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Notes on the Texts
Record of Yoga: 1 March-10 April, 7-26 June 1920. NB R24: 1-37; NB R25: 1—20. The Record of this period was kept in two thin exercise books used only for this purpose. The Record was discontinued between 10 April and 7 June 1920, as noted and explained in the entry of 7 June. After 26 June, the only dated entries for the remainder of 1920 are those of 17—19 October.
Some of the terminology of this portion of the Record has been explained in an article in the last issue, "Planes of Vijnana in the Record of Yoga, 1919-20". The use of the word "revelatory" in the present instalment requires further clarification. Several of its occurrences may seem inconsistent with what was said in the previous article, where the "revelatory logistis" with its three main levels and further subdivisions was described as the summit of the logistic vijnana. Readers may be puzzled now to find "revelatory" forms of vijnana being regarded as inferior to other forms of logistis. For example, Sri Aurobindo writes on 18 June 1920 of "a tendency in the siddhi of going slightly backward, eg ... in the T2 of revelatory rather than highest logistic action." First, it may be observed that the term "revelation" itself ceases to occur after the introduction to the Record of March 1920. It is replaced by the equivalent Sanskrit word, "drishti". The adjective "revelatory" is still used, but is rarely applied to the highest f6rm of the logistic vijnana; in this context, "drashta" (or "drashtri") usually takes its place.
A distinction is sometimes made between "higher revelatory" (usually called "highest logistis") and "lower revelatory". The latter may include the "interpretative" vijnana (inspired revelatory logistis), but is usually considered inferior to it. "Lower revelatory" should then be more or less equivalent to "intuitive revelatory" or "representative". The word "revelatory" by itself seems to have the same sense in some passages.1 In the fourth paragraph of the entry of 9 June 1920, for example, "revelatory" Ananda comes between "interpretative" and "inspirational", where "representative" would normally be expected.
In some places, however, "revelatory" is distinguished from "representative". A possible explanation is suggested by Sri Aurobindo's definition of representative vijnana as the "highest intuitive revelatory reason". This may mean that only the highest of the three degrees of intuitive revelation is properly termed "representative" , while "lower revelatory" or simply "revelatory" could apply to the two lower degrees. It is doubtful, however, whether Sri Aurobindo consistently maintained such a fine distinction in his employment of such frequently used terms.
In a few passages, "revelatory" seems equivalent not to "intuitive revelatory" but to "revelatory intuitive", the highest form of intuitive logistis. For example, Sri Aurobindo writes on 21 June 1920:
The Shakti in the body has left the fixed revelatory form and has manifested for a while inspirational, interpretative and a highest logistis ready for the srauta.
1 In all three occurrences of "lower revelatory", the word "lower" was inserted afterwards in the manuscript. It seems implied that the states which have "manifested for a while" are higher than the "revelatory form" temporarily left behind. If so, even "inspirational" logistis would here be higher than "revelatory". The latter could in that case only mean "revelatory intuitive". This interpretation is supported by the occurrence of "revelatory intuitive" instead of "revelatory" in an otherwise similarly worded sentence written on 1 March 1920:
Record of Yoga: 17-19 October 1920. NB RA1: 2-7. The date "17'.!? October 1920" was written on the first sheet of the letter pad used to keep the Record of 17—19 October 1920. This sheet was otherwise left blank; the entries begin on the second sheet. Only seven pages of this pad were used. These are the last dated entries before a six-year gap in the Record.
The entries for these three days show a significant change in terminology since the earlier part of 1920. The meaning of "representative vijnana" has been extended, the sphere of "logistis" restricted, and new terms introduced such as "imperative vijnana", "logos vijnana" and "logos reason". Some important features of the revised terminology can be seen in a sentence written on 17 October:
The three occurrences of "representative" in this sentence have to be understood in the light of the identification, later in the same entry and again on the following day, of "representative vijnana" with "logos vijnana". "Logos vijnana" is explained in the entry of 19 October, where it is used in two ways: in a broader sense encompassing three levels which will be discussed below, and in a more specific sense in which the highest of these levels is itself called "logos vijnana".2
"The latter", Sri Aurobindo writes, "has to deal with three movements", namely, "actualities — representative", "potentialities" and "the imperatives of the infinite". These clearly correspond to the "three elements (representative, interpretative, imperative)" of the "representative vijnana" in the sentence quoted above. They may also be compared with the three forms of the "full drashta luminous reason" described in the introduction to the Record of March 1920: (1) "revelation with interpretation but the front representative", (2) "the front interpretative with intuition involved in the drishti", (3) "the whole drishti with the two other powers taken into the drishti". This "full drashta luminous reason" (called on 29 February "drashta logos") is the highest faculty of logistic vijnana, superior to the "representative" and "interpretative" vijnana as defined at that time. In June 1920 it is regularly referred to as "highest logistis".
The entry of 19 October ends with a description of the final process needed to
2 In the Record, Sri Aurobindo used the Greek word logos to mean what he also called "luminous reason" or "ideal reason". In his other writings as well, the word refers to a higher or universal intelligence, as when Sri Aurobindo speaks of "the universal reason or Logos which the ancients perceived at work in the cosmos" (The Problem of Rebirth [1990], p. 143). perfect the logos vijnana. It concludes:
The perfection of logos vijnana is, then, the last stage before the long-awaited ascent to the second stair of gnosis. There can be no doubt that this term refers here to the highest level of what had previously been called the revelatory logistic vijnana The «represe ntative" was formerly the lowest, intuitive level of revelatory logistis . But in the terminology of October 1920, «representative vijnana" (or «highest representative ideality" , as it is called on the 18th) is equivalent to "logos vijnana" as defined above - a substantial promotion from its earlier position.
As already mentioned, "logos vijnana" has also another and more inclusive meaning. In this sense, its three levels as listed in the entry of 19 October are: (1) "Logistis - intuitive ideality of all kinds", (2) "Logos reason. The lower representative idea" , and (3) «Logos vijnana" in the more restricted sense, with its three forms already mentioned. The larger meaning of «logos vijnana" thus spans, though with some conspicuous omissions, the whole extent of what was hitherto called "logistis". The latter term is now confined to the lowest part of its former province.
The "logos reason" or "lower representative idea", the second level in this new system, appears to take the place of the former "representative" or "intuitive revelatory" vijnana. "Intuitive representative vijnana", at the end of the sentence of 17 October quoted above, probably refers to the same thing. The combination "revelatory + intuitive representative vijnana" is mentioned there as the old poise of the bodily consciousness. This would correspond to the two states between which the bodily consciousness was described as alternating on 20 June 1920:
"Revelatory" in this context may be taken to mean "revelatory intuitive", as suggested above in our discussion of the terminology of March—June 1920. If so, the forms of vijnana referred to on 17 October — in ascending order, "revelatory" (intuitive), "intuitive representative" and "representative vijnana" with its three elements — will correspond fairly closely to the three levels of logos vijnana in the broader sense: (intuitive) "logistis", "logos reason" and "logos vijnana" with its three movements.
These were evidently the forms of vijnana prominent in Sri Aurobindo's experience at this time. The three levels of logos vijnana have replaced the complex but symmetrical system of intuitive, inspirational and revelatory logistic vijnana with its various subdivisions. By late 1920, some parts of the earlier system seem to have served their purpose and were no longer needed. What had been called "inspirational" logistis has disappeared, as has even "interpretative" logistis except as an element of the higher logos vijnana.
Some foreshadowing of these developments can be found in the Record of early 1920. At the beginning of March, Sri Aurobindo had written that "inspiration losing its over-stress and defect of discrimination is almost wholly turned into interpretative ideality". Once this change was complete, the inspirational logistis could be removed from the current "map" of the vijnana. A similar direct conversion of intuitive to representative ideality was described at the same time, but had not proceeded as far in replacing the lower faculty by the higher. The greater power of persistence of intuitional forms on the logistic or "logos" plane may perhaps be attributed to its underlying character of smrti or intuition. In the entry of 21 June 1920, Sri Aurobindo commented on this phenomenon of the persistence of lower forms:
The disappearance of "interpretative vijnana" as a distinct level has made possible the elevation of "representative vijnana" to its position as another term for the highest logos vijnana. For the "interpretative" faculty is by definition higher than the "representative". This relationship is preserved in the order of the three elements of "representative vijnana". Here the term "imperative", important in the last period of the Record, is introduced for the first time as a companion to "representative" and "interpretative". Although it makes its appearance as an element of the representative ideality, the imperative as well as the interpretative vijnana have their proper sphere on the higher planes to which the sadhana was preparing to ascend.
Undated Record and Script, C. 1911-1920. With this issue, we reach the end of the main period of Sri Aurobindo's Record of Yoga. The Record of 1927, which remains, will appear in the final issue. Some undated entries and passages of what Sri Aurobindo referred to as "script" (discussed below in the note on item 2) have been omitted while publishing the regular Record up to 1920. These are collected in this section, roughly in chronological order.
[1] NB G11: 107. This undated entry was written in a notebook first used by Sri Aurobindo in Baroda. After his coming to Pondicherry, many of the blank or partially blank pages of the notebook were used for linguistic and Vedic notes. The isolated Record entry, found near the end of the notebook in the midst of largely blank pages, begins with a reference to the progress of Sri Aurobindo's linguistic work under the heading "Bhasha" ("Language"). The linguistic notes in the first part of the notebook provide certain rough dating clues. If the entry is assumed to be related to these notes, it can be assigned approximately to late 1911.
The form of the entry has some resemblance to the categorised Record notes of January—February 1911, the only dated Record that survives for 1911. There is one heading in common: "Prophecy". The word "prophecy" is used several times in January—February 1911 for what Sri Aurobindo normally called "trikaldrishti". The word occurs rarely in 1912 and practically disappears from the terminology of the Record after that.
A direct relationship between the undated entry and the linguistic notes in the same notebook is suggested by the following statement:
"O.S." (or more often "OS") is an abbreviation found in some of Sri Aurobindo's linguistic notes; it is also seen written out as "Old Sanscrit".3 The abbreviation occurs several times in one page of the present notebook. This page contains a list of Tamil words that begin mostly with ak-, written in Devanagari. The words are accompanied by their meanings in French 4 and English as well as their roots and equivalents in Sanskrit or "OS". It is probable that the entry under "Bhasha" was prompted by the insights of which we get a glimpse on this and the next few pages of the notebook.
The page of Tamil words is followed by a list of Latin, Greek and Sanskrit words under the heading "Rt mal. a = a, o, e, u." This short list evidently represents the starting-point of an investigation which led to the writing of "The Root mal in Greek".5 The latter is all that was written or survives of a discussion of the root mal and its derivatives in Greek, Latin, Sanskrit and Tamil, intended as a first illustration of Sri Aurobindo's linguistic theories. Along with an incomplete piece on "Word-Formation" ,6 it is the first writing in a large ledger eventually used for a variety of purposes, but whose originally intended subject was indicated inside the front cover: "Origines Aryacae. / Material for a full philological reconstruction / of / the old Aryabhasha / from which the Indo Aryan and Dravidian languages / are all derived." This ledger contains, a hundred or so pages later, the "Journal of Yoga" for 1-6 and 13-25 July 1912.
It may be observed in passing that Tamil is surprisingly absent from the data on mal recorded in these two notebooks.7 However, the list of Latin, Greek and Sanskrit words from the root mal in the smaller notebook is followed two pages later by a list of Tamil words that begin with mak-. The ledger gives a clue to the underlying thought-process. In "The Root mal in Greek", Sri Aurobindo wrote: "The root mal I take as a secondary root from the primary ma". The next writing in the ledger is an introduction to a proposed study of m-roots. Its last paragraph begins: "I take first the guttural roots of the M class". These are then listed. The first is mak, the root whose Tamil derivatives Sri Aurobindo had begun to examine in the other notebook.
We may assume, then, that Tamil was included in Sri Aurobindo's investigation of the root mal from the outset, despite its omission from his first notes on the subject. There is even reason to suppose that his study of Tamil was mainly responsible for his special attention to this particular root. For the principal meanings he assigned to mal ("primarily, to bloom, thrive, flourish; then, to be plump, strong, abundant; to be soft, sweet, gentle . . . ; to be soft, faint, languish . . .") are more
3 For more on Old Sanskrit, see the discussion of item 5 below. 4 Sri Aurobindo was obviously using a Tamil-French dictionary. 5 Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research, Dec. 1979, pp. 153—54. 6 Hymns to the Mystic Fire (1971), pp. 505-6. 7 The fourth paragraph of "The Root mal in Greek" summarises two pages of detailed notes preceding the article, where "Old Sanskrit" forms corresponding to the Greek words are given. In these notes, the Tamil word malar, "a flower", is mentioned. evident as a whole in Tamil than in any other language (cf. Tamil malar- "to bloom", mail and malku "to abound", mal "strength", mel "soft", meli "to be soft, to waste away", to mention only some of the most obvious). Though the data surviving in the notebooks is fragmentary, there is enough evidence to illustrate what Sri Aurobindo wrote in The Secret of the Veda:8
Between the initial brief list of Latin, Greek and Sanskrit words and the final unfinished analysis of mal in these languages and Tamil, there was an intermediate stage. We find in another notebook a long and systematic list of Greek words derived from mal, with their English meanings and a few Tamil correspondences. This list provides the most significant evidence for the purposes of dating, for it is found a few pages before the Record of 12 January—8 February 1912. The order of the contents of Sri Aurobindo's notebooks does not always correspond to the sequence in which they were written, but it appears likely that this list was written out before 12 January 1912. It is clearly subsequent to the short related list of Latin, Greek and Sanskrit words, jotted down without meanings or explanations, found among the notes to which the present Record entry is probably related. The notes and the Record entry may therefore be placed with some likelihood in the period before January 1912.
[2] LS Gle: 2. This and most of the items that follow belong to the category of what the Record calls "script" .9 Script was one of the means by which guidance was received directly or indirectly from the Master of the Yoga. Other closely related means include "vani" (the hearing of a voice) and "lipi" (writing seen in subtle vision). Script and Vani are frequently mentioned together and there is also a "vani script".10 This may have meant something like taking dictation, that is, writing down what is heard. The Record speaks in one place (24 June 1913) of "The Vani that guides in the script", but script and Vani were normally distinguished. Lipi is likewise associated with script. In both script and lipi, communications take a written form, physical or subtle. Occasionally, lipi itself is called "script". In one entry where this happens,11
The normal process of receiving script seems to have been similar to automatic writing (see the next section), in which the pen is supposed to move in obedience to a disembodied spirit. Like automatic writing, script may answer unwritten questions and thus give a disconnected impression. For instance, in the first paragraph of item 5 below, we read the sequence: "Yes. For some time. We shall see." The
8 P. 36. 9 The relationship of "script" to "record" and "automatic writing" were previously discussed in the Archival Notes of the issue of April 1986, pp. 106-9. 10 Record of 15 July and 4 December 1912. " Record of 4 July 1912. source of the script typically refers to itself as "I" and to Sri Aurobindo as "you". It sometimes identifies itself, as in item 8: "It is I who am using it [the script] & me you know. Not Indra or another but the Master of the Yoga."
In such cases it is easy to distinguish script from ordinary record, the "record of fact and experience"12 in which the word "I", if it occurs, refers to Sri Aurobindo. However, a clear distinction between script and record cannot always be maintained. "Record" is a broader term which includes "script". Passages under the heading "Script" occur as part of Record entries as well as separately; similar passages which are not identified as such may also have been received as script. Sri Aurobindo sometimes used both words in referring to the same writing. For example, the regular record of 14 January 1912 mentions an "accompanying memorandum" containing the "rest of the record of January 14th & the record of January 15th". This "memorandum" describes itself as "script". On 20 July 1912, Sri Aurobindo wrote: "The record from today resumes the character of a communication and includes a view of the future as well as of the present and past." The word "communication" had been applied previously13 to the script. Moreover, a common function of the script was to give precisely such a "view of the future", usually the immediate future of the daily progress of the sadhana.
The first example of script in this section outlines a far-reaching programme for the "coordination" of Sri Aurobindo's "literary Karma". It mentions several specific works which were to be written or completed. Some of these exist among Sri Aurobindo's notebooks and published writings; others either were never written or have not survived.
A clue to the date of this script is offered by the first title mentioned: "To begin with — you have to complete The Commentary on the Kena Upanishad. ..." The commentary referred to is undoubtedly the one consisting of a "Foreword" "and two chapters of the "First Part",'14 found immediately before the "Journal of Yoga" for 1-6 and 13-25 July 1912. The manuscript of this version has only the title "Kena Upanishad". But elsewhere among Sri Aurobindo's papers we find a two-page typescript with the title: "A Commentary on the Kena Upanishad. / Foreword."15 This typescript, revised by hand, is an expanded version of the Foreword to the commentary which precedes the "Journal of Yoga". The adoption of the title given in the script suggests that Sri Aurobindo may have taken up the revision of this commentary as a direct result of the script-instructions. However, he does not seem to have proceeded very far with it.
The script is likely, then, to belong to the period around July 1912. The Record for that month, the "Journal of Yoga", may be helpful in determining its date more precisely. On 4 July 1912, Sri Aurobindo wrote of "Automatic script recommenced today". This entry also speaks of the "prophetic script", a term found nowhere else in the Record except in the present script. A script prediction quoted in the next entry shows that the activity which had "recommenced" was continuing. Everyday communications received in this way were normally, it seems, jotted down on any handy piece of paper. Unless the paper happened to contain
12 Record of 13 January 1912. 13 In the script of 14 January 1912. 14 The Upanishads (1972), pp. 527-40. 15 Published in Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research, Dec. 1980, pp. 186—87. other writing or the contents of the script were incorporated in the Record, they were not usually preserved. The present script escaped this fate not only because of its long-term programme, but because it was written on the back of the typescript of another writing.
On 15 July, script is mentioned in connection with Krishna. Then under 18 July we read of a sudden renewal of literary work after a period of interruption: "Sahitya was resumed today. ..." This was in accordance with the first item in the ambitious "programme" for the day: "Preparation of karma (sahitya, bhasha, philosophy, nirukta, prerana)".16 The next entry includes "kavya" (poetry) in its programme. On the following day we read, among other things, "Rodogune revised". Rodogune would have been one of "the two dramas" referred to in the script; the other drama Sri Aurobindo worked on around this time was Eric. On 21 July, Sri Aurobindo wrote: "The literary work will in all its parts be brought to a regular activity during the next few days."
These entries point to mid-July 1912 as a likely time when the script might have been received. If so, its purpose of coordinating the literary Karma was amply fulfilled by Sri Aurobindo's taking up "the literary work ... in all its parts" at this time along the lines indicated.
[3] LS V3m: 2. This script (or "record of thought", as it calls itself) was written at the end of a loose sheet containing linguistic notes. Two sentences from it appear verbatim in the Record of 14 October 1912: "Tomorrow the direct government will be continuous. Tonight there will be the Ananda of the actual embrace of the daughters of delight." The script was evidently written on 14 October 1912 and part of it transcribed in the Record later the same day. In the Record entry, Sri Aurobindo later wrote in pencil after these two sentences: "Fulfilled (last in sukshma)".
[4] LS V31: 4—5. These three pieces of script were written on the inner pages of a large folded sheet of paper. The front page and two pages of another sheet were used for linguistic notes very similar to those accompanying the previous item. The period should therefore be roughly the same. The two pages containing script are interspersed with fragmentary writings on other subjects.
The first piece of script gives a set of predictions which may be the "programme suggested on the tenth" mentioned in the Record of 21 December 1912:
The script anticipates a victory over the "physical resistance" which is "exhausting itself and whose forces, it is expected, "will not be successful for much longer". It goes on to predict a preparation of rupadrsti and an advance in three of the four parts of the physical siddhi (the expulsion of daurbalyam, "weakness", refers to utthapana):
16 The relationship of "bhasha", "nirukta" and "prerana" is discussed in the note on item 5 below, under the heading Prerana and the Prerana Records.
This is followed by an indication of progress in vijnana:
The opening paragraph of the Record of 11 December 1912 contains few exact correspondences with the wording of this script, but reads like a free restatement and interpretation of its substance. Like the script, it begins with the "resistance", concluding:
The exact meaning of the phrase, "it is suggested," is clarified ten days later by the reference to the "programme suggested on the tenth". Script was the usual means by which such "programmes" were received. The Record of 11 December then speaks of progress in vijnana, including "rupadrishti", "samadhi" and "trikaldrishti & powers" ("powers" refers to the "siddhis of power", called in the script "siddhis"). Next it predicts a broad advance in the physical siddhi, whose elements are listed in the same order as in the script:
The predictions here are less precise and emphatic than in the script, perhaps because some exaggeration in the "programme" was already suspected. The essential points are the same, however. Verbal echoes of the script may be perceived mainly in the statement about "The physical resistance" (the words with which the script begins) and the sentence on "saundarya".
It seems plausible, then, to correlate the first piece of the present script with the "programme suggested on the tenth" mentioned in the Record of 21 December 1912. The other two pieces of script, found along with this one, may have been written somewhat later. The special sense of the word "life" should be noted in the sentence, "Life has begun feebly, in literature & thought." This should be understood in the light of the usage of "life" in the script of 23 January 1913 (see the next item): "It is a question now of the life, the karmasiddhi."
The Record entry of 10 December 1912 sheds light on the distinction between "opposed" and "contradicted" in the statement: "Only the saundaryam will be still left effectively opposed — though no longer contradicted." On this day, a first decisive though modest advance in saundarya was recorded. Assessing its significance, Sri Aurobindo wrote: "the gain is a detail, but the important point is that the power of the will to change formations in the body has now been physically proved beyond doubt or dispute." At the same time, "signs of old age show no promise of reversal or dissolution." The state of the saundarya on this date would seem to justify, perhaps tor the first time, the description of this siddhi as "no longer contradicted". It had to be admitted, however, that it was still quite "effectively opposed".
[5] LS RA1: 28—19. These script entries occupy the last ten pages of a 28-page booklet made from loose sheets of folded paper. The entries start on the last page and proceed backwards. The previous eighteen pages contain poetry in an unknown language resembling Sanskrit. A few similar lines occur in the script itself. The nature and purpose of this writing will be discussed below.
The Date of the Script. The script is partially dated. After a long undated passage, four shorter entries have dates from the "21st" to the "24th". The month and year are not specified, but under the "23d" there is a reference to "this month of January". The year has been established as 1913 by a comparison with the regular Record of January of that year. The similar mention of Adrianople in the Record and the script is conclusive. It is stated in the script on the "23d":
The last phrase is repeated word for word, with only a change in order and some amplification, at the beginning of the Record entry of 24 January 1913. Here Sri Aurobindo describes his "Aishwarya about the terms of peace" as being "either the coast islands . . . and Adrianople ... or war."
Since the partly dated portions of the script belong to 21—24 January 1913, the passage that precedes them must have been written just before the 21st of that month. The Record of 19 January states: "This morning script became profuse and intimate. ..." The word "profuse" would aptly describe the first long passage of this script or even a substantial portion of it. There is reason to believe that the passage was written in the course of two days, on 19—20 January.
The main evidence for this is a paragraph which may mark the beginning of the part of the script written on the 20th:
The prediction about "perfect activity" occurs in the fourth paragraph of the script: "Meanwhile the day has to be filled in with a perfect activity of all kinds". The explanation given above, that this "did not refer to yesterday in particular", shows that a day has passed. The intervening "relapse & revolt" are evidently "last night's . . . disturbance and crisis" mentioned in the Record of 20 January, which begins:
It would seem today as if the exaggerated tejas of mentality were finally
This dismissal of "the exaggerated tejas of mentality" is also alluded to in the script, in different words:
This sentence follows the paragraph referring to "yesterday" and was clearly written on the 20th.
The part of the script written on the 19th probably includes the four paragraphs after the Greek prose, beginning with the words: "There is still much to write." The second short paragraph contains the "other prediction" about the "continuity" (of kamananda) and "abundance" (of drishti), a prediction which must have been made before the unexpected "relapse & revolt". The two longer paragraphs that follow relate partly to the fulfilment of this prediction and show no sign that a crisis has yet occurred.
Passages in Other Languages. An unusual feature of the present script is the writing it contains in three or four known and unknown languages besides English. Some lines in Sanskrit and Greek at the top of the first page have not been taken as part of the script. But short passages in Sanskrit, Greek and other more problematic languages occur at intervals in the script itself. They seem unrelated to the rest of it in content, but were apparently received by a similar process. They are different from the Sanskrit "sortileges" — passages extracted from books opened at random — which are frequent in some parts of the Record. The longest series of writings in other languages in the present script is introduced by the sentence: The other movement of the automatic script."
Most of these passages were neatly copied by Sri Aurobindo at the end of a separate notebook. This large ledger was one of three such in use in 1912—13. The project for which it was initially intended is announced inside its front cover: "Record of Writings in Different / Languages, / whether acquired by inspiration, communication or by the writing / in the ether." The notebook was eventually used mostly for Vedic writings, notes and translations. Its first twenty-five pages, however, contain three substantial examples of such "writings in different languages". These are in Greek, Latin and something akin to Sanskrit. They are connected with a set of similar writings found in a notebook used as early as 1911. Here Sanskrit, Italian, French and German are also represented. In addition, there are a few sentences and verses, with an English translation and detailed etymological notes, in what was called simply an "Ancient Language".
This activity seems to have had two interrelated purposes: (1) to develop the faculties involved in the reception of such writings, and (2) to record the linguistic and other data that could be acquired in this way. In the terminology of the Record, the first purpose is part of vijnana; the second, dependent on the first, belongs properly to karma. Although these writings are a subject about which Sri Aurobindo said practically nothing, allusions to both aspects may be detected or inferred in the Record.
Prerana and the Prerana Records. Between 18 and 20 July 1912, Sri Aurobindo's programme of Karma for each day included an unexplained item called "prerana". This is mentioned each time along with "nirukta" ("etymology"), the usual term in the Record for the linguistic research Sri Aurobindo was then conducting. This research was being pursued by intuitive and inspired means with the ultimate aim of discovering "the origins and laws of development of human language itself".17 On 18 July, Sri Aurobindo wrote of having begun "an orderly arrangement of material . . . for the Structure of Sanscrit Speech and a review of past Prerana records". On 20 July we read of "prerana liberated from its shackles, nirukta strongly brought forward". But on the next day we meet the last explicit reference to Prerana as part of Karma: "Prerana was intermitted."
Prerana may be translated "inspiration". But inspiration is a faculty that can be applied in any field. In these Record entries, "prerana" refers to a specific branch of activity distinct from "nirukta", though closely associated with it. Moreover, it has its own "records". No clue is provided here to the nature of these "Prerana records". But at the end of the ledger intended to contain the "Record of Writings in Different Languages" — writings acquired by "inspiration" and other means — we find three fragments of Greek poetry with the words "Eth.1. Record" written at the top of the right margin. Below this, lines or groups of lines are marked alternately "Lipi" (next to two or three lines) and "Prerana" (for the rest).
These markings evidently show the source of the passages — namely, the "Ethereal Record", more often called the "Akashic Record" — and the specific means by which the various lines were "acquired": whether they were seen as writing in the ether (Lipi) or received by a direct inspiration in the mind (Prerana). From its basic sense of "setting in motion", prerana would be a faculty by which inspired words arise in the mind from within, unlike the more external means by which they may be heard by the inner ear ("vani"), seen as writing by the inner eye ("lipi"), or communicated to the hand ("script"). Yet these various means are so closely related that they can apparently alternate in the reception of a single passage. Assuming prerana to be in some way the most important or characteristic of the faculties involved, such writings as a whole might be labelled "Prerana records", without intending to exclude other methods of transmission.
After July 1912, "prerana" is not again mentioned in the Record as a branch of Karma. The word makes its last appearance on 13 January 1913, where it occurs three times in connection with "bhasha" (language). Sri Aurobindo at that time was reading difficult Sanskrit prose to develop the language "siddhi". Two illustrations are given of the action of Prerana in suggesting the meaning of unknown Sanskrit words. It is unclear whether it means exactly the same thing here as in connection with the "Prerana records". Most likely it is another side of the same faculty, for a record including writings in unknown languages would be of little use without the ability to interpret them. There follows a more general statement on the development of the "Bhashashakti" or linguistic faculty:
Today the "Kadambari" was read, no longer with the ordinary (intellectually intuitive) linguistic faculties at their highest working, but with these faculties not so swift, yet aided by the extraordinary or vijnanamaya Bhashashakti, especially prerana, viveka & sahajadrishti. Moreover these three
17 The Secret of the Veda (1971), p. 47.
"Prerana" is mentioned here as a faculty of vijnana along with "viveka" (discrimination) and "sahajadrishti" (intuition). A fourth and highest faculty listed elsewhere together with these is "sakshadjnana" (revelation). The translation of prerana as "inspiration" (also called sruti) is here confirmed.18 Among the faculties of vijnana, inspiration is that which has the most affinity with verbal expression. Inspiration or sruti, according to Sri Aurobindo, generally "comes as a vibration that carries the Truth in it"; sometimes, however, "it comes as the actual word which by revealing its meaning brings new truth to the mind".19 In the context of Sri Aurobindo's linguistic work, prerana is likely to refer especially to the second type of inspiration, where the word comes "revealing its meaning".
Aitihya Lipi and Itihasa. The reemergence of prerana and related faculties of the "vijnanamaya Bhashashakti" was followed a few days later by the present script with its mysterious writings in unknown languages. In the Record of 19 January 1913, as already quoted, Sri Aurobindo wrote that in the morning script had become "profuse and intimate". He continued in the same sentence, "and the old siddhis of aitihya lipi & janmantara drishti resumed their activity." The revival of these "old siddhis" seems so closely connected with the script that one might not be surprised to find some evidence of them there.
A suggestion of some kind of "janmantara drishti" (vision of other lives) is unmistakable in the paragraph of the script which begins "Agesilaus = Sn", followed by a list of names from ancient Greek history. "Sn" was the regular abbreviation in the Record for Saurin, Sri Aurobindo's wife's cousin, who was staying with him at this time. Agesilaus was a king of Sparta in the fourth century b.c.
"Aitihya lipi" is the other "old siddhi" whose activity was resumed at this time. The expression means "historical" lipi or, more literally, writing related to or consisting of itihasa. It does not occur elsewhere and its exact significance is not
18 The faculties of vijnana are often enumerated as three: smrti, sruti and drsti. Here, Sruti and drsti replace prerana and saksdd-jnana as the Sanskrit equivalents of "inspiration" and "revelation", while viveka and sahajadrsfi (."intuition") are combined in smrti.
19 Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research, April 1986, p. 9.
20 The names were later copied on an otherwise blank page in the ledger containing the "Record of Writings in Different Languages". There they are listed in a slightly different order, but divided into the same three groups. (The division into groups is clearer here than in the script.) Since each group includes some persons who were contemporaries, the three sets of names cannot represent successive lives of three people. However, four of the same names (Brasidas, Agis, Pausanias and Lysander) are also found in an earlier notebook along with other names that extend from legendary times to the nineteenth century. This list is also without heading or explanation. The names are divided into four groups, each of which could be a series of lives of a single person. However, they are not written in a consistently chronological order. The names are: (1) Idomenaus, Coriolanus, Antony, Richelieu, C [Caius] Gracchus, St. Louis, Charles V. (2) Dciphobus, Brasidas, T. [Tiberius] Gracchus, Clarence, Louis XII, Lafayette, Pompey. (3) T. [Titus] Manlius, Marcellus, Agis, Philip IV. (4) Fausanias, Lysander, B. [Benedict] Arnold. explained. A few days earlier, in the Record of 14 January 1913, Sri Aurobindo had mentioned Itihasa along with several other fields in which the powers of Knowledge, once perfected, were to be applied. The first three items in the list are: "Bhasha, Nirukta, Itihasa". Possibly, Itihasa is intended here as the closest Sanskrit equivalent to "history" in the modern sense. From this meaning of itihasa, "aitihya lipi" would be lipi relating to past events rather than to the present or future. It would be the first aspect of a special faculty of time-knowledge attributed by Sri Aurobindo to the subliminal self:
But aitihya may have a more specific connotation. Itihasa in its original sense refers to the ancient historical or legendary traditions enshrined in such works as the Ramayana and Mahabharata. These epics are concerned not so much with the objective narration of factual occurrences as with the interpretation of significant events, usually in the remote past, which are believed to have shaped the character of a particular age and civilisation. Sri Aurobindo wrote in The Secret of the Veda:22
This is perhaps how Itihasa should be understood in connection with the term "aitihya lipi" in the Record of 19 January 1913, when the present script was commenced. The passages in other languages scattered through this script include lines clearly related to the subject matter of the ancient epics. These, as well as most of the other Sanskrit or Sanskrit-like writings found with the script and in the two notebooks mentioned earlier, might be termed aitihya, "concerned with Itihasa", in the sense defined above.23
In that case, it may not be accidental that Bhasha, Nirukta and Itihasa are listed together in the entry of 14 January 1913. Bhasha and Nirukta refer to Sri Aurobindo's language study and linguistic research. Itihasa could apply to the content of much of the "writings in different languages". The relevance of Bhasha to Itihasa in this sense is obvious. Just a few days before the revival of "aitihya lipi", Sri Aurobindo noted the reemergence of the "vijnanamaya Bhashashakti" after a "long inaction of many months". This higher language faculty would have been virtually indispensable for the project which can be inferred from evidence in some of his notebooks, namely, an attempt to recover from the Akashic Record passages of epic poetry in a language older than any known form of Sanskrit. This seems to be the very language Sri Aurobindo was simultaneously "reconstructing" through his work in Nirukta. The results of this remarkable exercise possibly suggest what he believed the ancestors of the Sanskrit Itihasas to have been like "long before the present forms . . . were evolved."
21 The Synthesis of Yoga (1970), p. 863. 22 P. 19, footnote 2. 23 Itihasa is formed from the words iti ha asa, "so indeed it was"; aitihya is derived from itiha, which means "thus indeed" or "according to tradition". "Aitihya lipi" may, then, refer to such writings or to the siddhi required to produce or transcribe them — a faculty whose activity had been interrupted for at least part of the period between July 1912 (when Prerana was "intermitted" on the 21st after a brief activity) and January 1913. It should be noted that since lipi in ordinary Sanskrit means simply "writing", the word need not be restricted in this context to writing seen in subtle vision, its usual sense in the Record. Like "Prerana records", we might suppose the designation "aitihya lipi" to apply to any such writings, by whatever method they were received.
Writings in Old Sanskrit. Several passages in this script are written in Deva-nagari characters, like Sanskrit, but in a language that is something of an enigma. Though it has words and grammatical features in common with Sanskrit, especially Vedic Sanskrit, it is not Sanskrit and much of it is unintelligible to a Sanskrit scholar. Most of it consists of poetry in the dactylic hexameter, a metre familiar from the Greek and Latin epics but unknown in Sanskrit literature. The names Rama, Sita and Ravana occur in two passages near the end of the script. These and other names associated with the story of the Ramayana are found in similar writings elsewhere in Sri Aurobindo's manuscripts, including the eighteen pages that precede the script.
Writings of this kind are first encountered in the notebook of 1911 already mentioned. Here we find, among other things, some sentences and rhymed stanzas in a language written in English characters under the heading "Ancient Language". This language is different" in phonology and morphology from that of the Sanskritlike writings in Devanagari. But the elaborate etymological notes on it show the derivation of almost every word from "OS" (Old Sanskrit). What is of interest for our present purpose is that a few words given here as "OS" — words found in neither classical nor Vedic Sanskrit — occur in the next few pages of this notebook in passages resembling in their language the lines in the present script.
This suggests the hypothesis already hinted at, that these writings are in some form of what Sri Aurobindo was calling at that time "Old Sanscrit" or the "old Aryabhasha",24 the language from which he considered the Indo-Aryan and Dra-vidian languages to be derived. We have seen, in the note on item 1, that by 1912 he had undertaken to collect "Material for a full philological reconstruction" of this language. One is reminded of the linguist who wrote a tale in Proto-Indo-European to illustrate the results of years of work reconstructing this hypothetical language.25 Sri Aurobindo, who intended to reconstruct the old "Aryabhasha" according to his own views, seems to have likewise tried his hand at writing something in it. What is unique about his experiment is that he started to write in this language at a time when his systematic reconstruction of it had hardly begun.
Whatever linguistic or other value these writings may prove to have, it is
24 That the terms "Old Sanscrit" and "old Aryabhasha" are equivalent is shown by the first item in the notebook meant to contain material for a "reconstruction of the old Aryabhasha". Here, in his notes for "The Root mal in Greek", Sri Aurobindo explains the derivation of a number of Greek words from forms identified as "OS". These are clearly intended to be examples of reconstructed forms of "the old Aryabhasha". 25 Winfred P. Lehmann, Historical Linguistics: An Introduction, 2d ed. (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973), p. 37. The linguist's name was August Schleicher. The tale was later rewritten by another linguist, Hermann Hirt, to agree with a different theory of Proto-Indo-European. obvious that they were written by a method which is not that of ordinary scholarship. The premise of this method was that one can have direct access to a lost language by means independent of any outward data. On the other hand, Sri Aurobindo evidently believed that a "philological reconstruction" such as he proposed to carry out, guided by inspiration and intuition but supported by a detailed comparative linguistic analysis, should confirm and explain the results obtained by the less conventional method. If he had proceeded further with this linguistic project, we might have had a key to much of the vocabulary of the writings in Old Sanskrit. Unfortunately, only a few fragments of work along these lines are found in Sri Aurobindo's notebooks. This leaves us with little clue to the meaning of the writings in question.
The apparent thematic connection of most of these writings with the Sanskrit Itihasas, particularly the Ramayana, has been noted. However, they do not seem to correspond to any specific episodes in the existing Ramayana of Valmiki, despite the heading "Valmiki" which precedes one of the passages in the script. The earliest short writings of this type in Sri Aurobindo's notebooks have headings identifying them with unknown works of forgotten authors in the Dwapara Yuga. This implies that Sri Aurobindo did not consider them to be his own compositions. If the dating of these writings to the Dwapara Yuga is taken literally, we must imagine them being preserved since that remote age in the Akashic Record in some form accessible to the faculties by which Sri Aurobindo "acquired" them. Over the centuries, meanwhile, new languages like Sanskrit and Greek evolved, the Itihasas assumed their current forms, and the ancient hexameter — surviving in the literature of European descendants of the old Aryabhasha — became extinct in India.
It is not known how far Sri Aurobindo himself was satisfied with the results of his attempt at transcribing portions of Old Sanskrit Kavyas. He discontinued the experiment after pursuing it intermittently over a period of perhaps two years, leaving these writings in a form that would seem to be of little use to anyone but himself. If he intended to translate or comment on them, he never found time for it. The linguistic and literary value of the writings would have been more evident if a key to their meaning had been supplied. As it is, only the sentences and verses in an unidentified "ancient language" derived from "OS" received the benefit of a detailed commentary. Half a dozen lines in what seems to be Old Sanskrit were written with a translation near the end of the notebook of "Writings in Different Languages". These lines, which are not the usual hexameters, give few clues to the meaning of other passages.
The two principal writings in Old Sanskrit found among Sri Aurobindo's manuscripts amount to eight or nine pages each. One of these has a finished appearance as far as it goes, but is clearly incomplete. Written neatly in the "Record of Writings in Different Languages", it is entitled Candaurmilaka and ascribed to Mahishravas (an unknown work and author). It is undoubtedly a fair copy, consisting of one canto and a second which breaks off after two pages. It incorporates a slightly altered version of a short passage by the same title found in the "Ancient Language" notebook of c. 1911. The main characters in it are Urmila, after whom it is named, Lakshmana and Vibhishana.
The other substantial writing of this nature is found in the eighteen pages preceding the present script. These pages do not form a single continuous piece, for some passages were written out more than once. The last nine pages contain most of the final version. In the fair copy, Sri Aurobindo sometimes separated words originally joined due to the Devanagari way of writing. This dividing of the words shows his careful attention to the sense of what he was writing and should facilitate the eventual interpretation of these passages. In this piece, prominent names include those of Rama's mother, Kausalya, his step-mother Kaikeyi (called Haihayi), and Kaikeyi's brother Ashwapati. Its subject is otherwise obscure and it has no title. The final four-line passage of the present script is another version of the opening lines of this poem. Otherwise, lines in the script appear related to the poem only in language, metre and, in some cases, the mention of names from the Ramayana.
These writings in what we have termed Old Sanskrit form an interesting, even astonishing aspect of Sri Aurobindo's activity in the first years after his arrival in Pondicherry. They will present an intriguing challenge to future scholars, if nothing else. For they cannot be meaningless. However unintelligible they may now seem, they offer enough tantalising glimmers of sense to stimulate efforts to solve the puzzle. After all, Sri Aurobindo took the trouble to write them out and recopy them, though he ascribed their original composition to other authors. To find this worthwhile, he must have had some understanding of what they mean. Even if some of the methods by which they were received might have given only the words without revealing their meaning, he must have believed their sense to be discoverable. A thorough study Of Sri Aurobindo's linguistic writings and a knowledge of several ancient languages would be obvious prerequisites for any attempt to interpret these writings. But it is doubtful how far one could succeed without some help from the special language faculty called in the Record the vijnanamaya bhasasakti.
Translations of Some Passages in Other Languages. Most of the Old Sanskrit scattered through this script is, at the present stage of our knowledge, too obscure to even attempt to translate it. Nevertheless, we will offer here a tentative rendering of a single line which is less problematic than the others. Besides the hexameters, short passages in Greek and Sanskrit are encountered in the script, as well as one stanza in a completely unidentified language. These passages will be translated below as far as possible, taking them in the order in which they appear in the script. Comment on their significance will be kept to a minimum. It should be remembered that Sri Aurobindo engaged in this type of writing partly as an exercise connected with his linguistic work. The translatable content of some passages is perhaps of less interest than the manner in which they were received.
(1) The first example of this kind of writing is an isolated hexameter of Old Sanskrit followed by an unrelated paragraph of Greek prose. The language of the former is nearer to recognisable Sanskrit, especially Vedic Sanskrit, than in the case of most such lines. Its sense likewise, as far as it can be understood, appears related not to the Ramayana theme found elsewhere, but to spiritual aspirations such as are expressed in the Rig Veda. It is worth noting that, on a page of the "Record of Writings in Different Languages" where most of the Old Sanskrit lines in the present script were copied, three lines not found in the script were added at the bottom. These are addressed to Indra under the name "Shakra". Though written in hexameters, their language in places verges on Vedic Sanskrit. They bring to mind a statement made by Sri Aurobindo about the origins of the Rig Veda:
Though the present line is not addressed to a Vedic god, its vocabulary has affinities with the Vedic language and, if the interpretation proposed here is correct, it seems akin to the Vedic hymns in its sense and symbolism as well. The line runs, in transliteration:
A conjectural translation and interpretation is:
This translation assumes ara and uram to be equivalent to the Sanskrit arya and urvam (a single consonant corresponding to a double in both cases); urvam is a Vedic word meaning "wide" or "wideness". The third word, pahi, is taken as an imperative verb meaning the same as pahi, "protect". More doubtful is darah, equated here to Sanskrit darih (dari"cave", from df "to split, break open, divide"). Vistapim uram could be a "wide height" if visfapi is assumed to be another form of the Vedic vistapa and identical in sense. But the root meaning, seen in vistambha "support" (from vi + stambh), suggests the possibly more appropriate rendering of vistapim uram as "wide support" or "supporting wideness". The other words are found in Sanskrit. It should be emphasised that this is a tentative interpretation of an isolated line. It may be mentioned in its support that in the Veda the cave of the Panis, symbol of the subconscient, is opened by Indra and revealed as a "luminous wideness", gavyam urvam.
(2) The paragraph of Greek prose following the above line appears related to the siege of Troy, a subject on which Sri Aurobindo during this period was writing an epic, Ilion, in English. It may be translated:
(3) The language of the prose passage written in Devanagari under the heading "Ritadharma" (the Law of the Truth) gives the impression of an archaic or irregular Vedic Sanskrit. At the end of the first sentence, for example, drse ("to see") is a Vedic infinitive. Other words differ slightly from Vedic as well as classical Sanskrit forms,27 while one or two words are obscure. The key term in this passage is ratha, which is repeated several times. The normal Sanskrit sense of "chariot" is not appropriate. In the Record of
26 The Secret of the Veda, p. 10. 27 For example, the verb pada (wherepad is conjugated like vad), and the spelling pratamah instead of prathamah. Monier-Williams' Sanskrit-English dictionary gives pra-tama (the superlative of pra, "forward, in front") as the underlying form of prathama ("first"). 28 Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research, Dec. 1991, p. 175. in a Vedic sortilege as signifying "anandamaya movement", where "chariot" may be implied as a symbol. In the present passage, ratha seems to mean simply ananda and is translated "delight":29
(4) The preceding passage is followed by a four-line stanza of alliterative verse in an unknown language. After this comes a paragraph of Sanskrit prose with the cryptic heading "Gloria". This is translated below without speculating on its possible historical or other implications:
[6] LS RA2: 2, 4. Most of this script was probably written on 10-11 July 1913. The Record of 10 July speaks of the "successful movement from manas to mahat predicted in the script". It also observes: "The only siddhi which advanced during the day was the lipi." The first section of the script describes an identical situation. However, it is not certain that the present script is the one mentioned in the Record entry. Both script and Record possibly refer to another script, not preserved, containing a more explicit prediction of a "movement from manas to mahat". The second paragraph of the script states: "Lipi is already moving forward to the mahat.. The rest will follow —" The word "already" and the indefinite reference to other siddhis as "the rest" seem to imply that the development had been predicted not long before this in more specific terms. The first section of the script may have been written on the night of 10 July 1913, assuming that the "occasion" which "was wholly abnormal" was the "attack of asiddhi not removed till the evening" mentioned in the Record entry of that day.
29 This sense of ratha (taking it from the root ram) is recognised by Sanskrit lexicographers, though examples of its occurrence are given only in compounds. 30 The verb maye must be interpreted conjecturally. A root may is listed in Sanskrit dictionaries, giving the sense "to go, move" on the basis of the Dhatupatha as in the case of many obscure roots. Since Sri Aurobindo certainly did not consult a dictionary before writing this, "I go" may not be the relevant meaning here. The translation of maye as "I embrace" (in a figurative sense, carried over to "possess" which is supplied in the next sentence in the absence of an explicit verb) is based on a study of Sri Aurobindo's list of meanings of the primary root ma. 31 Rathistam, translated "most delightful", is taken as an Old Sanskrit superlative formed from ratha in much the same way as the Greek kratistos ("strongest") in the previous passage is formed from the noun kratos ("strength"). The Sanskrit superlative ending -istha is not added to nouns in this way even in the Veda. But to take rathistam as a classical Sanskrit compound, "the desire (istam) of one who has delight (rathi)", would seem artificial and out of place in this context. The second section of the script is concerned with a movement of the vijnana successively to brhat, satyam and rtam. It was written while this process was still incomplete, the movement having "changed to brihat, not yet to ritam & satyam". This is the point described at the beginning of the second sentence of the Record of 11 July 1913: "At first the knowledge was merely brihat in manas. . . ." The script continues: "These things have now to be gathered up & confirmed in the satyam. Afterwards the ritam." According to the Record entry, shortly after this "the satyam in this infinity came to be revealed", then finally "the ritam commenced".
[7] LS R29: 1. This script was written on a sheet of letter paper found with some of Sri Aurobindo's Vedic and linguistic notes. The paper is of the type used for the previous script and for letters written around June 1913. The present script evidently comes from the same period. The third and fifth of the seven "rules", correspond to some of the five "positive directions" given in the script of 22 June 1913.32
[8] L.S RA3: 1—2. In all likelihood, this script was written within a month or two after the "turning point" noted in the Record of 25 June 1913. That day was considered to mark the beginning of a new movement characterised, first of all, by "Automatic action and progress of the vijnanasiddhi". Other points in the programme included the action of "perfected tejas & sraddha" and "perfected subjective ananda". The opening paragraph of the present script refers to an "assault" on "the bhukti, tejas and faith" ("bhukti" would be equivalent to "subjective ananda" in the programme of 25 June). As a result, "the vijnana has been clouded and the positive bhukti suspended." The script continues: "That is over. We will now continue developing automatically the vijnana & the bhukti."
On 1 July, Sri Aurobindo wrote: "The vijnana chatusthaya is in complete, but not perfect, fertile or well-arranged activity." The present script describes the condition of the vijnana in very similar terms: "All the vijnana is definitely in action, though in unequal & imperfect action." The script also refers to exaggeration by the Vani in words resembling a statement in the script of 24 June. A pointer to the same period may be seen in the comment about the effects of the "assault": "The samata has not been disturbed, only the hasyam has felt a cloud pass over it." In the Record of 5 September 1913 we read: "This is the first determined relapse into old conditions after many months of essential freedom from any true disturbance of the samata-shanti-sukham." Our dating of the script would place it somewhere in these months when the hasyam was the only member of the first catustaya subjected to occasional clouding. Since it does not seem to correspond to the Record entry for any particular day, the script was perhaps written after the interruption of the regular Record on 11 July.
[9] NB R7, LSS (3): 2. This short piece is found at the bottom of the page containing the first six paragraphs of the Record of 12 November 1913, but upside down in relation to those paragraphs. It must have been written before the continuation of the entry, for which this space would otherwise have been used. It may have been written before the entry was begun, perhaps on an earlier date.
32 Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research, Dec. 1987, p. 162. This piece is included here because of its occurrence in proximity to Record entries and its lack of apparent connection with any other writing. However, it does not seem to be part of the Record, properly speaking. It is more literary in style and general in content than what was normally called script. The "hero" addressed as "thou", unlike the "you" of the script, does not appear to be Sri Aurobindo in particular, though the thought expressed was undoubtedly relevant to his sadhana. The style is similar to that of the "Thoughts and Aphorisms". It may also be compared to the sentence beginning with the words "Despise not, O thinker . . .", which is written under the heading "Thought" in the Record of 24 June 1914 and is closely related to the "Script" that immediately precedes it.33
[101 NB R7, LSS (2): 1-4. This long script was found along with the Record entries of 11—23 November 1913. Like them, it was written on a large folded loose sheet; the four pages formed by the fold are all mutilated along their bottom edges. The phrase "till December" in the second paragraph establishes the date of the script as November or earlier. It is fairly certain that it was written on more than one day. Comparison with the Record of 12—18 November 1913 suggests this period.
On 12 November, the Record states that "the Mahakali tapas, tejas & shakti have to be combined & harmonised with the samata". In the fourth paragraph of the script, we read:
On the 13th, the Record mentions the return of an "old habit of unintelligent pranic reception & suggestion". This is the topic with which the script opens and to which it later returns. The expression "pranic suggestions" used in the Record on the 14th occurs twice in the script.
These and a few other correspondences do not fix a precise date for any passage in the script. On 14 November, however, Sri Aurobindo wrote in the Record:
The source of this expectation is very likely to be the paragraph which begins the second page of the script:
Also on the 14th, the Record speaks of a "loftier movement of the life & Yoga" which is to "establish its initial activities". In the second page of the script it is stated: "Life has to be brought into line with the siddhis acquired". The next page begins: "From today regularisation of the Yoga & the life". This may very well
33 Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research, Dec. 1989, p. 181. have been written on 15 November, when the Record announces: "The karma-siddhi will now begin", followed by a detailed programme for Sahitya, "Life" in the Record, as distinguished from "Yoga", practically means "karmasiddhi".
The last page of the script has parallels with the Record of 17 and 18 November. The Record entry of the 17th predicts:
In the final section of the script, before the double line which possibly marks the end of a day's writing, the fulfilment of the prediction is noted:
The last complete paragraph of the script begins:
There is a clear similarity, too close to be accidental, between the wording of this and a more elaborate statement in the Record of 18 November 1913:
[11] NB V2 (LS). On two pages of a folded sheet of paper partly filled with Vedic notes, Sri Aurobindo wrote under the heading "Vijnanachatusthaya" an undated programme for three consecutive days ("Today", "Tomorrow" and the "Day after"), followed by a few paragraphs of script concerned mainly with the fulfilment of this programme. The loose sheet was found in a notebook used mostly in 1912—13. However, it does not appear directly related to any of the contents of the notebook and it may have been inserted there simply as a place-mark.
A possible dating clue is found in the first sentence of the Record of 1 June 1914:
After the entry of 1 June, the dates "June 2d. June 3d." were put as if to start a new entry, but nothing more was written. It may be supposed that the present script took the place of the regular Record on these days. For the script, as far as it goes, seems to fit the description of a "detailed record of the results" of a "formulated & steady activity for the regulation of the third chatusthaya". Its mention of the depressed condition of the physical siddhi ("in which the enemy has permission to hold his own for three days more") is consistent with the description of the state of the physical system on 1 June 1914 ("Powerful tamas in the body; continued from many days").
The first two (and perhaps more) paragraphs of script after the programme for "Today", "Tomorrow" and the "Day after" were evidently written on the day subsequent to the programme (that is, on 2 June if "Today" was 1 June). One of the predictions for "Tomorrow" — "Trikaldrishti perfect in type" — is mentioned here as applying to "today":
The final paragraph, beginning with the second sentence ("Lipi will justify the prediction"), refers clearly to predictions for the third day of the programme with regard to Lipi, Power, Rupa and Samadhi. It concludes: "All this is for today." This and the two preceding paragraphs of the script are found on a separate page and it seems likely that they were all written on 3 June 1914.
[12] NB V30: 22. This short script is the last piece of writing in a letter pad whose other contents (Vedic translations, etc.) provide no precise dating clues. The term "drashtri vijnana" is used in it, a term whose other three occurrences are in the Record of March 1920.
[13] LS R29: 2—3. These three short script entries were written on two loose sheets of paper. The third entry employs the term "logos vijnana", which occurs in the Record only in October 1920. This is identified here with "imperative" vijnana, a term which first appears in the Record at the same time. Possibly the script was written at some point in the four-month gap in the Record before the entries of 17—19 October 1920, during which these terms must have been adopted.
In the brief Record of October 1920, "logos vijnana" is also called "representative vijnana", with "imperative" as the highest of its three elements. "Imperative vijnana" proper seems already to be reserved for a still higher consciousness, as in the last period of the Record. The present script, where "representative imperative" and "interpretative imperative" are forms of "logos vijnana", perhaps represents a slightly earlier stage in the development of the terminology.
Automatic Writing, C. 1914. LS R31, 1-6; LS R32: 1-6. Script, as defined in the previous section, is similar to what is usually called automatic writing. It differs from it in that script was used for receiving guidance in sadhana, directly or indirectly, from the "Master of the Yoga". Communications on other subjects and from other sources are classified here as automatic writing. The Record-related script had a regular place in Sri Aurobindo's sadhana. On the other hand, while he practised automatic writing at various times "as an experiment as well as an amusement",34 in the end he did not place a high value on the results obtained in this way. Nevertheless, the writings are not without interest. Apart from a short specimen from 1907 and the book Yogic Sadhan, written in 1910, Sri Aurobindo's surviving automatic writings belong almost entirely to two groups whose probable dates are 1914 and 1920. These two sets of writings will be published in this issue and the next. The automatic writings should not be attributed to Sri Aurobindo as if he were their author, though there are passages that resemble his style and thought. As Sri Aurobindo himself pointed out, "no writing can be automatic if it is dictated or guided by the writer's conscious mind".35 His own "final conclusion" with regard to On Himself (1972), p. 65. 35 Ibid. automatic writing should be kept in mind:
The automatic writings are often difficult to interpret. One reason for this is that what was written was usually in answer to questions put by Sri Aurobindo or others present at the seances. The questions were not written down and the reader has to use his ingenuity to try to determine what they might have been. At times there is little hope of correctly guessing what questions were asked, as in the very first paragraph, where we encounter the following series of sentences:
Sri Aurobindo wrote in the Record under 17 July 1914, "Today excellent script with R [Paul Richard] & Madame R." Though the word "script" is used here, it must refer to what Sri Aurobindo generally called "automatic writing", since it occurred at a seance at which others were present. The last of the automatic writings published in this issue speaks of "you all three". The same three persons may have been present at all the sessions. It is probably not accidental that most of this writing seems to have been done during years when Paul Richard was in Pondicherry. This type of phenomenon might have attracted him, and some of the writings are in response to questions he is likely to have asked.
The six writings in the present issue were not dated. What evidence there is, points to 1914 for the date of at least some of them. The others found with these are similar in appearance and may be assigned with reasonable confidence to the same period. For the first item, the year 1914 is virtually certain; the paper it is written on contains also a draft of something published in the Arya in August of that year. In the second there is a reference to "the Review", by which is meant the Arya. This journal was conceived just before 1 June and first published in August 1914.
In the last writing, the prediction is made that "Forty three years" (first written "Forty two") would be required "for the work ... to be completed". It is then made explicit that this was to be achieved "In 1956—7". Taking 1914 to be the date of the writing, 42 or 43 years (as there was some hesitation about the exact figure) would bring us to 1956 or 1957. It need hardly be mentioned that 1956 was in fact the year in which the Mother announced the "manifestation of the Supramental upon earth".37
The chronological sequence of the different writings is not known. Moreover, the longer writings consist of sections of one or two pages each (pages sometimes formed by folding a single sheet) whose order is not always certain. As printed here, a space between blocks of text either indicates the start of a manuscript page
36 Ibid. The printed text has "known" in place of "unknown"; the reading in the dictated manuscript is "are known", probably the scribe's mishearing of "unknown". 37 Collected Works of the Mother, Vol. 15, p. 104. or represents spaces between paragraphs in the manuscript (the latter only in a few places in the last item).
In the present text, punctuation has been supplied at the ends of sentences for the sake of readability. (The same thing has been done where necessary in the Record and Script passages included in this issue, but punctuation between sentences is more commonly lacking in the automatic writings.) Full stops or dashes have been employed for this purpose depending on the prevailing style of the passage. Apostrophes have also been supplied where needed. The manuscript, for example, often has the spelling "dont"; this is printed as "don't". These writings have otherwise been transcribed verbatim as far as possible. |