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