Gods and Men I BEGIN with a Sanskrit proverb: it is not exactly a proverb but a witty saying, half in jest, half in earnest. You will see however the significance it carries. Perhaps, there is a story hanging about it. You know that the Sanskrit pundits, perhaps all pundits, are proverbially supposed to be very unpractical. That is to say, they are so much engrossed in their study, in their books, in abstract things that they lose their sense of the material world, of the external things. So, once it seems, a pundit wanted to know what a pig was: "I have heard of a pig, a boar, what is it? I have not seen it." Someone answered: "It is an animal." "What kind of animal?" Then another

IN LOVE WITH DARKNESS IT is all well, it is all well: If a speck of light from out of the sky Just flitted into my room, It were indeed a thing of unbounded joy. But when the whole earth Lies enveloped in darkness, I for myself need no light, Never into the tribe of jackals Would a stag enter, its horns clipped and shorn. I worship light And I sing to Darkness: This is no contradiction. For the life I would fain touch Still lingers on darkness' edge And I must love Darkness To reach out to that life. Gopal Bhowmik Page – 71

Vision of Dante DANTE is known as a great poet and also as a great seer: Sri Aurobindo mentions him as one of the very greatest. He names three as the supreme poets of Europe, of the very first rank: Homer of ancient Greece, Dante in the Middle Ages, and nearer to us, Shakespeare. Along with these Sri Aurobindo mentions also Valmiki of India. However I shall speak of Dante not so much as a poet but as a seer: as such he was a Traveller of the Worlds in the path of the life Divine in his own way; His poem is his autobiography. He speaks of his long journey, even like King Aswapathy in Sri Aurobindo's Savitri, as a traveller of the worlds. Dante describes his journey through the

The Double Ladder I HAVE said, at the very beginning creation was a mass of material particles, dust-particles as it were, millions and hundreds and thousands of millions of them strewn about and scattered in infinite Space. And these gradually condensed and gathered in volumes and masses, definite forms and shapes, gradually changed their material nature also, developed into sentient forms, living creatures, conscious beings and self-conscious human persons. I have said also that the original dead material particles had in them or associated with them or fused into them particles, as it were, of light. They were not merely material energies but light energies which on their

SONGS OF RAMPRASAD ( I ) SAY what does it mean: the eyes drip with tears (when one takes the name of Kali) ? You have seen much, your. wisdom is great, say for certain what it is. One sense I make out: the body is but a sunken log! The name Kali is a fire burning .on the tongue, a fire that is flowing water, flooding water. I meditate also upon the Lord and close my eyes and wait for sleep to descend. The Lord carries the Ganges on his head and it is her clear stream. The Guru commands, the holy spot between the eye-brows is a place of pilgrimage surpassing others –­ It is the fruit that the confluent Ganga

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An Impression A frail aspiring flame flickers out, A little soul crosses over the other Shore, leaving its burning body. It reappears as a bud of light, a wave of music, a blissful smile, In the woodland of Heaven! A creeper damsel seeking its Kadamba-Shilter: A darling, invited guest to The festival of Rasa.

The Ashram, the World and The Individual* MOTHER told us long ago that our Ashram is an epitome of India. It represents all that is good in India and also all that is bad – all the bad qualities, her weaknesses, all that is crooked and false, dark and obscure. And the Ashram, being a concentrated centre of all that, represents them in a specially intense form. Now the pressure from above has come to change and for that purpose all the dark points, all that is to be changed and rejected, have been exposed. They have been exposed everywhere – in the Ashram and also outside the Ashram, in the country in general the same defects and weaknesses, the same

The Golden Chain You have been here for many many years, isn't it? – many many years. From your childhood you are here, isn't it? perhaps all of you. Some of you are going out, Some are likely to stay, some still undecided. If you are asked: 'What have you gained here by your long stay, for some, a very long stay?'... I can tell you what you have gained. It is not any outward thing, nor any of the things that you have learnt at school, the knowledge that you have gained here, it is not that, but something else. Be sure of that. You don't know perhaps yourselves, but that thing is there, within you. You have not passed your time in vain here: you have the Mother's touch.

A Note On "The Mother Of Dreams" WHO is the Mother of Dreams? And what is a Dream, after all? Where is the world of dreams? Dreams simply mean possibilities, whatever has not happened physically, materially upon earth till now, but can happen one day. This when translated in the human mind is termed imagination. The Rishis spoke of three worlds, three states of being and consciousness. The waking state, the dream state and the sleep state. The waking state means the physical conscious­ness, the material reality, earth. The dream state means the inner consciousness, the world of subtler formations. It is called the mid-world. Further beyond is the sleep-worl