SRI AUROBINDO'S GIFTS TO THE WORLD

WHAT is it that redounds to the highest glory of ancient India ? The short answer is Brahma Vidya — the stream of Consciousness which flows from the experience of the Self. The life and light which it contains sustain our society even to-day. Ancient India's literature, based on the Supreme Truth, is her ambassador to the outside world. Sri Aurobindo's gifts of new spiritual Truths embodied in his peerless literature are a revelation of Divine Knowledge for the New Age.

What Sri Aurobindo did to ward off the greatest world crisis of our generation we have seen. His concern was not so much with war as such, as with its effect on human evolution and its consequences to culture and civilisation. For we have seen him take no comparable direct part in the First World War. It was, however, significant that during those very times, under the roar of guns and crash of cities, he was engaged in writing what he received from above—God's Charter for Man : a promise of Divine Life under Divine Rule for all humanity. And, in fact, as already stated above, The Life Divine had its origin in the pages of the Arya (August 1914 to January 1919) almost with the outset of the World War I¹ and stopped after its end.

Volume I appeared in book-form for the first time in November 1939 and Volume II in July 1940 from Arya Publishing House, Calcutta — during the World War II. The coincidence in both

1. By the way, the grim destruction that marked the progress of the war stirred up a widespread fear that it would end in the ruin of the world. Sri Aurobindo viewed the situation in his own light:

"People say Europe is running into the jaws of destruction. I do not think so. All these revolutions and upsettings are the preconditions of a new creation." Letter to Barin, April 7, 1920.

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cases (i.e. the origin in 1914 and publication in book-form in 1939-40) is significant. It was as if the benign hand of God held out to a world in flames the message of a new creation, the hope of a higher life and a better world.

Before taking book-form The Life Divine underwent several alterations an additions. Sri Aurobindo took up the revision of Part I early in 1939, shortly after his accident on 23rd November 1938. The revision went on, with minor changes in between, till the completion of Chapter XXVTI. Meanwhile a long note on the Psychic Being was added to Chapter XXIII, "The Double Soul in Man; Chapter XXVIII, "Supermind, Mind and the Overmind Maya"—now the last in Part I—was in its entirety a new addition. Here the term Overmind comes in for the first time, except for two new footnotes added to Chapter XXIV on "Matter."

Although almost all of part II in the final form is revised or rewritten, and much new matter has been added, leading to a considerable rearrangement of the scheme of the Chapters, the actual number of Chapters in the whole of The Life Divine in book-form exceeds that of the Chapters in the Arya by only three.

The last Chapter of part I and the whole of part II which add up to 1123 ² printed pages were all written by Sri Aurobindo with his own hand while in a half-reclining position.

Writes Nirod: "We used to see him sitting on his bed with his pen, papers on the table, but no books... the words came flowing to his pen, as from a hidden silence. Now and then he would stope, look in front and dive again. The Mother would come with a glass of coconut water, and wait till he would look up. He needed no books, no thinking. He had stopped thinking long ago— after his Nirvanic experience in 1907 and since then all that he wrote or said or did had come from the higher silence. 'To be free from the responsibility of thinking is a great relief,' he used to tell us."

All these voluminous writing he did in great haste; naturally

2. First Edition.

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therefore some words were indecipherable, which, with the help of Nolini Kanta Gupta, Prithwisingh typed out aright. It is to his credit that Prithwisingh did the typing of the whole manuscript single-handed.

At times, though very rarely, it so happened that a word or two in a Chapter proved quite indecipherable even to Nolini. The corresponding space in the type copy was left blank for Sri Aurobindo himself to fill up.

When the first typescript received considerable additions from Sri Aurobindo, the second typing was done partly by Prithwisingh and partly by Nishtha, who was here at the time, and by Kapali Shastri. When this second copy got further changes the third and the final one was prepared afresh for the press.

On proofs being submitted to Sri Aurobindo with suggestions mostly for punctuation, he would write his reply, sometimes putting : "Yes" or "No", sometimes inserting some other expressions.

On completion of The Life Divine he took up The Synthesis of Yoga. It was his wish to revise the entire work. As a matter of fact, the twelve chapters of'The Yoga of Divine Works" were thoroughly revised and enlarged. It was intended to add two more chapters to the original twelve that had appeared in the Arya. Actually the greater part of the thirteenth Chapter was written and then left incomplete. Not only that, the entire revision was suspended. I am told on good authority that the Master deemed the time not ripe enough for disclosure of greater Knowledge.

The Life Divine, the major part of which was written at a stretch and with tremendous speed, was acclaimed by The Times Literary Supplement (January 17,1942) with the following words about its author and his work : "He is a new type of thinker, one who combines in his vision the alacrity of the West with the illumination of the East. To study his writings is to enlarge the boundaries of one's knowledge."

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Otto Wolff, the German Protestant theologian, says about Sri Aurobindo : "It is not only Indians who see in him the last arch of a bridge of human thought and endeavour which leads from the Vedic beginnings to the present, and transcends the ordinary limits of human consciousness..."

To quote Baron Palmstierena, President, World Congress of Faith : "Aurobindo is to me one of the greatest teachers of mankind to-day. His wisdom surpasses intellectual knowledge and inspires efforts to reach contact with the life divine. In a darkened age his message brings hope."

An erudite scholar with a brilliant academic career, at home in Sanskrit as in Bengali and English, a Yogi, a silent yet affable, Anirvan speaks only when something is asked him, in terms terse and to the point.

As to how he could render The Life Divine into such superb Bengali, he said that he had read the whole book at one stretch and everything had gone home to him and, along with it, at places the Bengali version had come floating before his mind's eye and made him feel that translation would be practicable.

Then he started dictating without a stop even at a single sentence for consulting a dictionary. When the whole book was done, in the beautiful calligraphy of a disciple of his who wrote to his dictation, it was sent to Sri Aurobindo for approval.

After just a few pages had been read out, the Master liked it so much that he directed it to be sent to the Ashram Press. It was published on April 4,1948.

Be it noted that Anirvan's has been the pioneer work in an Indian language, written long before he paid a flying visit to the Ashram in January, 1961. Now its Marathi version is out and Hindi is in process. Among other Asian languages, there has been a translation into Chinese by a Chinese disciple staying in the Ashram. A portion has been translated into French by the Mother herself. Some chapters have been rendered into German and

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permission has been granted for a rendering into Spanish.

1948-1950

We are living in what they call the Atomic Age. Sri Aurobindo is the Rishi of this Age. Just as across the long passage of time our memory of the Rishis of the land is not fading out, the Rishi of this Age — the Epic poet of Savitri — will ever remain enshrined in the heart of India.

It there was anything that demanded Sri Aurobindo's exclusive concentration after the Allied Victory in the war, it was his Savitri.

Nirod had the unique opportunity of being associated with it following its growth from its earlier stages. "With an infinite care," says he, "exacting at each step a flawless perfection, he worked and worked, slowly, silently like a god in labour. One would gape with wonder to see how many versions he had made of some cantos ! At the end when his vision was affected he had to dictate the verses like Milton. I remember that he dictated in successive sittings near about four hundred lines of The Book of Eternal Day. He made about twelve revisions of the first Book. And he would certainly have done the same for the entire Savitri had he had sufficient time."

None had an occasion to see the Master in a hurry. A majestic calm was his natural poise. When he expressed his intention to finish Savitri "soon", no one could make out its meaning—until we saw his supreme self-sacrifice on December 5,1950.

Savitri was so closely guarded a secret that not even a line of it saw the light of day for nearly forty years. There are letters running to more than 100 pages to explain what made the Master spend four decades on the Epic. The why of it can be known from his own words:

"I used Savitri as a means of ascension. I began with it on a certain mental level, each time I could reach a higher level

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I rewrote from that level. Moreover, I was particular — if part seemed to me to come from any lower levels I was not satisfied to leave it because it was good poetry. All had to be as far as possible of the same mint. In fact, Savitri has not been regarded by me as a poem to be written and finished, but as a field of experimentation to see how far poetry could be written from one's own yogic consciousness and how that could be made creative."³

Sri Aurobindo did not like to bring it out till it had reached its acme of perfection. K. D. Sethna was the first to be favoured with the two written lines :

Piercing the limitless unknowable,

Breaking the vacancy and voiceless peace.

And Sethna's reaction was : "I was struck by the profound word-reverberations which reinforce the mystical word suggestions with a tremendous immediacy of spiritual fact. I asked where the lines came from. The reply was : "Savitri."

Sethna's next request was for at least eight lines of sheer mantra — " all pure gold which could be treasured for ever."

Sri Aurobindo replied that he could not vouch for mantric quality but suggested that he might send some lines from the first canto of Savitri. Soon after, he sent sixteen lines of the opening, as it stood then, of this canto :

It was the hour before the Gods awake.

Across the path of the divine Event

The huge unslumbering spirit of Night, alone

In the unlit temple of immensity

Lay stretched immobile upon silence' merge,

Mute with the unplumbed prevision of her change.

The impassive skres were neutral, waste and still.

Then a faint hesitating glimmer broke.

3. Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo, Second Series : Nirodbaran, p. 202.

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A slow miraculous gesture dimly came,

The insistent thrill of a transfiguring touch

Persuaded the inert black quietude

And beauty and wonder disturbed the fields of God.

A wandering hand of pale enchanted Light

That glowed along the moments's fading brink

Fixed with gold panel and opalescent hinge

A gate of dreams ajar on Mystery's verge.

Below the quotation were the words: "There! Promise fulfilled for a wonder."

Comparing these lines with their final version one can see what alterations have taken place. Sethna calls the day when he received these 16 lines "the day of days." It was in October, 1936. From that day forth Sri Aurobindo kept on sending him passages which Sethna typed out and sent back. Sri Aurobindo touched them up again or expanded them. At last arrived the moment when the first gleam of Savitri appeared on the horizon. It was in the form of quotations in the last section entitled, "Sri Aurobindo and a New Age of Mystical Poetry" in Sethna's book The Poetic Genius of Sri Aurobindo. Then the whole First Canto of Savitri was published. Afterwards, now one canto, now another, but not always in a successive order, came out of the press.

The First Canto proved a stumbling-block to many of us because of the vast and massive sweep of its mysticism; we could not easily share with the poets and critics their delight but it did not damp our zeal. We rushed upon the other Cantos as they came out whether in the form of proof or type-script. And when volume I came out in complete form (1950) it electrified the atmosphere.

Savitri's appeal to cultured minds can be illustrated by some stray instances :

Raymond Piper, Professor of Philosophy, Syracuse University (U.S.A), who "during extensive travels in twenty countries

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had studied and photographed some of the greatest art monuments of East and West and observed thirteen of the world's religions in practice", says in his book The Hungry Eye :

"....fortunately a tremendous new body of metaphysical and mystical poetry has already inaugurated the new Age of Illumination. This poetry radiates from the master metaphysician, mystic and poet, Sri Aurobindo, and his Ashram in Pondicherry, India. During a period of nearly fifty years before his passing in 1950, he created what is probably the greatest epic in the English language and the longest poem (23,831 lines of iambic blank verse) in any language of the modem world. I venture the judgement that it is the most comprehensive, integrated, beautiful, and perfect cosmic poem ever composed. It ranges symbolically from a primordial cosmic void, through earth's darkness and struggles, to the highest realms of Supramental Spiritual existence, and illumines every important concern of man, through verse of unparalleled massiveness, magnificence, and metaphorical brilliance .....Savitri is perhaps the most powerful artistic work in the

world for expanding man's mind towards the Absolute."

Sir Herbert Read expresses himself on this Epic :

"It is a remarkable achievement by any standard and one is full of amazement that someone not of English origin should have such a wonderful command not only of our language as such, but of its skilful elaboration into poetic diction of such high quality."

Jesse Roark's sonnet on Savitri is, in his own words, an upsurge of his soul and an inspiration almost instantaneous.

Again Sri Aurobindo I have read,

His matchless organ-hymnal Savitri,

The vastive all-enarming trine-root tree

Of literature, most rich and amply spread

Of epics, highest mountain range, to tread

From peak to larger distant peak, so free

From trivia, such a blessing : widest sea

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And deepest, comprehensive to the stead

Of godhood here, all splendor, such a song

As makes a cheat the term "magnificent".

Come down from sphere divine whence forged the Word

Builds worlds in dancing beauty, truth deferred

No longer, light and bliss and power athrong

Revealing wisdom-love's lost firmament.

In a recent article, SriAurobindo—Last of the Great Yogis, by Rusi Daruvala, an Indian writer and critic, occurs the following : "Sri Aurobindo is on his way to becoming a classic in the Wildean sense; everyone speaks of him but scarcely anyone reads him.....

"Aurobindo in Bengali means 'lotus' and the lotus of his soul opened out fully its thousandfold petals under the influence of the Greater Light.

"Savitri ( a legend of the past and a symbol of the future) is partly autobiographical, being a record of his own inner development. Since his philosophical ideas form the warp and woof of Sri Aurobindo's poetry, it would be fruitless reading Savitri without a knowledge of his prose works....

"His influence on men like Tagore, Romain Rolland, Aldous Huxley and Dr. Radhakrishnan has been considerable.

"By what ultimate standards can we judge Sri Aurobindo's three major works, The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga and Savitri ? It is recorded that when Beethoven showed some of the last Quartets to a violinist-friend the latter said, 'You don't call this music, do you?

"Beethoven replied, 'This music is not for you. It is for the future."

Another gift of Sri Aurobindo to humanity was the book now known as The Supramental Manifestation upon Earth, compiled, after his passing, from his articles in the Bulletin. They were started with the very first issue and ran on till November 1950. If these articles had continued, another

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Life Divine would perhaps have taken shape.

Sri Aurobindo on Politics and Science

The subject is too big for a brief treatment. It was in the last decade of his physical existence amongst us that the Master made some of his crowning gifts to humanity as enumerated in the foregoing pages.

Sri Aurobindo never treated politics as something beneath the purview of spirituality. In fact, he began his public career with politics and one of his last letters was on the Korean War. Poetry and politics were in his blood.

The light he gave to the country at the dawn of this century led to the birth of India's political philosophy. India had not much of practical political philosophy of her own worth the name till then.

How the great initiative taken by Sri Aurobindo in those formative years gave birth to the political philosophy of India is now being gradually realised by scholars as shown in their theses.

The latest of the several scholarly theses on the subject is Karan Singh's on which he received his doctorate from Delhi University in 1961. Prime Minister Nehru's personal remarks, quoted below from his foreword to the book Prophet of Indian Nationalism, published by George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, is a confirmation of this fact: "It is extraordinary that a person who had spent fourteen of the most formative years of his life, from the age of 7 to 21, cut off from India and steeped in the European classics and the England of his day, should have become, in later years, the brilliant champion of Indian nationalism based on the philosophic and the spiritual background of Indian thought. His whole career in active politics was a very brief one, from 1905 to 1910 ....During these five years, he shone like a brilliant meteor and created a powerful impression on the youth of India. The great anti-partition movement in Bengal gained much of its

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philosophy from him and, undoubtedly, prepared the day for the great movements led by Mahatma Gandhi."

It was Sri Aurobindo who ushered in an era of Tyaga (renunciation) and Tapasya (askesis) for the country. He was the first to inspire the youths of his time to sacrifice themselves for the motherland.⁴

When Sri Aurobindo was 21 there was hardly an example before his eyes in the history of British rule in India, of voluntary rejection of the heaven-born service, as the I.C.S was then called, for the sake of the country. How the lives of the would-be leaders of those days were influenced by Sri Aurobindo's self-sacrifice and flaming love of freedom stands exemplified in at least two great instances.

It took seven months for Subhas Chandra Bose to decide whether the course he was going to adopt in his life was right. In a letter to his brother Sarat he wrote in 1920 :

"Ever since the results of the I.C.S were declared, I have been asking myself whether I shall be more useful to my country if I am in the service than if I am not. I am fully convinced now that I shall be able to serve my country better than if I am a member of the bureaucracy.... One can do some amount of good when he is in the service but it can't be compared with the amount of good that one can do when his hands are not tied by bureaucratic chains.... The illustrious example of Arabindo Ghose looms large before my vision. I feel that I am ready to make the sacrifice which that example demands of me. My circumstances are also favourable.

"It is clear from the above that I was still under the influence

4. "To this movement Indian Nationalism owes the emerging into promi nence of a quiet, unostentatious, young Hindu, who was till then com paratively obscure, holding his soul in patience and waiting for opportunities to send currents of the greatest strength into the nation's system. He was gathering energy. His name was Arabinda Ghose."—Lajapat Rai in Young India.

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of Arabindo Ghose."

In his letter of 16th February 1921 he further writes :

The very principle of serving under an alien bureaucracy was intensely repugnant to me. The path of Arabindo Ghose is to me more noble, more inspiring, more lofty, more unselfish, though more thorny than the path of Ramesh Dutta."⁵

To quote Nehru again, then in England for studies :

"From 1907 onwards for several years India was seething with unrest and trouble. For the first time after the revolt of 1857 India was showing fight and not submitting tamely to foreign rule. News of Tilak's activities and his conviction, of Arabindo Ghose and the way the masses of Bengal were taking the swadeshi and boycott pledge stirred all of us Indians in England."⁶

The description of Sri Aurobindo's political role during the last decade of his life would be incomplete without a word about Mother India which was published to voice his thought, through its editor, on various problems. A Yogi taking interest in politics and directing the course of a paper from his seclusion sounds strange. Hence all the more need for an elaboration.

A young devotee of the Mother, Keshavdev Poddar, felt that there should be a paper which could express not only the spiritual and cultural but also the social, economic and even political thought of Sri Aurobindo and discuss the solutions of all problems from his point of view. This longing of his took shape in Mother India, then a fortnightly review, published from Bombay from February 21, 1949. In 1951 it was turned into a purely cultural monthly.

It opened up a new line of activity in the life of the Ashram. Sri Aurobindo looked upon it as "My paper" and from the very beginning the Mother took interest in giving it shape.

K. D. Sethna who has been in touch with the Ashram since

5.Netaji's Autobiography or An Indian Pilgrim, p. 129.

6.Autobiography of Jawaharlal Nehru.

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1927 and is a man of vast literary capacity was called upon to take the responsibility as Editor. Though new in the field, he rose to his highest in voicing the thought of Sri Aurobindo in his leading articles each of which was read out to Sri Aurobindo before publication. The Master's approval or comment used to be sent by wire.

Mother India did not simply mirror the situation as it was at the moment but showed an insight and a far-reaching outlook set forth with powerful reasoning, depending not only on reports of local observers but also and mainly upon what Sri Aurobindo saw with his own unerring vision as the Seer of the Age. Consequently the solutions suggested were far above the current level of statesmanly thinking.

The future trends of things that Sri Aurobindo envisaged at the time are now turning out to be realities.

One of Sri Aurobindo's last letters was about Korea. It was written on June 28, 1950 in reply to K. D. Sethna's request for some indication for his editorial on the Korean war which was at the time the topic of the day. It was published in August, all over India, as a special Message from Sri Aurobindo. We quote the letter in full as it throws light on Sri Aurobindo's reading of the world situation : "I do not know why you want a line of thought to be indicated to you for your guidance in the affair of Korea. There is nothing to hesitate about. The affair is as plain as a pikestaff.

"It is the first move in the Communist plan of campaign to dominate and take possession first of these Northern parts and then of South East Asia as a preliminary to their manoeuvres with regard to the rest of the continent — in passing Tibet as a gate into India.

"If they succeed, there is no reason why domination of the whole world should not follow by steps until they are ready to deal with America. That is, provided the war can be staved off

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with America until Stalin can choose his time.

"Truman seems to have understood the situation if we can judge from his moves in Korea, but it is to be seen whether he is strong enough to carry the matter through. The measures he has taken are likely to be incomplete and unsuccessful, since they do not include any actual military intervention except on sea and in the air. That seems to be the situation, we have to see how it develops.

"One thing is certain, that is , if there is too much shillyshallying and if America gives up now her defence of Korea she may be driven to yield position after position until it is too late. At one point or another she will have

"Stalin also seems not to be ready to face at once the risk of a world war and if so, Truman can turn the tables on him by constantly facing him with the onus of either taking that risk or yielding position after position to America. I think that is all that I can see at present. For the moment the situation is as grave as it can be."

Another prophetic utterance of Sri Aurobindo about the rise of Communist China and its menace not only to India but the whole of South-Western Asia we find in the Postscript to The Ideal of Human Unity :

"In Asia a more perilous situation has arisen, standing sharply across the way to any possibility of a continental unity of the peoples of this part of the world, in the emergence of Communist China. This creates a gigantic bloc which could easily englobe the whole of Northern Asia in a combination between two enormous Communist Powers, Russia and China, and would overshadow with

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unwanted ideology, political and social institutions and dominance of this militant mass of Communism whose push might easily prove irresistible."

It is noteworthy that both these statements were made in 1950 while even till 1954 we could not probe Chou En-lai's motive and filled the air, on his visit to India, with shouts of "Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai."

Four months after receiving the above-quoted letter on Korea, K.D. Sethna wrote a powerful article in Mother India (November 11,1950) about the Chinese aggression in Tibet.

To-day one can see how some of these previsions have come true to the letter. One or two extracts will show the soundness of its political study.

".....Stalin and Mao cannot tolerate any country which is not

one hundred per cent communist and they have put every such country on what Mr. Masani once termed with profound piquancy their 'Menu'. India's sole guilt is that she is friendly with Russia and China without yet aligning herself with their materialistic and murderous ideology. In consequence she is an enemy, no matter how neutral she may attempt to be. Sooner or later, whether she be really an ally of the West or no, she must be struck to her knees .. And what step could be more opportune than taking possession of Tibet which is a back door to India ?

"The basic significance of Mao's Tibetan adventure is to advance China's frontiers right down to India and stand poised there to strike at the right moment and with the right strategy.

....With Tibet incorporate in China, we shall have Mao touching Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and Assam."

When the Late Sudhir Ghose M.P. showed the statement to President Kennedy he could not believe it and asked who Sri Aurobindo was. On his answer, the President read the statement several times over and said," ' Surely, there is a typing mistake here. The date must have been 1960, not 1950. You mean

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to say that a man devoted to meditation and contemplation, sitting in one comer of India, said this about the intentions of Communist China as early as 1950 ?, I pointed out to the President that Sri Aurobindo passed away in December 1950. He was somewhat shocked. 'So there you are, said the President. 'One great Indian, Nehru, showed you the path of non-alignment between China and America, and another great Indian, Aurobindo, showed you another way of survival. The choice is up to the people of India.' "⁷

The truth of this pre-vision is now common knowledge.

To-day we stand at the momentous turning -point of India's history—on the threshold of a new India which will put her seal upon the Age.

In this context it is worth thinking deep over these words of the Mother: "India ought to be the spiritual leader of the world. Inside she has the capacity, but outside... for the moment there is still much to do for her to become actually the spiritual leader of the world.

"There is such a wonderful opportunity just now ! But..."⁸

(8-6-1967)

When India awakens to the great Truth Force, now in action, then will she realise the significance of Sri Aurobindo's work for India and the world. Even eminent scientists and veteran statesmen are realising that spirituality is now the only saving Force.

True, the Age of Materialism and Rationalism is ending. The new Age of Spirituality is almost upon us. Spirit alone can put Science in its proper place.

But it may be pertinently asked: When the ruling powers of the earth threaten to rain horror and death overnight by simply pressing a button from within a room, what power is there to stay their hand ?

7.Gandhi's Emissary by Sudhir Ghose, pp. 314-315.

8.Mother India, July 1967.

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Great philosophers, men of sincere goodwill, bent on warding off this fate from man, insist on spiritual Force as the only solvent. Well, the world has been blest by giant spiritual figures who have done immense good to the world. Why is then man in his present predicament ? Why does the problem of peace baffle even the wisest statesman ?

Herein lies Sri Aurobindo's contribution to the solution of world problems. He set out in quest of a power that could re-create the world. From long before his pre-Siddhi days he had the conviction that the change he sought could not be effected by any power short of the Supramental as is evident from his letter of 18.11.1922 to C.R.Das : "I can see more and more manifestly that man can never get out of the futile circle the race is treading until he has raised himself on the new foundation ...But what precisely was the nature of the dynamic power of this greater consciousness? How could it be brought down, mobilised, organised, turned upon life ? This was the problem I have been trying to work out in my own experience, and I have now a sure basis, a wide knowledge and some mastery of the secret ...I have still to remain in retirement. For I am determined not to work in the external field until I have the sure and complete possession of this new power of action—not to build except on a perfect foundation!"

The Master has written so much on the subject that there is no need of dilating upon it.

His writing is a unique expression at once of yogic vision, scientific precision and literary vividness. The scientific turn in Sri Aurobindo makes him the Master-yogi of modern times. He takes up into his thought all that concerns the world of life and matter. The scientific turn not only gives him a critical acumen which is proof against narrow dogma and ignorant creed, it gives him also a practical life-power that builds carefully and securely.

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He has written:we do not found ourselves on faith alone, but on a great ground of knowledge which we have been developing and testing all our lives. I think I can say that I have been testing day and night for years upon years more scrupulously than any scientist his theory or his method on the physical planes."'

But, of course, the light and power of his knowledge is fundamentally spiritual — a direct vision and realisation of things that are at the basis of the universe.

Modem scientists know only physical science. Hence they leave unexplored the vast field of a far greater science, the science of the Spirit. "To attain God is true science."

Sri Aurobindo's discovery of the Supermind is the most glorious and potent gift to humanity. It is the key to the final solution of all human problems. It is the Power of the Supermind which alone can meet the might of the hideous Darkness. Not only can it triumph over evil but also transform it. Not only can it flood the earth with its Love, Light, Sweetness and Beauty but also make men walk on earth like gods.

How infinitely superior is this discovery to the highest ones of the atomic age and what message it carries for man, says Kapali Sastri, is for time to show.

The Master explored every source which might help him reach his goal but he found no real preparation in the past. "If I had," says he, "I should not have wasted my time in hewing out paths and in thirty years of search and inner creation when I could have hastened home safely to my goal in an easy canter over paths already blazed out, laid down perfectly, mapped, macadamised, made secure and public."

In one word, he wanted to see the Supermind in operation all over the world.

It is not easy for us to conceive the immensity and complexity

9. Sri Aurobindo on Himself and on the Mother, pp. 377-378.

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of such an undertaking.¹⁰ How arduous was the task can be imagined from the fact that to a Master-Yogi of his stature it took thirty years to get his new work into its preliminary stage.

What is needed now are channels in which this power can find a chance for manifestation. "... if a collectivity or groups could be formed of those who have reached the supramental perfection, there indeed some divine creation could take shape; a new earth could descend that would be a new heaven, a world of supramental light could be created here amidst the receding darkness of this terrestrial ignorance."¹¹

In the next chapter we shall try to see what the Master has done to accelerate the action of this Power.

10."Many steps have to be taken by the seeker before the supramental descent is possible.. there are several ranges of consciousness between the ordinary human mind and the supramental Truth-Consciousness. These intervening ranges have to be opened up and their power brought down into the mind, life and body. The process.... is long and difficult..." —Sri Aurobindo and His Ashram, pp. 60-61.

11.The Synthesis of Yoga.

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