PREFACE On the occasion of the birth centenary year of its founder Rishabhchand, Indian Silk House pays its homage and expresses its gratitude to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, the guiding Forces of Rishabhchand. In 1931, he settled permanently in the Ashram at Pondicherry. His younger brothers, Bimalchand and Sumatichand assumed charge of the business which flourished and prospered by the Grace. Presently under the able guidance of Sri Bharat Kumar, son of Late Rishabhchand, Indian Silk House will be celebrating its Platinum Jubilee in the year 2001. Books containing excerpts from the letters written by Rishabhchand to his relatives and friends, in English, Bengali and

Excerpts from the letters written by Rishabhchand to his friend and Co-Sadhak Mr. Rutledge B. Tompkins in U. S. A. between the period 13.5.1964 to 19.9.1968. It appears to me from your letter that some adverse mental suggestions have disturbed you. I hope by now you have got over the disturbance and recovered your equanimity. I may remind you of Sri Aurobindo's words in The Bases of Yoga; "To be calm, steady, fixed in the spirit, dhira sthira, this quietude of the mind, this separation of the inner Purusha from the outer Prakriti is very helpful, almost indispensable. So long as the being is subject to the whirl of thoughts or the

The Mother The Mother was born in a wealthy family in Paris as Mira Alfasa on 21 February, 1878. Introspective by nature, she was in many ways an extraordinary child. She used to feel the descent of a great brilliant light while sitting silently in a chair at the age of four. At about the age of twelve, she became conscious of a great mission she had come to fulfil upon earth. "Between eleven and thirteen", she says, "a series of psychic and spiritual experiences revealed to me, not only the existence of God, but man's possibility of meeting with Him or revealing Him integrally in consciousness and action, of manifesting Him upon earth in a life divine. This a

Rishabhchand (1900-1970) The essence of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga is the integral surrender at the feet of the Mother. Those who met and knew Rishabhchand testify that he was the living symbol of surrender at the feet of the Mother. He achieved complete detachment from all material objects. For Rishabhchand, Divine was everything. Rishabhchand was bom at Jiaganj in West Bengal on the 3rd of December, 1900. He was the eldest son of Puranchand (1882—1967), an eminent scholar and writer mainly on Jain religion and philosophy in Bengali. After a brilliant academic career in Krishnanath College, Berhampur, and Presidency College, Calcutta, Rishabhchand plunged

Spiritual Bouquets To A Friend Collected Letters Rishabhchand 1st. Edition December, 1999

CHAPTER XXVII THE INTEGRAL TRANSFORMATION PART I WHAT IS TRANSFORMATION? "SPIRITUAL experiences can fix themselves in the inner consciousness and alter it, transform it, if you like; one can realise the Divine everywhere, the Self in all and all in the Self, the universal śakti doing all things; one can feel merged in the cosmic Self or fall of ecstatic bhakti or ānanda. But one may and usually does still go on in the outer parts of Nature thinking with the intellect or at best the intuitive mind, willing with a mental will, feeling joy and sorrow on the vital surface, undergoing physical afflictions and suffering from the struggle of li

CHAPTER IV THE TRIPLE AIM THE CONCEPTION OF THE INFINITE AND ETERNAL UNION with the Infinite and Eternal can be said to be the aim of all Yogas. But this is a general description, which easily lends itself to various interpretations. The aim of the Sânkhyayoga is the release of the immaculate Purusha from his false self-identification with the mechanical workings of Nature into the immobile peace and silence of his unfettered self-existence. Jnânayoga aims at a union with the Infinite and Eternal in Its ineffable transcendence; Bhaktiyoga with the infinite and eternal Lord of Love and Bliss and Beauty; and Tantra, first with the infinite and etern

CHAPTER V THE TRIPLE FOUNDATION THE triple aim of the Integral Yoga demands a revolutionary start from a basis wider and deeper than that of the traditional Yogas, and with a sanction and equipment unknown, because unnecessary, to them. Since it seeks neither merely the personal salvation of the human soul, nor its self-extinction in the transcendent Absolute, nor any rapt and rapturous union with the Supreme in some Heaven beyond, but a constant, total and dynamic union with the Divine in life, it takes care to lay a triple foundation consisting of (1) the call and the response, ((2) calm and 'equality, and (3) surrender, each of which bears a special imp

CHAPTER IX THE PSYCHIC—THE DELIGHT-SOUL PART I EVERY cosmic principle in our individual composition is. double: we have two bodies, two lives, two minds and two souls. They are derived from the involutionary and evolutionary movements of Spirit. We have a gross physical body, annamaya śarīra, and a subtle physical body, sūkṣma or linga, śarīra; a life-force working in our gross body and conditioned by its past evolution in Matter, and a sūkṣma or subliminal life, which is larger and more flexible, and not subject to the limitations of the former;, we have a surface mind of aspiring ignorance, chained to the ego and the desires, the appetites and normal

CHAPTER X THE HIGHER NATURE AND THE LOWER The relation between the higher nature and the lower is of capital importance in the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. If a shuffling off of all nature were the aim, the postulate of the higher Nature would not be called for-the Sânkhya position would be perfectly valid for the purpose. The Nature of the three gunas would be regarded as the sole Nature responsible for life and creation and the soul's bondage to them, and a withdrawal of the soul from her its final release and salvation. The passive status of the liberated individual soul, as in the Sânkhya, or its traceless merger in the eternal Immutable, as