7
Parichand Writes to Spiritual Aspirants
(Parichand, very fluent both in speech and writing, was extremely reticent when it concerned himself He hardly spoke about his rich inner life. Partly it was for him a matter of principle, since Sri Aurobindo has told him during the earliest years of his sadhana that such a movement causes Tapakshaya; partly it was because of his innate humility. Only after the passing away of the Mother he relaxed a little in his attitude. But both in his personal talks and letters, his only purpose was to direct the aspirant to the Mother: he always scrupulously kept himself in the background. He advised more as an elder brother than a senior sadhak. He always emphasised the importance of opening the psychic to the Mother, for to him that was the core of Sri Aurobindo's yoga and a key to solve all problems of spiritual life. We are publishing some of his letters below. While we have reproduced most of the letters in full, in some cases, for obvious reason, the personal portions have been omitted.)
3.7.73
Shyamkumari,
I fail to understand why illusionism at all flourished in the soils of India where beauty and delight are the very texture of human life. What beauty and majesty express themselves eloquently in material creations which Sri Aurobindo describes so poetically, in one letter as follows:
"What can be more perfect, greater or more beautiful than the glories and beauties of Matter, the golden splendour of the sun, the perpetual charm of the moon, the beauty and fragrance of the rose or the beauty of the lotus, the yellow mane of the Ganges or the blue waters of the Jamuna, forests and mountains, and the leap of the waterfall, the shimmering silence of the lake, the sapphire hue and mighty roll of the ocean and all
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the wonder and marvel there is on the earth and in the vastness of the material universes? ...Life and mind cannot surpass them; they are enough in themselves and to themselves; Brindavan would have been perfect even if Krishna had never trod there."
Can Shankara's Illusionism stand this onslaught of Sri Aurobindo's affirmation of the All Beautiful even in Matter?
Conveying my thanks
Yours
Parichand
13.6.74
Shyamkumari,
The real health no doubt is a gift from the soul and the nearer our approach to it the greater its action on our body. There lies the true and most potent remedy of all maladies. "All is purified and set right; the whole nature harmonised, modulated in the psychic key, just in spiritual order."
Parichand
26.2.75
Shyamkumari,
The extract about "psychic love" from C.V. 23 p. 764 is evidently the purest form of love between person and person. It is no doubt and can be pure and full of self-giving because it is psychic and yet it is human between person and person, and so liable to error and suffering.
If you read the beginning of the first paragraph in the same page you will note a clause "but it is not usually left pure in the attraction of human beings to one another." This clause explains the epithet "human" and the possibility of error and suffering.
Now the moment this psychic love is turned towards the Divine and towards other souls through the Divine and the Divine alone, the more it is truly so, the less it is human. It then frees itself from human aberrations and gets back its inherent infallibility and constancy of joy. On page 144 of C.V. 20 at the end
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Sri Aurobindo says of the psychic being's nature "... unerring in the essence of its will, it is obliged often under the pressure of its instruments to submit to mistakes of action, wrong placement of feeling, wrong choice of person..." It is clear here that it is by nature unerring. More when we meet.
Parichand
30.10.75
Shyamkumari,
We are trying all of us in our humble fluctuating way to mould our lives by the law of divine Love and to be radiating centres of Her Light and delight as best as possible for us mortals but Her demand is too great and our personality is too small, too imperfect to fulfil Her demand. If a little of this flawed expression through me has been of some help to you in your spiritual life I must offer my gratitude to Her for it and say that there was psychic affinity in our natures. If by the Mother's grace we remain not only faithful to Her and be lit up with her knowledge but be examples of their Integral Yoga as best as we can be, then they will reign on earth and the Divine Life be established in the material world.
Much depends on our intensity and sincerity of attitude and effort. Let us pray for the Mother's Light and strength for this stupendous work.
Yours ever
in the Mother
Parichand
20.11.75
Shyamkumari,
True experiences, experiences that bring us closer and closer to the Divine always come by surprise, when we least expect them, as a special gift from Him whom we always seek heart and soul. Our sincere effort must indeed be there to get united with Him but His grace will act in its own way and in its own
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time without any previous indication or information of its intention. Our effort, our sadhana shall go on unslackened, more and more zealously.
Parichand
9.12.75
Shyamkumari,
Spiritually speaking the outer way of living one's life, however simple, pious and virtuous in appearance it may be, is ,no criterion for a true inner life, much less for a spiritual life. On the contrary, an outer life of ease, comfort, effortless outflowering may be nearer the spiritual goal than the former. If one has the eye to see one can detect in the former way of living a self-complacency in the vital, an attitude of compromise with a refined mental-vital life with a certain psychic influence, an absence of any strong effort to break away from this gilt-edged life. So this life is free from ups and downs, from night and light. It is a more or less smooth sailing.
The latter may have no ostensible personal effort towards the spiritual goal and yet may be open within to the psychic or spiritual force and tend itself to be kneaded, moulded and shaped into the image of a god or God as soft clay allows itself to given whatever shape the potter intends for it. Therefore the true judgment can base itself on the steady growth of consciousness which one must have the capacity to discern.
The life in the Ashram, whatever its outer appearance, holds in itself an immense, a unique potentiality of spiritual regeneration if one lets oneself be carried on and on in the powerful stream of spiritual life here. Specially for the persons of growing age, this is undeniably the place for the surest and swiftest voyage to the supreme destination. So the charms of the outer free life may mislead and delay our journey towards the Divine. This is my personal view.
Parichand
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10.12.75
Shyamkumari,
The Mother's message "The Inner Test" you sent me yesterday is revelatory and bring home to us in uneqivocal terms the truth that those who want to lead the Ashram life and remain here have to pass through a severe inner test, though not outwardly imposed, and also to go on perfectioning this surrender. The very fact of one's being able to stay in the Ashram is a guarantee of one's steady inner progress, whether clearly perceptible or not for time.
It goes without saying, however, that if one deliberately opens one's mind and vital to other forces and ideas and feelings or if one cuts oneself off from the main current of Ashram life by trying to avoid as much as possible the Ashram work and getting more and more interested in the satisfaction of one's mental and vital ego and desires or giving food to one's ambition and the attraction of name and fame, one erects thereby a dam against the inflow of the Mother's light and force and joy in oneself.
The test is indeed more severe now after the passing of the Mother because the physical presence gave us a constant strength and joy even to our outermost parts and also a luminous guidance even to our most physical mind. We are bereft of the physical nearness and closeness. So we are forced to sustain ourselves and grow on the sap and nourishment from the inner sources, specially the psychic source. But we have the greatest advantage and the clearest assurance that if we simply cling to Her and to Her alone, She will see to it that our spiritual progress gets achieved in the quickest possible time and our union with Her in all ways of our being, even the outermost, is realised so that our human instrument is transformed into a divine instrument.
Parichand
22.12.75
Shyamkumari,
I read your letter to Hari closely and was struck by certain truths it expresses and the clarity and force with which it
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expresses them. The truth about one's own inner poise, superiority to the dualities of life, the truth about one's inner state of equality and equanimity vis-a-vis the shocks and blows of life, a high calm and detached consciousness, the truth about the play of lower vital, impure rajasic forces in human beings, the Rakshasic elements in them, the great truth about the Dharma Yuddha, an interminable battle between the forces of Light and those of Darkness in which we must, like hero-warriors of the Divine, constantly side with the Forces of Truth as against the forces of Falsehood in all the spheres of our life's activities, a courageous loyalty to the Divine heedless of any consequences and finally the truth that if man, more and more in number, clings to the Truth and moulds himself in an image, the Satyayuga will no doubt down on the earth, are all brought out in bold relief in principle.
Only in the application of these truths to one's social, political and collective life one needs be cautious, careful, wise and clear-eyed so that each word one says, each step one takes, each act one does, is the right word, the just step and the true act, destructive of evil and creative of good at once. Here a true perfection and discrimination from within will be the surest guide.
Individually, inwardly, in one's own life these truths can be safely held to firmly and followed whole-heartedly.
Parichand
25.2.76
Shyamkumari,
You might have read Sri Aurobindo's compact but clear description of the characteristics of the "True Vital" as quite distinct from the "Inner Vital", not to speak of the "Outer Vital".
This "True Vital" is indeed a perfect instrument of the "Psychic Being" who is the master. It is by the closer and closer relation with Psychic Being and more and more steady stationing
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of the human consciousness in the psychic consciousness that the true mind, true vital and also the true physical can be liberated from their shackles and as the physical being will emerge and come progressively in the front, they too will emerge and come to the front and do their faultless works . So we must unite ourselves as fast as we can with our central being - the Psychic - and make that the Ruler. The other parts will then automatically be faithful and perfect ministers of the now veiled
King .
Parichand
26.4.76
Shyamkumari,
Each one of us has a double soul, the Desire-Soul and the Delight-Soul. When the Mother accepts us and brings us close to Her not only physically but psychically Her whole concentration is naturally on the out-flowering of the Delight-Soul, the Psychic Being. She lavishes her love on us in order to remove all obstacles on the way by force of the Divine Love. She sees the infinite possibilities waiting for fulfilment in us and day and night She keeps us in Her embrace for the fulfilment in the quickest possible time. It is evident that the fulfilment She will is and must be an all-round one, not of the psychic being alone but of the mind, the vital and the body also.
But with the touch and presence of the Delight-soul there is always the possibility of the Desire-soul getting energised, intensified and fortified. If the Delight-soul decides to let the Desire-soul have its play unhindered and unchecked the former retires behind and the latter asserts its supremacy. Sometimes the deviation from the true path, riju pantha, takes place because of the imperative necessity in the nature of the individual for experiencing the full play of the Desire-soul, sometimes or very often, it is the outside or environmental or avoidable pressure and influence that brings it about. It is true that the Mother's Love and Help and intimacy always remain and are with us but the experience of the Desire-soul keeps them in the background
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for some time and may be for a long time till it exhausts itself and longs for the emergence of the Delight-soul. The successful Desire-soul is no sign of the sanction and support of the Delight-soul but only a tacit consent to the experience till the right time comes for re-emergence.
Parichand
27.5.76
Shyamkumari,
I feel that these dark dismal forces which the left-hand Tantriks make use of for serving their vile ends will meet more and more the sovereign hands of the Truth-Consciousness-Force either to transmute themselves or to dissolve for good. They will be dragged out from their remotest hiding places for exposure and confrontation and those nethermost regions will be filled with saving light and power. This throwup is rampant in Bengal which is the chosen land of the worship of the Shakti in the highest and also in the lowest forms. This confrontation of the highest and the lowest forms of the Shakti on this material field is often predicted by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother before the enthronement of the Divine on this earth. The Divine Mother has been using as instrument the gods and human beings of high spiritual, status for the replacement of the Powers of Darkness by the Power of Light.
Parichand
29.5.76
Shyamkumari,
It needs a considerable inner sight to know for sure why certain events, apparently uncongenial and even derogatory to the spiritual progress, happen and persist in happening in one's outer life. If one puts this question sincerely to one's inner self and waits patiently for the true answer in some calm, lucid moments of one's inner state, one is sure to have it unequivocally.
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But before that happens, before the thing and the cause are shown in a clear light one can only try and maintain one's inner poise and equilibrium to the best of one's capacity and be firm in one's faith in the Omniscient guidance of the Divine Power and the unshakable conviction of the Divine Hand behind such untoward happenings. If something wrong in one's attitude, some twist or wrong turn in one's nature causes the events, it will be brought to light by opposition, if some spiritual purification or the establishment of some spiritual equanimity is aimed at by the Divine Power that will be done through the resistance. Whatever it be, one loses nothing but gains everything by turning these difficulties into opportunities so far as the real growth is concerned toward the Divine.
Parichand
1.6.76
Shyamkumari,
But one point is becoming more and more pronounced in the life here that each one of us has to be very sincere to one's soul and to the Divine Mother through the soul. You must have felt poignantly how, after the Mother's leaving the body, there is a chaotic, almost disruptive play of forces here which confounds, puzzles and obfuscates our mind, raises cross-currents of feelings and emotions in our heart and the effect of all this may be disastrous if we once make a wrong choice. But we also know to our great joy and sense of safety that the supreme Truth-consciousness of the Mother is all the time there to protect us, to lead us, to take us by the hand to the destination. The only demand from us is that we want Her alone and hold to Her alone and call Her alone for light and peace and purity and faith and sincere love. For this, I feel always, we must learn to live away from the ambiguities of mind, vital and physical and live in the psychic where alone we can be free from errors, deviations and vicissitudes.
My affection to you
Parichand
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1.7.76
Shyamkumari,
While sending herewith the "Morning prayer" to make it faultless, I get the opportunity of expressing some thoughts and feelings of mine that press for expression.
The movement of consciousness upward, its upliftment into the spiritual mind ranges, its progressive transformation of the human mind, vital and body by the light and power of each of the spiritual mind range is and must be of capital importance in our sadhana and indispensable for the conversion of the human nature into the divine nature. If this be a spontaneous movement of one's consciousness vertically one should not by 'any means interfere with it.
But the imperative need of our sadhana at present and the safest course to follow is to develop more and more with a steady unflinching will the discriminative power of the psychic, to try and see things in the psychic light, to discern the pure psychic influences constantly operative in the massed tangle of vital and mental movements, to strongly adhere to those influences and discourage the unpsychic influences, to tend more and more to the depths where we can contact the heavenly psychic, to have the invincible urge to make the psychic our centre of life's activities, to bring the psychic love for the Mother to bear upon the turbulent and recalcitrant parts of nature and make them change and transform themselves into the image of our true central being and bring about the most important "Psychic Transformation" as wonderfully described in the chapter "The Triple Transformation" of the Life Divine. If this could be achieved, the rest of the journey will be safe, swift, sure and steady.
Parichand
8.8.76
Shyamkumari,
All that we have hitherto collected on the psychic being from the Mother and Sri Aurobindo with true zeal and thirst will no
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doubt bring about a remoulding and rebuilding of our mental, vital and even physical being, inner and outer at once, if we sincerely and as of paramount need put them partially and progressively but steadily into practice and go on calling their aid and grace for the concrete and total realisation of the union
and communion with our psychic being which alone and nothing else can seal our lives with Their Stamps and Signature for making us Their true servitors. The psychic way is the only way for this end.
Parichand
9.1.77
Shyamkumari,
Really speaking, the material food when thus offered to the fire of Brahman within is Transmuted into Spiritual food that nourishes not only the body but life and mind and soul also. This is the rationale of the Christian theory of Transformation, the conversion of the substance of bread and wine into Christ's body and blood in the consecration of the elements of the Eucharist. Only the appearance of the bread and wine remaining. What great power is there of transforming the base substance of matter into the pure substance of the Spirit by the simple sincere act of consecration to the Lord. The Gita, therefore, holds him to be a thief who does not take consecrated food and eats it out of desire and sense pleasure.
Consecration is of the utmost importance in all works of life, a constant conscious consecration so that a higher Power possesses the instrument and guides and moulds it as per her will.
The Mother's mantra of two all-transfiguring words "Remember and Offer" has to be a spontaneous ring and force in the whole being.
Parichand
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28.2.77
Shyamkumari,
The real task for us now is to make this light in the intellect strong and stable enough to refine the heart's emotions, to purify the vital's impurities, to awaken the body consciousness — in a word, to make that light integrally dynamic. If the psychic being which has a transforming power emerges from within and the spiritual light descends from above through the intellect, this sought-for aim can be swiftly and irresistibly achieved.
Let us keep aspiration and faith burning in our hearts, our psychic love for the Divine Mother ever growing and our nearness to Her ever more concrete. That is the true work entrusted to us by the Mother and if we be sincere and earnest to do Her will singlemindedly during this great and glorious Centenary year, Her grace will pour in us and accomplish a century's work in a year.
Parichand
5.7.77
Shyamkumari,
The Mother's physical Presence and Guidance had always a great and powerful influence and control over the crude and recalcitrant movements of our physical vital, physical mind and vital mind. When the physical Presence is withdrawn, those resistant parts are once again liable to all sorts of wrong movements, wrong suggestions, wrong actions and wrong turns in life. The reasoning mind, if it is active, can easily be made subservient to those wrong tendencies and even made to put forward unquestioning and unquestionable justifications for those very actions which were strongly condemned before. We wonder then and are amused to see how the intellectuals have turned turtle when stormy wind from these three parts has blown high. All their professions come to nothing. Why this happens so and very frequently? Because even the reasoning mind or intellect, not to speak of the other parts, is always exposed to conflicting and contradictory movements and may at any time side with the
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lower ones instead of the higher. This explains so many deviations and detours.
The true safeguards and saving features lie in intellectual rectitude, will to ceaseless progress, openness and receptivity to the Light, Knowledge, Guidance from the higher and higher planes of Consciousness till the velamen above the mind is pierced through and a secure station is obtained.
Or, there is a steady push inwards towards the psychic being, a constant dissociation from the movements of the triple nature and acceptance of the Light and Love and Guidance from the soul within which is a portion of the Divine, a sincere, unflinching will towards the unfolding of the psychic being in the nature-part till the veil is rent asunder and the Mother's Presence in the soul reveals itself.
In the present stage of our life and sadhana when we do not have the Mother's physical nearness, it is imperative to have Her nearest to us psychically. On this will depend our true loyalty to Her and obedience to her will.
Parichand
23.9.77
Shyamkumari,
Strange! In the profound silence of the night, near midnight, the fragrance of the Champa flower asserted itself so vehemently that my entire being was drawn to it. This self-assertion was not so compelling at 9 or 9.30 p.m. It seems that in the silence all actions, actions of nature, actions of the soul gain in intensity a hundredfold. Not only sound proclaims itself, but smell too and even sight — I mean inner sight tends to survey inner domains. Above all, the Presence within comes more and more forward to be tangibly felt and therefore all senses become unusually active and serviceable for the revelation of the Presence. That is why, the Yogin holds the midnight as most propitious for the inner communion. The Champa flower by its sweet fragrant redolence did a great work of spiritual awakening and instead of the serious attempt to get out of the all-
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pervasive paraffin smell, I got intoxicated by its fragrant divine Smile.
Thanking you heartily for this help.
I am one in the Mother
Parichand
11.10.77
Shyamkumari,
If someone as a result of sincere sadhana for years at a stretch has developed in himself considerable psychic discrimination or has been able to intuitivise his mind amply and securely, he thus becomes a true possessor of spiritual light and consciousness to guide him safely in his dealings of multiple nature with men and surroundings and to keep him far above their sinister touches and influences. Not only that. He carries with himself always an aura of purity and self-mastery that dominates for the best all that came to hurt or degrade or falsify. But such a stage of inner and outer development can only be attained invariably by virtue of a sustained form of aspiration and the transforming action of the divine grace. If people have not yet established in themselves that spiritual luminosity and mastery, they have always to be on their guard in their contact with men and surroundings and not to let their own discernment be coloured or covered over by the free movements of the person who has mastered his nature and filled her with penetrating light. For the people of the valley it will be sometimes dangerous to follow the outer actions of the man on the height. The latter has not only achieved immunity from but also the capacity to elevate the lower natures and make the most of the divine elements inherent there.
The Divine Mother had to take up universal types in Her handling of them and would often expose to our view some special significant action of each type for the rich enlargment of our knowledge. But if on the basis of this revealing saying or writing of the Mother about a type we make a mistake of
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cherishing a wholesale admiration of that type and thus blinding ourselves to many a foible and dark spot in that type we are liable to land ourselves in pitfalls. We have therefore to see the movement of light in that type and not be deluded into overlooking movements of darkness and attach ourselves uncritically to that luminous characteristic of the type. This has been a very common and often a misleading error and many of us have to learn a bitter lesson from the false step. So we have to be possessed of psychic discrimination or intuitive illumination free from mental formations or judgments before we hope to tread the sunlit path. If we whole-heartedly cling to the Mother and to Her alone we are safe in Her hands.
Parichand
31.10.77
Shyamkumari,
First of all, our deeper and wider studies of the Mother's and Sri Aurobindo's books lead us to but one conclusion, the one imperative and all-swallowing need, the union with our psychic being and its coming to the front and being the true sovereign of our nature. The attractions and attachments to the material life, the lures and temptations of the vital life, the preferences and predilections of the mental life have therefore to be got over more and more progressively. Then the more enchanting and compelling experiences of the mid worlds have also to pass by unaffected and undeviated if we are sincere to the core to reach our soul straightly and swiftly and to unite ourselves with it for good. Dear are to the Divine Mother the children who have thus attained to the goal kept before us by Them. Nothing short of this can make us Their true children.
Parichand
9.12.77
Shyamkumari,
In the context of our prolonged talk yesterday night on "how
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is it at all conceivable or possible for any one person to be possessed of a wealth of inner occult and spiritual experiences and yet be indifferent to or negligent of their expression, if not equally intensely and forcefully, at least sufficiently visibly and tangibly, through the movements and activities of mind, life and body?" Unfortunately this disharmony and dissonance has been a patent fact in the majority of occultists and Yogis specially when they came to deal with and shape their triple outermost personality. What was then the real crux of the problem? Very evidently the unimaginably hard and intractable the nature of the outer parts on the one hand and the overwhelming pull and attraction of the inner regions, once the lids are removed and the doors are thrown open, so the easy gliding into the subliminal planes with their captivating experiences upon experiences generates more and more a disinclination and even, at times a disgust towards the effort of remoulding of the outer parts for a harmonious expression.
The mental will and light although the leader of the journey, śarīra prāna netā, gives in after a certain attempt unless it is genuinely open to the psychic or spiritual light and power to draw upon them. The emotionally developed beings meet with the same eventuality when they confront the rich unfoldings of the inner experiences unless the psychic being in them is powerful enough to guide them or love for the Divine is so pure and strong as not to admit of any errantry into those glimmering valleys or a lop-sided development of the spiritual state.
I was telling you that the mind's clairvoyance, even in human ranges, gets often pitifully blurred or finds itself impotent to guide the impetuous vital so much so that it is compelled to yield to the latter and finally to build up a specious justification for the vital's action.
So we see that we are safe in our journey towards the spiritual goal of complete union with the integral Divine and the manifestation of the Divine in our transformed mind, life and body only when we have taken a definite stand in our attitude and endeavour to discover our psychic being unite with it totally, station ourselves in it unwaveringly and make it the
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manifest sovereign of our entire nature. Not otherwise.
"But for such vast spiritual change to be, / Out of the mystic cavern in man's heart. / The heavenly Psyche must put off her veil. / And step into common nature's crowded rooms. / And stand uncovered in that nature's front. / And rule its thoughts and fill the body and life."
This seems to be the sole and secure way to the utter fulfilment of the Mother's will in Her children's lives.
Parichand
5.4.78
Shyamkumari,
Will and faith, steady, persistent and indomitable on our side and the Mother's Grace and Protection on the other can be ever victorious over all physical, vital and mental obstacles. We have to be more obstinate in our true state of consciousness than the dogging obstinacy of physical illness. She is there for our help!
Parichand
22.6.78
Shyamkumari,
In our integral Yoga nothing is done till all is done. That means that if somewhere, in some corner of our nature, some desire, some attachment, some softness, some laxity remains, innocent-looking, may be negligible to our surface view, it may yet raise its head, gathers strength from environmental influence, sends its tentacles into the mind and procures its support or when sufficiently strong overrides mind's decision. First a thin screen is put up between the soul and that deviating movement, then a thick lid is placed shutting off the soul's light and thus a way is made clear for the disastrous slip from the true path. The outer mind, the outer vital, and the outer physical which are always exposed to the blasting winds of the surrroundings have proved to be the stumblings blocks in many yogis' onward march. So
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the harmonisation of the inner and the inmost with the outer or the outermost can alone make Yoga's path sun-lit.
An ever-burning aspiration, an unflagging will, a more and more consuming love for the Mother and for Her alone, an un-vacillating wakefulness, a conquering fervour and zeal, a courage that can face all vicissitudes of life with a calm confidence in the Mother's protection and grace, a serene reliance on her omnipotent and omniscient Force, a candid and ever-widening openness to her supreme Light, an intimate, living and dominating Presence of the Mother within and without — these can lead us straight, unfaltering to our integral union with the Mother.
How to be in secure possession of these indispensable needs of the being? By our conscious and constant contact with the psychic being, by our stationing ourselves firmly there, by our radiating the soul's transforming influences and by our achieving the total psychic transformation. Our ardent appeal to the Divine Mother for this consummation.
Yours in the Mother
Parichand
26.6.78
Shyamkumari,
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have shown us unequivocally and manifoldly that whatever we aspire for and whatever object is our life's endeavour for we have first to accept intellectually the indispensability of our contact with our true central being and then to direct our multiple energies towards our constant union with that being and towards its victorious emergence into and governance over our triple nature. Whether we strive for a golden humanity i.e. a pure sattwic human life, or aim at exceeding it into a spiritual life or look up to a distant fulfilment held up before us as the highest crown — the supramental realisation — that which will lead us infallibly and irresistibly to the goal is our psychic being, the divine element in the undivine nature, the spark of the Divine Fire, the golden child of the Divine Mother, the golden key She has given us out of
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infinite Love for unravelling of all mysteries, for opening up all closed doors on unfathomable splendours and riches.
The Mother's supramental Force is at work to reveal to us this truth, to enable us to hold fast to this truth so that all problems of life get solved and our entire life becomes a poem of beauty, joy and knowledge.
One with you
in the Mother
Parichand
4.8.78
My dear Shyamkumari,
I am sending you these 4 note-books which carry in them priceless treasures which, if made use of in life, will serve the divine purpose of our birth in human bodies. "An ounce of practice is infinitely greater than an ocean of theories." The conscious contact with the psychic being, the steady emergence of it to the forefront of our nature, the assumption of the governance of the triple nature by the psychic being and finally the psychicisation of the nature in its entirety for becoming a flawless, luminous, totally consecrated instrument of the Divine Will marking itself out through us in this world. By prayer, by an insistent call, by a growing stress of consciousness, by feeling the imperative need of its coming to the front and by a confident reliance on the Mother's grace this end can be surely and swiftly achieved, the Work of works can be accomplished.
You have been supplying to me out of love a transforming psychic food, a divinising nourishment, by your scrupulous compilation from the writings of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. I shall have further supply of the truly needed food and nourishment with a loving acceptance and response of my whole being.
With love and oneness
with you
in the Mother
Parichand
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PS.
The Mother's words on page 279 of the C. E. 10 in elucidation of Sri Aurobindo's aphorism — 212 are of crowning importance and ever memorable.
19.12.78
Bonne Fête à Shyamkumari
This day of the soul's descent on earth for the Mother's great and unprecedented work of transforming this very earth into the home of the Wonderful is for ever noted in Her calendar for bringing Her eternal portion back into Her to saturate it with Her living Presence. The soul can then live more naturally into itself and work on oneself and on others in the Mother's light and force. This psychic rebirth is attained by stages and now that the Mother's Force has been most powerfully working to bring it about in each of us, She demands of us a pure need of it and a sincere wide aspiration for it. Her grace is infinite and the accomplishment of the psychic rebirth may be miraculously swift and sure.
This is the one thing worth praying for in all earnestness and at all times. Once it is achieved our spiritual journey to the supreme Goal is assured even in the teeth of stubborn resistances and alluring attractions of the nature.
I wish you deeply the ecstasy-filled identity of your psychic being with the Mother in awakened consciousness.
One in the love of
the Mother
Parichand
20.10.79
Shyamkumari,
What you write about Sri Aurobindo and His infinite capacity of knowledge by identity is perfectly true and no true disciple of His will disagree with you on this point, But I differ from your standpoint in this matter when the question and answer pertain to the presentation of all truths thus known of all subjects
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in luminous mental or intellectual forms embodied in revelatory words. In such commerce and communication of minds with minds one has to take a firm stand on what and how Sri Aurobindo has revealed in mental terms the spiritual or even the supramental truth enshrined in any philosophy, religion, literature, art, science and any of the innumerable channels of that truth's expression comprehensible to the human mind. The bhakta's implicit faith in the Guru's omniscience may be unquestionable but his mind will look for the perfect formulations of the Guru's all-knowledge in perfect mental terms. Then only there can be a true mental relation and in that only can there be a justification of the Shastra.
The relation of the soul with the soul or of the spirit with the spirit of the Guru or of others can very well dispense with the mental formulations whatsoever unless the soul of the disciple finds delight in the most beautiful and most natural thoughts' and words' images and feels their most powerful impact on his outer personality. Such is the irresistible effect of the mantric power enthroned in the soul-form, the thought-form and the word-form of the Savitri on our total being.
The greatest beauty of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga and philosophy lies, I feel, in his unique achievement of a perfect harmony between the spirit, the intellect and the expressive word, as if they work in balance with each other. No hiatus anywhere.
Our appreciation of any writing on Sri Aurobindo or about Him naturally strives to find out to what extent the speaker's or writer's mind has allowed itself to be a mirror for reflecting the truth expressed in Sri Aurobindo writings, how passive an instrument it was to be a faultless means of communication to the world's mind. The speaker or the writer has full faith in Sri Aurobindo's knowledge by identity but that is in his inner being whereas he is expected to convey this truth to the philosophic mind in a philosophic way. Whether his philosophic exposition or exegesis bases itself on his psychic, intuitive or spiritual illumination or on his partly intuitive partly intellectual understanding or mostly on his sympathetic mental grasp or on his at times clear and radiant and at times blurred and befogged
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interpretation due to subtle imperceptible immixtures from lower planes — that makes all the difference in the success or failure, true presentation or imperfect presentation or even misrepresentation of Sri Aurobindo's writings. The same truth holds good in the cases of the appreciators.
I cannot therefore lay the charge of ignorance or impertinence because inwardly he is conscious and loyal and obedient but the mind's vehicle has its hurdles and detours. That is all. Hardly one can escape this limitation or falsification so long as mind is not psychicised or intuitivised.
Parichand
30.11.79
Shyamkumari,
The idea of "Transformation" was not conceived even. To give this conception for the first time and to make its effectuation possible the Mother had to swallow up like deadly poison all the consequences of our deeds in past births so that we might be free to advance towards the goal without any heavy persistent drag. The effects of our present natural movements are strong enough to impede our progress stubbornly but if we are sincere and resolute, transformation is possible with the help of the Mother's Force. The Guru has descended on earth to remove all past and present obstacles in the way of transformation.
Parichand
19.12.79
Bonne Fête à Shyamkumari,
"There was no sound to break the brooding hush;
One felt the silent nearness of the soul."
— Savitri
What an immense experience of Light, Love and Delight one gets even by one's nearness to the soul! This nearness brings
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the intimate nearness to the Divine Mother ever-present in the soul. There you get a golden key to unlock the treasure-house of spiritual splendours. The Mother's infinite Love and Grace pour on us incessantly to lift us up into her own regions of Truth, Good and Beauty. We have only to be passive in Her transforming hands as clay is in the hands of a potter. The more integrally we are detached to the attractions of the world, the more we are integrally attached to the raptures of the Divine Union.
I am indeed very happy to observe this steady and persistent inward and upward orientation in you taking your closer to Her Presence and preparing inner and outer conditions of life for a constant blissful union with the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.
Wishing you a hearty "bonne fête" again
I am
one with you in the
love of the Mother
Parichand
9.7.80
Shyamkumari,
"The central fire is in the psychic being, but it can
be lit in all the parts of the being."
Sri Aurobindo
So, the panacea of all diseases is in the kindling of the central fire of the psychic being. Let the body and its subconscient activities be set aflame with the psychic fire for the recovery of health and soundness in the physical being. A childlike simple prayer to the Mother is the most effective means of this achievement.
With love
Parichand
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19.12.80
Bonne Fête à Shyamkumari,
The Divine Craftsman has his inscrutable way of handling each nature, softening and kneading it, fashioning and moulding it till he makes it ready for the emergence of the glorious psychic being and the conversion of the human into the psychic nature. This is evidently the Mother's Will to bring out the true being and make it the governor of your nature and She turns all sufferings into perfect means of the fulfilment of the Will.
May you come closer and closer to Her integrally and be Her new-born child!
In the love of the Mother
Parichand
18.1.81
Shyamkumari,
Kim's birthday yesterday set in motion a train of thoughts in my mind which asked for expression. The soul in each individual embodies itself on a special day and that day is considered very sacred from times immemorial. The real truth at the base of this sacredness was spiritual but as matter came more and more in the forefront to dominate the human mind, spirit withdrew as a silent witness and was thus lost to the vision of human mind. The memory of the sacredness of birth remained in consciousness and so kept itself alive by means of celebrations in different ways. The physical celebration is most obvious and general and consists in special foods and alluring gifts. Accompanying this is the vital celebration which introduces characteristically an element of warmth and exuberance, a joyous exchange and interchange, a verifying vital glow. Uplifting it on a mental plane comes the mental perception of the special work the soul in each is missioned to accomplish in the body and on the earth and the day puts on an importance in that subtle but reflected light. Enlightening and transforming the whole outlook and inlook dawns the psychic perception which changes at once the whole complexion and purpose of the celebration
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and founds it on a psycho-spiritual level. The soul then knows itself, knows its relation with other souls, knows its eternal relation with the Divine Mother and knows also why it has come and how to fulfil impeccably its mission. On this truth the celebration has been holding its own from ancient times.
But now the Mother has raised the celebration up to a supreme plane and revealed the as-yet-unrevealed secret behind the celebration. On the day of the soul's ascension and entrance into the Origin from where it came down, its brief meeting with Him but packed with eternity and its replenishment with His Presence and His Glory for an ampler and mightier fulfilment of His Will on the earth the celebration is given the highest importance and laid on a divine foundation.
It is for us to be fully conscious of the workings on all the planes simultaneously in the birthday celebration of each one of us who have been sent down to work for the manifestation.
In the love of the Mother
Parichand
1.4.81
Shyamkumari,
You didn't remember the flowers so the flowers are remembering you and coming to you of themselves. It is a wonderful creation, the flower; the first emergence of the psychic from the heart of matter and the presage of a glorious creation where the full emergence of the psychic being in all its splendour and sovereignty will pave the way to the Kingdom of God on earth. We are privileged to be placed in the heart of this creation for full participation in the Divine Manifestation. Let us fulfil the Mother's Will in us.
In the Mother's Love
Parichand
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10.4.81
Shyamkumari,
About life led by an ideal.
It seems to me the lead of mind in general on human nature has lost ground. Moral sense and social decorum have been thrown overboard. The powerful impact of unrestrained, western vitality and the glamour of triumph of science on young minds and hearts have very much clogged the passage of the influx of higher light and the efflux of psychic radiance. As a result the great majority of young people fall an easy prey to upsurging vital desires. Money is a puissant instrument for their satisfaction and so the strong hankering for it. Sri Ramakrishna, the greatest spiritual figure of the past, knew full well what money stood for and wouldn't even touch it. Rare are the souls which can escape its influence and remain true to their ideals throughout. Many who having led an idealistic life for a good number of years suddenly give way to the vital demands and hungers of the flesh because the transforming work from above or from within was not potent enough to counteract contrary workings. In the divine Dispensation fortunately there are souls, a few but chosen ones, who are well-protected and alert and awake all along to the Goal of their terrestrial journey and would stand no nonsense of mundane allurements. Such souls are not only in the Ashram, the very heart of the Mother's Force, but, I believe, outside also. They will be the pioneers of the Mother's victorious Work and instrumental in permeating her subtly mighty action in a wider and ever wider field of consciousness.
If we wish to be true instruments of the Divine Manifestation we have to contact our inner being, — which alone is immune to vital contamination — try and live there constantly and bring it out for transformation of the mind, vital and body. That is why to be in union with one's soul is the ideal condition for divine work and divine service.
Thus the mental ideal of old has to make room for psychic
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idealism or transformation for freeing the young from vital domination on a stable basis. We are in a transitional stage.
Parichand
12.4.81
Shyamkumari,
I got a bunch of "Psychic tranquillity" flowers from my garden which I send you along with others. The psychic is ever tranquil in itself but it has to radiate the tranquillising influences in the outer nature down to the cells of the body. When the nature as a whole responds to the influences, a great harmony is achieved and our total personality opens itself to the Mother's Force and prepares itself for Her Work. This is the work of works — the organisation of the entire being around the psychic — and on the accomplishment of it depends our spiritual life. There is no other way.
In the Mother's love
Parichand
4.5.81
Shyamkumari,
It is heartening to note that the girl, a fine painter, is favoured with contacts with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother but nothing of profit has yet accrued from them. I always feel that the frequent relations with the beloved dead in dreams induce a kind of imbalance and morbidity and should not be much encouraged in the interest of a sound inner and outer life. To aspire to live in a close contact with the Mother and be filled with Her Presence, not only in dreams but in days' activities also will help the growth of a truly spiritual life.
Parichand
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19.12.81
Bonne Fête à Shyamkumari,
May the Mother's supreme Will be utterly fulfilled in your soul's earthly existence!
Each birthday is indeed great by the decisive action of the Divine Grace to bring down in a greater and ever greater degree the Mother's Light and Force and Delight and manifest them on the earth in a special way through the soul and instal the luminous Presence of the Divine here.
My felicitations to you on this most auspicious day.
In the Mother's love
Parichand
12.1.82
Shyamkumari,
G's letter confirms a well-established tradition in India that the disciple finds his Guru in spiritual life according as the stage of his sadhana and the seeking of his soul bring him to the right Guru able to fulfil the then need of his soul. The disciple puts in him his implicit faith, gives him the highest place possible in the hierarchy of the Gurus and cannot admit of any greater than he. In him he gets his fullest satisfaction and need not turn to anyone else till, in this life or in the future, his soul's onward journey demands a Guru of far greater knowledge and vaster consciousness. Looked at from this angle of vision I feel that how much and through how many births we have been made ready for coming straight to the highest Guru, recognising in Him the very incarnation of the Divine who has been throughout our sole object of spiritual seeking. Nothing short of the Supreme could fulfil the need of our souls.
Any premature attempt on our part at awakening the former type of the disciples to the integral Truth will fail in its objective until and unless the soul in each of the disciples needs a further and more complete realisation. That stage does not seem to have been reached by the soul of G. So let him proceed
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sincerely and whole-heartedly on his destined path and attain his goal sought for.
Parichand
14.11.82
Affectionate Shyamkumari,
With many thanks I send the "Mother India" Special Issue back to you.
Once at the Playground the Mother told Huta:
"Child, let us meditate on the physical body which will be transformed, penetrated by the Supramental Light, Harmony, Truth and Love...."
This talk of the Mother reveals a great many-sided truth. She was at that time in the Playground identifying Her consciousness with the physical consciousness embodied in the Playground, linking it up with the highest supramental Light, Harmony, Truth and Love and invoking it down in itself for the penetration and transformation of itself by the Supramental Consciousness. Sri Aurobindo says in effect the same thing in The Mother:
"... and it is only the very highest supramental Force descending from above and opening from below that can victoriously handle the physical Nature and annihilate its difficulties...."
The Mother's Presence in the Playground and its activities there had been in the past and is still in the present a Force for this upliftment and connection of the body-consciousness with the supramental collectively and also individually.
The Mother's call to Huta for meditation not on the soul, but on the physical body for transformation stands as an eternally verifiable truth for all of us who aspire for an integral transformation and She has given the golden key to that consummation in Her asking us to put a concentrated will on our body in a living faith in it for this orientation to the Supramental Force and its penetration into the body for the eventual transformation.
A Shankaracharya or a Raman Maharshi will never exhort
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his followers to this type of meditation. अंगम् गलितम् पलितम् मुण्डम् | दशन विहीनम् जातम् | करधृत कम्पित शोभित दण्डम् | तदपि न मुञ्चति आशा भाण्डम्|
Yet on this transformation alone rests the stable basis of the Divine Life on earth.
Parichand
13.2.83
Affectionate Shyamkumari,
It is no doubt sheer Grace of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo to take the souls of the devotees when they leave their bodies straight to the psychic world for rest without the long and painful ramblings of the passage. This Grace works on all equally who are in any way open to them like impartial sun-light.
But They want us to aspire for something infinitely greater even in this embodiment of ours — the attainment of the consciousness and illumined sense of our immortality and knowledge of our journey away from human life to the luminous psychic life in constant Presence of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. This at least we are expected to achieve, if not more. Then we shall in full consciousness of our immortal being discard the worn-out garment and be happy to put on a new one in the proper time. Their grace is out and working on us to make us possess this psychic realisation.
In the Mother's love
Parichand
27.3.83
My affectionate Shyamkumari,
"The psychic influence compels the physical to turn
towards the Divine."
— The Mother
The radical cure of physical aberrations lies undeniably in the psychic influence, ever-growing, every-permeating, on the
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physical, so we should put our will in the body itself to open to the psychic and through the psychic to the Mother. Physical disturbances in all of us are probably pointing to the same eternal Truth. Treatment, medicines, massages may, if properly applied, help the Mother's action on the body but Her demand is on the psychic's action for healing and health.
With love
Parichand
31.3.83
My affectionate Shyamkumari,
Sri Aurobindo wrote to Sahana:
"....And if the mind keeps quietude and receptivity to higher forces only, it can then easily pass on that quietude and receptivity to the body consciousness and even to the material cells of the body."
Even the mind quiet and open, has such a power over the body! Not to speak of the psychic.
A time has come urgently that our triple nature should make a sustained conscious effort to open to the psychic influence and efflorescence so that the Divine Force can freely stream out for purifying and transforming the turbid and obscure parts of our nature into receptive and luminous parts. Our steady aspiration and the Mother's grace will surely achieve this great high change.
In the Mother's love
Parichand
10.4.83
My affectionate Shyamkumari,
"The true aim of life is to find the Divine's Presence deep inside oneself and to surrender to it so that it takes the lead
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of the life, all the feelings and all the actions of the body.
This gives a true and luminous aim to existence."
— Sri Aurobindo
The more the resistance from our individual nature, mental, vital and physical, the more the disconcerting and distracting surroundings in which we happen to live and more and have our being, the more resolute must be our will to break open the inner lid, the more ardent our aspiration to unite with our psychic being. Then our Ashram life will fulfil its purpose and have a spiritual consummation.
Yours in the Mother
Parichand
23.6.85
Shyamkumari,
India never stood alone nor does she stand alone. If she is destined to be the leader of humanity and the spiritual Guru of the world there must be forces, visible or invisible, helping the Divine Cause and also the forces hindering vehemently either through individuals, through statesmen or through religious heads the fulfilment of the Divine Cause. Some of the helpful or harmful forces express themselves overtly through the words, deeds and manipulations of the persons in power in different fields and we base our judgments on those apparent fast-changing outer manifestations. But the forces in favour or against covertly working escape our perception and they are much more powerful in both ways than their expressed counterparts. But through this violent criss-cross of world-events and enigmatic operations of the dual forces the Divine Cause has been preparing its field of triumphant epiphany. The Mother says in the clearest terms:
"The future of India is very clear. India is the Guru of the world. The future structure of the world depends on India. India is the living soul. India is incarnating the spiritual knowledge in the world. The Government of India ought to recognise the
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significance of India in this sphere and plan their action accordingly." Divine power alone can help India.
So when the divine power is behind India and controlling Her destiny, she can never be alone.
Further, she says: "It is India that can bring Truth in the world. By manifestation of the Divine Will and Power alone, India can preach her message to the world and not by imitating the materialism of the West."
"In proportion as India's... awakens consciously to this greater and embodies it in actions, India will stand at the helm of world-affair."
Finally, to crown all, the Mother declares in unequivocal words "By following the Divine Will India shall shine at the top of the spiritual mountain and show the way of Truth and organise world unity."
This is the work of works and the Divine Mother and Sri Aurobindo have been leading India inevitably through gigantic clashes of forces to the sublimest role India is destined to play and will surely play in the omniscient guidance of the masters of the unprecedented efflorescence of India's soul and through it the world-soul. It is, as the Mother says, the sincere and straightforward recognition of the divine Leading that will impart a dynamic turn to the total course of events. Probably India is being led to it mysteriously and unknowingly. But it will reveal itself luminously and masterfully.
Parichand
Shyamkumari,
Cling to the Mother
If we really meant to mould our nature and its manifold movements by the truth that is inherent in these mantric words we must have to be perfectly sincere in holding to the one single object of our life -— the integral union with the Mother and the integral fulfilment of Her supreme will in all the activities of
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our nature. In order to fulfil this one great object in our life we have naturally to be scrupulously alert and constantly watchful over the motives that actuate the various workings of our nature. If we do this and go on praying to the Mother for illumining the dark regions of our being, awakening Her consciousness in the unconscious parts, removing by Her grace all our clinging to the persons, things, attractive ways of life that stand powerfully in the way of our union and communion with Her, bringing to the front our psychic being and making it the ruler of our nature so that there can be no least possibility of any error, confusion, false step, yielding inertly to adverse promptings, insinuations, allurements that subtly and speciously influence and control many workings of our Nature, then we will be sure of our clinging to the Mother and giving body to the mantra integrally in our terrestrial existence. The demand of the Mother is an integral sincerity in our purpose and will to fulfilment.
7.5.76
Parichand
Those who have chosen the Ashram life in all sincerity and have decided to dedicate all their time and energy to the service of the Divine Mother and Her alone must needs be extremely careful and cautious about going out for some work or the other unless it be truly for the Mother's work. What it takes one years to gain here may be lost in a few days' activities outside.
Parichand
Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Pondicherry - 2
25.2.78
My affectionate Pradip,
I am indeed very happy to receive today itself the first day cover with the Mother's symbol and stamp and also the cancellation. This is a precious thing, to us specially, not from a philaletic stand-point, but from our inner souls' relation with Her. In the issue of this stamp on such a great — the greatest
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— day, Norensingh has played a great part, the Mother's true child's part and as far as I know you have also taken a share. The Mother's benedictions will naturally shower on all those who have given their services to Her in whatever form and degree.
I am also happy to have a copy from you of the Mother's short life-sketch, bilingual, very well-written and artistically printed. I shall keep them in my box with the Mother's letters.
The Centenary celebration in the Ashram was elegantly and yet quietly accomplished. Though the crowd of people was nearly nine thousand, the organisation of the Ashram was efficient enough to see to the orderly movements and activities of them. The programmes of displays and exhibitions of the Ashram's numerous productions and creations kept the visitors fully entertained for days at a stretch and the Theatre-hall attracted a huge number of people by performance after performance at nights. So time here passes so swiftly and joyfully that we hardly have sense of time. All faces are bubbling with joy and enthusiasm and beaming with a new light in their eyes.
I convey to you, to your brother and also to your mother my love and affection and send you my heart-felt thanks.
So I stop here today and hope we shall meet someday.
With love and Affection
Parichand
Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Pondicherry - 605002
My affectionate Pradip,
Long I have been thinking of writing to you but somehow I could not. You were all in my loving rememberance and I have been in touch with you through your letters to Jiji. Life is full of joy and energy, peace and light and order for those who know how to attune themselves to the all-pervading Presence of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother in the Ashram and open themselves
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to Their Love and Grace. Their Presence and Love and Grace know no limits and are universally palpable whenever and whoever they are sought for. The most satisfying contribution and action of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga is to develop a whole personality and to its utmost capacity. No part of inner or outer nature is neglected, overlooked and maimed. Mind and heart and life and body — all must undergo a revolutionary change under the influence and presence of the psychic being — our central being — and fill themselves with abiding Light, Love, Life and Health for becoming a faultless instrument of the supreme Divine. This is the work going on puissantly here and the workers concretely feel that it is Their Force that lead them on victoriously through vicissitudes to the great Consummation. Your affinity with the inmost life of the Ashram is a very encouraging sign and you will never miss Their Presence and Protection in the chequered course of your life. I advise you to keep yourself in intimate relation with their books as much as is possible amid busy days. Above all, Their photos are felt charged with Their living Power and Personality when you commune with them in faith and devotion.
I convey my love, affection and deep feelings of my heart to you, to your mother, brothers and sisters. This much today.
I am
Yours affectionately
Parichand
Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Pondicherry - 605002
4.9.80
My affectionate Pradip,
I received duly your letter dated 25 August. Before I reply to it I am duty-bound to confess that it was the tendency to procrastination that made me void of impulse to write. This letter of yours has given a rude shock to the ingrained lethargy and energised my mind and body together.
First of all the expression of this latest letter, the spirit behind
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it and the permeating atmosphere of resignation to the Divine, the submission of our will to His Will and the calm acceptance of the calamities as His dispensation that make your letter so heartening and enlightenin— all give me a deep delight.
As soon as I got the news I knew very clearly that the soul of King had decided to leave the body and given no time for action. I have full confidence that his soul is with the Mother because of our relation with Her and She would put it when and where She wants for a spiritual work of the Mother. His example and influence remain as a living force to sustain and guide the whole family in the light and inspiration of the Mother in whose hands his soul is. That is why I tell Ila and all children to look to Her for light, strength, peace and joy so that She may protect them and lead them on in the right path and make them courageously surmount all obstacles.
Human helps and goodwill are no doubt a necessary support and spur but they become luminous and victorious when turned inwardly to the omniscient Power and Grace of the Mother. Faith in Her omnipotence, call to Her for Protection and Guidance, reliance on Her compassion even when things appear dark and disconcerting to our human minds are the most needed means of life's true fulfilment. Man's limited will surrendered to the Mother's illimitable Will can do wonders. We have been brought up in this atmosphere of living and luminous Faith and Presence, my brother, myself and Kirankumari and Sumantra and so we can say in all earnestness and convincingness what we have imbibed throughout.
I received with delight the ornamental and useful pullover presented by you and your mother and found, it suited to my body. But the few days of winter of Pondy had passed, so I could not use it. The coming winter I shall make its use. I shall be very glad to meet you here when you arrange to come. More next.
With my love and affection
to you, your mother and brother
I am yours sincerely
Parichand
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Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Pondicherry - 605 002
22.10.80
My affectionate Pradip,
I am glad to receive your letter of the 17th inst. and am surprised to find the "Ma Durga" stamp issued by East Germany the communist country so beautiful printed. It seems that the Indian spirituality which is now on a rising curve makes its strong impact on Western minds and influences the lives of numerous foreigners. Material progress and wealth have failed to give true joy and harmony that they seek and so they look for the source from where they can have them. It is only when they turn 'inwards towards their soul which is the perennial source of peace and light and delight that they can possess them. That is why there has been a powerful turning to India and Indian religion and spirituality for getting over frustration of life and attaining to an abiding harmony in life.
Sri Aurobindo's and the Mother's books, Their teachings and messages, The Integral Yoga that has been so lucidly and so elaborately put before us for a total acceptance, the light and knowledge that have come from them for perfectioning all the parts of our being — these are bound to spread all over the world and bring about a radical change in the attitude of life. Before that takes place there must be innumerable approaches to the ancient Indian inlook and outlook by the materialistic and mental Western people and they will find a sudden, an unexpected entry of spiritual light in their lives.
So many religious and pseudo-religious movements have been making their headway into the Western world and how enthusiastically, with what zeal and faith they submit themselves to them and make a drastic change in their living! They outdo the Indians on the observances and practices of religious teachings and preaching not only in India but in their own places.
I received also the Mahavir Jayanti stamp and have kept them carefully in my cupboard.
Have you completely recovered from the accident you had? Rajib gave us the details. We are all anxious to know about your
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full recovery. We are all doing well. Please convey my love to your mother and your brother and all. You are expected to go to Calcutta during November, I hear from Rajib. They felt deeply about your accident and they look upon you as their benefactor.
Yours ever
Parichand
Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Pondicherry - 605 002
17.1.82
My affectionate grandsons,
Pradip, Dilip and Pramod,
I am very happy to have your New Year's Greetings adorned with the beautiful Ma Durga coloured stamp issued by E. Germany. I shall preserve the stamp for its artistic and symbolic value specially, as it is issued by a communist country.
Pradip, I felt a concrete change in your inner atmosphere and came closer to you in the life within. The outer life, however progressive and prosperous, cannot by itself satisfy the soul's growth but along with the growth of conciousness, its expansion and illumination and upliftment the outer life gets its true value and serves a true purpose. Sri Aurobindo has untiringly insisted upon the harmonisation of the inner and outer but on the basis of a great and purer knowledge, an intenser and wider joy, a deeper and diviner love for all. Human life then fulfils its mission and changes into a vehicle of the manifold expression of the Truth on this earth. This aim you have always to keep it in mind in your life's journey and maintain a balance of the two spheres. Richness of life must be founded securely on the richness of the spirit.
Our greatest advantage is that the Mother and Sri Aurobindo did the most austere and sublime sadhana for the humanity at large and so we are in a position now to get the maximum results with the minimum effort because, as they affirm, this is the Hour of God and our only duty is to be alert and awake to receive what comes to us from above or rise from within in a humble
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spirit of consecration and gratitude. A quiet faith in the Divine and a glad call from within are the most potent means of achieving this long-cherished end. May Their Light and Presence be always with you guiding you safely to the great Goal!
With my love and affection to you all and to your mother
I am
Yours sincerely
Parichand
Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Pondicherry - 605002
22.9.82
My affectionate grandson,
Pradip,
I was glad to get your beautiful letter dated 29.8.82 and I think I am not very late in answering it. It is very heartening to me to know that your inner being and also your mind and heart respond to the words and to the vibrations that awaken the spiritual consciousness. It is to awaken the whole of humanity to the spiritual Truth, to the all-ruling, all-transforming Action of the Divine that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother came on the earth, did unprecedented Tapasya, brought down the highest supramental Truth here for changing the mortal ordinary way of life into the immortal divine way of life, have poured down the Knowledge inexhaustibly, lavished the Love on all of us, made the path to the supreme Goal sun-lit. It is for us to make the most of all that They have done for us, to profit by Their Teachings and make our lives attain to an all-round perfection.
Sri Aurobindo always holds out before us the fullness of life, physical, vital, emotional and mental, richness and progress in all spheres but He asserts unequivocally that this great and opulent aim of life can only be achieved when it is part and parcel of the spiritual growth and out-flowering because that imparts to the human life the true knowledge, the sure light, the unfailing power, the infallible guidance and to crown all, an ever-secure basis.
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It is true your last visit and stay in the Ashram were very fruitful from the spiritual standpoint and once you have had the experience of the true inner life, you will cherish it in your living remembrance, be naturally drawn to it, associate it with life's activities and grow in it more and more.
I am happy to learn about the engagement with Pramila and your marriage with her during December of this year. There are two other marriages in our family during the same month. Remember Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, look to them for light, strength and joy and protection. They will never fail you provided your faith remains unshaken. More next.
With my love and affection,
Your dadaji
Parichand
Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Pondicherry - 605 002
23.5.88
My affectionate grandson,
Pradip,
I was extremely happy to have your loving letter with the blooming photo of the new-born great-grandson who is amongst us. As I concentrate on his photo a calm wisdom shines through his broad eyes. To me he seems one of those who is described in the Savitri:
"The sun-eyed children of a marvellous dawn".
So "प्रज्ञ" is his most appropriate name.
Coming down in the family which is genuinely turned to the Divine Mother, the child will blossom forth in an auspicious atmosphere under the sun-light of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Let the wisdom grow in him as a blazing sun.
You have chosen Sri Aurobindo's and the Mother's stamps on the cover and also 1.50 stamp of 2 rose-flowers of my
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liking. Still you have Mother's and Sri Aurobindo's photos with you.
By the Grace of the Mother you have made a name in the philatelic world and you recognise it in your swift rise to progress in so early an age. The progress will be continuous when the Spirit is awakened and takes up the material life.
You will be busy now going to Delhi and when the exhibition opens on the 20th January you will be fully engrossed in that.
In between try to see us when the occasion arises.
Please give my love and affection to all and especially to your mother.
In the Mother's consciousness
Parichand
23.3.74
Sumitra,
To-day we have a Bengali film on Chaitanya, who innundated the whole of India with billowing seas of divine love. Sri Aurobindo speaking about him in a footnote of the Essays on the Gita says: "Chaitanya, the Avatar of Nadiya, is said to have been thus partly or occasionally occupied by the divine Consciousness and Power." In order to understand thoroughly the love he embodied and manifested, you have to fix your mind on the following words of Sri Aurobindo:
"Chaitanya's prema was nothing but a psychic divine love
with a strong sublimated vital manifestation."
So let us be suffused and saturated with this intense psychic love of Sri Chaitanya and then we shall try to know what the highest supramental love is. Of this last stage a luminous description is given by the omniscient Master in one of his letters. Try and fathom these words: "The supramental love means an intense unity of soul with soul, mind with mind, life with life,
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and an entire flooding of the body consciousness with the physical experience of oneness, the presence of the Beloved in every part, in every cell of the body" So effulgently clear and yet so unfathomably profound!
On Wednesday then we shall follow the lead of Sri Aurobindo into the supramental states of consciousness. Are you agreed?
Parichand
14.6.74
Sumitra,
On the eve of your happy birthday I convey my "Bonne Fête" to you.
Each birthday here is a precious occasion given by the Mother for a birth in the psychic by which the identity with the Divine Mother is truly felt. This identity will be felt more and more deeply and more and more widely through successive birthdays till it reaches its consummation in the absolute oneness of the child with the Mother, sarva bhāvena.
For this psychic birth Sri Aurobindo simply and yet most effectively asks of us: "If there is the will to surrender in the central being, then the psychic can come forward."
No complex ritual, no askesis, no elaborate procedure, no inhibition and prohibition but a simple, sincere and steady will to surrender to the Mother and the Mother alone in the depth of one's being is the guarantee of the psychic realisation. This is the spontaneous emergence of the soul under the sun-rays of Her presence in the mystic cave of our heart:
"Then through a tunnel dug in the last rock
She came out where there shone a deathless sun.
A house was there all made of flame and light
And crossing a wall of doorless living fire
There suddenly she met her secret soul."
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Wishing you a sunlit all-round progress under the Divine Mother's guidance and governance.
I am
a co-pilgrim to Her shrine
in the mystic cave.
Parichand
12.11.75
Sumitra,
I went to yours and you had been to the Matrimandir. The word "Matrimandir", the Temple of the Mother, set afoot a train of thoughts in my mind which find expression in this note.
The Matrimandir is the soul of Auroville. It is also the soul of India and the soul of the world. Its prototype is in the causal world, the Prajna, all made of pure luminous gold, hymned and worshipped by the supramental gods and goddesses and beings. Its subtle type is in the dream world, the Hiranyagarbha, made of a variety of hues and hymned and worshipped by the gods and goddesses and beings of the mid-world. Its gross type is in this visible world, the Virat. made of various concrete colours, hymned and worshipped by the gods and goddesses presiding over the visible world and its innumerable beings. The Auroville matrimandir stands as a colossal symbol of the omnipresent matrimandir in all the three worlds.
This much in the universe. But individually each Jivatman contains in itself the golden matrimandir where the Divine Supreme Mother is eternally present, worshipped by the Jiva, the central being for ever. Then each antaratman, the psychic being, holds in its bosom the matrimandir, pink in colour, where the Presence of the Divine Mother is ever felt and seen and a constant worship and hymn rises from the soul to Her.
Now one thing remains to be done.
The individual mind, vital and body have to build in themselves the matrimandir in its pristine glory by getting rid of ego and desire and a consequent purification and transformation. If
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this could be done progressively in a greater and greater number of individuals, the Divine Mother's sovereign rule here on the earth would be a concrete fact. The Auroville Matrimandir is a bold pointer to this inevitable future realisation.
So I was happy to know that you had been there. May we read the Poems tonight? Please excuse my cogitations.
Parichand
Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Pondicherry-605002
6.9.86
My affectionate D,
I am glad to have your letter. While reading it with a quiet concentration I felt tangibly that the Divine Mother willed your soul's decisive victory over your nature's resistance. You know very well that the force of opposition in the nature's parts have to be brought up, allowed their vehement actions, exposed in their true colours to the Light of the Truth before they are thrown out and eliminated. What Sri Aurobindo and the Mother strongly advise us to do in these hours of trials is to take our firm stand in the witnessing consciousness, to remain calm and quiet within when the storm rages without, to refuse identification of our inner being with the outer nature, to face the turmoil with courage and a serene faith in the Mother's powerful working. If this inner peace and imperturbable poise is maintained Her Force would find a very favourable and helpful condition for converting the troubled state of nature into a tranquil, up-lifted, joyous and luminous nature. I think all of us have to pass through such experiences of confusion and struggle before the light dawns, peace pervades and the Divine Presence is felt upholding us and working out all inimical forces. Sri Aurobindo says: "The cup has to be emptied before it is filled with nectar."
In my personal experience I observed that the very fact of non-identification with the surface trouble-ridden nature means a great relief and ensures a victory over it and invites at the same
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time the forceful working of the Divine Light and Power to establish His rule on our nature. Never stress the negative actions of nature, look into the soul's light and peace and joy waiting all the time for expression and also look up to the Grace of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. You belong to them and it is Their divine concern to keep you in Their safe arms. You be a simple child in Their lap.
With my love and deep affection
I am ever yours in the Mother
Parichand
Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Pondicherry - 605 002
25.8.88
My affectionate D,
Received your extremely frank letter laying bare your mind's questioning and nagging doubts that are perplexing it. Such free and frank exposure to the mind's unyogic movements is a sure way to the psychic change demanded by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. You have to face them and bring them to the light of consciousness before having a mastery of them. The soul is wide awake, open to the Divine Light and Ananda and bides its time for the emergence. For that, nagging doubts and disbeliefs have to set at naught for the peace, light, joy of the soul to have chance to alter the texture of the mind and psychicise it.
When we calmly and consciously look into the inner depths we get a glimpse of millions of births and deaths that we have to pass through before attaining a human level of consciousness. Attaining that level we have to wade through many delusions and self-deceptions for finding a way. And now you have been brought here at the lotus-feet of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother at such an early age, grown up under the caressing and loving sun-beams of Their Consciousness, looking after every detail of your life with the minutest solicitude, making of you Their worthy warrior and disciple — one of them — for Their imminent victory and manifestation.
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Buddhism, Shiva-bhakti and nirvanic peace are all of then an exit, an escape into moksha, laya and kaivalya. They belong to the past and have no raison d'être in the present and the future. Sri Ramakrishna rebuked Vivekananda when he sought bliss of trance and said, "Fie on you, you are seeking a personal Brahmananda. I will close the door to the trance-bliss. You have come for the great Mother's work, to give shelter to the afflicted pilgrims under your banyan tree. Until that work is done, you have no rest." A great era of dynamic yoga was ushered in by Sri Ramakrishna. Sri Aurobindo is taking up the thread and giving its fullest and widest fulfilment. Not only that he is here to bring the Supermind and change matter to its utmost. He saw: "...it is only the very highest supramental Force descending from above and opening from below that can victoriously handle the physical Nature and annihilate its difficulties." Such is the injunction of Sri Aurobindo that matter has to change and be the playfield of the Spirit. Even if we fail or partially succeed, we will be rewarded by a glorious fall or partial success. Not extinction, not the nirvanic calm of the Buddha, great as it is, but the world-changing rapturous joy, the joy of Sri Aurobindo's vision:
"Make earth the home of the Wonderful and life beatitude's kiss."
This is we have come here for and this is our aim They are preparing us for. The Mother said at the very beginning of her conversations:
"What do you want the yoga for? To get power? To attain to peace and calm? To serve humanity?
"None of these motives is sufficient to show that you are meant for the Path. The question you are to answer is this: Do you want the yoga for the sake of the Divine? Is the Divine the supreme fact of your life, so much so that it is simply, impossible for you to do with it. Do you feel that your very raison d'être is the Divine and without it there is no meaning in your existence? If so, then only can it be said that you have a call
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for the Truth."
This call for the Truth is made easy when we do not accept the lead of mind but accept that of the soul. Mind is full of deceptive allurements and lands us in a vicious circle. The heart must open and hear the soul's dictates. Once you get in the habit of the soul's lead, you find your whole life carried by the Mother's love and light to the ecstatic consummation. The discovery of the psychic being in-the very intricate whole of our lower nature is Sri Aurobindo's most powerful means of highest and widest fulfilments and of transformation of nature. This is the coming of the Divine Grace and the Mother is pressing it down for its collective fulfilment. Here lies the highest power for divine realisation and for change of nature.
Not the hard and rugged Buddhist path, not the ascetic self-effacing hardly attainable path of Nirvana but the joyous, luminous self-fulfilling yoga of Knowledge, Devotion and the Works. Buddhism denies the soul whereas Sri Aurobindo says the soul is the Individual Divine. What if the lustre in the individual extinguishes itself in the lustre of the Permanent? The world goes on without the least change in it. The psychic change takes up the mind, heart, vital and the body, makes them instruments of world-change. He says:
"Lift up thy mind and thy heart into glory.
Sun in the darkness, recover thy lustre.
One, universal, ensphering creation,
Wheeling no more with inconscient Nature,
Feel thyself God-born know thyself deathless.
Timeless return, to thy immortal existence."
Sri Aurobindo will not allow us to escape. His yoga is for battle and relentless fight but he assures us of ultimate Victory and divinisation.
Your whole family is dedicated in heart to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and you cannot come out of Their sway. Your soul won't allow it even if the mind — a product of nature — suggest wrongly.
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So I say, let the psychic attitude — an infallible luminous all-changing attitude — be your summum bonum. The Mother wants it and she has said she can give us in four months what yogi in former times needed four lives. Even a little of this true change gives felicity and promise of all-round perfection and fulfilment.
Take this straight path — not the tortuous path of ascetic yogis — and the Mother will give you ample light, peace and joy. When the whole being is open the joy comes in fullness. There is no end to the joy because it embraces mind, heart, vital and body.
I stop here today and hope to see you take a sun-lit psychic attitude instead of nirvanic calm difficult of attainment and a negative calm.
With my deepest love
I am
Your ever
Parichand
Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Pondicherry-605 002
4.2.61
My dear King,
This time, I notice, you have got over your silence rather early. This I take as a sign of progress. But as I wrote to you last I won't mind your silence because I will ascribe it to want of leisure. I have seen that business life and had ample experience of it. It may be more trying and uncertain than before as it is more competitive. But your will must be indomitable, your faith in the Mother unshakable. If you keep the Truth as your ideal, difficulties will vanish and life will not be dull and dreary but a field of useful experiences, by which you can grow in your consciousness. In fact, if you ponder a little, you will realise that our day-to-day experiences even shocks and blows, go to awaken our consciousness and make us richer in experience.
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For making profit out of these experiences, one's mind must be alert and not inert and indolent. The study of the Mother's and Sri Aurobindo's books helps immensely to develop the mental faculties and to bestow the power of discrimination. Make a point of reading some portions daily and concentratedly, even if for 15 minutes or so. In the uncongenial atmosphere this reading will act literally as nectar to dying persons. So I stop.
I wish you all happiness and progress.
My love and affection to all of you.
Yours sincerely
Parichand
Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Pondicherry
4.3.61
My dear Ila,
See, how prompt I am to reply to your letter inspite of the never-ending pressure of work. And is this not much better, this correspondence, this exchange of feelings and ideas, remaining comfortable and disturbing no programme of work? Life is for progress, is it not? Progress, — mental, vital, physical and above all spiritual. But our spirituality accepts life. Therefore our nature in our mind, life and body too must develop. An ordinary human life, lived almost like an animal's, I repeat, is a sheer waste and is fruitless. So we must aspire for something higher and nobler, uncommon and therefore unpalatable to men of the society. We cannot help it because we cannot chew the cud.
I am tempted to give below an extract from the Mother's sayings:
"The mind, if not controlled, is something wavering and imprecise. If one doesn't have the habit of concentrating it upon something, it goes on wandering all the time. It goes on without a stop anywhere and wanders into a world of vagueness. And then, when one wants to fix one's attention, it hurts! There is a little effort there, like this: 'Oh! how tiring it is, it hurts!' So
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one does not do it....
"But if you want to succeed in having a precise, concrete, clear, definite thought on a certain subject, you must make an effort, gather yourself together, hold yourself firm, concentrate. And the first time you do it, it literally hurts, it is tiring!..."
I purposely write in English to make you familiar with the subject in Sri Aurobindo's words. Once you have the clue you will find his terms easy to understand. King will help you to grasp the meaning, I hope.
So, more marriages are looming ahead, more feasts and merry-making. Do you find time to look within even for a few minutes? I think, not. The life outside hardly allows one to go within unless one is gifted with a strong will and feels some inner touch.
Be cheerful always and healthy and mentally alert.
My love and affection to you and others.
Yours sincerely
Parichand
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