The New Race

Undoubtedly, India is the oldest civilization that is still living. And it will live on, as the very essence of India’s message is to lead the World, lead the humanity towards the Supreme Truth, the Supreme Realization.

But what will lead the humanity and the World to the grand and brilliant Future is not the geographical India, nor the historical India, as it is known externally, but the very true inner Spirit of India.

India has the Message: Thou art That, tattvamasi. The Divine — Sat-chit-ananda [Sachchidananda], Existence-Consciousness-Bliss — is within each of us, the human beings. Indeed, the Divine is everywhere, in all things. All that is, is God. Sarvam khalvidam brahma. The Divine is the only thing that exists, in essence and That has become the Many. He is the Supreme and He (or She, as you like it) is in all. He is in all and He is All. These are not merely words or simple ideas, but the expressions of Truth.

But it is a latent Truth. In the present level of Consciousness the human beings are in, this Idea may seem to be a Hope only, or a lofty Imagination, or a Dream, or for some, a “so-called” Truth, something, practically “meaningless”. And to some, where the height and depth of imagination and thinking is not sufficient and who live only amid what senses give us, this may even seem to be some sort of joke. Indeed, I received such a comment in some of my writings!

The Task before each human being, truly, is to realize this Truth, within his or her inner Consciousness, in a Consciousness deeper than our presently active consciousness, within the heart-centre (of course, not the physical heart).

That is the Message, or the beginning of the Message, that India is to give the World.

OOOOO

Tattvamasi or Thou art That is Vedic Truth. And that is also the Message of Sri Aurobindo. The Vedic truth is there on earth since, at least, last twelve thousand years, as some scholars have said. It may even be earlier.

The Idea of “Tattvamasi” is in India since then, and some persons have lived to realize this Truth, but they have taken the Path of Moksha. For some, the Realization was of a “Nothing” that is beyond all and they have taught was about Nirvāna.

But the majority of the people lived and remained in the ordinary external consciousness, and even if some of them had borne with them the Idea of “Tattvamasi”, they did not do much to realize the Truth and progress with it. There were some spiritual Masters who tried their best to lead the people to the Realization, but the people remained in semi-darkness, as usual.

But the ordinary human consciousness has continued to live with Mind, partly enlightened with Reason and Ethics and half-open Love, and they continued to live with animal passions and ignorance and upheavals and activities moved by blind forces.

OOOOO

Human Aspiration, in spite of all the Ignorance and Darkness and Denseness, cannot be satisfied fully with the opening of the Psychic Being. Of course, the Psychic Opening is a must for the human beings. That is the Gate of the Divine Becoming. But that is not all. Man has to go further and transmute his nature, following the Nature’s deepest and highest indications and urges, which follow the Will of the Supreme towards His own Manifestations — on the Way of the Next Evolution. The Psychic is then liberated from the Darkness and Denseness and Inertia and Ignorance, but those will still continue in the human being, in the human body and the lower vital and the ignorant mind, even after the Psychic Opening! Sadhana or spiritual discipline may have a great control and mastery over all these elements in the human existence, but they remain as they originally are. The body must be purified and liberated from Tamas; the vital being must be purified and liberated from Tamas and Rajas; the human mind should not only be purified and protected from Tamas and Rajas, but must also be transmuted to go beyond all its present limitations and blind habits, including the limitations of thought and reason. The form of body-life-mind must be freed from Ego and its tentacles and must be attuned to the Psychic Consciousness and transmuted by Its Consciousness and Light and Force and Joy.

OOOOO

According to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, Moksha or Nirvana is not the Task before us, though that may come on our way. We need not or should not return to the Origin. Nor should we continue as the ordinary human beings, immersed in the clay and mud of Darkness, Ignorance, Inertia, in the blind animal nature and activities, in the lower vital passions and movements, in the atmosphere of jealousy, hatred, betrayal, enmity, clashes and feuds. Man has a long march ahead to be taken up, so that the new Supramental Race reigns upon earth. The Goal, as taught by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, is to evolve into a New Being, the Supramental Being, as the New Consciousness, the Supramental Consciousness, has already descended on earth and has been active by now.

The human beings have emerged with the mental consciousness and he ought to realize and live and manifest the higher realms of the principle of Mind, from the plane of the Higher Mind to the highest mental principle of the Overmind. And then, he has to progressively march ahead towards the Supramental.

OOOOO

In the Way of living, as taught by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, the Realization of the Psychic being is the beginning, but that is not the end. As it has been said, Man has to surpass himself, but not into Moksha or Nirvana, not into the Origin that was there before the beginning of the evolutionary process of becoming. As Sri Aurobindo has said, Man is transitional being. He is neither the Goal nor the highest height of Evolution. Evolution began with the emergence of Matter and will continue till the Sachchidananda, Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, the Supreme, manifests itself physically into a collectivity of the Divine Beings, into the Divine Race, the New Race.

After the Realization of the Psychic, after the Realization that I am He, Man has to change his Mind and Life and Body with the Psychic Light and Consciousness and Force. Not only he has to transmute his outer mind and life and body, but also the inner mind and life and body shall have to be changed. This is what Sri Aurobindo labels as the Psychic Transformation, which is the first step of the Triple Transformation needed for the Ascent of Man into the Supramental Being.

As it has said earlier, after the Psychic Transformation, there begins the journey through the different levels of the principle of Mind — the Higher Mind, the Illumined Mind, the Intuitive Mind and the Overmind. Man has to ascend these heights of the higher levels of Mind, which far above the present ordinary human mind.

However, thereafter, Man has to surpass the principle of Mind altogether and ascend to the still higher realm of Consciousness and Force, the Supermind. Having ascended the Supramental Consciousness, Man reaches the final stage of his Journey, whereby he can fulfill the Task of the Supernature in the new and the next step of Evolution on earth.


[Continued]

Barindranath Chaki

11-03-2010


[Published simultaneously in ASPIRATION and All choice.]

Barindranath Chaki

Thoughts and Aphorisms 18

18. Chance is not in this universe; the idea of illusion is itself an illusion. There was never illusion yet in the human mind that was not the concealing and disfigurement of a truth. [Sri Aurobindo: Thoughts and Aphorisms] There is nothing in this Universe which may be described as a "Chance". And this Universe also is not a Chance There is no illusion — the idea of illusion is itself an illusion. According to Sri Aurobindo, this is the Truth. In the Truth and Reality of Things, there is no Chance, no Illusion. Whatever we, the humans, regard to be an illusion, that has concealed and disfigured some Truth. Behind every "illusion" we have some Truth and we have to find it. Truth is covered to us — the humans — as our consciousness is limited, as our capacity to know things or Truth of things is quite limited. We know through the senses or through mental groping or through reason. Senses are quite limited and they cover Truth, they give us a limited representation of Truth. The senses constitute a distorted medium of knowledge. Mental groping very often limit us, mislead us, for the light of Truth is often away from the mental ideas or mental groping. In this regard The Mother says: "We know that it [mind] is always groping, seeking to know, erring, returning upon its previous attempts and trying again… … … Its progress is very, very halting." Reason also is never direct. In inductive reason, we try to reach a Truth by generalization, which may often side-track a difference. We may reach a generalization, after an incomplete survey. For example, we generalize that all crows are black, but our generalization may be after an incomplete survey: the possibility of there being some white crows may be there! And this possibility is always there, till we have direct Knowledge: Knowledge by Identification, Knowledge by an intuitive means, when Truth is revealed like a Sunrise in the darkness! All this is because the human mind, along with the general human consciousness, as it is now, is very much limited and is in Ignorance and Darkness. The life we are born with, the life we live and lead, the circumstances we are in and we create around us, the collectivity we live with and we live in, the way we grow and the way we accept the physical end — everything is covered with illusion and ignorance, and everything seems to us to be a matter of chance. The things and circumstances we rejoice at, the happenings and the matters for which we dance with joy and in enjoyment, are all covered with ignorance and darkness and inertia. And we seem to be happy with our unhappiness. But there is truly a rosy Hope with every human being, with all of us, each of us — we can cross the limitations, tear the bondage of ignorance, dispel the darkness shadowing our mind and consciousness. We have nourished, since the beginning of the human race, a Hope. We seek Knowledge and Wisdom, we seek Joy and Bliss, we create things, conquer our difficulties and diseases and try to conquer even 'death'. In the darkest darkness, we cherish a Hope in us. We cherish the Hope of conquering darkness and ignorance, of conquering the limits and limitations. It has compelled us to move onwards through all the impediments on the Way. In each of us, there is a Divine spark! The Upanishadic Truth is : "EkoΣham bahu syāma." I am alone, I will be many — so said the Supreme. The Divine seed is there in each of us — the psychic. So, we shall have to become the Many — not the many animals, not the many human beings who are covered by Ignorance and Darkness and are also limited — but the many Divine Beings! And we shall become so — that is the Hope! That is the Divine Will, the Will of the Supreme which is being realized from the moment of the Big Bang! The way the ordinary human being sees and knows things, everything appears to be "illusions" — for, we do not see the Reality, the Truth, which remains covered and limited. Once the consciousness rises and expands beyond the limits, we find Truth, become Truth, we live in Truth. There is no illusion, then. In the Truth of the absolute Reality, there is no illusion, for, when we ascend the state of a higher mind, Truth is revealed, and we find that actually there is no illusion. And then we fins also find that this creation, this Universe is not a mere chance, it is the Will of the Supreme, of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. As we have a limited and covered consciousness, in the level of the ordinary human consciousness, the Reality appears to us to be something what it is not really. It appears to be something else, something other than what it truly is. But the appearance is only a cover; behind it, there is the Reality, Truth, the Divine. This we can realize and understand, once we march ahead beyond the limit. This Real Truth is behind all the appearance that the Universe seems to be. Sri Aurobindo says that the World is not an Illusion, not a Falsehood, it is a Reality; only, our perception of it is covered, and therefore, wrong and false. Out of the inconscient and subliminal Arisen, we live in mind's uncertain light And strive to know and master a dubious world Whose purpose and meaning are hidden from our sight. Above us dwells a superconscient God Hidden in the mystery of his own light: Around us is a vast of ignorance Lit by the uncertain ray of human mind, Below us sleeps the Inconscient dark and mute. [Sri Aurobindo: Savitri : Bk VII, Co II] This is the state of consciousness of an ordinary human being — "we live in mind's uncertain light." But as we have seen earlier, there is a Hope for us all This is not all we are or all our world. Our greater self of knowledge waits for us, A supreme light in the truth-conscious Vast: It sees from summits beyond thinking mind, It moves in a splendid air transcending life. It shall descend and make earth's life divine. Truth made the world, not a blind Nature-Force. For here are not our large diviner heights; Our summits in the superconscient's blaze Are glorious with the very face of God: There is our aspect of eternity, There is the figure of the god we are, His young unaging look on deathless things, His joy in our escape from death and Time, His immortality and light and bliss. Our larger being sits behind cryptic walls: There are greatnesses hidden in our unseen parts That wait their hour to step into life's front: We feel an aid from deep indwelling Gods; One speaks within, Light comes to us from above. Our soul from its mysterious chamber acts; Its influence pressing on our heart and mind Pushes them to exceed their mortal selves. [Sri Aurobindo: Savitri : Bk VII, Co II] To exceed our mortal selves is our Hope and our Future and possibility and also our Task ahead. That is the Truth of our being : to become the Divine selves. We must realize that our true selves are beyond death and Time. Anything else or anything less is truly an illusion, a falsehood. Barindranath Chaki 21-09-2009 [Simultaneously published in Sulekha, All choice and ASPIRATION Barindranath Chaki 21-09-2009

Thoughts and Aphorisms 16

16. Do not, like so many modern disputants, smother thought under polysyllables or charm inquiry to sleep by the spell of formulas and cant words.
Search always; find out the reason for things which seem to the hasty glance to be mere chance or illusion.
[Sri Aurobindo: Thoughts and Aphorisms]

Many intellectuals, in the present days of Philosophy and Science and thinking, have covered thought within one or two or a few words, consisting a few syllables. And the covering has been such that it suppressed and throttled thought so as to stop its further progress towards the real Discovery of Truth.

And they have also mesmerized enquiry into sleep by using some formulæ or a few words. So, thought is silenced and enquiry is stopped. Questioned in the mind are lulled. A real and complete search, a deep and genuine seeking, is not there: only, there are half-seeking, with easy-going and stop-gap arrangements.

Whatever seems to us to be chance or illusion, whatever we patent or name as chance or illusion, may not be really so. There must be some reason behind their existence. There must be some meaning of whatever we label as chance or illusion.

The Mother has said, while interpreting Sri Aurobindo, that the mind has several levels or zones or regions from the ordinary physical mind to the higher mind, which receives the rays of the Supramental Light in the form of intuitions. One of these regions is the mind that uses ‘practical reason’ which termed otherwise as commonsense.

Often the mind of practical reason or commonsense inconclusively concludes some mental searches or enquiries or discussions and labels them with some ‘polysyllables,’ as stated by Sri Aurobindo.

The Mother puts it beautifully:
“To this region of practical reason belong the ‘polysyllables’ of which Sri Aurobindo speaks, the commonplaces or clichés, all the readymade phrases which run about in the mental atmosphere from one brain to another and which people repeat when they want to appear knowledgeable, or when they think themselves wise.”

Words such as illusion, hallucination or chance are examples of such polysyllables. Some phenomena which cannot be explained or understood are referred to as illusions or hallucinations or chances. There, at that level or region of mind, further search or enquiry is stopped, for the phenomena concerned are explained away. For, the human consciousness at its present general level is partial and superficial and confined by man himself to the gross limits of the physical mind.

That is the reason why Sri Aurobindo has said: “Search always”. We should continue the enquiry, continue to find out the real answers to our questions, the inner questions. According to Sri Aurobindo, the World is real. If it appears to us to be unreal or an illusion or a falsehood, it is then the lack of a true search and a true realization. The search must go on, till we find the One by which all live and exist:

A pure existence safe from thought and mood,
A consciousness of unshared immortal bliss,
It dwelt aloof in its bare infinite,
One and unique, unutterably sole.
A Being formless, featureless and mute
That knew itself by its own timeless self,
Aware for ever in its motionless depths,
Uncreating, uncreated and unborn,
The One by whom all live, who lives by none,
An immeasurable luminous secrecy
Guarded by the veils of the Unmanifest,
Above the changing cosmic interlude
Abode supreme, immutably the same,
A silent Cause occult, impenetrable,--
Infinite, eternal, unthinkable, alone.

[Savitri, Book Two, Canto One]

Barindranath Chaki
08-09-2009

[Simultaneously published in Sulekha, All choice and ASPIRATION.]

Barindranath Chaki
08-09-2009

The Pioneers

The Earth, along with the humanity, is moving and progressing towards a vast and complete Transformation, towards a New Step in the Evolution on earth towards the emergence of a New Race on earth. And the Pioneers are Sri Aurobindo and The Mother [Mirra Alfassa].

Sri Aurobindo stated that Man is a transitional being, who will have to be transformed, collectively, towards the formation of a New Race. His appearance in the human race is one of the biggest events that has taken place in the history of the Earth.

When The Mother met Sri Aurobindo for the first time, She wrote :

"Gradually the horizon becomes distinct, the path grows clear, and we move towards a greater and greater certitude.
It matters little that there are thousands of beings plunged in the densest ignorance, He whom we saw yesterday is on earth ; his presence is enough to prove that a day will come when darkness shall be transformed into light, and Thy reign shall be indeed established upon earth.
O Lord, Divine Builder of this marvel, my heart overflows with joy and gratitude when I think of it, and my hopes have no bounds.
My adoration is beyond all words, my reverence is silent."—The Mother, Prayers and Meditations.

These were the words from The Mother, who joined Sri Aurobindo and organized Sri Aurobindo Ashram at Pondicherry. She came from France to Pondicherry, India, and met Sri Aurobindo on the 29th day of March, 1914. These were the words from her on her first meeting with Sri Aurobindo, recorded on the next day.

These words are self-explanatory. The existence of Sri Aurobindo gives rise to the boundless hope that, one day, the Divine reign shall be on earth and that darkness shall be transformed into light. Sri Aurobindo is the Hope of Man, in spite of the fact that multitudes of human beings are plunged in the densest darkness and ignorance. Prayers of millions of human beings through millennia have been answered by the Supreme in the form of Sri Aurobindo

OOOOO

Often, a few persons have stated that Sri Aurobindo is not unquestionable and that an Avatar may not always be above the ordinary human level. These persons also express their belief that there is a Higher Consciousness that does not even recognize the Sri Aurobindo or The Mother or any other Avatar.


I know and believe that Sri Aurobindo is unquestionable. Question belongs to a mind that is in ignorance. It comes from doubt, half-knowledge, ignorance and un-receptivity.
A question may also come from a seeking, from a seeker. But that is from a mind that seeks to drift from Darkness to Light.

When a Person like Sri Aurobindo becomes questionable to someone, then there is some error somewhere in the consciousness of the person so questioning. Because generally ordinary human beings are fallible in their habits and character and nature, and then a question crops up. When someone has the firm belief and conviction that a man cannot be perfect, that a man cannot be above the animal frailties, then only one has the doubts and questions!

Sri Aurobindo did not come on earth to live like a common man, though definitely he was born amidst us. Whenever someone like Peter Heeh or anybody else has expressed that there is some questionability in the Person or character of Sri Aurobindo, I feel that such tendency is certainly there in the mind of the questioner.

When we go through the several spiritual treatises on Yoga given to us by the ancient India, we find that one has to undergo a Sadhana of self-discipline and self-mastery, before one can go beyond the ordinary mental level. We know of yama and niyama of Patanjali Yoga. When we find Sri Aurobindo attained Nirvana within three days of starting the yogic Sadhana, how can we ever assume that He was a questionable Person! And He is the First human being who has realized the Supermind, reached the Supermind, and then lived for forty years thereafter, whereas it was known that generally a man can generally live for a few days only after having touched the supramental level. A person with a questionable character and personality cannot have such a miraculous record of spiritual height. The question about the questionability of Sri Aurobindo comes only when there is doubt and ignorance in the mind. To know truly a Person like Sri Aurobindo, one has to rise above doubt and ignorance.

OOOOO

Can there be any Avatar who is not recognized by a Higher Consciousness? What is an Avatar? It is the Descent of the Highest Consciousness itself. So, can the Highest Consciousness de-recognize any Person who is Himself having a Descent on earth? It is the Divine Will that causes the Appearance of a Person named Sri Aurobindo, who begins the New Way that would lead humanity beyond itself towards the New Race. Sri Aurobindo is bringer of the New Age, that will put an end to all Darkness and Death and Divisions and Ignorance, all Sorrows and Sufferings from the surface of the Earth. If any Consciousness is there that seems to de-recognize The Mother and Sri Aurobindo, it is then a Consciousness belonging to Tamas itself. It is, as I find, is rather a mental deformation that is obstinate.

Sri Aurobindo has said :
Surely for the earth-consciousness the very fact that the Divine manifests himself is the greatest of all splendours. Consider the obscurity here and what it would be if the Divine did not directly intervene and the Light of Lights did not break out of the obscurity – for that is the meaning of the manifestation….
It is the omnipresent cosmic Divine who supports the action of the universe; if there is an Incarnation, it does not in the least diminish the cosmic Presence and the cosmic action in the three or thirty million universes.
The Descending Power (Avatar) chooses its own place, body, time for the manifestation.
The Avatar is necessary when a special work is to be done and in crises of the evolution.

[Letters on Yoga — Sri Aurobindo]

OOOOO

Let us find what K D Sethna has said in this matter:

Sri Aurobindo interprets as a parable of evolution the Hindu idea of the procession of the ten Avatars. Vishnu the Supreme Godhead makes a progressive series of incarnations, so that — to take for our immediate purpose the human portion of the traditional sequence — He who was Vamana (the Dwarf Avatar, the Divine in the primitive and mainly physical human stage) becomes afterwards ParasuRama ("Rama of the Axe", the Divine in the kinetic or vitalistic phase of humanity) and then Rama, son of Dasaratha (the Divine as the mental Man, the embodiment of Dharma, the perfect Moral Consciousness) and, again, Krishna (the Divine as the "Overman", openly exemplifying a more-than-mental Consciousness, what Sri Aurobindo calls the Overmind, the world of the Great Gods) and, later, Buddha who shoots beyond the cosmic formula to the sheer Transcendent but to that Transcendent's absolutely immobile aspect (Nirvana, an indescribable Permanence void of all that we know as existence, or, in positive Vedantic nomenclature, Nirguna Brahman, Silent Qualityless Eternal Being) and, finally, Kalki who will come to set right the balance by bringing the Transcendent's power to base on the Transcendent's peace a new earth-order, a terrestrial Heaven. In this tale of evolutionary humanity we would indentify Kalki with Sri Aurobindo (the Master of the Integral Yoga, the Yoga not only of liberation but also of the perfect divine dynamism/ the Supermind, the all- transformative Truth-Consciousness manifesting as Super- man).
[Our Light and Delight: : K D Sethna]

I do not think that there should be any further need to emphasize that the Supreme, the Highest Consciousness has any reason to de-recognize or to fail to recognize any Avatar, for the Avatar is the Divine Himself.

[Continued]

Barindranath Chaki
30-06-2009

Thoughts and Aphorisms 15

15. That which men term a hallucination is the reflection in the mind and senses of that which is beyond our ordinary mental & sensory perceptions. Superstition arises from the mind's wrong understanding of these reflections. There is no other hallucination.
[Thoughts ad Aphorisms, Sri Aurobindo]

That which is beyond “ordinary mental & sensory perceptions,” when reflected in the mind and the senses, the reflection is termed by the people a “hallucination,” meaning a false illusion.

But that is, indeed, a wrong understanding, a wrong approach, as Sri Aurobindo explains. As He has said, what is termed as a hallucination, indicating an illusion, is not really an illusion or falsehood. We have earlier seen that He has described that the word “hallucination” as a scientific term refers to some irregular glimpses of truths which are ordinarily closed and shut to us, as we are preoccupied with matter. That is an experience of something that is beyond the mind and the senses. The experience by an unprepared mind and the unprepared senses gives a wrong impression, a wrong understanding, and it creates on repetition, in due course of time, a superstition. Had the truth or some of its aspects been correctly understood and sincerely realized, then it would neither have been termed a hallucination or an illusion. As Sri Aurobindo has said, “superstitions” are the results of the wrong understanding of the reflections of the mind and the senses. In reality, there is nothing else which can be termed “hallucinations” and the seeker of Truth should prepare himself to go beyond the wrong understanding.

Our preparations can lead us from the hallucinations to the Visions. There is a great difference between a hallucination and a Vision. Visions are what the human consciousness may experience, when it is prepared, aware or awakened, and sincere.

The Mother was asked a question: Can hallucinations be compared to visions?

In answering the question, The Mother says: “When a human being is sufficiently developed, he possesses an individualized vital being, with organs of sight, hearing smell etc. So a person who has a well-developed vital being can see in the vital world with his vital sight, consciously and with the memory of what he has seen.”

The Mother further says: “It is the same for all the subtle worlds — vital, mental, Overmental, supramental — and for all the intermediate worlds and planes of the being. In this way, one can have visions that are vital, mental, Overmental, supramental etc.”
[Collected Works of The Mother: Vol. 10]

So, one has to grow in awareness, in consciousness, in a true spiritual individuality, in all sincerity, and then one has visions of the Worlds, beyond the Reason, beyond the mind and the senses. And the higher one ascends, nearer one is to the Supreme Truth.

Thus the human being, with his consciousness and thought, can go beyond himself, through a progressive preparation, through silence, awareness and receptivity, and then have the visions of the higher worlds.

For Thought transcends the circles of mortal mind,
It is greater than its earthly instrument:
The godhead crammed into mind's narrow space
Escapes on every side into some vast
That is a passage to infinity.
It moves eternal in the spirit's field,
A runner towards the far spiritual light,
A child and servant of the spirit's force.
But mind too falls back from a nameless peak.
His being stretched beyond the sight of Thought.
For the spirit is eternal and unmade
And not by thinking was its greatness born,
And not by thinking can its knowledge come.
It knows itself and in itself it lives,
It moves where no thought is nor any form.

[Sri Aurobindo — Savitri: Bk 2, Co XI]

However, one may have a piercing but a synthesizing reason, with soaring thoughts and ideas, or one may have many series of visions from the vital and mental planes or even from the planes of the higher levels of mind, but that is not sufficient. A question will be there, in the words of M P Pandit : “It is when all ceases that there is something.”

He further says: “We are all the time seeing things with the physical eye, the mental eye and some with still another eye. There is a constant procession of images leaving the being no scope at all to see the reality of things.” [Dialogues and Perspectives, M P Pandit.]

The Aim should be to know the Unknown, to see and realize the Unseen, the Alone, so that one can become Oneself.

Barindranath Chaki
12-06-2009

Thoughts ad Aphorisms 13-14

13. They told me, "These things are hallucinations." I inquired what was a hallucination and found that it meant a subjective or a psychical experience which corresponds to no objective or no physical reality. Then I sat and wondered at the miracles of the human reason.
14. Hallucination is the term of Science for those irregular glimpses we still have of truths shut out from us by our preoccupation with matter; coincidence for the curious touches of artistry in the work of that supreme and universal Intelligence which in its conscious being as on a canvas has planned and executed the world.
[Thoughts ad Aphorisms, Sri Aurobindo]

Sri Aurobindo, the Supramental Pioneer, has described that the word “hallucination” as a scientific term refers to some irregular glimpses of truths which are closed and shut out to us, as we are preoccupied with matter. These glimpses of truths are called “hallucinations” by the materialists, the scientists and those who believe that matter is the sole and only reality.

Sri Aurobindo enquired, with His reach in the height and depth of Consciousness, about a hallucination and found that it is subjective and psychic experience about some thing, about some truth, which does not correspond with any objective or any reality which can be sensed by the senses or which can be described as physical.

The meaning of the word “hallucination” in the dictionary is that it is an objectless perception. The meaning of the word as per The Free Dictionary is given below for reference:
1.
a. Perception of visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, or gustatory experiences without an external stimulus and with a compelling sense of their reality, usually resulting from a mental disorder or as a response to a drug.
b. The objects or events so perceived.
2. A false or mistaken idea; a delusion.

It is also explained there as the experience of seeming to see something that is not really there.

According to Sri Aurobindo, reason, being bound to he experiences of the senses, shuts itself to the various aspects of truths. Many aspects of Truth are not open to “reason” as we have trained and limited our mental consciousness and perception, our reason, accordingly. But the higher aspects of Truth often cross the borders erected by our mind, limited and narrow, and we have the glimpses of Truth. But they are often termed as hallucinations by those who have the limited view and understanding.

Sri Aurobindo sarcastically remarked that “reason” is miraculous, as turns the experiences of aspects of truths as falsehood, naming them as “hallucinations”.

Similarly, as per dictionary, “coincidence” means something that is unconscious and the result of some chance. But in reality, according to Sri Aurobindo, it is a touch by the Supreme Artist, the Divine, That has designed and created this world, ‘planned and executed’ this world. The Supreme as an Artist gives often a curious touch and His Consciousness is the wonderful canvas of the Painter!


Barindranath Chaki
31-05-2009

Thoughts and Aphorisms 12

12. They proved to me by convincing reasons that God did not exist, and I believed them. Afterwards I saw God, for He came and embraced me. And now which am I to believe, the reasonings of others or my own experience ?

Thoughts and Aphorisms [Sri Aurobindo]

In the history of human thinking, reason has sometimes tried to prove the non-existence of God. And that is what Sri Aurobindo has referred to in this Aphorism. As we know some schools of thinkers have tried to lead us to conclude that God does not exist. There are some atheists, some non-believers, and also some are there who reason that God is beyond human reason — which can neither prove nor disprove the existence of God.

Human mind can prove and disprove anything. The Mother has said in this regard: “You can prove anything with the mind. When you know how to use it and have mastered reasoning and deduction, you can prove anything.”

Indeed, Mind can prove something — as a thesis — and disprove it also and prove its opposite — as an antithesis — and therefore, it is better to turn towards the synthesis. Synthesis is the best approach of Mind towards Truth.

Mind, through Reason, can approach Truth in the way of synthesis. But Mind, untouched by any higher Consciousness, untouched by the Realization of the Supreme Truth, cannot reach the Troth of Reality through Reason.

Sri Aurobindo speaks of God having to come to Him and embracing Him. Sri Aurobindo saw God as God came to Him and embraced Him.

In simple words, He has spoken of the Supreme experience of Man. He saw God — experienced the Divine through His Vision. God came to Him — Man cannot realize the Highest Consciousness unless the Highest comes own, descends to the human stage of consciousness — He responds to the human Call and comes to him. Sri Aurobindo, though Himself the Divine incarnate, represented the Mankind to call the Divine, to aspire for the Divine. And God embraced Sri Aurobindo. God’s coming to Man is unlike another being’s coming to him. Indeed, the Divine is already involved and hidden in Man, as the Psychic Being. When the Highest Consciousness comes to us as a Person, there is no more of difference, no more of any distance. Man knows the Divine and becomes the Divine — he will have his individuality, but there will be no distance, no separation, and no difference from the Supreme Being. And that is God’s embrace.

This experience, this Realization, is something that reasoning Mind, as such, cannot reach — but when there is this Realization, this Embrace by a Consciousness, higher than any Plane in the mental system, namely the Supramental Consciousness, then obviously Mind is touched and even transformed. And Mind moves, not only by thesis and antithesis, but by Synthesis. One of the earliest and greatest examples thereof is The Synthesis of Yoga. Through a Synthesis, originated from the Highest Consciousness, the transformed Mind reached the Idea: All life is Yoga.

Some “others” may still continue with the rational conclusion that there is no God, or any other similar conclusion of the incomplete and imperfect consciousness of the ordinary mind. Though the Person, who is embraced by the Divine, knows that the external differences between him and the “others” are but superficial and not real, not fundamental, still the “others” may have no such Realization and Experience and they may continue with their rational journey. They may not accept the Truth unveiled and realized by the Person embraced by the Divine. But the Person having the Divine Realization is firm and confirmed in the authenticity of the Truth reached.

If you move one step towards the Divine, He then comes down towards you with more steps. For, your transformation is part of the Divine’s Work. When you are transformed, it is then a step of progress in the Divine’s Work. But if we are not sincere and true to ourselves, the Experience will be far away.

But even if one is a non-believer, if the Divine wants, one will have the Realization, the Experience. The Mother has said:
“Someone has asked me, ‘How is it possible for God to reveal Himself to an unbeliever?’ That is very funny; because if it pleases God to reveal Himself to an unbeliever, I don’t see what would prevent Him from doing so!”

It is indeed our task to evolve beyond reason so that we may not for ever grope in our half-darkness (and half-light) and in our uncertainties and probabilities and in the deductions and inductions of our never-sure logical endeavors.

To be illogical is no wisdom. But to be logical at the cost of the Real Truth and at the cost of the Realization is also no wisdom.

Barindranath Chaki
07-04-2009

29th March

Ninety-five years back, on the 29th day of March, 1914, Mirra Alfassa, later known as The Mother, met Sri Aurobindo. She wrote in Prayers and Meditations on the next day:

Gradually the horizon becomes distinct, the path grows clear, and we move towards a greater and greater certitude.
It matters little that there are thousands of beings plunged in the densest ignorance, He whom we saw yesterday is on earth; his presence is enough to prove that a day will come when darkness shall be transformed into light, and Thy reign shall be indeed established upon earth.
O Lord, Divine Builder of this marvel, my heart overflows with joy and gratitude when I think of it, and my hope has no bounds.
My adoration is beyond all words, my reverence is silent.

If we see from a truly historical viewpoint, unbiased and liberated from the ordinary way of thinking and understanding, we will realize that this has been a day of the greatest possible significance and importance for the mankind and its future, for the earth and its future.

They are the two Persons who realized the Supermind and caused the Descent of the Supramental Consciousness. Prior to Them, none else endeavored for reaching or bringing down the Supramental Consciousness. The words the Supramental Consciousness or Supermind were first used and defined by Sri Aurobindo. He also used the words Gnosis and Truth-Consciousness mean Supermind. But the Idea or the conception was not quite new. According to Sri Aurobindo, the Vedas contain the gospels of the divine and immortal Supermind in a concealed way.

In Taittiriya Upanishad, it has been said: Annam brahma — the Matter is Brahman. [Annam brahmeti vyājanat — he knew the Matter to be the Eternal Absolute] Likewise, it is also said there: prāno [Life] brahma, mano [Mind] brahma, vijnānam brahma and ānandam [Bliss] brahma. Vijnana is Supermind. Supermind is also termed rtachit or Truth-Consciousness.

In this regard, M Alan Kazlev says: "Vijnana loka" is the Supermind proper - in Sri Aurobindo's reading of the Taittiriya Upanishad, vijnana is not intuitive or inner mind as it is in the conventional vedantic (especially advaitin) interpretation in terms of koshas, but the Supramental purusha which is still to be actualized, and will be as part of the process of Supramentalization. [Kheper Website ~ http://www.kheper.net/]

It may be emphasized that not much of efforts were made, earlier to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, to reach Supermind or to cause its Descent on earth. It was said that on reaching and realizing the height of Vijnana, the Supramental Consciousness, one’s body would not last more than forty days.

Possibly, the human body was not yet then ready for the Adventure. But now things have changed, after the Supramental Descent on earth, caused by The Mother on the 29th day of February 1956.

It was an adventurous action on the part of Sri Aurobindo that He reached, realized and received the Supramental Consciousness that descended on the 5th day of December 1950. And He did so at the cost of His physical Existence.

*****

Sri Aurobindo states that Supermind is the creator of the universe, and not any Overmental God or Force.
Sri Aurobindo has also described the nature of Supermind to be an ultimate knowledge and knowing power. According to Him, Mind is a lesser power of Supermind and is derived from the latter. However, Mind is a plane necessary in the Evolution, as designed by the Supreme Consciousness. He also says that the human beings are capable of experiencing and realizing the ultimate cognitive and creative capacity that Supermind is.

He also states that through Evolution of consciousness, Man can rise from Mind to a higher, spiritualized Mind [namely, the Higher Mind, the Illumined Mind, the Intuitive Mind and Overmind] and even further, until he reaches and realizes the Supramental.

In the onward journey of Ascension, before reaching the Supramental Consciousness, generally, one has to realize and surpass the various planes of Mind, as described above, — from the Higher Mind to Overmind. According to Sri Aurobindo, Overmind is the plane of Gods and Goddesses. This is the highest consciousness within the mental system. As Man progresses higher and higher in Consciousness, he has the scope of experiencing and surpassing these planes of Mind, until he reaches Overmind. And thereafter, there comes the possibility of the Supramental Realization and Descent and Transformation. If we rise in consciousness, we can grow and develop the supramental capacity of knowledge. Moreover, as a consequence of acquiring the capacity for integral knowledge, we will have the infinite capacity to create in life, just as Supermind itself is able to do as the Creator.

*****

Sri Aurobindo’s departure was a Sacrifice for the noblest cause of letting the Supramental Consciousness and Force descend on earth for the Supramentalization of the earth-consciousness and for evolutionary progress beyond Man, so that the earth changes from a vale of tears to an abode of Joy and Light and creativity. That was the beginning.

In the words of K D Sethna, the physical departure of Sri Aurobindo “reveals itself as an extreme measure freely adopted, for reasons of his own, in significant yet never dominant mortal detail by one who, after having ascended in consciousness to a new and hitherto unmanifested power of the Divine Reality, sought to effect a descent of it for earth's complete perfection, including a transformation of the very body of man. The spiritual perfectionist found at a critical turn of his battle with entrenched powers of darkness in earth's being that to take his own semi-transformed body through the process of a death at once normal and supernormal was a paradoxical short-cut towards the revolutionary evolution of humanity into divinity that was his aim.” [Emphasis is mine.]

The Departure of Sri Aurobindo effected a realization of a New Consciousness and Force in the very Person of The Mother: the Mind of Light got realized in Her. And that caused to open the doors of the greatest Hope for Mankind: the Hope for the Supramentalization.

The Mother says:

"As soon as Sri Aurobindo withdrew from his body, what he has called the Mind of Light got realised in me."
"The Supermind had descended long ago - very long ago - into the mind and even into the vital: it was working in the physical also but indirectly through those intermediaries. The question was about the direct action of the Supermind in the physical. Sri Aurobindo said it could be possible only if the physical mind received the supramental light: the physical mind was the instrument for direct action upon the most material. This physical mind receiving the supramental light Sri Aurobindo called the Mind of Light."[Emphasis is mine.]

And what has seemed to us to be The Mother’s Departure is but a transition — The Mother left Her human frame and walked into the newly formed Supramental Body, which is but an individual manifestation of the Supramental Consciousness and Force into a New Body, still invisible to the ordinary human eye.

Prior to the coming of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother on earth, these were all unheard and unattempted Ideas and Truths. The sole aim of all spiritual endeavors till then was to go back to the Origin, to have Nirvana or Moksha or to go back to the Heaven.

Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have changed the Aim, the Goal, changed the approach, and changed the Way. The Aim is a New World, where imperfections will be no more there, no more will be Darkness and inconscience and ignorance and inertia, Death and diseases and sufferings, limitations and divisions. The Goal is the New World — the Supramental World, after a total and integral transformation of the old earth and the old humanity. The approach is new, as the seeker no more thinks of any return to the Origin, of any Nirvana or Moksha, of any withdrawal from and non-participation in the Cosmic Manifestation. As we have seen, a desertion of the Society and the World, a so-called “renunciation” and relinquishment, is no more the approach and the Goal. Going back to the origin, beyond the Manifestation, renouncing the World for an individual Moksha or Nirvana is no more the Goal, the Task. And the Way is evolutionary, integral, and all-aspected. As is well-known, Sri Aurobindo has said: “All life is Yoga.”

Integral Yoga, as given to us by The Master and The Mother, is not limited to, and only begins with the individual realization.

In this connection, The Mother says: “For this transformation to succeed, all human beings — even all living beings as well as their material environment — must be transformed…. Not only an individual or a group of individuals, or even all individuals, but life…has to be transformed. Without such a transformation we shall continue having the same misery, the same calamities and the same atrocities in the world. A few individuals will escape from it by their psychic development, but the general mass will remain in the same state of misery.”

*****

The Master has said: “Man is a transitional being.” This is because Man is an evolutionary being is a part of an Evolution. The Cosmic or Universal Manifestation is an evolution of what is involved. And what is involved is the principle of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, Sat-chit-ānanda [Sachchidānanda], the Divine, the Brahman, the Supreme. The Existence-Consciousness-Bliss willed to become Many — “Eko-ham, bahu syāma." The Many are now manifested, through and after a long process of Evolution, as the human beings. And Man is yet to manifest in him the perfection of the Sachchidānanda, the Divine. And that is the purpose and the Aim of the New Way of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother.

And it should be borne in mind that long before The Mother walked into the New Body, She has caused the Descent of the Supramental Consciousness on earth on the 29th day of February 1956, as mentioned earlier. Let me quote the oft-quoted message of The Mother 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 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.
And then the supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow.

Things are now ready or the Mankind to attain the willed pogress and transformaion. The Mankind has to arise to the occasion. The Truth of the possibility of the coming of the New Race of “Supermen” has to be accepted and lived. This is not the question of any blind faith. This is an evolutionary Truth, a scientific Truth which is also a spiritual Truth, a Truth of the Science of Consciousness.

Individually, we shall have to will for the transmutation, for the transformation of our mind, life and body — with the specific stress on the transformation of the body. For my will is the First step of the Divine’s Will, as the Master has said.

*****

The meeting of The Master and The Mother on the 29th March 1914 has resulted with and created a Hope, the greatest possible Hope, for us — the Mankind : the Hope for a New World. That is the purpose of Their coming on earth among us, the Mankind, and that is the purpose of Their meeting.

The incarnate dual Power shall open God's door,
Eternal supermind touch earthly Time.
The superman shall wake in mortal man
And manifest the hidden demigod
Or grow into the God-Light and God-Force
Revealing the secret deity in the cave.
[Savitri, Bk XI Co I]

Barindranath Chaki
29-03-2009

[Simultaneously published on 4th April 2009 in All choice, Aspiration, Sulekha and Gaia.]

She is the golden bridge

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]


On this 21st day of February 2009, which happens to be the birthday anniversary of The Mother, Mira Alfassa, the spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, let us remember Her and The Master, in Silence and in utter sincerity and faithfulness.

As we know, born in Paris on 21 February 1878, She spent the first part of her life in Paris with Her parents, who had settled down in France a year before Her birth.

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 did not have a human consciousness.

Around 1905-06, She came in contact with Max Theon and Madame Theon, who lived in Tlemcen in Algeria around 1905-06. Max Theon was an Occultist of the highest and rarest order. She met Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry on 29th March 1914. She left Pondicherry in February 1915 and proceeded to France and Japan. Later, on 24th April, 1920, She returned to Pondicherry for ever. Thereafter in Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo Ashram was formed and She became known as The Mother.

OOOOO

Sri Aurobindo, whom millions throughout the world have already hailed as an Incarnation of the Divine, had specifically said that 'the One whom we adore as The Mother,' has also descended and became manifest before us on earth. He referred to Mira Alfassa, and millions on earth adore Her as The Mother.
Questions may be, or rather, have been asked : Who is this Mother? What is this Principle of The Mother? How is this Principle related to the Supreme, to the Divine?
The Ultimate Reality is the Infinite and One Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, whom we have termed as the Brahman, the Divine, the Supreme. The Supreme Divine is the One, Indivisible, Infinite and Pure Existence, who has three aspects, the Transcendental, the Universal and the Individual. In the Transcendental mode, He is the Source of and is also above all manifestation, all the Universes, all the worlds. As the Supreme, He bears the eternal consciousness in Him, above all Time and Space. He is described as the Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, as it is already stated, as sachchidananda. He is Existence, eternal existence, and can even become Non-Existence, beyond the apprehension of any manifested existence.

In the Universal mode, He is one with the Universes, though He is above them and is their Creator and Origin. As the Supreme, who is both Impersonal and Personal, He is the Source and Origin of all that is, of the Universe, or rather the Universes. Though He has no form and no shape, He is the Source and Creator of all forms and shapes. He has become all this Universe, or rather all these universes. He is the Manifestation and the One who manifests. It is His Will that manifests and is manifested. He is the entire Manifestation. And it is His Leela, Play. He is beyond it, and also within it. He is in each atom, in each living being. And He is also the Individual, Personal God. All the Avatars are but His Individual Manifestations.
The Supreme is with His Creative and Conscious Force, the Mahashakti, who is the Divine Mother. They are One and Indivisible, and yet They are Two in Manifestation and even above and beyond Manifestation.

OOOOO

As we have discussed, Sri Aurobindo has said about The Mother :
"The One whom we adore as The Mother is the Divine Cobscious Force that dominates all existence, one and yet so many-sided that to follow her movement is impossible even for the quickest mind and for the freest and most vast intelligence."Sri Aurobindo has also said
:"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."She is, therefore, so highly and uniquely valuable for the mankind and for the earth. "She is the golden bridge ...," says Sri Aurobindo in Savitri. In fact, She is “the golden bridge” which will enable us, and is enabling us, Her children, to cross the difference and the distance between Mind and Supermind. 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 Ignorance and Falsehood on the one hand and on the other hand Light and Wisdom and Truth, and The New Creation. She is enabling us to walk on The New Way. She is enabling us, Her children, to walk towards The New Horizon.

OOOOO

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 also said :
"Since, the beginning of the earth, wherever and whenever there was the possibility of manifesting a ray of Consciousness, I was there."
And She has also shown us the Way, the most sublime Way:
"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.

She has given us the Hope, She is the Hopr for us all.
And let us remember always what She has told us to march ahead towards the Goal:
"Let us advance always, without stopping, towards an always more complete manifestation, an always more complete and higher consciousness."

The Mother and Sri Aurobindo have been carrying on the Evolution. They were here — and They are here — in order to carry on the Evolution. Evolution is now at a new and decisive stage, at a turning point, when there will come the end of the reign of Darkness and Ignorance, with the emergence of the Light, of Truth-Consciousness.

As narrated by Sujata in Mother’s Chronicles, Book One, a question asked to Sri Aurobindo about what He and The Mother were doing in Their many births on earth. Sri Aurobindo had replied : “Carrying on the evolution.”

OOOOO

Out of ignorance, disbelief and blasphemy, someone has asked about Sri Aurobindo:

“How many dead people did he raise back to life, and how many blind did he heal, And how many demons did he cast out, and how many people did he die for to pay for their debt of sin? Please inform us of all his good works and powerful supernatural miracles.”

My answer is as follows:

The entire mankind lives in death — the people all around are in death. They are born in Death, in unconsciousness, or at best in very partial half-consciousness., in ignorance. We are asleep in Death, at best half-awakened. And Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have lived for bringing for us the Life Eternal. They have endeavoured for leading the mankind beyond Death, in the Way of the Supramental Transformation. They have made everything ready, so that Man will conquer Death, physically, really, for ever, in a new consciousness, in a transformed existence. The reign of Death will be over. And the Journey to the new deathless Horizon has already started. For the First time in the history of earthly Evolution, there has been a real Step taken in order to conquer and transcend Death. Sri Aurobindo and The Mother taking us with Them beyond Death. They are raising us to a deathless existence and a deathless consciousness. The Mind could not conquer Death for us, but now the Hope is there, for we will reach the Supermind, in our journey on the New Way, and the mankind will raised out of Death, really.

The entire mankind lives in blindness — the people all around are in blindness. They are born in Darkness and Tamas. There is no Light, or at best, there is only very partial half-light. And Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have lived for bringing for us the Eternal Light. They have endeavoured for leading the mankind beyond Darkness and Ignorance and blindness, in the Way of the Supramental Transformation. They have made everything ready, so that Man will conquer Darkness for ever, in a new consciousness, in a transformed existence. The reign of Darkness will be over. And the Journey to the new enlightened Horizon has already started. For the First time in the history of earthly Evolution, there has been a real Step taken in order to conquer and transcend Darkness and Ignorance, without going into Nirvana, without passing onto the Heaven. Sri Aurobindo and The Mother taking us with Them beyond Darkness and Ignorance. They are raising us to an enlightened existence and an enlightened consciousness. The Mind could not conquer Darkness and Ignorance for us, but now the Hope is there, for we will reach the Supermind, in our journey on the New Way, and the mankind will raised out of Darkness and Ignorance, really.

The entire mankind has been living with demons — the demons of death and darkness and division and ignorance, of cravings and desires, of disbelief and doubt, of envy and greed and hatred, of jealousy, of lust, and so many other demond. The Mind could not conquer these demons, could not cast them out. Now that we will reach Supermind, in our journey on the New Way, these demons will evaporate, really. And the Leaders for our journey on the New Way are Sri Aurobindo and The Mother.

And all these Works that They have done for us and now doing for us are the greatest of all miracles, ever shown here on earth.

Barin
21-2-2009
[Written on 21-02-2009]


Tagged with: Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, Mira Alfassa, Evolution, Supermind, Mind, The Way, The New Horizon

The Descent on 24th November

Prefatory:

I came across a web application named Conspirama [http://conspirama.com/], wherein there has been published an article named “PROPHECIES COMING TRUE: BIG BANG VS SPIRITUAL SCIENCE EXPERIMENT ... “” written by one Shankarlal. What interested me is a reference to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, or rather, the misrepresentations about Them.
Let me quote what have been the misrepresentations :

“Both Sri Aurobindo and Mother, fired by altruistic zeal to save mankind from imminent annihilation, dedicated themselves to most arduous practice of yoga for years to prepare spiritual environment conducive to such descent. Their dedication bore fruit. On November 24, 1926, the Mother announced to a small group of Sri Aurobindo’s disciples, that, Krishna’s supramental force had descended on earth and assumed a human form. It was the day on which Guru Siyag was born.

“Sri Aurobindo and Mother were convinced that the person, who was thus chosen for the manifestation of the Krishna consciousness in the physical world, would himself undergo the last three stages of ‘Anand’, ‘Chit’ and ‘Sat’. The chosen one’s mission would be to bring about the kind spiritual evolution that he has undergone himself. Sri Aurobindo and Mother were also convinced that if one man on earth underwent complete spiritual revolution, it was practically possible for millions of others to experience this divine transformation, by following the same method. They were aware of the evolution of the Chosen one to be subject to all the trial and tribulations that are part of every human life.”

͸͸͸͸͸

“They knew that eventually the chosen one would be made fully conscious of his real mission on earth. This happened in 1969 when Guru Siyag achieved the Gayatri Siddhi in the wee hours of a winter morning in a Rajasthan town. He was engulfed in the divine light of the supramental force, changing his life forever. In the distant coastal town of Pondichery in southern India, Mother, who was always connected with cosmic consciousness, instantly received the vibrations of this momentous happening. She simply said her own mission was complete, as Krishna’s supramental force had become active that day.

“Given below is an excerpt from Mother’s writings of the vision she saw: “November 26/27, 1968: Powerful and prolonged infiltration of supramental forces into the “body” everywhere at the same time, as though the whole body “bathed” in the forces that entered everywhere at the same time with a slight friction, the head down to the neck was the last receptive region. In 1969, on the 1st January 1969 at two o'clock in the morning a consciousness descended into the earth's atmosphere and “settled” there. It was a most marvelous descent, full of light, force, power, joy and peace and suffused the ‘whole’ earth.”

A perusal of the above quotes will be sufficient to see how the reference are being made to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother in order to prove and enhance the credibility of the so-called spiritual greatness of someone else, about whom none of the followers and devotees ever heard as long as they were physically and visibly present on earth.


OOOOO

The Day of Victory : 24th November 1926

Indeed, 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 came out from his room, which was seen by the Mother. She could immediately know that ‘something important has happened in the History of the Earth and Universe’. She called and asked for all the sadhaks 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 has described 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.”

OOOOO

Misrepresentations:

Thus, it is not a fact that on 24-11-1926, Krishna’s supramental force had descended on earth and assumed a human form.

As Sri Aurobindo has told, Krishna’s force that descended on earth on 24-11-1926 was not a supramental force; it was the descent of the Overmind force. Its purpose was preparing the earth and the atmosphere for the Descent of the Supermind, which took place on 29-02-1056. The force of Krishna was NOT and NEVER the supramental force, as claimed by writer of the article, Shankarlal, a follower of Guru Siyag. That is the first misrepresentation.

Secondly it has been told in the concerned article that on 24-11-1926, Krishna’s force assumed a human form. However, Sri Aurobindo stated: “It was the descent of Krishna into physical”.

Neither He nor The Mother, nor any of the disciples did ever state that Krishna’s force assumed a human form. None of Them did ever state that Krishna was reborn in a human shape. And that was never necessary for Their Work : The Supramental Descent and Transformation. The descent of Krishna into the physical does not mean the assuming of a human form; it means the descent into the physical consciousness on earth, for it’s preparation for it’s further evolution.
In fact, virtually the work of the descended overmind consciousness of Krishna was over, when the Supramental Consciousness descended on earth on 29-02-1956. Thus, that Sri Aurobindo stated that Krishna’s consciousness assumed a human form was the second misrepresentation.

Thirdly, neither Sri Aurobindo nor The Mother had ever said that Their endeavour would cause the descent of any Chosen One on earth. They aimed for the Supramental descent and transformation and creation, after which Sri Aurobindo himself will be born as the first supramental baing in the first supramental body. And in the mean time there wil be no Chosen One. In Their entire literature, there is NO such statement. Thus, speaking of the Chosen One is the third misrepresentation.

With reference to The Mother’s experiences on 27th November 1968 and the 1st November 1968, what the writer has stated we will see below.

It is said that on the Ist Janusry 1969, Guru Siyag “was engulfed in the divine light of the supramental force, changing his life forever. In the distant coastal town of Pondichery in southern India, Mother, who was always connected with cosmic consciousness, instantly received the vibrations of this momentous happening. instantly received the vibrations of this momentous happening. She simply said her own mission was complete, as Krishna’s supramental force had become active that day.”

The Mother has never said so — never has She declared that Her mission was complete. Her mission will be complete only when the Supramental Manifestation will be visibly realised on earth. And that will be, for She has assured us of that. To say that The Mother’s mission was complete, because of some realization by Guru Siyag, is a statement unsupported by any saying or writing by The Mother or by any of Her closest disciples like Nolinida, Champakla, Amalkiran, Madhav Pandit, Satprem or any body else. It has no basis at all. I am not stating Guru Siyag did not have the experiences — he might have the experiences, but their relationship with The Mother’s experiences is unfounded.

And the Supramental force became active on 29th February 1956 and not on ISt January 1969. A new consciousness — the Superman Consciousness — desended on that day. What happened on that day was that the suparemantal force — not the One that descended on 24-11-1926 — came closer to us , through The Mother. What happened on 1st January 1969 was not the Last and Final step taken by The Mother — and we refer to Her sayings or writings, NONE ELSE had spoken of coming face to face with the Superman Consciousness at that time.

Thus, to say that being conscious of some experience by Guru Siyag, The Mother said that Her mission was complete, is the fourth misrepresentation.

It is said that on the Ist Janusry 1969, Guru Siyag “was engulfed in the divine light of the supramental force, changing his life forever. In the distant coastal town of Pondichery in southern India, Mother, who was always connected with cosmic consciousness, instantly received the vibrations of this momentous happening. instantly received the vibrations of this momentous happening. She simply said her own mission was complete, as Krishna’s supramental force had become active that day.”

OOOOO

One Man’s Perfection

Even if the struggling world is left outside
One man's perfection still can save the world.
There is won a new proximity to the skies,
A first betrothal of the Earth to Heaven,
A deep concordat between Truth and Life:
A camp of God is pitched in human time.
[Savitri: Bk VII, Co V]

“One man” does not mean the so-called Chosen One. It refers to anyone, who can attain perfection. Sri Aurobindo or The Mother did not refer this line for any Chosen Guru. In fact, in Their system of spirituality, there is no other Guru — there is no traditional Guruvaada.
Sri Aurobindo has promised here — every human has the inherent capacity to rise to a spiritual height and integral perfection, by which the world at large — this struggling world — will be saved.

OOOOO

No Prophecy

Sri Aurobindo’s declaration on 24th November 1926 about the descent of the Consciousness of Krishna , the Overmind Consciousness, was NOT a prophecy. It was a statement of a spiritual fact, which occurred on that day. The descent of the Consciousness was in Himself. He, or The Mother, or any of the twenty-four disciples present there, did never make any prophecy about the birth or re-birth of Krishna in human form.

OOOOO

Another similar claim

Even some followers of Satya Sai Baba had a similar claim. Let me quote from what was written by one by H.H. Swami Saiexposedananda :
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 # posted by Tusar N Mohapatra in Auroramirabilis on 20 October 2006.]

[In this connection, the reader may have a perusal of The Day of Victory, an article written by me in All Choice.]

In my article The Day of Victory, I tried to successfully reach the conclusion that the Descent of Krishna’s Consciousness has nothing to do with the birth of Satya Sai.

Similarly, it is utterly wrong and false to connect the happening of the 24th November 1926, as declared by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, with the birth of Guru Siyag. I have nothing to say against Guru Siyag and his spiritual programmes. However, I am completely assured that the sincere followers of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother do not have any necessity to delve into and dwell on such absurd claims one after another!

Falsehood will finally give place to Truth.
May the Day of Victory remain victorious for ever!

Barindranath Chaki
05-02-2009

[Simultaneously published by me in ASPIRATION, All Choice and Sulekha.]

On The Mother

James Tse, my friend in ASPIRATION, has sent me a message on Aspiration

Hi Barindranath

Will you please tell me that if The Mother’s energy is the same as The Brahman? If The Brahman is the original creative force that created the entire universe, Did Brahman created The Mother and all others Avatars? Is The Mother the same as Krishna, Christ, Rama, Buddha?
Or The Mother above all Avatars?

OOOOO

The Mother is the Force of the Brahman, that is, What is known as the Supreme, as Existence-Consciousness-Bliss [Sat-chit-ānanda or sachchidānanda]. She is the Personification of the Conscious-Force of the Supreme.

Sri Aurobindo has said to us about The Mother :
“The One whom we adore as the Mother is the divine Conscious Force that dominates all existence, one and yet many-sided that to follow her movement is impossible even for the quickest mind and for the freest and most vast intelligence.
The Mother is the consciousness and force of the Supreme and far above all she creates. But something of her ways can be seen and felt through her embodiments and the more seizable because more defined and limited temperament and action of the goddess forms in whom she consents to be manifest to her creatures.”

OOOOO

Let us see the same Supreme in all the Avatars — and let us understand that The Mother is the Mother of ALL THAT IS. She is the Force that executes everything in existence, and She was there prior to Her birth as Mirra Alfassa and even after Her so-called passing away on 17-11-1973.

The earth is a phenomenon of Evolution — the Evolution of all that is involved in Matter. And what is involved? It is the Sachchidānanda. He became Matter only to manifest Himself. It is the Supreme that created the Manifestation. He thought, as per the Upanishadic saying: Eko
One Divine Being has became Many and that is this Manifestation. The Aim is the Manifestation of the Sachchidananda in each of the evolved being. The Goal of the Evolution is Manifestation of the Sachchidananda. Thus on earth there will be the Manifestation of Higher Consciousness, higher than Mind, higher than Life, Higher than Matter. But the said Consciousness will have a basis in the being that has manifested Mind and Life and Body — obviously the human being.

The Avatars —Krishna, Rama, Buddha, Christ — came as the humanity grew through the millenniums, grew in civilization and in consciousness and action and manifestation. But Man emerged in the lap of the vital animalhood, though together with mind and reason and intelligence and also with a psychic being not yet openly manifest in the race. He had and has an inner urge to grow towards the Goal, but there was only half-light, there was more of darkness and more of the possibility of Errors. So, the Avatars had to descend and lead the humanity, or even a part thereof, one step ahead.

There are traditions that say that this earth or this universe had to face Apocalypse or Pralaya six times, and this is the seventh chance. Traditions, including that of the Ancient civilization of Maya, also say that the next or the seventh Apocalypse is approaching. There are thoughts and fears that the human world is coming to an end very soon.

It has also said that we will be saved from any such apocalyptic turmoil and destruction only if grow ahead towards the Supramental Manifestation. Or the end becomes inevitable. We must seek and find and grow with the Truth — the Supramental Becoming — or else we must have to yield, so that the Supreme may take another new beginning, for He has to manifest as the Many.

Let me quote Nolini kanta Gupta here :
“As the world progresses what He expresses of Himself in the world becomes more and more the Divine.
Sri Aurobindo has used the word Supramental in order to be clear to people who live in the evolutionary external consciousness and who are aware of the way in which the terrestrial world has developed, telling them that it is something greater than the creation of man whom he always calls a mental being. He calls it Supramental to say that it is beyond mind.
But we can also say that it is something more divine than what has been manifested before. For the Infinity is there; that has no limit. Thus there will always be a growing perfection. What appears to us as imperfect today must have appeared as something perfect to which certain epochs of history yearned and aspired.
And there is no reason why the movement should stop. If it stopped it would mean an end of things – a new pralaya.” [Divine Living : Nolini Kanta Gupta]

The Mother has come to us so that we can be conscious and alert, so that we can step toward the right direction. She comes with Hope.

The Mother has said :
“Traditions tell us that a universe is created, then withdrawn into Pralaya, and then a new one comes; and according to them, ours is the seventh universe, it is the one that will not return to pralaya, but will go on progressing, without retreat. This is why, in fact, there is in the human being the need for permanence and for an uninterrupted progress — it’s because the time has come”…. … … [Mother’s Agenda, Vol.4]

The Mother came to us the time as come. There is a Hope, but also there is warning : Truth or Abyss.

If we continue to use our existence only for futile and superficial and ephemeral purposes, without looking and striving for the Next Step, if we do not yearn and strive for the Supramental Transformation, if we sleep over the golden opportunities brought to us by The Master and The Mother through the Supramental Manifestation, what waits for us is the Abyss.

Thus, The Mother came on earth with the Word that Man must transcend himself and grow into a higher being, who will no longer live with Darkness, Division, Death or Dissolution.

OOOOO

Let us know The Mother as The Mother of all that is manifested, as said by Sri Aurobindo. As we have seen and discussed, The Mother has come to us at a time, when the Supernature wants the mankind to transcend itself to bring upon earth a higher race of beings. And the Advent of the New Race is inevitable and the only course left to us. And to realize this Goal, She is the only Way. She is The Mother of the New World.

Barindranath Chaki
12-01-2009

[Originally published today in ASPIRATION.]

The Withdrawal of Sri Aurobindo

[A page from The New Horizon]



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 17th November 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 o of his (or her 0 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 descended the Mind of Light. And the Process of began and continued, we find the consequence if the Supramental Manifestation on the 29th February 1956. I am again placing below here the oft-quoted declaration of The Mother:

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

And now the Supermind is on earth, actively present on earth.

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. [Mother's Agenda Vol.1]

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 now looks 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 breeding for 1400 or so years.”

The goal of life is to die young — as late as possible. [Ashley Mantagu]

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.

Barindranath Chaki
9-12-2006

N.B.~

*Amrita or Amrit (Sanskrit: अमृत) is 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 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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The Withdrawals 1

My soul unhorizoned widens to measureless sight,
My body is God’s happy living tool,
My spirit a vast Sun of deathless light.
[Sri Aurobindo]


They say that Sri Aurobindo passed away on 5th December 1950. Even, it is said that it was His withdrawal. Did He really pass away, away from us, from the Humanity and the World? Did He pass into ignominy and ignorance and Darkness, into Death? Did He really withdraw Himself from the Mankind, from His Work of the Supramental Manifestation and Transformation?

In 1956, one of my teachers, son of one who closely knew Sri Aurobindo and remained in the Ashram, asked me the question: why did He die? At that time, I could not explain the matter or meet the challenge thrown to me. But the question lived in me and forced me to find the answer in course of time.

Majority of the people, now and then, took it and believed and knew it as a great withdrawal of a great Person, of a great Divine Person, who endeavored to cause descent of the Supermind and Manifestation of the Supramental Consciousness and Force. Indeed, the very event was beyond human words. Sri Aurobindo’s “Withdrawal” was a necessity for the Supramental Descent on earth.

Prior to that, Sri Aurobindo was ill. His illness continued and it caused a deep concern in the Ashram. Dr Nirodbaran and Dr Sanyal looked after his treatment. The illness prolonged. The Mother told Dr Sanyal: “He is fully conscious within, but he is losing concern in himself.” Champaklal, however, asked Sri Aurobindo : “Are you not using your Force?” The Master replied : “No.” Dr Nirodbaran asked then: “if you don’t use you Force, how is the disease to be cured?” The reply was: “Can’t explain, you won’t understand.”

The reply, if possible for us, to the human question about the Withdrawal would have also been—“You won’t understand.”

As K D Sethna puts it, Sri Aurobindo was both a Pilgrim of Day and also of Night. He went to the Highest height of Consciousness and, as well, he went to the lowest of the planes of Darkness and Inconscience, in order to kindle the Light there and accelerate the Transformation of the Earth and the mankind. He had to combat with Death, so that in due course, in the Next Evolution, Death comes to an end.

I made an assignation with the Night;
In the abyss was fixed our rendezvous:
In my breast carrying God’s deathless light
I came her dark and dangerous heart to woo.
I left the glory of the illumined Mind
And the calm rapture of the divinised soul
And travelled through a vastness dim and blind
To the grey shore where her ignorant waters roll.
I walk by the chill wave through the dull slime
And still that weary journeying knows no end;
Lost is the lustrous godhead beyond Time,
There comes no voice of the celestial Friend,
And yet I know my footprints’ track shall be
A pathway towards Immortality.
[A Pilgrim of Night : Sri Aurobindo]
The Mother wrote on 9th December, which is for the mankind the mantra of rejuvenation and of starting anew from the stupefaction that resulted from His “Withdrawal”:
To THEE who hast been the material envelope of our Master, to THEE our infinite gratitude. Before THEE who hast done so much for us, who hast worked, struggled, suffered, hoped, endured so much, before THEE who hast willed all, attempted all, prepared, achieved all for us,
before THEE we bow down and implore that we may never forget, even for a moment, all we owe to THEE.

As everybody knows, this has been inscribed on the Samadhi. This inscription has been addressed to “the material envelope” of Sri Aurobindo, but not to Sri Aurobindo himself.

Sri Aurobindo is a Being and a Consciousness and a Force that cannot die. His coming to earth was, and is, a Hope for the Earth and the Mankind, a Promise by the Supreme for the conquest of Ignorance and Darkness and Death on earth, a Dream to be fulfilled.

Sri Aurobindo did never leave us. His Presence is always with us here on earth. His “Withdrawal” was simply the act of leaving the body.

The Mother wrote on 7th December 1950:
“Lord, this morning Thou hast given me the assurance that Thou wouldst stay with us until Thy work is achieved, not only as a consciousness which guides and illumines but also as a dynamic Presence in action. In unmistaken terms Thou hast promised that all of Thyself would remain here and not leave the earth atmosphere until earth is transformed. Grant that we may be worthy of this Presence and henceforth everything in us be concentrated to the fulfilment of Thy sublime work.”

The Mother has even said that "Sri Aurobindo has come to announce to the world the beauty of the future that will be realized. He has come to bring not a hope but the certainty of the splendour towards which the world is moving. The world is not an unfortunate accident: it is a miracle moving towards its expression."

Thus, Sri Aurobindo is not only a Hope, He stands for a certitude — the certainty that through further Evolution and Progress, there will come the conquest of Ignorance and Darkness and Death. He embraced Death, so that Death and Darkness and Ignorance shall be conquered on earth. The Dream which Sri Aurobindo has bought for us is positively a Future Reality.

He dies that the world may be new-born and live.
[Savitri]

He is a turning point in the Evolution, in the Next Evolution. With his Descent on earth, the New Evolution has begun. He came to earth and is here to change the Earth and bring in Joy and Life and Light and conquer Death. He made a supreme sacrifice and left His Body, so that the Way is open to conquer Ignorance and Darkness and Death on earth.


He who has found his identity with God
Pays with his body’s death his soul’s vast light.
His knowledge immortal triumphs by his death.
[Savitri]

Sri Aurobindo’s sacrifice has been sufficiently and greatly fruitful, as The Mother continued His Work, which is also Her Work, and then there was the Supramental Descent on earth on the 29th February 1956. And then began the Supramental Manifestation on earth. The Mother walked into the New Body on 17-11-1973.
[Ref: The Transition— The Seventeenth November, by Barin Chaki].

There has been some progress, in the meantime, in the transition from Man to Superman. The Mother has said on 15 April 1972:
The transition from man to the supramental being is accomplished through the overman. There may be a few overman - there are - who will actually make that transition. [Mother’s Agenda]

Barin Chaki
8-12-2007

Written on 5th December 2007

[ This is a page from the website The New Horizon, published here in ASPIRATION, and also in All Choice, in reverence to The Master, on the anniversary of His Withdrawal.]