The Divine gives itself to those who give themselves without reserve and in all their parts to the Divine. For them the calm, the light, the power, the bliss, the freedom, the wideness, the heights of knowledge, the seas of Ananda. .... Sri Aurobindo.

EDITORIALS*

THE MOTHER'S COMMENTARY

ON

THE DHAMMAPADA

XII

OF THE SELF

If you consider the self dear to you, guard it well and protect it. In one or other of the three vigils (youth, ripe age, old age), keep awake. (1)

Establish yourself first in the right Way, then you may instruct others. Thus the wise one will avoid all blame.( 2)

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One must practise oneself what one teaches others. Being self-controlled he can control others. It is difficult indeed to control oneself. (3)

One's own self is one's master. Which other can be the master ? By self-mastery one attains a mastery that is rarely achieved. (4)

The evil done to oneself, the evil born of oneself, the evil going out of oneself crushes the evil-minded man, even as diamond crushes a stony gem. (5)

One whose evil character has no limit, even like a pine tree entwined by a creeper, does to himself exactly what his enemies would like to do to him. (6)

To do evil, to do wrong to oneself is very easy; but to do what is good, to do what is right is extremely difficult. (7)

One with a wrong mind who takes to wrong views reviles the teaching of the noble, the virtuous, the perfect; he flourishes in order to bring about his own destruction, even as the bamboo tree does producing its poisonous fruit. (8)

By doing a wrong one does wrong to oneself; by not doing wrong, one purifies oneself. Purity or impurity belongs to one's own self, none can purify another. (9)

One must not give up one's own good for the sake of another's good, however great it may be. Know your own good and adhere to it. (10)

THE question here seems to be more about selfishness than self. Selfishness is a relatively easy thing to correct, because everyone knows what it is. It is easy to discover, easy to correct, if one truly wants to do it and sticks to it.

But the self—the ego—is much more difficult to seize, because,

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at bottom, to find out what the ego is one must have already come out of it, otherwise one does not discover it. You are wholly made of it from the top of your head to the tip of your toes, from the outermost to the innermost, from the physical up to the spiritual, you are steeped in it, you are it. It is mixed up with every thing and you are not aware of its presence. You must have already conquered it, come out of it, freed yourself from it, at least partially, at least in some little corner of your being somewhere, in order to be able to know what ego is.

The ego—the self—is what helps us for individualising ourselves and what prevents us from becoming divine. You put things together as you like, you will find the ego there. Without the ego, as the world is organised today, there would be no individual, and with the ego the world cannot be divine.

It would be logical to conclude : "Well then, let us first of all become conscious individuals and then we shall send away the ego and become divine". Only when we do become conscious individuals, we get so much accustomed to five with the egg that we are no longer able to discern it and much labour is needed to become aware of its presence.

On the other hand everyone knows what is selfishness. When you want to pull everything towards you and others do not interest you, that is called ..selfishness; when you instal yourself at the centre of the universe and all things exist only in relation to you, that is egoism. But it is very obvious, one must be blind in order not to see that one is selfish. Everybody is selfish, more or less and a certain proportion of selfishness is tolerable; but even in ordinary life, when one has it too much, well, one receives a tap on one's nose, because, everyone being selfish one does not like selfishness much in another.

It is a matter taken for granted, it is part of public morality. Yes, you have to be a little selfish, not too much, then it is not noticed ! On the other hand, the ego, nobody speaks of it, because none knows it. It is such an intimate companion that one does not notice .even its existence; and yet so long as it is there one will not have the divine consciousness. "

The ego—the small self—it is that which makes one conscious

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of being separate from others. If there were no ego, you would not perceive that you are a person separate from others. You would have the impression that you were a small part of a whole, quite a small portion of a big whole. On the other hand, certainly everyone of you is quite conscious of" being a separate "person. Well, it is the ego that gives you the impression. As long as you are conscious in this way, it means that you have an ego.

When you begin to be aware that everything is you, that the other thing is only a very small point in the midst of thousands and thousands of other points of the same person that you are everywhere, when you feel that you are yourself in everything and there is no separation, then you know that you are on the way towards having no more ego.

There comes even a moment when it is impossible to think and to say, "It is not I"; even to express in this way, to say that the All is you, that you are the All or that you are the Divine or that .the Divine is you proves that there is still something that remains.

There are moments—this happens by flashes and finds it difficult to stay—when it is the All that thinks, it is the All that knows, it is the All that feels, it is the All that lives. There is not even—not even—the impression that...you have reached there.

When you are there it is all right. But till then, there remains always a very small corner of ego somewhere; generally it is that which looks, the witness that looks.

So do not assert that you have no more ego. It is not accurate. Say you are on the way towards having no more ego, that is the only correct thing to say.

I do not believe that it has ever happened to you, not yet— isn't it ? And yet it is indispensable, if you truly intend to know what the supramental is. If you are a candidate for superman-hood, -you must resolve to get rid of your ego, surmount it, for as long as you will keep it with you, the supramental will be for you a thing unknown and inaccessible.

But if through effort,' through discipline, through progressive mastery, you surmount your ego and surpass it, even though

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it be in a tiniest part of your being, that is like the opening of a small window somewhere, and through the window if you look attentively, you will be able to see the supramental. And that is a promise. When you see it, you find it so beautiful that you have immediately the desire to get freed of all other things...of the ego.

I do not say, please note, that you must be totally freed of all ego in order to have a glimpse of the supramental; for that would then be an almost impossible thing. No, to be freed of the ego just a little bit somewhere, in any corner of your being, even a little corner of the mind only—if the mind and the vital,' it is well and good; but if by chance—oh ! not by chance—if because of repeated efforts you have entered into contact with your psychic being, there, the door is wide open. Through the psychic you can have all at once a beautiful clear vision of what the supra-mental is; only a vision, not a realisation. That is a wide gate of exit. But even without going so far as this beautiful realisation, the psycnic realisation, if you succeed in liberating some part of your mind or of your vital, that makes a kind of hole in the door, a keyhole; through that keyhole you have a glimpse, just a glimpse. And that too is already very attractive, very interesting.

XIII

Of the World

Do not follow the evil way. Do not cultivate a heedless mind. Do not choose the wrong view. Do not be of those who tarry in the world. (1)

Arise. Do not be unmindful. Follow the Law of wise conduct. One who follows the Law knows felicity in this world as well as in the other. (2)

Follow the Law of wise conduct, not that of wrong conduct. He who follows the Law knows Felicity in this world as well as in the other. (3)

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He who looks upon the world just like a bubble or a mirage, him King Death does not find out. (4)

Come, contemplate the world as the colour full chariot of a king. Only fools are attracted by it, the wise have no attraction for it. (5)

One who fell once into error and has not fallen since, shines over the world like the moon that is freed from the clouds. (6)

He who has had his wrong acts effaced by right acts shines over the world like the moon when freed from the clouds. (7)

This world is made out of darkness. Very few can see ahead. Very few can move towards the Heaven, like eagles freed from nets. (8)

Swans move in the path of the sun, they who possess subtle powers walk in the sky, the wise conquer the Adversary with all his armies and go out of the world. (9)

A creature who transgresses even one law, who utters a falsehood, who disdains the other world, is capable of every possible sin. (10)

The miserly never attain the world of the gods, the ignorant never appreciate self-giving. The wise like self-giving and by that attain felicity in the other world. (11)

Enter into the upward Current rather than be the sole sovereign of the earth or attain the heaven or rule over all the worlds. (12)

There are three items of advice here which I would like you to retain" for your meditation. "Do not cultivate, a headless mind". "Do not choose the wrong view" (unfortunately this is a thing that one does always), and "Arise, do not be unmindful."

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The world has been so made—at least till now, we hope it will not be so any more for a long time to come—that a man who is not cultured, who has no contact with ideas, always chooses spontaneously wrong ideas.

And a child, not educated, always chooses wrong company, It is a thing I experience constantly and concretely. If you keep a child in a special atmosphere and from its very early age you infuse into him a special atmosphere, a special purity, he has a chance not to choose wrongly. But a child who is held in the world as it is, who is placed in a society where there are good and bad elements will go straight to those who can spoil him, teach him wrong things, towards, that is to say, bad company.

A man who has no intellectual culture, if you give him some mixed ideas, just at random, to choose from, he will always choose the stupid ones; because, as Sri Aurobindo has told us, this is a world of falsehood, of ignorance and an effort is needed, an aspiration, one must come in contact with one's inmost being —a conscious and luminous contact—if one is to distinguish the true from the false, the good influence form the bad. If you let yourself go, you slip into the hole.

Things are like that, because what rules the world—oh! let us put it in the past tense, so that the thing becomes true— what rules the world is falsehood and ignorance.

In fact, for the moment, it is still like that, one should have no illusions about it. But perhaps with a great effort and great vigilance we shall be able to see that it is otherwise...soon— perhaps means soon.

Surely it will come one day, but we want it soon, and that is why the last two recommendations please me : "Arise and be vigilant".

NOLINI KANTA GUPTA

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NOTES AND COMMENTS*

THE MESSAGE OF INDIA

(26-6-1909)

THE ground gained by the Vedantic propaganda in the West, may be measured by the growing insight in the occasional utterances of well-informed and intellectual Europeans on the subject. A certain Mrs. Leighton Cleather speaking to the Oriental circle of the Lyceum Club in London on the message of India has indicated the mission of India with great justness and insight. We need not follow Mrs. Cleather into her dissertation on the Kshatriyas, whom for some mysterious reason she insists on calling the Red Rajputs, but it is true that the first knowledge of Vedantic truth and the Rajayoga was the possession of the Kshatriyas till Janaka, Ajatashatru and others gave it to the Brahmins. But the real issues of this historical fact are inevitably missed by the lecturer. She is on a surer ground when she continues, "India's message to the world to-day she considered to be the realisation of the life beyond material forms. The East has taken for granted the reality of the invisible and has no fear. The recognition of the soul in ourselves and others leans to the recognition of the universal soul and the great word of the Upanishads : 'This soul which is the self of all that is, this the real, this the self, that thou art.' Modern civilisation has lost sight of the fundamental law of self-sacrifice as conditioning man's evolution."

We have here, very briefly put, the triple message of India, psychical, spiritual and moral. India believes in and has the key to a psychical world within man and without him which is the source and Dasis of the material. This it is which Europe is beginning dimly to discover. She has caught glimpses of the world

* Old writings

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beyond the gates, her hands are fumbling for the key, but she has not yet found it. Immortality proved and admitted, it becomes easier to believe in God. The spiritual message is that the universal self is one and that our souls are not only brothers, not only of one substance and nature, but live in and move towards an essential oneness. It follows that Love is the highest law and"' that to which evolution must move. Ananda, joy and delight, are the object of the Iīlā and the fulfilment of love is the height of joy and delight. Self-sacrifice is therefore the fundamental law. Sacrifice, says the Gita, is the law by which the Father of all in the beginning conditioned the world, and all ethics, all conduct, all life is a sacrifice willed or unconscious. The beginning of ethical knowledge is to realise this and make the conscious sacrifice of one's own individual desires. It is an inferior and semi-savage morality which gives up only to gain and makes selfishness the basis of ethics. To give up one's small individual self and find the larger self in others, in the nation, in humanity, in God, that is the law of Vedanta. That is India's message. Only she must not be content with sending it, she must rise up and live it before all the world so that it may be proved a possible law of conduct both for men and nations.

SRI AUROBINDO

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SRI AUROBINDO AND THE NEW AGE

CHAPTER III

THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

(III)

COPERNICUS, KEPLER, AND GALILEO'

WE have already seen how the mystical-intuitive perception " of Leonardo was the source of his devoted observation of Nature and his penetrating study of the laws, principles, and processes of her universal and diversified working. It was this devoted and revealing study of Nature that he called Naturalism. Though this intimate, pantheistic perception was lost to science after the passing of this supreme, universal genius, there was enough of spiritual faith and insight left in Copernicus and Kepler to keep alive the integral, sacramental character of Naturalism, and prevent any separative, atomistic tendency to assert itself against the ancient wholeness of vision. Naturalism was a, revolt against .the static immobility of mediaeval science and its theory of the changeless structure of the world and the fixity of natural forms. It brought in the modern idea of change, of variation, and of the unceasing evolution of the types and patterns of forms. Without relaxing its hold on the organic wholeness of Nature, it turned its curious gaze to the particulars, the distinct entities, the individual forms and forces—and this was the specific feature of the Individualism of the Renaissance—and thus united the ancient vision and^be modern, empirical observation in a happy wedlock. In Galileo the wholeness of vision persists, but a new tendency

¹ In writing this article I have derived great help from E. A. Burth's The ,Metaphy sical Foundations of Modern Science.

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rears its head—the tendency of individual entities, the atoms, to stand apart in distinctive isolation, and assert their independence of the whole. It is in Galileo that the modern atomistic science takes formal shape and begins to march on its lusty career of signal achievements and dismal consequences. In Newton the tendency receives a greater accentuation, and sets the stamp of finality on the cleavage between the whole and the parts. Science henceforth concentrates more and more on the separate entities, and regards the whole as only an aggregate, and not as an organic, integral cosmos of Nature. The irnmobility of the mdiaeval scientific theory is supplanted by the theory of perpetual motion and constant variation, un sustained by any stable base. It was a violent §wing of the human mind from one pole of truth to another. We shall probe a little deeper into the implications of this revolutionary transition, in order to understand how it came about so abruptly, and whither it tended. It is an immensely interesting study, if only we can grasp the subtle idea-forces operating behind the passing phenomena and shaping the mind and life of the modern scientific age.

Copernicus (1473-1543)

"Whatever motion appears in the firmament arises not from any motion of the firmament, but from the earth's motion. The earth together with its circumjacent elements performs a complete rotation on its fixed poles in a daily motion, while the firmament and the highest heaven abide unchanged."

This heliocentric theory of Copernicus, refuting the traditional geocentric theory of Ptolemy, must be considered the first landmark in the history of modern science.

With the creative daring natural to a pioneer and genius, Copernicus set aside the authority of Aristotle and the. crippling rule of prevailing conceptions, and, escaping from the delusion of the senses, approahced the Book of Nature for the discovery of' truth. He accepted the proposition of Ecphantus that the earth daily revolves round its own axis, and that of Aristarchus that it spins round the sun once in a year. Copernicus's intuitive perception

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of the sun being the centre of the planetary system and the earth circling round it received substantial confirmation from ancient astronomical knowledge. Is the universe mathematical in its structure, i.e., does it move in accordance with a harmonious rhythm which holds all parts together ? This postulate of the mathematical order and exactitude of natural movement had been, as we have already seen, a legacy of ancient astronomy, and dominated the speculations of many a scientist and philosopher from Plato downwards. "And I found first", writes Copernicus in his book, De Revolution bus, "that, according to Cicero, Niceties had thought that the earth was moved. Then later I discovered, according to Plutarch, that certain others had held the same opinion..." The basic assumption which, we can say, was inbred in Copernicus was the Pythagorean—Platonic idea that multiplicity emanates from unity by a necessary mathematical process. His close, six-year-long association with Novara, a staunch Pythagorean and a bitter critic of the Ptolemaic theory, proved extremely fruitful inasmuch as it provided him with a rare opportunity for reexamining and reinforcing his hypothesis, and deepening his own conviction. "We are taught all this (the motion of the earth on its axis and around the sun) by the order of succession, in which those phenomena (various planetary happenings) follow each other, and by the harmony of the world, if we will only, as the saying goes, look at the matter with both eyes."¹

We find, then, Copernicus starting his observation of Nature, or, as he himself prefers to call it, his reading of the Book of Nature, with a firm inner perception and faith that the sun is the centre of the world and the earth swings round it. The earth, he believed, is a tiny constituent of the immense universal organism, which is a. flawless order and harmony, and each atom of which functions by the uniform rhythms of the laws of Nature. To question the unity and harmony of Nature would have been for him to deny the existence of the Divine Creator, the supreme Mathematician-Artist. Copernicus's science was thus a metaphysical science, holding in its grip both the unity and the plurality of the world,

¹ Dc Revolutionibus, Bk I, Chapter 9.

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and free from any taint of what we later know as materialism. In him, as in Jacob Boehme and Bruno after him, reason still retained its sense of wholeness,¹ its synthetic vision, and had not been obscured by the dividing, analytical, pulversing tendency of the physical mind, Identified with Matter.

"...In the middle of all stands the sun. For who, in our most beautiful temple, could set this light in another or better place, than that from which it can at once illuminate the whole ? Not to speak of the fact that not unfittingly do some call it the light of the world, others the soul, still others the governor. Termigistus calls it the visible God; Sophocles's Electra, the All-Seer.² And in fact does the sun, seated on his royal throne, guide his family of planets as they circle round him."³ "We find, therefore, under this orderly arrangement, a wonderful symmetry in the universe, and a definite relation of harmony in the motion and magnitude of the orbs, of a kind it is not possible to obtain in any other way."⁴

KEPLER (1571-1630)

After Copernicus came Kepler. He avidly imbibed the ideas of Copernicus, because they powerfully appealed to his own inborn faith in the unity and harmony of the universe and the simplicity of the laws and operations of Nature. He, too, had an inner perception of the mathematical order and symmetry underlying and supporting the economy of Nature. He, too, combined in his theories both apriorism and empiricism, even as his predecessor had done. Himself a distinguished mathematician, and influenced by his teacher of mathematics and astronomy, Mastlin, he gravitated irresistibly towards the Copernican system, and found in it, not only a confirmation of his intuition of order and harmony, but also something to satisfy his artistic sense. "I certainly know that I owe it (the Copernican theory) this duty, that I have attested it as true in my deepest soul, and as I contem-

1''Live in the Whole, in the Good and in the Beautiful." —"Goethe

² Cf. The description of the sun in the Upanishads as jātavedas, knower of all births, sataāhduartamd, all-pervading, prānapraiānām, the life of all creautres etc .

³ & ⁴ A History of Science by W. C. Dampier. 

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plate its beauty with incredible and ravishing delight, I should also publicly defend it to my readers with all the force at my command."¹

Kepler had also, like Copernicus, from his early years a sort of mystical faith in the majesty and sublimity of-the sun, which, doubt, he had inherited from the spiritual tradition common to all ancient cultures. With the fervour of a religious enthusiast, he writes in his Opera : "In the first place, lest perchance a blind man might deny it to you, of all the bodies in the universe the most excellent is the sun, whose whole essence is nothing else than the purest light, than which there is no greater star; which singly and alone is the producer, conserver, and warmer of all things; it is a fountain of light, rich in fruitful heat, most fair, limpid, and pure to the sight, the source of vision, portrayer of all colours, though himself empty of all colour, called the king of the planets for his motion, heart of the world for his power, its eye for his beauty, and which alone we should judge worthy of the most high God, should he be pleased with a material domicile arid choose a place in which to dwell with the blessed angels.. ."² As E. A. Burtt rightly points out, Kepler did not proceed from Nature to God, but found in Nature an illuminating proof and interpretation of his faith in the existence of God and the truth of his unfailing inner vision. It is also worth noticing that though Nicholas of Cusa before him had held the same theory of the central position of the sun among the circling planets and the mathematical order and proportions of the natural system, it was Kepler's epochal distinction to put this faith and vision to the acid test of empirical "facts. In this he went a step beyond Copernicus, greatly helped and encouraged by his association with Tycho Brahe, "the greatest giant of observational astronomy" and his possession of the accumulated treasure of empirical data left by Brahe. In Kepler the strictly empirical tendency of modern science acquires, a greater accentuation. He sought a "fuller knowledge of God through Nature", which is far removed from Leonardo's

¹ Opera by Kepler.

² Opera. ,

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seeing and experiencing God and revelling in His delight in the multifarious objects of Nature, and the laws and processes of her movements.

Galileo (1564-1642)

Galileo, the pioneer of the practical, physical science, was a " contemporary and fast friend of Kepler. Himself a brilliant mathematician, he subscribed to most of Kepler's views regarding the motion of the earth, the central position of the sun in the heavenly system, the mathematical order and symmetry of natural working, and the inexorability of Nature's laws. Nature acts, he say's, through immutable laws which she never transgresses" and cares "nothing whether her reasons and methods of operating be or not understandable by men."¹ "Philosophy" he asserts, "is written in that great book which ever lies before our eyes—I mean the universe—but we cannot understand it if we do not first learn the language and grasp the symbols, in which it is written. This book is written in the mathematical language." His pronounced theistic affiliations are amply evidenced when he says : "As to the truth, of which mathematical demonstrations give us the knowledge, it is the same which the Divine Wisdom knoweth; but...the manner whereby God knoweth the infinite propositions, whereof we understand some few, is highly more excellent than ours, which proceeded by ratiocination, and passeth from conclusion to conclusion, whereas his is done at a single thought or intuition."² This is a typical Pythagorean-Platonic and Neo-Platonic view, expressed in unambiguous terms by the founder of the modern physical science, and we can see how it fully coincides with the Vedantic truths that the Divine Being is all-knowing and all-embracing, and that the only way to apprehend the Truth is by intuition, which is an immediate knowledge by identity. How glorious would have been the career and creation, of science had it not drifted away from the luminous guidance of its source ! . So far we find that Galileo's views are identical with Kepler's,

¹ & ² Quoted by E. A. Bum in his The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science.

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except for this difference that he emphasises more than his predecessor verification by empirical observation and experiment. But. there are two things in which Galileo shows his remarkable originality and his bold departure from the scientific approach and method of Kepler. First, he puts the Scripture and Nature a par, and denies the infallibility of the scriptural interpretations by the Church. "...Nor does God less admirably discover himself to us in Nature's actions than in the Scripture's sacred dictions."¹ Burtt says that Galileo "quoted by way of orthodox support Tertullian's dictum that we know God first by Nature, then by revelation."" Second, unlike Kepler, who includes man and Nature the organic unity and harmony of the universe, Galileo separates the two, and relegates man to a lower position, considering him as only a composite of secondary or subjective qualities, and a dupe of his senses. Nature is independent and greater than man, moved by immutable, mathematical laws, and mirrors the impeccable design of the supreme Architect. Man, who had for many a long century held the central position of importance in the scheme of the universe, is thus shoved off from the vast, cold impersonal world, and Galileo's philosophy takes on a definite Democritan colour. This definite slant towards the material atomism of Democritus was fraught with revolutionary consequences. In investing physical Nature with divine attributes, with dignity and value, and reducing man to a mere "irrelevant spectator and insignificant effect of the great mathematical system" of Nature, Galileo sets the stage, not only for the dualism of Descartes, but for the pluralism and atomism of the mechanical theory of Nature. Expelling the question of the why of things from the domain of knowledge, and concentrating on the how of their movement, Galileo extends Kepler's theory of motion into the dynamics of motion, which constitutes one of the chief achievements of his life.

Science, we find, has now begun to descend on a steep gradient towards it stressing in the modern age—the exploration and exploitation of Matter and material life. It has traveled far from the spiritual Naturalism of Leonardo, far from the unity and harmony

¹ Quoted by E. A. Burt  in his The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science,

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of the universe of Copernicus and Kepler, and landed in the arid realms of a mathematical, deterministic system of physical Nature in which force usurps the place of God as the universal dynamic of the succession of atomic motions, and even Galileo's insight and faith .are lost in the invading fog of agnosticism. Dualism routs unity, and paves the way for rationalistic scepticism. Science occupies itself with the how of things, and the vital questions of the why, the goal and values of life, the origin and destiny of man, all are swept away into limbo of cultural junks. One more crucial step, and we shall be approaching the bleak, obscure regions of the mechanical science—technological, analytical, _ atomistic, and atheistic—which ignores the divinity of man, and engulfs his humanity in a chaotic gloom. Man, benighted and bemused, submits to be ruled by the machine of his own making. Bottled and packaged culture, standardised society, atomised morals, and the human mind, bustling about in different directions in a fretful fever, which it glorifies by the name of progress—such is the present state of man, pledged to the cult of brute Matter.

But science has played its role, perhaps overplayed k. It has affirmed the reality of Matter, enriched material life, and effected an unprecedented expansion and a subtle and complex organisation of the physical mind of man. It has prepared the much-needed physical base for the evolution and development of the higher faculties and powers of his mind and soul.

We shall 'now pursue the crucial steps of the momentous transition from Newton to the present-day science of fissioning' technology led by the giddy jazz of electrons and atoms.

RISHABHCHAND

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READINGS IN THE BRIHADARANYAKA UPANISHAD

(V)

The Seven Foods

CREATION has come into existence. The worlds have been released. The Gods have been manifested. The Elements have been brought into being. The various classes of beings, gods, titans, men and animals, male and female, have come to be. The Upanishad now proceeds to describe¹ the creation of Food for the created, the means by which the creatures maintain themselves in existence.

By His power of concentration and the light of His Knowledge, the Almighty Father produced seven kinds of Food. Of these one is the food that is common to all eaters. It is the food universal which man shall not attempt to eat alone for himself. It is to be offered first to those Universal Powers to whom it belongs by right and then partaken as their leaving. Not to do so is to contaminate oneself² with the evil of stealth.

The other two He apportioned to the Gads. These are the oblations in the fire and the offerings made otherwise to the Gods. ^Therefore it is meet that men should perform these acts of consecration, offering the best of themselves in the fire of god ward aspiration and the dedication of everything that they do to the Gods above. Whether in times of prosperity or adversity, whether at the flow or at the ebb of the tide of life, the work of dedication and self-offering should continue. Only, desire shall not pollute this act of consecration.

One He gave to the animals : it is milk, the fine product of life that build: rip-life at all levels of animal creation. It is the yield of embodied life that sustains and furthers the growth of other

¹ 1 .5.

² kevalāgho bhavati kevalādi, he who eats alone sins alone (Rv. X. 107. 6).

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embodiments. All that exists, articulate or no, lives on this yield of life. To merely offer milk in ritual is not to conquer death. One must be conscious of its character as the sap of all sustaining food and in offering to it to the Gods one offers the essential sustenance of his own life to the Gods and secures it (his life) in their hold. Indeed, in offering this 'milk' of life to the Gods one offers all food in essence. 

And such food that is consecrated and offered to the Gods before it is partaken does not decrease. For it feeds and nourishes him who takes it as the sacred leaving of the Gods, altered in its character by their acceptance. He is nourished in his several bodies and in its strength and vigour he produces more food Thus it is that food eaten truly well multiplies itself. If it is not so eaten i.e. if it is not raised to its full potential by consecration and offering to its rightful owner and then received in the aspiring system, if it is simply appropriated to oneself and swallowed up in the manner of the animal, then food loses its strength and decays. And with its decay, the man who eats it.

One who knows the true character of food, its just use. and function as the means for the transmission of the substance of the Gods to man, he alone partakes of it in the preeminent way, the masterly way. In offering it to the Gods he offers My self; in receiving the consecrated food from the Gods he receives in himself their own- godly substance. He attains identity with the Gods and five's on their strength of deathless nectar.

And there were the Foods the Creator designed for Himself." They are the Mind, Speech and Life-Force, prāna. They are the three means by which the Creator constantly draws upon, feeds himself in the Universe and they are also the means by which He grows and throws Himself in the manifestation.

Mind is the one factor that acts constantly behind the senses and their activities. One hears because of the mind behind the ear; one sees because of the mind behind the eye. Similarly, desire, resolve, doubt, faith or want of it, steadiness or want of ft, shame, intelligence, fear—all these are but the formulations of the mind. Even when the senses are not active or otherwise engaged,' the mind perceives and knows directly.

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Speech, vāk, is another such ubiquitous Food of the Creator. Sound, śabda, is the Potential out of which all, artha, emerges. And every sound is but the vāk of the Creator which gives form, shape, determines what is and what is to be. Essential food that it is, it can produce, reveal and determine but itself it cannot be determined.

The third omnipresent Food of the Creator is prāna, the Life-Force, the Consciousness-force active in the form of Life in creation. This Force that sustains life and multiplies life organises itself in five currents for the purposes of its functioning : prana, the upper breath that is concerned with the inspiration and expiration of the universal Breath, with the chest as its normal base of operation; apāna, the lower breath engaged in the expulsion of what is not assimilated or not necessary in the system, functioning below the chest; vyana, that which regulates both the prana and the apāna and keeps them in harmony, the breath which sustains when prana is held in abeyance as in actions requiring effort; udāna, the breath that raises, goes up, rising from the feet to the head, the breath by which one can take one's stand above the body in meditation or the means by which one shoots above the head at the time of death; samana is what is concerned with digestion of what is taken in and has its seat in the stomach; ana is the general combined function of all these several activities and is . spread all over the body. 

The Self in manifestation bases Himself on these three Foods "and acts. In fact they are only self-formulations of Himself for the purposes of manifestation. He constitutes Himself as Speech, as Mind, as Prana.

Manifestation proceeds on the basis of these three Foods, basic substances, on different levels. The Upanishad has described them as directly related to the Self, the ādhyātmik. It now analyses their emergence as related to the Elements, ādhibhautik.

First, the Worlds three in number : Earth, the field of evolution is the manifestation, the working out of vāk, the dynamic Power of expression. The Sky-world, vast in extent and subtle in substance, is the formulation of Mind whose range knows no material limits and whose texture is almost intangible. -The illimitable

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Heavens above, beyond the confines of both earth and sky, is the world of Prana, the Force of Life irresistible

So are the three Vedas that uphold the three worlds with their Law. Vak, the Power of the Word of Invocation to the Divine, embodies itself irj the Rig Veda, the Veda of hymns of adoration. Mind with its organising intelligence bases the Veda of Action, effectuating process, the Yajus. Prana, the soaring force of Life as the sustaining and energising soul of the Veda of Harmonies, the full throated chants of human aspiration to the Godhead the Sama.

So are the three Types of Beings, Gods, Manes and Men. Vak, the creative Word constitutes the Power of the Gods; subtle Mind freed from the tethers of matter provides the stuff of being for the Manes beyond the bounds of earth; and boundless Life-energy, Prana, organises the being of Man in embodiment.

So too are Father, Mother and Progeny. Vak, is the creative agent, father; Mind, the subtle receiving stuff that it is in its true character, is the mother; and the Life resulting from the action of the one upon the other is the progeny. . .

So are what is known, what is to be known and what is not known forms of Vak, Mind and Prana. Vak, Speech, the revealer assumes the form of what is known, that is to say the form of what is revealed and guards him who knows this of Vak as the real knower and the known. Mind the enquirer who probes into every- . thing in its fest for knowledge takes the form of what is to be known. And Mind itself is something to be explored and seen in its true form. He who knows that this is so and approaches the Mind as such comes to be saved by the Mind. Prana, the Life-force that has no limits and whose real range of power and affectivity remains un fathomed, takes the form of what is not known. And as the unknown it calls the spirit of man to adventure, adds zest to his life and ensures its growth.

Next comes the manifestation of the Three as related to the Gods, ādhidaivik. Of Vak, the dynamic power of' manifestation, the Earth, prlhwl, is the body, for all manifestation, here is based the pedestal of physical matter which constitutes the earth. And Agni, the flaming force of ascent is its luminous form. Both

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the gross form and luminous form, the Earth and the Agni, are governed in their range by the Power of Vak.

Of Mind the subtle power of intelligence, the Heaven is the body and the Sun the luminous form. Both the gross form and the luminous form, the Heaven and the Sun,, are governed in their range by the Mind. With the mingling of the two luminous forms, Agni and Aditya (Sun), Prana was born. When the luminous Intelligence of the Sun acted upon the burning form of Agns. there issued Prana, the supreme Force dominating, brooking no rival. Prana has no rival because there is no other Force but himself;, he is sole. And the man who realises this truth of Prana in himself partakes the same character of supremacy from Prana.

Now of this Prana, Water is the body; Prana flows through the Waters which are the flowing streams of Consciousness. And its luminous form is the Moon of bliss. Prana at its shining intensity bubbles with an inexpressible delight. Both the gross form and the luminous form, the Waters and the Moon, are governed in their range by the Prana.

These are the three Great Foods. They are equal in extensity; they are truly infinite. He who conceives them as limited and resorts to them as such, limits his destiny to that extent. But he who realises them as infinite expands his own being into infinity.

The Almighty Creator manifests Himself also in the form of Time symbolised by the Year. His manifestation in Time is characterised by periods of light and darkness, Day and Night, the bright half of the month and the dark half. The nights, hours of apparent inactivity, are truly His periods of assimilation and preparation for what is to be manifested anew during the next Day. Life is in incubation and the darkest night is the most pregnant hour when the slightest assault of violence on life is to be desisted from. In fast it is then that He is most active with his inmost Truth. This is the constant Factor which is unaffected by these variations' of'': bnditions. The man who knows this should conceive himself in the image of the Creator-Time and realise his self to be the constant factor which stands unaffected by the rise and" fall of his fortunes in the material world. His essential being is the

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nave of his wheel of existence and his circumstances are its felly and spokes.

Three are the worlds spoken of: the world of men, the world manes and the world of Gods. The means to win each world is different. This world of men is won through the Son. The son of one's body in the Veda, tanūnapāt, stands for Agni, the Force of aspiration shaping itself into the leader of the journey. It is he who make's the path and leads to the goal. It is through this Son that the battle of life on earth, this field of labour, is won.

Also it is through the agency of his physical son that the father ensures his continuity on earth. At the time of departing, says the Upanishad, the father calls his son and consciously transfers-to him all the knowledge he has built up, all the technique and the fruit of action he has done, developed, all the mastery he has acquired over things in creation. The son receives the father in his own consciousness and the father lives in the son, in so far as it relates to this world of men. Having so relinquished his human legacy to his progeny, he soars above unencumbered to receive the divine counterparts of what he has parted with Viz. divine Speech, divine Mind and divine Prana. The divine Speech with its infallibility, the divine Mind with its ceaseless joy and the divine Prana which is imperturbable in whatever condition, mobile or immobile.

The next world, the higher world of the manes, is to be won by qualifying oneself for it while here by means of appropriate, action. The Action performed here and the state of consciousness attained thereby in the body while on earth determines the state of man in the worlds after death. Similarly entry into the highest world of all—the world of the Gods, can only be secured by vidyā, by assiduous study and application in the Science of the .Self. This is indeed the most difficult and therefore is this prize to be won declared the highest.

One who knows this truth, the truth of the three Foods of Speech, Mind, and Prana being none other than his own Self, becomes the Self of all beings, adored of all, but not touched on that account" by their evil or grief. For their grief sticks to them alone who are identified with it. Only their merit, .their good—not

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their sin—goes to the Gods, to him who is one with their Self.

Are all the three, the Divine Speech, Mind and Prana equal in every way ? It was said that the Speech, Mind and Prana are all equal in extensity, sarva eva samāh (V.13). The Upanishad discusses it by means of a parable. Prajapati, the. Almighty Creator, ,.first projected these organs (of speech and others). As they were
projected, they strove with each other. Yak, Speech, said  I shall go on speaking (only)'. The Eye said, "I shall see'. The Ear: "I shall hear'. So did other organs decide to each go it s own way. But Death in the form of fatigue overtook them and put them under hold. Thus it is that the organ of speech gets tired and so too the .eye, the ear etc. But Death could not touch the central Prana. So the rest of the organs resolved to know it. "He is th e greatest among us; whether he moves or does not move, he is not vexed nor is he injured. We shall indeed all assume his form.' And they all assumed his form. Hence it is that they are called by the name Prana, they cannot function without the presence of this Prana.

So much with reference to the material embodiment. Now to the embodiment in Gods.

Similarly, says the Upanishad, there was an attempt at self-assertion among the Gods. Agni vowed : 'I shall go on blazing'. Aditya, the Sun : T shall go on heating'. The Moon : T shall go on shining'...And so did other Gods decide to go each on his own way. But each one has had to set, has had to cease at some time. Not so God Vayu who is among the Gods what Prana is among the constituents of the body. God Vayu never sets, never ceases. He alone was supreme. So it is that like the organs in the body viz. speech, mind etc. which work and cease from work in the force of prāna, the Gods also rise and set in their functions in the sea of Vayu.¹ Both Vayu and Prana are the same Force of Brahman-and man should learn to put himself in rhythm with

¹ "When a man sleeps, his organ of speech is merged in the vital breath and so are the mind, th e e ye and the ear. And when he awakes, these again arise from the vi tal breath. This is with reference to the body. Now with reference to the Gods : When the Fire goes out, it sets in the Air. Hence they speak of it as having set . It indeed sets. in the AU.- And when the Sun sets, it enters the Air, .and so does the Moon. The Quarters too rest in the Air and they again rise from the Air." (Satapatha Br, X. 3. 3. 6-8)

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the flow of Prana in order that, first, he may not be. overcome by the fatigue that arises because of resistance to the current of Prana or because of insufficient support derived from Prana; and next, that he may gradually acquire an identity with this Master-Force in creation and partake of its nature of universality and immortality. This is the meaning of the upāsana of Prana, the Prāna Vidyā of the Upanishad s. It would be relevant here to quote "a few passages from the authentic writings of Sri Kapali Sastriar on the subject :

"Prana (is) an image, however gross and dark and refractory, of the Supreme Prana the Tapas in its highest form. For the Original Prana is the Supreme, founding its forms in the lower manifestation, supporting its own fragments, reflections, or radiations in the living beings here, so much so that the Upanishads speak of two kinds of Prana. The Mukhya Prāna is the basis for individual life here, hence is called the Chief; all activities of the main life, of what we would call the sense-mind, are spoken of as Prana. For the Upanishad which starts with concrete objects in Nature using them as symbols for upāsana, it is easier to advise the use of any of the Pranas—voice, seeing, hearing, all are termed prānas here—by special means known to the sadhakas of the age, for effecting their union with the mukhya-prāna, their Chief ' from which they branch out for their different functions., It is the mukhya prāna which is the individual centre here of the Supreme Prana, that has to become its true image. The culmination of the Prana Vidya is the correct expression, the ideal formation of the Life Supreme in the individual that is at once a real reflection, a substantial figure, a canalised current, a focused and focussing centre and vehicle in constant and conscious union with its Source, the original and Omnipotent Prana of the Creative Self, the Tapa .of Ishwara...

"Of, all the Vidyas of the ancient Vedanta, the Prana Vidya is the most powerful, for in the higher and' wider reaches of the Sadhana, it is Brahma Vidya, par excellence. It is the living Breath of the Purusha, the Puissance, of the Creative

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Consciousness, the Power of the Sole indivisible Spirit that is the basis of the Prana Vidya; its aim is not laya, absorption or going to the Beyond,—there are other sad hanas that aim at it—but the realisation and successful formation of the individual Life—a Life that carries .out its function as the function of the Life Universal, having no divided will of its own, but the One free Will and Tapas of the Ishwara, and extends its activity as part of the Life of the Supreme Spirit to a wider range, quite naturally..." {Lights on the Upanishads).

M. P. PANDIT

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SAVITRI, THE MOTHER

ALL Tapasya or energising of consciousness is the accumulation, concentration and storage in an individual of some kind 01" other of the secret powers in the hidden non-material worlds. Every Siddha or accomplished Yogi is therefore a battery of force whose very presence radiates spontaneously the vibration of the plane of consciousness established in him. The Hatha Yogi who has mastered the various poises and postures of the body not only' enjoys a robust health, plasticity of the organs, tissues and sinews and command of subtle physical energies, but also pours into all ready receptacles these precious possessions. The Tapaswins in the vital planes inundates his being and all beings around with the waters of the life-force and its powers. The Mano-siddha who has achieved perfection in the mental planes can create those thoughts that wander through eternity and fill all mental space and individual minds with them. The company of the saints of ethical perfection is a well-recognised path towards self-control and moral progress through will-culture. The very air that an occult master breathes is charged with the power of the god or goddess he has become the vehicle of. The Spiritual adepts of Gnana, Bhakti, Karma or Tantric Yogas transmit by a look, word or touch the realisations of spiritual knowledge, devotion or higher will they have established in themselves. They can initiate by this principle of diksā a new movement of the consciousness of the disciple towards the regions beyond the mind. Living in the immediate vicinity of the Guru or the Master of Yoga with a fully open consciousness, gurukulaoasa, is an easy canter to the Goal of life. For the great individual becomes the focal centre for the transmission of the vibrations of the Higher Consciousness to the world. at large. As a small ripple, in a lake gives rise to an ever widening circle of was .extending to the very extremities, so does an individual dynamic perfection work upon the collective consciousness. Savitri has achieved in herself an integral transformation of consciousness

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in the supreme Gnosis and so she has become the perfect instrument of the Transcendent Lord. This is a state of Yoga which surpasses all Tapasya, for her life has become a constant embodiment of the supreme Grace. Even the highest Tapasya is limited by the plane from which the inspiration is drawn and the limitations of the vehicle of manifestation. But when the individual has become the Gnostic Purusha and the instrumental personality has transformed itself into the Gnostic Prakriti, the Infinite can act upon the finite in its own unfallen, untrammelled ways. This is the golden path of a divine life in a divine body, a consciousness soaked in the Divine Love and Light alchemising all contacts into their original Delight of Self-existence, Ananda, and a perennial fountain streaming forth all around, the waters of the Divine plenitude and perfection. "Thy power in me is like a fountain, strong and fertilising, which clam ours behind the rocks, accumulating its energies to break down the obstacle and gush forth freely to the exterior, pouring over the plain to fertilise it."

II

The universe is one grand close-knit system of correspondences where every movement in one plane or dimension of being is reflected in every other plane of being. Mother Nature is sensitive to all the processes in the interior and higher zones of consciousness and often reveals and symbolically expresses these deeper and higher happenings in her own body. All outer actions and events are only precipitations of forces already gathering momentum in the subtle worlds and long before they actually occur, Nature shows their designs in her face, the sky and the general atmosphere. This is true of even the small minor acts in the ordinary mediocre organisation of consciousness. But it is especially true of the exceptional man or woman and absolutely so with respect .to the Avatar whose actions have always a cosmic bearing and importance. Here is the whole rationale of the sakuna or the indicative premonitory natural phenomena described by all epic poets presenting the heroic actions of their central characters of superhuman stature. So the Sadhana and siddhi of Savitri,

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the Avatar, are symbolically revealed by Nature. The difficult, crucial entry into the inner countries, the facing of the man of sorrows, the dwarf-titan of the world of egoistic desire, and the sense-shackled human mind, and the steep, breath-taking ascent towards the heights of Truth are paralleled by the thunder showers. Now these rains have withdrawn :

"A routed sullen rearguard of retreat,

The last rains had fled murmuring across the woods

Or failed, a sibilant whisper mid the leaves..."

The Sadhana of ascent and descent has culminated in the Siddhi. of the golden supramental transformation and this is graphically ' pictured by the calm slow sun looking down from tranquil heavens, and the great blue enchantment of the sky recovering the deep rapture of its smile.

"Its mellow splendour unstressed by storm-licked heats

Found room for a luxury of warm mild days, . .

The night's gold treasure of autumnal moons

Came floating shipped through ripples of fairy air."

The mellow splendour of the autumn of spiritual maturity, the tranquilly intense delight of self-existence showing itself in the rapturous smile, the blue colour of the Higher zones of the Spirit, the atmosphere of light without heat but with the necessary warmth and richness of manifestation, luxury, the play of the gold and silver, suvarnarajatasrajam, and the delicacy of the spiritual ether indicated in the ripples of the fairy air are all significant and expresses the moment of self-finding and self-fulfilment of Savitri.

"And Savitri's life was glad, fulfilled like earth's;

She had found herself, she knew her being's aim."

She has discovered herself as 'the Divine Spirit's Power, para prakrti, the revealing voice of the Lord's immortal Word, the face "of Truth upon the roads of Time' with her aim of'' pointing to the souls of men the routes-to God'

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But Nature not only or merely reflects in a parable the movements of the Redeemer. She responds quite readily to the secret, transformed, though not yet completely manifested, inner Gnostic Consciousness of the Mother.

"The trees' rustling voices told it to the winds, "

Flowers spoke in ardent hues an unknown joy,

The birds' carolling became a canticle,

The beasts forgot their strife and lived at ease."

"At these blessed hours all earth sings a hymn of gladness, the grasses shudder with pleasure, the air is vibrant with light, the trees lift towards heaven their most ardent prayer, the chant of the birds becomes a canticle, the waves of the sea billow with love, the smile of children tells of the infinite and the souls of men appear in their eyes." "The Force is there. All Nature exults and sings in joy, all Nature is in holiday. The Force is there." For She has a Vital and Physical consciousness, one and homogeneous, a grand global unity even in the multitudinous variety of Flora and Fauna. In fact her very sub mental mode of being keeps her free from the taint of perversion so characteristic of the human majority. Flowers are the very flower of Nature in their ready receptivity and retaining power of the higher, purer states of consciousness. Nature red in tooth and claw becomes warm and radiant with a life of Love and Harmony.

III

As with the flower of Nature, so with the flower of human nature. The Yogins of the forest contemplating in a wise passive-ness on the unmanifest domains of the Higher Vast Consciousness receive a push forward and upward because of the presence of the Supramerital embodied in Savitri. Their long waiting in a trance of silence and deep aspiration is answered by the supreme Grace of the Mother in this unexpected and unpredictable Hour of God. What their hitherto unaided, though fixed and unfailing aspiration

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and 'tapasya, lonely muse, could not achieve by .itself, is now miraculously wrought by the Mother's Grace. They have been preparing themselves for this advent by widening their consciousness and stationing it at the highest heights they are capable" of So there is a greatening or a crossing of the border of the zone of Ignorance or smallness and an entry into the kingdom of the Great or Gnostic Consciousness.

"Absorbed in wide communion with the Unseen

The mild ascetics of the wood received

A sudden greatening of their lonely muse."

For slowly, but surely and irresistibly, the Gnosis interpenetrates her environmental consciousness which envelops her Gnostic prakriti and forms the connecting medium between her personality and the outer world. Every response to the challenge from the world of Ignorance is alchemized by the touch of the Gnostic Light, Truth and Beauty. Bathed in the celestial waters of the Perfect, the Puma, all imperfections, wrong turns or twist's of the natural things are dissolved and made straight, harmonious and beautiful. For the Supramental is not only harmonious in itself but the secret source of all harmony. A disharmony is only a distortion of the core of Harmony deep within, an error is merely a perversion of Truth and ugliness but an illusory super-imposition ' on Beauty. Again the natural things have become for the human, mental consciousness entrenched in its fixed ideas of the so-called mechanically repetitive, immutable Laws of Nature dull and common. The touch of the Supramental melts away this iron curtain of mental constructions and so things are seen as they really are, shaped by the All-Beauty and All-Bliss to manifest ever-new patterns of beauty and harmony.

"This bright perfection of her inner state

Poured overflowing into her outward scene

Made beautiful dull common natural things

And action wonderful and time divine."

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The timeless is joined with time, the Infinite is yoked with the finite. And so every act is not a finite movement of the finite consciousness and so easily predictable and limited in its scope but always achieving by the shaping spirit of the Infinite Power undreamed of masteries and unrealised perfections, a constant source of wonder. And time, instead of merely deploying the already worn out patterns of the past becomes the instrument for the manifestation of the Infinite and the inexhaustible. For-the normal human being the present is a variation on the past and the future only another variation on the present. But for the Gnostic being time is a playground for the Eternal. All acts, even the smallest, become a Yagna to the Lord and Master of all, the Divine Indwelling Purushottama, the Transcendent Lord. The motive is not desire but consecration and the aim is the simple, even and objectless self-ecstasy.

"Even the smallest meanest work became

A sweet or glad and glorious sacrament,

An offering to the self of the great world

Or a service to the One in each and all."

Light and Bliss radiate from her being to all around and all mortals, even the petty, the lowly, and the lost, imprisoned in their small egoistic consciousness and therefore suffering "and excited alternately, receive her touch and get solace in distress" and increased intensity of joy in happiness.

"A light invaded all from her being's light;

Her heart-beats' dance communicated bliss :

Happiness grew happier, shared with her, by her touch

And grief some solace found when she drew near."

"I am Thy puissant arms of mercy. I am the vast bosom of Thy limitless love...The arms have enfolded the sorrowful earth and tenderly press it to the generous heart; and slowly a kiss of supreme benediction settles on this atom in conflict : the kiss of the Mother that consoles and heals."

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IV

The Gnostic consciousness is not the complete expunging of all the essential features of the human consciousness and relationships but the fulfilment of all the deeper aspirations of human life. The core of Truth in all movements is retained and lifted ; to its own highest intensities in the Higher Consciousness. Only the false coverings and appendages drop off, leaving the truth radiant and free. Thus human love with its core of divine love is kept up while the all too human elements in it fall away. The love of the Gnostic purusha is for the Divine in the soul of the Beloved and for all the other parts of the personality as manifesting instruments of the Divine. Love is not the creation of man or any creature but is antecedent to all creation and the very source of all, interpenetrating all. Every man loving is only an instrument very often a distorting instrument of the Love Divine enveloping all. The supramental transformation makes the perfect embodiment of Divine Love the very basis of the .Life Divine. The Yoga of Savitri has deepened her love for and vision of her husband, Satyavan. As the Divine Lord reveals in the Book of The Eternal Day :

"He is my soul that gropes out of the beast

To reach humanity's heights of lucent thought,

And the vicinity of Truth's sublime.

He is the godhead growing in human lives

And in the body of earth-being's forms,

He is the soul of man climbing to God

In Nature's surge out of earth's ignorance."

From the human point of view he is a mortal subject, to death on a terrible fixed day by an inexorable Fate which shall not be put by, a being who must leave the earth-scene and take his abode in regions of felicity, heavens, where all vestige of his mortal fife and associations including the most central and intense experience of love of a woman is removed completely and he forgets himself

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in the taste of-the immortal's bliss. But this is far from the truth now revealed to Savitri by her Gnostic vision :

"Above the cherished head of Satyavan

She saw not now Fate's dark and lethal orb;

A golden circle round a mystic sun

Disclosed to her new-born predicting sight

The cyclic rondure of a sovereign life."

The Divine Will of the Supramental Sun overrules the rule of Ananke or Destiny and Satyavan is to live, move and have his being in the vast orb of the Supreme Truth-conscious Light of the Super-conscient, not enveloped as now in the encircling gloom of Deterministic Inconscient. The love that unites them is not a passing whim or a fleeting, transitory life on earth, nor is it limited to one part of the personality but eternal and integral, transcending space and time and including them and again embracing all levels of the being of both from the inmost spiritual to the most outward body.

"Always he was with her, a living soul

That met her eyes with close enamoured eyes,

A living body near to her body's joy.

 

"Even in distance closer than her thoughts,

Body to body near, soul near to soul,

Moving as if by. a common breath and will

They were tied in the single circling of their days

Together by love's unseen atmosphere,

Inseparable like the earth and sky."

The legend' symbolises the great truth of the eternal love of the Divine Mother who is Savitri for the human soul caught in the web of time and circumstance. In fact her very advent on earth is because of this Love. As for the human soul his love for. the Divine is equally eternal. Only, now he gropes obscurely in Ignorance and in. a world subject to the iron determinism of the Inconscient.

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But the very fact that nothing that the world can give him satisfies him but he must always be seeking till he learns to love the Divine Mother directly, shows his inmost longing for Her. The still sad music of humanity is because of the unfulfilled aspiration for the Eternal. But what the human soul seeks seems to be an impossibility or even absurdity. The Eternal must be found in a state of consciousness beyond Time. But the soul seeks the Eternal in the temporal. Not so completely absurd. The Temporal as it is organised now appears to be the polar opposite of the Eternal. The solution is to eternalize the temporal, to transform earth-consciousness into the divine consciousness so that the Eternal could be found in time. The Divine Mother is behind all the" blind aspiration of the human soul and it is in response to it that she has come down to bring the supramental which will solve the riddle of human life by the solution of integral transformation. She has achieved this transformation in herself and so she is able to embody the Divine love in the very cells of her body. In her, all human aspiration has found its fulfilment. The golden path of the Divine Love and Ananda in the physical consciousness is being macadamised by Savitri, the Mother.

"Thus for a while she trod the Golden Path."

V

The path trodden by the normal human beings on earth is a path of Lead in which the Light and Love of the Divine are felt to be as distant as possible and as inaccessible. The separation from the Divine Origin seems to be so complete and total that every action is initiated not by the Divine but by the self-asserting, self-imprisoned Ego. Not only oneself but all other, selves and things in the universe are perceived as units independent of. each other and the. Sacred Origin, and so relationship has ceased to be a constant interchange of affection but has become an arena of strife, conflict and competition. Not Love but self-love governs all movements. And even anything that may come unpredictably

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and quite undeservedly from the Divine Grace is appropriated, exploited and utilised for self-aggrandise ment and self-glorification. And the instruments of the Ego are fashioned out of the evolutes from the Inconscient, the physical, vital and mental consciousness which feel and vociferously declare the Divine as a chimera or a creation of the brain-sick state. The consciousness is so com effetely externalised that all inner life is seen as purely subjective and so unreal as not to deserve the attention of the sane or the" intelligent. Only this world tangible to the senses exists and no other.

-But rarely, one in a thousand perceives that

"There is a godhead of unrealised things

To which Time's splendid gains are hoarded dross;

A cry seems near, a rustle of silver wings

Calling to heavenly joy by earthly loss."

He obeys the Silver Call and follows the path of Silver, the path of intense energising of consciousness and cultivation of inner life by an exclusive concentration, an arduous Tapasya. The Divine has become real and tremendously real and the mind, heart and will are directed solely to realise Him. The Ego is getting more ' and more chastened and the life of strife gives "place to one of co-, operation, mutual tolerance and even some kind of love. Man tries to give up progressively self-domination and allows the other self, which is now felt not as antagonistic but having an at least equal status, to have' its way. But however refined the Ego might become, it is still there as a shadow vitiating all relationship. The instruments of the mind, heart and body have no doubt become purified a great deal and enlightened by the Sattwic poise. They even receive from the Zones of Knowledge and Light above the Mind, and life becomes all the richer for the play of these higher lights in the mortal members. But the essential substance of these faculties is, however pure, not free from the taint of the Ignorance. The fact remains that one is still conscious of oneself as a separate though now co-operating entity with the Divine. One

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tastes the Light and Love of the Divine but feels oneself as another with a different status. Refinement is not enough; purity is inadequate; Tapasya has its limits. Indeed these often give rise to a specious kind of Sattwic Ego or self-righteousness and the wall between the human and the Divine which appears to be so thin retains its strength sound and entire and sometimes even perilously so.

This wall must break and it does break in the intensity of aspiration. The consciousness that one is doing all this work of purification and concentration drops and man realises that the ego is not necessary for life but indeed becomes a limiting and conditioning medium preventing the free play of the Higher Consciousness. Life, individuality and the world are the creation of the Infinite Divine Consciousness and they would be shaped by the Divine Shakti to reach their fulfilment in an endless progression in Truth, Light, Beauty and Ananda. Plasticity and surrender are the only requisites. Tapas has served its purpose the moment it has revealed some glimpse of the Higher Divine Consciousness. To indulge in it anymore is to set a wall between oneself and the Divine. For the Lord with his Light and Love is always ready to pour Himself into whatever willing receptacle would allow his entry. All individuals are children of the Supreme Lord and His Shakti is at work transforming the human and the earth into the Divine Consciousness. His heart is large enough to hold all and His Shakti is strong enough to bear all. To live in this psychic" consciousness of complete consecration and surrender to the Divine Love and Light is to enter the Path of Gold, the Path of Grace. To make an offering of every movement of consciousness to the Divine, including every lapse not to do so, brings about finally a state when the Divine takes up every movement himself and the human consciousness becomes a divinised and fit instrument for His manifestation in the world. This state of perfection in the Path of Gold is embodied by Savitri, the Mother. To naturalist it here acid now for all her children is the secret purpose of He? Advent.

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"All was gold and gold and gold, a torrent of golden light pouring down in an uninterrupted flow and bringing with it the consciousness that the path of gods is a sunlit path in which difficulties lose all reality.

Such is the path open before us if we choose to take it."

References :

Savitri: Book Seven; Canto Six.

Prayers and Meditations of the Mother.

Words of the Mother : Part II.

M. V. SEETARAMAN

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THE TEACHINGS OF THE MOTHER

EDUCATION

XV

PHYSICAL EDUCATION—III

WE have now to study the philosophy of physical education as " " propounded by the Mother, for unless we understand the underlying philosophy, we are sure to miss the subtle import and significance of the system she has evolved out of it; it may even appear to our mental ignorance as something nebulous and Utopian. It is only in the fight of the philosophy that we can hope to perceive, however dimly, that, though the system is difficulty it is not impossible. It is rather imperative that it should be put into earnest practice, if humanity is to survive the present cultural debacle, and lead a nobler, happier, and more harmonious creative life on this little but fateful planet, where he is set to labour and progress. „

First of all,4et us see whether the human body, which appears to be a mere lump of perishable clay, has any higher destiny than the one assigned to it by physical Nature. If it has not, then physical education and training of the body can at best be a development of its physical and animal possibilities, within the fixed limits of natural laws. To try to transcend the laws would be sheer moonshine and madness.

But modern science itself—and for the matter of that, the very spirit of all science—refuses to be bound by these laws. There is a dream and a conscious endeavour in it to get beyond -all limits and restrictions, and assert its freedom to break all bonds, to trample under foot all crippling impositions of material Nature, and discover something, which Nature -has concealed, but which, it knows, she would reveal to its resolute will to conquest and

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tireless energy of exploration. This principle of transcendence is the most momentous and pregnant discovery that modern man has achieved through science. It is at once the propelling force and purpose of all evolutionary movement. And it is precisely on this principle of transcendence that the Mother bases all her philosophy and teachings regarding the divine life which she upholds as the next goal for the caravan of humanity. For, in fact, the human caravan marches from experience to experience, and progress to progress, on an ascending spiral of ups and downs, through passing successes and failures, through joys and sorrows, through light and darkness, to its inevitable destiny of infinite perfection and integral self-fulfilment. Man, the eternal pilgrim, knows no permanent stagnation, and is not meant for annihilation The unknown, the unforeseen, the apparently impossible ever beckons to him and tempts his adventurous spirit.

"There is nothing impossible in the world. We ourselves put the limit; always we say, this is possible, that is impossible, one can do this, one cannot do that. Sometimes we admit a thing to be possible but ask who would do it, so it is impossible and so on. Like slaves, like prisoners we bind ourselves to our limits. You call it common sense, but it is a stupid, narrow, ignorant sense; it does not truly know the laws of life. The laws of life are not what we think them to be, what our mind or intellect conceives them to be; they are quite otherwise,"¹

It is quite true that what our petty, twilit mind conceives as impossible we can compel to be possible. We can scale the peaks and conquer the unknown. We can surpass our present, pitiable humanity and attain to divine superman hood, only if we discover the eternal Fount of infinite Will and Force within us. In the discovery and unsealing of this Fount lies the secret of our self-transcendence.

What is this divine Fount in man, and what is the real relation between, the-Fount and the physical body—for we are concerned here with only the body—he has put on on earth.? The Mother explains, the relation : "The Psychic (the soul) is like the, wire

¹ The Mother u*. The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo by Nolini Kanta Gupta, Part VII, p.138.

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between the generator and the lamp. What is the generator and what is the lamp, or rather who is the generator and who the lamp ? The Divine is the generator and the body, the visible being, is the lamp. The function then of the Psychic is to connect the two. In other words, if there were no Psychic in Matter, Matter could not come in direct contact with the Divine. All human beings, including yourself, all carry the Divine within you, you have only to enter within you to find Him. It is a unique specialty of the human being, rather of all embodied beings living on earth. In the human being, the Psychic becomes more conscious and formed; more conscious and therefore also more free, it is individualised. You should note that it is a specialty of the earth alone..."¹

The Mother says that the soul of man is the wire through which the light of the Divine Consciousness can enter into the obscure unconsciousness of Matter (and make it more and more conscious. That is to say, the soul has assumed the material body in order to render it more and more transparent and radiant. The obscurity of Matter is not meant to fill the evolving soul with disgust and despair, and induce it to beat a retreat from it, but it is the very condition of the soul's perfect evolution. If the body remains dark and dense, submerged in the chaotic gloom of the subconscious and the unconscious, individual and collective, it cannot express the-freedom, purity, and harmony, and the universal love and laiowledge of the soul. To churn and purify Matter, to enlighten and widen it, to in still full consciousness into the very cells of the human body, is, then, the rationale of human birth.

If this view is accepted, the education and training of the body comes to mean, in the last analysis, a progressive illumination of the cells of the body, awakening more and more of consciousness in them, so that the immemorial gulf between the Spirit and Matter may be healed, and the Spirit may express itself, without any dilution and distortion, across the body, which becomes then its transparent channel or instrument. The object of the soul? sevolution

¹ The Mother in The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo by Nolini Kanta Gupta, Part VII, pp.145-46.

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on earth is a full and perfect expression of its divinity, or rather, the Apocalypse of the Godhead within it through the transformed body.

We seem to understand something of the destiny and potentiality of the body; and it will now be easier to follow the Mother as she expounds her integral system of education. It is a divine purpose that the human body is designed to serve, and the education to be given to it must, therefore, be such as to sub serve that purpose. The healing of the division between the Spirit and Matter, the attainment of the dynamic and manifold unity of existence, and the manifestation of the Divine in Matter, is the supreme end to which the training and transformation of the body is a very important means.

Revealing the occult potentialities of the human body, the Mother says : "The body has an in dividua lity of its own. It is an organised formation and acts as a whole in each and all its parts. The human body is, par excellence, such a formation; for it is moved and controlled by the consciousness which overshadows and informs it, which is its master whose will it executes scrupulously.

"The body is an epitome of the world. It encases within its frame the whole world, particularly the earth—earth itself being an epitome of the world—on a miniature scale, the mikros reproducing all the features of the makros.

"Such being the case, a wholly conscious body governed and inspired by the supreme Consciousness lives and moves in the cosmic rhythm i

These occult truths were not wholly unknown to ancient wisdom. In fact, they formed an integral part of it; and it is time they were revived, perfected, reorganised, and harnessed to the reconstruction of humanity, which seems to be the immediate work of the present.

¹ "In the rhythm is quietude, 

A tranquil submission..." — Lao-Tse.

² The Mother in The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo

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But apart from the occult powers and potentials of the human body, it must be obvious to all who care to observe intelligently, that even ordinary physical exercise cannot be made fruitful except by infusing into the muscles or into any other parts arid functions of the body the conscious will of the person who takes the exercise. The example and teaching of the late world-renowned Sandow are an instructive and inspiring illustration of it. As a boy, Sandow was frail and in poor health, but by bringing a patient and persevering will to bear upon his physical exercises, he grew into the matchless giant of strength and greatest athlete of his time. The conscious, willed movement of the different muscles of the body proves our contention that the human will, .steadily exercised, can remove the normal opacity and obtuseness of the body, and, rendering it plastic and receptive, accelerate its education and development by its conscious cooperation. I can quote here a few sentences from what I wrote sometime back on this subject : "The Mother says that when we concentrate on the movement of the muscles or try to direct and develop them by our will, or make an effort to increase the suppleness and resisting power of the body, we infuse into the physical cells sorrething of the consciousness and energy of our will. Each effort of our conscious will is a penetration of the light and force of our consciousness into the body, which is mostly subconscious or unconscious, and moved by blind energies. This sustained instilling of consciousness can make of the human body a receptive and progressive instrument of the soul. If one is little sensitive, one can discern in the movement of the body of a physical culturist a light, a consciousness, and a glowing surge of life, which are not found in uncultured bodies. Citing the example of an artist and an intellectual man, the Mother says that the artist infuses a very great amount of consciousness into his hands, and the intellectual man into his brain, but these are, more or less, local action; but the person who strives for a harmonious development of his body, in all its parts and functions, sends a stream of consciousness into them, and kindles a light in their obscurity."¹

¹ A New Light on Physical Culture, published in the Bhavan's Journal of April 5, 1959,

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"If patiently and intelligently trained, it (the body) can respond to most of the psychological movements of our composite personality and reproduce them in a growing beauty of poise and form. But the training must respect its autonomy and basic qualities, and not play havoc with them in order to force it into a preconceived mould. But the best results can only be obtained if the body and its evolving consciousness are steadily opened to the infinite consciousness and force of the Divine. Once united to its universal source and sustenance, it will receive a perennial flow and know no defeat or depletion."¹

The Mother says : "There is a source of energy which, once discovered, never dries up, whatever the circumstances and the physical conditions in life. It is the energy that can be described as spiritual, that which is received not from below, from the depths of inconscience, but from. .. the all-powerful eternal splendours of the super conscious. It is there, everywhere around us, penetrating everything and to enter into contact with it and to receive it, it is sufficient to sincerely aspire for it, to open oneself to it in faith and confidence, so as to enlarge one's consciousness for identifying it with the universal Consciousness.

"...We can easily imagine what would be the consequences of this power to draw at will and in all circumstances from the limitless source of an omnipotent energy in its luminous purity. Fatigue, exhaustion, illness, age and even death become mere obstacles on the way which a steady will is sure to surmount."²

We have now a fairly clear idea of the various potentialities of the body, which the Mother's integral system of education seeks to explore and develop to their utmost perfection. We have also gained a workable knowledge of the true philosophy of physical education, a philosophy which envisages a full and harmonious evolution of the latent powers and capabilities of the body— spiritual and physical—so that it may manifest the Divinity dwelling within it.

RISHABHCHAND

(To be continued)

¹ In the Mother's Light, Part

² Bulletin of Physical Education, Vol.

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LIFE AND SELF-CONTROL

(A Letter)

THERE is no doubt that Europe knows very well the art of life which in our country is totally lacking. In the East it is only Japan that knows it and knows it well enough. Our country on the whole, and most of the East is at present steeped in inertia.

You have asked me the exact meaning of control of the senses and what is its necessity in life. In India we have held up this ideal on an elaborate scale, but to what effect ? Europe cares little for it, yet she rules the world.

Firstly, whether self-control is necessary or not depends on the nature of our ideal. Self-control is only a particular means to a particular aim. If the meaning of life is to live the life of nature to possess power and influence—if the aim of life is to live in accordance with its impulses, then the question of self-control can never arise. In such a case the indulgence of the senses is the motive force.

There are two approaches to life : one is to follow the lead of the senses, to enrich life as much as possible by giving them full play and acquiring means for their satisfaction; the other is to move away from their range to a region inward or upward. Those who have taken to this path are unanimous that this path leads to the realm of supreme Peace, Light and Truth and that in fact the real character of life, its true fulfilment he in this realm. In their view the sense-world is a world of deformations, narrow and full of impurities. Its material resources, however rich and vast, are really worth little. But man has also his inner senses which can help him to return to his home in the infinite Vast as a child of Immortality. This is the real sense of self-mastery — instead of swimming down the sense-current, one must swim back in the opposite direction. Instead of slipping down from the -source of life one has to climb up into it. 

You may ask : to what good ? Suppose, one goes beyond the sphere of life to Vaikuntha, to Heaven, attains Nirvana and gets merged in the Brahman; in that case life is lost. And it is really what has happened in India. There has been no dearth of saints,

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seers and Avatars. But they live in their own worlds. The dwellers on our realistic plane are poor, distressed and miserable. True, there is a class of men who are not in the least perturbed at this state of things. Time was when from the mouth of a woman of India rose the ringing voice :

"Of what use to me are the things that cannot make me immortal ?"

Of course, there is no hard and fast rule that there must be a barrier between life and beyond-life, between self-restraint and self-indulgence. A synthesis between the two may be difficult, but not impossible. Indeed, it was in India again that there developed such lines of synthetic sadhana. Rather it was Europe that gave evidence of this conflict and duality much more than India. We may remember the moto ("Render unto Casesar what is Caesar's etc.") By pointing to the path of self-restraint Christianity holds that it leads to the Kingdom of Christ and those who would remain chained down to their senses will remain in their low, unrefined state of nature. In Europe this conflict has led to two extremes. Self-restraint in Chrisuanity has become self-mortification, and when Europeans do not think it harmful to give a long rope to the senses, they have gone to the excess of unbridled license. In India there has been an attempt at a synthesis of these two aspects of life. Worldly life was taken as a preparation for or as a stepping-stone to the world beyond. So self-restraint was given a place not only in the sphere of sadhana for liberation, but also in the field of enjoyment. Hence we see in India as much preponderance of sattwic qualities as we see in Europe preponderance of rajasic dynamism. No doubt,' the sattwic state easily lapses into the inertia of Tamas. As a matter of fact, such has been the case in India. But rajas also meets the same end. The one slowly slides to extinction; the other shoots up like a rocket and falls like a burnt stick. Thus both suffer the same fate.

In general, life is the play-field of the senses. If self-control implies'" moving away from the senses, then it is not possible for it to have a place in life. But self-control may mean keeping the senses under control, under a system of rule and disciplined This is the popular sense of self-control : it is a graded withdrawal, a

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first step towards detachment. This is also how it developed in India. But, as a matter of fact, this popular approach to self-control is not India's specialty alone. Europe has given it a recognised place, not only in the Christian religious life but in her worldly life too. But it will not do to forget that the untrammelled freedom of the senses, their unbridled license have been accepted as an ideal specially in modern times, and it is confined to a particular community. What they are now attempting to reject as a bourgeois trait was one day an aid in the building up of the European society. To be sure, Europe was not so inclined towards detachment as India. Europe has gone in for the cultivation of the senses, but that does not mean that she has been sticking to an excessive and disorderly play of the senses. Neither Byron nor Oscar Wilde is the ultimate ideal of Europe. When the famous novelist Balzac used to sit down to write he would do so in a lonely place in a monk's tunic in order to help his one-pointed concentration. Napoleon, Caesar and Alexander were no helpless slaves of their senses. In fact, no country or race can build its greatness except on the foundation of self-control. It is not that self-control must necessarily be self-mortification. There can be a via media, and in ordinary life this is a necessity. Self-enjoyment is the debit side. True, this side of Europe is much to the fore, but that leads one to think that she is living on her old capital, and it is not long before her capital runs short. The root of the capital is self-restraint, and it is the credit side, the side of accumulated power.

It may certainly be that the social, moral and other kinds of injunctions regarding control of the senses do not strictly apply any more to our modern life. Man's consciousness demands a wider and more liberal existence. Not a religion of mental conventions but a universal one founded on truth is what he wants. But that is altogether another matter. This problem and its solution will lead us into deeper waters. Hence we have to stop here. 

NOLINI KANTA, GUPTA

(Translated from the original Bengali)

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REVIEWS

The Cultural Heritage of India—English (Vol. II)—Itihasas, Buranas, Dharma and other Shastras.

Published by the Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Calcutta, pp. 738 Price Rs. 35

THE first edition of this massive work appeared twenty-five years ago under the auspices of the Sri Ramakrishna Birth centenary Publication Committee. That edition was quickly sold out and the work was out of print for many years.

The second edition is a thoroughly revised, enlarged, and more comprehensive one, with the number of volumes increased from three to six, of which the first four are out. Each volume is self-contained with its own index, bibliography and pagination.

"The present volume comprises forty-three papers of which all but seven are new; and even these seven papers are thoroughly revised and brought up to date. The volume is divided into five parts as follows :

Part I — The Ramayana and the Mahabharata, part II — The Gita, part III — The Puranas, part "IV — The Dharma-Shastras and part V—The other Shastras, viz., Economics, Moral and Political Sciences and Social Organization.

A glance at the contents of the five Parts given above would suffice to show how interesting the Volume is to anyone who is interested in Sri Aurobindo literature. The volume is invaluable to -us as it gives a grat deal of information which forms a background of his writings. For the student of our Centre of Education Part V of" Volume II is most helpful, particularly the five papers contributed by Dr. U.N. Ghoshal, who is an Editor of the entire work. The opening sentences of Part V (p .451) are .worth quoting:

"Arthasastra is defined by Kautilya, the last and greatest master of the science, as the branch of knowledge which deals with the acquisition and preservation of dominion. It is held, in other

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words, to comprise the art of government in the widest sense of the term. This definition is justified by the list of contents of Kautilya's Arthasastra — a work produced probably in the last quarter of the fourth century B.C. and the only surviving one of its class. The list comprises the branches of internal and foreign administration, civil and criminal law as well as the art of warfare."

Equally interesting is Dr. A.D. Pusalker's paper (No. 42) on the Economic ideas of the Hindus, which shows how modern were the conceptions of our ancestors of this intricate subject.

The Volume is full of instructive and informative Papers and makes for rewarding reading.

J. N. W.

English—French

Hommage A Rabindranath Tagore (Extrait de France-Asie Asia NO. 170: Novembre Décembre 1961). 20, 2-chome, Tomisaka- cho, Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo (Japon).

This is a Tagore supplement brought out, on the occasion of the centennial anniversary of the Poet, by the celebrated journal France-Asie Asia, a bilingual cultural review in French and English published from Tokyo.

This well-edited special number of France-Asie bringing within the bare compass of a hundred odd pages an abundance of rich material concerning the life and work of the Poet is something of a treasure that every lover of Tagore would like to possess.

In the fitness of things, the supplement opens with Rabin-dranath's homage to Sri Aurobindo; for, as is pointed out by Sri Nolini Kanta Gupta in the course of an illuminating essay under the title of Tagore and Sri Aurobindo (p.2683), "there-is a ...bond of natural affinity between them centring round the "act that both were poets, ina deeper sense, seer poets-Rabindranath '1he Poet of the Dawn, Sri Aurobindo the Poet and Prophet of the Eternal Day: a new Dawn and Day for the human race."

Sri Nolini Kanta concludes his afore-said essay with the

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affirmation that "Vibhutis, emanations and embodiments of the higher destiny of mankind appear upon earth from time to time to lead and guide the race on the upward way. And we are fortunate that we are born in an age that has been blessed by two such shining ones." 

And, indeed, Tagore was a Shining One.—Is it just a for-factious accident that he was named Rabindranath meaning thereby the Lord of the Sun ? Jean Rousselot in his contribution Un my the income: Rabindranath Tagore (p.2750) makes a very ingenuous remark: " ... je n'aimerais pas tant Tagore si je ne savais que son prénom veut dire 'soleil', s'il n'était par la barbe un contemporain de Moïse et s'il n'avait fait I'obiet, dés sa naissance, de cette prédiction paternelle: 'II s'appellera Rabindra-c'est- à-dire Ie soleil-s-car, plus tard comme lui, il ira par Ie monde, et Ie monde en sera éclaire."

The supplement contains a couple of essays based on personal reminiscences, one by Prof. Sisirkumar Mitra (Some Recollections and the other one by Suzanne Karpelés (Tagore etla France). Mile. Karpeles' reminiscences punctuated with some sparkling hum our testify to the solar personality of Rabindranath, while Prof. Mitra's Recollections recorded in a homely style bring out in clear relief some of the very noble traits of the Poet's character.

There appears too in the supplement a brilliant analysis of "Amal et la Lettre de Roi" from the pen of Mile. Srimayi Pitoëff that ends with this stirring note : "Et a travers Tagore, bien des etres se sont tournes vers I'lnde, Mere Inde, source de Verite, Incarnation de la Sagesse, churchman, comma Amal et comma Fame de L'Offrande Lyrique, la Reponses, la Venue, illumination, I' Union, la Nouvelle Vie."

. A special compliment is due to the editor for reproducing in this issue the inaugural address by Dr. Severally Radhakrishnan's at the Unjesco Tagore Centenary Celebrations in Paris and the very well documented paper Rabindranath Tagore, sa formation et son ceuvre read by Prof. Jean Filliozat at the Alliance franchise Pondicherry, in October 1961.

Among a group of well-written essays that would evoke appreciation from any serious reader, special mention may be made

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of La Pensee religieuse de Tagore by Suzanne Siauve, The Image of Rabindranath Tagore as a Man by Jun Ohrui and Rabindranath Tagore on Buddhism by Nirmal C. Sinha.

The supplement adds to its value by publishing a bunch of letters exchanged between Tagore and Romain Rolland during the years 1919-24, also the facsimile of Rolland's Declaration d'Tndependance de l'Esprit.

A rare adornment of this special number is the reproduction on p.2708 of the Mother's photograph in the company of Tagore taken at Kamakura, Japan, in the year 1916. It is well to recall here that "Tagore knew Mother, for both were together in Japan they were meeting almost every day and once traveled together for about a week. It may be interesting to mention here that Tagore once requested Mother to take charge of Santiniketan, for evidently he felt that the future of his dear institution would be in sure hands. But Mother could not but decline since it was her destiny to be at another place for another work." (Nolini Kanta Gupta, Tagore and Sri Aurobindo, p.2685).

A number of well-reproduced photographs such as Rabindranath and Romain Rolland at Villanueva (Switzerland), Rabindranath and Mrinalini Devi on the day of their marriage, Rabindranath at Pondicherry in 1928, and a facsimile of the manuscript of one of Tagore's poems in Bengali enhance the attraction of th\s special issue of France-Asie.

A detailed account of the programmers of celebrations as staged by the centenary committees in different parts of the world completes the rich fare served by this Tagore supplement.

JUGAL KlSHORE MUKHERJI

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Kannada—Sanskrit

Srimad Bhagavadgita By Swami Adidevananda. Pub. Sri Ramakrishna Ashram, Mysore. Rs. 5.00/-

This is the second edition of Swami Adidevananda Gita in Kannada with introduction, word-for-word rendering, translation and notes. True, the Gita needs no introduction but when the introduction is from the pen of Swamiji one can be sure there is some purpose in it. And true enough, there are a number of - fresh questions that are discussed in his prefatory writing.

Speaking of the claims of the Gita to be an authentic scrip-, ture, Swamiji lays down three tests which must be fulfilled by any work to qualify for the title. Is it helpful to man for the realisation of his self ? Secondly, does it further his urge for helping the society ? And lastly, are the truths it enunciates of universal application ? Self-realisation brings peace within, dedication to the good of humanity leads to peace without. The teachings of the Gita have stood the test of time wonderfully well. Considered from all these counts the Bhagavadgita is eminently such a scripture.

The outlook that pervades the entire work is broad, cosmic and catholic. Here are found in synthesis and reconciliation the different philosophies and the varied paths of discipline that have all along criss-crossed the Indian scene of religion and philosophy. Yoga, Sankhya, Jnana, Karma, Bhakti, Sannyasa, Lokasangraha —all these are made into so many bricks that build up the edifice of the sthitaprajña, one who is securely founded in the Divine Consciousness. YOGA is the one note that holds in harmony all the different stresses of the human spirit in its upward endeavour.

Is the Gita a manual of conduct, nītīśāstra, or is it a spiritual treatise, adhyātma śāstra? This doubt has arisen, says Swamiji, bogies of the circumstances in which the work took birth. Arjuna was overcome with doubt about what was right and what was not and the Gita, providing an illuminating answer as does, may well fee a niti-sdstra. But in fact this is not so. All the Acharyas, says Swamiji, are unanimous in declaring that the Gita sets out

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to give the means and the Path to moksa, liberation. "The object of Gita is Brahma-Vidya not Niti-Vidya. Though the Gita gives a high place to the welfare of the world, it is emphatic in declaring that the final and the highest objective in life is to realise God." 

Is Krishna a historical figure ? Yes, says the writer and cites mention of Sri Krishna in the Chhandogya Upanishad where-4ie is referred to as the son of Devaki and disciple of Rishi Ghora Angirasa.¹ Panning (700

Another question to which Swami Somanathananda refers in his Preface. How was it possible for Krishna to give such an elaborate discourse" at the centre of the battlefield when the armed hosts were waiting poised to strike ? Swami ji replies, and rightly, _m that what was given on the occasion was the substance of what later came to be propounded in extenso by Vyasa. As Sridharaswamin, the famous commentator says': "Krishna Dwaipayana wrote in a seven hundred verses the counsel which the Lord gave. He wrote down generally the very verses which were uttered by Sri Krishna. But he also added verses of his own to give the connecting links." And the whole work is revered as\a scripture of undoubted authority whose support is essential for any system to be admitted in the fold of authentic philosophy in India. Each

¹ 3.17.1-9. Swamiji traces a connecting parallel between Rishi Ghora's instruction and the teaching of the Gita.

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chapter is called a chapter of an Upanishad—"iti srīmadbhagdvad-gītāsu upanisalsu"'.

Such is the work before us. The Gita makes for easy reading, indeed. But its very simple ness is deceptive and one may pass over portions without suspecting in the least the profound sense that underlies them. Swami Adidevananda, however, guards the reader against such possibilities by drawing attention then and there in his valuable notes not only in the context of the commentary-of Acharya Shankara but also that of Ramanuja.

All told, the edition is delightful to handle and reliable to follow.

M. P. PANDIT

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