A Review of Our Ashram Life     IN its early days, quite at the beginning, we may now say, long long ago, for it is now almost half a century ago, the Ashram from its very start and quite spontaneously and inevitably grew into a community life. That is to say, the individuals ceased to have any personal possessions. Whatever they had belonged not to themselves but to the group, rather to the Master of the group, the Guru, to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Whatever they had, they considered as having received from the Mother for use only. They are not proprietors or possessors of anything: whatever they needed or they thought they needed, they had to ask for it a

Tagore   VIGIL   In the boundless heavens the Great Ascetic,      Vast Time keeps vigil.   He keeps vigil For a manifestation till now unconceived, unimagined, That none has yet known, That has revealed itself nowhere.   In the air, in the sky the new music That rose never and nowhere in the world, Prepares itself in a mystery sphere Through songs ringing out the secret heart's silent voices. The dams round the celestial city shall crumble, The flood of the New Harmony shall rush forth And the ancient walls of a deaf age Shall be swept away.   One who is remembered no more, One whose name none has ever h

One Day More   IN her “Prayers and Meditations” (Prières et Méditations) Mother wrote under the date 25 September 1914:   A new light will break upon the earth, A new world will be born, And the things promised will be fulfilled.¹   Subesquently, that is to say, after a lapse of more than forty years, under the date 29 February – 29 March 1956, she intro­duced a change in the statement, in respect of the tense used. She re-wrote it in this' form:   A new light breaks upon the earth, A new world is be born, The things that were promised are fulfilled.²   The change was needed because of the change in the situa­tion. There has been a

ON IMPURITY   [1]   You are now like a yellow leaf. Death's emissaries are around you, you are about to make the exit. And you have no pro­visions for the way.   [2]   So make an island of yourself, hasten and work hard and gain wisdom. When you have wiped off the blemishes, when you are free of taint, then will you reach the domain of Noble Ones.  Page – 228 [3]   Now you have arrived at your term. You are in the presence of Death. You have no shelter on the way nor have you pro­visions.   [4]   So do you make of yourself an island, hasten, work hard and gain wisdom. When you have wiped off the blemishes, when you are fre

OF THE ELEPHANT   [1]   An elephant in battle endures arrows shot from a bow. Even so, shall it endure censures, for men in the mass are, by nature, prone to evil.    [2]   An elephant, when controlled, can be led to battle; him the king can ride. And among men the best is he who is controlled and endures censures.   [3]   Mules, when controlled, are excellent, so also are the pure bred horses of Sindh, so indeed are the mighty tuskers. But best of all is the man who has controlled himself.   [4]   With such conveyances you cannot go where none has gone. He who has controlled himself goes out as a controlled person on a control

Distiques     "Accours, ma mie, accours! que chez nous t'emmène!" C'est Ie Seigneur qui prie une frêle âme humaine.   J'ai soif d'or et d'azur, de tout ce qui s'irise La terre est un trou nair, Ie corps une hantise.   La chair trahit et l'âme en pleure. . . . mais ces pleurs Pénètrent dans la chair qui mue en feux et fleurs!   Fuyez ces bards où tout blesse et rien ne console, Où l'on honit son âme et brise son idole!   "Où vas-tu, voyageur?" – "Mais par où tu me mènes, O Flamme mirifique, Asile des phalènes!"   Ce qui se donne à Dieu demeure et se restaure, Toute autre chose passe et fuit et s'évapore!   Vivre

Ramprasad   (1)   This time I have found the secret.¹ One who has the secret has taught me the secret. ² I have found a man who comes from a land        where there is no night. Day or evening, both are equal to me now.        Lo! Evening is a barren lady. Sleep has fled, no more shall I sleep.        I am awake through all the ages. Now I have handed over sleep to him to whom it belongs: I have sent sleep to sleep. I have mixed borax and sulphur and, like a goldsmith, I have brought out the purest gold And I shall scrub and clean the temple of jewel. Prasad says: Devotion and Liberation I carry on my head,

A Canadian Question   Question:     IT is written in A Practical Guide to Integral Yoga¹:   The physical nearness to the Mother is indispensable for the fullness of the sadhana on the physical plane. Transformation of the physical and external being is not possible otherwise.   My question is: How are we to interpret these words in the light of the Mother's recent passing? Does this mean that a full transformation is no longer possible to the aspirant? Or has discipleship on the material level in the path of the Integral Yoga come to an end?   Answer:     Obviously, the immediate programme of a physical transformation is postponed – not cancelle

Modern Poems   O GODDESS, VENDOR OF LIBERTY   O goddess, vendor of liberty! Bind me not in thy boundlessness; And in the unending path of destiny Happy be thy unmoving voyage.   Goddess, veiling the Love Eternal, Come to our mortal land, here bring Heaven's nectar, To this transient pilgrim life; O Guide eternal! draw the pause of our tiresomeness.   O Mind of magic! A stirless stream art thou upon our stilled earth, As though the sweet enchanted ocean engulfing a golden boat – O I kiss the Twin Hearts!                    THE VIGIL (A Surrealistic Poem)   Twigs and straws, broken bits, strewn abou

SWEET MOTHER   The Mother, Human and Divine   IN our human frailty we regard the Divine Mother as mother only, forgetting that she is also divine. We are apt to seize ex­clusively the last term of the great Name and ignore the other term which is equally important. We demand from her the same reactions of motherly love as we expect from a human mother. Our love for her is human, human in the ignorant way – full of passion and craving, hunger for appropriation, considering her as nothing else than food for our egoistic desires. She is the mother indeed, but the Divine Mother. She wishes us to come to her in the divine way and not in the human way. For it is in the di