Nature of Human Relationships: Cherished Goal

We should not forget that, being spurred by some misplaced zeal to establish a semblance of all-round 'harmony' in our Ashram collectivity, if we attempt to adopt some arbitrary short-cut measures and try to build our group-life on the insecure foundation of ego-prompted sympathy and solidarity, what we will at best achieve will be a deceptive and brittle 'constructed harmony', not the harmony the Mother and Sri Aurobindo would like us to cultivate. And these attempts are bound to fail in the end; for all that springs from ego has the roots of its ultimate decay and dissolution in-built into its soil. Sri Aurobindo has analysed the problem and offered its right solution at many places of his writings, especially in The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga and The Human Cycle. Here are two relevant excerpts from his writings:

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(1)"These attempts have always been overcome by the persistent inconscience and ignorance of our human vital nature; for that nature is an obstacle which no mere idealism or incomplete spiritual aspiration can change in its recalcitrant mass or permanently dominate." (The Life Divine, p. 1061)

(2)"Either the endeavour fails by its own imperfection or it is invaded by the imperfection of the outside world and sinks from the shining height of its aspiration to something mixed and inferior on the ordinary human level." (Ibid.)

A collective spiritual life - the goal of our Ashram - is meant to express the spiritual and not merely the physical, vital, or even the mental being of man; it has, therefore, to found and maintain itself on greater values than the mental, vital, physical values of the ordinary human groupings. If it is not so founded, our Ashram will be merely the normal human collectivity with a cosmetic difference.

If we would like to avoid such an eventuality for our Ashram life, we have to reject the temptation of taking recourse to some easy procedures and, instead, follow the only veritable way to our goal, the way of inner regeneration. However arduous and time-consuming the journey may prove to be, we should not give up our effort but move on, upbuoyed by an unshakable faith in the ultimate victory, for such is the Will of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. In our attempt to establish an ideal group life in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram we should never lose sight of the following words of Sri Aurobindo:

"An entirely new consciousness in many individuals transforming their whole being, transforming their mental, vital and physical nature-self, is needed for the new life to

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appear; only such a transformation of the general mind, life, body nature can bring into being a new worthwhile collective existence." (The Life Divine, p. 1061)

In our absorption into and preoccupation with variegated activities of our burgeoning Ashram life we should not be oblivious of the basic fact that, according to the ideal set before us by the Mother and Sri Aurobindo, our Ashram should fulfil a double purpose at the same time: (i) to provide a secure atmosphere, a space and life apart, in which the individual sadhaks might concentrate on their inner self-discovery and progressive growth of consciousness in surroundings provided by the community in which all is turned and centred towards this one all-important endeavour; and (ii) as and when things get ready, to formulate and develop a new kind of collective spiritual life in the prepared spiritual atmosphere of the Ashram. All other achievements are secondary and incidental: this alone is the real raison d'être of the Ashram founded by the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. And to fulfil it the main concern of the inmates should be the development of a spiritual consciousness in themselves. With it will automatically develop in the Ashram mutuality of consciousness, spontaneous reign of harmony and the growth of a spiritually conscious community. To quote Sri Aurobindo:

"Beyond the mental and moral being in us is a greater divine being that is spiritual and supramental... There alone the unification of the transformed vital and physical and the illumined mental man becomes possible in that supramental spirit which is at once the secret source and goal of our mind and life and body. There alone is there any possibility of an absolute justice, love and right - far other than that which we imagine - at one with each other in the light of a supreme divine knowledge. There alone

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can there be a reconciliation of the conflict between our members. ... This supreme truth of ourselves must have a double character. It must be a law and truth that discovers the perfect movement, harmony, rhythm of a great spiritualised collective life and determines perfectly our relations with each being and all beings in Nature's varied oneness. It must be at the same time a law and truth that discovers to us at each moment the rhythm and exact steps of the direct expression of the Divine in the soul, mind, life, body of the individual creature." (The Synthesis of Yoga, pp. 190, 191, italics added)

But the detractors may contend: Is it not too Utopian a task we are placing before the Ashramites? Is it not a sheer chimera we have been chasing in vain?