-01_Publisher^s note.htm THE VISION AND WORK OF SRI AUROBINDO SECOND REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION BY K.D.SETHNA Publisher's Note to the First Edition With the selection of K. D. Sethna's writings, Mother India, Monthly Review of Culture from Pondicherry, comes out for the first time in the role of a Publisher of books. The twenty-two articles offered here have previously appeared either in Mother India itself or in other periodicals connected with the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, except for the very last one which was included in an Aurobindonian symposium from America. Readers have, off and on, expressed their wish about several of

Aurobindonian Viewpoints TWO LETTERS [These letters are to the same English author to whom the preceding one was written and they form a sequel to it.] 1 You say that it is not in the mind alone that endless contradiction can happen. I concur with you. It is not only philosophers who keep disagreeing. Yogis also take up positions poles apart from one another on the basis of their actual spiritual experiences. This is possible because reality can be spiritually experienced, no less than intellectually reconstructed, in various aspects. But we are naturally led to inquire what should be considered the ultimate truth of w

What is Essence? A Note on Two Answers — Shankara's and Sri Aurobindo's 1 THE ONTOLOGICAL VIEW: ESSENCE AS BEING Essence, according to both Shankara and Sri Aurobindo, is the Reality which persists through all states and changes and of which all things and beings are ultimately constituted. It is the permanent underlying oneness which is the Self of all, the Supreme Spirit besides which nothing else exists. But Shankara makes an irreconcilable opposition between the one and the many. In his eyes, what appears as many is really one: the manyness is seen because of ignorance, and all that characterises it is inapplicable to the

Is Philanthropy Enough? A LETTER OF 1947 I have no doubt you are sincere in your desire to bring sunshine into other people's lives. This desire arises from something deep in our nature, but the form it usually takes is not true to the arch-image within. To outgrow our narrow personality and our self-absorbed consciousness is indeed a great aim; but we have to do this with the purpose of expressing no longer the mere human ego but the supreme Divine: we have to manifest in the world the ultimate Being instead of the lower limited "I". Now, the ordinary form this high intention dwelling in the recesses of our soul assumes is philanthropy -

11 In the Year of the Greatest Difficulty On the evening of December 31, 1954, the Mother announced that the coming year — with perhaps two more months added — would be a very crucial one, the year of the greatest difficulty because a great outburst of the Divine was preparing and the hostile forces would give battle with the utmost ferocity to stop it. A sort of last-ditch fight was anticipated. The Mother said it would affect individuals and collectivities alike. She warned us to be on guard and to hold out at all costs. I must, however confess that I passed nearly the whole of 1955 very enjoyably by choosing as my special cross the most difficult poet

12 The Most Difficult Year and Chamanla's Interview I have already written about the crucial year 1955 and recounted how the Mother saved my sister-in-law Mina from the consequences of a terrible accident. Now I may put on record a peculiar situation which arose apropos of the talk the Mother had given about that year at the Playground on December 31, 1954. The situation is partly connected with a much-publicised interview the journalist Chamanlal had with the Mother in February the same year.¹ Chamanlal reported, among other things, the Mother as saying that 1957 would be a very significant year. India would start playing a glorious spiritual r

SUPPLEMENT The Birth Centenary of The Mother The Mother's Birth Centenary, which fell on February 21, 1978, was celebrated in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram at Pondicherry by nearly 9000 people from all over the world. But what marked the occasion unforgettably was not only the enthusiastic concourse of her disciples and admirers and the happy hushful visit to the room in which had been spent the last years of the most extraordinary being who had assumed a woman's form in terrestrial history. The distinguishing feature was also the powerful sense of that form still permeating the atmosphere and the rare inner experience that overwhelm

8 "The Seal of Solomon", Tagore's Visit to the Ashram, Soup-Distribution, "Prosperity" Meetings, Yogic Fulfilment In the preceding chapter I announced that I would write what I had gathered, from the Mother herself and from some disciples who had been close to her, about Paul Richard's role in her life. But I have changed my mind in view of the fact that for reasons of her own the Mother always wanted to keep his name in limbo. In passing, I shall touch only on two topics. First, I shall repeat the story which I have told elsewhere and which I promised in my last article to relate in connection with Richard and the subject of gambling. Then

15 Some Famous People Admired by the Mother The mother never hesitated to admire quite openly whoever impressed her as of extraordinary merit. Right from my early years in the Ashram — from 16 December 1927 onwards — I heard her speak enthusiastically of Ysayë. To her he was the greatest violinist possible. I had never come across his name before she uttered it. I do not see why, since, as I later learnt. Eugène Ysayë, born in Belgium at Liège in 1858, studied not only at the Liège Conservatoire but also at Paris and from 1918 to 1922 conducted the Cincinnati Orchestra, made several tours of Great Britain, the last in 1923, eight years before he die

6 The Mother, Sri Aurobindo and the Procession of the Avatars (a) "When anyone writes about me, all the hair on my head stands up. Don't think I am merely being modest. I know where I come from and who I am. But it is the Truth that is important. Stress on the Person seems so much to narrow it." This is what the Mother told me when I was on a visit to Pondicherry from Bombay. It referred to an article I had written on her in a Bombay newspaper. Having learned my lesson, I took the proper measures when I projected an article for her eightieth birthday in 1958. I announced my plan to her. She opened her eyes wide. At once I added: "Yes,