14 Some Spiritual Aspirants from the West (a) Some days back I came across the March issue of the English periodical Encounter. Among the books reviewed I saw the title: Wittgenstein's lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics, Cambridge, 1939. The editor had drawn upon the notes of four students of that brilliant Austrian who had become the most influential thinker of his day with his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. In the list of the students I noticed the name : R. G. Bosanquet. My mind flew back to the late 'thirties when my brother had gone to Cambridge for a year and in the course of his research had attended some of the talks o

18 The Mother and the Beings of the Vital Plane The Mother and Sri Aurobindo did not work only on the physical plane. Behind the physical are subtle realms with influences good, bad and indifferent. The Victory Day of 24 November 1926 brought the Overmind Gods into direct alliance with our Gurus' purpose of earth-transformation and rendered more effective their fight with the occult Evil that acts upon earth from its headquarters on the vital plane either directly or through human beings open to it. The Overmind dynamism, preliminary to the Supermind power which was the ultimate aim, came into repeated use during the Second World War. This war bro

3 What Came Out of an Easter Egg On a visit from Bombay in 1953 I reached Pondicherry on the 11th April. The whole journey had been a passage from state to state of aspiration — particularly aspiration in the head, a mounting movement which sought God with a passion eager to pierce through the skull — symbolising, of course, what Sri Aurobindo calls in Savitri "the intellect's hard and lustrous lid" — and grasp the infinities that seemed to brood overhead. This movement pulled at the heart also, lifting it up, though not quite deepening it into a discovery of its own inmost God-possession. Bombay drifted away like mist — only a few vivid impressions remaine

20 Lights and Shades of the Yogic Life An elderly lady who had come to the Ashram through me and stayed here for several years went back to Bombay because of some dissatisfaction with her lodgings as well as in response to a call from her family. She must have thought Bombay-life would be a bit of a relief after the rigours of Yoga. But she was soon disillusioned. A lot of suffering had to be undergone and she was very anxious to return. The Mother, however, did not encourage her. Time and again her request went unheeded. I was again in Bombay at the time. So she visited me with a plea to recommend her to the Mother. She said she was prepared to accept any

7 The Mother, Her Children and the Various Interrelations (a) When the Mother's son, André, by the painter Henri Morisset who had married her in the studio-days of her late teens, was to come on a visit to the Ashram on 4th November 1949 after a separation from the Mother for 34 years, she was reported to have joked: "I don't know what he looks like now. I only hope he hasn't become bald." She must have been pleased to find that though his hair was not quite bushy his head was far from having reached the billiard-ball state. The reunion of Maman and fils was said to have been a warm one. The Ashramites were very glad to see the Mother'

OUR LIGHT AND DELIGHT FOREWORD This book took shape originally in response to the Mother's birth-centenary. The first article appeared in the special issue of Mother India dated 21 February 1978. The last was expected to coincide with the issue of January 1979 completing the twelve months of commemoration. But there was so much to tell and the public appreciation so warm that the idea of a set period was put aside and the flood of recollection allowed to go on until it came to a natural stop in July of the same year. Occasionally, side by side with the regular series other articles were written, bearing on the Mother and her wo

13 The Divine and our Dullness — The Mother and Food — Not only Guru but True Mother — Grace towards Youngsters — Freedom and Discipline All of us have aspired for the grace of being allowed physical nearness to the Mother. The possibility to be in her presence hour after hour has seemed the greatest luck. Naturally I once exclaimed to her: "Oh Mother, I wish I could live with you!" Immediately she answered: "Do you think it is easy to live with me? There will be a tremendous unceasing pressure on you. You will have to be capable of standing before the highest idea of consciousness every minute." I realised how far I was from that idea

17 The Mother's and Sri Aurobindo's Way with Animals The Mother was known for her love of animals and her deep understanding of their nature. It was a delight to hear her speaking to a cat in a musical tone full of affection, a tenderly modulated baby-talk. She dealt with the Ashram cats as if they had been "persons" with rights. The man who was in charge of the Prosperity Room in the 'thirties was given strict orders not to interfere with the movements of the beautiful female cat Bite-Bite which had made this place its home. If a cupboard was left open by him and Bite-Bite got on to any shelf of it, he had to respect its right to be there: not only was he

-05_Milton^s Epic Lyricism.htm IV Milton's Epic Lyricism We have asserted the total effortlessness of Milton's complicated and deliberate-looking poetry. However, in asserting this, we must not imply that he did nothing to make such effortlessness possible. A hint of what he did is found in the mention in Book III of his mighty poetic outpouring - the passage from which we have already quoted some lines. It throws light on several matters. We shall first dwell upon its bearing on that effortlessness itself and, through the aspects disclosed by it in this connection, we shall proceed to the power behind Paradise Lost, as distinct from the power beyond the poem - what makes it, in

V The Preparation for Paradise Lost When apropos of Milton we speak of the lyric inspiration and of spontaneity, we must remember that he is spontaneous in a particular way that lyric poets are not. And here I mean more than the epic character of his lyricism. I mean what I have called the power behind in addition to the power beyond the poem, what he himself did to. make his total effortlessness possible. I may now specifically term it his sedulous cultivation of the inner mood - a deliberate travail seldom undergone by the lyric poets. And in the lines I have cited about harmonious numbers and the nightingale's nocturnal note we have the indica