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.

EDITORIAL

A REVIEW OF SRI AUROBINDO'S LIFE

IPROPOSE to speak to you on a very interesting subject — about Sri Aurobindo. You know it is his centenary, that is to say, this August he completes a hundred years of earthly existence: I say earthly advisedly because although he has left his body he has not left earth's atmosphere. The Mother assures us he will be there to see the work begun be completed. I will speak on a very peculiar aspect of Sri Aurobindo's life. Many must have noticed it but I wish to draw your particular attention to it. Sri Aurobindo's life is an extraordinary phenomenon. It is not that of an ordinary human being. The life of an ordinary man follows a well-marked line of development, almost a routine good for everybody. The pattern is familiar, you can even foresee and foretell the future — and the destiny of a person. You start as a student, join a school, go up to the college, after passing out you choose a profession, become an engineer or doctor or businessman or something well-recognised like that, then you continue to stick to the job you have chosen: you become a rich

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man or if you arc unfortunate a poor man, anyhow go through the experiences of the life allotted to you, you become old, have children, grand-children and then pass away; that is the ordinary course of life. In Sri Aurobindo life has a different line, movement and procedure. Strangely it consists of breaks, sudden unforeseen turns almost cutting away the past altogether. And then what is to be noted is that these breaks or turns are not imposed upon him but they are normally his own conscious decisions out of his own deliberate will, except one or two, I shall point out as I go on. These turns however may not be always a right-about-turn but anyhow, I may say, a right turn, a turn to the right, always to the right — until the final ultimate Right is reached.

First of all — let us begin from the very beginning. The very first step or turn he took in his early childhood was in fact a complete about turn — the antipodes of what he was and where he was. For, he was almost uprooted from his normal surroundings and removed across far seas to a distant land. From out of an Indian Bengali family he was thrown into the midst of a British Christian family. He was made to forget his native language, his country's traditions, his people's customs and manners, he had to adopt an altogether different mode of life and thinking, a thoroughly Europeanised style and manner. Naturally being a baby this was an occasion, the earliest when he had not his choice, his own deliberate decision but had to follow the choice of his father — the choice perhaps of his secret soul and destiny. His father meant well, for he wanted his children to be not only good but great according to his conception of goodness and greatness. Now, in that epoch when the British were the masters of India and we their slaves, in those days the ideal for a person of intelligence and promise, the ideal of success was to become a high government official, a district magistrate or a district judge; that was the highest ambition of an Indian of that time and naturally Sri Aurobindo's parents and well-wishers thought of Sri Aurobindo in that line, he would become a very famous district magistrate or a Commissioner even, the highest position that an Indian could achieve. So he had to appear at an examination for that purpose, it was called — those glittering letters to Indian eyes: I.C.S. (Indian Civil Service). Now here was the very first deliberate choice of his own, the first

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radical turn he took — to cut himself away from the normally developing past. He turned away from that line of growth and his life moved on to a different scale. His parents and friends were mortified, such a brilliant boy come to nought but he had pushed away the past as another vision allured him and he stuck to his decision.

Next as you all know, he came to Baroda, entered the State service — as Secretary to the Maharaja and professor of the College. That life was also externally a very normal and ordinary life — an obscure life, so to say, but he preferred obscurity for the sake of his inner development and growth. Still he continued in that obscure position that was practically what we call the life of a clerk. He continued it for sometime, although sometime meant twelve years, the same length as his previous stage. Then a moment came when he changed all that. Another volte face. If he continued he might have advanced, progressed in his career, that is to say, become Principal of the College, even the Dewan of Baroda, a very lofty position, a very loft y position indeed for an Indian, become another R . C. Dutt, But he threw all that overboard, wiped off the twelve years of his youthful life and came to Bengal as a national leader, a leader of the new movement that wanted freedom for India, freedom from the domination of Britain. He jumped into this dangerous life - the uncertain life of a servant of the country, practically without a home, without resources of hi s own. He ran the risk of being caught by the British, put into prison or shot or hanged even but he chose that life. That was a great decision he took, a turn-about entirely changing the whole mode of hi s life. Eventually as a natural and inevitable result of his politic alactivities he was arrested by the British and put into prison. H e had to pass a whole year in the prison. And this led to another break from the past, ushering in quite another way of life. The course of hi s life turned inward and moved from depth to depth.

In the prison one incident happened which is not known to many but extremely important and of great consequence. I have mentioned it in my Reminiscences. When we were in prison we thought—we were the first batch of political prisoners accused of conspiracy and practically of rebellion against the established government so we thought this was the end of our life's journey. One day we will be taken out and shot: court-trial and justice was a make-believe and

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sham. Or if we were lucky enough we would be exiled to the Anda-mans—the notorious kālāpāni. So a few of our leaders in the prison who were elders to us thought of escape from the prison-make a dash, break out, scale the walls, out in the open. There were plannings with outside helpers. When the plan was a little matured, our elders thought of consulting Sri Aurobindo. Without his consent naturally nothing could be done. For he was the one leader and guide. So when Sri Aurobindo was informed of the plan he said bluntly: I am not going to do anything of the kind. I stand the trial. As a natural consequence the project fell through and very fortunately for us. It is true he already knew the result of the case, that is that he would be freed and nothing would happen to him. Still at that time there was a suspense and we all were in doubt. This decision of Sri Aurobindo was another, I may say, great turn of his life. If he had accepted the prospect his life and destiny would have been different, we all would have been massacred. In other words he saved his life for his spiritual work.

On coming out he engaged himself again in the national work, the British were truly perturbed and worried because they knew here was the man, the source of all mischief. They did not know how to control and get at him. So the) thought of arresting him again and deport him, send him out of bounds---outside India, to Burma or some such far off place. In the meanwhile he continued to do his work as usual, editing two papers, seeing and advising people, going out on lecturing tours etc. But it was time for the next break or turn. One day one night, that is to say-all of a sudden he said, he would go to an unknown destination and literally he did so, dropped and left things as they were and disappeared. People knew later on that he had gone to Pondicherry. This time it was almost literally wiping out the past. He started an altogether new life, inner and outer. Here started directly his climb to the Supramental. Here too after a few years came an occasion when he had to take another radical decision. One more turn to the right-to the more, yet more right.

The British could not tolerate his existence, his safe existence in India, even though in (the then) French India. They felt themselves unsafe, for they felt this man could do anything. As France was an ally to the British, there was an entente cordiale, so they both

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came to an understanding and made a proposal to Sri Aurobindo: France would gladly receive Sri Aurobindo in their midst, give him safe shelter and quiet circumstances to pursue his spiritual life. France was ready to offer Sri Aurobindo a house, a home in Algeria. Here too Sri Aurobindo answered with a clear and definite No. He said he would stick to the place he had chosen. Sri Aurobindo had some friends and companions who also took shelter in the French territory. They would have liked to accept the proposal to escape from the constant British persecution. But Sri Aurobindo's decision came as a disappointment to them, but they had to acquiesce. Now, at this distance of time we can see all the import of his formidable decision half a century ago.

There was yet one more crisis, a great crisis-—the fate of humanity and also his own destiny, the fate of his work depended upon it. The world was nearing the world-shaking war—the Second Great War. It was the invasion of the asuric forces upon earth to destroy humanity and human civilisation and prevent the advent of that truth which Sri Aurobindo was preparing to bring down. Sri Aurobindo opposed that mighty onrush with his will and divine strength. He broke the hostile downward-speeding force by taking it into himself, even like god Shiva who swallowed poison and harboured it in his throat to release immortality for the Gods. The subtle attack left in him a bruised body and to man a saved world. He followed up his action by a whole-hearted support to the Allies in that war against those who were the instruments of the Hostiles.

We come finally now to the last act, the last decision that he took of an almost complete turn, a full cycle. It was his considerate deliberate decision to move out of the physical material scene and take his station just in the background from where he could move and direct things more effectively.

I have spoken of Sri Aurobindo's life as a series of radical turns that changed the movement, the mode of life, almost radically every time the turn came. The turn meant a break with the past and a moving into the future. We have a word for this phenomenon of radical and unforeseen change. You know the word, it is intervention. Intervention means, as the Mother has explained to us more than once, the entry of a higher, a greater force from another world

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into the already existent world. Into the familiar established mode of existence that runs on the routine of some definite rules and regulations, the Law of the present, there drops all on a sudden another mode of being and consciousness and force, a Higher Law which obliterates or changes out of recognition the familiar mode of living; it is thus that one rises from level to level, moves out into wider ranges of being, otherwise one stands still, remains for ever what he is, stagnant, like an unchanging clod or at the most a repetitive animal.

The higher the destiny, the higher also the source of intervention, that is to say, more radical—more destructive yet more creative—destructive of the past, creative of the future.

I have spoken of the passing away of Sri Aurobindo as a phenomenon of intervention, a great decisive event in view of the work to be done. Even so we may say that his birth too was an act of intervention, a deliberate divine intervention. The world needed it, the time was ripe and the intervention happened and that was his birth as an embodied human being—to which we offer our salutation and obeisance today.

The century salutes a divine birth and a death divine, ushering in a century of diviner moment.

NOLINI KANTA GUPTA

(Broadcast from Calcutta Station, All India Radio, Nov. 23, 1972)

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SRI AUROBINDO AND HIS WRITINGS

SRI Aurobindo is undoubtedly one of the greatest sons of India. Many are the facets of his great personality. He blazed the track of the course of his life as a brilliant student, a profound scholar, an ardent nationalist, a valiant freedom-fighter, an inspiring teacher, a great humanist, a Yogi, a mystic and finally as a prophet of 'The Life Divine'. Sri Aurobindo is also undoubtedly one of the most outstanding figures in Indo-Anglian literature. The magnitude of his writings both from the point of view of quality and significance has been phenomenal. He has been an English poet of remarkable power and range; and a master of English prose. Unlike Tagore who wrote most of his works originally in Bengali and only later translated them into English, Sri Aurobindo all along expressed himself in English and English alone. It was one of the greatest ironies of fate that Sri Aurobindo who was sent by his father early in life to England to see him blossom into a finished product of European culture, uncontaminated by native habits, emerged in due course as the greatest champion of Indian culture and philosophy. A scholar to whom English was more or less a mother tongue, who in his early youth mastered Greek, Latin and later learnt French, German and Italian, became a messenger of Gita and the Upanishads in later life. His early training in the European languages like Latin and Greek in which he excelled, and his deep study of the European classics, his long stay in England gave him a mastery over English which enabled him to write with such felicity. He was a poet of remarkable power and range, a flawless metrical craftsman. It was Tagore who with his prophetic vision said to Sri Aurobindo "India will speak through your voice to the World". Yes. He spoke for all that is great about India to the world outside and conveyed its message to humanity.

The range of his writings is vast and varied. He was in turn a great poet, a creative critic, a dramatist, a translator, a political pamphleteer, a prose writer of remarkable felicity. A survey of his prose writings will show that he is one of the supreme masters of modern English prose. It is so colossal in bulk and so varied in subject matter,

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After returning from England at the instance of the Maharaja of Baroda, he was employed in various departments and finally gravitated to the Baroda College where he taught French for a while and then served as a Professor of English. It was here that he renationalised himself. He gained deeper insight into Sanskrit and Bengali. He was a voracious reader and read the great Indian classics and wrote copiously. It was during this period he wrote, a series of trenchant articles to the columns of 'Indu Prakash' under the caption 'New Lamps for Old' and then also a series of articles on 'Bankim Chandra Chatterjee'. Among his prose writings, the greatest and the most outstanding is 'The Life Divine' which is his 'magnum opus', reflecting his philosophy and integral Yoga. As regards the scope and nature of the work, it is the first work which professes to deal rationally and systematically with the problems of integral affirmation of the Divine to prove its thesis by squarely facing the difficult issues involved and reaching a rational solution by a sheer insight of spiritual experience and knowledge. As life and Mind have been released in Matter, so too must in their time, these greater powers of concealed God-head emerge from the involution and the supreme light descend into us from above. This is the concrete promise given at the end of 'The Life Divine' by Sri Aurobindo. Here is much more than intellectual philosophy, and every page of the book carries the impress of thought oozing out of the fountain of spirit. 'The Life Divine' is an Olympian Treatise running into about 16,000 pages. The discussions here give abundant proof of a virile mind at work. 'The Life Divine' is not merely a metaphysical treatise but a work of art. As Dr. K. R. Shrinivasa Iyengar puts it "This vast Himalayan treatise is a prose symphony whose strains are as rich and individual as those of Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'. It is a philosophical prose epic. Charles Moore writing about this book said "It provides from the point of view of idealism and the significance of spirituality, what might be the inevitable synthesis of what is called the wisdom of the East and the knowledge of the West. Dorothy Richardson writing about this book said "Unifying, he is to the limit of the term". After reading the book as Dr. Iyengar says "a spell is cast over us, and we experience an accession of inner poise and strength."

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"The Synthesis of Yoga" depicts the principles and methods of the various lines of spiritual self-discipline and the way in which they can synthesise and lead to an integral divine life in human existence. His book "Essays on the Gita" gives a new interpretation of Gita not as a philosophical doctrine but as a practical guide to life, to the highest spiritual life, which is not a turning away from the world and its actualities nor a pursuit of mere ethical or mentally motivated activities, but action held in God-consciousness. It is written throughout in beautiful English, which has carried to a new perfection the difficult art of expounding Hindu thought to the West.

Sri Aurobindo's prose work "The Human Cycle" examines the problems of the individual vs society, considers the claim of every panacea offered by political messiahs including communism, and shows how a dispassionate study of the course of human development leads to the inescapable conclusion of man finding his fulfilment in the inevitable coming spiritual age. Likewise in his 'Ideal of Human Unity', Sri Aurobindo has traced the growth and shaping of political consciousness of man and his group, analysed the tendencies behind the various abortive attempts and political unification of countries and indicated the line of future advance in the direction of the world union and concludes that the ultimate result must be a formation of World State where the most desirable form would be a federation of free nationalities. His book "Defence of Indian Culture" is a spirited reply to a malicious attack by a western Pseudo-critic William Archer. His other book 'Future Poetry' reveals his critical acumen. He pleads that poetry should be a vibrant vehicle for transition from worlds supra physical to the region of our mental plains. He pleads that the word should be reinvested with the sublime sound and power with which the Rishis of the Veda charged the Mantra. This book covers a vast field including literary history, criticism, analysis and appreciation of the development and trends past and present of English poetry and charts out the course poetry is likely to take in the days to come. The 'Future Poetry' will be of the nature of Mantra, that rhythmic speech which as Veda puts it, rises at once from the heart of the seer and from the distant home of Truth. 'Heraclitus' is a highly interesting account of the philosophy and mysticism of Heraclitus, the most concrete and suggestive of early Greek

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thinkers whose profound utterances have been a permanent source of inspiration for all ages. 'The Mother' is a great little book, which reveals Sri Aurobindo's verbal suppleness at its best. 'Kalidasa' is a monograph on the characteristic built of Kalidasa's aesthetic genius, and the place the great poet occupies in the evolution of Indian cultural life. 'The National Value of Art' depicts the aesthetic, intellectual and spiritual aspects of Art in relation to National Life and its development. "The Renaissance in India" depicts the meaning and trend of the reawakening of India. "Ideals and Progress" points out the need for harmonising the two divergent currents of culture obtaining in the East and the West. 'The Riddle of the World' depicts the philosophy of the superman. "A system of National Education" delineates certain general principles of a sound national education in any country. "The Ideal of the Karmayogin" gives a masterly exposition of the spiritual background of our national life.

This in brief is a survey of the prose writings which is neither complete nor comprehensive but which both from the point of view of bulk and quality has been very outstanding.

Steeped as he was in ancient European classics Sri Aurobindo started writing poetry early in his life. His poems during his adolescence have a Keatsian sensuousness and sweetness in their imagery and music. The 'Songs to Myrtilla' is full of delicate poetic imagination. His next, 'Urvasie' is a metrical romance dealing with a story from the Mahabharata. In it the story of Pururavas and Urvasie is narrated in flexible blank verse with a strange new beauty and charm. This long poem containing 1500 lines has many admirable passages of fine poetic beauty. 

"Like a slim tree half seen through driving hail

Her naked arms clasping his neck ...

Amidst her wind blown hair their faces met"

'Love and Death' is a little shorter poem. It has the same intensity of emotion and a richness of music. The theme of the next poem 'Perseus the Deliverer' is 'man should progress but only by bravely riding on the crest of vicissitudes that confront him'. 'The hero and the Nymph' is a translation of Kalidasa's 'Vikramorvasie' which

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preserves the force and beauty of the original Sanskrit play. 'Baji Prabhou', a poem about an episode taken from Maratha history, delineates finer shades of Maratha chivalry and religion.

His greatest poetical work is undoubtedly 'Savitri'. It is one of the greatest epics the World has yet seen. It is in essence the sum total of Sri Aurobindo's philosophy. Even if Sri Aurobindo had written 'Savitri' alone, his place among immortals of literature would have been safe. He was at this work for 25 years, during which period he went on perfecting it. Tributes from scholars all over the World about this work have flowed ever since the book was published. The poem runs into 3000 lines. Mataji called it a super epic and said that it is not a mere narration, it is a revelation. The poem depicts the limitations of human power, the problems of human misery, the desire of man to reach towards divine bliss, the descent of divine bliss to lift man from his misery, and concludes with an optimistic note of man achieving Divinity. It has therefore been rightly called 'The song of the Life Divine.' It speaks of the great dawn that is to come. Sri Aurobindo's Savitri "carried in her bosom the seeds of a greater dawn." Aswapati prays to God to relieve man from the misery of life and God in turn hears the prayer and grants him his wish.

... I have heard the cry

one shall descend and break the iron law,

Change Nature's doom by the

lone Spirit's power.

........................................................

........................................................

A seed shall be sown in death's

tremendous hour

A branch of heaven transplant

to human soil;

Nature shall overleap her

Mortal step;

Fate shall be changed by an

unchanging will

Savitri is a grand epic. As Prof. Raymond Frank Piper said it is

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the most comprehensive integrated, beautiful and perfect cosmic poem ever composed. It ranges symbolically from a primordial cosmic void, though earth's darkness and struggles to the highest realms of super mental spiritual existence and illumines every important concern of man, through verse of unparalelled massiveness, magnificence, and metaphorical brilliance. Savitri is perhaps the most powerful artistic work in the World, for expanding man's mind towards the Absolute.

S. S. WODEYAR

(Speech at the ROTARY DT. Conference, 317, in Sirsi, in January, 1973)

Our life's repose is in the Infinite.

SRI AUROBINDO

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A NOTE ON SUPERMIND

(I)

SUPERMIND is not a function, an extended function of the mind as someone seems to have presumed. Is Life then a function, an extended function of Matter? Is Mind also in its turn a function, an extended function of Life? With equal reason one might conclude that God is an extended function of man and even Heaven an extended function of Earth!

A Sanskrit wit in trying to portray a pig for the benefit of one who has never seen the animal said (in joke or in earnest, one does not know): a pig is an elephant reduced or a mouse enlarged; it would be equally cogent or correct to say that the mind is the Supermind in reduced proportions or that the Supermind is the mind in enlarged proportions. One may also remember in this connection Aesop's story of the boasting frog who wanted to inflate or blow himself into the size of a bull and blew himself up and burst into fragments in the attempt. The fate of the mind is likely to be the same if it attempted to magnify itself to the measure of Supermind.

However far the mind may be stretched, it cannot reach the Supermind. It is not a question of degree, but of kind, norm and quality. Even so, Matter, however subtilised, de-materialised remains Matter — pulverised into infinitesimal particles at the farthest limits of the material universe, it does not abandon its material nature, it does not become Life. So again with regard to Life: Life-force, however extended or subtilised, does not acquire the mental power and become Mind. Matter evinces Life-power only when life is injected into it, Life exists somewhere else, exists by itself. In the same way Life betrays mental power when Mind is injected into it, mind is by itself something else. The difference, we may say, using a philosophical jargon, is not merely epistemological but ontological. These categories are, in fact, not derivative phenomena but self-existing Reals (noumena). Perhaps the word 'Supermind' itself is somewhat responsible for a misconstruction and misunderstanding. Supermind

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does not mean a "superior mind", it means beyond mind, away from mind, unreachable for mind — aprāpya manasā saha.

Supermind is not a function: It is a reality, the fundamental substance that underlies the world and its formulations of Mind, Life and Matter. It is that secret Energy of Consciousness and Being that lies as the seed and sprouts up and gradually expresses itself in its variant poises of mounting potency. These poises are not mere functions: a function is just the expression or operation of an already acquired or established power. It is a deducible conclusion from known and given data, the data and the conclusion are of the same basic nature, that is, commensurable entities. Life and Matter are however not commensurable entities, nor Mind and Life. Even so the Supermind and Mind do not belong to the same category of objective reality. If that was so, one could very justifiably and in high seriousness proclaim in Sri Aurobindo's words - those radiant lines, bursting, as it were, with a suppressed laughter.

A DREAM OF SURREAL SCIENCE

One dreamed and saw a gland write Hamlet, drink

At the Mermaid, capture immortality;

A committee of hormones on the Aegean's brink

Composed the Iliad and the Odyssey.

 

A thyroid, meditating almost nude

Under the Bo-tree, saw the eternal Light

And, rising from its mighty solitude,

Spoke of the Wheel and eightfold Path all right.

 

A brain by a disordered stomach driven

Thundered through Europe, conquered, ruled and fell,

From St. Helena went, perhaps, to Heaven.

Thus wagged on the surreal world, until

 

A scientist played with atoms and blew out

The universe before God had time to shout.

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The distinct and disparate realities have a substratum of unity, even identity, but that is somewhere else, that is precisely what the Supermind is, God's Paraclete to creation.

(2)

The Age of Reason came and deposed God. It said and proved rationally that God is an irrelevant, unnecessary quantity. Reason is sufficient to hold together mankind and the world, to develop, elevate and illumine them as much as it is necessary. The Great Revolution declared: the Republic—Res Publico, has no need of God. Morality, a system of morals is the sole sufficient solid base; it is a known and proven reality, nothing illusory or imaginary, nothing nebulous or suppositional about it.

Things went on well, at least one thought like that, for sometime, but then it was realised soon enough that something was missing in this rationalistic frame of life, for it was almost lifeless, dry: it does not evoke enthusiasm, does not drive man spontaneously towards higher heights and deeper depths. Man remains a groundling. God need not be there: but the feeling that is associated with God and the conception of God — which is usually called the religious feeling is a genuine human feeling and with the rejection of God, the feeling does not go, it persists. So a new religion is proposed, a Godless religion, a Natural Religion and it came to be called the Religion of Humanity. God was replaced by Humanity. Humanity is a collective reality: to serve it became the ideal, the summum bonum. And to serve is to worship and adore. Thus a new deity was installed. To give yourself wholly, to work for the welfare of humanity, body and mind, to love one and all human beings, particularly those who deserve love and care - the poor, the needy, the lowly - to work so that they may be comforted, is to bring comfort to yourself, to your own soul. It is nothing short of the purest and deepest religious feeling.

Is it so? The Age of Reason made its momentous declaration long ago: it is now almost two hundred years, but actually we find man refuses to forget God. Churches and temples, communities and corporations have been cropping up always demanding that God is to be called God, He cannot be called by any other name. He is to be

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worshipped as God. No lesser gods but the Supreme God Himself. Does not the Bible say: "I thy God am a jealous God"?

A Godless morality or a Religion of Humanity, even at its best is a truncated truth. These do not possess the imperious urge of the total man; it is a headless waif wandering about in search of what it wants in this dreary wilderness of Existence.

The ancient Rishis of India knew better. They have never been for compromising for lesser truths. They said: Seek the one inalienable invariable Truth, leave all the rest aside, concentrate on that one thing alone. Even, they added, the rest is Maya, illusion, unreal, false.

They were terribly radical, iconoclasts. Cut away, they said, this world, this humanity, this nature. Go beyond into the transcendent. First enter and establish yourself there. That is the Supreme God, that is the own home of Truth. Cling to that unshakable status, thereafter only you can know of other things, then only you will know what to reject, what to accept, otherwise you will live in a glimmering mid-world of half-truths.

The Transcendental can be reached only in the transcendental way, not by pursuing the normal track, continuing the habitual line of gradual growth and development. The measures — the tensor and vector, to use again a jargon, a mathematical one — of the mental consciousness do not apply there. There is a cut, a gap, a hiatus between Here and There: one has to take a leap to cross over. Nature herself has adopted that procedure. She has risen from stage to stage through successive leaps, per saltum. Man has to do the same but consciously. He has to jump over and land on the other side with the head foremost and down, in other words, there is to be a reversal of consciousness; you stand on your head: you do not move clock-wise but perhaps anti-clockwise. You see things with another eye, the third eye - wide extended in heaven, as the Vedic Rishi says - you look from above down. Things take a different shape and value. The world is constructed in another way.

However, the Transcendent is also here within you. But to reach there too, the procedure is the same — to jump over and stand on your head. How to do? Something of that acrobatics is taught by what is called in India Yoga.

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WHAT SRI AUROBINDO MEANS TO ME

IF Sri Aurobindo is merely a word, it is a word which is more meaningful than a whole set of dictionary-full words. If he is more than a word, if he is a person, a personality, he is more than all persons put together, a personality that out personalises all personalities. But I should not go more into such imaginative expressions. I would rather make a simple statement of how he came to me and revealed his meaning to me, how like a splendid lotus he opened himself to me petal by petal and finally took me to the fragrance-loaded bosom of his great self.

The first direct impact I received from him was through his poetry. It was his short epically narrative poem 'Love and Death'. It was a happy surprise to find that in modern times, a verse could be written like this, embodying all the glorious elements of English epic poetry as well as brilliant flashes of our Indian epics, an unusual combination or rather integration of these two great poetic traditions, and yet endowed with something more that surpassed the past achievements also.

But there was, prior to this, an indirect but still deeper impact from him. It was in the 1920s, when I was just a boy of 12 years. It was the glorious and stupendous upsurge of the Non-cooperation movement started by Mahatma Gandhi. For us, the young generation, it was a great feast in innumerable ways. Our schools were nationalised and portraits of our eminent national leaders filled up all the so far barren walls around us. There among many other leaders like Tilak and Gandhi and Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das was Sri Aurobindo, just one of them yet quite apart from them also, with his serene face adorned with an unusual tuft of beard. While listening to the flowing oratories from our teachers I would silently go on gazing at his picture, and after a time a silence would descend upon me from him.

That silence from him became a slow but poignant question for me from 1930 onward. For more than 4 years we were in a desperate grip with the mighty British Empire, and I would ask myself, what is this great person doing while we are fighting out our great battles

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for freedom, why is he not with us, leading us, supporting us in our harsh moments.

The reply came in 1940, when I had his Darshan for the first time in his Ashram at Pondicherry. His silence was still there, but it was not a silent silence, it did not shut out things, but rather opened out many things which the spoken word could not. He was there before us, not with his words, or his thoughts, or his so many programmes, but with something that is beyond the speech and the mind. He presented himself to us with his whole being reaching out to our self which is deeper in us than the mind and the word, touching, awakening our secret depths, so far even unknown to our own self, and beckoning and carrying us out of our present self to something far beyond all that is expressed in life, to the Thing that transcends all that is here.

It was almost a revolution, a far more astounding experience than all our talk and work for revolution had so far brought unto us. It was a revelation, an unfolding of realities, far more real, far more convincing, far more effectively active and effectuating themselves than all our present-day realities with which we were dealing and for which we were claiming a superior height for ourselves while disclaiming such 'silent' people as Sri Aurobindo for their 'inaction', for their 'withdrawal' from the active struggle of life, from the whole active world of earth.

It is not necessary, not possible, to recount all that happened with my first Darshan of Sri Aurobindo. I would only say it gave me a great lift in my life. I was almost at a dead-stop. After 1934, when Gandhiji wound up his mass Satyagraha movement and turned to quiet constructive Harijan work, we relapsed into our old activities. Many of my friends during this struggle had turned towards Socialism and Communism discovering the insufficiency of Gandhiji's approach to our problems. But for me, I could see the gaps and loopholes in the Socialist and Communist approach also. The problem was not only of the political or social structure of life. It was far deeper, reaching out to the very roots of existence. There even Gandhiji's prayerful approach of surrender to the Divine was not sufficiently effective. I was in search, rather I should say, I was in need of a more effectuating force that could really change and master

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things, that could really establish the victory of Truth. And the problem of Truth itself was there, far more puzzling and intriguing than all problems put together. I had at my disposal all the Vedantic philosophy, all the traditional ways of Bhakti and Sannyas, the modern materialistic and other western approaches with their teeming isms. But something in me demanded a thing far deeper than or far superior to all these. And I was at a standstill. Even my little glory of poetic creation was not an answer to what I needed. I discovered, to my own surprise, that with all these activities, with my willingness to offer the best of myself, there was nothing around me that could absorb all that I had to give or could give. During the periods of our jail-life, by which we had satisfied to the full our obligations to our national struggle, I discovered that my inner self was still left unemployed for any active participation in a higher creation of fife. I found that there were still large tracts in my being which had remained untouched so far and all this wanted to come into some action. There was a great vacuum facing me on almost every side of life.

And I could see that Sri Aurobindo offered to me, as none else had done so far, something which met my necessity in whatever aspect I formulated it to be. Like a thirsty child I could hardly resist the drink that Sri Aurobindo offered to me. And I sought for the ways and means to integrate myself more and more with all that Sri Aurobindo was giving to me, not only to me, but to the whole world.

And I discovered that I was invited to a new revolution in everything that I had and I gratefully accepted the invitation. There came a moment when I could see that I could entirely offer myself for the work Sri Aurobindo was busy with. In the fulfilment of that work I could find that there was the complete fulfilment of all that I also had wanted to achieve. Thus there came about a complete union of my approach with his approach to life and to all that it contained, and to all that was to be added to it.

There happened a full merging of my life-flow into the great surging life-force that he embodied. It was a perfect sense of realising all that I wanted to realise in my little life. I offered myself to him and he accepted it.

Thus starting from his written poetic word which culminated in his great epic Savitri I ended at the unwritten and unspoken Presence

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enshrined in Sri Aurobindo, covering the whole circuit of all human effort and all its achievements. As I read more and more all that he had written I saw the great poet in him, the adroit politician, the subtle thinker, the sharp logician, the deep seer, the profound philosopher, the great man of action that aroused the whole of India to the first battle-cry of freedom and the person that left behind him all these to follow a higher call to realise things that were not realised so far on the human plane. The action, the force, that I had found wanting in all our active great people, in our leaders and our politicians, was discovered in him. The thought that I had found still escaping in all philosophy I found amply illumined by him. And still more the deep experience of love and delight that life seemed incapable of providing, was given to me in its extreme amplitude by him. All that I had desired, aspired for, worked for, all that I had dreamt about, all that I had struggled for, fought for, I found, surprisingly enough, being done by him on a much larger scale, almost on a superhuman scale. My deepest urge was to do something for the life at large, and I found that Sri Aurobindo was there to do that very 'something' — that 'Thing' most necessary for the whole of life. Our great battle-cry for India's freedom was for him only a prelude to a greater battle-cry for humanity's freedom from all that has kept it chained to a basic incapacity in life, to the inborn slavery to ignorance and misery. The call that took him away from India's active life was to cast the whole human stuff, the whole of humanity, the whole life of earth into a new mould of superhuman nature. And along with this call, Sri Aurobindo says, the necessary knowledge and the effectuating force was revealed and given to him in course of his Sadhana at Pondicherry, and even before that.

As he says, in so many words, the secret Reality had opened all its treasures to him and the same treasures he is now offering to the whole world. And the world is there now receiving with gratitude all that is amply out flowing from him. His dream, his proposition of a Life Divine on earth is no longer a mere dream but a profound subtle Reality that is working out its materialization in the most material conditions of human existence.

SUNDARAM

(Courtesy: Indian Literature)

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SRI AUROBINDO AND THE BHAGAVAD GITA

IV

THE PATH OF WORK

IT has become a commonplace in the Indian tradition — at least the dominant tradition, that of the Vedanta — to relegate work to a secondary and preliminary place, and consider it only a means of purification, to be relinquished when one is ready for the serious business of rising to true knowledge in the Transcendence. But the Gita, fully recognizing the Transcendence, nevertheless gives work a most prominent place, and maintains that by work alone one can come to Knowledge and liberation. Many commentators have sought to explain or interpret this away, and give us a Gita that is Vedantic after all. But Sri Aurobindo reaffirms what the Gita actually says, reiterates and insists upon it, and gives it an even fuller development and meaning.

There must be a renunciation of work, that is of the worldly entanglements brought by work, but the real, the true renunciation is an inner thing and not just something outward and ostensible to the fleshly eye. To place an exclusive emphasis on an outward action and movement is to capitulate to the very thing from which one is trying to get free. It is still an exceptional mind that can grasp the large, many-sided, synthetic view and teaching of the Gita, and this obvious fact, insisted on there with a tireless reiteration, has escaped most readers, and doers of yoga. The ideal of the Sannyasin, the Renunciate in a formal and most external way, has prevailed; the wandering ascetic, the recluse in the cave or on the mountain, has become the very type of the spiritual and sagely man, and the more comprehensive knowledge of the Gita is largely lost, ignored or "explained" out of force and meaning.

But, as the Gita rightly insists, to attempt to escape from work itself is futile, and the escape is an un philosophical mirage. Aside from the danger that one may easily confuse the outward renunciation

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itself with the thing sought, or become attached to inaction and thus entangled in a feeble quiescence and a false release, to be truly and entirely inactive is not possible. For the universal energies proceed, driven ultimately by the Force of the divine Consciousness, the Chit-Shakti of the manifestation. Even if one's goal is utterly to leave the manifestation, while he is in it he does work, and is subject to it. He may reduce his work to the bare minimum - just what is required to keep his body alive; still some effort is required; and even his meditation, his concentration, are work themselves, and require ceaseless vigilance and will. And again, if one does not have the true, the inner renunciation, this minimum work of liberation is itself a bondage: and by clinging to his bonds one does not come free. Moreover, even if one becomes locked in a perpetual meditation accompanying all his movements he does not cease to move, and do what is required and necessary. Even if he comes to be able to do without food, even if he is absorbed in a trance of withdrawal, still his nature is maintained by the Shakti, whose work is the world.

One may say that this is a relative thing, of course, and that the goal of the embodied being is to do as little work as possible, have as little involvement with the embodiment as possible until it is able to transcend it. Great results have been obtained and may be obtained in this way, and the process is valid as far as it goes. But this physical-vital-mental body of ours is more than just a spring-board, as it were, and something to be relinquished — more than just a raft on which to cross to the "other shore" — for the pertinent question remains, why did one leave it? — and the Shakti is not so easily ignored. Even the most uncompromising Sannayasins indeed must make some terms with her and her world, and the wiser of them at least take her in some sense as more than pure illusion. Mahayana Buddhism certainly does so: its samsara is Nirvana, which does not mean that the samsara life and death it is translated in Chinese ideograms -is not "real", though the Life beyond is the Truth. A Milarepa may go through one of the most starkly austere courses of discipline on record and yet burst out in song, poetry celebrating his high experience. Poetry is a voice of the Divine to the Divine's world, and not a kind of solipsism in the void. The true Void is full, it teems with true existence. The Bodhisattva ideal of the Mahayana is the reverse

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of world-denying: it would save the world, make it a world in which the true Buddha dwells — the eternal desert that is all bloom in all variety, manifoldly One. This Bodhisattva ideal has now been brought to its perfection by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, who have brought the divine transforming consciousness to the earth.

But nowadays there is less and less instance even among mystics and yogis of a wholly world-denying persuasion. The dominant and increasingly powerful influence is for world-affirmation. Even though it is possible to withdraw to a transcendent state and abjure embodiment and involvement with the world, that is not the dominant spiritual calling and aspiration of this new age. Latterly indeed there have been many who, missing the great synthesis of the Gita, have tried to emphasize above all its "doctrine of work"; under the "humanitarian" influences now prevalent (good, but not all-sufficient), the Gita is even taken as primarily a teaching of the duty of social service. But it does not teach social service at all, in the usual understanding of that term. Society is held together by the Lord, a spiritual power, not the egoistic or ego-bound works of mankind; and a society too unspiritual to be thus held together must perish. Kurukshetra destroyed self-seeking and self-importance become too blatant and domineering, leaving a remnant by whom a better society might be formed. The work taught by the Gita is not ordinary human work, even the most altruistic, ethical and moral of which is based on the ego-sense; but work as Yoga: work that rises to the spiritual cohesiveness, away from the divisiveness of the dark drives.

Yoga is Union: the human nature raised by its indwelling god to its truth, is divinity above. There are many paths and ways of Yoga, and many partial achievements; the Gita offers a synthesis of ways, that has been brought by Sri Aurobindo to the greatest comprehensiveness the world has had. One of the paths is that of work: and since everyone must work, in whatever way or degree, every yogin to some extent must be a yogin of work: that is, he must do his work in the right spirit and so be a karma yogin. It is by karma, work, that a man is brought to his true nature, it is that indispensable work that is ultimately of the Divine. For a complete yoga of the whole nature much work is necessary, for it helps to develop and perfect the more

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outward parts and elements of the nature, the vehicles of the manifestation. Ceaselessly, in all his activities, the aspirant to divinity must practice Karma Yoga. From this comes liberation, and not only liberation, but mastery.

All yoga requires a drawing back of the energies, powers, consciousness from the habitual somnambulistic whirling, reeling and stumbling, the blind plodding and confusion of the Ignorance. One must not rush out indiscriminately and slavishly, but must go within and above. He must examine and cultivate his inner nature toward and into the spiritual. For this he must develop a complete equality of nature, an equanimity, an equability: he must be able to accept everything that comes, and every possibility, without being disturbed until he can see that everything indeed comes from God, for his growth. This means that he must give up, must overcome hi s egoistic propulsions and reactions to things. It is the ego that fears and is despondent, that is elated by success and cast down by failure, that insists upon its own ideas and ways of things and resents, resists, opposes, hates and turns away from what it can only consider the interference and the threat of a divine teaching and calling, a truer way of things. It is not this turbulence and pain that is real, and whatever "vigor" it may have is a thrust and hold of darkness. The ego is the prime tool of the hostile vital powers, and their influences that have sunk into the subconscious, and reprise from it chaotically and when the man is least able to deal with them. And aside from this the ego at best is a growth of the Ignorance, and cannot lead one truly. The ego must be dissolved, and one must find the true nature, in which the cries of the ego are irrelevant and meaningless and its crippling terms no longer hold. One must be beyond all close-clutching preference and sense of "need", all attraction and aversion, all separative passion, feeling or thought, lust, thirst and craving; beyond all desire. This does not mean that one should accept the imposition of other egos upon himself: he must guard himself, and following hi s true inward nature free himself, and rise above the whole field and process. He must resist entirely the ego, the bubble that would be the full st ream and course of things. He must channel and purify all his desires to the one desire for Divinity, and then forget even that.

All fear and shrinking must be overcome, and one must cultivate

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a great energy, a fire of tapas, the concentrating power of Chit-Shakti by which the Divine creates and manifests possibilities of his nature. One must have a serious and sincerely founded and maintained intensity in all things and a ceaseless vigilance. He must be tranquil, stable, collect ed and aware in all circumstances even the most difficult and trying, the most difficult, demanding and even dangerous situations and activities. He must never be moved from hi s poise of tranquility, never unmanned and given over to the self-seeking bondage, never indulgent to the thrust of action egoistically initiated and motivated, returning an egoistic reaction to events and persons and the way of the world. Desire and thirst, anger and rage, greed and the insatiable grasping urge that grows by what it feeds on, these are nothing but enemies of his nature that must be destroyed. His work, his life is not for himself and not even for humanity; but for the Divine. He must be calm and equable, free from desire and attachment, personal preoccupation and longing and all self-will; his will and eventually his entire nature must be that of divinity. Of course this is a progressive thing, and is not achieved in a moment, or to be expected at the outset. One must make ceaseless effort, and fundamentally all his work is this work, tha t of an inner strengthening, recognition, purification, detachment, turning and rising toward the Light and the Deva, away from the self-seeking Ashuric darkness. Also he must rise above the sloth and the inertia of the common nature, and not confuse it with the true peace: he must be active, with an indomitable energy, strength and radiance: not merely revolving in some accustomed round, and then going home too " tired" for any serious endeavor; and also not rushing about frantically " busy" to stifle hi s feeling of emptiness and inability to begin a true self-examination .

Cultivating the integrating, consolidating, concentrating Fire of tapas he must make himself over into a fit worker, a consummate maker of karma and destiny. Without egoistic propensity he must be quiet, through all his nature. He must not be moved, or capable of being moved fundamentally, whatever the perturbations of the surface. This quiet must deepen into a positive calm, that imposes itself on the nature and active ly repels all threat of disturbance from the outside. One must be sure beyond possibility of relapse that there is no danger to his true self whatever happens, and that all is

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in divine hands. With his indomitable progress this calm will eventually heighten and deepen and expand to the very divine Peace "that passeth all understanding".

This is the inner work: but it is done by engaging in outer work, and eventually reacts upon it, to perfect it. In the words of Krishna to Arjuna, "Yoga is skill in action". Whatever work one does must be done in the yogic spirit. One may have a very definite work to do that he is called and directed to by his nature, or he may be given a certain work by the Divine or by his Guru or Teacher: or he may be doing something that he has to do, whatever he can find to do or has somehow gotten into to maintain himself within his particular society; in any case, the spirit of his work must be the same — free of attachment he works for the Divine alone. He must overcome any idea that one work is nobler or better than another, and come free of any distinction between higher and lower, important and unimportant, sacred and secular. All is the Divine and his Shakti's work and glory, all is a cultivation of the divine garden eventually to bloom. "No work, no food" was the dictum of a Chinese Buddhist Master: he labored in the fields with his disciples, though he could understand and expound the high scriptures as they could not. He did not consider this any degradation from his most proper activity. So Christian monastic brothers have maintained themselves, with the understanding that to work is also to pray. The work of a kitchen scullion or a carrier of bricks, if done in the right spirit, is better than a splendid work of art, scholarship or "science", done egoistically. Every necessary work is equal in the divine eye, and can be ennobling. This does not mean that one must ascetically renounce work that he is naturally especially well fitted for, is drawn to and enjoys doing, for something that is indifferent or even repugnant to him, and might be done better by someone else. The Divine respects one's natural propensities and everyone must develop in his own way. But he must not enjoy his work in a grasping spirit, and he must not let other work unsettle him in repugnance or aversion. He must be equal in all circumstances and activities; he must overcome his aversion and his lack of respect, and he must be ready to undertake any work that may be required, and do it conscientiously, to the best of his ability, as an offering to the Lord. The

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exquisite illuminator of manuscripts must also be able and willing to peel potatoes or wait on tables, perhaps, with no diminution or loss of prayer. "God lives among the pots and pans", according to St. Teresa; to scrub them was as important as to write books, reform rules and found convents; as important as the formal act of prayer on one's knees.

The process is long of course, and not easy. There are some born further ahead than others, and capable of more rapid progress, or even of starting at an advanced stage; but even they have had to traverse all the stages, in a gradual development that may well take more than one life-time for its completion. First one must turn from and reject and conquer all desire for the fruits of one's labor, even the caring whether fruits come or not. He may accept such fruits as do come, but must not be egoistically attached to them. His work is not for possessive hope of reward or return, or some personal desire, enjoyment and pleasure, but for the Divine. Not only must he have no attachment to the fruits, he must have no attachment to the work itself, no feeling of" I am the doer". At first even though detached from desire for fruits and results he will feel that he is the doer. By turning increasingly to the god within and above, by aspiring and seeking light and power, giving up self-will for the divine will, he gradually comes to understand that not he is the doer, not he himself alone, but himself moved by God. But also this awareness must be overcome, passed beyond.

The required labor is too immense for one to accomplish all by himself, by his own unaided efforts. Most if not all spiritual tradition has insisted on the importance of the Teacher, the Guide, the Guru. In some schools he is taken as only a guide in an ordinary sense, who can point out pitfalls and correct wrong movements and assumptions, give outer discipline and perhaps inspire by his presence and his own experience and achievement. But the full Guru is more than this: he is an active channel of the Divine, he can work with the most direct influence and force upon his disciples and actively remove their blemishes, and give them power and light for advancing. He may-tell them how to help themselves, but he also does more — the more efficacious as they are able to co-operate and increase their own ability, capacity and aspiration. The Divine Himself" is the greatest and the

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ultimate Guru, and Arjuna is most blessed in having Krishna for his charioteer and guide. But this does not mean that without a Guru, without being a formally accepted disciple of a Teacher, one must lie down and perish. One must indeed make himself worthy of a Guru and ready for him — as Arjuna has done, though he is confused and not conscious of it, of his full nature, progress and ability. One must begin by his own efforts, turn homeward naturally because he is ready, and when he has a Teacher he must co-operate and work harder; only after a very large and comprehensive advance can he relinquish the work wholly to the Divine. But the Divine is always with him, and he may be sure that he is taken care of, and that when he is ready for a Guru the way will open; one must work, and there is never cause for despondency.

The worker must come to recognize that the work is truly the Divine's, and that all is the divine activity. Many stages of this recognition and realization may be distinguished, but it is fundamentally a progress from fragmentation to wholeness, from separation to integration; from the egoistic human darkness to the non-egoistic Truth and Light. And the stages are not like steps or strata entirely separated, up which one climbs; there is much blending and interaction and even shifting back and forth, until one has decisively arrived. Losing fully all idea of being oneself the doer, one recognizes that he is only a channel, an instrument of the Divine, moved wholly by the divine purpose, pulse and will. Finally He comes to know that the work, the fruit, the instrument and everything truly is the Divine, and that there is nothing else at all. In this realization the Peace blooms out in the Source and the fountain flows of the true nature, one has come home, to Truth, Freedom and Beatitude.

Now the devotee, the worker, has become the Jivanmukta: he is "free-while-living", without attachments to his instruments and their workings and results he continues in the world. The traditional idea of this state is still "world-denying", however: the free one simply continues to work, to live and act in this world until the accumulated impetus and karma of that life has run out, when he will be utterly free in the Transcendence and come no more to the manifestation. Even in his the Gita does not clearly and expressly mean more than this. But mighty poem in the noble alcaic measure modified and modulated to

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English requirements, his authoritative utterance Jivanmukta, Sri Aurobindo gives more, the consummated divine man or being in whom freedom is not complete only on withdrawal: he acts and lives

Only to bring God's forces to waiting Nature,

To help with wide-winged Peace her tormented labour

And heal with joy her ancient sorrow,

Casting down light on the inconscient darkness ...

This Aurobindonean Jivanmukta can work as the Lord wills, in full consciousness he sustains the world and leads its progress. His individual nature is one with the Divine and the Divine's manifestation; he sees what is to be done, and he does it, utterly free. He can take many births here, "consenting to a mortal body", without the least loss of freedom and transcendent stability, light and knowledge. He is utterly involved, with full Knowledge, in the world's workings, and he is above them. He can drive and encompass the most terrible slaughter without fear, pain, revulsion or false and weak sympathy; he can celebrate and perform the most splendid manifestations of Light and Sweetness, Beauty and Love without any obfuscating flurry or furor of jubilation. He lives entirely and forever in Bliss, at once beyond human sorrow and human joy, human grief and human exultation. His nature of work has been perfected by Knowledge and by Devotion. Because there is no real stopping short of this, but only a too hasty turning away and cutting of the knot, it is to this and nothing less that Arjuna is called: and, like Arjuna, the whole of humanity.

JESSE ROARKE

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THE DIALECTIC OF LIBERATION:

A STUDY OF THE TRIPLE THEORY OF DESTRUCTION,

DEMATERIALISATION, AND DIVINISATION

USUALLY the concept of liberation is understood from the point of view of the soul which on putting an end to its prior state of bondage, realises its natural freedom. Instead of throwing the emphasis on the soul and its realisation, we may focus our attention on the essential consequence or condition of that realisation, and discuss the significance of liberation from that point of view. In other words, attention may be focused on the consequence for bodily existence following liberation or on the condition of body determining the nature of liberation. On this basis we may refer to three important theories: the theories of destruction, dematerialisation, and divinisation.

I

LIBERATION BY DESTRUCTION OF BODILY EXISTENCE

Broadly speaking, two kinds of liberation are spoken of: liberation in embodied state, Jivanmukti, and liberation in disembodied condition, Videhamukti. A number of philosophical systems recognise this twofold classification in one form or the other-Sankhaya, Buddhism, Advaita, Dvaita, Saivasiddhanta, etc. Visistadvaita is an exception in that it accepts only the latter kind. Since the question whether or not the twofold classification is valid is of little consequence to us, we shall not go into it. A Jivanmukta is one who having realised the true nature of the soul continues to remain in body till the Prarabdha Karma is worked out. In other words, a Jivanmukta is free in the sense he has overcome the delusions of the dualities of bodily life, but he is not free enough to get over the Prarabdha Karma without working it out in life. The moment it is exhausted without residue, the Jivanmukta gives up his body and his soul attains perfect liberation,

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Videhamukti. It is evident now that Jivanmukti and Videhamukti do not differ in kind but only in degree — they are but two stages of a single process, one leading to the other. Some believe that for Advaita the difference between Jivanmukti and Videhamukti relates only to having and not having the body, and in terms of consciousness such a difference does not exist at all. But it may be pointed out that the followers of Advaita are divided on this question. It is held by some that the Jivanmukta is not completely free, because in him there is still a trace of Avidya, Avidyalesa, which alone accounts for the continuance of his bodily existence. We may therefore conclude that for Advaita as well as other systems perfect liberation necessarily results in total extinction of bodily existence.

If liberation means a condition of perfect freedom of the soul with no limitation whatever, then it can be achieved only by throwing away the body, for the body by its very nature is a source of limitations. It is impossible to get rid of them without getting rid of the body itself. Hence to be absolutely free is to be absolutely free from bodily existence.

II

LIBERATION BY DEMATERIALISATION OF BODILY EXISTENCE

A good number of spiritual aspirants of Tamilnad, both men and women, belonging to different ages, have sought liberation by dematerialising their bodily existence. Of these reference may be made to three great men: Manikavacakar (nth century), Mututantavar (18th century) and Ramalingam (19th century).

In Tiruvacakam, a Tamil work held in very high esteem by the votaries of Saivism, Manikavacakar says that his "death-prone body"¹ has been replaced by a "body oozing with delight"², a "body acting as a source of delight"³. He also believes that liberation amounting to a total extinction of bodily existence is not desirable. Referring to this point, he makes two significant remarks: "Will they (probably the wise men) not laugh at me if I were to throw off my body?"⁴, "Am I to believe, O Lord, that in order to take refuge in your feet the body is to be given up?"⁵ He also affirms, while talking about the transfermation

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of his body, that the supreme Light has transformed his bones by injecting into their pores the wonderful streams of ambrosia"⁶ and enabled him to acquire "a form full of effulgent light"⁷.

Once the devotees of Lord Nataraja at Chidambaram requested Manikavacakar to reveal to them the hidden secret of his work, Tiruvacakam. He said he would do so in the presence of Lord himself at the temple. Accordingly when the devotees were waiting for his word, before the deity, Manikavacakar turned himself suddenly into a radiant light and disappeared with these words: "He who dances here is the true import of the work"⁸.

Mututantavar is an ardent devotee of Manikavacakar. He aspires to become one with Lord Nataraja in exactiy the same way in which the latter did. He voices a prayer to Him: "would you give me what you granted to Manikavacakar?"⁹ He makes a specific request that he would not prefer to leave his body as corpse in order to be one with Him: "Kindly do not cremate my body or bury it deep into the earth"¹⁰, but "take it into yourself even as the burning fire takes the camphor into itself"¹¹. Tradition goes that he also, like his predecessor, disappeared with his body right in the presence of Lord Nataraja at the temple¹².

Like Mututantavar, Ramalingam also holds Manikavacakar in high esteem. In his work Tiruvarulpa, he addresses Manikavacakar as one who became "indistinguishably one with the heaven"¹³. Speaking about the transformation of the latter's body, he says: "you acquired a body of delight after acquiring successively a body of love and a body of grace"¹⁴. Then referring to himself, Ramalingam says that his body too underwent a threefold transformation resulting in the appearance of three bodies one after another — Suddha Deha, Pranava Deha, and Jnana Deha¹⁵. He describes the various qualities of the body so acquired. It is a body absolutely pure and perfect¹⁶, indestructible¹⁷, and effulgent¹⁸. As a result of absolute union with Him, both in consciousness and in body¹⁹, the body is now emitting the fragrance of camphor.²⁰ We also learn from biographical references that his body was without weight²¹, and that he also like his predecessors disappeared with his body.²²

In the case of these great men liberation does not mean what it

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meant to those who advocated the theory of annihilation of bodily existence. To the former, though the limitations associated with human life have their origin in the body, they do not belong to the body in an essential sense. They are associated with it only accidentally. That the limitations of the body are only accidental is borne out beyond doubt by the lives of these people themselves. So to eliminate the limitations is not to eliminate the body. In short, liberation means a transformation of the body with limitations into a body without limitations. We have also to note that in a process of this kind, the transformed body loses its perceptibility and consequently becomes dematerialised . It appears that this consequence is inevitable

III

LIBERATION BY DIVINISATION OF BODILY EXISTENCE

The theory of liberation by divinisation of bodily existence, the like of which never existed before, has been put forward by Sri Aurobindo. Referring to the theory of destruction, he observes: "In the past the body has been regarded by spiritual seekers rather as an obstacle, as something to be overcome and discarded than as an instrument of spiritual perfection and a field of the spiritual change. It has been condemned as a grossness of Matter, as an insuperable impediment and the limitations of the body as something unchangeable making transformation impossible²³". Elsewhere he says: "If the Indian saying is true that the body is the instrument provided for the fulfilment of the right law of our nature, then any final recoil from the physical life must be a turning away from the completeness of the divine wisdom and a renunciation of its aim in earthly manifestation. ... The obstacle which the physical presents to the spiritual is no argument for the rejection of the physical; for in the unseen providence of things our greatest difficulties are our best opportunities. A supreme difficulty is Nature's indication to us of a supreme conquest to be won and an ultimate problem to be solved; it is not a warning of an inextricable snare to be shunned or of an enemy too strong for us from whom we must flee"²⁴. As is evident from the two passages

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quoted here, Sri Aurobindo has three things to say: (1) in the spiritual tradition the body is discarded as something incapable of transformation; (2) transformation of the body may be a supreme difficulty, but it remains so only to be conquered; (3) to give up the body as something incapable of transformation amounts to a renunciation of God's aim in earthly manifestation. Now it may be noted that a proper understanding of Sri Aurobindo's theory of divinisation depends upon what he means by God's aim in earthly manifestation.

What is God's aim in earthly manifestation? Sri Aurobindo answers this question with the help of his doctrine of evolution. To put it briefly, the supreme Spirit through the creative power of Super-mind subjects itself to a series of involutions and finally reaches the Inconscient, the sea of unconscious atoms, with a view to manifest itself in the medium of matter. The series begins with Supermind and passes through Mind, Life, and Matter and the final outcome is the Inconscient. To fulfil the original aim the Spirit involved in the Inconscient undergoes a series of evolutions — Matter, Life, Mind, and Supermind — and finally establishes its kingdom in matter. The evolution of Mind in Matter has brought man into existence, and so the future evolution of Supermind should take place in man only. With the appearance of Supermind in man, his body undergoes a triple transformation — psychic, spiritual and super mental, and in consequence, the human body is divested of all its present limitations and becomes a divine or supramental body with the divine attributes of lightness, luminosity, and elasticity. Describing the nature of the transformed body, the Mother, the collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, says: "the form will be built up with qualities rather than with solid (dust) particles. It will be so to say a practical or pragmatic form: it will be supple and mobile, unlike the fixed grossly material shape. As the expression of your face changes with your feeling, impulsion, even so the body will change according to the need of the inner movement: have you never had this kind of experience in your dream? You rise up in the air and you give as it were a push with your elbow in one direction and your body extends that way; you give a kick with your foot and you land somewhere else; you can be transparent at will and go easily through a solid wall! The transformed body will behave somewhat in the same way, it will be light, luminous, elastic. Lightness,

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luminosity, elasticity will be very fundamental qualities of the body"²⁵. Now we are in a position to state Sri Aurobindo's answer to the question — What is God's aim in earthly manifestation? His aim, according to Sri Aurobindo, is to establish his rule in matter with man as the essential instrument and evolutionary transformation of the human body as the essential method.

In the light of what Sri Aurobindo has said about supramenta\ transformation, we may arrive at a definite understanding of the theory of divinisation. If the secret of evolution in earth consists in the manifestation of the supramental Spirit in matter with supramen-tal transformation as the essential device, then liberation by annihilation of bodily existence is inconsistent with the evolutionary aim, as it amounts to an escape from terrestrial world. Liberation by divinisation, or supramental transformation, of bodily existence is the only desirable kind consistent with the aim of terrestrial evolution. When compared with the theories of destruction and dematerialisation, the theory of divinisation is entirely opposed to the first and similar to the second, especially in that that liberation does not mean a liberation out of the body, but a liberation of the body with limitations into a body without limitations.

IV

RAMALINGAM AND SRI AUROBINDO

Since the teachings of Ramalingam and Sri Aurobindo, concerning liberation, are identical in certain respects, some hastily conclude that Sri Aurobindo simply restates what Ramalingam has already said in a different form using a different terminology. To think so is to utterly misunderstand what each of them precisely stood for. Perhaps answering a similar point, Sri Aurobindo writes about his supramental yoga: "our yoga is not a retreading of old walks, but a spiritual adventure"²⁶. By implication (for the aim of supramental yoga is liberation by supramental transformation or divinisation) he points out that the kind of liberation he advocates is totally new and never existed before. On another occasion he makes it clear that even the Vedic Rishis were not aware of this kind of liberation: "The Vedic Rishis

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never attained to the supermind for the earth or perhaps did not even make the attempt. They tried to rise individually to the supramental plane, but they did not bring it down and make it a permanent part of the earth-consciousness"²⁷. However we have to remember that he does not deny the kind of transformation or liberation achieved by men like Ramalingam, but what he denies is that his concept of liberation is identical with that of these people: "the endeavour towards this achievement (transformation of body) is not new and some yogis have achieved it, I believe — but not in the way I wanted it"²⁸.

Sri Aurobindo refers to two kinds of transformation: transformation as siddhi and transformation as dharma, and this helps us to grasp the fundamental distinction between himself and Ramalingam. If the transformation of a body is due to the work of an individual consciousness, then it is spoken of as Siddhi. A transformation of this kind does not have any impact on the humanity. Where the transformation of a body is due to the work of collective consciousness, there it is referred to as dharma. This kind of transformation brings about a new and abiding possibility for the humanity itself. The essential difference between individual and collective transformation may be brought out in another way also. When the transformation is of the nature of siddhi, the surrounding bodies and the environment in general do not undergo any kind of change and remain as they were before. But on the contrary, when the transformation is of the nature of dharma, there is correspondingly a definite change, however subtle it may be, in the surrounding bodies as well as surroundings in general.

The body that comes about as a siddhi is referred to by Ramalingam as an eternal body, nityadeha. The body that emerges as a dharma is the supramental body referred to by Sri Aurobindo. With the appearance of a supramental body what happens is that not all human bodies or physical matter become supramental, but acquire a definite possibility that their undivine qualities are no longer essential but only accidental. Or the resistance of the physical matter that prevents this possibility from becoming its permanent and common property disappears. Before divinisation of the physical body becomes an actual fact, what is initially and primarily needed is that in some measure the physical matter would have become receptive to that possibility. It is this kind of change that makes the appearance of a supramental body possible.

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The appearance of an eternal body does not at all bring about or involve a general change in the surrounding bodies or physical matter. Though here a single body becomes divine, other bodies or physical matter continue to be resistant and essentially undivine. It is in the context of this basic distinction that we have to understand the words of Sri Aurobindo: "the endeavour towards this achievement (transformation of body) is not new and some yogis have achieved it, I believe — but not in the way I wanted it. They achieved it as a personal siddhi maintained by yoga-siddhi — not a dharma of the nature"²⁹.

That the eternal body of Ramalingam is of the nature of a kind of siddhi, is borne out by his own writings:

(a) "O Lord, by granting your freedom, allow me to eradicate death, disease, age, fear, suffering, etc., to transform this body into an eternal one, and to live a supreme life of siddhi immortal and delightful"³⁰.

(b) "I promise that you would acquire the supreme siddhi of eternal body"³¹.

(c) "Arul joti has announced that the aim of liberation is only to achieve siddhi"³².

That the aim of liberation is only to achieve siddhi is significant and relevant to our discussion. It affirms by implication that the eternal body of Ramalingam is not of the nature of dharma.

V

DHARMA DOCTRINE AND THE LAW OF EVOLUTIONARY TRANSFORMATION

Why should Sri Aurobindo insist that the transformation of the body must be of the nature of dharma and not of siddhi? Physical body is of two levels: subtle and gross. If a body is transformed without a corresponding change in the surroundings in general, only the subtle part of the body undergoes that transformation and the body at the gross level does not participate in that process. If transformation is to be done at this level too, it can be done only if the physical matter in general is also transformed in a certain measure, as we have already stated in the previous section. This is the law

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of evolutionary transformation. Speaking about this question, the Mother says: "A particular body can not change unless there is a corresponding change in the surrounding bodies and in the surroundings generally also; for one lives and moves through mutual interchange in the midst of others. A collective change takes more time than individual change. So it is no longer an individual consciousness, but the collective consciousness that has to do the work"³³. If the body at the gross level is compelled to undergo transformation, disregarding this law, then it is transformed at the expense of its essential quality by which it can retain itself in earth conditions, viz. perceptibility. Then disappearance of the transformed body follows as an inevitable consequence, because its transformation does not conform to the evolutionary law. In other words, the reason for this consequence is that the body thus transformed is unable to put up with the mounting resistance from physical bodies and physical matter around. It is precisely because of this reason that Ramalingam and others had to disappear from the earth. They had no choice except to disappear with their body. Talking about the disappearance of Chaitanya and Ramalingam, Sri Aurobindo says: "Their new body was either a non-physical or subtle physical body not adopted for life on the earth; if it were not so, they would not have disappeared"³⁴.

In one of his last poems, perhaps composed not long before his disappearance, Ramalingam seems to suggest that he is heading towards a final transformation which might bring about his disappearance immediately.

To state the substance of the relevant verse: "To-day within an hour that follows, my Lord comes and takes possession of my place. He would become one with my wide body and no longer leave my heart. More than once I promise that my words would be evident to you at the end of an hour"³⁵.

There are two important suggestions here: (1) very shortly a new kind of transformation is going to set in in his body; (2) and the consequence of that transformation will be immediately evident to observe outside. In the context of what happened to Ramalingam later, these two suggestions may be interpreted thus: (1) he is announcing that his gross body will be shortly transformed; (2) at

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the end of that process his body would disappear, enabling the observers outside also to take note of that change probably by means of inference from the fact of his disappearance.

The reason why Sri Aurobindo insists upon transformation as a kind of Dharma is obviously to prevent the inevitable consequence of dematerialisation, and also to be consistent with the law of evolutionary transformation. A body thus transformed can sustain itself in the earth, and there is nothing that makes dematerialisation or dissolution of its quality of perceptibility inevitable. Sri Aurobindo makes a pointed reference to this fact: "Lastly, it (the physical body) will be turned into the stuff of light, each cell will radiate the supramental glory. Not only those who are developed enough to have their subtle sight open but ordinary man too will be able to perceive this luminosity. It will be an evident fact to each and all, a permanent proof of the transformation which will convince even the most sceptical"³⁶.

It may be pointed out that the theory of divinisation is the only consistent form of liberation. If liberation means absolute freedom, then liberation by destruction as well as dematerialisation suffers limitation. The former is limited in that the body is left unchangeable; the latter is limited in that the transformed body can not be part of the earthly life. But liberation by divinisation suffers none of these limitations — the body is not only not unchangeable but also the body when transformed is part of the earthly life.³⁷

VI

THE DIALECTIC OF LIBERATION

The development of the concept of liberation, from our standpoint, appears to follow a dialectic pattern — the theory of destruction presenting the thesis, the theory of dematerialisation the antithesis, and the theory of divinisation the synthesis. The advocates of the first theory affirm that the body is incapable of transformation because it participates in the undivine earthly life. Those who subscribe to the second theory deny the view of the former. They hold that the body is capable of transformation, and as the earthly life is

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undivine, the transformed body can not be part of the latter. The adherents of the third theory maintain that the body as well as the earthly life is capable of transformation, and since the earthly life is not essentially undivine after transformation, the transformed body can be part of the earthly life. The theory of divinisation synthesizes the essential truths of the two other theories: the theory of destruction emphasises the truth that the bodily life is part of the earthly life, but wrongly believes that neither the body nor the physical matter can be different from what they are; the theory of dematerialisation brings home the other truth that the human body can be transformed into a body possessed of divine qualities, but wrongly thinks that transformation is confined only to the body; and the theory of divinisation establishes the synthetic truth that the divine body can be part of the earthly life which is no longer essentially undivine after transformation, and at the same time rejects the view that the body and the physical matter are incapable of transformation, or that transformation is limited to the body only.

N. JAYASHANMUKHAM

NOTES

1. Tiruvantapakuti, II8.

2. Op. cit., 120

3. Op. cit., 177

4. Koilmotatirupatikam, 8

5. Kulaitapatu, 9

6. Tiruvantapakuti, 175

7. Atisayapatu, 8

8. Tiruvacakam, pakuti-l,

Cennai Makana tamil cankam, Manikavacakar varalaru, 17

9. S. Rutirapatiyar, Isai periyar movar, Akila Indiya Patipakam, 1946, p. 79

10. Ibid., p. 80

11. Ibid., p. 81

12. Ibid., p. 81

13. Tiruarulpa, Alutaiatikal, 7

(Pub: Ti. Na. Mutaiya Cetiyar, 1924)

14. Op. cit., 3

15. Suttasivanilai, 17

16. Varampilviyapu, 40

17. Tanipatal, 97

18. Kuraiyiratal, 6

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19. Anupava malai, 98

20. Op. cit., 10

21. Caritira Kuripukal, 55

22. Op. cit., 63

23. Sri Aurobindo, The Supramental manifestation, p. 12

24. Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 10

25. Sri Aurobindo Jayanti Number 12, 1953, p. 68

26. Sri Aurobindo, On Yoga-i, p. 108

27. Ibid., p. 109

28. Ibid., p. 102

29. Ibid., p. 102

30. Tiruarulpa, Catya Ciru Vinapam

31. Jnanacariyai, 14

32. Arulperumjoti akaval, 247-248

33. Sri Aurobindo Jayanti Number 12, 153 p. 68

34. On Yoga-i, p. 100

35. Tiruarulpa, Carutaruna Fatal, 4

36. Mother India, Feb. 1950, p. 3.

37. Sri Aurobindo passed away in December, 1950. It seems to falsify some of his basic teachings, especially what he said about the human body. But if we look into the circumstances that led to the passing of Sri Aurobindo, it is evident that what he did is perfectly justifiable. He chose to withdraw from the physical body because there was not a required measure of spiritual receptivity in the world. Hence he decided upon using death, if death it may be called, as a means to achieve his aim, because it was for him not something that would nullify his work of transformation. To set at nought all possible misunderstandings, the Mother has made statements clarifying the significance of the passing of Sri Aurobindo: "The lack of receptivity of the earth and men is mostly responsible for the decision Sri Aurobindo has taken regarding his body. But one thing is certain; what has happened on the physical plane affects in no way the truth of his teaching. All that he has said is perfectly true and remains so. Time and the course of events will prove it abundantly" — A Practical Guide to Integral Yoga, 1965, p. 441.

"When I asked him to resuscitate he clearly answered: 'I have left this body purposely. I will not take it back. I shall manifest again in the first supramental body built in a supramental way' " — Ibid., p. 443.

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THE IDEAL OF HUMAN UNITY

(AN OUTLINE)

Chapter 15

SOME LINES OF FULFILMENT

WHAT form will be given to the unification of the world and how " it will take shape can only be a matter of speculation. The present age is so full of new possibilities that all we can predict for the future must be based upon past experience and the present status of forces.

Nationalism and internationalism are the two great principles actually in presence.¹ The ideal solution would be a free association of free nationalities; for this would enable all large natural groupings of men to live and to be themselves, and at the same time provide adequately for the sense of need for order and a common participation in the unified life of the human race. But, as we have seen, the ideal solution is not likely to be adopted at once, in view of the present state of international mentality and morality.

The idea of internationalism will, in the present state of the human mind, have to work itself out through an accommodation with the realised forces of nationalism and imperialism. It cannot be otherwise until man becomes more of a rational being than he is.

It is not likely that imperial nations will allow their dependent parts to enjoy an equal status with them unless they are forced by circumstances. National liberty has no longer the old general acceptation as an ideal, witness the attitude of the victorious allies after the first World War in regard to this question. Many even of the most advanced intellectuals warmly approve of the idea of subordinate autonomy for nations now subject.

¹ This, it will be remembered was written before the break-up of the large Empires.

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It is even possible that there may grow up a stronger tendency to desire a rearrangement of states in a system of large imperial combines and not on the basis of existing empires and free nationalities. Had Germany and Japan been victorious in the second World War, such a thing might have actually happened.

But even if free nations continue to exist side by side with great imperial Powers, the position of the small nations would still be like that of the small nobles in the feudal regime. They would be compelled to accept the lead of one group or another of the leviathans surrounding them.

In any scheme of international organisation, the Great Powers will see to it that they enjoy the real power and that the smaller nations are not allowed to oppose their wishes. For, even if the form of government adopted for the world organisation were democratic in appearance, there cannot be a true democracy so long as actual differences persist.

The position then would be very much like that in the Middle Ages in Europe: a number of smaller nations existing side by side with a few great imperial Powers dominating them. These imperial Powers would try to work out their own selfish interests through whatever arrangement came to hand. Wars might be avoided, but other methods of coercion could be developed and lead to the same results.

A simple solution of the problem might be found in the grouping of the nations into imperial aggregates of the federal or the confederate type. America might form one such unit; the Teutonic peoples another, and similar aggregates might emerge in the Asiatic world. These could ultimately merge into a single world-state.

Or else, a king-nation might take up the task of unification, not by conquering all the rest, which is not possible, but by a process analogous to that which England has used in federating its commonwealth of nations. If this plan does not succeed, then the task might be undertaken by two or three powerful empires combining their resources and bullying the rest of the world into submission.

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It is even possible that the world will come to be divided ultimately into two camps, primarily economic rather than political in their outlook. Labour and capital have not yet found a way to resolve their mutual antagonisms, in spite of the hopes of optimists. The future may well be dominated by the clash of these two forces.

CHAPTER 16

THE PROBLEM OF UNIFORMITY AND LIBERTY

The study of History as well as the present trend of forces would then lead us to suppose that mankind might well be united as a single political unit within a foreseeable future. It does not seem however likely that it will follow an ideal method of unification, through the free federation of equal nations. The method most likely to be followed may well be that of a strict administrative unification, somewhat on the lines adopted in the evolution of the nation-state. And this would mean, as in the case of the nation, a period of restriction and constriction during which the liberties of the constituent units would be seriously menaced.

We cannot escape this conclusion, whatever be the agency utilised — be it the nations of Europe taking up the government of the world in the interests of "civilisation", a group of dominant empires, or even a king-state imposing its rule on the rest. Such a regime would rest on force and it must insist on curbing the liberties of the nations forming part of the whole. In course of time, such a restriction on national liberties would automatically react on the governing Power or Powers themselves. The result might well be the disappearance of the idea of liberty itself from the world at large. This process would be helped greatly by the recent tendencies towards the socialistic nation-state, in which the liberties of the individual are far from being quite safe.

A question arises: what will happen to the nation-idea under such a regime?

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The nation is the firm group-unit so far evolved by man; the modern empires merely serve to cater to the vanity, ambition and power of the dominant nations. The idea of sans-patrie is no doubt growing and may continue to grow. Nevertheless, in any form of world-union eventually evolved, there must be some kind of group unit, for that is inherent in the general law of aggregation in Nature. It cannot therefore be quite impossible that the nation-unit regains its vitality and reasserts itself in one form or another. It may take an innocuous shape and merely continue to exist in name, like the English country. It may on the other hand retain a sufficiently powerful vitality and sense of difference in order to be able to reassert its individuality as against the world-union, and may even bring about its dissolution.

What, in a scheme like the one we are envisaging, would be the fate of the principles of uniformity and liberty?

There is already clearly noticeable in many respects, such as social and economic habits, political ideas and institutions, in the matter of education and in things concerning culture, a growing tendency towards uniformity. Language serves as a barrier, but this too may some day be overcome, as it was overcome during the Middle Ages and in some of the European countries. On the other hand, there is also noticeable a tendency towards free variation. In the result, it is possible that the principle of variation might prevail over that of uniformity, or else there might be a dominant uniformity, with minor variations of detail.

In the matter of liberty within the nation-state, there seem to be two distinct possibilities. On the one hand, there is the victorious march of the socialistic idea which would negate the freedom of the individual and impose a control and direction by the State on every aspect of national life. On the other hand, there is a possibility that the socialistic period of mankind might prove to be of short duration and give way to a kind of philosophical anarchism, which would permit of unity based on the completest individual freedom and group

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variation. The result may also be some kind of a compromise between the two extremes.

CHAPTER 17

NATURE'S LAW IN OUR PROGRESS:

UNITY IN DIVERSITY. LAW AND LIBERTY

For man alone of terrestrial creatures, to live rightly involves the necessity of knowing rightly the law of Nature, especially of his own nature, and of using the knowledge for his own greater perfection and happiness. But Nature is not, as once imagined, something eternal and unchanging, but is itself heightening and widening its possibilities, although there are certain truths of being which remain the same; and upon them as bedrock our progress and perfection must take place.

The sub-human species are spared this necessity of knowledge and the conscious will to live according to the knowledge; they live spontaneously according to Nature and cannot but obey its laws and dictates. Man on the contrary has the power to govern Nature and even to vary from the course it prescribes, through the power of his mind and will; in man Nature becomes partly conscious, we may say, of its own laws and of its will to progress. Man alone of terrestrial creatures is capable of a mental conflict with himself and is therefore capable also of a constant self-transcending, a progression from a higher to higher type.

This progression takes place at present by a conflict and progress of ideas applied to life. At first, human ideas of life are simply a mental translation of life's needs, desires and interests; the practical intelligence in man gives to them a greater or less value according to its own experience, preference and judgment. At a later stage, he tries to understand the laws of his mind, life and body and of his environment, the laws of our actualities and of their potentialities. The latter assume for the arbitrary human mind the form of a fixed ideal standard towards which man must aspire, an eternal law or sanālana dharma.

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Both our actualities and our potentialities are forces or powers of our nature from which we cannot escape. Our actualities are the form or power of expression to which our nature and life have attained; our potentialities point us to a new form, value, power of expression. Our intellect however tends to mistake present law and form for the eternal law of our nature and existence, or else, to mistake some future law and form for our ideal rule of life and its eternal law. In truth, our ideal can be no more than a progressive expression of what is constant through all changes. So long as we do not know our utmost possibilities, there cannot be any such thing as an eternal ideal.

Had our mentality been perfect, it would be one in its knowledge and will with the totality of the secret Knowledge and Will which Nature in us is trying to bring to the surface, and there would then be no mental conflict within us; for we would then be able to follow intelligently her course. There is no possibility of this inner conflict in the sub-human life which follows instinctively and mechanically, as a superhuman life will follow consciously the secret aim and law of Nature. Actually, because our mentality is imperfect, we catch only a glimpse of her tendencies and erect that side of her process as the absolute principle of our life and conduct. Thus favouring and depressing now this and now another of her opposing principles and forces, as she works through the imperfect individual and the still more imperfect collective mind, she leads them through struggle and conflict towards a progressively right relation and synthesis of their potentialities.

The social evolution of the human race is necessarily a development of the relations between three constant factors: the individual, communities of various sorts, and mankind as a whole. Each seeks its own fulfilment and satisfaction, but each is compelled to develop them not independently but in relation to the others. The individual can grow to his fullness only through his relations with other individuals, to the various kinds of community religious, social, cultural and political to which he belongs, and to the idea and need of humanity at large. The community likewise can grow only through its individual

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members and subject to the conditions imposed on it by its relations to other communities and to humanity at large. Mankind, even in its present inchoate state, has always exercised its strong influence both on individual thought and action, as in ethics and religion, and the pressure of its large movements has always acted and reacted on the separate communities. And if humanity arrives in future at an organised common life, it can do it only by the expanding life of the individual and of the communities.

Nature works always through these three terms and none of them can be abolished, even when the divisions she thus creates tend to be over passed in man through the expansion of ideas and the widening of sympathies. Therefore, the ultimate aim of Nature, it would seem, must be to develop the individual and all individuals, the community and all communities to their fullest many-sided expression, and to evolve the united life of mankind to its full common capacity and satisfaction. This would seem to be the soundest way towards a total perfection.

A principle of free and harmonious mutuality as between the individuals, communities and the totality of mankind would thus be the ideal way to human progress. But, as a matter of fact, human life is still governed by the opposite principle of struggle and conflict, of various kinds and at all levels, intellectual, vital, physical. Man's intellectual reason, failing to discover or apply the right method of overcoming this principle of conflict now endeavours to get rid of the resulting disorder by subjecting the life of the individual to the life of the community, and, logically it will be led to get rid of strife between communities by a strong subordination of the life of the community to the united and organised life of the human race.

But freedom and diversity are as necessary to life as order and unity. Unity we must create but not necessarily uniformity. If man could realise a perfect spiritual unity, or even a secure, clear, firmly-held unity in principle, a rich, even an unlimited diversity in its application might be possible without any fear of disorder. Because he can do neither, his reason favours uniformity, for it gives him a

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strong illusion of unity. Uniformity lightens the task of law, seems to him the one secure and easy way to unification, enables him to economies his energies. But in the end, by uniformity and regimentation man's total intellectual and cultural growth suffers by the loss of a continued source of vivacity.

Owing to the defects of our mentality uniformity has to a certain extent to be sought after. Still, the real aim of Nature is a true unity supporting a rich diversity. This is clear enough from the fact that in the plant and the animal, in human form and temperament, as well as among the human communities, there is a recognisable unity of general pattern but an infinite diversity of expression. This variation and fundamental following by each of its own natural law is necessary to the individual as to the total life of mankind, for without it mutual interchange and assimilation would be out of the question and thus prevent the enrichment of all by the common stock. A real spiritual and psychological unity can allow a free diversity and dispense with all but the minimum of uniformity. Until that is achieved, the method of uniformity has to be applied, but we must not over-apply it on peril of discouraging life in its very sources.

The quarrel between law and liberty offers the same solution. Nature impels life to grow from within and to assert its own natural law and development modified only by its commerce with its environment. By liberty we mean the freedom to obey the law of our being, to find out naturally and freely our harmony with our environment. The dangers to which the wrong use of liberty leads are indeed obvious. But they arise from the absence or defect of a sense of unity among the conflicting units which push them to assert freedom for themselves in the very act of encroaching on the freedom of others.

This could not be if a real, a spiritual and psychological unity were effectuated. Because of our present imperfect state, law and regimentation have to be called in from outside. The seeming perfection that this brings about tends to be mechanical, the order it creates breaks down if the yoke is loosened. Carried too far, it may even slay the capacity for real growth; by over-regimentation we crush Nature's

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initiative and habit of intuitive self-adaptation.

All repressive or preventive law is only a makeshift, a substitute for the true law which must develop from within and is its outward image and visible expression. Human society progresses really and vitally in proportion as law becomes the child of freedom. It will reach its perfection when the spontaneous law of his society exists only as the outward mould of his self-governed inner liberty.

(To be continued)

SANAT K. BANERJI

Oneness is the soul of multitude.

SRI AUROBINDO

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REVIEWS

Philosophical perspectives: a selection of essays: By Dhirendra Mohan Datta, Bharati Bhavan, Patna, 1972, pp. 184.

A collection of sixteen essays published in various journals, Indian as well as foreign, at different intervals, this book deals with a number of philosophical issues. And hence the title it bears. The author has brought all of them under four broad divisions: (1) Logic and Metaphysics, (2) Religion and Morality, (3) Society and Culture, and (4) India's debt to other lands. Besides problems of academic interest, a few of his essays discuss problems of contemporary significance also such as "On Philosophical synthesis", "The concept of Asian Culture", "India's debt to the West in Philosophy", and so on. Asking whether the evolution of a world philosophy is likely, he says that it depends upon two things—a common culture and a common language. As the prospect for these does not seem so bright, he dismisses the possibility of a world philosophy in the present context as "a distant Utopia". Talking about Asian culture, he points out that Asian culture deserves to be fostered with the qualification that it should not become a 'fostering of continental egoism or class egoism blocking the way to international understanding and the love of humanity'. In discussing India's debt to the West in philosophy, he endeavours to show that the East and the West have 'mingled in real synthesis in some great synthetic personalities' such as Raja Rammohan Roy, B. N. Seal, Tagore, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayananda, and Sri Aurobindo.

By and large this book is a valuable addition to the library of Philosophy.

Worthy is the World: The Hindu Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo: by Beatrice Bruteau, Pub. Fairleigh Dickinson, University Press, 1971.

One of the striking features of this book is that its structure has been so designed as to impress upon us that all philosophical conclusions

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of Sri Aurobindo follow from some of his fundamental yogic realizations. In doing so the author is trying to keep herself very close to the source of Sri Aurobindo's philosophy. Also, whenever she discusses Sri Aurobindo's views on general philosophical problems or his criticisms bearing on the views held by others on such problems, she never fails to see or show that all of them derive their validity mainly from corresponding spiritual experiences. This is one of the unmistakable characteristics of Sri Aurobindo's writings, and the author has rightly made it a point to incorporate this very important element into her scheme of organisation.

One of the important teachings of Sri Aurobindo consists in his affirmation of the reality as well as value of the world, even from the ultimate point of view. In discussing this question he warns us not to delude ourselves into thinking that the scriptures or the significant word 'Maya' occurring in them support the view that the world is illusory. This really constitutes a challenge to the teachers of Advaita variety who commented on the scriptures and interpreted the word 'Maya' in their favour. The author tries her best to vindicate Sri Aurobindo's position with a brief but illuminating study of the history of the word, Maya, as well as the import of the scriptures in their original form. Really, she is at pains to make use of all available data at her command in order to make out a case in his favour. And she does it remarkably too.

However, we can not brush aside the two criticisms levelled against Sri Aurobindo: 'When Aurobindo argues that if Maya's products are perceived they can be perceived only by Brahman, since Brahman is the only being in existence, he has not taken into consideration the subtlety of the Mayavadin dialectic, according to which the whole of perceived/percipient structure is maya' (p.173). 'He (Sri Aurobindo) does not even follow Sankara himself carefully ... he (Sri Aurobindo) seems to have missed the point that for Sankara the perceiver is just as unreal as the perceived' (p. 264). Without going into details we shall content ourselves with one comment. The Vivarana school of Advaita is of the view that Maya has its locus in Brahman. The suggestion is that in making Brahman, which is pure consciousness, as the locus of Maya, Brahman is made into a sort of percipient. And Sri Aurobindo only brings out this suggestion implicit in that view

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when he examines it. Sri Aurobindo can not be held responsible for what Advaita itself has implied. To turn to the other criticism, "... he (Sri Aurobindo) tends to ignore the fact that Sankara grants that within the realm of the phenomenal consciousness there is a public world where all the usual perceptions, judgments and values are valid" (p. 264). For our part it is sufficient to draw the author's attention to Sri Aurobindo's reference to the above version of Advaita under the head 'qualified illusionism'.

The effect of the early chapters of the book, where the author is very careful not to deviate either from the spirit or from the facts of Sri Aurobindo's philosophy, is marred by a few observations of hers in the concluding chapter. Not that she is critical of Sri Aurobindo's views, but because her criticisms stem from mere verbal difficulties. Barring this, her book deserves enjoyable reading and appreciation. Surely, we have in her one of the able exponents of the thoughts of Sri Aurobindo from the West.

Sri Aurobindo and Bergson: a synthetic study: by Dr. A. C. Bhattacharya, 1972, pp. 282.

The author announces in his preface that his aim is twofold: (a) to show that there is a great deal of resemblance between the thinking of the East and the West, especially through a comparative study of Sri Aurobindo and Bergson; (b) to establish that the teachings of Bergson, as embodied particularly in his last work — The two sources of Morality and Religion -, acquire a greater significance in view of the writings of Sri Aurobindo. The work falls into four broad divisions - Intuition, Evolution, Reality, and Practical Philosophy. Under these heads their thoughts are brought together and examined with a view to synthesise them.

The theme chosen for this study is indeed an interesting one, but unfortunately the study is quite disappointing and calls forth unpleasant remarks. In saying that the Bergson of the last work differs very widely from the Bergson of the previous ones, the author is bringing to light a truth hardly mentioned by other scholars. As for his exposition of the thoughts of Sri Aurobindo, the author claims to have levelled certain 'serious' charges against Sri Aurobindo, and later he also

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attempts to defend the position of the latter with a view to obviously 'save' him. It is extremely difficult to reconcile ourselves to what the author says of Sri Aurobindo, because what he offers is neither criticism nor defence.

Talking about the relation between Supermind and Mind, the author points out that for Sri Aurobindo "Supermind is only the becoming of the mind". Elsewhere, he observes that Sri Aurobindo is "committing a mistake when he says that the material consciousness gradually develops into or becomes the Psychic Being". It is needless to say that Sri Aurobindo cannot be held responsible for such statements the author has made at his own risk. And so, a comparative study of this kind is bound to result in vain.

PROF. N. J. SHANMUKHAM

Sri Aurobindo: by Prof. Sisir Kumar Mitra. Published by Indian Book Company, 36-c Connaught Pl ace , New Delhi 1. Pp. 2 15. Pr ice Rs. 2 5.0 0 .

"Thou art far greater than all thy achievements" ('Tomār kīrtir ceye tumi je mahat'): thus sang the poet Rabindranath Tagore. Sri Aurobindo too has warned us not to judge a man by what he does nor even by what he is but by what he becomes.

Thus the inherent risks and difficulties involved in any attempt at offering to the reading public the biography of a truly great soul are indeed formidable. For, much of what constitutes the essential greatness of the hero may pass the perceptive comprehension of the would-be biographer or the latter may unwittingly focus his attention on a part of the total achievement of the man to the detriment of the integral assessment of the personality in question.

The risk involved is all the more great in the case of an unusually unique human (or, should I not say, divine) phenomenon like Sri Aurobindo who, even from the external point of view, exhibits a staggering versatility, being at the same time a star of the first magnitude in more than a few domains of human accomplishment. He has been

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a professor, a scholar, a poet, a political leader, a journalist, a philosopher, a dramatist, an indologist, a psychologist, a literary critic, a translator, and an original interpreter of the Veda, the Upanishads and the Gita.

But, much more than all this, Sri Aurobindo is a Maha yogi — and do we not know that 'a Yogi's real life is his inner life, — in fact, that is his only real life'. Also, in his case what is apt to disconcert any venturesome biographer is the fact that he is not a Yogi of the traditional sort seeking after the liberation from Nature; his Integral Yoga is assiduously after the liberation and ultimate divine transfiguration of Nature. Thus, he is a 'World-redeemer' in more than one sense; he is a supreme 'traveller of the worlds' - worlds without and worlds within, worlds physical and worlds supraphysical and superabundance and has garnered in the process an opulent wealth of varied occult-spiritual experiences which transcend the reach of human consciousness.

Thus, it is no wonder that Sri Aurobindo once wrote: "No one can write about my life because it has not been on the surface for men to see." This warning notwithstanding, there has been of late a plethora of attempts purporting to give us the life and work of the one whom the Mother calls 'a decisive action direct from the Supreme'. So, it is with some hesitation that we opened the book Sri Aurobindo that Prof. Sisir Kumar Mitra offers to the reading public in the Centenary Year of the Master-Mystic. But we are happy to state that very soon our misgivings disappeared yielding place to a sense of genuine pleasure and admiration. For, being himself a dedicated sadhak of the Master's Integral Yoga and having the privilege of living at the feet of the Saint for almost a decade, Mitra has acquired the capacity of shunning superficialities and thus, instead of forcing his readers to loiter in the outer precincts of the temple, he leads them in an amiably sympathetic way to the sanctum sanctorum to offer them the un garbed vision of the deity that is indeed Sri Aurobindo.

The admirable exposition offered by Prof. Mitra is neither prolix nor frustratingly brief. Mitra's Sri Aurobindo is an excellent work of moderate compass that demands and rewards close and concentrated study. None can put down the book without feeling like congratulating both the author and the publishers for having decided

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to bring out this publication to commemorate the Centenary Year of the Master.

India: Vision and Fulfilment by Prof. Sisir Kumar Mitra. D. B. Taraporevala Sons & Co. Private Ltd. 210 D. Naoroji Road, Bombay 1. Pp. Vi + 290 (with 8 full-page illustrations). Price: Rs. 35.00.

Any book coming from the pen of Prof. Sisir Kumar Mitra has been invariably with us a delight and instruction to read. In all his books published so far, readers cannot but be struck by the author's erudition as also by the architectonic skill and masterly grasp with which he handles the themes chosen. The volume under review is no exception to this general rule.

In India: Vision and Fulfilment, whose central theme as also the main lines of its elaboration is inspired by Sri Aurobindo's thought, Prof. Mitra has sought to study "from the standpoint of evolutionary history the growth and development of Indian culture as a motivating force in the progress of man towards his divine destiny, envisaged in the Master's vision of the Future." In stirring words, the author unfolds the romantic story of how the soul of India speaks from a great past across the present into a greater Future a Future big with the destiny of the entire world. The book is very inspiring in its ideals and the exposition of the author has been as lucid as it is thorough. Prof. Mitra has treated a great subject with admirable clarity and what he has offered to the readers is not so much a formal history but an excellent work of feeling as well as of thought. The style is unusually attractive, being of a subtle persuasive quality that carries the reader on. It would be difficult to speak too highly of this book whether as to its contents and the scholarship it displays or the immense labour of love that the author has put in in its production. The fascinating pages of this work tend to arrest the reader's attention at every turn and he is apt to be astonished at the felicity of expressions and beautiful turns of phrasing in some places; as for example when the inspired author declares:

"The world today is in the throes of a new birth. The widespread gloom and the terrible misery and the desolation of the present signalises,

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not the success but the desperate death-struggle of the forces of Darkness that sway the world-order today. Their movements are like the deepening of night just before daybreak, the maddened sweep and moan of a storm dying down. Even now, these forces have begun to flag and stagger, and the time is not far when they, and those that are yet stubborn in their resistance, will be completely annihilated."

The printing and get-up of the book are excellent and we heartily congratulate the author and the publishers for bringing out such a delightfully reasoned volume of real significance to commemorate the birth centenary of Sri Aurobindo in whose seer-vision Mother India represents not a mere piece of earth but a Power, a Godhead with a specific destiny of her own.

Prof. Mitra has indeed produced a work that should be read and reread by all true children of the Mother that is Bharat-Shakti.

J. K.

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