IX VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE There have been religions, approaches to the Divine, which did not believe in the divinity of man, the Chaldean line, the Semetic, for example. According to these, the Creator and the Created are separate in nature and being; to call anything created as God himself is blasphemy. The ancient Egyptian, the Hebrew or the Muslim place God high in Paradise, and, in their view, man can be only his servant or slave, his worker or warrior. Man is too small and too earthly to be ever identified with God: he can only be a worshipper. Man can love God, at the most, as his Beloved. But this devotion is for something afar,

XII THE SOUL AND ITS JOURNEY I When a man dies, his soul or psychic being, after a time goes to the psychic world and takes rest there till the hour comes to take birth again in another body upon earth. There are then these two periods in the life after death. First, the passage and next the rest. The passage means the gradual shedding of all the other sheaths or envelopes that surround the psychic being and form its earthly frame. With the physical body has to go also the subtle body, then the vital and finally the mental too. The reason why one does not remember the past lives is this that one leaves behind the instrument of memory—the brain mind

The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo (Part V) (Based on Talks with the Mother) NOLINI KANTA GUPTA Sri Aurobindo Library Madras First published in 1949 by Sri Aurobindo Library 369 Esplanade, G. T. Madras Printed in India at The Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry All rights reserved

VI THE ROLE OF EVIL The advent or the presence of evil upon earth has introduced certain factors in human life that have enriched it, increased even its value. Certain experiences would not have been there, intimate and revelatory experiences, but for this Dark Shadow. One can, of course, conceive a line of growth and development in which it is all light and delight, everything is good and for the good. But then a whole domain of experience and realisation would have been missed. There are certain experiences that one would not like not to have had at all, even though that may mean paying and paying heavily. Evil is evil, no doubt; it is not divine and it i

IN THESE FATEFUL DAYS         To destroy is easy; to create, it is difficult.         The vital force destroys in its violence, it is the spirit that creates in its energy of consciousness.         The vital force is easily available to man. The spirit is a far cry.         And yet there is no other way out: if man is to be saved, that is the only way left before him.         If man's destiny is to fulfil—fulfil the purpose of creation, he will have to find out the way of the spirit. If in his present mood of perversity, he pursues blindly the urge that has possessed him, he will surely annihilate himself—willingly or unwillingly he will commit hara-k

BODY-ENERGY   The Mother spoke once of the body being like a fortress, a strong shelter protecting you against enemy-attacks, the forces that are around roaming in the open spaces, the forces of physical and even moral disruption. The ancients used to refer to the body as a walled city the gates of which are to be carefully guarded. It is also compared to a temple, a firm structure wherein God is to dwell, which is to be kept always clean, trim and tidy. The body itself was worshipped as a holy thing almost as a Divinity by certain schools of spiritual discipline.         These are, so to say, various dimensions of the body; one more, somewhat of a different category, may be

TWO EQUATIONS   I         Einstein's equation:                                      E=mc2         that is, Matter becomes energy when its mass is multiplied by the square of the velocity of light.         The new equation:                                         M=mc∞       that is, Matter is transformed into spiritualised energy (not merely mechanical energy as in Einstein) when its mass is multiplied by consciousness raised to the power of infinity.       II         Buddha's equation:                                          D°=0         that is, Desire raised to the power zero is zero=Nirvana. Page-52

THE IDEAL CENTRE         Once when the Mother was asked by a group of disciples to give permission and blessings for opening a centre, She said in answer: "To open a centre is not sufficient in itself. It must be the pure hearth of perfect sincerity, in a total consecration to the Divine." This is the first motto or mantra that should be inscribed on the tablet of the inner constitution of every group organisation. It states the basic spirit, the true inspiration that should initiate the work and guide it through. The second mantra is embodied in these words of Sri Aurobindo: "Love the Mother: Always behave as if She was looking at you, for indeed She is always present." These are

THE TEST OF TRUTH         The test of Truth is its impossibility. I believe because it is impossible; Credo quia impossibile. That is Saint Augustine.         There is a grain, why a grain, quite a lump of truth in this well-known saying of a great seeker of Truth. "Truth shall prevail? Is this true? Can it be true? It is impossible." Therefore it must be true. "God exists: is it an impossibility?" Therefore God does exist. "Shall we ever come out of the present darkness? Impossible!" We shall, therefore, come out, surely.         The possible, to our senses, is what is happening now: the present fact is the truth and what is in absolute agreement with the present is

THE LADDER OF UNCONSCIOUSNESS         Consciousness, the normal consciousness we know, has various degrees of potency: its familiar form is the rational consciousness or intellect; then at a higher level, there is the intuitive consciousness and at a still higher level the visionary consciousness, that is, the consciousness that sees the Truth, and at the highest, the objectless consciousness, consciousness in itself or the sachchidananda consciousness.         Likewise unconsciousness too has its own various degrees. As consciousness rises up to higher and higher grades of consciousness, so unconsciousness too descends into lower and lower grades of unconsci