The Withdrawal

The Withdrawal

A voyager upon uncharted routes
Fronting the viewless danger of the Unknown,
Adventuring across enormous realms,
He broke into another Space and Time.
(Savitri)

On 9th December 1950, the Body of Sri Aurobindo was finally kept inside the Samadhi in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram premises. As is known universally, He passed away, medically, on 5th December 1950. Many, including The Mother Herself, experienced a Supramental radiance from His Body from the 5th to the 8th of December 1950.

A few days prior to 24th November 1950, specially from 17thNovember 1950, an ailment from which Sri Aurobindo suffered earlier but within limits, uremia, recurred in a way that caused heavy and definite anxiety. In spite of it, the daŕsan of 24th November 1950 had taken place. Hundreds of people had His daŕsan and passed by Him, but they did not have the least suspicion that anything was wrong!

Of course, a few persons, besides The Mother, knew about His illness. Nirodbaran, an eminent surgeon and a close disciple of Sri Aurobindo, looked after Him. On 30th November, Dr Sanyal came from Calcutta to look after Him.

On 4th December 1950, at His request, He was helped out of His bed. He was able walk to His arm-chair and take His seat. The disciple were very happy, but their joy did not last long!

Later, at night it was clear that Sri Aurobindo was withdrawing Himself. At 1.26 AM, on 5th December, Sri Aurobindo withdrew Himself finally, in presence of The Mother there in the room. Earlier, She told Dr Sanyal: “He is fully conscious within, but he is losing interest in Himself.”

Two hours after His passing away, The Mother announced the news to the Ashram inmates. The news spread rapidly and was transmitted throughout the world immediately.
Not only Pondicherry, but the whole of India and the world at large were stunned at the news of His departure.

Sri Aurobindo’s Body was to lie in state, all the Ashram gates were thrown open, so that all could pay their homage to Sri Aurobindo.

One of the disciples, Dara (Aga Syed Ibrahim), who paid his homage to Sri Aurobindo on the 5th December, stated :

I found myself in Sri Aurobindo’s own room by the side of his cot. He seemed so peaceful and happy, and the flesh shone with a new luster which I failed to see at the daŕsan time on 24th November. Why could I not see it before?... I could not take my eyes off his face and arms. It seemed to me he was alive. It was certain that he was in a condition of a deep and upward soaring trance just then.

The Mother had announced on 5th December :

The funeral of Sri Aurobindo has not taken place today. His body is charged with such a concentration of Supramental light that there is no sign of decomposition and the body will be kept lying on his bed so long as it remains intact.

By the evening of 5th December, more than 60000 people filed past “the sublime Master.”

“For everyone — for almost every one of the sixty thousand — it was a unique moment, a moment abstracted out of the stream of time when eternity was made out of the moment. Each took the burden of his (or her) own personality, carried his own inner climate of the soul; and the figure of the Purusha lying in the ananta-sayanam posture affected each a little differently perhaps, yet it was also on the whole a cleansing, cathartic and chastening experience for more.”
( Sri Aurobindo: K R Srinivasa Iyyengar)

Sri Aurobindo’s Body lied in state till 9th December 1950. On 9th morning, the first signs of decomposition were noticed. As such the Body was interred in the evening. It was carried by the Ashram sadhaks and placed in the cement concreted vault prepared in the Ashram courtyard under the Service tree. The place is now called the Samadhi, where devotees from all corners of the world offer their respects and prayers. As is known by all concerned, The Mother’s Body was also interred on 20-11-1973 in the same Samadhi in the upper chamber, after Her withdrawal on 17-11-1973.



OOOO

Sri Aurobindo’s departure was no ordinary death of a mortal man. And this is not a matter of Faith only. When seen by an understanding, visionary, mystic and open consciousness, not blinded by darkness and ignorance of an ordinary consciousness, one may realize that His Withdrawal was a turning point in the history of Evolution. It was the first step of human victory over Death.

Sri Aurobindo knew of the Supermind in 1910. Satprem says :

"It may be worth stressing that Sri Aurobindo made His spiritual discovery in 1910, even before having the read the Veda, at a time when nuclear physical was still at a stage of theoretical conjectures."

Sri Aurobindo’s Supermind is not a completely new discovery. In the Vedas, there is a reference to it as Satyam Ritam Brihat — The True, the Right, the Vast — and it was symbolically described as the Sun of Knowledge. But it was perhaps experienced in a yogic condition of deep trance, or perhaps what was experienced was the reflection of the Supramental Light and Consciousness in the mind or in the levels termed by Sri Aurobindo as the different levels the Superconscient —the Higher Mind, the Illumined Mind, Intuition, and Overmind — without having any knowledge about these different planes.

Even in some references in the Veda, it had been stated that if this level of Consciousness realized, the body will be destroyed within a period of forty days!

Sri Aurobindo was in contact of the Supramental Consciousness for a period of forty years. What happened on 5th December 1950, was the Descent of the Supramental Consciousness in a wider and larger scale, not for His transformation only, but to bring an earthly transmutation. It became necessary for Sri Aurobindo to receive the full force of the Supramental Light and Consciousness, so that the Supramentalization of the earth and the mankind will become assured! This was act of the greatest possible Sacrifice, comparable to the act of Lord Shiva accepting halāhala (poison) at the time of amŗta-manthan, as in the Indian mythology.* Had the humanity remained prepared and receptive, He perhaps would not embrace death!

Towards the last days of his earthly existence, Sri Aurobindo got realized what He termed the Mind of Light. ** A mind of Light is a ‘mind capable of living in the truth, capable of being truth-conscious and manifesting in its life a direct in place of an indirect knowledge.’ It is a mind that would be an instrument of the Light, the Supramental Light and Consciousness, and no longer of the Ignorance or of any plane from the Higher Mind to the Overmind.

When Sri Aurobindo withdrew, the Supramental Consciousness and Force got also realized in The Mother and She had in Her the descent of the Mind of Light. And the Process of began and continued, and we find the consequence if the Supramental Manifestation on the 29th February 1956. I am again quoting here the oft-quoted declaration of the Mother:
And now the Supermind is on earth, actively present on earth. I am quoting from Mother's Agenda Vol.1:

FIRST SUPRAMENTAL MANIFESTATION

(During the common meditation on Wednesday
The 29th February 1956)

This evening the Divine Presence, concrete and material, was there present amongst you. I had the form of a living gold, bigger than the universe, and I was facing a huge and massive golden door, which separated the world from the Divine.
As I looked at the door, I knew and willed, in a single movement of consciousness, that ‘the time has come', and lifting with both hands a mighty golden hammer I struck one blow on the door and the door was shattered to pieces.
Then the supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow.

OOOO

The Mother has stated :

"The Manifestation of the Supramental upon earth is no more a promise but a living fact, a reality. It is at work here, and one day will come when the most blind, the most unconscious, even the most unwilling shall be obliged to recognize it."

When the Supermind will start functioning in the full swing, many things will change, more or less. However, even when supramental beings will be there, there still may be human beings. And everything need not change for them, but still there will be improvements in all their circumstances also.

We know that all apes have not become human beings. Even all kinds of apes were not evolved as human beings. Apes are present very well now also. All ape laws are still applicable to them, like jumping from one tree to another.

So, human beings may still reside on earth, in a better society, in a better life, when the supramental race will manifest, as they will be directly influenced by the Supramental Consciousness.

And we have been observing several changes on earth, in the human circumstances, after the 5th day of 1950, and specially after the 29th February 1956.

The first thing is gradual globalization. Now the entire earth has become, and is still becoming more and more, one place, united and unified. Men and women are becoming more and more free and emancipated. Darkness is leaving our social and political lives and evrything is coming to an openness. Wrong social customs and inhibitions and prohibitions and superstitions are becoming less and less active. The iron curtains of Soviet land has been broken and China has also opened the Door to the outer world. Autocrats have diminished in number, and it is hoped that they will leave for ever soon.

It may be recalled that the Mount Everest was conquered by Tenzing and Hillary after 1950 only; the confirmed ascent (and of course, safe descent) of Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay took place in 1953. [Ref : Wikipaedia]

Colonel Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut, became in 1961 the first human in space and the first human to orbit the Earth. And thereafter there have been enough progress in space adventures and space technology by the humans, which all of us more or less know.

Next, we find that there have been sufficient progress in medical and biological sciences. The life expectancy have increased and is increasing more and more. Now Medical Science is changing our concept of Old Age. “While many agree that our human life span has an upper agelimit of 120 years, it nowlooks like we may be able to grow older as our bodies may be kept artificially young.”[The End of Aging : Carol Orlock]

Carol has further referred to a process of selective breeding, which may increase the average of life-span of a human being from 150 to 160 years. He says : “In human terms, that would mean an avrage life span of 150 to 160 years —assuming, of course, that any human population would accept the prospect of selective breedingfor 1400 or so years.”

In the language of Ashley Mantagu : The goal of life is to die young — as late as possible.

We have also seen that two of the disciples of Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran and Amalkiran — have lived for more than a century each.

It is not possible here to make an exhaustive list of the changes and progresses made by and occurring to the human society after 1950. But any onlooker will admit that there have many progressive changes and many more will be. And these changes will be there, so that Man can progressively prepare Himself for the
transformation into the New Man, so that the New Race, the Supramental Race may have an advent on earth.

Let us always gratefully remember that all these progressive changes on earth are the result of the Descent of the Supramental Consciouness and the Supramental Manifestation.
The basis of the Supramental Manifestation on earth on 29th February 1956 is the Sacrifice made by Sri Aurobindo on the fateful day, the 5th December 1950.

[Continued]

Barindranath Chaki
9-12-2006

N.B.~
*Amrita or Amrit (Sanskrit: अमृत; Punjabi: ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤ) is, according to Dharmic religions, immortal nectar or ambrosia (of which it is a cognate). It is the drink of the gods, which grants them immortality. In Sanskrit the word amrita literally means "without death", and is often referred to in texts as nectar.
Amrit features in the myth of the Samudra manthan, where the gods, because of a curse from the sage Durvasa, begin to lose their immortality. With the help of the asuras (demons), they churn the sea in order to find the nectar of immortality: amrit. Drinking it, the gods regained their immortality and defeated the demons.[Samudra is sea, and manthan is churning.]
**A new humanity means for us the appearance, the development of a type or race of mental beings whose principle of mentality would be no longer a mind in the Ignorance seeking for knowledge but even in its knowledge bound to the Ignorance, a seeker after Light but not its natural possessor, open to the Light but not an inhabitant of the Light, not yet a perfected instrument, truth-conscious and delivered out of the Ignorance. Instead, it would be possessed already of what could be called a mind of Light, a mind capable of living in the truth, capable of being truth-conscious and manifesting in its life a direct in place of an indirect knowledge. Its mentality would be an instrument of the Light and no longer of the Ignorance. At its highest it would be capable of passing into the Supermind and from the new race would be recruited the race of supramental beings who would appear as the leaders of the evolution in earth-nature. Even, the highest manifestations of a mind of Light would be an instrumentality of the Supermind, a part of it or a projection from it, a stepping beyond humanity into the superhumanity of the supramental principle. [Sri Aurobindo]

Barindranath Chaki
9-12-2006

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# posted by Tusar N Mohapatra : 10:25 AM

The Name of "Sri Aurobindo"

Many well-meaning persons, who are intersted in Sri Aurobindo and The Mother and Their Teachings, refer to Him as Aurobindo. Even I have written to a few persons to refer to Him as Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo has Himself said that His name is Sri Aurobindo, and not Aurobindo.
I am quoting below a letter written by Nolini Kanta Gupta, one of the first disciples of Sri Aurobindo and previously the Secretary of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry :

30 November 1961

Dear little sister,

Mother has shown me the letter you wrote to her about the problem of "Sri" that is troubling you. She wishes me to communicate to you my view of the matter. Well, I shall be frank and forthright. It is an error to think that Sri is only an honorific prefix to Aurobindowhich is the real name. It is not so. Sri does not mean Mr. or Monsieur or Sir, etc. It is part of the name. Sri Aurobindo form one indivisible word. This is the final form Sri Aurobindo himself gave to his name. And I may tell you that the mantric effect resides in that form.

Sri is no more difficult to pronounce than many other Indian or Euro-American syllables. And I think it is not always healthy either to come down to the level of the average European or American under the plea that that is the best way to approach and convert the many. I am afraid it is a vain illusion ; better rather to oblige the average to make an affort to rise up and grapple the truth as it is.

Mother has seen this admonition of mine to you and fully approves of it.

Begging to be excused for perhaps a highbrow tone in my letter, I remain.

Your very sincere and affectionate elder brother

Nolini Kanta Gupta.

***

I hope this letter is sufficient to explain the situation to everyone who has the question in his or her nind whether or not to write or utter Sri Aurobindo.

Barin Chaki
15-11-2006

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# posted by Tusar N Mohapatra in Aurora Mirabilis : 12:05 PM 0 comments links to this post

The Day of Victory

The Day of Victory : 24th November 1926

Sri Aurobindo had a very great Realization on the 26th November 1926. It was declared as the Siddhi Divas, the Day of Victory. The Mother [Mira Alfassa] said in this regard :
The 24th November is called the day of Victory in remembrance of a very important spiritual event which took place in 1926.
In this regard, Sri Aurobindo stated:
It was the descent of Krishna into physical.
Sri Aurobindo further stated in this matter:
Krishna is not the supramental Light. The descent of Krishna would mean the descent of the Overmind Godhead preparing, though not itself actually, the descent of Supermind and Ananda. Krishna is the Anandamaya; he supports the evolution through the Overmind leading it towards the Ananda.
On 24th November 1926, in the evening, Sri Aurobindo emerged from his room and it was seen by the Mother [Mira Alfssa]. She could at once know that ‘something important has happened in the History of the Earth and Universe’. She called for all the sadhaks and asked them to assemble in the upper verandah of the Library House of the Ashram building. By 6 PM, there were all the twenty four Sadhaks assembled there including Barin, Nolini, Champaklal, Amrita, Pavitra, Purani, Datta.
Purani himself describes the event as follows :
“There was a deep silence in the atmosphere after the disciples had gathered there. Many saw an oceanic flood of Light rushing down from above. Everyone present felt a kind of pressure above his head. The whole atmosphere was surcharged with some electrical energy. In that silence ..... the usual, yet on this day unusual, tick was heard behind the door of the entrance. Expectation rose in flood. Sri Aurobindo and The Mother could be seen through the half closed door. The Mother with a gesture of her eyes requested Sri Aurobindo to step out first. Sri Aurobindo with a similar gesture suggested to her to do the same. With a slow dignified step the Mother came out first, followed by Sri Aurobindo with his majestic gait.... The Mother sat on a small stool to his right.Silence absolute, living silence- not merely living but out flowing with divinity. The meditation lasted about forty-five minutes. After that one by one the disciple bowed to the Mother. She and Sri Aurobindo gave blessings to them. Whenever a disciple bowed to the Mother, Sri Aurobindo's right hand came forward behind the Mother's as if blessing him through the Mother. After the blessings, in the same silence there was a short meditation.In the interval of silent meditation and blessings many had distinct experiences... it was certain that a Higher Consciousness had descended on earth...Sri Aurobindo and The Mother went inside. Immediately Datta was inspired. In that silence she spoke:‘The Lord has descended into the physical today.’
Datta evidently spoke in a mood of ecstasy. But what she said has been recorded in different ways by some of those present there.”
In the language of Champaklal, the event is described as follows:
Krishna the Lord has come. He has ended the hell of suffering. He has conquered pain. He has conquered death.He has conquered all.He has descended tonight. Bringing immortality and Bliss.
Rajangam, another disciple, expressed himself in these words:
He has conquered Life. He has conquered Death. He has conquered All. Krishna the Lord has descended.

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I read the following quotation posted on 20th October 2006 by Tusar Mahapatra in his Blog Aurora Mirabilis. The matter was written and originally posted by one Swami Saiexposedananda :

Sri Aurobindo's taking of voluntary retirement
Unsurprisingly, Sai devotees have seized on this as proof of Sai Baba's divinity and identity with God (Krishna) with no exception, given their belief that Sri Aurobindo was referring to the Baba who was supposedly born on the previous day (Nov. 23). The main problem with this idea is that the followers of Aurobindo widely believe that he was referring to the descent of "Krishna consciousness" into himself, being that he had been in a meditative trance for a long while and had emerged out of said trance on November 24 to inform his followers of his revelation. As an interesting aside, Aurobindo largely retired from public interactions from that date onwards and preferred to spend long periods of time in seclusion while communicating with his followers via letters. Incorrigible Sai devotees seize on that too, presenting it as an example of Aurobindo's taking of voluntary retirement after handing the reins over to "God incarnate"!
posted by H.H. Swami Saiexposedananda at 06:35 # posted by Tusar N Mohapatra : 2:16 PM

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I have personally heard and read about this claim made by some devotees of Satya Sai Baba for last three decades and more.

I am quoting one instance below :

All 24 ashramites (a number of Occult Value) without exception experienced, that the Divinity had descended upon the earth in a human form. They felt that, that divine and blessed moment was an event of utmost importance for the entire universe. At that moment, the ashramites un­doubtedly realised that Sri Aurobindo and Mother's faces and bodies were illumined, with inner divine light and beautiful heavenly effulgence and bliss. They had a perceptible glow of divinity and light radiating from them. Kumari Hudson Dutt in ecstatic delight proclaimed loudly, “Today has the Divine descended on the earth." That Supreme Divine Sakthi which had descended is the Almighty Sarva Daivathwa-Swaroopam. (The Form. in which All Forms of All Gods), Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, who was born on 23rd November 1926.*

*[the descent of divine sakthis on the earth ]

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The sense which is normally carried with the word “retirement” is of a life of total rest and ease, with no occupation, no work. If that is the meaning some persons ascribe to Sri Aurobindo’s retirement, then they are committing a foolish mistake. After 24th November 1926, Sri Aurobindo withdrew from the day-to-day contacts with the normal outside world, in order to concentrate on His Work, which He continued till His Departure. That is the most important Work to have been done by anybody on earth till His Departure, and even after His Departure, except by The Mother, as far as known record is concerned.
And the Work is the Descent of the Supermind and the Supramental Manifestation and a definite Progress in the next Evolution. And This is and was the Action of the Divine, what Sri Aurobindo was. That was an Action performed by Him out of utter Love and Compassion for the humanity, for which the mankind will definitely feel more and more grateful to Him, in course of Time, as Time will advance. Regarding this Work, Sri Aurobindo said :
"I am seeking to bring down the Supermind. I care nothing for greatness or littleness in the human sense. I am seeking to bring some principle of inner Truth, Light, Harmony, Peace into the earth-consciousness..."
He began this work virtually soon after He came to Pondicherry. That was the Divine Will. But the fullest concentration He could give to this work only after this event on the Victory Day. The Realization He had, the Consciousness that descended, inspired Him to continue this Work through the name of a Retirement.
This ‘retirement’, did not mean that he kept no information of the external developments. As he told, he "kept a close watch on all that was happening in the world and in India and actively intervened whenever necessary, but solely with a spiritual force and silent spiritual action..." Twice he broke his self-imposed silence on political matters. Once He recommendinged acceptance of the Cripps Proposal, which "provided an opportunity to organize the freedom of India." And then, during the Second World War, He revealed that Hitler represented Titanic forces aiming at destruction of the human civilization, and declared himself to be on the side of the Allies, encouraging India to join the war effort.

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Regarding this matter, I have collected some information from whatever my friend M Alan Kazlev, of the Kheper Home fame, has written on The Date of Sai Baba's Birthday.
“Back in 1982 I was at La Trobe University. I had an eccentric university teacher, by the name Moshe Kroy, and he introduced me to Sai Baba while I introduced him to Sri Aurobindo. He once mentioned a supposed coincidence of dates to me - Sai Baba said (and his devotees and biographers affirmed) that he had been born on 23rd November 1926. This happened to be one day before the date that Sri Aurobindo declared that Krishna had descended into the physical; a day that became known as Siddhi Day and was one of henceforth the four darshan days and the date of founding of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram as well.
The implication being (and of course Moshe accepted this) that Satya Sai Baba was the overmental Krishna that Sri Aurobindo had pulled down to earth (Sai Baba does often identify himself with Krishna). The date is of course off by one day, implying for the first day Sai Baba was non-divine...? A rather bigger problem is that Satya Sai Baba claims to be the reincarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba who prophecied he would return as Sathya. When I mentioned this to Moshe he just said "ah yes, but even Sri Aurobindo is an instrument of the Divine (i.e. of Sai Baba)" implying a totally deterministic descent of the Sai Baba overmind, with poor Sri Aurobindo having no choice in the matter! It sounded incredibly rigid and false to me… If Satya Sai Baba was born one day earlier and moreover did not have a Shirdi before him i think there might be more persuasive. Anyway it was only recently that some of the more sordid facts came out, and it has been persuasively suggested that Sai Baba himself or one of his biographers faked the whole thing.”
Alan refers to one Hari Sampath, who provides a school record. Accordingly, “Saibaba was born on October 4th 1929, as indicated by his school record (various other facts are also different from those of his official biographies, implying that the famous childhood leelas or miracles never took place, or if they did, it wasn't where Sai Baba said they did!)”
The reason for this deception is obvious, as Mr Sampath explains:
If Sai Baba was born on October 4th 1929, as indicated by records, then we are led to question what must have been the motivation for fraudulently choosing the date of November 23rd 1926 specifically. Obviously, it could have been any date, since it was bogus anyway, but the "choice" of the birthday in later years, probably in the late 1940's or early 1950's, must have been prompted by a specific reason which would have been necessary for the "avatar theory" to flourish. It is well known publicly that Sri Aurobindo declared on November 24th 1926 , that "Krishna consciousness had descended into the physical".
All followers of Sri Aurobindo categorically say that he meant the descent of Universal consciousness into himself, while he was still in a physical body, and it was probably true too. But when such a statement was publicly known, and must have been rather well known in South India in the 1940s and 1950s, there is a very strong probability that those promoting the Sai Baba "avatar theory" in the early days, that is close family of Sai Baba, "decided" to have Sai Baba's birthday as November 23rd 1926, in order to capitalize on Aurobindo's statement and provide "proof" that he was referring to Sai Baba's birth!
This seems to be the most logical explanation of the "choice" of the date of birth, and it shows clearly a scheming deceptive pattern, targeted at willful deception and concoted theories. What else needs to be proved about Sai Baba being a fraud?
Lies proved by Sathya Sai Baba's School Record Hari Sampath

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Thus, according to M Alan Kazlev, there are three points for consideration in this matter :
1. Satya Sai Baba is said to have been born on 23rd November, and NOT 24th November.
2. The School Record shows that he was born on 4th October 1929.
3. It is also claimed by him and his followers that he is the Incarnation of Sirdi Sai Baba. If it is true, then it is impossible that he also Sri Krishna at the same time!

In this connection, I may say that Sirdi Sai baba has never claimed that He was Shri Krishna in an earlier birth!
The people, who claim that Sri Aurobindo was referring to the birth of Satya Sai baba in His declaration on the 24th November 1926, should first decide whether Satya Sai baba was the reincarnation of Shri Krishna or of Sirdi Sai Baba!
Of course, Sri Aurobindo was totally silent on the 24th November meeting with the 24 disciples!

I fully agree with Alan on these points. And I conclude that the claim Sri Aurobindo referred to him as the Incarnation of the Overmind consciousness is totally baseless. Sri Aurobindo did never refer to the 23rd day, and never spoke of Satya Sai Baba or about his birth. The Mother, too, spoke nothing about these matters or about these possibilities – the only thing She said is that Sai Baba was a Guru ! If Sai Baba would have been the Avatar of the Cosciousness that descended on the 24th, Si Aurobindo and The Mother would have definitely told about it. It seems that the theory cropped up after Sri Aurobindo’s Departure.
I have nothing to say against Satya Sai Baba. But with due regards to him, I must say that there is no record is there to show Such ideas were ever in his mind and that he ever spoke of attempting any such work for the mankind or the Earth. Had there been any spiritual connection between this Realization and his birth, he would have definitely referred to this Work, if not he would have also participated in this Work of Supramental Descent, Manifestation and Transformation. As many people in India and abroad regard him as an Avatar, I do not think he has any need to depend upon such a reference, such a story or such a proof, as is mentioned sarcastically by Swami Saiexposedananda(!) or in the other reference I have quoted [the descent of divine sakthis on the earth] .

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It is blasphemous to suggest that Sri Aurobindo slipped into inaction and retirement, as the Divine avatar emerged!

TheFuture belongs to Sri Aurobindo !
The Mother declared that Sri Aurobindo was an Avatar of the Divine.
* Sri Aurobindo was a philosopher par excellence, a poet par excellence, a rare and superb visionary of evolution. But that is not the complete truth about Him. Further, He has been described as the Hope of Man. And Satprem, a disciple of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Mira Alfassa, has described Sri Aurobindo as the Adventure of Consciousness. He was not only an Adventurer of Consciousness, but Himself the Adventure. Yes, He was an Explorer of Consciousness, and further, He was also the builder of the New World, basing on the New and a Higher Consciousness, the Supramental Consciousness, a much higher level of Consciousness, which was hitherto unmanifest, and which is discovered by Him. And He has shown us the Way, the Integral Way to the New Realisation, not of realising the Divine Consciousness and merging into It, transcending and leaving the Manifestation, the World and the Universe, forgetting the mankind and its past and present and future. He did not teach us to have Nirvana, or Moksha, or of reaching the Heaven and staying there forever hereafter. He did not ask us to return to the Source, to the Origin. He has given us a Way to discover and manifest and realise our own possibilities, our human and also our superhuman and divine possibilities, step by step. He tells us about transforming our individual existence and also the world, breaking all our personal and egoistic limits, becoming one with our earth, as vast as our earth. To divinise and supramentalise the world was ans is the Task he performed and asked us to perform.
As a philosopher, we find Him to be at the topmost level of Consciousness, denying none of the philosophical truths reached by the earlier philosophers, but by accepting and transcending and integrating them all in a new synthesis into one whole Truth.
As a poet, he shows us the Way to the Future Poetry, and His Poems were expressions of the Truth, which He saw and realised and lived, and which creations of highers planes of mind and Consciousness.
The Mother has said :
” What Sri Aurobindo represents in the world's history is not a teaching, not even a revelation ; it is a decisive action, direct from the Supreme.” *
** [ Quoted from Sri Aurobindo – a book being written by me and being oublished in Zaadz : Barindranath Chaki. ] Posted by Barindranath Chaki


Barin Chaki
21-10-2006
Deepavali

No Religions

The Mother has said that the Age of Religions is over. She and Sri Aurobindo repeatedly proclaimed that Their Teaching is not a Religion, that Their intention was never to form or propagate any religion. With reference to Auroville, She has specifically declared that “Auroville is for those who want to live a life essentially divine but who renounce all religions whether they be ancient, modern, new or future.”

I am quoting below the oft-quoted declaration of the Mother relating to Auroville:

Auroville and the ReligionsWe want the Truth.For most men, it is what they want that they label as truth.The Aurovillians must want the Truth whatever it may be.Auroville is for those who want to live a life essentially divine but who renounce all religions whether they be ancient, modern, new or future.It is only in experience that there can be knowledge of the Truth.No one ought to speak of the Divine unless he has had experience of the Divine.Get experience of the Divine, then alone will you have the right to speak of it.The objective study of religions will be a part of the historical study of the development of human consciousness.Religions make up part of the history of mankind and it is in this guise that they will be studied at Auroville - not as beliefs to which one ought or ought not to adhere, but as part of a process in the development of human consciousness which should lead man towards his superior realization.PROGRAMMEResearch through experience of theSupreme TruthA life divinebutNO RELIGIONSOur research will not be a search effected by mystic means. It is in life itself that we wish to find the Divine. And it is through this discovery that life can really be transformed.

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I have recently read the posting dated October 6, 2006, in Savitri Era, a Blog published by my friend Tusar Mahapatra. :

As he has referred to, the Teaching of Sri Aurobindo may be regarded to be constituting a religion, as per the adjudication by Justice O. Chinnappa Reddy in his famous dissenting judgemnet of 8th November, 1982 in the Auroville Case

[We do not desire to enter into any polemics over Sri Aurobindo's teachings as it is not within the judicial province to do so except to the limited extent of finding out whether his teachings have the necessary spiritual content to qualify as religious doctrine and how his followers understood these teachings...
Sri Aurobindo, of course, disclaimed that he was founding a religion. No great religious teacher ever claimed that he was, founding a new religion or a new school of religious thought. The question is not whether Sri Aurobindo refused to claim or denied that he was founding a new religion or a new school of religious thought but whether his disciples and the community thought so. …
If the followers of Sri Aurobindo constitute a religious nomination as, to my mind, they undoubtedly do, the members of Sri Aurobindo Society are certainly a distinct and identifiable section of the ‘religious denomination’] EXTRACTS FROM THE JUDGEMENT BY JUSTICE O. CHINNAPPA REDDY IN AUROVILLE CASE New Delhi, 8th November, 1982. ¶ 9:44 AM

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Even if JUSTICE O. CHINNAPPA REDDY has opined so, by giving such a dissenting note, it raised several questions in my mind. Should we accept finally the adjudications given by the Honorable Justice Reddy ? Should we then declare that we have formed another religion, like Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, even Hinduism etc? And many other questions came to my mind, especially about the Future of the Teachings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother.

I wanted further details about the Auroville case to answer my questions.

And luckily I found more details in Marketime, another blog published by Tusar.

The completer note given by the Honorable Justice Reddy is given below:

I have the good fortune of having before me the scholarly Judgement of my brother Misra L. I agree with my brother Misra J. t the Writ Petitions must fail. With much that he has said, also, I agree. But with a little, to my own lasting regret, I do not agree. It therefore, proper for me to explain the points of my disagreement. …We do not desire to 'enter into any polemics over Sri Aurobindo's teachings as it is not within the judicial province to do so except to the limited extent of finding out whether his teachings have the necessary spiritual content to qualify as religious doctrine and how his followers understood these teachings... …Sri Aurobindo, of course, disclaimed that he was founding a religion. No great religious teacher ever claimed that he was, founding a new religion or a new school of religious thought. The question is not whether Sri Aurobindo refused to claim or denied that he was founding a new religion or a new school of religious thought but whether his disciples and the community thought so. …
If the followers of Sri Aurobindo constitute a 'religious nomination as, to my mind, they undoubtedly do, the members of Sri Aurobindo Society are certainly a distinct and identifiable section of the ‘religious denomination’… ... But, the question is has the Fundamental Right guaranteed by Art.26 been infringed by the Auroville (Emergency Provisions) Act 1980. We have to notice straightaway that the Act did not take away the management of Sri Aurobindo Society. What it did or purposed to do was "to provide for the taking over, in the public interest, of the management of Auroville for a limited period and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto" . . . ... the question arises whether Auroville is an institution established and maintained for religious and charitable purposes and whether its management of Auroville is 'a matter of religion '.
Auroville is a township and not a place of worship. It is a township dedicated not to the practice and propagation of any religious doctrine but to promote international understanding and world peace, surely, a secular and not a religious activity.... The management of the International, cultural township of Auroville is not, in our opinion, a matter of religion. . . . On the several other questions argued before us I accept the conclusion of Misra J. . The Writ Petitions are accordingly dismissed but in the circumstances there will be no order regarding costs. . J.(0. CHINNAPPA REDDY) New Delhi, 8th November, 1982.

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I will try to understand and analyze the dissenting note given by the Honorable Justice Reddy, with due respects to him.

But his adjudications were not the whole truth. As we know, it was a dissenting note.

The Government of India had set up a probe to enquire into the reports of mismanagement and diversion of govt. funds by Sri Aurobindo Society. Consequently, the society sought minority status from the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court dismissed the petition, mainly on the ground that The Teaching of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother do not form a religion and the Ashram, the Society and Auroville were not religious institutions. The final order and judgment passed by the Honorable Supreme Court were mainly based on the quotations from of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

I am quoting below the conclusive portions from the judgment passed by the Honorable Supreme Court :

“On the basis of the materials placed before us viz., Memorandum of Association of the Society, the several applications made by the Society claiming exemption under s.35 and s.80 of Income-tax Act, the repeated utterings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother that the Society and Auroville were not religious institutions and host of other documents there is no room for doubt that neither the Society nor Auroville constitute a religious denomination and the teachings of Sri Aurobindo only represented his philosophy and not a religion... ...”

In the body of the judgment, there are some quotations from Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. I am placing the relevant portions below:

“In Sri Aurobindo's own words (The Teaching and the Ashram of Sri Aurobindo 1934, p . 6): "The Ashram is not a religious association. Those who are here come from all religions and some are of no religion. There is no creed or set of dogmas, no governing religious body; there are only the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and certain psychological practices of concentration and meditation, etc. for the enlarging of the consciousness, receptivity to the Truth, mastery over the desires, the discovery of the divine self and consciousness concealed within each human being, a higher evolution of the nature."
Sri Aurobindo himself said: "I may say that it is far from my purpose to propagate any religion, new or old."
Sri Aurobindo says again : "We are not a party or a church or religion." Sri Aurobindo exposes: "Churches and creeds have, for example, stood violently in the way of philosophy and science, burned a Giordano Bruno, imprisoned a Galileo, and so generally misconducted themselves in this matter that philosophy and science had in self-defense to turn upon Religion and rend her to pieces in order to get a free field for their legitimate development.”
The Mother said on 19.3.1973: " Here we do not have religion.”
Sri Aurobindo says again: “Yogic methods have something of the same relation to the customary psychological workings of man as has to scientific handling of the natural force of electricity or of steam to the normal operations of steam and of electricity. And the two, are formed upon a knowledge developed and confirmed by regular experiments, a practical analysis and constant results. All methods grouped under the common name of Yoga are special psychological processes grounded on a fixed truth of nature and developing, out of normal functions, powers and results which were always latent but which her ordinary movements do not easily or do not often manifest."

It is pertinent to quote Mother's answer to a question:
"Q. Sweet Mother, what is the difference between Yoga and religion?
Mother's Answer: Ah! My child. It is as though you were asking me the difference between a dog and cat."
There can be no better proof than what Sri Aurobindo and the Mother themselves thought of their teachings and their institutions to find out whether the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and his Integral Yoga constitute a religion or a philosophy. The above utterings from time to time by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother hardly leave any doubt about the nature of the institution.

[Interested readers may some more relevant portions of the Judgment of the Honorable Supreme Court here.]

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It may be seen that Justice Reddy begins his dissenting note with the following words:

“We do not desire to 'enter into any polemics over Sri Aurobindo's teachings as it is not within the judicial province to do so except to the limited extent of finding out whether his teachings have the necessary spiritual content to qualify as religious doctrine and how his followers understood these teachings.”

Though Justice Reddy had given the Note otherwise, the Judgment of the Honorable Supreme Court was that the Teaching of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother do not form any religion. From a perusal of the quotations from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother made in the Judgment, it becomes crystal clear that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother did never mean to propagate or found any religion. Rather, they were fully opposed to the idea. Let me repeat what Sri Aurobindo is quoted to have said: “… philosophy and science had in self-defence to turn upon Religion and rend her to pieces in order to get a free field for their legitimate development.”

Thus, we find that the Honorable Supreme Court has declared the Teaching of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother do not form any religion, or any religious denomination.

And I am thankful also to Justice Reddy who says that he does not “… desire to 'enter into any polemics over Sri Aurobindo's teachings as it is not within the judicial province to do so …”

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So, the Truth is that the Teaching of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother is not a Religion. We, Their followers, need not rejoice and follow the Religion of Sri Aurobindo and Mother very religiously, very devoutly, and begin conflicts with other religions, and remain devoutly stationed and fixed with the new ‘creed’ for another millennium, forgetting the Aim of the Progressive Realisation of the Supramental Transformation, forgetting any real progress as visioned by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

The Mother said on April 29, 1953:

Otherwise [if people sought for the truth], there would be no religion : there would be masters and disciples, people with a higher teaching and an exceptional experience. That would be fine. But as soon as the master is gone, what happens is that the knowledge he gave is turned into a religion. Rigid dogmas are established, religious rules are born, and all you can do is bow before the Table of the Law…. Luckily for all of you [children here], you have no religion. And I hope you will never have any, because that is closing the door on progress.”

Let me quote another note from the Mother on religion :

( A note to a visiting Western woman who wanted to teach in a “religious school.”)

One must not confuse a religious teaching with a spiritual teaching. Religious teaching belongs to the past and arrests progress, while spiritual teaching is the teaching of the future. It enlightens the consciousness and prepares it for the future realization.

Spiritual teaching is above religions and strives towards a total truth. It teaches us to come into direct contact with the Divine.

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On April 29, 1961, the Mother replied to a disciple who asked whether a religion could be founded on Sri Aurobindo’s teachings. She wrote :

“…. Men are such fools that they can change anything at all into a religion, so great is their need for a fixed framework for their narrow thought and limited action. They do not feel secure unless they can affirm, ‘this is true and that is not’. But such an affirmation becomes impossible for anyone who has read and understood what Sri Aurobindo wrote. Religion and yoga are not situated on the same plane of the being, and spiritual life can exist in its purity only if it is free from all mental dogma.”

On April 3, 1957, the Mother stated as follows:

“A new religion would be something not only useless, but harmful. It’s a new life that has to be created ; it’s a new consciousness that has to be expressed. It is something that is beyond intellectual limits and mental formulas. It’s a living truth that must manifest.”

Again, the Mother stated on June 9, 1929 :

“It is often said that, if Jesus came back, he would not be able to recognize what he taught in the forms that have been imposed on it, and if Buddha were to come back and see what has been made of his teaching, he would immediately run back discouraged to Nirvana ! All religions have each the same story to tell. The occasion for its birth is the coming of a great Teacher of the world. He comes and reveals and is the incarnation of a Divine Truth. But men seize upon it, trade upon it, make an almost political organization out of it. The religion is equipped by them with a government and policy and laws, with its creeds and dogmas, its rules and regulations, its rites and ceremonies, all binding upon its adherents, all absolute and inviolable. Like the State, it too administers reward to the loyal and assigns punishments for those that revolt or go astray, for the heretic and the renegade….

This attitude is natural to the religious mind ; but it is just that which makes religion stand in the way of the spiritual life…. When you stop at a religious creed and tie yourself in it, taking it for the only truth in the world, you stop the advance and widening of your inner soul.”

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Let us see what Sri Aurobindo tells us :

“How much stupidity and hatred men succeed in packing up decorously and labeling ‘Religion’ !

The quarrels or religious sects are like the disputing of pots, which shall be alone allowed to hold the immortalizing nectar. Let them dispute, but the thing for us is to get at the nectar in whatever pot and attain immortality.”

Sri Aurobindo further tells us in another occasion :

“… Then again, I don’t believe in advertisement except for books etc., and in propaganda except for politics and patent medicines. But for serious works it is a poison. It means either a stunt or a boom ― and stunts and booms exhaust the thing they carry on their crest and leave it lifeless and broken high and dry on the shores of nowhere ― or it means a movement. A movement in the case of a work like mine means the founding of a school or a sect or some other damned nonsense. It means that hundreds and thousands of useless people join in and corrupt the work or reduce to a pompous farce from which the Truth that was coming down recedes into secrecy and silence. It is what has happened to ‘religions’ and is the reason of their failure…”

Founding a new religion means repeating the same mistake that has happened in connection with all religions on earth ― the Truth that was coming down receded into secrecy and silence, leaving the ‘religions’ nowhere.

He says on August 18, 1935 :

“I may say that it is far from my purpose to propagate any religion, new or old, for humanity in the future. A way to be opened that is still blocked, not a religion to be founded, is my conception of the matter.”

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To found a religion basing on the Teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, or to declare Their Teachings and thought and philosophy as a religion is an act of gross disobedience and deception to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. It is a fall, a failure and a frustration of Their Teaching. It is act of rebellion.

Founding a religion will be creating an obstruction between the seeker and the Truth that is descending.

Let us understand it and stop from disobeying and deceiving Them, from stopping the Truth that is still descending for us.
Let us not stop the Progress.

Let us not forget the Aim, the Purpose : the Supramental Manifestation on Earth. Let us not pull back and stop the March towards the New World, towards the New Horizon.


Barindranath Chaki

09-10-2006

All choice

The Universal Way

Tusar Mahapatra has published on 27-09-2006 a small but important article under the caption "Manibhai’s Razor” in his Blog "Savitri Era". On perusal of the same, I was led to think as follows.

To mix up worship of deities with the prayers and meditations before The Mother and Sri Aurobindo is a distortion. We do not worship The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. They are NOT overmental deities who need to be worshipped by us. They need our following them, NOT for Their satisfactions, but to liberate and transform the Mankind, if not as a whole, by a part. Our way is NOT a religion. The Mother has said that the age of religions is over. It is matter of the past history. We are no more to be fixed at the Old Stations. We are to march forward, leaving the old history behind.

In this connection, it may be said that according to The Mother and Sri Aurobindo, Religion and Dharma are not two identical things. Dharma is universal and nameless. It is the Right Way of Life. Dharma cannot be named.

I am quoting below a message from the Mother [Mira Alfassa] for perusal, understanding and appreciation by all concerned:

A Declaration

[The Mother made the following declaration regarding Sri Aurobindo Ashram.]

We do not fight against any creed, any religion.
We do not fight against any form of Government.
We do not fight against any social class.
We do not fight against any nation or civilization.
We are fighting division, unconsciousness, ignorance, inertia and falsehood.
We are endeavouring to establish upon earth union, knowledge, consciousness, Truth, and we fight whatever opposes the advent of this new creation of Light, Peace, Truth and Love.

16 February 1965

I am also placing below what the Mother [Mira Alfassa] wrote on the subject of Religion:

Auroville and the Religions

We want the Truth.
For most men, it is what they want that they label as truth.
The Aurovillians must want the Truth whatever it may be.
Auroville is for those who want to live a life essentially divine but who renounce all religions whether they be ancient, modern, new or future.
It is only in experience that there can be knowledge of the Truth.
No one ought to speak of the Divine unless he has had experience of the Divine.
Get experience of the Divine, then alone will you have the right to speak of it.
The objective study of religions will be a part of the historical study of the development of human consciousness.
Religions make up part of the history of mankind and it is in this guise that they will be studied at Auroville - not as beliefs to which one ought or ought not to adhere, but as part of a process in the development of human consciousness which should lead man towards his superior realization.

PROGRAMME

Research through experience of the
Supreme Truth
A life divine
but
NO RELIGIONS
Our research will not be a search effected by mystic means. It is in life itself that we wish to find the Divine. And it is through this discovery that life can really be transformed.

***

Whatever is true of Auroville, is true of all of us who follow The Mother and Sri Aurobindo.

If someone says that Savitri is a religion, it may not be proper. The Mother and Sri Aurobindo have said that They were not here to create another religion. To respect Them in the True Way, we should leave back all the past habits in this regard and cross all limits and divisions of the past mentalities.

Religions and Politics will not lead us anywhere, excepting to doom and destruction. History all over the world is a witness to this.

Let us, the followers of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo, not create another religion, against Their Will and spoil the entire Adventure.

Barin
27-09-2006

On the Way

Sri Aurobindo is Himself the Adventure of Consciousness, as described by Satprem, a disciple. And if one aspires and endeavours to follow the Light and the Words of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother [Mira Alfassa] and is inspired by Them and walks through the Way trodden by Them, beginning from adolescence, one has to grow up as a sort of adventurer of Consciousness, a seeker of Truth. And this is not a blind faith. This is an Understanding, a Light that comes from above and grows within, more and more intuitively and yet satisfying all claims Reason, even surpassing the limits of Reason, the failures and falls of Reason. With all humility, I say that from my adolescence I endeavoured for understanding and following Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, not as a religion, not as any worship or puja, not as a dogma, not as a way of creating another group or any group, but as a clear and open Truth, universal and worldwide and limitless, accepting and acceptable to all human beings on earth for surpassing all their imperfections and limitations, for surpassing all difficulties and deficiencies, all divisions and darkness and death. And on the Way I met some others. And we walked together, often. The aim of the Adventure, the journey through the Unknown and the New was and is to reach The New Horizon, The New World, the Eternal Dawn of the Supramental World. We the human beings have to evolve into a New Race, surpassing all our human and animal limitations and imperfections and inconscience and ignorance and incapacities.

I have a dream, a dream of marching, along with others, towards The New Horizon, The New World. And I request all others to march towards The New Horizon, The New World. Hence, let us collect all that is golden in our harvest so far, since the beginning of the human journey, and march towards The New Horizon. It is not that we will leave this world and go elsewhere to find another planet in search of the New World. Nor should we become recluses. We need not retire into some forests or mountains. We will change this world. We can see that this world, as it is now, is in an extremely bad state of affairs. Falsehood, hatred, selfishness, corruption, greed, deception, violence, cruelty, inhumanity, and hunger for power - these appear to be the ruling forces now. All the noble Ideals or Ideas that prevailed on earth and inspired many of our noble ancients or our forefathers, have, as it were, become obsolete. Look at history and the present day earth: ideologically, and in consciousness, men seem to have become pygmies. The entire human society is sitting on a heap of bombs - atomic or non-atomic. In relationships, we can no more find beauty and love and fellow feeling. In Arts and culture, vulgarity has almost replaced beauty. In the name of religion, the people fight each other, and they are taking themselves farther away from the Divine, from spirituality. You may live for a definite purpose, a purpose higher than ordinary, which will bring you more fulfilments, more joy. The higher your purpose, the greater is the joy and fulfilment. The higher the Consciousness you aspire for, and the wider your consciousness, the more purposeful your life becomes, the greater is your joy. We may orient our endeavor, our way of life, towards limited personal happiness and satisfaction, or towards a greater and wider Joy and fulfilment, along with others, for others, maybe with the whole of mankind, for the entire mankind, for higher values of Truth, Light, Wisdom, Beauty, Creativity, Goodness, Love, Wideness, Harmony and Peace, Total Well-being. Our journey is towards the next evolution.

And Sri Aurobindo is The Leader of the next evolution.

He was the first Person to know and declare that the humanity must go beyond itself, that Man has to evolve beyond himself towards supermanhood, towards becoming supramental beings. That is the Will of the Supreme, that is the design of Nature, of what He has termed as Supernature.

Sri Aurobindo has said :

Our evolution in the Ignorance with its checkered joy and pain of self-discovery and world-discovery, its half fulfilments, its constant finding and missing, is only our first state. It must lead inevitably towards an evolution in the Knowledge, a self finding and self-unfolding of the Spirit, a self-revelation of the Divinity in things in that true power of itself in Nature which is to us still a Supernature.

The Mother has said :

A new consciousness is at work upon earth to prepare the coming of the superhuman being.Open yourself to this consciousness if you aspire to serve the Divine Work.To come into contact with this new consciousness, the essential condition is no longer to have any desires and to be wholly sincere.

Further, She has also said:

To leap into the new consciousness, the first condition is a mental modesty sufficient to be convinced that all one thinks one knows is nothing in comparison with what remains to be learned. All that one has learned externally must be only a foothold enabling one to rise towards higher knowledge.

Hence, we aspire for and dream of marching towards The New Horizon, The New World. With this dream, with these ideas and aspirations and hopes, this website is created, which I name The New Horizon. My idea is not only to dream or be a visionary, but to spread my dream, my vision, my consciousness, my aspiration, along with the bases of my philosophical and spiritual understanding, throughout the people around the world, through my Blogs and Websites. I hope the Light and Teaching of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother will inspire the people and change their attitude and approach, so that a Society can grow and march towards The New Horizon, The New World.

There is no narrowness here. It is open to all other thinkers and Seers and spiritual Leaders of the Past and the Present and even of the Future who seek to change this world from darkness to Light, from falsehood to Truth, from death to Immortality. Not only the Dream, but also the required Action will be dealt with in these pages.

I will express myself though arts and poetry, through philosophical, intellectual and spiritual deliberations.

You are invited and welcome to join or visit this place as a valuable and valued member or guest, in order to walk along towards The New Horizon.

Barin
24-09-2006

[This posting is published in my new Blog Barin Chaki and also simultaneously published by me in The New Vision. Barin ]

Vande Mataram

Vande Mataram
Swapan Dasgupta has written an article titled ‘Freedom Song’ on ‘Vande Mataram’ with profound historical information and ideological depth. I appreciate the article. But there are certain points, which I want to refer to.
To begin with, let me quote Swapan Dasgupta, from his article:
The voluble Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid pronounced Vande Mataram to be against ‘‘Islamic beliefs’’. Echoing his opposition, S Q R Ilyas, the spokesman of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board — a body that has positioned itself as the arbiter of Muslim interests in India — ruled that ‘‘Muslims can’t sing the song’’. His reason:‘‘we love the country but don’t worship (it). The song talks about worshipping, as in idol worship, which is against the fundamental ethos of Islam. It is a very sensitive issue for Muslims, so they can’t be asked to do this even for a single day.”
Vande Mataram does not mean any idol worship, as said by SQR Ilyas. Sri Aurobindo translates it as ‘Mother, I salute to thee !’ To regard the country as a Mother is not to make any idol. The country as such is a Mother. As I donot think that the Muslims do not salute anybody, that too, the mother. Is not Quoornish a salute? And that was in practice among the Muslims for more than a thousand year. Saluting the Mother has nothing to do with an idol worship. So, to say that the utterance of Vande Mataram is an Idol worship is a false allegation and a false interpretation. And therefore that cannot be a reason for the fanatics not to utter the words or sing the song. It is sheer fanaticism.
Secondly, Michel Danino has rightly pointed out about the muslims joining the in the 1905 agitations in Bengal against the partition. Muslims at that time demonstrated along with Hindus, “singing Vande Mataram together in the streets.” It is later that the fanatics spoiled the entire atmosphere. And Jinnah added his venom in the process of later developments.
What Arjun Singh has done in this regard speaks of the courage and character of the present day politicians in India. The present controversy over Vande Mataram is caused by the down-gradation of our national political character. The present-day political leaders have grown morally and ideally much poorer and spineless and to a great extent unpatriotic, having lost all historical sense.
I feel it necessary to quote below the translation of Vande Mataram by Sri Aurobindo, the Person who gave life and force to this Song, creating an unforgettable chapter in the history of the Indian freedom movement, distinct and different from that of Gandhi and Nehru.

Mother, I salute to thee!
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
bright with orchard gleams,
Cool with thy winds of delight,
Green fields waving
Mother of might,Mother free.
Glory of moonlight dreams,
Over thy branches and lordly streams,
Clad in thy blossoming trees,
Mother, giver of ease
Laughing low and sweet!
Mother I kiss thy feet,
Speaker sweet and low!
Mother, to thee I bow.
Who hath said thou art weak in thy lands
When swords flash out in seventy million hands
And seventy million voices roar
Thy dreadful name from shore to shore?
With many strengths who art mighty and stored,
To thee I call Mother and Lord!
Thou who saves, arise and save!
To her I cry who ever her foe drove
Back from plain and sea
And shook herself free.
Thou art wisdom, thou art law,
Thou art heart, our soul, our breath
Though art love divine, the awe
In our hearts that conquers death.
Thine the strength that nerves the arm,
Thine the beauty, thine the charm.
Every image made divine
In our temples is but thine.
***
From a translation of
Vande Mataram by
Sri Aurobindo

** [Swapan Dasgupta could have mentioned that in the 1905 agitations in Bengal against the partition, Muslims did demonstrate along with Hindus, singing Vande Mataram together in the streets. It is later on that fanatics in their community started raising objections. Michel (ifih)]

Barindranath Chaki
22-09-2006

The Leaders of the Next Future

The Mother and Sri Aurobindo

A few days back, I read in Auroramirabilis, a blog published by Tusar N Mohapatra, some quotations from some authors like Makarand Paranjape, Peter Heeh, and Mukul Kesavan. As I was traveling in various parts of West Bengal, I could not immediately find time and scope to write down the reply thereof. But I felt that I should reply at once. I had to wait till my return to Bhubaneswar.
As stated by Tusar N Mohapatra, irreverence to great men is seen as a short route to glory. He is justified. But I find that the situation attracts another truth, which is inherent in the story of the elephant and the dogs.
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother were and are great human beings. No doubt. But they are the most unique and the most incomparable ones among the hundreds and thousands of great men and women. They are the tallest monuments. They are indeed much more than great human beings. They seem to me to be like the sky. If one spits at the Sky, it is well known what happens.
The Past and the Present of the humankind may fail to recognize Them, may only accept Them as great people, great saints and remain pleased and satisfied, but to the Seer, to the Visionary, They are the Leaders of the next future.

Let us begin with Paranjape. He has written: “In time, a whole set of beliefs and rituals began to be built up around Sri Aurobindo and more so, around The Mother.” This is sheer ignorance! There were no rituals around Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Never. The Mother has rather broken all rituals. There was / is no puja, no worship, no ritual, no self-deceit. And regarding beliefs, it can be said that people from all over the world gathered around Them, not due to any set of beliefs, but they were attracted towards Them due to Their Presence and Their Personality, due to the Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and the spiritual experimentations done by both of Them. And among the people around Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, we find Nalini Kanta Gupta, K D Sethna, Dr. Nirodbaran, Indra Sen, Haridas Chowdhury, TV Kapali Shastry, M P Pandit, K M Mushi, R R Diwakar, A B Purani, K R Srinivasa Iyenger, Huta, Navajata, Udar, Karan Singh, Dr. Malcolm Adiseshia and many others. And among the people from outside India, we find Satprem, Datta, Judith Tyberg, Morwenna Donnelly, Roger Anger, Sir Robert Bristow, Frederic Spielberg and many others. I have no time and no space to introduce each of them to Paranjape. Each of them was personalities of worth, with sufficient philosophical and intellectual depth. To know each of them, Paranjape should have read them. He would have then known they were not the people who would have been swayed by wrong beliefs and meaningless rituals. How and why they were convinced of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother can be known by a person, if he or she is sincere enough in his or her quest. Millions of people are there on earth today who understand and know the contents in Their Teaching and are inspired by the same.

I am quoting Professor Jean Herbert, previously of the University of Geneva, who has written:
“Even those most allergic to anything that smells of mysticism … must acknowledge Sri Aurobindo as one of the greatest men, not only of our age, but of all ages. His all-embracing, crystal clear and profound philosophy is assuredly a contribution to human thought, vision and progress which ranks that of Plato, Kant, Bergson or Goethe … the findings of Sri Aurobindo which we have no means of verifying at our level of experience actually supply all the consistency which strikes us in the explanation given by Sri Aurobindo for facts which we do know, an all-embracing consistency, the equivalent of which does not seem to have attain even by any other known thinker…
“Now thousands who had Sri Aurobindo’s darsan could not help believing that they were face to face with a great saint and sage…His look very clearly had in it something superhuman, which might be said to put it as far above the human look as the latter is above the look of a dog or a cat…” [Pioneer of the Supramental Age]

Also I wish to quote Prof Frederic Spigelberg, previously of the Stanford University, California, USA :
“…I have never known a philosopher so embracing in his metaphysical structure as Sri Aurobindo, none before him had the same vision…“I can foresee the day when the teachings which are already making headway of the greatest spiritual voice in India, Sri Aurobindo, will be known all over America and be a vast power of illumination…”

I may go on quoting, but to make the presentation short and limited and to the point, I must say that following Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is not any blind faith or belief, as Paranjape has imagined because of his ignorance and lack of depth in the matter.

Paranjape has further said : “The death of each of them caused dismay and disappointment among large sections of the faithful.” Sorry, again ignorance and unintelligent imagination and belief on the part of Paranjape. There was never any dismay or disappointment, though there was sadness and sorrow and grief, which is but natural. Had there been any dismay and disappointment, now the following Sri Aurobindo and The Mother would have come to insignificance, which is not the case. Still, the following is growing larger and larger.

In this connection let me quote Dara [Aga Syed Ibrahim], a disciple :
I found myself in Sri Aurobindo’s own room by the side of his cot. He seemed so peaceful and happy, and the flesh shone with a new luster which I had failed to seat the darsan time on 24th November. Why could I not see it before?... I could not take my eyes off his face and arms. It seemed to me he was alive. It was certain that he was in a condition of deep and upward soaring trance just then." [My Last Darshan of Sri Aurobindo]
Sri Aurobindo’s life was an experiment. What he taught was not a matter of ‘belief ‘ about which Paranjape is speaking, a sort of belief which is built up of distrust and disbelief, which is fragile and which is of no value, as it is likely to be broken at the slightest excuse. The children of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother throughout the world do not have such belief, furthermore because Their Teaching is based on a Science, a Science of Existence, a Philosophy about which the greatest scholars, thinkers and even scientists of worldwide fame have spoken. He has been accepted as the greatest of Philosophers and Teachers, by many great men, not by a bunch of believers whose belief is no belief, as imagined and spoken of by Paranjape. Paranjape has referred to the Ashram community. Sri Aurobindo and The Mother are not and never limited to the Ashram. They are followed by millions throughout the world. And does Paranjape know about the ashramites? About the Ashram? It is not an Ashram of the inactive recluses. It is one of the most visited Ashram in the world. On the 6th December 1950, more than 60000 persons visited Sri Aurobindo. Is it possible that 60000 people were befooled on the Day, when the Master passed away?
The passing away of the Master and of the Mother cannot be understood by the persons who live in a surface depthless mentality and believe in fragile beliefs. And to explain these phenomena, I do not have the space here, I may repeat again. But later on soon, I will write about Their departure surely, at least for casting away the darkness brought about by the disrespect and calumny and blasphemy by someone who has no knowledge of Them or Their Teaching.

Paranjape again says: “Besides, a whole theology began to be developed, especially because of the extensive records of what Sri Aurobindo and The Mother had said…This theology not only asserts the Avatarhood or Divine Incarnation of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, but builds around them a special cult of worship and devotion…”

There is no theology about Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. There is a clear-cut philosophy, about which Herbert said : “the findings of Sri Aurobindo which we have no means of verifying at our level of experience actually supply all the consistency which strikes us in the explanation given by Sri Aurobindo for facts which we do know, an all-embracing consistency, the equivalent of which does not seem to have attain even by any other known thinker…” I am repeating this quotation, only to emphasize the point. Herbert states that Sri Aurobindo was / is the most consistent thinker.

I am repeating Spigelberg, who has said :“I have never known a philosopher so embracing in his metaphysical structure as Sri Aurobindo, none before him had the same vision.”And there is no cult of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, no religion. According to the Mother, the Integral Yogi who seeks supramental transformation has no religion, no cult. Let us see what the Mother said in this matter.

I am placing below what the Mother [Mira Alfassa] wrote on the subject :

Auroville and the Religions

We want the Truth.
For most men, it is what they want that they label as truth.
The Aurovillians must want the Truth whatever it may be.
Auroville is for those who want to live a life essentially divine but who renounce all religions whether they be ancient, modern, new or future.
It is only in experience that there can be knowledge of the Truth.
No one ought to speak of the Divine unless he has had experience of the Divine.
Get experience of the Divine, then alone will you have the right to speak of it.
The objective study of religions will be a part of the historical study of the development of human consciousness.
Religions make up part of the history of mankind and it is in this guise that they will be studied at Auroville - not as beliefs to which one ought or ought not to adhere, but as part of a process in the development of human consciousness which should lead man towards his superior realization.

PROGRAMME

Research through experience of theSupreme Truth
A life divine
but
NO RELIGIONS
Our research will not be a search effected by mystic means. It is in life itself that we wish to find the Divine. And it is through this discovery that life can really be transformed.

2 May 1970

So where do you find the theology and cult and fragile baseless so-called belief of which Paranjape has the nightmare?
Again Paranjape says:“It needs to be acknowledged that though both Sri Aurobindo and The Mother repeatedly warned against the creation of a cult around them, they themselves encouraged it in several ways. Sri Aurobindo himself deified The Mother and vice versa.”

What a blasphemy! Can Paranjape prove by quoting any sayings or writings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother that they encouraged creation of a cult? Can he prove that They encouraged it? This is a challenge to him.

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother told the Truth about each other. They had to open other’s eyes. They told the Truth. Should they have spoken otherwise or suppressed Truth to please the people like Paranjape? Can Paranjape deify himself or any other person?Falsehood cannot convince millions for decades after decades.

[Continued]

Barin
03-09-2006

[This is also published by me as The Mother and Sri Aurobindo in my blog The New Vision , and by Tusar N Mohapatra asThey are the Leaders of the Next Future in his blog Savitri Era Learning Forum. I convey my thanks to him.]

All choice

Sri Aurobindo has said : All life is Yoga.

According to him, "In the right view both of life and Yoga all life is either consciously and subconsciously a Yoga." [The Synthesis of Yoga]

He has said that all lfe is "a vast Yoga of Nature", whereby She endeavours to attain more and more of perfection in Her expression and creativity and in the Manifestation of what is already involved in Her by the Will of the Supreme. In fact, the Supreme, the Divine, the One Existence-Consciousness-Bliss has involved Himself in the Nature ~ who is indeed the Face of the Supernature, The Supreme Creative Force.

According to Sri Aurobindo, Yoga can very well be considered and thought of as "the means of compressing one's evolution into a single life or a few yearsor even a few months of bodily existence."

The aim of this Blog is presenting the Way of this compressing of one's evolution towards the Goal: Perfection.

We will see what is the Way and the Goal, what is the Choice.

Barin
01-09-2006