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gestures and long spells of silence — that when one is called by God one must leave aside all other appeals — of lesser loves and harmonies. Which is why he declines, when adjured by his countrymen, to come out of his Yogic seclusion to resume his political leadership. He had to, as a man must die to his old self of personal ambition and desires before he can be reborn to the creative freedom of the divine life:

"All that denies must be torn out and slain

And crushed the many longings for whose sake

We lose the One for whom our lives were made."¹

It is not possible here even to touch on all that he, as a Messenger of Immortality, taught us through what he had become (He wrote to me once: "The ultimate value of a man is not to be measured by what he says nor even by what he does, but by what he becomes.") But I feel that his greatest message was the one which, when he was in the Alipore jail, Krishna had so thrillingly missioned him to convey to us all. There, just when his faith had wavered, the Lord of the Gita had come to him in person and revealed to His "rare great-souled devotee that all was Vasudeva"² and said (to quote from his own rapturous message given after his acquittal, in 1908, in a public speech):

"...His strength entered into me. I looked at the jail that secluded me from men and it was no longer by its high walls that I was imprisoned; no, it was Vasudeva who surrounded me. I walked under the branches of the tree in front of my cell, but it was not the tree, I knew it was Vasudeva, it was Sri Krishna whom I saw standing there and holding over me His shade. I looked at the bars of my cell, they were grating that did duty for a door and again I saw Vasudeva. It was Narayana who was guarding and standing sentry over me. Or I lay on the coarse blankets that were given me for a couch and felt the arm of Sri Krishna around me — the arms of my Friend and Lover. This was the first use of the Friend and Lover... of the deeper vision He gave me. I looked at the prisoners in the jail, the thieves, the murderers, the swindlers, and as I looked at them it was Vasudeva, it was

¹ ibid. III.2

² Vasudevah sarvam iti sa mahdtmd sudurlabhah (The Gita.VII.19) Rare is the great soul who sees Krishna in all.

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Narayana whom I found in those darkened souls and misused bodies... He said to me: 'Look now at the Magistrate, look now at the Prosecuting Counsel'. I looked and... it was Vasudeva... it was Sri Krishna, my Lover and Friend, who sat there and smiled. 'Now do you fear?' He said: 'I am in all men and I overrule their actions and their works. My protection is still with you and you shall not fear'."¹

Thereafter, the Friend and Lover sustained him all his life through his endless trials and tribulations and gave him a beautiful Vision he has expressed poetically in one of his most moving poems, Life Heavens:

"I, Earth, have a deeper power than Heaven;

My lonely sorrow surpasses its rose-joys...

By me the last finite, yearning, strives

To reach the last infinity's unknown,

The Eternal is broken into fleeting lives

And Godhead pent in the mire and the stone."

But as I had failed at first to grasp what message exactly he wanted to convey in this poem (I had asked, how could our dismal earth-life be looked upon as glorious?) he wrote to me a long letter dated 19.7.1934 — from which I may quote a few relevant lines here as his answering commentary:

"Where do you find in the 'Life Heavens' that I say or anybody says the conditions on the earth are glorious and suited to the Divine Life?... The Earth is an evolutionary world, not at all glorious or harmonious... but sorrowful, disharmonious, imperfect. Yet in that imperfection is the urge towards a higher and more many-sided perfection. It contains the last finite which yet yearns to the supreme infinite... God is pent in the mire (mire is not glorious, so there is no claim to glory or beauty here), but that very fact imposes a necessity to break through that prison to a consciousness which is ever rising towards the heights. That is 'deeper power', though not a greater actual glory or perfection."²

This potentiality — intrinsically divine within the cadre of the

¹ Uttarpara Speech by Sri Aurobindo.

² This letter is printed in full in his Letters on Yoga,

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earth's terrestrial limitations — he stressed again and again in his writings. To give just one excerpt from his Synthesis of Yoga, Introduction: "The divine Power in us uses all life as the means... Every experience and outer contact with our world-environment, however trifling or however disastrous, is used for the work, and every experience, even to the most repellent suffering, or the most humiliating fall, becomes a step on the path to perfection". And so, he posits: "All life is a Yoga of Nature seeking to manifest God within itself."

And enlarging on this theme, he wrote in another long letter to me: "I am concerned with the earth, not with worlds beyond for their own sake; it is a terrestrial realisation that I seek and not a flight to distant summits."

He explained this view of his in answer to a doubt that once crossed my mind as to whether such an outlook did not seem to have a kinship with the western materialistic this-worldliness as against our spiritual other-worldliness.

"My own life and my Yoga," he wrote to me, "have always been, since my coming to India, both this-worldly and other-worldly without any exclusiveness on either side. All human interests are, I suppose, this-worldly and most of them have entered into my mental field and some, like politics, into my life but, at the same time, since I set foot on the Indian soil on the Apollo Bunder in Bombay, I began to have spiritual experiences... For me all is Brahman and I find the Divine everywhere... In my Yoga also, I found myself moved to include both worlds in my view — the spiritual and the material — and to try to establish the Divine Consciousness and the Divine Power in men's hearts and earthly life, not for a personal salvation only, but for a life divine here. This seems to me as spiritual an aim as any, and the fact of this life taking up earthly pursuits and earthly things into its scope cannot, I believe, tarnish its spirituahty or alter its Indian character.

"My Yoga," he went on to add, "can include, indeed, a full experience of the other worlds... It is this view and experience of things and of the truth of existence that enabled me to write Life Divine and Savitri. If you accept Krishnaprem's insistence that this and no other must be your path, that it is this you have to attain and realise, then an exclusive other-worldliness cannot he your way... One must have faith in the Master of our life and works, even if for a long time He

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conceals Himself, and then in His own right time He will reveal His Presence."¹

He has, indeed, stressed in all his writings, both in prose and verse, that man's last realisation flowering in manifestation would be the inauguration of the reign of God in the Kingdom of Matter:

Although thou hide thyself behind thy works,

To be is not a senseless paradox,

Since God has made earth, earth must make in her God.²

In the Upanishad we are heartened by the self-same prediction:

Atha martyomrrto bhavatyatra Brahma samasnute³

That is:

The death-bound mortal shall rejoice on earth

In the heavenly boon of immortality.

I refer again and again to the Upanishads and the Gita to emphasise that Sri Aurobindo's intuitions and findings had a fundamental affinity with the aspirations and pronouncements of our Indian Sages and Seers. In his epic Savitri he has attained his peak power as a prophet to be able to attest the blessedness of earth as a playground of the "Omnipotent flaming pioneers."⁴ And he has underscored his Vision with the signature of the born Poet with such a soul-stirring afflatus as to take our breath away. Ever so many poems of his — not to mention his Savitri — are resonant with his oracular promulgations of the imminent redemption of human Fate by Divine Grace, especially in Savitri's spirited refutation of the magniloquent arguments of Death as the supercilious dictator to us contemptible mannikins, puppet mortals. But Sri Aurobindo's pronounciafnento

¹ Printed in my Sri Aurobindo came to me

² Savitri. The Book of Everlasting Day. XI.

³ Katha Upanishad 2.3.14.

4 "I saw the Omnipotent naming pioneers Over the heavenly verge which turns towards life Come crowding down the amber stairs of birth: Forerunners of a divine multitude." (Savitri. III.4)

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about the final victory of human aspiration over God-hostile titans is one of his most eloquent vindications of the immortality of Divinity pent in death-ridden humanity. To quote in conclusion a few resplendent passages by way of illustration:

When the Supreme asks Savitri to come home to her native abode of divine bliss and "unhoured eternity," Savitri resolutely declines, contending that since

"Imperfect is the joy not shared by all",

She would fain pray:

"Thy oneness, Lord, in many approaching hearts...

Thy energy, Lord, to seize on woman and man,

To take all things and creatures in their grief

And gather them into a mother's arms.

Thy magic flowing waters of deep love

Thy sweetness give to me for earth and men."¹

It is then, at long last, that the Supreme reveals that He was really testing Savitri, and grants her the boon she sought: the life of Satyavan. And He sings, pleased with her passing of the test:

"O beautiful body of the incarnate Word,

Thy thoughts are mine, I have spoken with thy voice.

My will is thine, what thou hast chosen I choose...

Because thou hast obeyed my timeless will...

I yoke thee to my power of work in Time.

Because thou hast chosen to share earth's struggle and fate

And turned aside to help and yearned to save,

I bind by thy heart's passion thy heart to mine

And lay my splendid yoke upon thy soul.

O Sun-word, thou shah raise the earth-soul to Light

And bring down God into the lives of men...

O lasso of my rapture's widening noose,

Become my cord of universal love."²

¹ Savitri. Book of Everlasting Day. XI.

² Savitri. Book of Everlasting Day. XI.

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Thereafter what shall happen? He announces:

"Earth shall be my work-chamber and my house,

My garden of life to plant a seed divine,

When all thy work in human time is done,

The mind of earth shall be a home of light,

The body of earth a tabernacle of God."

Till lastly :

"A heavenlier passion shall up heave men's lives,

Their mind shall share in the ineffable gleam,

Their heart shall feel the ecstasy and the fire,

Earth's bodies shall be conscious of a soul,

Mortality's bond-slaves shall unloose their bonds,

Mere men into spiritual beings grow

And see awake the dumb divinity."

And then, at long last, the gulf between Matter and Spirit shall be bridged:

"The Spirit shall look out through Matter's gaze

And Matter shall reveal the Spirit's Face."

A marvellous pinnacle fulfilment of terrestrial life prophesied by the great Rishi when King Manu appealed to him of yore to be given a Message.

The Rishi complied and sang assuring Manu that he was the Divine: "Thou art He, O King!"¹ It was, indeed, a celestial message of the Friend and the Lover through His Representative, the Ageless Illuminate, the Seer-cum-oracle:

Hear then the Truth. Behind this visible world

The eyes see plain,

Another stands, and in its folds are curled

Our waking dreams.

¹ Tat tvam asi Svetaketo — Thou art that, O Svetaketu — Chhandogya Upanishad.

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Dream is more real, which, while here we wake,

Unreal seems...

To bring those heavens down upon the earth

We all descend,

And fragments of it in the human birth

We can command...

We are but sparks of that most perfect fire,

Waves of that sea:

From Him we come, to Him we go, desire

Eternally.

DILIP KUMAR ROY

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MEDITATION

A TALK*

MEDITATION, though not the only way, forms part, an important part of most of the ways to the realization of the Truth, the Divine Consciousness. But there are meditations and meditations, several lines and disciplines of meditation depending on what we want to achieve through it. Meditation is not an end in itself. It is but a means, a way of putting ourselves in tune with the consciousness that represents our ideal, what we want to achieve.

Necessarily, a meditation that seeks to realize the Divine as Bliss is somewhat different from that which wants to realize the Divine as Knowledge. A meditation that seeks liberation of the soul by a merging into Nirvana or the Joy or the Peace or the Bliss of the Ineffable has got to be different from a meditation for a collective realization, a building of a kingdom of God on earth. There are several goals and we must set for ourselves a definite one.

I know that in this world of constant and perpetual evolution, there cannot be anything like a final goal or a final aim. One fulfilment always opens up horizons for another fulfilment and so man progresses; even God in manifestation progresses. Keeping this in view that there is no finality about our effort, our achievement, we must nevertheless fix an immediate goal. Let other goals come afterwards and according to that let us choose the type of our meditation.

Meditation, I repeat, is a way of attuning our consciousness, our mind, our being to that which, if not itself what we seek, brings that nearer to us. Now, whatever the type of discipline, whatever the means of meditation, there are certain common factors, preliminary conditions to be fulfilled before meditation can be meaningful. There is a minimum psychological and moral purification which each one who seeks to meditate has to provide himself with. Many teachers give their own specifications, but by and large, the requirements listed by that old master of yoga, Patanjali,— the legendary Patanjali,— form the basic background that one must have before entering into the domain of meditation or concentration. There is a difference between

* At a Seminar held at the Krotona Institute of Theosophy in Ojai, U.S.A., on April 30th, 1977-

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meditation and concentration, but to that we shall come a little later.

So let us first traverse the preliminaries and examine for ourselves how far we are ready, how far we are equipped, what the things are that still need some homework. The first condition is that we must cultivate and establish in ourselves non-violence, dhimsa. This nonviolence does not mean only abstention from physical injury to others. It means that but not that alone. Physical violence, physical elimination of certain things may be necessary, may be indispensable in certain situations. We should not make a fetish or a fad of not hurting creatures because we may be indulging in violence. The whole life on earth is organised on the principle of the larger fish swallowing the smaller fish, only we must take care to see that we don't interfere with the economy of nature at higher levels. If we have to consume life, let it be at the lower grades of life; it would mean less loss to Mother Nature. The higher the level to which the organisation has proceeded, the greater the harm to the economy of nature if we kill that life.

Now this is only by the way because we in India have, among certain sects, gone to extreme limits, exaggerations in this matter. The kind of non-violence that is required from a practitioner of meditation is absence of violence in thought, in feeling — feelings of anger, feelings of vengeance, feelings of resentment. For these emanate certain vibrations which, when they strike the person or persons concerned, can cause greater violence than a physical blow. And they have repercussions on our own system. They poison our blood; they vitiate our consciousness. So there has to be a relentless weeding out of the thoughts, feelings, movements of violence, harmful to others.

Sri Aurobindo says somewhere that soul-violence can be a thousand times more disastrous than physical violence. There is soul-violence when you nurse a deep hatred, a deep anger and direct that force to others or exercise a kind of moral coercion on them. Take for instance, hunger strikes. When you start a hunger strike, whatever the declared objective, the real objective is to force the other person or persons to accept your point of view. There is a certain moral coercion. That is to be avoided.

The true test of whether we have really eliminated violence from our being is that when creatures normally hostile to each other come

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into our presence, they forget their enmity and stay together. The spiritual history of India is replete with examples of how the snake and the mongoose, the tiger cub and the deer were found lying together in the environs of the hermitage of a rishi or a seer. And these are things that are happening even today in India. For one who has eliminated violence, there is no violence in his vicinity. That is the first step.

The second is non-stealing, dsteya. Not to help oneself to what does not belong to one. This non-appropriation of what belongs to others does not confine itself only to the physical level. It also includes non-appropriation of ideas, non-appropriation of other people's knowledge, techniques. A good deal of this stealing business is going on. There are so many pseudo-philosophies, movements, picking up a few things from here, a few things from there, passing them on as genuine philosophies or doctrines, harming many people. These are all frowned upon in the genuine tradition.

The third is truth. Now truth is a very, very slippery concept. There cannot be one truth for all. There is the Truth, but it renders itself in each individual as the truth relative to him. So, what is true to one at his stage of development does not apply to another. But there are certain common fundamentals. To speak the truth is not difficult. But to speak what one thinks, to do what one speaks, to keep a correspondence between the movements of the mind, the heart and the body, that is, the expression and the living of truth, organized around the divinity of the soul, a harmony between these different movements of the consciousness, is the practice of truth. And when one develops this habit of speaking only what one feels and what one has in mind, of never deviating from that principle, one attains after a certain time vdksiddhi, the power of fulfilment of speech. Whatever one speaks comes true. It is an occult truth that if one always speaks the truth, whatever he speaks fulfils itself. One does not however do this for that advantage, but I just mention the sure result of this discipline of truthfulness in speech. So this truth of speech, truth of feeling, truth of action, based upon one's perception of truth for himself — that is the third requirement.

The fourth is sexual purity. It has been interpreted in as many ways as is convenient to people. It means the conservation of sex-energy, economy in the utilization of sex-energy. It does not mean a uniform blanket rule of absolute continence for all. There is something

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like a legitimate use of sex-energy in nature. What is prohibited is an indiscriminate use of it. Once, however, one takes to the spiritual path and advances beyond a certain level and has no other objective except the spiritual, then it is imperative to excise sex-indulgence completely. And why? Is it just because of some religious superstition? Or is continence just a way of saving oneself from entanglements? No. There is a science, a rationale behind it.

In man (when I say man, I mean a human being, both male and female), there are a number of energies, but the dominant form taken by his life-energy is sex-energy. Normally, when sex-energy accumulates. Nature sees to it that it is thrown out for her own purposes. But when one seeks to conserve it, one does not throw it out and it gathers. Imagine that sexual fluids are like water. When they are conserved, heat is generated. It is called tapas. This generation of heat in the body dynamisms the effectuating power of the person; he is able to exercise his will very effectively. When further conservation takes place, this heat converts itself into light. There is illumination, prakasa, that is, the mind gets illumined, memory gets strengthened. There is a flash of intelligence and one is able to conceive things rapidly, transmit brilliant thoughts, understand things, function on the mental level remarkably. When the conservation is insisted upon still further, there is the generation of what is called vidyut, electricity, which combines both heat and light. So man is able to think brilliantly and effectuate himself remarkably, outstandingly. And still more conserved, the vidyut, the electricity, is converted into what is called ojas. Ojas is that primal ether that builds this universe, that creative energy at the ethereal level which can create. Now when man begins to live on that level, he has that ojas coursing in his veins. And more; the last stage is when this ojas, the primal energy of ether, renders itself into virya, a spiritual power which can lead one to self-realization.

Now these are the successive steps that the sex-energy takes in its sublimation till it is converted into absolute spiritual power. Naturally, this stage comes after one has sufficiently advanced, and it is a stage when sex becomes totally irrelevant. One does not have to make a deliberate effort to reject sex. Sex is no longer a temptation. It drops from him like a ripe fruit. The same situations which once excited a response do not evoke it any more. This lack of response to

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sex does not depend upon one's age at all. People can be very lusty even at the age of 70, people can be free of sex even at the age of 40. It has nothing to do with physical age, but has much to do with inner maturity, the seeking and the intensity of the soul's aspiration and the readiness of the whole system to follow the soul.

The fifth is non-covetousness. You do not cast an eye, nor even a thought on what does not belong to you. You accept what one of the Upanishads, the Isha, says: Ud vasyamidam jagat, all this is for habitation by the Lord. It continues, "Do not covet what does not belong to you. Renounce and by that renounced, enjoy." You get the right of enjoyment only when you recognize that all belongs to God. And when you renounce your personal claim on things and take the things that come to you as given by God, as gifts of God, and let God enjoy them through you, then you have the right attitude; and that enjoyment does not create bondage.

So also regarding what belongs to others. To really feel that all belongs to God and to recast your life in that perspective is a higher demand. But lower down, there is a social law which says that belongs to others, this belongs to you, and that to cast an eye upon what belongs to others is illegitimate. Your consciousness should not move to dispossess others of what they have for your own personal aggrandizement. And this applies not only on the physical plane, but even on the mental; even the thought of trying to acquire what belongs to others, is vitiating.

These then are the five prohibitions. The next set of five are what are called injunctions, more positive. And of these, the first is cleanliness. Cleanliness does not mean only external cleanliness, though that is also naturally included. It is the inner cleanliness of the mind and heart, of ideas, thoughts and feelings.

The second is contentment. One has to be content with what one has, not always reaching out to get what one does not have; this fevered excitement and yearning to possess more and more robs one of whatever little peace one has got. To be content does not mean that one should not make an effort and progress; one may do that, but there has to be a basic inner contentment with life. Not constantly complaining, constantly lamenting, "I don't have this, I don't have that." Take it that what is yours, is given to you by God and there is a meaning in your not having other things. This inner contentment,

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what may otherwise be called acceptance of the circumstances with a certain inner happiness, is what is required to be gained.

The third requirement is tapas, that is, discipline. An aimless life, as the Mother says, is always a miserable life. One must have an aim and according to that aim one must discipline one's life-movement so that one's energies are devoted to that aim, organised to that quest, and this conservation of energies and organising them around a certain truth, is called spiritual discipline. We practise mental discipline when we concentrate on studying what we want to study, as we do when we have an examination to pass, we narrow our focus. Similarly, in spiritual pursuits, there is this necessity of discipline. It is all right for the moderns to speak of spontaneity. Both in India and abroad there are some people who consider discipline to be a curse and advocate spontaneity. They say, "Throw discipline to the winds. Discipline is something that interferes between you and Nature and whatever else. Let yourself go and you will begin to function as the Infinite." But it never happens that way.

While in India, a few months before I left, I received some books for assessment and for expressing my opinion of a new kind of movement that is spreading there among the younger people. I read one of them. It is a brilliant book, an excellent exposition. But the whole philosophy amounts to this: "Don't exercise any control over yourself. When you feel angry, become angry. When you feel like indulging in sex, do it. That way, when you do away with the control of the mind, the inhibitions of the mind, you become spontaneously attuned to the truth of your being, to Nature. Look at the animals, look at the plants, see how they are in tune with Nature; they have no problems and they are happy. Why should you be miserable with all these religious and spiritual disciplines?" It appeals to many minds, particularly to young people from the West a lot of whom have gone to India. They are fascinated by such talk and join such movements in hundreds.

Well, normally when I review a book I don't say a harsh word, unless the book is very mischievous and should be exposed. So within those self-set limits I pointed out that attunement with Nature is certainly a laudable idea. At the level of the animals and plants, this attunement is unconscious and automatic. But having evolved a self-conscious creature like man, Nature's intention is that this harmony,

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this oneness, this at-one-ment, should not continue to be on a mechanical and unconscious level, but at a conscious level. And this conscious harmony with Nature cannot take place by going back to the animal stage, but by going a stage further than the human stage. One has to acquire control over nature and not become a slave of nature.

This emphasises a certain discipline. If you remove all controls which have been developed by Nature after aeons of labour, you always slide back. Actually you have to exercise control, discipline and get a step above so that from there you can dominate nature, control yourself and express only what you want to. This is the- necessity of discipline. No meditation worth the name, no spiritual progress, is really possible unless you practise a certain discipline. But it is important that the practice of that discipline should not be a matter of self-punishment. You must not feel that you are constricting yourself. There must be a joy in observing that discipline because it yields certain results almost immediately and there is always a satisfaction in observing the results of the discipline. Discipline in this context becomes a movement of joy and progress. There is a mental discipline; there is an emotional discipline; there is a vital discipline; there is a physical discipline. Discipline is one of the major conditions that one has to fulfil.

The fourth condition is study. One must cultivate the mind, know what others have thought, open the mental being to this impact of the higher vibrations of knowledge. A mental knowledge is not tantamount to realization, it is true, but still one must know mentally where one is going, what has happened to others, how they have achieved, what are the hindrances and the helping points. This education of oneself by study, study of spiritual writings, svadhyaya as it is called, a disciplined reading and incorporation of the knowledge contained in scriptures and authentic texts — that is a very important part. Even when you don't understand a text, still if you persist at it, the force that is in that book creates certain new grooves in your brain and the second or the third time when you read it, it begins to make some meaning. This is the meaning of studying, of exposing your mind to the constant vibrations of higher levels of knowledge. Incidentally, the mind gets developed, a mental climate is created, a climate of spiritual culture.

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The last condition is surrender, Isvara pranidhāna, surrender to the Lord, surrender to God. God may signify anything to you, but to that ideal, that truth you surrender. Humility, a realization that you yourself can't do much by your own efforts, placing yourself in the hands of a higher Power of consciousness, that fulfils these preliminary conditions. It is not done in a day. Usually it takes a long time. But it does not mean that you have to wait until you have fully completed this discipline. You start simultaneously on all the levels and as you progress, these things also organize themselves. It is enough if you mentally accept and sincerely try to practise this preliminary discipline.

And then comes the question of posture, the right position for meditation. There are certain postures which promote a stability in the body. Normally, if we sit for a length of time our limbs start moving unconsciously; there is a certain restlessness in the body. The mind may become quiet, but the body becomes restless. Now, to develop a discipline of the body, to sit in a certain state without much moving, without agitation or restlessness, certain postures have been devised, simple postures in which one can sit without movement or fatigue. And the true test of the right posture is that one forgets the body. Each person has his own posture. He has to experiment and find out what asana, what posture, is best for him and adopt it. It does not mean that one must always sit cross-legged in the Padmasana for hours together. Sri Aurobindo used to say that walking was the best asana for him. He was able to meditate best when he was walking. And he used to walk at least seven miles a day in his room. Some people can meditate better when they stand erect. Some need to sit in a chair. There is no rigidity about posture. That posture in which a person feels comfortable, in which he feels that the body can hold itself in a stable position, and he can forget the body — that is the right posture for him.

Once the asana is fixed, next comes what is called the breathing technique. Normally, we are never aware of how we breathe; we breathe very irregularly. There is no balance between the time we give for drawing the breath in and letting it go out. Now breathing is intimately connected with the mind. The movement of the life-force— of which breathing is a major operation — has a direct connection with the mind. When the mind is agitated, restless, full of

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out-going thoughts, breathing is irregular. If the berating is controlled, made regular, the mind too comes under control and becomes a little quiet. If, however, when you are breathing heavily, you see what is the condition of the mind, you will find it chaotic.

Since there is a rush of thoughts usually when you sit for meditation, you are asked first to control your breathing by equalizing the time taken to breathe in and the time taken to breathe out. Once you establish that rhythm, you must hold the breath in between for a while, in the same proportion to begin with — mbreathing, holding and letting it out. If you do this for some time, the whole system falls quiet, calm. There is further development of this science called prdndydma, which it is not necessary for the practitioner of meditation to know or study, much less practise. This elementary discipline of breathing is enough.

The next step, after you sit in a comfortable position, acquire a reasonable quietude of mind and balanced breathing, is to bring together the movements of your mind which are spread out in a hundred directions. If you stop any person suddenly and ask him, "What were you thinking about?", normally he will not be able to reply at once. He will need time to recollect. You have to exercise your will to bring together all the dispersed threads of the mental consciousness closer and closer and weave them together. This bringing together is called Pratyahara. Once the dispersed mental consciousness is controlled, it can be fixed on one point. It may be an idea. It may be a form. It may be a sound. It may be a word. Whatever it is, there must be some object around which the mind can be focused. That is called concentration.

So concentration is a fixing of the mind on some one thing. In the very nature of things this concentration cannot be held for long. There is strain and the mind, the consciousness begins to flow on that theme, the object of concentration. If you concentrate on God as Love, the mind starts thinking after a time, "What is Love? How does God express himself in Love? What is the expression of Love?" Thus the mind goes on thinking about everything relating to that theme. Again, the concentration may be on God as Peace: "I want to realize God as Peace." Thinking of Peace, invoking Peace, imagining Peace — that way the consciousness flows on peace, like 'the flow of oil in a wick'. So the consciousness, the mind, flows from its

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concentrated state, and this flow of consciousness around the object of concentration is called meditation.

It is a universal experience that as one begins to meditate, there is interference. People say, "As soon as we sit to meditate we are troubled by thoughts. Normally we don't have these thoughts, but when we sit for meditation, we are disturbed by a rush of thoughts." Actually, it is not so. The thoughts are always there, they are in the universal atmosphere moving this way and that, but we are occupied with something or other and we don't take cognizance of them. But when we sit for meditation we become aware of them. And how are we to deal with this invasion of irrelevant, foreign and distracting thoughts that upset our meditation? There are two or three ways in which it can be done. One is to let the thoughts flow. We let them run on the screen of our mind, but we do not participate in them. We just observe as they flow, and discover that they reveal much in our own nature which needs to be corrected. And by the very fact that we don't participate in the movement, it slows down and eventually comes to a standstill, and then we have a quiet mind. It takes time, but it works. The second way, if we have a strong will, is to treat each thought as an intruder and the moment it comes near our mind to shut it out. Doing this we build up what is called a vacant mind. The third way, perhaps more practical, is to ignore the thoughts and whenever they come, not to busy ourselves with them, but to hold our main attention to the objective of our contemplation. If we ignore them thus without paying any attention to them, they run about on the surface of our mind; the peripheral consciousness deals with them, and we continue to be occupied with what we wish to concentrate upon. Just as, when we are talking to each other, there may be some noises going on like those of passing motor cars, aeroplanes and others, but they don't interfere with our flow of thought or our flow of talk, though we are aware of those noises. Similarly, the outer mind, the surface mind deals with these thoughts, but we are concerned with what we are interested in. This leads in life to what may be called bifurcation of consciousness by which the main consciousness is always centred around our quest, our goal, and a mechanical, surface part of the consciousness deals with the day-to-day routine activities. The gulf between the outer life and the inner life is thus healed — a part of the consciousness

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dealing with routine things and the bulk of the consciousness busy, always engaged, always bent upon the quest that we are truly occupied with. This is the technique that I have found most practical.

Once the meditation develops and gathers strength, one forgets oneself, one is conscious only of the object of meditation, which may be a feeling of peace, or of love, or a Divine Form, one just gets lost in it. This is the beginning of trance into which meditation culminates. There are a number of forms of trance, but we need not go deeply into that. It is enough for our purpose to know that ultimately one's consciousness becomes one with the consciousness of the object; the subject and the object become one. So meditation is a means and a technique that leads one to this culmination in a state of identity with the object.

Important consequences follow. During meditation, one is in a particular state of consciousness, a state of enlightenment, oneness, quietude. Now when one comes out of that movement, it is imperative that one carries the spirit and climate of the meditation into everyday life. Normally, one just puts meditation aside as a separate experience to be continued in the next session, and goes on living the old rounds of life, reacting in the same old way. Often it happens that people who meditate develop a new kind of sensitivity and become very resentful of the normal movements of life. They get angry and irritable more often, and they become more difficult to deal with, than ordinary, average people. The demand of the spirituality of today is that this inner gain, inner development, inner growth of consciousness should be related to the outer life. So the spirit and the climate of meditation must be prolonged as much as possible when one comes out of it till there is really no difference between life in the day-to-day world and the periods of meditation. The meditative movement must always go on irrespective of what a person is doing, — while walking, running, eating or working—somewhere at the back of his mind, in the depths of his being, the meditative movement must go on and that is when it can be said that meditation has become natural to him. He does not then need to have special hours of meditation; it is a continuous movement of consciousness. In the beginning, however, we have to have specific periods to discipline ourselves, to learn to put our minds and other parts of our being in

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harmony with each other and to learn attunement with the Divine. But the purpose of meditation is truly fulfilled when meditation becomes co-extensive with the life-movement, when meditation becomes natural.

M. P. Pandit

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MYSTICAL SYMBOLISM OF

THE SATAPATHA BRAHMANA:

THE SOMA CUPS OF THE VAJAPEYA SACRIFICE

IN this short study, evidence is examined from the Satapatha Brahmana and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad which is supportive of a spiritual interpretation of the symbols of the external Vedic Ritual. In particular, we focus on the Soma sacrifice to determine clearly the spiritual import of the offering of Soma in the external ritual. Taken in the light of Sri Aurobindo's interpretation of the Vedas, numerous hints are found throughout the Brahmanas which reveal a mystical-spiritual motivating power behind the Vedic ritual, though perhaps retained by the ritual only as potent symbols of the manifest reality known to the earliest Vedic mystics.

Before examining the evidence of the Brahmanas and Upanishad itself, we will familiarize ourselves with the spiritual interpretation of the Vedas as given by Sri Aurobindo. With even a cursory examination of Sri Aurobindo's interpretation of the Vedas, we shall find that the hidden elements of spiritual endeavour in the Brahmana stand clearly revealed. Though Sri Aurobindo primarily relied upon the Vedic mantras themselves for evidence of their spiritual import, he made the following comment on the element of ritual: "To those who came after them [Vedic Rishis] the Veda was a book of knowledge, a revelation, a great utterance of eternal and impersonal truth as it had been seen and heard in the inner experience of inspired and semi-divine tinkers. The smallest circumstances of the sacrifice around which the hymns were written were intended to carry a symbolic and psychological power of significance, as was well known to the writers of the ancient Brahmanas..."¹

Elsewhere, we find this further assessment: "...the experiences to which they [mantras] are the key and which were symbolised by the ritual are necessary to an integral knowledge and realisation of Brahman in the universe and prepare the knowledge and realisation of the Transcendent Brahman."² (Emphasis ours.) Keeping this in

¹ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Works, Centenary Edition Vol. 14, Foundations, of Indian Culture, Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, 1972, p - 261 .

² Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry, 1971, p. 547·

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mind, we may profitably examine the symbols of the ritual as found in the Brahmanas in an attempt to extract the spiritual experience represented by these symbols.

In particular we mean to examine the symbol of the Soma Cups as found in the Vajapeya Sacrifice, "...the last of the seven forms of a complete Soma-sacrifice..."¹ The principal object of offering to the Gods in the Vajapeya sacrifice is the Soma juice. This is offered as oblations by small cups of wood called 'grahas'. These 'grahas' of soma are offered to each of the thirty-three gods, with appropriate mantras, and the thirty-fourth is offered to Prajapati. Before further exploring the significance of the soma 'grahas', we will look at the comments of T. V. Kapali Sastry, well-known exponent of Sri Aurobindo's Vedic interpretation, on the significance of Soma. Sastry writes:

"Soma represents the Beatitude, the Delight of existence; he is the Lord of Bliss and Immortality. The Gods are Immortals because they five by the essential delight of all created existence. In man the... immortalising juices (rasa) are hidden and when by tapasyā, discipline, and with the help of the higher powers... these are extracted and offered to the Gods they get the needed nourishment in him, 'they increase him by themselves increasing in him.' "²

Let us also look to the Brahmana for corroboration of this spiritual interpretation of Soma. Some writers tell us that Soma was a liquor, an intoxicating brew made from the Soma creeper, which was drunk with joy by the sacrificer and the priests of the ritual. These writers would not have looked for a profound significance of the Soma offered in the sacrifice. Yet even in the external ritual, as revealed in this Vajapeya sacrifice, this crude interpretation does not hold up. For we find a clear distinction made between Soma being offered and the offering of Sura (intoxicating liquor). We read, "...He (the Adhvaryu) then draws seventeen (other) cups of Soma, and (the Neshtri) seventeen cups of (spiritous liquor), for to Prajapati [sic]

¹ The Satapatha Brahmana according to the Text of the Madhyandina School, Trans. Julius Eggeling (Part III, Books V, VI & VII) (Oxford Clarendon Press, 1894), p. xxiii.

² T. V. Kapali Sastry, Lights on the Veda, Madras, Sri Aurobindo Library, 1947, p. 32 .

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belong these two (saps of) plants, to wit the Soma and the Sura;'— and of these two the Soma is truth, prosperity, light; and the Sura untruth, misery, darkness..."¹ In this one reference we not only find that Soma is declared to be different from the intoxicating liquor, Sura, but we see a clear symbolic interpretation of Soma as equivalent to 'truth, prosperity, light'. The concepts of truth, prosperity and light are spiritual in import and the products of, at the least, a refined mentality.

With this clarification of the properties of Soma we look again to Sastry for further understanding of the mystical or spiritual significance of the Soma:

"...Even as the divine Truth-Light concealed everywhere even in this obscure physical world becomes manifest in places by reason of evolution, so too Soma concealed everywhere stands as the sap that is the quintessence in the earth, in the growths of earth, in the objects of the senses, in the experiences of their objects. And it is he, the soul of rasa, that is externally symbolised by Soma creeper, that is extracted, purified, and offered to the Gods. In the inner sacrifice the devotee of God, the sacrificer of Soma, extracts the flow of delight that runs in the experience of the sense-objects, divests it of his personal claims and enjoyments, and offers it to the Gods. This rasa becomes the food immortal of the Gods and thus do these eaters of the nectar, the Gods immortal, obtain nourishment in the sacrificer... This in substance is the truth of Soma."²

Further examination of the Brahmana confirms this exalted conception of the significance of Soma. As Sastry indicates, the sacrificer is to 'extract the flow of delight that runs in the experience of the sense-objects' and offer it to the Gods. In the Fifth Brahmana are found the following references equating the various grahas (soma cups) with the various sense organs:

"The Ashvina Graha, forsooth, is his organ of hearing; hence in his organ of hearing; hence in

¹ Trans. Julius Eggeling, Op. Cit., p. 8.

² T. V. K. Sastry, Rig Veda Samhita, Vol II , Trans. M. P. Pandit and S. Shankaranarayanan, M. P. Pandit Pub!., Pondicherry, 1976, pp. 23-4.

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drinking it he turns (the cup) all round, since with that ear of his he hears all round..."

"The Sukra and Manthin (grahas), forsooth, are his eyes. Now the Sukra, indeed, is he that burns yonder (the sun)... And the Manthin indeed is the moon."¹

One finds many other instructive references to the grahas in the Brah-mana. Further evidence is found in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad in which Yajnavalkya explains the grahas, equating them with the senses:

" 'Yajnavalkya', said he, 'how many perceivers [grahas] are there, how many over perceivers? 'Eight perceivers. Eight over-perceivers'..." [Note of Radhakrishnan:] "The grahas are the organs of perception, graspers or apprehenders and the atigrahas are the objects of perception."

"...The nose is the [graha] organ of perception..."

"...Speech... is the [graha] organ of perception..."

"...The tongue... is the [graha] organ of perception..."

"...The eye... is the [graha] organ of perception..."

"...The ear... is the [graha] organ of perception..."

"...The mind... is the [graha] organ of perception..."

"...The hands... are the [graha] organ of perception..."

"...The skin... is the [graha] organ of perception..."²

So it is clear beyond doubt that the word graha, which is the technical term for the wooden soma cup in the external ritual, is identified with the mind and senses of the human being. This shows, then, that Sastry's words about extraction of the rasa, the flow of delight which runs in the experience of sense-objects and offering this to the gods, is a cogent spiritual interpretation of the offering of Soma juice in the grahas of the external ritual. In the inner and spiritual sacrifice of the Vedic Yoga, "The Soma that is pressed, purified, becomes the food of the Gods. Partaking of the Soma, according to their share, the Gods strong by its delight themselves increase in man and also

¹ Trans. Julius Eggeling. Op. Cit., pp. 272 & 278.

² S. Radhakrishnan, Principal Upanishads (Lon do n : George Allen & Unwin, 1953), p . 147 .

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increase him thereby and make him competent for the most excellent experiences."¹ What is the nature of the 'most excellent experiences', mentioned here? According to the Shatapatha Brahmana, the Vaja-peya sacrifice "confers on the sacrificer... paramount sovereignty (sāmrdjya)"² We find references in the Taittiriya Samhita (V, 6, 2, I) and the Brahmana (II, 7, 6, I), according to which the Vajapeya is a "samratsava or consecration to the dignity of a paramount sovereign..." Some interpret this to be a mere ritual for installation of a temporal monarch. That this external ritual may have been used in such a manner is not of great importance. What is of crucial importance is the spiritual experience represented by the symbols of the ritual. The sacrifice, when conducted inwardly by the disciple of the Vedic Yoga, culminates in the winning of a supreme spiritual realization which in turn confers upon the sacrificer the status of "sam-rat". We find the following words of Sri Aurobindo as to the status of samrat:

"...He arrives at the larger light and order of a higher principle in himself and the universe which is the characteristic action of the divine Sachchidananda. Even, he is able to impose the influence of that light and order, not only on his own natural being, but, within the radius and to the extent of the Spirit's action in him, on the world he lives in, on that which is around him. He is svarāt, self-knower, self-ruler, but he begins to be also through his spiritual oneness and transcendence samrat, a knower and master of his environing world of being... So long as he remains in the world-existence, this perfection must radiate out from him, — for that is the necessity of his oneness with the universe and its beings, — in an influence and action which help all around who are capable of it to rise to or advance towards the same perfection, and for the rest in an influence and action which help, as only the self-ruler and master man can help, in leading the human race forward spiritually towards this consummation and towards some image of a greater divine truth in their personal and communal existence. He becomes a light and power of the

¹ T. V. K. Sastry, Rig Veda Samhita, Vol. II, Trans. M. P. Pandit & S. Shankara-narayanan, M. P. Pandit Publ., Pondicherry, 1976, p. 79.

² Trans. Julius Eggeling, Op. Cit., p. xxiv.

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' Truth to which he has climbed and a means for others' ascension."¹

In this light, the symbols of the Brahmana reveal definitively their spiritual significance.

"...Thus they who of old used to offer the Vajapeya ascended to that upper region..."²

This is an obvious reference to a mystical experience of ascension to a higher realm of consciousness, the consciousness of Brahman in the universe:

"And whoever offers the Vajapeya, he becomes everything here, he wins everything here; for he wins Prajapati and Prajapati indeed is everything here."³ (Emphasis mine)

As to the role of the gods in preparing the sadhaka for this supreme experience, the Brahmana states:

"And...thus to whatever deities he is now offering, they give an impulse to him, and impelled by them he wins."⁴

By offering of soma to the gods he receives their help whereby he wins the upper region. For further elucidation we refer again to the words of Sastry:

"...When the human sacrificer sets on his inner sacrifice the life-substance is processed by the action of the Ashvins, the mental substance is processed by the action of Indra, the flow of delight indicated by the extraction of Soma is set going in the mind, life and body, the all-Gods who are invited, enter the libation, up bear it and become capable of bringing about the fulfilment of the Sacrifice... The culmination of the processing of

¹ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Works, Centenary Edition Vol. 21, The Synthesis of Yoga

² Trans. Julius Eggeling, op. Cit., p. 3.

³ Ibid, p. 3.

⁴ Ibid, p. 37

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life and intellect by the Ashvins, Indra, All-Gods is in the attainment of the Truth-Consciousness and... the wealth of the Truth-Consciousness is the sole object of Yajna and its fruit to be obtained."¹

We find the following references in the Brahmana supporting the view that the fruit of the Yajna is a supreme spiritual status: (These references make sense only in this light and can be applied with less relevance in an installation of a worldly king.)

"...He then touches the wheat...with 'We have gone to the light, O ye gods! for he who offers the Vajapeya, indeed goes to the light."

"...He then rises by... his head...with, 'We have become immortal! whereby he wins the world of the gods." "...Thereupon, while looking to the different directions he mutters...ours be your power, ours your manhood and intelligence, ours be your energies! 'For he who offers the Vajapeya wins everything here, winning as he does Prajapati, and Prajapati being everything here — having appropriated to himself, the glory, the power, and the strength of this. All, he now lays them within himself, makes them his own..."²

"...He then descends (and treads on a piece of gold): — gold is immortal life: thus he takes his stand on life immortal."³

All of the above refer to the fruits of the Vajapeya sacrifice, the winning of Light, the world of the Gods, the All, Life Immortal, and the winning of Prajapati Himself. Within the Brahmana we find that Prajapati is the All, including the sum of all the Gods. Sri Aurobindo writes the following of this Reality called Prajapati in the Vedas:

"...all that is contained in the being of Surya, in the Vijnana which builds up the worlds is becoming of existence in the one existence and one Lord of all becoming, the Purusha, Sachchidananda. All becoming is born in the Being who himself exceeds all becomings and is their Lord, Prajapati."¹

¹ T. V . K. Sastry, Lights on the Veda

² Trans. Julius Egegling, Op. Cit. Pp. 32-3.

³ Ibid, p. 35.

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The winning of Prajapati, (known by later seers impersonally as Sachchidananda) Lord of all becoming, confers on the Yogi not only a supreme light, an infinite expansion of consciousness containing the All, but a Power of Mastery, a spiritual Lordship of the world around him. He may have neither crown nor sceptre, yet this realisation of the divine reality and all its powers gives him a sovereignty which nothing can take away, neither a temporal monarch nor Yama, the Lord of Death. He has 'gone to the Light', he has 'become Immortal' and has won the power of mastering the world forces. This paramount sovereignty is used for the benefit and uplift of the world about him. This experience is expressed in a dynamic way by the following words of the Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, which help us grasp the state of the samrat yogin concretely:

"...to identify oneself so well with the divine Power as to be able to act constantly and consciously upon all vibrations circulating through the world. Then the undesirable vibrations no longer have any effect upon you, but you have an effect upon them, that is instead of an undesirable vibration entering into you without being perceived and doing its work there, it is perceived and immediately on its arrival you act upon it to transform it, and it goes back into the world transformed to do its beneficent work and prepare others for the same realisation. This is exactly what Sri Aurobindo proposes to do, and, more clearly, what he asks you to do, what he intends us to do : Instead of running away, to bring into oneself the Power which can conquer."²

In the view of Sri Aurobindo, and seemingly well corroborated by our short study, the Vedic spiritual ideal was far from an ascetic running away from life. "...Also Yagnavalkya said, 'Should we not rather draw them for the deities, since that is, as it were, the sign of

¹ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Works, Centenary Edition, Vol. 12. The Upcmishads,

² The Mother, Collected Works, Vol. 4, Questions and Answers 1950-51

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conquest?"¹ The Vedic ideal was to bring into oneself, and thereby into life, the divine Power which could bring into this world of death and sorrow the Light and Truth of Immortality and the Unbroken Bliss of the Infinite.

The aim and goal of a modern day Spirituality is not essentially changed. The mastery sought in principle perhaps requires an even greater Power than before to conquer the world forces obstructing the manifestation of the Truth. Though one may now dispense with an ancient ritual, what is still required is a complete surrender of the human being to the Light, Bliss and Power of the Supreme at Its greatest magnitude, the Supramental. Thus flooding the world with the conquering power of Truth, the Divine Fulfilment of earthly life is to be quickened and brought swiftly to fruition.

"Even the body shall remember God,

Nature shall draw back from mortality

And Spirit's fires shall guide the earth's blind force...

The Supermind shall claim the world for Light

And thrill with love of God the enamoured heart

And place Light's crown on Nature's lifted head

And found Light's reign on her un shaking base...

The mind shall be God-vision's tabernacle,

The body intuition's instrument,

And fife a channel for God's visible power...

"But first high Truth must set her feet on earth

And man aspire to the Eternal's light

And all his members feel the Spirit's touch

And all his life obey an inner Force.:..

"The Spirit shall look out through Matter's gaze

And Matter shall reveal the Spirit's face....

"Nature shall live to manifest secret God,

The Spirit shall take up the human play,

This earthly life become the life divine."²...

STEPHEN WATSON

 

¹ Satapatha Brahmana — Madhvandina School, Part II, Books III & IV, Trans. Julius Eggeling (Oxford Clarendon Press, 1894), p. 279.

² Sri Aurobindo, Savitri — A Legend and A Symbol, (Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, 1978), Pgs. 707, 708, 709 & 711.

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" THE INDIAN AND EUROPEAN EPIC TRADITIONS

AND THEIR SUCCESSFUL SYNTHESIS IN SAVITRI

SRI Aurobindo's Savitri claims to be a cosmic epic which synthesis's the techniques of Indian and Western epic traditions with subtle artistry using blank verse as the medium of expression. It is said to have succeeded in poetising a universal Indian theme in the European epic traditions using the stylistic and technical devices of both. It aims to demonstrate that episcopate is possible in this modern age. It appears to falsify the modern myth that the authentic epic as a literary form is doomed. The present paper is an endeavour to substantiate the argument that Sri Aurobindo's Savitri is a successful synthesis of the Indian and European epic traditions.

The Indian Epic Traditions:

The Indian epic traditions have been beautifully summed up in the opening chapter of the Mahabharata where the epic is compared to a thriving tree with branches and trunk, fruits and flowers — the implication being that in the epic the parts are combined into an organic whole. Epic is called Mahakavya in Indian literature, according to which it is a long poem with a unified plot made out of a significant story: featuring a protagonist of lofty personal traits whose deeds are of decisive importance to the community and distinguished by spaciousness, seriousness, and emotional appeal. It implies the importance of making a plot out of a significant story in which the hero should be an outstanding person distinguished by birth and worth, courage and wisdom, skill and decorum. His personal life and public life indicates his double role as an individual and as representative of a people whose cause he espouses. It aims at contributing to the promotion of the four noble roles of human endeavour i.e. righteousness, wealth, love and salvation. It is expected to be replete with nine flavors rasas i.e. erotic, piteous, heroic, repulsive, furious, fearful, marvellous, peaceful and quietistic along with the actual emotions bhdva which underlie them. There is an invocation at the beginning of the epic which presents a vivid description of diverse natural scenery. The epic is not supposed to be a long drawn out poem with long drawn out cantos. There would be a smooth transition to indicate

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the awareness of form and content with an organic unity of the theme. These six qualities of an Indian epic tradition have been spoken of by Dandin in his kavya darsa (View of poetry), as has been quoted by Prof. Keith¹. Vyasa, Valmiki and Kalidas are to be drawn upon among the greatest Indian epic poets finding their pinnacle in the seer poet, Sri Aurobindo, in the modern age.

A great literary epic marks the transition to a great age or arises in the course of or at the very end of the age. The rise of a great literary epic is organically related to an outstanding period of creative achievement in a nation's life. The vision of the creative epic poet is rooted in the legacy of the past as modified by the aspirations, ideals and actions of the present. The values imbibed from the vision of the epic poet rouse the people to try to excel themselves. It is this vision that the epic seeks to express. Epic has, therefore, generally been recognised as the acme of literary art or at least one of its twin peaks, the other being tragedy.

European Epic Traditions:

The European epic traditions are based largely on the seven qualities of an epic according to Aristotle's Poetics². The Western view of an epic postulates it to be heroic poetry with a significant and universally accepted plot giving a comprehensive portrayal of community life. Its hero, to be successful and victorious in the battle of fife, must be a person of exceptional qualities and personality who is a cultural representative of national/human fife. Its episodes are supposed to be topical with miscellaneous description using a grand style for expressing ideals of community and following a metrical unity throughout the poem. Such an epic writer is a person of exceptional calibre, artistic competence, vivid imagination and perceptive ingenuity. The theme should have a grand design for serving as a source of inspiration and encouragement for inculcating good, virtuous and moral character in human fife. The four stages of growth of European Epic vary from heroic feelings (in Homer) to scriptural, religious and moral feelings (in Virgil, Dante, Cameas, Milton) to romantic feelings (in Spenser, Ariosto, Tasso) and to free lance verse of a metrical freedom (in Goethe, Tennyson, Browning, Victor Hugo, Hardy).

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Eastern and Western Epic Traditions Compared and Contrasted:

There is no particular difference between Eastern and Western view points of epic traditions. However, there are certain telling contrasts between the two. First of all, Indian epic episodes are spread over several years whereas in European epics like Iliad and Odyssey, the duration of time is some-what limited. Secondly, the Indian epics lay particular stress on the nobility of life and character in the hero. But in European epics, the hero sometimes tends to fall to low depths of degradation in character and morals. Thirdly the ancient Indian epics have different metrical styles in various cantos of the same epic. The European epics display a uniformity of metre in the whole epic. Fourthly, Indian epics show divine incarnation in epical stories. Few European epics show this strain, though they also depict gods and goddesses, myths and legends. Next, the European epic poetry is by and large heroic poetry. But Indian epics also embrace colorful revelry of make-up warring as well as peaceful strains of rasas (sentiments, flavors). Though there is a predominance of one rasa over others, the description of all the others is also given. Last of all, the European epics stress the physical aspect of culture. The Indian epics, however, lay more stress on renunciation, and detachment from worldly life. Their theme, aim and design, is to uphold values of righteousness, love, and salvation. There is always a vivid portrayal of practical philosophy of life in Indian epics. Inspite of these points of contrasts between the two epic traditions, there is a basic unity of common qualities.

In the words of M. Dixon "Yet heroic poetry is one; whether of East or West, the North or South, its blood and temper are the same, and the true epic wherever created will be a narrative poem, organic in structure dealing with great actions and great characters, in a style commensurate with lordliness of its theme, which tends to idealised these characters and actions and to sustain and embellish its subject by means of episode and amplifications".³

This position is made clearer by a great modern Indian poet, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, in his ardhnārisvara where he observes in the following lines:

"The world epics are milestones in the path of humanity's progress.

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They portray the extent to which man has progressed in a given period of history."⁴

The Synthesis of Various Epic Traditions in Sri Aurobindo's Savitri:

It would now be fruitful to see Savitri in close relation to all other epics. Though it is a new epic, the epic of the destiny of man, nature and God; it has its affiliations with the epics and epic narratives of the past and the present times. It successfully compares with some of the great epics or epic compositions of the ancient, mediaeval and the modern worlds. It is a cosmic epic which is said to be the last word yet in presenting in poetical terms the drama of human quest for divine consciousness. It projects before us the 'Divine Comedy' of the "yearnings and battles of mankind for eternal life", culminating in the victory, the certainty of "a great dawn". It is a great epic which ushers in a new age in poetic creation. Its meaning, rather its reality, is to be felt inwardly as it is a great epic poem of humanity. "It is a symbolic and mystic epic, a great poetic story of man, world and God. It is an epic of the soul most in-wordly seen by an intuitive poetry. It is the song of the greatest flight that reveals from the highest pinnacle and with the largest field of vision the destiny of the human spirit and the presence and ways and purpose of the Divinity in man and the world".⁵

Savitri employs all the paraphernalia of an epic, (a) It starts in the middle with the opening scene of 'symbol dawn' and closes with the promise of 'a greater dawn'; the opening lines of Savitri are:

It was the hour before the Gods awake.

Across the path of the divine Event

The huge foreboding mind of Night, alone

In her unlit temple of eternity,

Lay stretched immobile upon Silence' marge.

Almost one felt, opaque, impenetrable,

In the sombre symbol of her eyeless muse

The abysm of the unbodied infinite;

A fathomless zero occupied the world.

(b) The epic opens neither with any direct statement of theme nor

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with the invocation of the Muse as do Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid and Paradise Lost respectively:

"An angry Man — there is my story: the bitter rancour of Achilles". (Iliad — Rouse's prose translation.)

"Muse make man thy theme,... who

A wand'rer, after Ilium overthrown,

Discovered Various Cities....

Daughter divine of Jove, these things record."

(Odyssey — Cowper's translation in blank verse.)

"Arms and the man I sing...

O Muse, the causes and the crimes relate".

(Aeneid — Dryden's translation in heroic couplet.)

"Of Man's First Disobedience and the Fruit....

Sing Heavenly Muse".

(Paradise Lost, Book I, 176)

The opening line in Savitri quietly focuses our attention on a particular hour of the night: "It was the hour before the Gods awake—" the hour between midnight and dawn — Dawn trying to emerge rocking the cradle of the drowsy child — the ignorant Force.

The opening lines, besides, it can be easily seen, contain the closing ones as well:

Night, splendid with the moon dreaming in heaven

In silver peace, possessed her luminous reign.

She brooded through her stillness on a thought

Deep-guarded by her mystic folds of light,

And in her bosom nursed a greater dawn.

(Book XII — Epilogue)

Dawn must emerge out of Night: Night must end in Dawn. There is a vivid Kalidasian description of Nature in Book IV (Cantos I and IV) and 1st Canto of Book V:

The life of the enchanted globe became

A storm of sweetness and of light and song,

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A revel of colour and of ecstasy,

A hymn of rays, a litany of cries:

A strain of choral priestly music sang

And, swung on the swaying censer of the trees,

A sacrifice of perfume filled the hours.

(Book IV, Canto I, 124-130)

and

The white crane stood, a vivid motionless streak,

Peacock and parrot jewelled soil and tree,

The dove's soft moan enriched the enamoured air

And fire-winged wild-drakes swam in silvery pools.

Earth couched alone with her great lover Heaven.

(Book V, Canto I, 32-36)

Similarly, there is a vivid description of a heroic treatment of the love episode of Savitri and Satyavan, in Book V, Cantos II and III, having the purity of love scenes in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Kalidasa's Shakuntala, distinguished by lustrous Platonism:

I caught for some eternal eye the sudden

Kingfisher flashing to a darkling pool;

A slow swan silvering the azure lake,

A shape of magic whiteness, sailed through dream;

(Book V, Canto III)

Book IX to XI depict the hero's epic journey through inferno, Purgatories and Paradiso respectively.

But Savitri replied to the dread voice:

"O Death, who reasonest, I reason not,

Reason that scans and breaks, but cannot build

Or builds in vain because she doubts her work.

I am, I love, I see, I act, I will."

(Book IX, Canto II)

and

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In a flaming moment of apocalypse

The Incarnation thrust aside its veil.

A little figure in infinity

Yet stood and seemed the Eternal's very house.

As if the world's centre was her very soul

And all wide space was but its outer robe.—

Her forehead's span vaulted the Omniscient's gaze,

Her eyes were two stars that watched the universe.

(Book X, Canto IV)

aha!" next,

Nature shall live to manifest secret God,

The Spirit shall take up the human play,

This earthly life become the life divine.

(Book XI, Canto I)

Sri Aurobindo's Savitri employs the medium of sonorous blank verse like that of Milton. There is the recurrence of epithets, similes and images in it (e.g., those of the sea — "like a great sea", "like a sea in ebb", "an ocean impulse", "a sea of white sincerity," "a magnanimity as of sea or sky", etc.). Like Homer and Milton, Sri Aurobindo's descriptions tend to be long. Sometimes he devotes several lines to paraphrase an idea. There is the sheer sweep of the verse and the amazing modernity of the thought content. Like Dante, Sri Aurobindo has fused in Savitri his philosophy with poetry in a harmonious pattern. Though planned as a minor Ramayana, Savitri, itself is full-bodied in its subject-matter. It has the sustained breath of inspiration and the high tone of poetical expression with intensity of vision, rhythm and style.

"Savitri has a greatness and amplitude of spirit and speech and movement. Like all the great epics, it has a high seriousness which it reflects in its inspired endeavour to understand the meaning, the purpose and destiny of life and of the cosmos. It has an amplitude and breadth which it shows in its treatment of life on a cosmic as well as on an individual scale, ranging from the simple sensibility to a susceptibility to the numinous. It has a choric spirit which is evident in the hoary wisdom of a whole ancient people as in the intellectual

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dilemma of the contemporary age, which it embodies. Finally it has a sane and classical control of the contents."⁶

Savitri is Sri Aurobindo's celebrated epic which reveals the consummation of the many poetic styles attempted in all his works so far. It is an epic in twelve books, written in 23,813 lines of blank verse. It is the longest poem in the English Language, longer than Browning's The Ring and the Book which has 21,116 lines. It is the longest poem in any European language, ancient or modern with the exception of Nicos Kazantzakis' Odyssey: A Modern Sequel which is written in modern Greek in 33,333 lines. Only three other comparable epics exceed it in length, — Shah Nameh (An ancient Persian epic of art by Firdousi), The Ramayana (An ancient true folk Indian religious epic of 44,000 lines by Valmiki) and the Mahabharata (An ancient true folk Indian heroic epic of 2,20,000 lines by Veda Vyasa). It is more revealingly autobiographical than Milton's Paradise Lost or Keats' Hyperion, more radiantly inclusive than Dante's Divina Commedia and more intimately and intensely human than Homer's The Iliad or The Odyssey. More than Lucretius, Sri Aurobindo has recreated philosophy and poetry with the imaginative grandeur and intensity by throwing his Life Divine into the crucible of Savitri and remoulded it in its very essence. Like Dante and Milton, Sri Aurobindo produced in his Savitri, an epic of universal significance concerned with the theme of the destiny of Man and his relationship with the Divine. Like Goethe, he picked up an ancient story and developed it as a legend summing up the past, a symbol projecting the future and a philosophy based on his own experience. He fulfilled the promise of the inward or romantic subjective epic and of introspective lyricism which was exemplified brilliantly by Wordsworth in The Prelude, Keats in Hyperion and Shelley in Prometheus Unbound.

In the words of a critic "He is free from the incoherence of Blake, the prissiness of Wordsworth, the vagueness of Shelley, the fragmentariness of Keats, the tortuous self-division of the later Yeats and the 'retardation' that the brain causes in the poetry of T. S. Eliot."⁷ Above all, he is a seer poet who is essentially interested in the 'White radiance' rather than in the "Many-coloured dome". In his Savitri, he exploits all gripping epic action for subtle and symbolic purposes. His epic has a cosmological and philosophical background which

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mystically and psychologically delineates the heroic drama of divine life and its consummation in human form. The epic is replete with the poetical record of direct spiritual experiences of Sri Aurobindo as revealed through his ceaseless focus on the inner life and development of the characters of Aswapathy, Savitri and Satyavan.

"As we read the epic, Canto after Canto, with Aswapathy we become a traveller of the worlds of darkness below and the worlds of light above; with Savitri we adventure into the "inner countries" of the mind, heart and soul and meet the triple soul forces of Might, Sorrow and Light; and when at last the issue is between Savitri and Death in the dream kingdom of the Spirit we follow the vicissitudes of the struggle all through the spaces of Eternal Night, (The Inferno, Book IX), the Double Twilight (The Purgatorio, Book X) and the Everlasting Day (The Paradiso, Book XI). And when all is over, and Savitri and Satyavan retire for the night, there is the sure promise of another and 'a greater dawn.' "⁸ (Dr. K.R.S. Iyengar)

An epic records the exceptional courage of a hero. In the whole range of world epics, Savitri is unique in having a woman as its 'hero' :

Amid the work of darker Powers She is here

To heal the evils and mistakes of Space

And change the tragedy of the ignorant world

Into a Divine Comedy of joy.

And the laughter and the rapture of God's bliss.

(Book III, Canto II)

And in place of an external fight as is inevitably fought in the great epics of the world, the fight of Savitri is basically a fight in the realm of consciousness. The great spiritual drama unfolded in Savitri is thus really played in the theatre of the human soul. The epic is mainly and essentially a story of the spirit, and the action too mainly and essentially takes place within the heart of man and of Nature. Aswapathy's Odysseus-like journeyings are in the boundless extension of the psyche, and Savitri's great dialogue with Death is in her soul. In Savitri it is Sri Aurobindo, the Seer Poet who is 'seeing' and objectively reporting with the intensity of vision, rhythm and words in a piquant, felicitous and magnificent style. The poet is directly

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reciting to Man — the mid-twentieth century egoistic, rationalistic, sceptic, nihilistic man. Its meaning is revealed on the level of direct statement. It bears the force of vision, a direct concrete realization. It is not written with the disposition of either a sworn Surrealist wedded to the obscurely entangled or a strict Symbolist cherishing a cult of the glimmeringly elusive. Behind the poet in him is the poet of Yoga whose aim was to enlighten the head and heart of generation of readers. Despite his deep roots in the highest spiritual 'mantric' poetry of the world in the Vedas and the Upanishads and Kalidasian imagery, he was yet a modern among moderns and the seer of a new mystical progression. The poem is personal history, as well as cosmic history and prophetic utterance. In the words of K. D. Sethna, "a democracy of Divine liberating the human was his goal," as in those words he puts into the mouth of his Savitri:

'A lonely freedom cannot satisfy

A heart that has grown one with every heart:

I am a deputy of the aspiring world,

My spirit's liberty I ask for all'.

(Book X, Canto IV)

From the "Symbol Dawn" of the opening canto to the last line of the last canto of the epic with its promise of "a greater dawn" — is verily a cosmic sweep of comprehension, a full circle. It appears that like Satyavan, we too have all "wandered in far-off eternities" and remained like him, "a captive in his golden hands."⁹ In the end, one feels inclined to conclude in the words of Prof. Raymond Frank Piper:

Sri Aurobindo's Savitri "is probably the greatest epic in the English language. It is the most comprehensive, integrated, beautiful and perfect cosmic poem ever composed. Savitri is perhaps the most powerful artistic work in the world for expanding man's mind towards the Absolute."¹⁰

O. P. MALHOTRA

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REFERENCES

1. A. B. Keith: Classical Sanskrit Literature)

2. Aristotle's Poetics : Part III of the Epic Poem.

3. M. Dixon: English Epic and Heroic Poetry, p . 24-

4. Ram Dhari Dinker: Ardhnarishvar, p. 46.

5. Sri Aurobindo: The Future Poetry, pp. 376-77.

6. Ibid_{, p. 376: Sri Aurobindo's anticipation of his own Work full filIed in Saoitri,}

7. V. K. Gokak: Sri Aurobindo — Seer and Poet, p. 22.

8. K. R. S. lyenger: Dawn to Greater Dawn - Six Lectures on Sri Aurobindo' s Sauitri, p , 123 .

9. Ibid, p. 123.

10. Raymond Frank Piper: The Hungry Eye —An Introduction to Cosmic Art, pp. 131-32.

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REVIEW

Spanda-Karikas: The Divine Creative Pulsation by Jaideva Singh. Motilal Banarsidas, Delhi, 1980, pp.210, Rs.50 (cloth), Rs. 35 (paper).

SPANDA-Karikas is a classic of the literature on the Shaiva philosophy produced in Kashmir. Sri Jaideva Singh, who has published translations of two other fundamental works of the same school of philosophy, viz. Siva-Sūtras and Pratyabhijñā-hrdayam (reviewed in this journal in November, 1980) has maintained .the same high standard of translation and exposition as he set up in the other two works. The plan of the work is the same as in the other two books. It includes an introduction which discusses the question of the authorship of the book and mentions the different commentaries on it, explains clearly the basic concept of Spanda and gives a verse by verse analysis of the contents of the four sections of the original Sanskrit book. In the main part of the book there is a faithful translation of the text and the commentary by Kshemaraja, literary and philosophical notes and compositions of many abstruse points of the doctrine and discipline of the system.

Spanda, which literally means a throb or a slight movement, is really the I-consciousness of Shiva, the Supreme Self and Lord, the ultimate Reality. It is also known as Vimarsha and is described by Abhinavagupta as the heaving rapture of Shiva's self-knowledge. Spanda is thus identical with Shiva, his dynamic aspect and the fundamental Power by which he exercises his five-fold function of nigraha or self-limitation, srsti or creation, sthiti or maintenance, samhāra or dissolution and anugraha or conferring of Grace on his own self-limited form bound to the creation. Spanda is also identical with the whole universe. A spiritual aspirant by opening his consciousness to the Spanda can attain identity with Shiva. There are various ways in which this can be done. The book describes them clearly and in fair detail.

The philosophical aspect of Spanda-Karikas is explained very well by Shri Jaideva Singh who draws upon other works of the system to make difficult points clear and intelligible. Spanda by expansion of its creative energy becomes subject and object and also the

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constituent categories, tattva-s of the universe. It does so by descent (of consciousness) and by ascent is again unified with Shiva. The closing, nimesa, of Shiva's self-knowledge is the unmesa, the opening or manifestation of the universe. The individual soul is none other than Shiva who has limited himself by exercising his Freedom, svā-tantrya, which is another name of Spanda. Introvertive meditation or nimīlana samādhi is recommended for the realisation of Spanda as the essential nature of Shiva. Of the realisation of Spanda as identical with the universe, the method is unmilana samādhi or extrover-tiye meditation. This can be achieved by the dawning of sahajamdyd, 'spontaneous knowledge' by means of which the spiritual aspirant can directly cognise unity in diversity.

Mantra plays a great part in the discipline expounded in the book. The author explains clearly and elaborately the inner mysteries of mantra. In this connection he throws a good deal of light on the Shaiva doctrine of language. The Sanskrit alphabet is discussed and it is shown how its letters represent the different categories of the universe. Supernormal powers are also discussed thoroughly. For example, it is claimed that when the yogi is firmly established in the Spanda principle, he can control the subtle body and can also become the lord of the circle of powers. But the aspirant is constantly reminded of the purely spiritual aspect of his sadhana even when supernormal powers are mentioned. For instance, it is said that the yogi can achieve khecharī mudrā or the power to fly through the sky. But kha, sky, is the symbol of the Supreme Self and thus the real khecharī mudrā is explained as being in the bodha-gagana, the firmament of Consciousness. This sadhana also speaks of transformation of man's ordinary nature. The citta, the ordinary empirical consciousness, is not dissolved or abrogated but transformed into citi, the eternal, self-existent and self-luminous dynamic Consciousness which is the same as Shiva.

The book cannot be too highly recommended to students of Kashmir Shaivism, indeed to all readers interested in spiritual philosophy, particularly those who are eager to know about discipline which enables its practitioners to attain identity with Shiva and the universe which is his self-manifestation held in identity in the integral I-Consciousness.

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Vijnanabhairava or Divine Consciousness. Jaideva Singh. Motilal Banarasidass, Delhi, 1979, pp. 173, Cloth Rs. 50.00. Paper Rs. 35.00.

Vijnanabhairava is a well-known Agama of great authority. It is entirely devoted to sādhand. The philosophy of non-dual Shaivism is pre-supposed and not expounded in this work. It is not possible, in the present state of our knowledge to determine its date of composition. Sri Jaideva Singh points out that the earliest reference to it is found in Vamananatha's Advayasampatti Vdrttika. The author thinks that Vamananatha may be the same as Vamana, the well-known writer on Poetics who flourished during the reign of King Jayapida of Kashmir who ruled from 779 to 813 A.D. If this identification be correct, then Vijnanabhairava was well-known in the 8th Century A.D. and the author remarks that perhaps it was compiled a century earlier. There are three commentaries on this work known to the world of scholarship. The first commentator Kshemaraja flourished in the 10th century A.D. Bhatta Ananda himself mentions the date of the completion of his commentary according to which he lived in the 17th century A.D. Shivopadhyaya says that his commentary was finished during the reign of Sukhajeevana. Thus he lived in the 18th century A.D.

The title of the work is made up of two words, vijñāna and bhairava. Kshemaraja explains the esoteric meaning of Bhairava. He says that the word consists of three letters, bha, ra and va. The first stands for bharana which means maintenance of the universe, the second indicates ravana, its withdrawal, the third signifies vamana, projection or manifestation of the creation. Thus Bhairava stands for all the three aspects of the Divine.

The ultimate Reality, Bhairava in this work, is the supreme Illumination, prakasa and self-illumination, vimarsa which in this context is called Bhairavi. The essential nature of Bhairava is vijndna, supreme Consciousness for which other words are bodha, mahdbodha, tit, caitanya, the chief characteristic of vijnana is svātantrya, supreme Freedom and Autonomy which reveals itself in the three powers icchd, jndni and kryd, will, knowledge and action respectively. The manifested universe which is a system of subjects and objects, knower and known, is a reflection in the Consciousness of Bhairava. The individual soul here is essentially Bhairava himself but under limitations.

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The goal of man is to recognize himself as Bhairava who is his true Self.

The work is presented as a dialogue between Bhairava and Bhairavi. It is explained that Bhairavi or Shakti is nothing but the essential state of Bhairava which is full of the bliss of non-difference from the entire manifested universe. That highest state of Bhairava or indeed of Bhairavi is free of all concepts pertaining to space, time, particularity, direction or designation. Ineffable, beyond description by words, he transcends all categories which nevertheless proceed from him and are the constitutive principles, tattva, of the universe. One can realize this state only when one is free of all mental constructs, avikalpa. Being free of the limited empirical ego one realizes the integral I-ness, purnāhantā. As the method of realization of the seeker's identity with Bhairava, the work recommends one hundred and twelve dhāranās or contemplations or concentrations. These are described by Bhairava in answer to a question put to him by the Devi Bhairavi, "By what means can this highest state be realized?" There are three classes of means or upāyas of realisation in this system— ānava śākta and sāmbhava. Each of the contemplations belongs to one or the other of the three kinds of means, some of them being a blend of both. In anava-upāyas the arm or the atomic empirical individual uses his instruments i.e. senses, vital force and mind as means of realization. Sdkta-updya is the means of approach to the Divine through Shakti. And sdmbhava-updya is the direct approach to Shiva the Reality. It is the sudden emergence of Shiva-consciousness.

Some of the contemplations may be briefly noted here. If the seeker is completely silent and immobile and gazes at the cloudless sky with fixed eyes, he will acquire the vapu i.e. the nature of Bhairava. Knowledge of the inner states of consciousness, viz. waking, dream and dreamless sleep as forms of Bhairava enables the yogi to be filled with the infinite consciousness. Then "If one recites the letter a without bindu or visarga, then O Goddess, Paramesvari — a magnificent torrent of wisdom appears suddenly", (verse 82, author's translation). With regard to desires two things are said which may seem to be contradictory. It is recommended that one should put an end to a desire as soon as it appears, and that it will be absorbed in that very place whence it arose, (verse 96) The next verse, 97,

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lays down the idea that when there is no desire or knowledge or activity in a person, he is then verily that Reality itself which is described as the place from which desire arises. Thus verse 98 describes the contemplation in which the seeker should contemplate on the idea that desire, knowledge and activity etc. are really nothing essentially but the fundamental Consciousness or Bhairava. It may be said that the main point of the contemplations is that the seeker should always fix his attention on the basic reality of everything whether physical or psychological and not on the particular formation of it in the external or the internal world. Bhairava is the pure and the ultimate Subject, and practice of subjectivism is the main discipline in the contemplations. In verses 85 and 86 the contemplations require respectively that the seeker holds this thought in him that since he has the attributes of Shiva, he is the same as the Lord. And it is said that with this firm conviction, one becomes Shiva and that he looks upon the universe as something that has arisen from him. Thus he is to identify himself with both Shiva and the universe which is truly the manifestation of the supreme Self. The work says that ordinarily people get pleasure from sexual contact with women. But at the same time a person can obtain the same pleasure simply by contemplating on it subjectively within oneself. It is pointed out that this means that the presence of objects is not necessary for getting joy. In this connection the work says quite clearly that sexual pleasure is mentioned only as an example and not enjoined as part of spiritual discipline. "Just as being locked in embrace with a woman, one is totally dissolved in the feeling of oneness (unity) and one loses all sense of anything external or internal, even so when the mind is dissolved in the Divine Energy, one loses all sense of duality and experiences the delight of unity-consciousness. The Sruti (scripture) speaks of the union of man with a woman to illustrate the union with the Divine. It is only a fool who takes this illustration as an injunction for carnal pleasure." (Verse 69, pp. 66-67, author's translation). Concentration on the delight derived from hastening to music, even from eating or drinking etc. is also praised as a potent discipline. But it must be clearly understood that it is on the delight, not on the objects as such that one must concentrate.

The verses are printed both in Devanagari and Latin script. A clear translation of each verse is given and the real significance of

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the contemplations described in the verses is explained in Notes which have illuminating comments culled from the recognized commentaries. The more esoteric contemplations, for example, those involving the rousing of the Kundalini Power, the mysteries of the use of the vital energies, the proper method of Japa etc. have been very well explained with a good deal of clarity and conviction. A long Introduction, an extensive English Glossary of technical terms, a subject Index and an Index of Sanskrit words have enhanced the value of the book. The author deserves the heartfelt thanks of all readers interested in the Tantrik lore and also of students of Indian spiritual philosophy.

ARAB1NDA BASU

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AN ADDRESS TO THE OUTGOING STUDENTS OF S.A.I.C.E.

(Looking at the students assembled before him) I know them all. But they were all young; now they have grown up.

(Addressing the students) So, will you sit down, all of you?...

I congratulate you all on your success, your success in having passed the Higher Course, which is all to your credit.

But this is not the important thing. What is important is that you have passed your youth here and have acquired something in the process, something that one does not gain by dint of merit but absorbs and imbibes with the atmosphere, in the same way as one sucks one's mother's milk.

You may hide it or veil it, but this thing is very singular. For, it is above all contradiction, all smirch and stain. It remains always shining and pure.

At times you will remember it in your outer material life. You will be entering now another order of material life. Perhaps, you will forget this precious thing, but this will not forget you: it remains for ever vigilant, watchful, resplendent.

And at any critical moment of your life, when you will be facing a danger, if there surges up from your depths the cry and call of the heart, then and there this vision will visit you and you will have the darshan of your soul.

This is all that I wanted to tell you. And it is enough, I think; isn't it?

15.10.1981

NOLINI KANTA GUPTA

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