A FEW WORDS OF INTRODUCTION Sri Aurobindo Ashram: the wonder-creation of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Who can write about it in all its bearings, especially on a theme like its "Role, Responsibility and Future Destiny"? Yet, I have ventured to do so with a trepidant heart. I have felt like taking up this ticklish task and that for the following reason. In course of their close contact with me many of the senior students of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education have often asked me some interesting - at times embarrassing - questions concerning our Ashram, its functioning and its possible future. Some of their representative questions are as follows:

D. Formal Adherence Replacing the Spirit of Sadhana The life of an Ashramite here should be a life of sadhana and that too for the whole of the daily life comprising all its activities. As the Mother has reminded us: "In the integral Yoga, the integral life down even to the smallest detail has to be transformed. There is nothing here that is insignificant, nothing that is indifferent. You cannot say, 'When I am meditating, reading philosophy or listening to these conversations, I will be in this condition of an opening towards the Light and call for it, but when I go out to walk or see friends I can allow myself to forget all about it.

Some Danger Signals The Mother's and Sri Aurobindo's Work is bound to succeed; there is no shadow of doubt about it. The question is whether our Ashram at Pondicherry will have the privilege of being the vehicle of that Work. If we Ashramites remain sincere in our effort and do not deviate from the Goal that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have set before us, there is no reason why our Ashram cannot realise its God-given destiny. But if we fail to fulfil the conditions for our spiritual awakening, we may be left behind and the Mother and Sri Aurobindo may initiate their work of integral transformation elsewhere at another time in some other collectivity more open to their L

Criteria of Admission: A Suggestion If we would like to maintain the spiritual character of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, care should be taken to see that there is no lowering of the standard of admissibility for the new entrants. The issue is: If someone comes and says that he is ready - or pretends that he is ready - to work in an Ashram Department for a stipulated number of hours every day, should that be deemed to be a sufficient qualification for him to be admitted into a spiritual group-life like our Ashram? Will that not introduce many an unprepared ādhāra into the community and thus lead to a progressive derailment from its basic orientation? It

The Pioneers Sri Aurobindo Ashram at Pondicherry, the great Institution known the world over, which draws its appelation from the name of Mahayogi Sri Aurobindo, was formally established on or around 24 November 1926. But even before that date some young seekers had already started flocking to the then capital town of French India in order to live near Sri Aurobindo and shape their lives under the spiritual guidance of the Seer. The first to arrive was Suresh Chandra Chakravarty (Moni) who reached Pondicherry on 31 March 1910 and made arrangements for Sri Aurobindo's stay there. A few days later Sri Aurobindo arrived at Pondicherry, accompanied by Bejoy Nag: the date was

Problems Peculiar to Our Collectivity Problems are sometimes accentuated in our Ashram community because our aim is to practise a 'collective yoga'; and this implies that individual sadhaks will not only have to contend against the difficulties of their own personal nature but fight many problems as representatives of the whole group. Because of the fact of inner solidarity with all, each member of the collectivity is at all times exposed to the influences coming from all others and if he is not vigilant and strong enough to detect and nullify any adverse influence trying to overpower him, he will surely be lowered down in his consciousness, and willy-n

The Task Ahead But all this, the ideal of achieving a perfect and harmonious blending of the principles of freedom and discipline, cannot be realised in a day in all the members of the Ashram. So if at times we happen to see some imperfections troubling the atmosphere of our collective life here, we should not turn unduly pessimistic. Knowing that there cannot but be some natural difficulties on the arduous path of the achievement of our difficult goal, we should redouble our efforts at self-amelioration and invoke the Mother's Grace and help to crown our efforts with victory. But one thing we have to avoid: we must not be complacent in our attitude and allow things to

E. Wrong Relationship Between Sadhaks and Sadhikas The admission of women in an Ashram of spiritual seekers might strike many people as a dangerous novelty. In the history of past attempts to build a spiritual community, many an organisation has been wrecked because of wrong relationships developing between men and women dwelling together. But Sri Aurobindo's Yoga, as in many other fields of life, does not want to run away from difficulties; instead, it wants to meet them squarely and gain mastery over them. And hence Sri Aurobindo and the Mother admitted equally men and women disciples into Page-82 the Sri Aurobindo Ashram from the

Difficulties of the Past We have ventured to state that even in the "golden" past when the number of inmates was very much restricted and the Mother and Sri Aurobindo were physically present to look after everything, the Ashram's collective life was beset with certain difficulties arising out of the capricious nature and behaviour of some disciples. And this phenomenon was neither fortuitous nor unessential to the fulfilment of the central purpose of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Once we understand the occult rationale of this apparently disconcerting phenomenon, we shall be in a position to form a new perspective of vision and not be disheartened by whatever unedifyin

The Ashram Life and the Upsurge of Difficulties Sri Aurobindo has analysed on more than one occasion this phenomenon of the upsurge of difficulties of personal character in many sadhaks after they have settled down in the Ashram and dwelt there for some months or some years. The reason behind the sadhaks' troubles and the troubles they create for other individuals living in the same community is threefold: (1) close concentration of many people within the confines of a small space; (2) sadhana extending to the submerged obscure layers of consciousness and forcing the concealed dark elements there to come out into the open and be exposed to Lig