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