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Sunday, September 23, 2012

Thoughts and Aphorisms 37



Thoughts and Aphorisms 37

37. Some say Krishna never lived, he is a myth. They mean on earth; for if Brindavun existed nowhere, the Bhagwat could not have been written.
[Sri Aurobindo: Thoughts and Aphorisms]

Some say that Sri Krishna never lived. Sri Aurobindo says that they stated about Sri Krishna’s existence on earth. However, He also said that if Brindavun existed nowhere, then Srimad Bhagavat could not have been written. Certainly, He is referring to existence beyond the earth, beyond the physical level, in the inner worlds. Therefore, the existence of Brindavun and of Sri Krishna in some inner world is a must, besides their possible existence on earth.

The Mother has explained this by saying that the whole earth and whatever exists on earth is a concentrated manifestation, a representation of something that exists in some other inner worlds, invisible to the ordinary human or material eye. There are a few persons — the Seers — who are developed in their vision and can see beyond the worlds of Matter, who have developed the inner vision of things beyond the physical eye of the ordinary human beings. These seers are capable of seeing and knowing beyond the capacities of the ordinary human mind and senses and can see the realities in the Higher and the Inner worlds. And in the Worlds of gods — in the plane of the Overmind — there exists and ideal and harmonious Brindavun, of which the earthly Brindavun is but a deformation.

She further says that the writer or the writers of  Bhagavat had been in contact with the whole inner world, a world that is truly real and existent, where the original Brindavun exists.
According to The Mother, the question whether Sri Krishna physically existed in a human form on earth is a matter of lesser importance than the fact that Sri Krishna is a real and active Being who exists for ever and who has a great contribution for the growth and transformation of this earth.

***

However, Sri Aurobindo has said in The Essays on The Gita’ that Sri Krishna was an Avatar, ‘a dual phenomenon of divinity and humanity’ born on earth to act as the instrument of the divine consciousness and power and the divine works.

Sri Aurobindo has said: 

‘The Avatar is always a dual phenomenon of divinity and humanity; the Divine takes upon himself the human nature with all its outward limitations and makes them the circumstances, means, instruments of the divine consciousness and the divine power, a vessel of the divine birth and the divine works. But so surely it must be, since otherwise the object of the Avatar’s descent is not fulfilled; for that object is precisely to show that the human birth with all its limitations can be made such a means and instrument of the divine birth and divine works, precisely to show that the human type of consciousness can be compatible with the divine essence of consciousness made manifest, can be converted into its vessel, drawn into nearer conformity with it by a change of its mould and a heightening of its powers of light and love and strength and purity; and to show also how it can be done. If the Avatar were to act in an entirely supernormal fashion, this object would not be fulfilled.’  [Essays on The Gita, Ch.XVI]

Sri Aurobindo further says: 

‘He [Sri Krishna] speaks as yet not at all in set terms of the Purushottama, but of himself,—“I”, Krishna, Narayana, the Avatar, the God in man who is also the Lord in the universe incarnated in the figure of the divine charioteer of Kurukshetra.’ [Essays on The Gita, Ch.XIV]


Sri Aurobindo has even said that Sri Krishna is one of the Ten Avatrs, who have led the Evolution on earth:

‘The Hindu procession of the ten Avatars is itself, as it were, a parable of evolution. First the Fish Avatar, then the amphibious animal between land and water, then the land animal, then the Man-Lion Avatar, bridging man and animal, then man as dwarf, small and undeveloped and physical but containing in himself the godhead and taking possession of existence, then the rajasic, sattwic, nirguna Avatars, leading the human development from the vital rajasic to the sattwic mental man and again the overmental superman. Krishna, Buddha and Kalki depict the last three stages, the stages of the spiritual development – Krishna opens the possibility of overmind, Buddha tries to shoot beyond to the supreme liberation but that liberation is still negative, not returning upon earth to complete positively the evolution; Kalki is to correct this by bringing the Kingdom of the Divine upon earth, destroying the opposing Asura forces. The progression is striking and unmistakable.’ [Letters on Yoga, p402]

Sri Aurobindo  further defines an Avatar:

‘An Avatar, roughly speaking, is one who is conscious of the presence and power of the Divine born in him or descended into him and governing from within his will and life and action; he feels identified inwardly with this divine power and presence.’  [Letters on Yoga, p416]

Sri Aurobindo says that an Avatar is the Supreme Divine born as a human being in the earthly conditions in order to bring some positive change and evolutionary progress for Man towards the Divine, and therefore it is ascertained that Sri Krishna was born on earth as an Avatar:

‘But it is to assist that ascent or evolution the descent is made or accepted; that the Gita makes very clear. It is, we might say, to exemplify the possibility of the Divine manifest in the human being, so that man may see what that is and take courage to grow into it. It is also to leave the influence of that manifestation vibrating in the earth-nature and the soul of that manifestation presiding over its upward endeavour. It is to give a spiritual mould of divine manhood into which the seeking soul of the human being can cast itself. It is to give a dharma, a religion, – not a mere creed, but a method of inner and outer living, – a way, a rule and law of self-moulding by which he can grow towards divinity. It is too, since this growth, this ascent is no mere isolated and individual phenomenon, but like all in the divine world-activities a collective business, a work and the work for the race, to assist the human march, to hold it together in its great crises, to break the forces of the downward gravitation when they grow too insistent, to uphold or restore the great dharma of the Godward law in man's nature, to prepare even, however far off, the kingdom of God, the victory of the seekers of light and perfection, sādhūunām, and the  overthrow of those who fight for the continuance of the evil and the darkness. All these are recognised objects of the descent of the Avatar, and it is usually by his work that the mass of men seek to distinguish him and for that that they are ready to worship him. It is only the spiritual who see that this external Avatarhood is a sign, in the symbol of a human life, of the eternal inner Godhead making himself manifest in the field of their own human mentality and corporeality so that they can grow into unity with that and be possessed by it. The divine manifestation of a Christ, Krishna, Buddha in external humanity has for its inner truth the same manifestation of the eternal Avatar within in our own inner humanity. That which has been done in the outer human life of earth, may berepeated in the inner life of all human beings’. [Essays on The Gita Page 150 ]

***

Now we can see that archaeological discoveries in India has further established the Fact Sri Krishna was born in India, as described in Mahabharat.

The city of Dwaraka, the site of the legendary city of Lord Krishna, was discovered between 1983 to 1990. It was extending more than half a mile from the shore. The township was built in six sectors along the banks of a river. The foundation of boulders on which the city's walls were erected proves that the land was reclaimed from the sea. The general layout of the city of Dwaraka described in ancient texts agrees with that of the discovered city now submerged. Dwaraka was submerged by the sea right after the death of Lord Krishna.  According to the discoveries, Dwaraka was a prosperous city in ancient times, which was destroyed and reconstructed several times. These archaeological explorations support and validate the dates arrived at through astronomical calculations. They also prove that Dwaraka, a prosperous port city, was in existence in the 15th century B.C. before being submerged under the sea in the year 1443 B.C. The discovery of the legendary city of Dwaraka, said to have been founded by Sri Krishna, is an important landmark in the history of India. It has silenced the questions raised by some historians about the historicity of Mahabharata and the very existence of Dwaraka city. It has also greatly filled up the gap in the Indian history by establishing the continuity of Indian civilization from the Vedic age to the present day.

Excavations at Dwaraka, done by Dr. S. R. Rao, a great archaeologist of India. prove that the descriptions as found in the ancient texts of Mahabharata etc. are not imaginary or fanciful but are based on actualities as seen by their authors.

Barindranath Chaki

Written and posted on 23-9-2012.


 

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Thoughts and Aphorisms 35-36



Thoughts and Aphorisms 35-36

35. Men are still in love with grief; when they see one who is too high for grief or joy, they curse him and cry, "O thou insensible!" Therefore Christ still hangs on the cross in Jerusalem.
36. Men are in love with sin; when they see one who is too high for vice or virtue, they curse him and cry, "O thou breaker of bonds, thou wicked and immoral one!" Therefore Sri Krishna does not live as yet in Brindavun.
 [Sri Aurobindo: Thoughts and Aphorisms]

Jesus Christ was/is the Avatar of God — the Supreme Divine — the Son of God. His message to the mankind was of brotherhood, love and peace. And yet, he was subjected, by some humans, to a bloody and painful crucifixion. That was the painful price he had to pay for his Teaching to the humanity.

And the humanity remembers him today in the symbol of the cross, keeping him for ever in the painful memory. The people remember Jesus and his Teaching through the cross. That is because men have not been able to raise themselves above pain and sufferings and the related level of consciousness. As Sri Aurobindo says, “men are still in love with grief”.

Ideally, Man should be a seeker of the Higher Consciousness, the Divine Consciousness, realize the Supreme as the Sachchidananda, Sat-Chit-Ananda, Existence –Cosciousness-Bliss and live in constant Joy, Bliss, Ananda.

And also men are still in love with sin. Sri Krishna has given us, the humanity, the  Gita — Srimadbhagavadgita —and that is the practical philosophy and teaching given to Man, showing him the Way how he should live his life , above all dualities — including virtue and vice — and above the lower and ignorant movements of consciousness.

Individually and collectively, Sri Krishna fought against the evil forces on earth. As The Mother says, Sri Krishna came upon earth to bring, for the mankind, freedom and delight. He taught us, the humana, how to take refuge in the Supreme Divine, so that we will be free from all bondage and sin.

And yet some men call Sri Krishna wicked and immoral. That shows how hoew imperfect can be the human receptivity and preparation and progress.

And as Sri Aurobindo says, Sri Krishna does not yet live in Brindavan, where he lived during his childhood. And he never returned to Brindavan during his lifetime, as found in the Mahabharata and the Bhagavata. After his passing away, his consciousness and force was no more felt even by Arjuna.

However, we find that the Consciousness and Force of Sri Krishna descended on earth on 24th November 1926, on the Siddhi day, as declared by Sri Aurobindo Himself. The ‘Siddhi’ that took place on that day was a decisive stage in Sri Aurobindo’s advancement in Yoga towards the Supramental Realiztion and Manifestation, which till then was a possibility and the Goal of the Supramental Descent was yet to be realized on earth. The Siddhi realized on earth and termed by Sri Aurobindo as ‘the descent of Krishna into the physical’ was otherwise described by Him as the Descent of the Overmind on earth. The Overmind is just below the level of the Supermind. The plane of Overmind is the world od the gods. Descent of the Overmental Consciousness and Force on 24th November 2012 was in Sri Aurobindo and through Him on earth. That was/is the return of Sri Krishna’s Consciousness on earth.


  
Barindranath Chaki

Written on 13-9-2012,
Posted on 17-9-2012.





Thursday, September 13, 2012

Thoughts and Aphorisms 34



Thoughts and Aphorisms 34

34. O Misfortune, blessed be thou; for through thee I have seen the face of my Lover.
[Sri Aurobindo: Thoughts and Aphorisms]

When something happens which is unexpected, unwanted, undesired and un-hoped for, and which does not add to our material benefit or vital pleasure or to our egoistic satisfaction and advantage, in our common human ignorance, it is called misfortune.

The Mother has said:
“When things happen which are not what we expect, what we hope for, what we want, which are contrary to our desires, in our ignorance we call them misfortunes and lament.”

However, we may observe the deeper and further consequences of the unwanted events and we find that they have led us more towards the Divine Realization. And we may also see that when Man continues to be in what he called a fortunate life, he is then not on the Way towards the Divine, but he is passing away and wasting his time in easy and pleasant activities and enjoyments and circumstances, often leading him towards a life having no progress to our real Goal : the Divine Realization and the Supramental Manifestation. We may be materially and vitally engrossed in a so-called fortunate life, and we continue to be in Ignorance without any Progress to the Higher Realization.

When Man has the Realization of the Divine, he goes above the dualities like ‘fortune’ and ‘misfortune’ etc — as he surpasses the then the mental limits. Sri Aurobindo has discussed about this in The Synthesis of Yoga.

Sri Aurobindo says:

“When this liberation of the nature comes, there is a liberation also of all the spiritual sense of the dualities of Nature. In the lower nature the dualities are the inevitable effect of the play of the gunas on the soul affected by the formations of the sattwic, rajasic and tamasic ego. The knot of this duality is an ignorance which is unable to seize on the spiritual truth of things and concentrates on the imperfect appearances, but meets them not with a mastery of their inner truth, but with a strife and a shifting balance of attraction and repulsion, capacity and incapacity, liking and disliking, pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, acceptance and repugnance; all life is represented to us as a tangle of these things, of the pleasant and the unpleasant, the beautiful and the unbeautiful, truth and falsehood, fortune and misfortune, success and failure, good and evil, the inextricable double web of Nature. Attachment to its likings and repugnances keeps the soul bound in this web of good and evil, joys and sorrows. The seeker of liberation gets rid of attachment, throws away from his soul the dualities, but as the dualities appear to be the whole act, stuff and frame of life, this release would seem to be most easily compassed by a withdrawal from life, whether a physical withdrawal, so far as that is possible while in the body, or an inner retirement, a refusal of sanction, a liberating distaste, vairāgya, for the whole action of Nature. There is a separation of the soul from Nature. Then the soul watches seated above  and unmoved, udāsīna, the strife of the gunas in the natural being and regards as an impassive witness the pleasure and pain of the mind and body. Or it is able to impose its indifference even on the outer mind and watches with the impartial calm or the impartial joy of the detached spectator the universal action in which it has no longer an active inner participation.”
  
[Sri Aurobindo: Synthesis of Yoga]


  
Barindranath Chaki

Written on 7-9-2012,
Posted on 13-9-2012.



Thoughts and Aphorisms 33



Thoughts and Aphorisms 33

33. O Thou that lovest, strike! If Thou strike me not now, I shall know that Thou lov'st me not.
[Sri Aurobindo: Thoughts and Aphorisms]

This is the prayer that the Seeker makes before the Divine to strike harder and harder so that all the hindrances and obstructions between the Seeker and the Divine are broken and removed ant he journey towards the Realization is more and more progressive and unhindered.

According to Sri Aurobindo, Man is a transitional being. The earthly Nature has been evolving as per the Divine Will. Nature has evolved and Man has come into being. That is as per the Will of God. But the manifestation of Man is not the last word of Evolution. Man has to evolve further and on earth, there has to be the Manifestation of the Supramental Being.

That is the Task, and time has come now, as The Mother has said. Man has to take up this Task of the Supramental Becoming. All men may not be, and are not, aiming and aspiring for living to fulfill this Task. However, some human beings are  becoming ready  for making progress towards the Supramental Becoming. Life has to become a true Sadhana for reaching this goal.

Though aspiring for this Goal, Man may still be attached to a life of unprogressive activities, to a life of  physical, sensuous and vital enjoyment, or to a life of hunger for power, fame, satisfaction of greed and lust and ego etc. He may often stop along the Way and start having activities or seeking pleasures and enjoyments, which simply misuse and spend the time and opportunity before him. He might have even temporarily forgotten his aim and Task. And so the progress may be hindered and obstructe and stayed. But the psychic being, ever aspiring, prays before the Divine to trike and break these hindrances, so that the progressive March towards the Goal, towards fulfilling the Task, is possible.

When the psychic truly aspires and prays, the Divine, full of love for his child, definitely helps.


Barindranath Chaki

Written on 29-8-2012
Posted on 13-9-2012





   

Monday, September 03, 2012

Thoughts and Aphorisms 32

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Thoughts and Aphorisms 32

32. The Atheist is God playing at hide and seek with Himself; but is the Theist any other ? Well, perhaps; for he has seen the shadow of God and clutched at it.

[Sri Aurobindo: Thoughts and Aphorisms]

The Atheist thinks that there is no God, as he, being limited to his senses in his thinking and feeling, does not find Him anywhere or has no contact with Him.

As Sri Aurobindo says, God is playing hide and seek Himself – as and when He is playing hide and seek with the Atheist. In the highest sense of Truth, God is One and All is God – all individual beings are God Himself in their highest consciousness. The human beings are, in Truth and Reality, God Himself, in their deepest and highest consciousness. In the Upanishadic thought, God says : “Eko”. I am alone and will be many. So He became many. That is His Leela, His play.

Divine himself is the Atheist — in the deepest depth of the Atheist, the Divine exists. So He is playing hide and seek with Himself. A time will definitely come in the life of the Atheist, when he will realize the Divine and find that he himself is the Divine. And he will no more remain an Atheist. The Mother has said : “And yet a day will come, when he will be brought face to face with himself and will be obliged to recognirecognise that he exists.”

The Theist is one who thinks and believes that God is there. Mentally, he has seen the shadow of God and thinks and believes that the God is there, as the Creator of the universe and of the Theist himself.

According to Sri Aurobindo, the Theist has not crossed the limit of his mental consciousness and has not realized the Divine – The Divine is in all things and all individual beings. The Theist clings to the shadow of God and does not go beyond.

When the individual being realizes the Divine, there is no Atheist and Theist in his Vision – He realizes : “Aham brahm

Barindranath Chaki

Written on 28.08.2012
Published on 3-09-2012



Thoughts and Aphorisms 31

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Thoughts and Aphorisms 31

31. What I wished or thought to be the right thing, does not come about; therefore it is clear that there is no All Wise one who guides the world but only blind Chance or a brute Causality.

[Sri Aurobindo: Thoughts and Aphorisms]

Sri Aurobindo gives an expression to the mental conclusion of some persons whose faith in the All-Wise Divine  is shaky or who are non-believers.

According to these non-believers, there is no All-Wise Divine guiding this world; whatever there is, is only a blind Chance or a cruel Causality. They come to this conclusion, as whatever they wished was not fulfilled, or whatever they thought to be the right thing does not happen or is not the worldly Reality.

The conclusion is surely an egoistic choice.” As my wishes are not fulfilled, there is no All-Wise God” — this is what they think; “As the worldly reality is not as per my thoughts, there is no Divine to guide this world.” Someone questioned The Mother about this. Some people find that events are always contrary to whatever they wish or whatever they believe to be good for them.  They despair and life for them is patterned according their despair.

The Mother said that despair is never a necessity for progress. It is sign of Tamas, and it indicates the presence of an adverse force, a force that is Anti-Divine, acting against the Progress of Mankind.

***.

Therefore to hold that the world is only the sum of some blind activities and movements od blind Chance and Causality is the effect of some anti-Divine forces. That is far from the true Reality which is the Divine.

Human Will, according to The Mother, is very often in conflict with the opposing wills, and hence, these wills are not fulfilled or successfully realized. However these wills are in accordance with the will of Nature or with the Divine Will, they are effective The will of Nature is a ‘transcription’ of the Divine Will — as said by The Mother.

So, as and when our individual will is in accord with the will of Nature or directly with the Divine Will — due to some Divine Grace or due to our advancement in Yoga it becomes effective, And we need not then think that this world is a creation of some blind chance or cruel Causality, or that there is no Divine.

Barindranath Chaki
Written on 27-08-2012
2-30 PM



Published on 3-09-2012

Also published in The New Reflections [ http://the-aspirant.webs.com/ ]




 

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Remember The Mother


Remember The Mother

On the birthday anniversary of The Mother, Mira Alfassa, the spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, on the 21st day of February, let us remember Her.
The Mother was born in Paris in 1878, and she grew up in Paris where she spent the first part of her life.
In her early years She was conscious of the special purpose of Her life, of Her mission on earth. From the age of five she became conscious that she was not of this world and had a Consciousness higher than the ordinary human consciousness. At this age she began her spiritual discipline.
She came in contact with Max Theon and Madame Theon around 1905. She met Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry on 29th March 1914. She left Pondicherry in February 1915 and proceeded to France and Japan. On 24th April, 1920, She returned for ever to Pondicherry.



Sri Aurobindo, an Incarnation of the Supreme Divine Consciousness, referring to Mira Alfassa, said that ' the One whom we adore as The Mother is the Divine Cinscious Force that dominates all existence…' He said further: "The Mother is the consciousness and force of the Supreme and far above all she creates." 
According to Sri Aurobindo, the Supreme Divine has three aspects: transcendental, universal and the individual. The Mother also has these three aspects, just as the Supreme.



Sri Aurobindo has said further on The Mother:
"Her embodiment is a chance for the earth-consciousness to receive the Supramental into it and to undergo first the transformation necessary for that to be possible."
Thus, She is unalterably important for the entire humanity and for the earth. "She is the golden bridge ...," said Sri Aurobindo [ in Savitri ]. She is the Force that enables Man and the earth to leap beyond and pass over the gulf of difference between Mind and the Supramental Consciousness, between Darkness and Light, between Ignorance and Wisdom, between Falsehood and Truth.
She is the golden bridge, the wonderful fire.
The luminous heart of the Unknown is she,
A power of silence in the depths of God;
She is the Force, the inevitable Word,.....
To heal with her feet the aching throb of life
And break the seals on the dim soul of man
And kindle her fire in the closed heart of things.
[Savitri : Sri Aurobindo]



The Mother said :
Throughout all this life, knowingly or unknowingly, I have been what the Lord wanted me to be, I have done what the Lord wanted me to do, I have done what the Lord wanted me to do. That alone matters.
She has further said :
Since, the beginning of the earth, wherever and whenever there was the possibility of manifesting a ray of Consciousness, I was there.
She has also shown us the Way, the most sublime Way of the Child in us, in all of us:
You have to aspire, you have to reject; but the best is if you can keep me in your heart, if you love me, then you will have to do nothing. I shall do all for you.
That is the best Way.
And let us remember also what She has further said :
"Let us advance always, without stopping, towards an always more complete manifestation, an always more complete and higher consciousness."



Sri Aurobindo has said:

"The Mother not only governs all from above but she descends into this lesser triple universe. Impersonally, all things here, even the movements of the Ignorance, are herself in veiled power and her creations in diminished substance, her Nature-Body and Nature-force, and they exist because, moved by the mysterious fiat of the Supreme to work out something that was there in the possibilities of the Infinite, she has consented to the great sacrifice and has put on like a mask the soul and forms of the Ignorance. But personally, too, she has stooped to descend here into the Darkness that she may lead it to the Light, into the Falsehood and Error that she may convert it to the Truth, into this Death that she convert it to godlike Life, into this world-pain and its obstinate sorrow and suffering that she may end it in the transforming ecstacy of her sublime Ananda. In her deep and great love for her children she has consented to put on herself the cloak of this obscurity, condescended to bear the attacks and torturing influences of the powers of the Darkness and the Falsehood, borne to pass through the portals of the birth that is a death, taken upon herself the pangs and sorrows and sufferings of the creation, since it seemed that thus alone could it be lifted to the Light and Joy and Truth and eternal Life. This is the great sacrifice called sometimes the sacrifice of the Purusha, but much more deeply the holocaust of Prakriti, the sacrifice of the Divine Mother."  

The Mother told us about Sri Aurobindo : 
Sri Aurobindo came on earth from the Supreme to announce the manifestation of a new race and a new world, the Supramental.

She also said about Sri Aurobindo :
Man is the creation of yesterday. Sri Aurobindo came to announce the creation of tomorrow : the coming of the supramental being.

And for this coming of the supramental being, Sri Aurobindo says that Man has to ascend from Mind to various higher levels of Mind, and then to the Supermind. Man has to go through the ways of Transformation. And when the human aspiration rises to a height, then only Supermind can be approached.
The Mother Mira was the Person who caused the Descent of the Supramental Principle on earth on the 29th February 1956. The purpose of this Supramental Descent was to make possible the ascending journey of Man to Supermanhood.
The Mother has stated:

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.

This is the purpose of the coming of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on earth : the Manifestation of the Supramental Consciousness on earth, so that Man can progressively change himself into the Superman, the Supramental Being. By the half-lit and diminished principle of Mind, Man can rise from the animalhood to a great extent, but cannot become the Supramental Being, cannot put an end to his miseries and sufferings, to his ignorance, inconscience, incapacities and death. 



The Mother has said:
We can, simply by a sincere aspiration, open a sealed door in us and find ..that Something which will change the whole meaning of life, answer all our questions, solve all our problems and lead us to the perfection we aspire for without knowing it, to that Reality which alone can satisfy and give us lasting joy, balance, strength. All this you have heard many times. You have heard it - oh, there are even ~ here who are so used to it that for them that seems to be the same as drinking a glass of water or opening a window to let in the sunlight ....

We have tried a little, bur now we are going to try seriously! The starting-point: to want it, truly to want it, to need it. The next step: to think, above all, of that. A day comes very quickly when one is unable to think of anything else. That is the only thing that counts. And then .. you formulate your aspiration, you let the true prayer spring up from your heart, the prayer that expresses the sincerity of the need. And then ... well, you will see what happens. [Spiritual Significance of Flowers]



Sri Aurobindo said about Man in His poem Evolution :

O thou who climbest from dull stone
Face now the miracled summits still unwon.
The first half of Evolution has been before us, the human beings — step by step, we have grown from  Matter, described by Sri Aurobindo as "dull stone" — we have become the humans through the prolonged and difficult course of Evolution — from the stone to the human. That is the story of the coming of Man, amidst the stone and the plants and the animals.  
Now, there are the new summits, still unconquered, before us, which are the summits of consciousness and existence : we need and shall have to conquer the new summits beyond the human existence and consciousness, beyond all our limitations, all our present imperfections and incapacities, all our ignorance and darkness, and we need to have the miraculous capacities to transform ourselves for the New Creation, for the Advent of the Superman, the Supramental Being.
That is the Truth, as The Mother says. Either we have to achieve it or we have to lose the struggle of existence, being doomed to the Abyss. Let us remember what The Mother has said to us :
Men, countries, continents,
The choice is imperative — Truth or Abyss.





In spite of all the imperfections, ignorance and darkness in Man, in spite of all the pull and push of the animal nature in him, since the beginning of his existence, he has an opening for the Supreme, for the Divine. Since the beginning, he has ever tried to have contact with the Higher Consciousness and Force, however crude and incomplete his attempts might have been. This trend in him might have given rise to many  superstitions, but it has also given rise to the great religions, leading some humans to live nobler and higher lives.
However, The Mother has said that the Age of Religions is over.
In the religions, the incomplete and imperfect mind attempted to conveniently mix up the mental ignorance and darkness with the highest contact and the highest sentiments, emotions, ideas and thoughts within us. Some men with the lesser consciousness and understanding, living satisfied with limitations and imperfections, tried to manage the religions and the rules thereof. Men have been seeking to go to heaven, or to go for Niravana or Moksha, making the human existence, as it were, a meaningless, purposeless, aimless play of the Supreme.

In the name of the religions, now the humanity is divided. Hatred and cruelty and division are now in force in place of Love and humanism and oneness. The Divine is far away, and the Divine Life seems distant and impossible.

Therefore, we shall have to go beyond Mind to find the true meaning and use and purpose of the human life and existence and also of the Mind itself.

Let us recall what The Mother has said: "The Age of religion is over." Keeping aside the religious conflicts and debates, we shall have to go beyond the mental limitations and ascend the higher ranges of Consciousness. 



We need to ascend the higher ranges of Mind —the Higher Mind, the Illumined Mind, the Intuitive Mind , the Overmind — to ascend the heights of  the Gnosis, the Supramental Consciousness. And before all these Ascents, we should discover and know the Divine Child in us, the Psychic Being.

That is the Work before us, the humans. That is the Truth. The Spirit, involved in the Stone, has become Man, and shall now evolve further and manifest as the Supramental Being.

The Mother has prayed before the Supreme, for all the humanity :

Lord, we are upon earth to accomplish Thy work of transformation. It is our sole will, our sole preoccupation. Grant that it may be also our sole occupation and that all our actions may help us towards this single goal.

Evolution is the Work of the Supreme, the Divine. The Supreme, the Sat-chit-ananda, the Existence Consciousness Bliss, has emerged as the Stone, the principle of Matter. That is Involution. And from that stage, the return journey of the Supreme has begun — from Matter to the Supreme Consciousness again. Man has come into existence, in course of the Evolutionary return journey of the Supreme Consciousness. That is the Play, the Work of the Supreme. However, in Evolution, the One willed to become the Many and has become so. t may be said that he thought : "Ekoham, bahu syama." [ I am alone, and shall become many.]  Existence-Consciousness became many, countless many, and each of the many is a Soul, or the Atman in Sanskrit, which is a part and portion of the Supreme Consciousness, the Divine — a part who is one with the Whole, who can be the Whole also, who can unite with the Whole.

Sri Aurobindo has used the word 'the psychic being' in expressing the active aspect of the 'soul' in Man. The psychic being is evolved only in the human being, as it has to participate and lead in the next evolution beyond Mind. Sri Aurobindo says :

The soul … … is something that comes down into birth and passes through death – although it does not itself die, for it is immortal – from one state to another, from the earth plane to other planes and back again to the earth-existence. It goes on with this progression from life to life through an evolution which leads it up to the human state and evolves through it all a being of itself which we call the psychic being that supports the evolution and develops a physical, a vital, a mental human consciousness as its instruments of world-experience and of a disguised, imperfect, but growing self-expression. All this it does from behind a veil showing something of its divine self only in so far as the imperfection of the instrumental being will allow it. But a time comes when it is able to prepare to come out from behind the veil, to take command and turn all the instrumental nature towards a divine fulfilment. This is the beginning of the true spiritual life. The soul is able now to make itself ready for a higher evolution of manifested consciousness than the mental human. [Letters on Yoga — Sri Aurobindo]





The Divine has began His return March from the Stone and has reached the stage of the Human. And now the human being  has to collaborate with the Divine to manifest the Divine in Many as the Supramental Race.

Now, ignorance, darkness, diseases and Death shall be conquered, as they belong to the falsehood. That is the Divine Will.

The Mother had prayed :
The hour has come when a choice has to be made, radical and definitive. Lord, give us the strength to reject falsehood and emerge in Thy truth, pure and worthy of Thy victory….

As ordinary human beings, we are leading ourselves to the Abyss, as we are deeply engrossed with our lowest emotions, passions, pre-occupations and occupations, as we are thoroughly involved with our fears and distrust and gross indulgence. Even if we got some Light of Faith and of Ideas and Thought, we bring in Darkness though the quarrels of religions, old and new, through the political labyrinths which mutilate and imprison the Ideas and the Thoughts. Often we close our eyes to the Light, often we shut up our inner windows when we hear the Call. We lend ourselves to be controlled and managed by the Asura.

The Mother has further said:
The Asura is the force of falsehood, antidivine, which reigns as sovereign over the physical world; his influence is felt everywhere, it is in everything in Matter. But the time has now come when the separation, the purification, can be made, the falsehood, the Asuric influence, rejected and there can be an exclusive living in the Divine Truth.



    

Sri Aurobindo has also expressed in a poem how the Ascent, the Next Evolution, will lead Man to the Supramental Transformation.

Earth was a cradle for the arriving god
And man but a half-dark half-luminous sign
Of the transition of the veiled Divine
From Matter's sleep and the tormented load
Of ignorant life and death to the Spirit's light.
Mind liberated swam Light's ocean vast,
And life escaped from its grey tortured line;
I saw Matter illumining its parent Night.
[Evolution : Sri Aurobindo]               

The Supramental Consciousness is the arriving God, the Divine, and the human being is the sign, the evolved reality, that is the instrument of the Divine. In Man, there is only a partial Light. He is not fully illumined. The arriving God, which is the veiled Divine, is there to bring a Transition from the Matter in sleep to the Light of the Spirit. When Mind will then be liberated — it will then swim the vast ocean of The Spirit, the Divine Consciousness. Life will also be freed from all the torture it has been tolerating all along. And even Matter will illumine its darkness. "Even the body shall remember God."
This is the message of Hope for Man.



In interpreting the message "Truth or Abyss," The Mother further said :
The message is only for those who are still asleep and quite satisfied with their   sleep.

The majority of the mankind is still asleep, asleep in darkness and ignorance with satisfaction. Man is still imprisoned with the ignorant senses and the blind and limited thoughts and ideas, with no aspiration or hope, no light or vision, no seeking, satisfied with the animal  indulgences and the limited ego, with death and darkness and division.

We shall have to aspire and endeavor and prepare ourselves for the Ascent.We should no more remain satisfied with our present state of being immersed in gross indulgence and inner blindness and blocked consciousness, of being involved with hatred and jealousy and greed and violence, of being conquered by darkness and ignorance and death. This is the Truth for us.

Let us accept the Truth and thereby open the gates of great possibilities. The Mother says : This wonderful world of delight waiting at our gates for our call, to come down upon earth… 

We must accept this Truth. Or else, the Abyss is sure.  To stop remaining the gross animal man, immersed in darkness and falsehood and hatred and violence, this Truth is the desireable way. Our Aspiration should be for the Ascent.

Let us remember The Mother and march towards the Goal — the Ascent, the Supramental Becoming.
Barin Chaki
21-02-2012



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