“The Hero and the Nymph” A note on Kalidasa's "The Hero and the Nymph" (translated by Sri Aurobindo), staged at the Ashram Theatre on December 1st and December 3rd 1971. The story of Kalidasa's "The Hero and the Nymph" is the eternal legend of the marriage of heaven and earth upon earth. The Heavenly Beauty can descend upon earth and be united to a human soul only, as it appears, under a malediction; for heaven and earth are normally understood to be opposites and contradictories. The malediction means that the union can happen under certain limitations. First of all, there is the limitation of time, that is to say, the union does not last long, it can be onl

The Story of Love (1) LOVE, in its essence, is the joy of identity. It finds its final expression in the felicity of union. Between the two there are all the phases that make up the universal manifestation. Love comes from the very origin of the universe. Love in its essence, I say, that is, before the manifestation, is the delight of identity. Something there was which became conscious of the identity. And that is precisely Love. Afterwards comes the manifestation of Love. In its highest form, when it comes back to its origin across all its history of manifestation, it becomes the felicity of union. The sense of union comes as a consequence of the sense of separat

The Mother on Herself (1) You must be very very persevering. I will tell you a story – my own story. When I began to practise occultism, as I started working with my nights, making them conscious, I found that between the subtle physical level and the most material vital there was a small region, very small indeed, that was not developed well enough to serve as a conscious link between the two. So what happened in the most material vital was not being accurately translated into the consciousness of the most subtle physical. Something was lost in the passage which was however not quite empty but only half-conscious, not adequately developed. I knew there was only

The Labours of the Gods: The five Purifications NOWDAYS we hear much of brain-washing. The other day, instead of brain-washing, I spoke of brain-ignition. That is to say, for a total reconstitution of the brain, for a new building of the physique of the new man, one has to transform the cells of grey matter into particles of fire, packets of burning energy. I said, the cranium being the control-room of physical existence and the brain being the controlling agent – the brain extending its range down the spinal column to its end at the last vertebra – this is the element that has to be treated and reorganised first and foremost if a physical reorganisation

Two Equations I Einstein's equation. E=mc² that is, Matter becomes energy when its mass is multiplied by the square of the velocity of light. The new equation: M=mc°° that is, Matter is transformed into spiritualised energy (not merely mechanical energy as in Einstein) when its mass is multiplied by consciousness raised to the power of infinity. II Buddha's equation: D°=O that is, Desire raised to the power zero is zero=Nirvana. Shankara's equation: Dº= I (Sachchidananda) Note: any quantity raised to the zero power is not zero but I. X ª Ex: xº=xª¯ª = – = I. X ª Page – 344

The Story of Dr. Faustus Retold DR. Faust, as you know, you must have seen him on our school stage, was a very learned man. His ambition was to acquire all knowledge, knowledge of all subjects, of all arts and sciences. But he wanted not only to be a doctor of theories but of practice also, not only a learned man but a man of power in addition – not only to know but to control. Universal nature was his field and he sought not only to measure and survey the outside but to probe into her deeper secret mysteries. In those days there was a line of inquiry pursued by savants that was called occultism. The occultist sought to discover the secret and subtle forc

Prayer and Aspiration (1) WHAT you do has an inevitable and absolute consequence. This is a necessary concept at a given moment of the evolutionary process. It is meant to prevent men from becoming completely egoistic or doing what they do in a totally unconscious manner. There are many who are like that, the majority, I suppose; they follow their impulses and do not ask what consequences their actions will have for themselves and for others. It is good then if someone told them with a severe air: "Take care, that has consequences which, last long, very long." There are religions that rose to warn you: "You will pay for that in another life," "If you commit thi

PART TWELVE This Great Earth, Our Mother MAN'S soul is man's inalienable possession. And also it is his exclusive possession. He is the only created being that has a soul. It is, strange to say, an earthly gift and belongs to no other creature either in this world or other worlds and levels of existence. This earth is a miraculous object: it has qualities solely its own. A fundamental quality is that it grows: it is not static, it evolves, that is to say, changes in quality; it sprouts, germinates, brings forth objects and qualities that seem foreign, anomalous to its apparent and external nature. New modes of existence that were not there before appear a

The Ladder of Unconsciousness CONSCIOUSNESS, the normal consciousness we know, has various degrees of potency: its familiar form is the rational consciousness or intellect; then at a higher level, there is the intuitive consciousness and at a still higher level the visionary consciousness, that is, the consciousness that sees the Truth, and at the highest, the objectless consciousness, consciousness in itself or the sachchidananda consciousness. Likewise unconsciousness too has its own various degrees. As consciousness rises up to higher and higher grades of consciousness, so unconsciousness too descends into lower and lower grades of unconsciousness. T

INDEX ADITI, 287 Agnl,189,221,280,327,371 Ahriman, 287 Akbar, 196 Algeria, 141 Amrita, 29 Arjuna, 206, 350 Aryama, 330 Ashram, the, 57, 118-9, 161, 269, 270, 390 Ashwapati, 237-41, 243, 246, 274 Asura, 250, 287, 368 Atris, 372 BEATRICE, 284 Beethoven, 273 Bharati, 189 Bible, the, 121, 305, 345n – Book of Job, 305n – St. John, 345n Borman, 316 Brahma, 256 Brahman, 181-2, 185, 188-9, 193, 205, 290, 299, 339, 368, 385 Brindaban, 385 Britain, 338 Buddha, 52-3, 104-6,182-3,196,221, 225,309,311, 344,349,400 CHINA, 54 Christ, 349, 379, 400 Churchill, 346 Commonwealth, 362 Confucius, 196 Czardom