The Ashram: Inner and Outer I will tell you a story today, but of another kind. I will tell you of a dream or a vision that I had some time ago. It was an ashram—I say an ashram but it was not quite like our ashram, although there was a great similarity between the two. In some respects it was like our ashram and in other respects somewhat unlike it. First of all, the whole ashram was in one place, a consolidated organisation, not houses here and there scattered about: there were no buildings or houses belonging to other people or other organisations; also the buildings were beautiful to look at and the general layout artistic. But all the activities we have here

The Mother Abides Final Reflections 1973-1983 The Mother Abides Final Reflections 1973-1983 Nolini Kanta Gupta Sri Aurobindo Ashram Pondicherry First edition 2012 Rs 70 ISBN 978-81-7058-933-4 © Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 2012 Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department Pondicherry 605 002 Web http://www.sabda.in Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry PRINTED IN INDIA

The Two Chains of the Mother Well, I have talked a lot in my rather long life, have I not? I have talked a good deal, and written much more. All that forms now my Collected Works: eight volumes in English and as many volumes in Bengali. All of you are leaving our Centre of Education, a Centre where you have been for so many years. To complete your course and come out of the Centre, it's all right; but to go where? It seems you have already come to a decision; there are many amongst you who have made their choice. That's good, for it means choosing one's life. I want to tell you only one thing: you are going out, but wherever you go, you carry som

Part 2 The Ashram A Power, a Presence has come down near to us upon earth and is moulding infallibly the earth-substance into something which it has been always aspiring for, but has never attained till now in an appreciable degree. Today the possibility is an actuality before us. We have assembled here so that with each individual contributing his mite of sincerity and efficiency, a combined endeavour may create a wide and secure opening for the new Power and Presence to come into its own and possess a home in the material life here below. —Nolini Kanta Gupta Page-33 A Review of Our Ashram Life In its earl

Life-Sketch of Nolini Kanta Gupta Nolini Kanta Gupta was born on January 13, 1889, in Faridpur, East Bengal (now Bangladesh). Raised in Rangpur, he went for higher studies to Presidency College, Kolkata. When the province of Bengal was partitioned in 1906, Nolini became increasingly involved in the movement to free India from British rule. In his fourth year of college, he joined the Maniktola secret society, a revolutionary group, and in May 1908 was arrested for conspiracy. Along with Sri Aurobindo and others he spent one year in jail as an undertrial prisoner. After his acquittal he joined the staffs of Dharma and Karmayogin, two newspapers founded an

RISHI DIRGHATAMA Many of the Upanishadic rishis are familiar to you. Vedic rishis are perhaps not so. Today I will speak of one of the Vedic rishis. Some names of great Vedic rishis must have reached your ears —Vashishtha, Vishwamitra, Atri, Parasara, Kanwa (I do not know if it is the same Kanwa of whom Kalidasa speaks in his Shakuntala), Madhuchchanda. All of them are seers of mantra, hearers of mantra, creators of mantra; all of them occupy a large place in the Veda. Each one of them has his speciality, each one delivers a mantra that is in its tone, temper and style his own although the subject matter, the substance, the fundamental realisation

HYMN TO DARKNESS Here is a modem poem in Bengali. It is characteristically modern, though perhaps not quite modernist. It is an invocation to Darkness: That darkness is not more, The darkness in which my heart plunged when you came, It is no more there. Many are the lights now around the heart Arrayed as in a festive illumination. Ceaseless now There is the earth's merry-go-round all the time. But beyond still, Outside Time, the mind, even this mind stands And sends its call to Thee alone. Yes, the Darkness is there no longer; And yet stretching out both the arms My mind yearns to reach the Darkness And its

SEER POETS NOLINI KANTA GUPTA SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM PONDICHERRY First Published : 1970 June 1970 © Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1970 Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry PRINTED IN INDIA

APPENDIX WORDSWORTH I did not come to appreciate the poetry of Wordsworth in my school days, it happened in college, and to a large extent thanks to Professor Manmohan Ghose. In our school days, the mind and heart of Bengali students were saturated with the poetry of Tagore: In the bower of my youth the love-bird sings, Wake up, O darling, wake; Opening thy lids lazy with love, Wake up, O darling, wake... This poetry belongs to the type once characterised as follows by our humorous novelist Prabhat Mukherji through one of his characters, a sādhu, describing the charms of the Divine Name: It has the sweetness and t