VISIONS AND VOICES EVOLUTION OF BEAUTY  I Beauty standing motionless in meditation is beauty of form,  Beauty moving and shining in meditation is beauty of life, Beauty thinking in meditation is beauty of thought— The Spirit of beauty is thus standing, moving and thinking  from the far off beyonds. II Man first sought for the beautiful in the body of creation draped in all forms. She was too unmoving for him and was standing wondrous and elusive. Then defeated in his quest he sought for her in the quick life of all creation. There too she was too quick for him and was moving wondrous and elusive. Then again he sough

The Scene I Saw It was for the first time I got up to the first floor of Sri Aurobindo's house. In the long verandah overlooking the wide courtyard below, there were big windows giving a wide view southwards... all the doors of all the rooms were open... Everywhere and on everything there fell an all-revealing light, nothing but light... nothing was seen covered or screened, nothing was unrevealed... no spot hidden from light... My heart too, unwittingly, with no doors to close or conceal anything, free of confusion or perplexity, wide-open, soared up in sheer delight! I was in this state and Sri Aurobindo stood there, his eyes gazing southwards... His small feet appeared t

AMRITA OLD LONG SINCE AMRITA- DA (Sept. 19, 1895 - Jan. 31,1969) Amrita's original name was Aravamudhachari Iyengar. Born in to a respected Brahmin family of village munsiff Rajagopalachari of Kazhipervembakanm, a village 15Km North west of Pondicherry, Amrita came across the name of Sri Aurobindo, as a boy; the four names much talked about in his village were those of Tilak, Bipin chandra Pal, Lajpatrai and Aurobindo, but the last one strangely caught the heart and soul of the young

OLD LONG SINCE (By Amrita) (1) In our village and all around, four names of four great personages were being continually talked of. It was the time when Independence, Foreign Rule, Slavery were the cries that used to fill the sky. And the four great names that reached our, ears in this connection were Tilak, Bipinchandra Pal, Lajpatrai (Lal-Bal-Pal) and Aurobindo. Of these only one name caught my heart and soul. Just to hear the name — Aurobindo — was enough. All the four persons were pioneers in the service of the country, great leaders of the front rank. Why then did one name only out of the four touch me exclusively? For many days to come the mystery remain

IN MEMORY OF AMRITA SPEAKING about Amrita, the first picture that comes to one's mind is his sense of humour, even at the age of 70 years, his wisdom, experience and the intense responsibility of yoga, instead of blunting his sense of humour only enhanced it as time passed. Here I could not draw a similarity between him and Sri Aurobindo. I once asked Sri Aurobindo about the source of his tremendous humour to which he replied in a mysterious manner 'Raso vai Sa' (He is indeed the Rasa). It looks as though Amrita had found an access to that secret. In the beginning, as I didn't know him closely, I was not aware of his deep sense of humour. Later his 'divine levity' totall

VISIONS AND VOICES EVOLUTION OF BEAUTY  I Beauty standing motionless in meditation is beauty of form, Beauty moving and shining in meditation is beauty of life, Beauty thinking in meditation is beauty of thought— The Spirit of beauty is thus standing, moving and thinking  from the far off beyonds. II Man first sought for the beautiful in the body of creation draped in all forms. She was too unmoving for him and was standing wondrous and elusive. Then defeated in his quest he sought for her in the quick life of all creation. There too she was too quick for him and was moving wondrous and elusive. Then aga

ON AMRITA* ONE of Amrita's nieces informed me that 1995 would mark his birth-centenary. This piece of news has prodded my memory. Here are some reminiscences of him, a little rambling, I am afraid, but as true to fact as I can make them. They are not selective with an eye to presenting him solely in a rosy light. He was a frank unpretentious friend and what I am writing is faithful to his own temper. Most of this sketch is based on his own report of things. Here and there that report has entailed some digressive but relevant passages on others. I am starting with the day I reached Pondicherry: December 16, 1927—in my twenty-third year. When the metre-gauge train from Egmore tou

AMRITA—THE EVER LIVING ONE WE JOINED the Ashram in 1937 and we were then living at the end of Rue Dumas, opposite our present Park Guest house. We knew only a few Ashramites like Amal, Purani, Ambu etc. I did not meet Amrita then. In 1940 the Mother sent us to Delhi to work with the Civil Aviation Department of the Government to help in the war effort. The Mother brought us back in 1941 and we were given a house near the Ashram, opposite the Library, the Red House. She also gave me the work that had to be done for Golconde. Then I really came in contact with Amrita and I liked him at once. He took me to the place where I had to work, a place with only a tiled sh

-02_Extract from the Mother^s Talk.htm EXTRACT FROM THE MOTHER'S TALK 17 May 1969 ... for Amrita [who left his body on 31 January, following a heart attack], it was something else again. Amrita used to come in spite of his illness, he came to see me every day; he came up in the morning and sat there, and he came up once again in the evening (you saw what labour it was for him to climb stairs). Then when he left—the doctor had told him: "You can't go upstairs for a month"; and afterwards, he came during the daytime: he didn't accept it, he left his body and came—he came right straight to me. But then, with him, it was in his form, but more subtle, but it was very definite [Mother draws a contour outl