Chapter XI THE CONQUEST The Spirit's tops and Nature's base shall draw Near to the secret of their separate truth And know each other as one deity. The Spirit shall look out through Matter's gaze And Matter shall reveal the Spirit's face. Then man and superman shall be at one And all the earth become a single life. (Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Book XI, Canto I, p. 709) A manifestation of the Supermind and its truth-consciousness is...inevitable; it must happen in this world sooner or later. But it has two aspects, a descent from above, an ascent from below, a self-revelation of the Spir

Chapter VII WHY MATERIAL ALIMENTATION? We do, however unconsciously, draw constantly upon the universal energy, the force in Matter to replenish our material existence and the mental, vital and other potencies in the body: we do it directly in the invisible processes of interchange constantly kept up by Nature and by special means devised by her; breathing is one of these, sleep also and repose. But as her basic means for maintaining and renewing the gross physical body and its workings and inner potencies, Nature has selected the taking in of outside matter in the shape of food, its digestion, assimilation of what is assimilable and elimination o

Part Four THE PROBLEM OF MATERIAL ALIMENTATION Chapter I THE PROBLEM All that is Breath has its life in food. (Aitareya Upanishad, I-3.10) Life is established upon food. (Maitri Upanishad, VI.11) It is obvious...that so long as we depend, in order to live, upon material food, upon absorption of matter in such a gross form, we shall be an animal inferior enough and we shall not be able to divinise our life. We must then conceive that this animality in the human being will be replaced by some other source of life-power. It is not only a conceivable, but already a partially realisable thing; and that is evidently t

Chapter VI THE ROLE AND FUNCTION OF SLEEP An inertia sunk towards inconscience, A sleep that imitates death is his repose. (Savitri, Book II, Canto V, p. 164) Even in the tracts of sleep is scant repose; He mocks life's steps in strange subconscient dreams, He strays in a sublime realm of symbol scenes, His night with thin-air visions and dim forms He packs or peoples with slight drifting shapes And only a moment spends in silent self. (Savitri, Book VII, Canto II, p. 479) We have stated that so long as the universal psycho-spiritual slumber is not definitively ended in man's being, his body's

Chapter IX THE INWARDIZATION AND THE ASCENSION His knowledge an inview caught unfathomable, An outview by no brief horizons cut: He thought and felt in all, his gaze had power. (Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Book II, Canto XV, p. 301) The thing to be gained is the bringing in of a Power of Consciousness (the Supramental) not yet organised or active directly in earth-nature, even in the spiritual life, but yet to be organised and made directly active. (Sri Aurobindo, On Himself, p. 109) The overhead ascension is not indispensable for the usual spiritual purposes, — but it is indispensable for the pu

A FEW WORDS OF INTRODUCTION Sri Aurobindo Ashram: the wonder-creation of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Who can write about it in all its bearings, especially on a theme like its "Role, Responsibility and Future Destiny"? Yet, I have ventured to do so with a trepidant heart. I have felt like taking up this ticklish task and that for the following reason. In course of their close contact with me many of the senior students of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education have often asked me some interesting - at times embarrassing - questions concerning our Ashram, its functioning and its possible future. Some of their representative questions are as follows:

D. Formal Adherence Replacing the Spirit of Sadhana The life of an Ashramite here should be a life of sadhana and that too for the whole of the daily life comprising all its activities. As the Mother has reminded us: "In the integral Yoga, the integral life down even to the smallest detail has to be transformed. There is nothing here that is insignificant, nothing that is indifferent. You cannot say, 'When I am meditating, reading philosophy or listening to these conversations, I will be in this condition of an opening towards the Light and call for it, but when I go out to walk or see friends I can allow myself to forget all about it.

Some Danger Signals The Mother's and Sri Aurobindo's Work is bound to succeed; there is no shadow of doubt about it. The question is whether our Ashram at Pondicherry will have the privilege of being the vehicle of that Work. If we Ashramites remain sincere in our effort and do not deviate from the Goal that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have set before us, there is no reason why our Ashram cannot realise its God-given destiny. But if we fail to fulfil the conditions for our spiritual awakening, we may be left behind and the Mother and Sri Aurobindo may initiate their work of integral transformation elsewhere at another time in some other collectivity more open to their L

Criteria of Admission: A Suggestion If we would like to maintain the spiritual character of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, care should be taken to see that there is no lowering of the standard of admissibility for the new entrants. The issue is: If someone comes and says that he is ready - or pretends that he is ready - to work in an Ashram Department for a stipulated number of hours every day, should that be deemed to be a sufficient qualification for him to be admitted into a spiritual group-life like our Ashram? Will that not introduce many an unprepared ādhāra into the community and thus lead to a progressive derailment from its basic orientation? It

The Pioneers Sri Aurobindo Ashram at Pondicherry, the great Institution known the world over, which draws its appelation from the name of Mahayogi Sri Aurobindo, was formally established on or around 24 November 1926. But even before that date some young seekers had already started flocking to the then capital town of French India in order to live near Sri Aurobindo and shape their lives under the spiritual guidance of the Seer. The first to arrive was Suresh Chandra Chakravarty (Moni) who reached Pondicherry on 31 March 1910 and made arrangements for Sri Aurobindo's stay there. A few days later Sri Aurobindo arrived at Pondicherry, accompanied by Bejoy Nag: the date was