned Says: October 11th, 2007 at 3:40 pm Alan, regarding what you say about taking up the spiritual path when your personal issues are sorted out — this reminds me of something very important about Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. That is, they did not admit everyone into the Ashram. Auroville was (and is) open to all, but the Ashram was meant to be for people who truly were ready to put down all attachments and consecrate their lives totally to the Supreme and to the integral yoga. Mother and Sri Aurobindo were not interested in numbers, in gathering around them a large following of devotees just for the heck of it. There were many people whom they told clearly that they weren’t ready for the yoga, that they should basically go live the “normal” life and come back if/when they were truly ready for such a commitment. This is because the spiritual path is truly dangerous for someone who is not ready to take it up. The physical body kind of “protects” us from all the dangers of the occult worlds, but once you start going beyond the body, without a highly-developed psychic center, you are in big trouble, potentially.

Point being, I see this as a demonstration of how Mother and Sri Aurobindo took their responsibility as gurus very seriously. They were not willing to endanger their devotees. Compare this to pop-gurus who take on just about anyone, and then can’t handle it — and their devotees even end up with schizophrenic breaks and such things.

Dr. Mangesh V.Nadkarni passed away on 23 September 2007 at the age of 74

Dr. Mangesh V.Nadkarni passes away

Dr. Mangesh V.Nadkarni passed away on 23 September 2007 at the age of 74. A lover and follower of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, he has lectured extensively in India and abroad on Sri Aurobindo's vision and the spiritual heritage of India. His lecture series conducted regularly at the Society's premises in Puducherry, on Sri Aurobindo's 'Savitri' and "Essays on the Gita" were very popular. He had recently authored a book "India's Spiritual Destiny - Its Inevitability and Potentiality", wherein he puts forth succinctly the true destiny of India and the role all Indians will have to play in order to achieve it. sriaurobindosociety.org.in/oct07

A clear distinction be voiced between practitioners of Integral Yoga and other people

090 bm. Way to change others not in IY, is by our example & integrity, not by theoretical bashing" by ronjon on Sun 24 Jul 2005 04:21 PM PDT Permanent Link From: "Bindu Mohanty" (aurobindu@hotmail.com) Date: July 24, 2005 4:20:51 PM PDT To: rjon@vzavenue.net Subject: RE: well,..why (how) even talk about it?!!! Reply-To: postaum2005@sriaurobindocenter-la.com

Dear Richard and others,

I confess, I have hardly read any of the postings on this Post-AUM. I am somehow still stuck in a relentless treadmill of work and study. Anyway today, I chanced to open this e-mail and my interest was immediately caught by certain keywords—Habermas, intersubjectivity and not to mention my own name. In addition to the wonderful arguments that you make here about introducing Sri Aurobindo to a wider context, I'd like to make a few comments.

As an Aurobindonian group, we can perhaps agree that this whole contemporary interest in integral and evolutionary studies is part of the supramental change that the world is going through. Sri Aurobindo elaborates that the influence of the Supermind is almost always distorted when it descends to the human mentality. This is perhaps why the message of Allan Combs and Ken Wilber is distorted. And yet, I agree with you that we should continue to try and reach out to the wider world, and the AUM presents itself is a very good forum to bring together Aurobindonians and other people interested/engaged, in whatever way, in an evolutionary spiritual practice.

What I would like to see however in future AUMs is that a clear distinction be voiced between practitioners of Integral Yoga and other people who have important, contemporary theories to share about integral education or evolution but do not subscribe to the spiritual path of Integral Yoga. If this distinction is made from the outset, then those Aurobindonians who are not interested in contemporary discoveries and efforts, need not attend those talks.

Neeltje's (and Ameeta Mehra's) effort at integral education is very different from Joe Subbiondo's efforts at integral education. Just because the term used by both are same, there is no need to say that they both mean the same thing. And at the same time, there is no point in trashing Joe's efforts, for CIIS, whatever its weaknesses, is quite a radical alternative to mainstream college education in USA or India. And the only way to change others, who are not on the Integral Yoga path, is by our own example and integrity and not by theoretical bashing. Anyway, this is my practically oriented two-pence contribution to this very rich discussion. I leave USA in about a week's time, and hopefully in August, I'll have more time to participate in this discussion.

Love and gratitude, Bindu

Posted to: Main Page

All our faculties, our will and thought and feeling, our spirit and soul must awake to the sun that Savitri is

Re: A Spiritual Biography of Savitri by RY Deshpande

on Thu 13 Sep 2007 02:39 AM PDT Profile Permanent Link A Road by the Mind

In her comment dated 12 January 2007 Kim writes: “I like so much the idea of approaching Savitri from the heart, reading it with a blank mind, and learning it by heart as well. I notice that when I memorize a particular passage, the mantric qualities of the writing connect to the psychic center and through the memorization, I am able to carry that connection all through the day, reciting favorite lines sometimes many times over. It's uplifting somehow…”

That indeed makes Savitri an upāsanā grantha, a Book for Spiritual Practices for making spiritual progress. In fact, that it is, that Savitri is an upāsanā grantha par excellence, and everything is available in it. And yet, perhaps, we have to also discover the road to Savitri by the mind. Of course, that discovery cannot be by the process of flat and dull mentalisation, abstract nor diagnostic, by a linear process of thinking, or the Cartesian thinking. This mentalisation may have its own value no doubt, and also may have its own pleasure, but as upāsanā book it certainly can be—and why not? Indeed in it we have both the domains available—the deepening inner mental and the ascending spiritual. This upāsanā pursuit has its own positive reward also and it need not be, should not be, shunned or disdained, ridiculed in the least.

Naturally, I was heartened when, apropos of this discussion Ron made his encouraging observation on 13 January 2007. He wrote: “I certainly don't think so [that it is all mentalisation]. In my opinion your Savitri series is a real contribution to SCIY; they certainly have given me new insights into Savitri's profound depth. Personally, I hope you'll continue posting them.” He further adds: “I see Sonia Dyne's article as posing a ‘both/and’ rather than an ‘either/or’ choice between a ‘mental’ or ‘multi-media’ mantric/music/art approach to studying Savitri. As she says in her article, ‘It has been claimed that multi-sensory experience, which at best should include mental insight, leads to an intuitive grasp of reality that is more profound (because wider in scope) and less articulate, in the intellectual sense.’ Doesn't the integral approach include even apparent mutual exclusivites?” It does. Kim gets back to the issue on 14 January 2007 and says: “Perhaps there is benefit in both approaches—the mental and the heart/by heart. Perhaps this is the integration we seek, where both approaches can be seen as one, interdependent, the mind—the heart, the very being—all mutually beneficial. I very much value your detailed Savitri postings and am learning so much from them. I appreciate that you are open to questioning every approach as well.”

Indeed, to quote the Mother: If truly one knows how to meditate upon Savitri, one will receive all the help one needs.

In our own little way, one way of meditating upon Savitri is by studying it carefully, by what the Indian yogic prescriptions say, “manan”, by putting full mental focus on the object, concentrating on it, by cogitation, meditation, musing, rumination, deliberation, reflection; if it can become identification, samyama, then one is actually doing yoga with it. Surely, the effort has some value and sense, has certain pertinence as far as our endeavour to enter into the world of Savitri is concerned. All our faculties, our will and thought and feeling, our spirit and soul must awake to the sun that Savitri is.

And, in fact, any one of these can be a way to live in Savitri. The rest will come from Savitri itself. I heard of a person who could not see but when Savitri was given to him, he ‘saw’ that it was all written in gold. I also recall an occasion what a learned person said in his talk after my presentation in a conference. I had quoted Savitri and soon he said, rather obliquely, that the Mother never liked Savitri being discussed, that Savitri is not to be discussed at all. But what does that mean? In plain words, it simply means: “keep shut.” But I just responded, by saying: “I don’t know.” Can there be any bar on any method? Not at all; there cannot be any bar. How can there be? Isn’t she the Sun from which we can kindle all our suns?

About approaching Savitri, the Mother says that “the direct road is by the heart.” She told this to young Mona Sarkar in one of his meetings with her. I am posting this talk of the Mother on Savitri separately. It has the power to settle everything for us. She prefaced it by saying: "I shall give you something special; be prepared." The talk begins as follows: “It does not matter if you do not understand it—Savitri, read it always. You will see that every time you read it, there will be something new experience; things which were not here, things you did not understand arise and suddenly become clear. Always an unexpected vision comes up through the words and lines. Every time you try to read and understand, you will see that something which was hidden behind is revealed clearly and vividly. I tell you the very verses you have read once before, will appear to you in a different light each time you re-read them.” And she says: “Always your experience is enriched, it is revelation at each step…”

Perhaps there is always something special she gives to each individual to be in Savitri. Her demand is: “Be prepared.” There is always something special she gives to each individual. Let us receive it.

There are many aspects of Savitri and there are many ways of looking at Savitri. The most important is of course its affirmation of the Spirit in things, Spirit as the dynamic Truth shaping in its expansive and expanding luminous freedom the destiny of this creation. This also implies that, to enter into Savitri, we have to make an extensive, a many-sided preparation as far as our instrumental faculties are concerned, our senses and our tools, our gadgets and devices, our machinery of cognition, both occult and spiritual; we have to also make progress leading to wideness of consciousness, including possibly the yogic-spiritual. While Savitri itself can become a means for that progress, there is needed the right kind of effort from our side.

We must be prepared to undertake the hardship of its discipline by keeping ready all the involved aspects of our personality—with the mind capable of receiving intimations of gleaming knowledge, and the heart responding to the ardencies of life-movements in their thousand moods of magnificence and dignity, and the will steady in its intent, steady like a bright flame of sacrifice burning upward to heaven. What is it here that cannot be pressed into service for the fullness of realisation that Savitri offers? Indeed, nothing there is that cannot be transformed by Savitri. But, fundamentally, there has to be in us a “call” to live in Savitri who shall give us the Truth and the things of the Truth. With it alone can begin our yogic life, our life in Savitri, of making Savitri as our Book of Yoga. The call has to come, when the answer is already present.

In the meanwhile, however, we can live in Savitri’s presence in several ways. In Savitri there is spiritual philosophy put in the revealing language of a poet, its expression carrying the inspired and inevitable Word. We have in it mysticism, occult knowledge, religion, metaphysics, arts, sciences, literature, history of man and history of the earth, all that is noble and living, that can impart to our perception the sense of infinity which can give meaning to our daily occupations. Any one of these can become our foundational engagement. In fact, it has thus already opened out an altogether new world of creative action for us. Based on Savitri we already have Sunil Bhattacharya’s music, and Huta Hindocha’s paintings under the direct guidance of the Mother. These are examples of the new art that is to come in its wake, and there will be many more creations to bring Savitri itself closer to us.

We thus envisage the coming of new schools of thought, choreography, poetry, criticism, comparative research and studies, fiction, songs, oratorical dissertations, discourses, recitations and readings, all welling up from this inexhaustible fountain of creativity.

The poem has also been translated into several languages, mostly in verse-form, but also at times as prose renderings. Maybe some of these are rudimentary attempts, and much will have to be done to achieve some minimum aesthetic satisfaction that is to be expected from a work connected with it. Nonetheless, these attempts do demonstrate the possibilities that have sprung up from Savitri’s world of delight. If around the stone-still statue of Buddha, in Ellora, there is the calm of infinity that nothing can disturb, we shall expect a crystalline stream of sweetness and joy rushing from the marble face of Savitri; halo’d by the moon of beauty, or carved in the heart of amethyst, she shall prove to be “the Sun from which we kindle all our suns.” If only, Satyavan-like, our “mind transfigures to a rapturous seer”! RYD

For outsiders like me every small incidence about the ashram and its people is interesting and memorable

Re: A Spiritual Biography of Savitri by rakesh on Thu 13 Sep 2007 01:19 AM PDT Profile Permanent Link

For outsiders like me every small incidence about the ashram and its people is interesting and memorable. I do not why but I have developed this special attraction to people who practise yoga. I hope you will share more of this with us 'outsiders' in the future. I guess this separation of space is only in the mind. When this vanishes one is in direct touch with the inner yogi. For an outsider there is always a feeling of how nice it would be if I was in the ashram?

Obviously living along with many sadhaks is a great oppurtunity to grow in endless possibilities. I guess I will always miss such an atmosphere but the inner yogi is the only guide in the outside world. There is no guru, one has to depend completely on the inner guide. Mind with its endless suggestions, temptations and sattvic imitations has to give way for this greater and silent opening from within. May this happen soon and one feels the closeness with the divine. The greatest satisfaction would be to see the beloved in the whole world and its different manifestations and end this division in the mind.

How can it help a person in day to day life

Life & purpose Friday, September 7, 2007 Weakness and Destiny I have been going through some rough patch for quite some time...

Fortunately or unfortunately i did stumble upon the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and Divine mother of Pondicherry. This blog is just to share my interest and thoughts. Hope some of you out there share the interest and help me understand the teachings better. Thank you for reading the blog. Now to the article in the link.....it is an article from archive of the next future magazine. One of the lines written by mother in this, caught my attention.

You are weakest precisely in that element which is destined to be your greatest asset

isn't it simple and sweet, just like every thing else she has written. i was doing a task which let me say i am not very good at, when i came across this article. so naturally this line made me think. what does this line really mean. What is mother trying to convey by this line to a child ( i feel more comfortable thinking of myself as her child) like me. Aside from the spiritual or philosophical aspect of this statement, how can it help a person in day to day life... Posted by savitri at 3:38 PM 0 comments

Sri Aurobindo and The Mother intervened with The Black Force that surrounded Hitler

~C4Chaos' Blog blog photos goals ideas books quotes (Crossposted from www.c4chaos.com)
The Nazi Occult Conspiracy Posted on Sep 6th, 2007 by ~C4Chaos

I've always been intrigued with the Nazi occult conspiracy. It's the stuff of legends and Hollywood movies. Remember Raiders of the Lost Ark? Cool movie.Some people brush it aside as fantasy. But conspiracy theories like this don't easily go away. Case in point: Here's a documentary from Discovery Channel. Nazis: The Occult Conspiracy part 1 of 2 See also Part 2. Thanks to Albert for the heads up.

I remember reading the book Beyond the Human Species which also mentioned the Nazi occult conspiracy. To make the conspiracy more interesting, it tells the story of how Aurobindo and The Mother intervened with The Black Force that surrounded Hitler. They used their occult powers for good to inspire Churchill and prevent the occupation of Paris during World War II. I don't know what to make of this. That's the power of conspiracy theories: you can neither prove them nor disprove them. So like a Hollywood film, just sit back and enjoy the ride. Access: Public Add Comment Print Send views (46) Tagged with: Nazi, occult, conspiracy, Germany, documentary, Hitler, Aurobindo, The Mother

I am much interested in Sri Aurobindo's thoughts

Sri Aurobondo and The Mother visualize the whole life upon earth including human life as a mass of vibrations, mostly as falsehood, ignorance and disorder resisting vibrations of truth and harmony coming from higher regions.
universal forces, good or bad, favorable or hostile are pouring into everyone, without the person even knowing them, but influence the person according to his will or consciousness. The cosmic law never makes a mistake and it never gives any thing to unfit.
The objective world represents the cosmic forces. The subjective "Atman" or "Self" inside psychical being is infinite but suffers from delusion.
Our momentary personality is only a bubble on the ocean of our existence according to Sri Aurobindo.

Kannan S
I am Prof. DR. S. Kannan. M.SC., Ph.D. (ST. JOSEPH'S COLLEGE, TIRUCHI, INDIA THE OLDEST COLLEGE in INDIA) retired from active service in 1999. I have many publications in International Scientific Journals. Currently I am interested in writing articles on various subjects and creating Ads. I am much interested in SRI AUROBINDO'S thoughts and want to write articles based on my understanding. I have studied Tamil and Sanskrit literatures in detail. I am interested in teaching young students and guiding them to think of making India to get back the lost glory View my complete profile Posted by navigate at 8:16 AM

Deep synthesis of Eastern and Western worldviews

SABDA – Distributors of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publications
Initiation
Spiritual Insights on Life, Art, and Psychology
— Michael Miovic
Price: Rs 250 Soft CoverPages: 296 Dimensions (in cms): 14x22 Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Society, Hyderabad ISBN: 978-81-7060-215-6

About Initiation
Initiation: Spiritual Insights into Life, Art, and Psychology is a compilation of essays, travelogues, short stories, art criticism, and poems that revolve around the theme of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother's vision. The author gives personal reflections on his spiritual quest, impressions of travels in India and Greece, and critical reviews of the emerging field of spiritual/transpersonal psychology and consciousness studies. He also applies Sri Aurobindo's model of social evolution to the study of various topics in cultural history. Although broad in scope and varied in focus, the seemingly diverse writings in this book are woven together by an underlying critical perspective and deep synthesis of Eastern and Western worldviews.
REVIEW
In his Chasing the Rainbow, Manoj Das recounts how the caretaker of the auditorium stopped the social scientist as he was leaving after delivering a speech on evolution. The caretaker, a man from a village, had often marvelled at the sight of a lotus in bloom: "If a wonder like this heavenly flower could be possible out of sheer mud and mire, with the intervention of the sunlight, why on earth can't the human mind, despite all the filth at its bottom, change into a godly mind with the intervention of Grace?" The same conviction runs solid through the 296 pages of the votive garland offered to the Mother by her bhakta scientist child Michael Miovic. Taking up topics as diverse as psychiatry, translation technique, travel, art criticism, biography, as well as writing short stories and poems, Michael keeps always to the fore a strong aspiration, a robust optimism, and cheerful good humour. With these sadhaklike qualities he illumines all he touches with the light that touched and transformed him for ever one evening in 1993: "... spontaneously and without any effort, the Mother burst upon my awareness like a barrage of fireworks, and suddenly the whole universe became just Her." That was definitive. As is the name of Michael's book: Initiation.

For the contents, barring two exceptions, were written post '93 and bear the Midas touch of a consciousness opening to Sri Aurobindo's perspective. Visiting Calcutta, Michael set foot in the Ganges and "all became undulating vastness and peace, perfect clarity. Ganga is indeed a holy river, but only the camera of the soul can register her real image." This is the camera Michael chooses to use in every case. An exhibition of Monet's late work "was a significant spiritual event, indeed, for me the proof that Western art is capable of responding to the spiritual force and inspiration of Sri Aurobindo's consciousness". Looking at the Parthenon, he has "the impression that it has been beamed down to earth straight from the Overmind". But the real surprises are his takes on the Beatles and Hollywood, as well as his experience of Calcutta. Stuck in Dumdum Airport due to fog which prevented their landing at Delhi, Michael is not at all fazed by the chaos and harassment of the situation. He sees Sri Aurobindo's "milky-blue aura" hovering everywhere in the city where he was born. Discussing the early music of the Beatles he perceives "the impress of a spiritual force that used the Beatles as a vehicle for expression" and compares their impact to Darshan! He looks at Hollywood and even there his viewfinder succeeds in peering through the scum and detecting "the persistent action of a higher force upon the primitive Hollywood brain". And yet Michael's is not a facile optimism, content to whitewash the world and sit back satisfied. His observational acuity and analytical bent amply justify the M.D. tagged to his name on both cover and spine of his book. Seeing a force at work behind expressions of popular culture does not blind him to the limitations of such media.

His observations on his own country, America, bring out the balance between accurate observation and elevated idealism. He says that America's mantra is in her Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The nation, like the individual, prospers to the extent it adheres to its swadharma. He comments: "So far, we have tried to achieve these freedoms of the individual in a rather simplistic, external and materialistic fashion; the widespread sense of alienation in American culture today is proof that this experiment is failing, and eventually the pain will become acute enough to make us try another route." In a previous issue of this newsletter, a reviewer said of a festschrift that part of it ought to have been brought out as a separate volume to give it its proper weight.

Michael's book is a seed-bank for future studies in art criticism, holistic healing and social analysis. In his wholehearted adoption of Aurobindonean approach in every field of his life and interests he reminds us of Sri Aurobindo's view: "Science, art, philosophy, ethics, psychology, the knowledge of man and his past, action itself are means by which we arrive at the knowledge of the workings of God through Nature and through life. At first it is the workings of life and forms of Nature which occupy us, but as we go deeper and deeper and get a completer view and experience, each of these lines brings us face to face with God." — Sunam Mukherjee Sunam is a former student of the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education. A member of the Ashram, he works at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press. October 2004