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

EDITORIAL

FALSEHOOD

FALSEHOOD is the agony of the Supreme. So said the Mother.

And to cure and dissolve this falsehood, the supreme Lord, and His conscious-force, the supreme Mother, descended into the very depth of the abyss of creation. The radiating sparks of that supreme divine Presence are the souls on the earth.

Man, the human being, is nothing but that divine spark, the emanated spark of the Supreme, robed and lodged in the outer mould of an ignorant terrestrial consciousness. The soul—we might say — is a magic lantern put down here on earth to illumine and annihilate the surrounding obscurity of the material world. In its individual form each soul is unique, has a unique role to play, a small corner to clean and render transparent, and is unique also in its relation to the Supreme.

This is the truth but only one side of it. There is another truth, complementary to it. Man is not an individual wholly separated

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or isolated from other beings. In spite of his own unique personality and formation he is yet one with all, represents the whole of the terrestrial consciousness, in truth contains it in himself, in his consciousness. Each element in the earth-consciousness has a corresponding point in the individual consciousness, he is an amalgam of both the good and the evil of the whole of the terrestrial nature, a miniature world, a representation of the entire earth-consciousness, in a concentrated form, on a mini scale. The more the consciousness is developed, the more the individual being grows, the more this parallelism becomes evident. All that is good in the world you have it in you, and all that is bad on earth, that too you possess in your consciousness, no human being is a pure saint or angel nor is he a complete devil.

In the other paths of yoga one tried therefore to cut off the unnecessary links with the world — unnecessary for one's own idea or goal of liberation — and tried to concentrate on the single or few links which would connect one more easily to one's source. It was a very practical approach, perhaps even the correct one, for those who aimed at a liberation of their own individual selves from the obscurity of the material world and the earth-consciousness.

But for us who aspire for the deliverance of the entire terrestrial consciousness from falsehood and ignorance, this would not do: we have to accept our burden; we must take part in the collective effort. If any of us makes a progress, he does it for the earth; if one bit of evil is annihilated in one individual consciousness, it produces a corresponding effect in the terrestrial consciousness; if one individual cures a single ill in his nature, the whole world gets the benefit. In fact unless all is cured, nothing is perfectly cured. This is the secret of collective sadhana. And that is why on our way it is difficult to measure one's own progress or to mark where one stands as one does in other ways of yoga. We all stand together, we are one in our endeavour.

The earth is full of ills, too full perhaps of maladies — maladies of the body may be, but at bottom they are all maladies of consciousness. In all fields of life, and at all levels one has to face them, and to struggle at each step. Take the political field for instance, it is the same story. It is a political sickness, a sickness of the group consciousness in each group or nation, and as in the individual so also in the collectivity,

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the consciousness is centred in the ego and serves only to serve and fulfil its own limited interest at the cost of the others. And the problem is how to govern one's own self and at the same time help others to do the same.

To tackle it or any other problem with the right attitude and the right point of view one has to enlarge one's ego, to outgrow it, to widen the consciousness and feel oneness with the others. That is the solution, the only radical one, to grow in your consciousness, make your consciousness large enough to be one with the earth, and look at the problem from there. One has to grow from within, from the true source of one's being. A nation, each nation has a soul. One has to grow conscious of it, identify with and obey it. Then the problem changes its face, and a real cure is found, the true solution.

It is the same with all problems of life.

(From a talk to a class)

NOLINI KANTA GUPTA

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MOTHER INDIA

INDIA, my India, where first human eyes awoke to heavenly light,

All Asia's holy place of pilgrimage, great Motherland of might! World-mother, first giver to humankind of philosophy and sacred lore,

Knowledge thou gav'st to man, God-love, works, art, religion's opened door.

India, my India, who dare call thee a thing for pity's grace today? Mother of wisdom, worship, works, nurse of the spirit's inward ray!

To thy race, O India, God himself once sang the Song of Songs divine,

Upon thy dust Gouranga danced and drank God-love's mysterious wine,

Here the Sannyasin Son of Kings lit up compassion's deathless sun, The youthful Yogin, Shankar, taught thy gospel: "I and He are one."

India, my India, who dare call thee a thing for pity's grace today? Mother of wisdom, worship, works, nurse of the spirit's inward ray!

Art thou not she, that India, where the Aryan Rishis chanted high The Veda's deep and dateless hymns and are we not their progeny? Armed with that great tradition we shall walk the earth with heads unbowed:

O Mother, those who bear that glorious past may well be brave and proud.

India, my India, who dare call thee a thing for pity's grace today? Mother of wisdom, worship, works, nurse of the spirit's inward ray!

O even with all that grandeur dwarfed or turned to bitter loss and maim,

How shall we mourn who are thy children and can vaunt thy mighty name?

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Before us still there floats the ideal of those splendid days of gold: A new world in our vision wakes, Love's India we shall rise to mould.

India, my India, who dare call thee a thing for pity's grace today? Mother of wisdom, worship, works, nurse of the spirit's inward ray!

DWIJENDRALAL ROY

(Translated by Sri Aurobindo)

There are brighter earths and wider heavens than ours.

SRI AUROBINDO

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THE FIFTEENTH OF AUGUST 1947

AUGUST 15th is the birthday of free India. It marks for her the end of an old era, the beginning of a new age. But it has a significance not only for us, but for Asia and the whole world; for it signifies the entry into the comity of nations of a new power with untold potentialities which has a great part to play in determining the political, social, cultural and spiritual future of humanity. To me personally it must naturally be gratifying that this date which was notable only for me because it was my own birthday celebrated annually by those who have accepted my gospel of life, should have acquired this vast significance. As a mystic, I take this identification not as a coincidence or fortuitous accident, but as a sanction and seal of the Divine Power which guides my steps on the work with which I began life. Indeed almost all the world movements which I hoped to see fulfilled in my lifetime, though at that time they looked like impossible dreams, I can observe on this day either approaching fruition or initiated and on the way to their achievement.

I have been asked for a message on this great occasion, but I am perhaps hardly in a position to give one. All I can do is to make a personal declaration of the aims and ideals conceived in my childhood and youth and now watched in their beginning of fulfilment, because they are relevant to the freedom of India, since they are a part of what I believe to be India's future work, something in which she cannot but take a leading position. For I have always held and said that India was arising, not to serve her own material interests only, to achieve expansion, greatness, power and prosperity, — though these too she must not neglect, — and certainly not like others to acquire domination of other peoples, but to live also for God and the world as a helper and leader of the whole human race. Those aims and ideals were in their natural order these: a revolution which would achieve India's freedom and her unity; the resurgence and liberation of Asia and her return to the great role which she had played in the progress of human civilisation; the rise of a new, a greater, brighter and nobler life for mankind which for its entire realisation would rest outwardly on an international unification of the separate existence of the peoples, preserving and securing their national life but drawing them together into an overriding and consummating oneness; the gift by India of

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her spiritual knowledge and her means for the spiritualisation of life to the whole race; finally, a new step in the evolution which, by upfling the consciousness to a higher level, would begin the solution of the many problems of existence which have perplexed and vexed humanity, since men began to think and to dream of individual perfection and a perfect society.

India is free but she has not achieved unity, only a fissured and broken freedom. At one time it almost seemed as if she might relapse into the chaos of separate States which preceded the British conquest. Fortunately there has now developed a strong possibility that this disastrous relapse will be avoided. The wisely drastic policy of the Constituent Assembly makes it possible that the problem of the depressed classes will be solved without schism or fissure. But the old communal division into Hindu and Muslim seems to have hardened into the figure of a permanent political division of the country. It is to be hoped that the Congress and the nation will not accept the settled fact as for ever settled or as anything more than a temporary expedient. For if it lasts, India may be seriously weakened, even crippled: civil strife may remain always possible, possible even a new invasion and foreign conquest. The partition of the country must go, — it is to be hoped by a slackening of tension, by a progressive understanding of the need of peace and concord, by the constant necessity of common and concerted action, even of an instrument of union for that purpose. In this way unity may come about under whatever form — the exact form may have a pragmatic but not a fundamental importance. But by whatever means, the division must and will go. For without it the destiny of India might be seriously impaired and even frustrated. But that must not be.

Asia has arisen and large parts of it have been liberated or are at this moment being liberated; its other still subject parts are moving through whatever struggles towards freedom. Only a little has to be done and that will be done today or tomorrow. There India has her part to play and has begun to play it with an energy and ability which already indicate the measure of her possibilities and the place she can take in the council of the nations.

The unification of mankind is under way, though only in an imperfect initiative, organised but struggling against tremendous difficulties. But the momentum is there and, if the experience of history can

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be taken as a guide, it must inevitably increase until it conquers. Here too India has begun to play a prominent part and, if she can develop that larger statesmanship which is not limited by the present facts and immediate possibilities but looks into the future and brings it nearer, her presence may make all the difference between a slow and timid and a bold and swift development. A catastrophe may intervene and interrupt or destroy what is being done, but even then the final result is sure. For in any case the unification is a necessity in the course of Nature, an inevitable movement and its achievement can be safely foretold. Its necessity for the nations also is clear, for without it the freedom of the small peoples can never be safe hereafter and even large and powerful nations cannot really be secure. India, if she remains divided, will not herself be sure of her safety. It is therefore to the interest of all that union should take place. Only human imbecility and stupid selfishness could prevent it. Against that, it has been said, even the gods strive in vain; but it cannot stand for ever against the necessity of Nature and the Divine Will. Nationalism will then have fulfilled itself; an international spirit and outlook must grow up and international forms and institutions; even it may be such developments as dual or multilateral citizenship and a voluntary fusion of cultures may appear in the process of the change and the spirit of nationalism losing its militancy may find these things perfectly compatible with the integrity of its own outlook. A new spirit of oneness will take hold of the human race.

The spiritual gift of India to the world has already begun. India's spirituality is entering Europe and America in an ever increasing measure. That movement will grow; amid the disasters of the time more and more eyes are turning towards her with hope and there is even an increasing resort not only to her teachings, but to her psychic and spiritual practice.

The rest is still a personal hope and an idea and ideal which has begun to take hold both in India and in the West on forward-looking minds. The difficulties in the way are more formidable than in any other field of endeavour, but difficulties were made to be overcome and if the Supreme Will is there, they will be overcome. Here too, if this evolution is to take place, since it must come through a growth of the spirit and the inner consciousness, the initiative can come from India and although the scope must be universal, the central movemerit may be hers.

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Such is the content which I put into this date of India's liberation; whether or how far or how soon this connection will be fulfilled, depends upon this new and free India.

SRI AUROBINDO

The Light now distant shall grow native here.

SRI AUROBINDO

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REFLECTIONS

MUKTI

WRITING in the Vedanta Kesari (May 1982, p. 197), a reviewer approves of a remark by the author of a book purporting to present 'Contemporary Indian Philosophy' that Sri Aurobindo's "conception of liberation reveals bhedabheda even in mukti." Assuredly so, and many more things besides.

Mukti is liberation: liberation from Ignorance, liberation from the compulsive hold of nature. The individual will becomes free and it has complete freedom of choice. It can choose from the several options open to it: to merge in the Brahman or to play in relationship to the Divine or dwell in proximity to the Divine or assume likeness to the Divine. It can also combine one or two of these poises at different levels. Liberation need not mean a complete merger with loss of identity for the individual soul. Deep within, it may arrive at a union with the Divine, but at the same time maintain a distinction at another level for purposes of the world-play. Sri Aurobindo makes it crystal clear:

"In liberation the individual self realises itself as the One (that is yet Many). It may plunge into the One and merge or hide itself in its bosom — that is the laya of the Advaita; it may feel its oneness and yet as part of the Many that is One enjoy the Divine, that is the Dvaitadvaita liberation; it may lay stress on its Many aspect and be possessed by the Divine, the Vishishtadvaita or go on playing with Krishna in the eternal Vrindavan, the Dvaita liberation. Or it may, even being liberated, remain in the Lila or manifestation or descend into it as often as it likes." (Lights on Yoga)

May 1982

SCRIPTURES

'Scriptures are inviolable', says a headline in a paper reporting a religious discourse. The account goes on to emphasise that not a word from the scripture shall be changed; it applies to all times and to all men. While one can understand the intention of the speaker which

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is obviously to prevent men from breaking the injunctions of the old texts to suit their convenience, it is necessary to point out that there are, in every scripture, elements that are purely local and reflect the climate of their time and elements that are of perennial relevance. The duty of every expounder is to isolate the inessential and local elements which may not and do not apply to ages in which the conditions are radically different, and underline only those that stand for all time. Thus for instance, there are portions in the Koran which pertain to the historical conditions that prevailed at the time the holy text came into being and they cannot hold good today. Similarly in the Bible. So, too, in the Indian texts, like the Gita or the Manu Smriti. What are inviolable are the fundamental truths that are expounded in the scriptures; what are dispensable are elements that relate to the particular times and the particular society that form the background of that scripture. We must follow the spirit of the scripture, not the letter. To attempt to follow the letter would often land one in ridiculous situations. What applied at one stage of development of humanity may not apply with equal force at a much later stage. In these matters, as in many others, discrimination shall be our guide.

May 1982

FORMS AND TRAPS

One of the important insights of the vipassana school in the Buddhist tradition is that form can be a trap. We are apt to lose ourselves in the observance of forms of behaviour, forms of practice to the detriment of the very purpose of our endeavour. This is particularly so in matters of religious or spiritual life. We often forget that rules and regulations are designed to promote certain objectives which must be constantly kept in mind. In the nature of things, externals have a way of occupying most of our attention. We are all the time engaged in observing the rituals of interchange, of communion and often miss the central truth underlying them. We honour the letter but miss the spirit of the scripture. A kind of pseudo-culture develops with everyone fulfilling the requirements of outer decorum, mechanically going through certain motions but entirely oblivious

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of the demands of the spirit, the soul within. Going to holy places on set days, repeating formulas of worship verbally, going through self-denying exercises as of routine are some of the instances. The psychological and spiritual states of consciousness that are the prime objectives are entirely lost sight of. There is no inner exertion keeping pace with the outer observance. One thinks one has done all that is needed while in truth only the outer framework has been built. That is the trap of forms. Forms are significant only to the extent they are ensouled by living truths. The quality of the inspiration behind decides the value of the forms and not the other way round. The Mother observes that the ignorant judge the Master by the forms, the wise judge the forms by the Master.

May 1982

IMPORTANCE OF FORM

To say that one must not be lost in the form is not to belittle the value of form. Form has a significance of its own. It is not something that somehow comes to be. A form denotes the nature of its content, the consciousness that is housed in it. A form is quite capable of generating a movement that can awaken, under proper conditions, the precise consciousness that ensouls it. The form can be of dimensions or of movement. The science of mandalas is based on the former principle, the system of rituals on the latter.

By performing a series of movements, gestures, actions — the rituals — one induces the mood for the manifestation of the truth that is sought for. It produces a psychological condition in the performer favourable to the realisation of the object. It also sets in motion in the atmosphere vibrations that are favourable to the appearance of that object. It is in this light that the significance of asanas, mudras, pujas is to be understood. Done in a slipshod manner or in a mechanical way, they do not yield their full results. But performed conscientiously, they prove to be intrinsically powerful.

Similarly, even in day-to-day life the form in which one organises one's life-movements is important. There is an order, a rhythm that conserves the energy and promotes a quicker growth of consciousness. A disorderly and haphazard way of life squanders

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energies and opportunities. Physical form tends to shape the mould of mental forms and even spiritual movements.

May 1982

MOTIVATION

A Burmese monk teaching Buddhist meditation in America observes that the westerner is usually motive-oriented. He says that whereas practitioners in Burma engage themselves in their exercises with single-minded attention, those in the West are conscious of their motivation and even while practising the lessons keep on thinking whether their efforts will yield the results that are expected. This distraction — conscious or sub-conscious — does interfere with the working of the energies involved.

We suppose this is a common human failing and it is not special to the West. The vital mind is prone to be restless and always over-eager for the results. Its activity vitiates the quality of the exertion which needs to be whole-hearted, without any doubt, any kind of anticipation or apprehension diluting its concentration. It is a sound principle to think twice before launching upon any effort. Once decided upon, there must be no deflection of attention, diminution of application. Things must be pursued with faith in the truth of their potentiality. This faith and the dedication based upon it add to the inherent power of the practice and ensure the fulfilment. The last word on the subject is the injunction of the Gita: To work is thy part, the fruit is not thy concern.

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THE INTEGRAL PATH: SOME OBSERVATIONS*

I AM delighted to note that in this hall there are more young people than I have seen in other meetings that I have been addressing during the last few months. As a rule, our young friends take it for granted that any spiritual movement is irrelevant for them, involved as they are in the challenges of life, in the problems of society; to that extent we have been unable to appeal to their minds and capture their imagination. It is a pity. For if there is any one movement which is positive, which has a message to the young, it is the Mother's and Sri Aurobindo's gospel of the sunlit path of life divine, of perfect man in a perfect society. This is a teaching not away from life but co-extensive with life. Before coming to more details, I would like to make a few observations.

The first is: As the Mother has made it very clear, propagation is different from propaganda. Propagation is to present the teaching, the knowledge, the way, to the public, making it aware that there is such a teaching, such a way, to make them aware through literature, through discussions, through seminars and more, through demonstration. For this last we have to live the teaching in our own lives, become its exemplars. That is propagation. Propaganda is to colour the teaching, sugar-coat it, lower it down to pander to the common taste, in order to attract the public. That is not permitted for us. It may be a fashion in politics, but not in our sphere of life. Propaganda is ruled out, propagation is a must. Every centre, every member of a centre owes it to the Divine to reach this message, to exemplify this truth in his own life, in his movements and activities, individual and collective.

Second: Wherever I have been touring in our country, I have noticed a small confusion, which may not be very important, but all the same, it needs to be pointed out that the Mother's music is different from the Ashram music. Ashram music is prepared by the inmates of the Ashram — different types of music, different combinations of musical strains. The Mother's music is what she has played herself on the organ. I would like you to keep this in mind. For the vibrations that are released in Mother's music which is always spontaneous, are quite different from those of any human authorship.

* Address at the Sri Aurobindo Circle, Surat, in March 1981.

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When the Mother would sit at the organ, she would not know in advance what notes she would play. She would just let her hands touch the organ and the music would flow. She would not always be conscious at that moment what music it was. It was only after it was played back to her that she would identify the source of the inspiration, the message and the meaning of it.

Third: When a friend A mentioned to me that a prayer from the Mother's Prayers and Meditations was being read here at the commencement of each session, I requested him to choose the Prayer of the 15th of February, 1914.¹ And there is a reason for it. This prayer is something special because the Mother was reciting it daily for a certain period of time in the Ashram. Everyday when she went round the terrace in the mornings for fresh air, she would repeat it, of course in its original French. By that repetition, confirmation in consciousness, it has acquired a mantric quality. It is known as the Constant Prayer. Perhaps I might confide to you that my initiation into this life started with this prayer which was given to me for use as a mantra. It has a special potency and if you will read it out daily as your pledge, your commitment and take care to live the day in conformity, in tune with this prayer, that is sadhana enough. That is yoga. You would have to do nothing else, because that subjects your being to a constant movement in terms of the divine consciousness. I hope you will like it and read it with attention.

For us, yoga or spiritual life is not something different, something special to be practised in the prayer room at a fixed time; no, it is in woven with our whole life. That is why Sri Aurobindo wrote as early as 1914, All life is yoga. That is the watch-word. Nothing in life is too small, nothing too great, for a seeker of Truth. Sri Aurobindo's path is an integral path in various ways.

¹ O Thou, sole Reality, Light of our light and Life of our life, Love supreme. Saviour of the world, grant that more and more I may be perfectly awakened to the awareness of Thy constant presence. Let all my acts conform to Thy law; let there be no difference between my will and Thine. Extricate me from the illusory consciousness of my mind, from its world of fantasies; let mc identify my consciousness with the Absolute Consciousness, for that art Thou.

Give me constancy in the will to attain the end, give me firmness and energy and the courage which shakes off all torpor and lassitude.

Give me the peace of perfect disinterestedness, the peace that makes Thy presence felt and Thy intervention effective, the peace that is ever victorious over all bad will and every obscurity.

Grant, I implore Thee, that all in my being may be identified with Thee. May I be nothing else any more than a flame of love utterly awakened to a supreme realisation of Thee.

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His is a global mind, a global outlook and he assimilates all that the past has to give — both in the East and in the West. He finds out the validity of every approach. He gives the due to the every effort of the human spirit, pin-points the services it has rendered, and says that every teaching is true on its plane, in its context. What is not true is the exclusiveness that has come to be associated with most, "My religion, my yoga, my teacher"; it may be right for me, but I have no business to impose it on others or say that the others are wrong. We are wrong when we claim the monopoly of the Truth, of Wisdom. It is contrary to the universality of outlook of our Teachers to look down on other paths and other philosophies. We should have the catholicity of heart, the openness of mind to appreciate and understand the role that each approach has to play and integrate it in our lives. Integrality of experience, integrality of understanding, integrality of approach — this is what is required. Religions came into being to relate man to God, to awaken him to the presence of God in himself and in the universe around. They went wrong when they claimed to be exclusively true and condemned others as wrong. So instead of cementing and uniting religions became divisive factors. Wars were fought in the name of religion, inquisitions were held and people were tortured in the name of religion whose soul is love, at whose heart is God. In their ignorance, in their egoism, men perpetrated injustices. And that is why these institutionalized religions, organised religions, have gone out of the main stream of consciousness and we are on the threshold of a new movement all over the world, pointing to a new age where each one will have his own religion, each one relating himself or herself to the Creator directly.

At the turn of the last century, there was a Canadian doctor, Dr. Bucket who was evolving new methods for treating the mentally unbalanced. He was a lover of poetry, mystical literature and was a friend of Walt Whitman, the famous American mystic and Thoreau and others. One evening after a long sitting with other friends over the poetry of Tennyson and Wordsworth, he left for home. It was midnight. He was in the midst of a forest. Suddenly he saw a great conflagration, fire everywhere. He stopped the hansom in which he was driving. He felt the forest was on fire. You know, in the West forests on fire are not uncommon. He looked around. To his amazement, he found that fire had burst in himself, not outside.

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In a second, he had a flash — a flash of knowledge that all life is One. And the centre of that life is Love. This revelation flooded upon him. And it changed the entire direction of his life. He went on to write a book which became a classic later — the Cosmic Consciousness. When this book appeared in 1902 or 1904, 500 copies were printed and it took a long time before the copies were sold. Today it is running in its 39th edition. In his introduction to this volume, he writes that the coming century, the 20th century, would be remarkable for three developments: as a result of aerial navigation the whole globe will come together in a way that it has never been before; it will be a sin to be rich, there will be no poverty; there will be a universal religion in which there will be no intercessor between the individual and God. Each individual will be related directly to God in this universal religion.

This is the situation in which we are today. All the old institutions, systems, have crumbled or are disintegrating. The new is forming and Sri Aurobindo's and Mother's integral philosophy, integral practice is a definite step in this direction. It is integral because it omits no part of the human being. It concerns itself not with the salvation of the soul, but with the perfection of the entire being: perfection of the individual in a growingly perfect human society. It recognises that the individual is not alone, he lives in an environment. One cannot be perfect when one's environment is imperfect. It recognises the claim of society on man, the duty of man to the society. Sri Aurobindo remarks that your love for God is incomplete unless you love God in all. There is a holistic approach in this teaching. Man as a whole, society as a whole, the universe as a whole, the creation as a whole. If God is true, if Brahman is real, this world is real; because this world has come out of the Brahman. In his aphorisms, Sri Aurobindo calls: reject not this world, O lover of God, for thou shalt soon find that this universe is the body of thy God. You embrace God in the universe. You live in the universe as a habitation of God, Isavasyamidam sarvam. This is the perspective. Nothing is to be rejected, but everything is to be elevated. They say that the world is unreal, false. The Mother says, yes, it is so to a wrong vision. The world as we see it normally is not what it really is. If we see straight what is what, the complexion of the world changes. Maya is for those who choose to live in maya. This world is real, life has a meaning.

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Nature has not laboured for millions and millions of years to bring forth this two-legged creature, just so that he can cancel nature and withdraw into the silence and bliss of the spirit. He is the crown of the evolutionary labour in order to fulfil nature and not cancel. That is why the Mother says that the aim of life is not salvation, but fulfilment, perfection of life. Sri Aurobindo enunciates the gospel of life divine, saying that all this is moving towards a glorious destiny, where the kingdom of God on earth will be realised. Each one will be an embodiment and a vehicle of divinity. Man will cease to be a mental being but will flower into a divine individual with a divine mind, divine soul, divine energy and a divinised body. It may take a thousand years, what of it? We forget that millions of years have passed behind, and we grudge a few thousand years ahead. The Mother was always amused when people asked when will this happen. Three hundred years? Do we have to wait for three hundred years? She asked, what is a thousand years for Nature? Nature amuses herself; we meander and play. It is for us to expedite, to precipitate, telescope, and do in a hundred years what Nature would normally take ten thousand years; it is left to us. And to do that, to realise this vision in life, in practical terms, Sri Aurobindo has perfected a Path which he calls the Integral Yoga.

As I said, it is integral not only because its range is integral, comprehensive, but because it leaves out nothing. When you move to a higher consciousness, to a higher level of being, you do not let the other levels drop; you come down, assimilate them and then go upwards. Let us say, I have, as a result of Grace, a flowering of Love; my heart opens and love flows. What do I do? Do I shut myself and pour out my love on God, luxuriate in that experience of love and bhakti and pass into a union with the divine Beloved ? Sri Aurobindo forbids that. What I am expected to do is to take up the life around me, soak it in love, organise my life in terms of this love, lift the level of life around me towards this love and then go ahead. This is what is called integration. Integration is the taking up of life in terms or to the level of the consciousness, the new value that is attained, informing with that, shaping in that mould and changing its character. A laborious process, but it has to be done. A person who devotes himself to the Integral Path owes to himself and to his guide to leave out nothing, but at each step onward, upward and inward, he has to inject

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that consciousness in the other parts, impart its character to the rest of his existence and only when that is fairly organised, can he think of the next step. This is the real meaning of 'All life is Yoga': integral scope and integration at every step. It includes the essentials of all the lines of spiritual, religious and cultural effort that have been developed in various climes, various ages in history, known and unknown. In essence, it forms the cream of the past, takes account of the present, and thrusts towards a glorious future.

This is the background of the Integral Path and it does not depend upon the mass appeal, on the number of people who practise it. In science, in medicine, in every progressive effort, it is always a minority that concerns itself wholly. How many of us have participated truly in the wonderful world-changing discoveries that have been made by scientists? We have all benefited by it, we all continue to derive help from them, but we do not know how they all came about, who did them; similarly, in spiritual life also, it is only a few who devote themselves and of the few again many drop out, a still fewer number persist and get on. Lord Krishna in the Gita speaks of this phenomenon and says how only rare individuals arrive. But each single person arriving, each single person working out a change in himself releases a million vibrations, constantly acting in the environment. So we should not be disappointed if only a few respond to our call. It is the quality that matters. It is these few people who gather and change their lives in terms of the teaching, who allow the Divine to be established in them, who are the pioneers of change, may be unrecognised, may be unseen — it does not matter. So this effort to have a mass following is a wrong perspective. It is only a few, the minority, it is the individual that holds the key to the society. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother conceive of this movement in terms of expanding circles. Always begin with the individual. A few individuals must practise the teaching. Mere discourses, writing of books, will not help much; they help indeed but not radically. Each one of us has to convert his home, his family into a field of experiment of the truths which he professes. Love, harmony, unity, kindness — these are all psychic qualities that open the doors of the heart and let the divine Grace enter. We must learn to subordinate ourselves and let the Influence work constantly. Anger, hatred, jealousy — these have to be mercilessly eliminated from our fives. I am always

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amused when people tell me that Sri Aurobindo's path is very difficult, his high philosophy is not meant for the common people. No, Sri Aurobindo's path, his philosophy and yoga have many dimensions, many steps. What concerns a common person is not its high philosophy, but the various steps of purification, steps of the organisation of life — the discipline to silence the mind, to purify the heart, to integrate oneself and harmonise with those around. This is a twenty-four hours programme. We have to practise that. What is there difficult in it, if we are sincere? The key is sincerity. Are we sincere? Or are we simply shirking the call saying that it is too difficult? Who asks you to bother with the concepts of over mind and supermind and transformation? They are now academic to us. Why should I, when I do not know that two and two is four, bother about Einstein's relativity? There will be time enough. The Mother was always impatient with those who would ask her philosophical problems. She said, 'I do not know philosophy, I am not interested in it. You go to Sri Aurobindo's works. Do you want to work? Do you want to practise? Then ask me whatever you want.' There is enough in this teaching which few other teachings can give you in this simple, direct manner: to organise your life in terms of God. Spiritual life does not consist only or mainly of your hours of meditation, the books you read, which pranayama you do, what powers you get; it lies in changing your nature — from the animal nature to the human, from the human to the divine. Everything in you has to respond and change, including the body. It is a long discipline which can be practised even by children. The Mother says, yoga starts when the child is born. A child cannot consciously do yoga, but its mother can teach how to do it. Yoga is a spontaneous self-government, putting oneself in tune with Nature, in tune with God, in tune with one's deeper self. And this may be called the fourfold perfection of life which is the key and the call of this teaching.

To feel consciousness in everything, to become more conscious in our lives, in reacting and responding to things — that is yoga. Yoga is to become more conscious. Ultimately the meaning of yoga in Sanskrit is union. Union with what? With your own reality. And that reality should express itself every moment of your life. It will not do to live mechanically on the surface; you need to be conscious of what you are doing, what you are thinking; 'step back, step

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back' is the call of the Mother. Most of the stupidities that we do in life, she says, will be eliminated if we learn the art of stepping back for a second and then act. That is yoga. Now tell me, which of these steps is difficult? You are not asked to starve, to desist from sleep, to stand in the sun, or to do japa a million times; you are not asked to give up your family, disown responsibilities to those around you, those who look up to you; you are not asked to have that supreme selfishness of renunciation for your individual salvation. You are asked to love, to be truthful, to be straightforward, to be a pillar of God, to be comradely, to be kind.

In the new age that is coming, all old concepts of leadership are changing. Twenty years hence there will be no boss as such. A boss will be an anachronism. The age of leaders whether in spiritual or political matters, where one person would lead millions, is a thing of the past. There will be hereafter a collective leadership. In spirituality also, there will be a collective avatar, no individual avatar. Each person has to find his leader inside. Then there is a trend towards decentralisation, not only in politics, not only in economics, but even in spiritual spheres. Every individual bubbles with a need, with an urge to confirm himself in God in his own way. He questions outside authority. He wants personal experience. The Mother approves of this love for freedom to evolve in one's own natural way. You would remember Madam Blavatsky, who founded with Col. Alcott the Theosophical Society, saying 'Do not follow me, but go in the direction which I point'. That is the truth.

Now here are some questions.

Q. Please explain: 'Sri Aurobindo is a direct action of the Supreme.'

A. This sentence of the Mother occurs in a context where she explains that what Sri Aurobindo has done or has said does not constitute a teaching, a philosophy in the normal sense. He represents a direct movement of the Supreme, whether in his writings or in his action. It is not something thought out, not a product of circumstances, but an action unimpeded, a direct projection of the supreme Reality through the instrumentation of Sri Aurobindo. That is why there may be areas which may not be explicable by the mind. We have to suspend our judgment and not try to understand mentally, but to allow it to sink into our consciousness. Sri Aurobindo's writings

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cannot really be understood by the intellect alone. I have known a number of professors who complain that The Life Divine is too difficult. There are critics who dismiss Savitri as the worst epic in English literature. Well, it only shows that it is not something that can be absorbed by the mind. The mind is used to a particular language, particular frequency, but the thought-waves and the spirit-waves that are in his writings are different. I have known people who have studied only up to the second or third standard, reading and benefiting by Savitri. I have known a girl who at fourteen read the first volume of The Life Divine; she was not even a matriculate, and she joined the Ashram only on that inspiration and has been in the Ashram for the last 35 years. It is not mental equipment, not intellectual brilliance, but a ripeness of consciousness that is required. The consciousness absorbs directly the content of the book. Sri Aurobindo's vast literary output is not a product of the mind to be read and assessed by the mind. It is something which is to be absorbed by the consciousness. Mother explains that Savitri is not to be understood by the mind, but by the heart. You just read it; don't try to understand; read it again and again, something dawns each time. That is because there is dynamism in the writing, there is a power, there is a caitanya in it. Each time you read, that power creates new cells in the brain, new grooves in your consciousness — the power that is in each word of Mother or Sri Aurobindo. I met an elderly friend yesterday who put it in very simple terms. He said, 'I understand everything that you are speaking on Savitri because I don't allow my mind to question. I have suspended that questioning faculty. I just keep my mind open and everything gets absorbed.'

Q. "Treat the mind as a friend, not as a foe."

A. Typical of Sri Aurobindo. Most spiritual disciplines like jñānayoga, Patanjala Raja-yoga, ask you to suppress the mind, citta-vrttinirodha, or starve the mind; the mind should be killed, mano-ndsa. The mind is an obstruction, an impediment in the path. That is the old negative, ascetic, tradition which has done much of harm to our country. Sri Aurobindo says: Treat the mind as your helper, do not reject reason, do not throw away the intellect. Reason, intellect, thinking — they are all faculties evolved by the spiritual energy in evolution; they have a role to play. But as they are, they are incomplete;

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make them complete, and they will be your allies. Do not reject but elevate reason into a higher reason, inform it with intuition. Similarly turn the analysing faculty of the mind into a discriminating faculty. Even at the level of intuition there has to be discrimination. In The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo speaks of the services rendered by the rationalistic age in dissipating the clouds of superstitions and wrong understandings, and in insisting on certain norms. Do not overdo it, but utilise it. The mind is not our enemy. Develop the mind, enlarge the mind, do not allow the mind to stick to its accustomed grooves, but force it to open out and it is possible that mind will develop into something more than the mind: thought-mind develops into the higher-mind, the higher-mind into the illumined-mind, the illumined into the intuitive-mind, the intuitive-mind into the over-mind, the over-mind into the divine-mind. Mind is man; manas is not something which is to be thrown aside. It is the wrong use of it that has to be corrected.

Q. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are present in the Integral Yoga.

A. Necessarily, because the integral yoga is a path specially developed, macadamised, perfected over the years by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. The experiences, the symbols, the visions, the difficulties that one meets on the path have been anticipated, explained, sign-posts have been erected, directions given. He explains how it was all a virgin path. He did not find evidence of anyone having trod this land before. He had to hew his way, clear the jungle and build the path for those who followed him. So his consciousness, the Mother's consciousness, their power, their grace is present all along in the integral yoga. Once he was asked, "When you speak of descent — the descending Shakti, is it the general Shakti that descends in the sadhaks of this yoga, or is it something special?" He replied: Yes, it is a special shakti which is relevant to this path; that is the yoga-shakti to whom you are asked to surrender yourself. And that is the shakti that works through Mother and Sri Aurobindo. At a certain level, Mother is that Shakti. Sri Aurobindo is the wielder of the Shakti, saktimdn.

Q. What is the Mother's view about the poverty and the population in India.

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A. The Mother always considered poverty to be deplorable. It is a result of ignorance. Poverty of the mind, poverty of the heart, poverty of the body — all kinds of poverty are deprivations of the largesse's, the plenitude of Mahalaxmi. How has it come about? It is a denial, due to whatever circumstances, of Mahalaxmi. It is a thing to be remedied, to be ended. But many of us make a virtue of our poverty. In the name of simple living and high thinking we have glorified poverty. That is not the right way. Life is meant to be lived and lived fully and as the higher light descends and organises itself, poverty will be ended. The Mother always felt that economically speaking, the trouble in India is not lack of production, but improper distribution; greed — egoistic and selfish greed — on the part of a few, in appropriating the large stocks and denying to the others. Ultimately it is ignorance — different types of ignorance that are responsible for the state of poverty.

Regarding the population she said that properly organised, properly shared, what India produces can always support the whole population of the country. Naturally, she approved of family planning depending upon the circumstances of the parents — not only economic, but cultural, spiritual, their aims and styles. And that is all that I should say at the moment.

Q. 'Only the pure soul can walk in light'. (Savitri)

A. To walk, what Mother calls, the Sunlit Path, requires a minimum of purity. Otherwise there are clouds. There are backslidings. Purity as Sri Aurobindo defines, it is to open to no other influence except the Divine. When we are sure of that, then we can be certain that we are pure and are fit to walk in light. Otherwise darkness surges from our nether regions, darkness covers up from our environment, and there is something in us which opens the door. Ultimately, the key is within us.

Q. 'She is the golden bridge, the wonderful fire'.

A. Well, it is a line from Savitri again. She is a bridge; golden signifies the supramental in the Veda. Gold represents Truth. Whenever you speak of gold, hiranya, it pertains to the Supreme Truth. The Divine Mother, as Sri Aurobindo explains in the book, The Mother, creates this universe from the Being of the Supreme. It

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is She, the Mahashakti who has brought out all these universes from the infinite bosom of the Supreme, who connects us with the Supreme and gives a chance to the human individual to be connected with the Supreme Grace.

Now what exactly is Grace and what is the place of personal effort? If Grace is all effective, why not surrender to the Grace and let the Grace do everything! In the Katha Upanishad it is said, "He whom the Self chooses, to him he bares his body." No amount of human effort will achieve that. What is one to do? To rely upon oneself, to make effort or to wait for the Grace and loll and loll? Sri Aurobindo explains in one context: there is a compassion, there is a Grace. Compassion is a divine understanding, sympathy, a supportive sympathy always descending upon this creation like gentle dew, helping everyone to endure and go through his lot of Karma. Grace is a special action helping the recipient to cut across the net of Karma. That is Grace. But he takes care to explain that before Grace can come down, a state of Grace has to be built up. And the state of Grace means the conditions are to be created which are favourable, which act like a magnet calling in the Grace, and when the Grace touches, for the fruition of that Grace. A state of Grace is prepared by purification, by dedication, by aspiration, by surrender. All these constitute the personal effort that one has to put in before the Grace can descend. The Mother puts it in a different language when she says that Grace and personal effort are two ends of a same process. Personal effort remains fruitiness without the sanction of the Grace. Grace remains ineffective without the personal effort. But even the effort that is called for is moved, inspired by the Grace. So there is an overall action of the Grace, in what we think to be a miraculous change, a sudden up lift ment. We see only the final issue of a long process which has been initiated by Grace, conducted by Grace and culminated by Grace.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa spoke of markatanyāya and mārjāranyāya. In markatanyāya, the logic of the monkey, the little one clings to its mother, the mother-monkey jumps about from tree to tree, but the baby-monkey is careful to hold to its mother. But in the mārjdranyāya, the logic of the cat, the cat itself carries its little one, the baby just allows itself to be carried. Note, however, even to let oneself to be carried, even to be in a surrendered state, cannot

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come without effort. It requires an attitude where egoism, self-assertion are absent. So surrender is called for. Surrender is a sadhana by itself. That cannot be done in a day. When we say we surrender, it is a mental samkalpa. To translate it into practice requires a life-time. If you see somebody suddenly becoming a saint or realising the Self and he says that it is all an act of Grace, be sure that that person has done his homework in the previous life. Due to some reason it did not fructify at that time; may be some karmic impediment held it over and it has come to fruition in this birth. Though Grace helps to cut across Karma, there is some part of Karma called the ineluctable Karma, utkatakarma, which even the Grace does not cancel. Not that it cannot. It was explained to me once that if it is necessary for the divine work to cancel it, it is cancelled. But normally the utkatakarma is allowed to run through, work out. The Grace helps and supports the person to endure. The Divine observes the law that he has made. Sri Aurobindo explains in the Essays on the Gita how an Avatar follows the law. He may change the law, but he will not break a law. Utkatakarma is something heinous, some harm done to another soul. Treachery, betrayal of trust, shortening of somebody's life, denying the soul its chosen opportunity and similar things constitute the ineluctable Karma with which the Grace does not interfere.

M. P. PANDIT

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SADHANA: SOME HINTS*

IN the pages of Savitri, there is one small passage where Sri Aurobindo sums up the process and the object of meditation. He says:

In moments when the inner lamps are lit

And the life's cherished guests are left outside

Our spirit sits alone and speaks to its gulfs. (1.4)

Meditation is a means of temporarily leaving out our cherished guests of life — thoughts, emotions, pre-occupations, feelings; you suspend them for the while. The inner lamps are lit — aspiration, attention, intensity. The divine within communes with the rest of the being. That is meditation. It is a must, particularly in a yoga like ours which is more psychological than physical.

First, you find out a proper posture, a comfortable position to meditate. You can sit on a chair or on the ground, you can assume any pose — you can have sukhāsana, you can have padmāsana or vīrāsana, any asana that you choose. All that is required is that you sit erect, keep the spine erect. The ascending energies and the descending energy must have a free passage. If you bend there is obstruction. The proof that you have found your position is that you forget your body for a length of time. When you sit for some time without becoming aware of the body, without any restlessness, wanting to stretch or scratch, etc. you can be sure that you have found your asana. Sthīrasukham āsanam: stable, comfortable position is your asana.

Once you take that position, you are to bring yourself back to where you are; you are normally spread out in a hundred directions. You take a few deep breaths. Breathe slow, not the prdndydma; make the breathing slow, make it steady. After some 3 or 4 deep breaths the mind comes into focus. It quietens down. Then you follow the breathing. Try to go within, have the image that the divine presence, the divine inhabitant is there in the chamber of the heart. You have to reach there. Meditation is a special time when you concentrate all your energies to get to that divinity at the core of your

* Address at Sri Aurobindo Circle, Surat, in March, 1981.

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being. You can conceive of it as an inmost chamber having doors after doors, and you go in step by step following the breath. Or follow the Vedic imagery of the Well of Honey. Use the breath as a rope and descend step by step. So whether you go downwards or inwards, you withdraw from the outward surface. Use the breath as a leading thread and concentrate. Have an aspiration, have a call to the divinity to unveil itself. It takes time, it requires patience. But it is a thing to be done. The divine presence in you, whether you call it the soul or the psychic, is there waiting to be approached, to be contacted. And you go within, plunge within. A stage will come when you begin to hear your own breathing; a stage may come when the breath looks like stopping. A fear will arise that you may die. At this stage many people suddenly come out in consternation, saying that they were about to die. But nobody ever dies of suffocation in meditation. It is really a fear of the ego of being swallowed up by the infinite. Remember that you are entrusted in the hands of the Divine. Smile at that fear and allow yourself to be carried. You will feel a magnetic influence drawing you inward, and one day you will feel something concrete. The Divine may reveal itself as a flame, as a light, or as peace, or as a figure of God whom you have cherished, figure of your guru whom you have worshipped, or a Presence — just a Presence — sānnidhya. You may not see anything, but you feel that there is something, or it may happen, though rarely, that you see your own miniature form in the heart. To get to that, to become one with that, live there is the object of meditation. This leads to the realisation of the psychic.

The first step, the capital step in the sadhana is to get to this psychic presence in the centre of the heart, establish a permanent connection, develop a habit of being guided by the psychic. And the next step is to recast your nature, your thinking, feeling, impulses, your physical actions, in terms of the psychic, in consonance with the nature of the psychic. That is called the psychicisation. Psychicisation is the change of the entire nature in terms of the psychic which one has realised. It may take a life-time, it may take a few years depending upon your past evolution and the samskāras that you inherit from the past. You come thus to realise the individual divine, the divine seated in the chamber of your heart. When the psychic is realised, one becomes a saint, one becomes incapable of

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harming others, of being rough with others, of making a mistake in understanding things; because the psychic is a spark of the divine consciousness, it is a concentration of divine consciousness.

Then the next movement is to open to the levels of consciousness above the mind, the spiritual dimensions. For that purpose you have to silence the mind during meditations; during other hours, you control the mind, check useless movements. Accustom it to a certain peace, a calm, a silence. And when the mind is silent, keep it open, pray for the higher Power to take you up. The workings of the higher faculties of the mind begin to take shape. You get peace, you get calm, you get equality, you are not disturbed whatever may happen. In time there is a play of direct intuition. There is a play of revelation. There is an understanding of everything, all together. It takes time. But step by step, the levels of the mind higher than the thinking mind are opened, and you go to still higher levels. During this process of spiritualisation there is an effortless enlargement of consciousness: broadening of the mind, broadening of the heart; the ego has been already eliminated in the process of psychicisation. There is the beginning of universalisation of consciousness.

These are the three movements — psychicisation, spiritualisation, universalisation. I have mentioned them step by step for the sake of mental clarity. But in practice these go simultaneously. It is not that one leads to another. We are complex beings; progress or breakthrough in one part has effect on other parts. When you realise love, achieve harmony in the heart, the mind gets silent, serene. As the mind gets serene and tranquil, the emotions also calm down. There is always an inter-relation. And in all this, it is the Grace of the Guru that guides. Success in this endeavour does not come by personal exertion alone. The most that a human being can put in is pitiful. The work to be done is so grand and so high that it is only the Grace that can do it. But you have to be supporting, responsive, vigilant in rejecting things that are contrary to your aspiration. Aspiration, rejection, surrender — this is the triple requirement for one who aspires for this path.

And always, never have the ambition to be released. Sri Aurobindo explains of how even the release is an illusion. Release from what? You are always free at a certain level. You have to get to that level and you see that you are really free. Detach yourself from things, do not

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be completely lost in anything. Learn to get to the witness position. Many paths like that of the Sankhyas stop at the witness position (sāksī). Sri Aurobindo goes further. Once you are a witness, detached from Nature, thereafter you assume your mastery over nature, you become the lord (prabhu); the nature realises that it is not something foreign to the soul, alien to the Self, but that it is the power of the Self. Prakriti becomes sakti. Your nature becomes your instrument and vehicle. So be detached from nature, become the witness of nature, develop mastery over nature. That keeps the grip over life. Maintain a balance between jñāna, karma and bhakti. Bhakti alone without an elementary jñāna becomes an emotional exercise — vitalistic, dramatic, giving a sense of complacency. Jnana without bhakti becomes dry, what you call śuska vedānta. It keeps you on the higher shelf losing your control over life. Karma is necessary because, as the Gita explains, it is a law of life. Action is the output of energies; these energies can be physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual. A single thought that is entertained is an action. We think that only physically visible activity is action. No, if I think well of you it is a good karma; if I become jealous of you, that is a bad karma for which I have to pay one day. The Gita teaches us how action which is inevitable and forges the chain of karma, can be converted into a means for liberation. Sri Aurobindo writes that the Gita has given the greatest doctrine of works that has ever been received by man. And that is to offer, to consecrate, to make action holy by offering it to the Divine. When you offer it to the Divine it ceases to be self-binding. It ceases to be monotonous and the best part in you works and works for perfection. Because you cannot give flawed offering to the Divine. Can you? Every activity raises itself in value, whether it is sweeping the floor, cleaning the motor car, painting, surgical operation, — everything acquires a new significance. How you utilise your energies, what is the attitude behind your output of energy — that is important. This is Karmayoga.

You offer everything that you do to the Divine. In the morning when you get up, you make a samkalpa that all that you do and feel and say must be offered to the Divine. And you conduct yourself the whole day in that spirit. That entails that you do not say or think or do anything that you cannot offer to the Divine. This itself is a discipline. And the test that you have really offered thus is when you

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do not have a claim on the fruit of the action. Whatever the fruit you take it with equanimity as given by the Divine.

The third stage is, just as you renounce your claim for the fruit of the work, you renounce your claim for the choice of the work. You do not distinguish that this is high work and that is low, this is manual work and that is intellectual work. Whatever work comes to you, you take it as an assignment from God.

Next, even the feeling of doer leaves. You become an instrument of the Shakti to whom you are open. Gradually the instrument becomes a channel through which the Shakti flows. This leads to a certain identity with the Divine as between the child and the mother. And it leads to an eventual union in consciousness with the Master of Works, who is also the Master of your being. Jnana-Karma-Bhakti, all the three combine.

M. P. PANDIT

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VEDIC COSMOLOGY AND THE SUPERMIND*

It is the cryptic verses of the Veda that help us here (i.e. with the Supermind); for they contain, although concealed, the gospel of the divine and immortal Supermind and through the veil some illumining flashes come to us.

SRI AUROBINDO: The Life Divine

THE HIGHER REALITY OF THE VEDIC GODS

THERE are seven worlds in the Vedic cosmology, the lower triple realm of the Ignorance and the higher quaternary of the Knowledge. The lower triple realm is Earth, Prithivi, the material realm; the Atmosphere, Antariksha, the vital and emotional realm; and Heaven, Dyaus, the realm of the mind. These are the three lower worlds of the Puranas and Upanishads, Bhu-loka, the realm of material being, Bhuvar-loka, the realm of vital becoming, and Suvar-loka, the lucid realm of the mind. These are also the triple world of Samsara according to Buddhist and Vedantic terminology. They are the triple realm of Prakriti, material nature, in the Samkhya system. These lower three worlds are called the lower hemisphere, Aparardha, of the Divine Being in contradistinction to the upper four realms which are called the higher hemisphere, Parardha. The higher four realms in the Puranic system are Mahar-loka, the vast realm, the realm of Vijnana, the Supermind; Jana-loka, the realm of generation or the Divine Souls, the realm of Ananda, the Bliss; Tapoloka, the realm of tapas, creative fervour, the realm of Chit-Shakti, Consciousness-Force; and Satya-loka, the realm of Truth or Reality, the realm of Sat, pure Will or Being. These higher four worlds are above and beyond all Ignorance, Avidya, and all Maya in the sense of the Illusion born of ignorance. The higher three worlds are the threefold nature of the Divine as Sachchidananda, Being-Consciousness-Bliss. The fourth realm of the Supermind is the realm of transition, which though in the Knowledge is yet aware of the Ignorance. The highest world, Satya-loka, is the pure Absolute. The next three, the realms of Consciousness, Bliss and Supermind are sometimes called the threefold creation of Light (Knowledge), though beyond all that we can ordi-

* A section from the author's unpublished work: Visions in the Aryan Light.

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narily conceive of as creation, as compared to the lower threefold creation of Darkness (Ignorance). They are the Divine Creation, the free creation of Consciousness-Force, as opposed to the material creation, the mechanical creation of the material nature, Prakriti. These higher four worlds are one in essence and consciousness, unitary and harmonious in function.

The Vedic cosmology is yet more complicated than this simple schemata for each world is threefold. Each contains within itself the reflection of the world above it and the world below it, as each is a linking principle, a channel of communication and the transference of energy both upwards and downwards. The worlds are not strictly separate compartments but are an interrelated, interpenetrating and interacting harmonic structure. Thus, for example, the realm of the Supermind contains in its higher third strata a reflection of the realm of Bliss above it. It contains in its lower third strata a reflection of the realm of Mind below it, while in its central third strata it is purely Supermind. There is, however, a mysterious linkage between the highest and the lowest worlds, the realm of pure Divine Being above and the realm of pure material being below. As the highest world has no higher realm to reflect it takes the reflection of the very lowest world. As the lowest world has no lower realm to reflect it takes the reflection of the very highest world. So is the linkage between all the worlds completed, the harmonious understructure linked into indissoluble unity. Note the similarities and common features of the Absolute of Pure Being and the pure being of solid matter, like metal. They are both immobile, solid, homogeneous and so on. These seven worlds threefold are the twenty-one planes of the Veda. Sometimes a twenty-second is added to represent the unity of them all, just as sometimes an eighth world is added as the unity of the seven. Actually all the worlds are one in essence and consciousness, unitary and harmonious in function. Only in the lower triple realm the unity is obscured by a superficial divided multiplicity and the harmony obscured by a superficial divided action. This in turn creates strife and division in the superficial minds of ignorant creatures but it is not truly real, either in terms of the lower realm or the higher realm. Behind this superficial divided multiplicity is a deep unity, not just beyond the lower world but at its very core. Therefore with true knowledge we can discover this unity of all the worlds even in and

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through this apparent realm of conflicting multiplicities.

Yet the Vedic cosmology is still more intricate. Each world is also sevenfold, reflecting all the other worlds within itself. These forty-nine planes again become fifty with the addition of the One. All these multiplications are just reflections of an integral unity and meant as aids to help us comprehend the world as a vast, harmonic and all-embracing Unity. But this is just the beginning of the mathematics of Vedic cosmology which was almost a science in its own right in ancient times. The ancients were quite proficient in this inner mathematics and cosmic numerology, finding in numbers the analogue for all cosmic laws and principles, and being creative they developed many such systems which in turn could be correlated and integrated variously. The later numerological systems of psycho-cosmology in Samkhya and Tantra were just major simplifications of the many Vedic systems. Later occult sciences such as astrology and inner sciences such as Yoga were centered in this primal Vedic science. But we mention this only in passing.

The roles of the major Vedic gods in the lower triple realm is fairly well known. The god of the Earthly realm is Agni, Fire, which is the light and power of the material world. The god of the Atmospheric realm is Indra or Vayu, Wind or Storm, which is the light and power of the worlds of emotion and vital energy. The god of the Heavenly realm is Surya, the Sun, which is the light and power of the Heaven of the Mind. The lesser Vedic gods and groups of gods are reduced to this great triplicity. They are the three world essences mentioned in the Upanishads. They are also the basis for the three great gods of later Hinduism, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Agni, through one of his secondary forms in the Rig Veda, Brihaspati or Brahmanaspati, become Brahma. Indra, through one of his secondary forms Rudra-Shiva, becomes Shiva. Surya, through one of his forms Vishnu, becomes Vishnu. Yet behind these functions and positions of these three gods in the three lower worlds is a whole teaching of spiritual transformation and Self-realization. The purpose of the Veda was not just to glorify these three gods but to set them forth in this manner as the guiding principles of our transformation in the lower triple realm and of the lower triple realm.

The Vedic spiritual path, the Vedic path of light, is from the flame of aspiration of Agni, through the transforming power of Indra

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and Soma, to the full radiance of Surya, the Solar Self, the supreme God and Light of lights. Agni, the flame of mindfulness and aspiration, purifies the outer physical consciousness, our earthly realm. Indra, the power of self-reliance and independence, purifies our emotional consciousness, our atmospheric realm. Surya, the light of Self-realization, transforms our mental consciousness. Yet it must be remembered that the Vedic conceptions are very plastic and creative and capable of many formulations. This is only the general process. Other gods are involved secondarily. Sometimes one of these three major gods or even a lesser god can assume the whole process. Other times the process is done collectively by groups of gods or all the gods. But the main outline is firm, so let us explore it in some more detail.

Agni is the basic flame of awareness which dwells in the hearts of all creatures as their living Self, Jivatman, or the individual Self. He is the mindfulness and concentration which is ever the root power of the spiritual path. All spiritual practice is an offering of ourselves, our thoughts and emotions, into this basic Fire of Awareness and Flame of Seeing for purification and transformation. That is why Agni is the Yajna, the Sacrifice, why he is the god of the Aryan ritual of knowledge. This flame, our basic awareness, is the messenger between man and the Divine. He carries our offerings of knowledge and devotion to the Divine and returns with the Divine gifts of expanded awareness and bliss. This flame of awareness expands through self-surrender and self-inquiry to give birth to and become all the gods. The mortal, through the power of his basic mindfulness, which is his Divine heritage, his true soul, gives birth to all the immortals, the flame attains all the Godheads. The flame of awareness grows into the Dawn, spiritual awakening, the Day, the clear light of real consciousness, and the Sun, the Divine Light, the Solar Self. This basic awareness is not our simple mentality. It is our spark of Consciousness-Force at the core of our mind and life-energy, true consciousness allied with will and transforming power. This Agni is the leading power of the Aryan Path. Even when the Buddha proclaimed his path of mindfulness he was just continuing the Aryan tradition of the cultivation of the sacred fire of awareness desymbolized according to a later more rational and skeptical mentality. This flame is the chief of the evolutionary powers of the Spirit and all other powers

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can only come into being through it. That is why the hymns to Agni come first in the Veda. He is the very will towards evolution and transformation that ever burns restlessly in the heart of creatures impelling them on the spiritual journey of life. Yet he must grow into and become the other gods which in turn nourish him and further his action. He is the initial and central power but not the ultimate or complete power.

As we cultivate the fires of our awareness, strengthen the flame of our aspiration, the fire grows and when it reaches a certain stage of growth it develops into a lightning and thundering transforming power. That is Indra, the thunder and the lightning revelation of Self-power and independence which results from the cultivation of awareness and seeing, of will and aspiration. The Fire of Agni when it gains the power of transformation becomes the Lightning of Indra. For simple awareness is not itself a transforming power. It is rather a prehminary power of observation and it is only when this has attained its full and patient wideness that it begins to generate penetrating transformative insights. Agni does not change us. He prepares us that we might manifest Indra, who Alone completes the great action. Indra is the Self-power and Self-insight which develops through tending long the sacrificial fires of awareness within us. Through the thunder of Self-power and independence and the lightning of Self-insight and revelation he destroys all the demons of the stormy middle-realm, the atmospheric realm of moods and emotions. He destroys all emotional dependency which is the root of the storm of passion in the mind. Agni prepares the way through mindfulness, observation and seeing, that the full scope of the emotional knot is revealed. Indra provides the transformative energy and accomplishes the action.

Yet Agni does not directly produce Indra or cause him to grow. Indra has an ally and support, the Soma, which is in the initial sense the power of contentment born of mindfulness, Agni, and in the ultimate sense the wine of ecstasy whereby Indra, the insight into the true power of the Self, destroys all external powers. Agni and Soma are the two powers of the sacrificial ritual, the mystic fire and the mystic wine or water. Each fuels the other. Soma is the water of contentment which fuels the fire of mindfulness. The flames of our aspiration rising up create the complementary descent of the rain of

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Divine contentment and delight falling down. Agni brings us Soma and Soma enkindles Agni yet further. When our inner being is widened by the fire of mindfulness and calmed by the wine of contentment then Indra comes, drinking the wine of contentment by his Self-power it becomes sheer ecstasy, thereby he turns the fire into lightning and accomplishes in an instant the work of eons, bringing into creation the Self. Indra's great action is to bring the Sun out of darkness, to cause the Sun of Truth to rise and illuminate all. Indra's action culminates in the glory of the rising of the Solar Self. Having destroyed the darkness in the middle realm the supernal Sun is allowed to shine through. Thus from Indra we move to Surya, to Self-illumination in the heaven of the mind.

The Solar Self is the completion of the Vedic path of light which began with the first flame of aspiration. The sun as the supreme light is the most evident and appropriate symbol of the supreme Consciousness which is all Light. The Upanishads themselves most frequently take the Self in the form of the Sun. All the Vedic gods, being devas, shining-ones, gods of light, are forms or radiances of the Solar Self. We even find Indra, Agni and Soma at times identified with the Sun, particularly in their highest Sense and most mystical meaning. There is no doubt that the Sun, though not the most frequently invoked, clearly delineated or obviously visible god of the Veda, is the highest, most complete and pervasive. We might say that Indra and Agni, though more frequently mentioned, are great only insofar as they cause the Sun to be manifested. We may say further that the reason why the Sun is not so often mentioned is that the spiritual path consists for the most part of the practical work of eliminating the obstructions and veils which hide the Sun in darkness, an action which the Self being transcendent and beyond action cannot do. Hence the many hymns to Indra and Agni just reflect their practical value and not their actual supremacy.

Agni, mindfulness, Soma, contentment, Indra, self-reliance and all the gods come together to manifest the Solar Self. We see in this the prototype of any real spiritual teaching. We have in it the basis for an Advaitic or Upanishadic interpretation of the Veda. We may well be content with this as the master key to the Veda. Surely it must be the basis for any higher interpretation of the Veda as it is the most obvious and rational delineation of the symbolism of light.

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This system has been the primary basis of the Vedic interpretation in this book. It could be the basis of many books and explain much of the obscure symbolism of the hymns. What is found divergent to it could be easily explained as the creative improvisation of the seers or as a glorification of particular gods as the One God, as all gods are part of the One Solar Self-God. Yet we have called this only the lower interpretation of the Veda, according to the lower functions of the gods in the lower triple world. What could be higher than the Self, more illuminating than the Sun, you might ask? Nevertheless if we faithfully apply this method we find higher functions of the Vedic gods emerging according to their place in the higher four worlds, and what emerges is not only a more consistently deeper meaning to the Veda but also more in harmony with even the frequencies with which the gods are invoked. It reveals the truly awesome secret of the greater spirituality of ancient man and the Vedic Seers.

We have seen that the three major Vedic gods correspond to the three lower worlds, their powers and their process of transformation. As the real system of the Veda had seven worlds we would therefore expect the four major Vedic gods to correspond to the four higher Divine worlds. We have the realms of Being, Consciousness-Force, Bliss and Supermind to correspond to Agni, Indra, Soma and Surya. In the lower sense we have seen that Agni is the god of the physical, Indra and Soma of the vital and emotional and Surya the god of the mind. We cannot just juggle these around according to some mathematical pattern. We must justify it with the hymns themselves. We do have some clues to work with. The Sun-god was not as frequently invoked or as singly delineated as the other major Vedic gods Indra, Agni and Soma. As the One God of the Self he should be a clear and single figure, not just a background multiplicity however pervasive. Nor can we easily make Indra a subordinate figure to the Solar Self. Even the Upanishads frequently invoke the Self as Indra, not quite as often as the Sun, but enough to establish Indra as a direct personification of the Self in his own right. If there is any clear and single, powerful and frequently invoked figure in the Veda it is Indra. Nor can Agni easily be made a subordinate figure to the Sun. Perhaps therefore we could interpret any of these major four gods as the Self and subordinate all the other gods to them singly. The Sun may not be the only god whom we can do this with. Yet all of

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that would just reduce the Veda to a series of creative variations without any clear system if it were the sole truth of the Veda. From the standpoint of the lower three worlds the Sun must be the Self and the One God according to the functions of the gods in those realms, however frequently they are invoked. But according to the standpoint of the four higher realms each of these gods must represent the Self, the Divine, in the four states of its higher being. If Indra or other gods stand for the Self, it is according to their status in the higher world or as a form of the Sun in the lower world. For there are well worked out systems in the Veda and not just a free form of creative improvisation. Just as there was a lower system so is there a higher system even more cogent. Let us therefore reveal it world by world starting with Satya loka.

DAVID FRAULEY

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EGO AND THE DIVINE SELF

THE concept of Ego is not unknown to the educated intelligentsia of the world; one may have a clear mental idea of the ego but yet know it not just as one may have known all that is said and written of God and yet know Him not at all. Ego is the identification of the Self or Soul with its constantly changing and perishable instruments, body, mind and life. It is so pre-occupied with itself, so involved and identified with its own workings that it has no time or inclination to detach itself even mentally to know its real nature. Sri Aurobindo has defined ego as a falsification of our true individuality by a limiting self-identification of it with this life, this mind and this body. It separates us from God and all His creation and ties us up to a small, narrow and ignorant ego-centric individuality. It is the ego-consciousness that suffers from all the dualities of life like love and hatred, joy and sorrow, heat and cold etc. and is the cause of all the strifes and discords of life. The ego has, however, an important role to play in the early stages of its development from the indistinguishable mass substance of the sub-conscient and the inconscient in us. One must develop an egoistic personality and know himself as the mental and vital ego before he can realise himself as the Self or Spirit. Ego is the ignorant and separative principle in our lives. In spiritual seeking, it must eliminate itself in order to rise to the Unitarian consciousness of the Spirit. Where the ego sees things in division, distinction and separation, the spiritual consciousness sees all as the One Self. This oneness is at the core of the creation and multiplicity and diversity of names and forms are only on the surface. Therefore the Yogi or the spiritual man is always equal-visioned and sees all as the one Self. He makes no distinction between a learned Brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog and the pariah who lives on dog's meat. This one Self or Soul is pervasive of the whole universe of its own creation, both animate and inanimate, is near and far but is imperceptible to human intelligence because of its extreme subtlety. The self in us which is a spark of the Divine has to be uncovered from its sheaths of body, mind and life by persistent and sleepless endeavour. At last when the ego-complex is completely dissolved, it manifests itself to the seeker. Then we are one with the Divine and enjoy not only divine peace, bliss and harmony but also share

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with Him his omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence.

This Divine can be realised in one or two or all the three aspects of its presence, the individual or immanent divine, the cosmic or universal divine and the transcendental or supra-cosmic divine.

Faith, sincerity, humility, devotion and surrender are absolutely indispensable for the spiritual seeker to realise the Divine. This faith must not be an egoistic faith in one's own strength and capacity but in the Divine Grace and omniscience which knows better than ourselves what is or is not good for us. There must be a constant and unfailing reliance on the divine grace. Sincerity is, to say the least, our only safe-guard on the path and will invoke the divine grace which will infallibly protect us from all dangers and pitfalls of the way. Our devotion must not only be true and sincere but must well out from the depths of our being. Though this is not easy at the beginning, the more we become recipients of the grace the more it becomes spontaneous and sincere till at last it culminates in a whole-hearted surrender to the Divine. Humility is also an essential and indispensable element in the seeking of the Divine. The Mother has clearly brought out the distinction between the Ego and the Self in a few luminous sentences:

"The Ego always thinks of what it wants and has not; that is its constant preoccupation.

The Self is intimately aware of what it is given and continues in endless gratitude."

 

The attitude of the seeker should be :

 

"I do not know anything,

I am nothing,

I can do nothing,

I am in the obscurity of the inconscience"

(From the Mother's Prayers & Meditations')

JIBENDRA

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SANSKRIT CITATIONS

(Sri Aurobindo's writings are strewn with references to scriptures in Sanskrit viz. Veda., Upanishad, Gita, and allied texts. It is proposed to offer a selection from these in the present series. Extracts from Sri Aurobindo's works are followed by the relevant passages in Sanskrit. — M. P. P.)

Gita and Action

It affirms the possibility of living free in the Divine (in Me, it says) and acting in the world as the Jivanmukta. (Letters on Yoga)

(Bhagavad Gita, 18.57)

Gita and the Divine Mother

The Gita does not speak expressly of the Divine Mother. It mentions her only as the Para Prakriti who becomes the Jiva, that is, who manifests the Divine in the multiplicity and through whom all these worlds are created by the Supreme and he himself descends as the Avatar. (Letters on Yoga)

(Bhagavad Gita, 7.5)

Gita on the Veda

.. .attitude of the Gita regarding always the Veda as divine knowledge, (On the Veda: Secret of the Veda, II (2))

(Bhagavad Gita, 15. 15)

Yet censures severely the champions of an exclusive Vedism, all whose flowery teachings were devoted solely to material wealth, power and enjoyment. (Ibid.)

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(Bhagavad Gita, 2.42)

Gita's Teaching

The Gita's teaching of the Purushottama and the Parashakti (Adya Shakti) who become the Jiva and uphold the universe. (Letters on Yoga)

(Bhagavad Gita, 7.5)

Gnosis as Law

In all things the gnosis is the Truth, the Right, the highest Law. (The Synthesis of Yoga, Part 2, Chap. 23)

(Rig Veda, 1.24.10)

Sun of Gnosis

Three movements: vyūha, the marshalling of the rays of the Sun of gnosis in the order of the Truth-consciousness; samuha, the gathering together of the rays into the body of the Sun of gnosis; the vision of that Sun's fairest form of all in which the soul most intimately possesses its oneness with the infinite Purusha. (The Synthesis of Yoga, Part 2, Chap. 22)

(Isha Upanishad, 16)

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The Sun, says the Veda, is the eye of the gods. (The Synthesis of Yoga, Part 2, Chap. 22)

(Rig Veda, 1.115.1)

God, Man and Nature

Thou art That, O Svetaketu. (The Life Divine, Vol. 2, Chap. 17)

(Chhandogya Up. 6.8.7)

The living being is none else than the Brahman, the whole world is the Brahman. (Ibid.)

(Vivekacudamani, 479)

My supreme Nature has become the living being and this world is upheld by it...all beings have this for their source of birth. (Ibid.)

(Bhagavad Gita, 7.5, 6)

Thou art man and woman, boy and girl; old and worn thou walkest bent over a staff; thou art the blue bird and the green and the scarlet-eyed. (Ibid.)

(Shvetashvatara Up. 4.3-4)

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The whole world is filled with beings who are His members. (Ibid.)

(Shvetashvatara Up. 4.10)

God and Universe

Turn to the universe and know That in this. (The Hour of God: On Yoga)

Katha Up. 2.1.3)

There is none bound and none free and none seeking freedom but only God playing at these things in the extended might of His self-conscious being, which we call the universe. (The Hour of God: On Yoga)

(Shvetashvatara Up. 4.7)

God and World

The relation between God and World is summed up in the phrase, "It is He that have moved out everywhere." (Heraclitus, III)

(Isha Up. 8)

He is the Lord, the Seer and Thinker, who becoming everywhere "has fixed all things rightly according to their nature from years sempiternal." (Ibid.)

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God in the Heart

According as I am appointed by Thee, O Hrishikesha! seated in my heart, so I act. (The Yoga and Its Objects)

(Prapanna Gita, 57)

God stands in the heart of all beings, whirling round all, as on a wheel, by the Maya of the three gunas. (The Yoga and its Objects)

(Bhagavad Gita, 18.61)

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REVIEW

Significance of the Tantric Tradition By Kamalakar Mishra, Ardhanarishwara Pubs. 27, Dindayalnagar Colony, Varanasi 10. P. 171, Price Rs. 25.

BY Tantra the author means principally Kashmir Saivism, a subject that is becoming more popular nowadays due to an easier availability of its texts and propagation by Siddhas like Swami Mukta-nanda and others. The writer treats the Tantras, and rightly, as complimentary to the Vedas. He examines the differences between Vedantic Advaita and the Shakta Advaita of the Tantras and stresses the latter's positive approach to the world and the problem of life. He draws attention to the viewpoints of Mayavada and Lilavada. He quotes Utpala Deva: "One who has become one with the universal Self and knows 'all this is my own glory', remains in Siva hood even in the face of prevailing determinations." (Ishwara Pratyabhijna 4.1.12)

The Reality, he points out, is both transcendent and immanent. Consequendy the world is not left out of the 'periphery of Brahman.' The Agama is not a mentally structured philosophy but a anubhava sampraddya, tradition of experience (Abhinava Gupta).

Examining the position of the Self in the different philosophical systems, the author notes: "The Nyaya Vaisheshika system regards the self as devoid of knowledge, activity, pain and pleasure etc., as these are accidental, qualities of the self and so in the Moksha the self remains in itself devoid of all these things. In Sankhya knowledge is accepted as the nature of the self, but there too activity, pain and pleasure are alienated as these belong to prakriti and not to purusha. In the Advaita Vedanta system knowledge or illumination and bliss are both regarded as the very nature of the self. In the Nyaya Vaisheshika the self is only sat, in Sankhya it is sat and cit and in the Advaita Vedanta it is sat-cit-ānanda. In the Tantric system, however, Kriya or Spanda (spontaneity) is accepted in the nature of the self in addition to sat-cit-ānanda." (Pp. 40-41)

In the treatment of the author, kriya is different from karma; kriya is a spontaneous movement natural to the Being. The more spontaneity there is, the more of freedom one enjoys. It is an essential content of mukti. (P. 51.)

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There are many notable points that Dr. Mishra makes while contrasting the positions of Vedantic Advaita and the Shakta Advaita. The liberated man in the Tantric view continues to play his part in the society; he releases his energies with abandon; aesthetic activity becomes more relevant to him as he gds established in his new status.

A special section is devoted to an exposition of what is known as vāma mārga. The author does not accept the position that it is all symbolic. He discusses the basic standpoint of the Tantric that all is meaningful in God's creation and all must be helped to fulfil its role. Sex is a legitimate part of life and Tantra sadhana lays down conditions under which sex can be used as a ladder to the realisation of the Self. Attention is drawn to the three stages of Kaula sadhana: the Pashu stage of ordinary persons to whom the yāmala diskha is given, permitting sex relationship only between married couples; the Vira stage where the sadhaka is at a high level of sex-sublimation, has widened into selfless love: to such a one extra-marital relationship is allowed; the highest, the Divya stage where the sadhaka feels intense love and identity even without bodily union.

Considerable space is given to an in-depth discussion of the Kundalini. We agree with the author that the Kundalini is a generic name for the energy potential in the system which takes the form of sex energy at one level, pranic energy at another, mental energy at still another and so on. He explains how prāna-kundalinī is what works at the physical level, ndda-kundalinī at the mental and the bodha-kundalini at the spiritual. There are three corresponding upāas, means, to awaken them: ānavopāya or kriyopāya (physical yoga), śaktopāya or jñānopāya (mental yoga), śambhavopāya or icchopāya (spiritual yoga).

There is much else besides, especially the correlation between the four stages of Vak and the four tattvas, Shiva-Shakti, Sadashiva, Ishwara and Sadvidya.

All told this volume is a very informative and stimulating introduction to the Tantric tradition. We look forward to further works by the author covering areas which are pertinent to students of this subject.

M. P. PANDIT

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