Thursday, July 17, 2008
Aju M speaks
To: "Tusar N. Mohapatra" <tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com>
Aju Mukhopadhyay speaks on the Comment by Anonymous on the demands for the independence of Auroville. [Date: 2008/7/17]: 444
Dear Tusar M,
ÕÕÕ RE the message by anonymous — what Barindranath has said stands good — it was not altogether good to say ignorant — it is certainly violation and it does not prove the knowledge of the other. Truth is that there are hundreds of differences raging in these organizations- all humans doing and raising — it is all right as Tusar proceeds — this is an intellectual forum and it will so deal with things — go inward and produce — a yogic way — let that be done but everyone has right to proceed in his ways.
Truly,
Aju M
From: aju mukhopadhyay <aju.mukhopadhyay@gmail.com>
To: "Tusar N. Mohapatra" <tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com>
Aju Mukhopadhyay speaks on the Comment by Anonymous on the demands for the independence of Auroville. [Date: 2008/7/15]: 444
Dear Tusar M and Friends,
Why not publish the id of the anonymous?
But a nice piece — it certainly carries weight. Though there are certain gaps — true that we should not deal with out and out politicians — if living within is the only goal why and who out of all will go out? commenting on the goings on of the organizations that the anonymous has made is also going out and could be contested! But it goes on— yes — less talk and more work — but who's working, How do you know?
The forum is to discuss — be it purified — come closer with straightforwardness.
Warmly to all
Aju Mukhopadhyay
Posted by me.
Barindranath Chaki
17-07-2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
A Comment on a Comment
I have repeatedly gone through the comment given by Anonymous on the post "Savitri Era Party demands independence of Auroville..." published by Tusar Mohapatra in Savitri Era. It created mixed reactions in me.
First of all, I wonder what made Anonymous to remain anonymous. It seems it is due to lack of courage. It would have been better and farer, if the writer would have given his name.
Secondly to say that Tusar is ignorant is too much of an attack on him. And as far as I know Tusar is not an ignorant person. Anonymous could have expressed what he wanted to convey, without calling Tusar ignorant. Whatever epithet Anonymous added to Mr. Nandivarman I am not going to question, as I don’t know anything about him.
Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville are two great symbols for all who love and follow The Mother and Sri Aurobindo throughout the World. The names are sacred, the places are sacred. They are creations of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Legally, they may be private institutions, but whenever there are reports of untoward events, followers and devotees are really hurt and aggrieved. Therefore, those who are in charge of the administration and management of these great institutions should be very careful, so that there is no scar or spot in the whiteness of the sacredness. It is natural that some of the followers and the devotees may react when they get some information of some event or incident touching the sacredness of these two symbols.
What Anonymous said could have been said in a better way, in a more polite way, without uttering the word ‘ignorant’. Anonymous, or for that matter anybody else, has every right to express himself, express his ideas and views, but without hurting the sentiments of others. We may differ from Tusar — but it can be expressed without any harshness. That much we may expect from one who advises and speaks about self-realization.
Personally, I feel that one may differ from Tusar about the issue whether Auroville should be free from the hands of the Government of India. It may be held that the involvement of the Government is better than the lack of involvement, which would eventually create anarchy and chaos in Auroville, as the Society in general is not yet free from the anti-social elements.
Regarding the Ashram, too, I feel that one should be impartial and let the Ashram and the Ashramites settle the matters of inner dispute, if any — until the things become uncontrollable and cross the limits! However, I hope and feel certainly that such a situation will never arise, as The Mother is there, along with the Presence of The Master. Very often, the human mind is too petty to understand and interfere and it creates quarrels and feuds!
I fully agree with Anonymous, when he says to live within and know one’s self. Indeed, that is the most important and the first task before each of us. Anonymous has rightly pointed this out. Indeed, our first task and goal should be to transform ourselves and to endeavour to realize the Truth that Sri Aurobindo and The Mother brought for us. It matters little whether one lives in the Ashram or in Auroville or in the world at large.
"One man's perfection still can save the world" — it is surely true. And each of us to aspire and strive for this Perfection!
However, to conclude, I may say that we cannot infringe upon the rights of anybody else in floating a party or in endeavoring to bring together the Aurobindonians [I prefer the word Aurobindonian to Aurobindian, the former term being used by K D Sethna and M P Pandit and some others]. If one has the urge, if one feels the Call, let him do it.
And it is of utmost importance that we should seek the Truth or the Self within, I fully agree, but that should not restrict us from attending the external world and solving its problems!
And let us collectively seek the Truth that The Mother and The Master have brought for us!
Barindranath Chaki
16-7-2008
OOOOO
[The concerned Comment :
From: Anonymous <http://in.mc88.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=noreply-comment@blogger.com>To: http://in.mc88.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com
Anonymous has left a new comment on the post "Savitri Era Party demands independence of Auroville...":
It is sad, Mr. Tushar, that though you claim to be some sort of Sri Aurobindo devotee - notwithstanding your coming up with such pathetically shallow and immature notions such as 'Savitri Era Party' - you are now associated and being felicitated by Mr. Nandhivarman, who is part of the pseudo-rationalist tribe, and a known mud-slinger at the Ashram, and at the Mother and Sri Aurobindo themselves, and who does it purely for base political gains.
The Internet is a powerful tool, but in the hands of the ignorant, such as yourselves, and the perverse, such as Mr. Nandivarman, it is easily misused. The 2 of you provide excellent examples of this. Hopefully, your readers will have the discernment to separate the chaff from the wheat - though the wheat is so rare to come by!
A piece of advice to you, to other Aurobindonians, and to myself: Discover the Divine within; the changes outside will follow. The less we encourage this mental and vital fret, the better for our collective growth and progress. For till we don't find Her within, our shrill cries from either bank of the river of phenomenal reality are equally foolish.
As to your occasional unsolicited comments and advice such as how Auroville should be autonomous, and how the Ashram should be better managed, refer once again to the above para. If you still feel the overwhelming urge to 'act' however, get down from your fibre-optic tower and see the deeper ground Reality of things.
It is my conviction - and I am hardly alone - that the Ashram and Auroville are shaping up beautifully, in the hands of individuals who are committed and dedicated even if imperfect, and who work more than they talk, and talk even less than they type. Of course there are wayward individuals everywhere, and all organisations have their share of them too, but the Hand that has guided so far, continues to guide, and slowly, ever so slowly but surely, those who have the eyes to see recognize that these centres of the Divine's concrete Presence and Work, grow onward towards the Light.
It is pointless to reply to your friend Mr. Nandhivarman; his motives are in question. The greater tragedy is when professed devotees like yourself are pulled into their devious game, and do not have the wisdom to realise that our only work is within ourselves, and our only genuine concern the kingdom within ourselves. May we grow wide, as the Vedas say.
V
P.S.: If you tell us that you are indeed conscious of that deeper reality within yourself, and that you are truly inwardly realised and convinced that it is necessary to set up 'systems', create a 'Savitri Era Party', 'save' the Aurobindonian community from impending doom and destruction wrecked by the wretched administrators you seem to conjure - well, sound the bugle, and perhaps we shall be inspired to join you. But at present you hardly come across as one who has the Knowledge or the Call. I can imagine there is much which can be changed for the better, in Auroville, in the Ashram, in India, in the world; but where does that change begin? Nay, Their workings are far more complex, intricate, and mysterious, and "One man's perfection still can save the world…" Posted by Anonymous to Savitri Era at 5:05 PM, July 07, 2008 ]
OOOOO
Posted in All Choice by Barindranath Chaki
******
From Devabrata ~
I fully agree with the spirit of Barindranath Chaki in relation of Sri Aurobindo and Auroville. There may be thousand and one lapses in these two esteemed institutions -but what ever it may be -it must be mended or corrected by the inmates of these institutions. Otherwise-the very purpose of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother will be defeated. Who are we to judge the situations there when we believe that The Mother is working still -and as per the Mother -Sri Aurobindo would not leave this world till the work is done?
With all reverence to Satprem I must say that it all started with him after he made public his personal opinions on the Ashramite open to the people. In spite of the Mother's repeated advice not to make public her political uttering -Satprem did not comply. His harsh comments on the Ashramites and his comparison of the Ashram with that of Vatican opened the gate of all this. Even after reading Agenda-some people -I know them-asked me the eligibility and the attainment of Nolini Kanta Gupta. It happened all for Satprem. He was much loved by the Mother (as The Mother loved all people of this world)-but this fact should not give him licence to vilify the Ashram. I knew many highly elevated Ashramites (they were hidden yogis) much after Satprem had left the Ashram-and I personally got sheltered by their spiritual power. I know still some persons -who are extremely dedicated sadhakas. Some Tamil groups and politicians are always keen to denigrate the Ashram. Thank you with all sincerity for writing this.
Regards.
Devabrata
9:27 PM
16-07-2008
My view:
Satprem was a great person, a great Follower of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo, a great Worker of The Mother. He has a great lot of lofty contributions to the Cause of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. And he was an Ashramite, a close devotee of The Mother. He has a lot of contributions for others, and his leaving the Ashram or his criticisms of the Ashram, if any, are not any part of his great and lofty contributions! One can now forget it. And it has nothing to do with the present acitivities of Nandiverman or other critics.
Barindranath Chaki
24-07-2008
Thursday, July 03, 2008
From Mamata Dash
Dear Mr. Chaki
We are back in Bangalore now. After staying here for a few days we will go back to Pondicherry.
I went through your article "The Victory Day'
About Satya Sai baba being the godhead who descended on 24th November 1926.. it has never been stated by the Mother or Sr. Aurobindo. So it can never be true. Do you remember one thing? In Agenda in which volume I do not remember now, Satprem has asked about Satya Sai Baba to the Mother. It is offered as 'S:
Satprem asked: Is he from the vital? She replied "yes'
I asked Michel or Patrice about this whether S menas Satya Sai baba. They said Yes it is about him.
So in case Satya Sai baba being the overmental godhead, She must have told it to Satprem at that time.
I have met Satya Sai baba, I sensed that he is never a fraud he has some power, I felt some vibration of godhead also. But Mother said he is from the vital. So I can not tell anything about it.
Good wishes, Mamata
Mamata Dash
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
A Comment
Gopal has said in connection with the article Sri Aurobindo and Avatar-hood in All choice...
Dearest Dada,
when Iwas in my college days, one of my classmates Sai Narayan, from Hyderabad, used to debate with me a lot of times that The Overmental Consciousness realized by Sri Aurobindo is materialized in the form of Satya Saibaba of Puttaparti. He used to claim that the date of Siddhi Day and Sai Baba's birthday are same, the 24th November. I never argued with because because at that time I was not at all in the circle of Master's life or literature. But I never accepted it. This post from you clears out all such claims by many people. Even Kalki bhagavan claims that he is the Supramental Consciousness materialized!
May be it is like a parasitic worm, clinging with a fedder animal. Getting some personal benefit being in Their Light..... 2:27 AM
Posted by Gopal [http://gopal-athani.blogspot.com/]
Friday, June 27, 2008
Sri Aurobindo and Avatar-hood
The Mother, Mira Alfassa, said thus of Sri Aurobindo :
What Sri Aurobindo represents in the world’s history is not a teaching, not even a revelation; it is a decisive action, direct from the Supreme.
She further said:
Sri Aurobindo is an emanation of the Supreme who came on earth to announce the manifestation of a new race and a new world: the supramental.
Let us prepare for it in all sincerity and eagerness.
There are other messages on Sri Aurobindo, given by the Mother during His birth centenary. One of the messages is as follows:
Man is the creation of yesterday.
Sri Aurobindo came to announce the creation of tomorrow : the coming of the supramental being.
Sri Aurobindo has said :
The Avatar is necessary when a special work is to be done and in crises of the evolution.
According Him, the Supreme has three aspects, the Transcendental, the Universal and the Individual. The Individual Person of the Supreme, the Lord, descends on earth, when there is the need of a special Work to be done here, in the matter of the Manifestation of the Divine, in the Progression of the Evolution.
And the Evolution aims at progressively more and more complete a Manifestation of the Divine on earth.
OOOOO
A few persons have said that Sri Aurobindo was the ninth Avatar of Vishnu. And it is also further claimed by them that He has again been reborn in the year 1963 and is the Tenth Avatar of Vishnu.
These claims are not true.
Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have never and nowhere stated that He was an Avatar of Vishnu. As The Mother has stated, Sri Aurobindo is an emanation of the Supreme. Vishnu is an aspect of the Supreme, according to the Indian mythology.
Sri Aurobindo has written about the Ten Avatars and has given His view which is very much clear and reasonable and in accordance with His Teaching. According to Him, the Buddha was the ninth Avatar, as it is usually accepted. And Kalki is, as usual, the tenth Avatar.
Sri Aurobindo has said, in this connection:
Avatarhood would have little meaning if it were not connected with the evolution. The Hindu procession of the ten Avatars is itself, as it were, a parable of evolution. First the Fish Avatar, then the amphibious animal between land and water, then the land animal, then the Man-Lion Avatar, bridging man and animal, then man as dwarf, small and undeveloped and physical but containing in himself the godhead and taking possession of existence, then the rajasic, sattwic, nirguna Avatars, leading the human development from the vital rajasic to the sattwic mental man and again the overmental superman. Krishna, Buddha and Kalki depict the last three stages, the stages of the spiritual development – Krishna opens the possibility of overmind, Buddha tries to shoot beyond to the supreme liberation but that liberation is still negative, not returning upon earth to complete positively the evolution; Kalki is to correct this by bringing the Kingdom of the Divine upon earth, destroying the opposing Asura forces. The progression is striking and unmistakable.
As for the lives in between the Avatar lives, it must be remembered that Krishna speaks of many lives in the past, not only a few supreme ones, and secondly that while he speaks of himself as the Divine, in one passage he describes himself as a Vibhuti, vrishneenām vāsudevah. We may therefore fairly assume that in many lives he manifested as the Vibhuti veiling the fuller Divine Consciousness. If we admit that the object of Avatarhood is to lead the evolution, this is quite reasonable, the Divine appearing as Avatar in the great transitional stages and as Vibhutis to aid the lesser transitions. [Letters on Yoga]
And Sri Aurobindo has never described in the discussion above or elsewhere that He is one among the Ten Avatars as mentioned in the Indian mythology.
In the Ten Avatars, let us remember, the name of Krishna is not there, though Krishna’s elder brother Balarāma is enumerated there. Though, He is definitely an Avatar, whose words have created the Gita. Similarly, Sri Aurobindo need not be in the series of the Ten Avatars. Sri Aurobindo Himself admits Kalki, who is yet to come and is regarded as the Tenth Avatar.
OOOOO
Sri Aurobindo’s Avatar-hood is of an extra-ordinary and final importance, as the purpose of his Advent on earth is the transformation of the humanity, the transcendence of the human race.
The sole aim of the Evolution, now, is to go beyond the human race. A new Race, the Supramental Race is now the Task and the Aim. The Supramental Consciousness, which has descended already on 29-2-1956, is now active and it is now the Divine Will.
And Sri Aurobindo is with us till His work is done. Has not the Mother said on 7th December 1950 that He will be with us till His Work, the Work of the Supramental Creation and Transformation, is done?
The Mother said :
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 unmistakable 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 marvellous Presence and that henceforth everything in us be concentrated on the one will to be more and more perfectly consecrated to the fulfilment of Thy sublime Work.
The Mother had further said on 21 December 1969 :
Sri Aurobindo is constantly in the subtle physical, very active there. I see him almost daily, and last night I spent many hours with him. If you become conscious in the subtle physical, you will surely meet him, it is what he called the true physical — it has nothing to with the psychic.
Sri Aurobindo has categorically told The Mother, as declared by Her, that he will return as the first supramental being in a supramental body. He is not to return as human being any more.
The Mother said on 11 April 1952:
When I asked Him ( December 8, 1950) to resuscitate his body, He clearly answered: “I left this body purposely. I will not take it back. I shall manifest again in the first supramental body built in the supramental way.”
Hence, we will exhibit our disbelief in The Mother and Sri Aurobindo, if we think and profess that He is reborn again in 1963, or at any other time, as a human being and as the tenth Avatar. The Mother has declared that She had spent time with Sri Aurobindo in the subtle physical on the 21st December 1969 and on many other days. She had never declared that He is born again as a human being or in a human body.
Mankind should, in all humility and with all reverence, wait for His return in the first supramental body built in the supramental way. The Time depends, greatly, on mankind; the humanity should be ready for the change.
Barindranath Chaki
27-6-2008
Comments in Sulekha:
scribblingpad: Why KRISHNA is not there?
Reply by barin chaki: Shrikrishnastu bhagavaan swayam — that is the answer.
komlet : Shi Barindranathji, I read it...........and has to re-read it..............thanks for being here and sharing pearls of wisdom with us.
OOO
Comments from others:
From: Raaye <http://in.mc88.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=kripatirtha97@yahoo.com>Date: 2008/6/28Subject: Sri Aurobindo/Barindranath Chaki/All ChoiceTo: "Tusar N. Mohapatra" <http://in.mc88.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com>Dear Tushar Babu, It may be read by you but there may be others whom this may help knowing Sri Aurobindo.
*****
Dear Barindranath,
How are you? I keep your nice discourse on Avatarhood-
Love,
Aju Mukhopadhyay
OOO
Saturday, June 14, 2008
From Mamata Dash
Dear Mr. Chaki
Recently I am following all the mails that are sent to me. I am grateful to you for including my name in to this discussion. I read your opinion about me even... I really do not know whether I m worthy of Sri Aurobindo and Mother but as you say I do not want to be something. I am surprised by this Thea ... who is she? How we never knew about her? Do you know her? How are her books? How can she claim to be next to Mother?
We are in London now with our daughter. We are here since 5 months. We will be back to Pondy in July. Mira Aditi has now requested me to translate 4th Agenda and they are now to publish 3rd volume which has been translated before. The second edition of Adventure is now published and available. What are you doing now? How are all in your family?
Regards
Mamata
09-06-2008
Mamata Dash
[ Mamata Dash is the Oriya translator of Mira Aditi Centre. She and her family members are ardent followers of Sri Aurobindo And The Mother. ]
Posted by me
Barin Chaki
14-06-2008
Monday, June 02, 2008
Truth will prevail
The Mother had declared that the Supramental Consciousness descended on earth on the 29th December 1956.
During the common meditation on Wednesday The 29th February 1956, The Mother had taken the Action for the FIRST SUPRAMENTAL MANIFESTATION on earth. She says:
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.
Thus the truth is that the Supramental Consciousness is NOW on earth and definitely it is active. And if It has to establish Itself on earth and transform the Mankind, then It has to definitely chose some instruments. The Mother as stated that five persons knew of the Realisation on the day itself, i.e., on the 29th February 1956.
Again She 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]
That was in 1972. Hence it will be proper to believe that there are a few persons now on earth, who are in the Overmind Consciousness, and the Work of the Supramental Consciousness is being carried through them. It cannot be that none else is there, or none else can be there, after Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, who is in Touch with the Supramental Consciousness. The followers of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have to have absolute faith in whatever They have said. Any doubt or disbelief will turn us insincere.
OOOOO
It is argued by someone that a table cannot stand on two legs and it needs three legs. Similarly, Sri Aurobindo and The Mother are two legs of a table, and the table needs a third leg. And the third leg is someone who is regarded by some as the Third Avatar. To compare Sri Aurobindo with two legs of a table is really funny and it is an insult to Them. They have never told about this third leg. They have never told that a third Avatar is necessary or a third Avatar is to come to fulfill and accomplish their Work.
The Mother has said in 1972 about a few persons who will be in Overmind Consciousness. She would have told us about the Third Avatar if that would have been the Truth. Could She be ignorant about the coming of the Third Avatar?
I have earlier said about this in this my blog All Choice, which is quoted below :
The Mother and Sri Aurobindo have never said anywhere that there would come a third Avatar, after Them, to complete Them. Of course, there will be others who will carry onward and complete The Work which They began. They will be Their instruments. Even there may be some Vibhutis, as described in the book The Mother.To bring in and add the Idea of Trinity and Trimurty and the references to Triguna and Tridosha in order to activate the Frozen Force of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, does not simply fit in the Philosophy and Teaching of Sri Aurobindo. His Teaching is complete and the most synthetic — it excludes nothing. Nothing is left there so that someone else will fill up the gap.
The Idea of Trinity etc was not new or unknown to Sri Aurobindo. According to Him, the Trinity is the Transcendental, the Cosmic and the Individual Divine.
If one still presses the idea of Trinity, I would say that The Mother has already answered the question. She said to Huta:Love. love and love as much as you can … the Lord, Sri Aurobindo and me. None of this love is wasted.
And one may still argue that The Mother referred to Sri Aurobindo by saying the words ‘the Lord’. But it is not so. There was a question asked to The Mother :
Mother, what is the difference between the Lord and Sri Aurobindo?The Mother says:
There is no essential difference, but the Lord is All and Sri Aurobindo is a part but Conscious of the Supreme Lord of whom He is an emanation.
Thus, those were the Ideas of Trinity Sri Aurobindo and The Mother had.
OOOOO
Let me refer to one more dangerous assumption. I am quoting what recently Alan Kazlev has written:
Add to that PNB's curious claim that her son, known as "the Fourth" (what happened to the Law of Three?) is the reincarnation of Sri Aurobindo (i am not joking). This seems to be an example of the danger, on encountering the great power of the Intermediate Zone, of grandiose opinions. And this is an even bigger reason why I do not consider PNB to be the sole and legitimate successor of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.
The claim is not true and is against what the Mother has said:
Some words of the Mother after Sri Aurobindo's passing
Sri Aurobindo has given up his body in an act of supreme unselfishness, renouncing the realisation in his body to hasten the hour of the collective realisation. Surely if the earth were more responsive, this would not have been necessary.
When I asked him to resuscitate he clearly answered:“I have left this body purposely. I will not take it back. I shall manifest again in the first supramental body built in the supramental way.”
***** (Mother India, December 1967)
Thus , there is no possibility of Sri Aurobindo’s being re-incarnated in a human body.
OOOOO
A true follower of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo need not have to take recourse to mud slinging. If someone does so, as has been done by someone, as conveyed to me by my friend Tusar Mohapatra and by some other person through e-mail, I am not going to return the mud slinging.
Not also a true follower shall start beat his own drums.
I am on my Way, as are Tusar, Aju, Alan Kazlev, Mamata Dash and others enlisted in the e-mail. We are definitely on the Way inspired by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. We are not engaging ourselves in debates. That is never our primary work or method.
I know all these four instruments of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo, whom I have named, and I am sure the Higher Consciousness is in touch with them and made them Its instruments. Whether or not these instruments are in touch with the Supramental Consciousness, partly or fully, is the concern of The Mother. Others need not be concerned about these instruments in a negative way. Whatever work of The Mother they are doing, it is Her concern. And when She is concerned, their beings are definitely in Touch and in Obedience, and others need not decry them.
The outer being of the instrument, sometimes, may not even be conscious of the Touch of the Higher Force, but their inner beings are surely conscious.
I am on my Way, along with a few others, and the Truth shall prevail.
Barin Chaki
01-06-2008
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Thoughts and Aphorisms 11A
(Thoughts and Aphorisms: Sri Aurobindo)
The human being has a body and a vital being, to be mastered and governed by a mental being. The vital being animates the physical being, and is the source of all passions and emotions and sentiments. But the mental being is able to fully control and govern the body only in rare cases — where the mental being is formed, organized and individualized, having a personality.
Every human being, as he is now, does not necessarily have a personality. In this connection, The Mother says: “In the great mass of human beings the mind is something fluid which has no organization of its own, and therefore it is not a personality. And as long as the mind is like that, fluid, unorganized, with no cohesive of its own and without personality, it cannot survive. ”
A fluid and unorganized mind can not then survive the death of the physical body. The mental being then is dissolved in the mental region, and the physical body gets dissolved in the physical substance.
What our mind generally is?
We may see what Sri Aurobindo says:
Our mind is a house haunted by the slain past,
Ideas soon mummified, ghosts of old truths,
God's spontaneities tied with formal strings
And packed into drawers of reason's trim bureau,
A grave of great lost opportunities,
Or an office for misuse of soul and life
And all the waste man makes of heaven's gifts
And all his squanderings of Nature's store,
A stage for the comedy of Ignorance.
[Savitri : Book II: Canto XIII]
But when there is a mental being with a personality, it can survive the death of the physical body and it can continue life after life, birth after birth.
Let us keep in mind that here the word personality has been used in a special sense — to have a personality, the mental being must have to stand erect without depending on the body and the vital being, with a full control over them.
As The Mother says, in the mental atmosphere on earth, there are independent mental personalities, who have continued their existence, independently, even after the physical existence, the body, is no more there. When the soul re-incarnates, the mental personality also re-incarnates, “carrying with it the memories of the previous lives.”
However, as Sri Aurobindo has stated, the continuity of the mental personality is not really what Immortality is, though it is an effect and an accompaniment of Immortality.
Immortality relates to the essential being of each individual human being, which is not different from the universal Self. To realize and live the conscious existence of that essential individual being, which has no beginning and no end, is what Immortality is.
Let us listen to the Call from Sri Aurobindo :
"Why camest thou to this dumb deathbound earth,
This ignorant life beneath indifferent skies
Tied like a sacrifice on the altar of Time,
O spirit, O immortal energy,
If 'twas to nurse grief in a helpless heart
Or with hard tearless eyes await thy doom?
Arise, O soul, and vanquish Time and Death."
[Savitri: Book VII: Canto II]
[Continued]
Barin Chaki
11-05-2008
Friday, May 09, 2008
Thoughts and Aphorisms 10B
My soul knows that it is immortal. But you take a dead body to pieces and cry triumphantly, “Where is your soul and where is your immortality?”
(Thoughts and Aphorisms: Sri Aurobindo)
[From continuation]
One cannot find the Soul by dissecting the dead body. One cannot find the Soul through the senses or through emotions or passions or through the deduction and induction of logic and reason. One has to rise above the senses and the emotions and reason and ascend to the higher range of Consciousness.
Even, as we know, life is not there in a dead body — but we can conclude that there is life in a living body. Similarly, when the Soul departs, the body is dead, and the soul cannot be found there.
Through the tenets of the physical sciences, through the use of a purely physical and “scientific” consciousness, you cannot reach the Soul.
The Mother says:
So when you imagine that you can know the secrets of Nature and still remain in a purely physical consciousness, you are entirely deceived. And this habit of demanding concrete material proofs before accepting the reality of something is one of the most glaring effects of ignorance.
One has to rise above doubt and disbelief. To rise above doubt and ignorance and the sense and the ordinary physical consciousness — that is the Way.
OOOOO
According to Sri Aurobindo, the eternal Origin is the Pure Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, Sat-Chit-Ananda, whom we may call the Divine, the Supreme, the All-Existence, or in any other suitable name. And the Divine All-Existence is also involved and omnipresent in the vast material cosmos, which is but the Manifestation of All-Existence Himself. The Divine has become the Manifestation, but has remained “hidden” behind the actual phenomenon of things. Substance or Matter is the initial Form of this Manifestation.
In this Manifestation, the Divine has become the Many. Or rather, All-Existence has also manifested His individual aspect and has expressed Himself as the Many, through the manifold expressions of Life and Mind. Each living being has a Soul — to express the matter in the ordinary human language. But in Reality, each soul has or may have a living body, and he soul has remained “hidden” and taken the masks of Matter and Life and Mind.
Soul is, however, independent of Life and Matter and Mind. It may not have a body, and it may not also have any participation in the Manifestation, though that is to be the ultimate aim for the ultimate fulfilment.
A formless spirit became the soul of form.
All there was soul or made of sheer soul-stuff;
A sky of soul covered a deep soul-ground.
All here was known by a spiritual sense:
Thought was not there but a knowledge near and one
Seized on all things by a moved identity,
A sympathy of self with other selves,
The touch of consciousness on consciousness
And being's look on being with inmost gaze
And heart laid bare to heart without walls of speech
And the unanimity of seeing minds
In myriad forms luminous with the one God.
Life was not there, but an impassioned force,
Finer than fineness, deeper than the deeps,
Felt as a subtle and spiritual power,
A quivering out from soul to answering soul,
A mystic movement, a close influence,
A free and happy and intense approach
Of being to being with no screen or check,
Without which life and love could never have been.
Body was not there, for bodies were needed not,
The soul itself was its own deathless form
And met at once the touch of other souls
Close, blissful, concrete, wonderfully true.
[Savitri : Book II: Canto XIV]
OOOOO
The Soul is eternally an individual expression of the Divine — the One is also the Many: the Many are also the One. The Manifestation of the living beings and the human beings has been a matter of Evolution on earth. And in course of Evolution, through the Supramental Manifestation, the inherent immortality of the Soul — of the Psychic Being, as Sri Aurobindo puts it — will be expressed through and in the Supramental Body also.
All earth shall be the Spirit's manifest home,
Hidden no more by the body and the life,
Hidden no more by the mind's ignorance;
An unerring Hand shall shape event and act.
The Spirit's eyes shall look through Nature's eyes,
The Spirit's force shall occupy Nature's force.
This world shall be God's visible garden-house,
The earth shall be a field and camp of God,
Man shall forget consent to mortality
And his embodied frail impermanence.
ooooo
All then shall change, a magic order come
Overtopping this mechanical universe.
A mightier race shall inhabit the mortal's world.
On Nature's luminous tops, on the Spirit's ground,
The superman shall reign as king of life,
Make earth almost the mate and peer of heaven,
And lead towards God and truth man's ignorant heart
And lift towards godhead his mortality.
[Savitri : Book XI: Canto I]
Barin Chaki
09-05-2005
[Published in barin chaki's blog in Sulekha on 18-04-2008.]
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Some Viewpoints
I also find a message from M Alan Kazlev in this regard, which I quote below:
hi Tusar
I do find the students of PNB (Thea) to be sincere and decent people. It is just that, like you, I cannot agree with their belief that PNB is an avatar.
best wishes
alan
I fully agree with Alan.
I am quoting below the latest message from Roberts to Tusar:
My Dear Tusar,
People such as who have come to Sri Aurobindo’s work without a direct understanding forged in the fires of a yogic tapasya believe only in the IDEA of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. You have not yet attained the lived experience of their message. And because of this limitation, you have unknowingly entombed this greatest spiritual work of the Age in a religious dogma which you and others preside over as the final authorities of their message. This is not a Supra-mental realization but a MENTAL one. When what I write challenges your dogmatic mental beliefs, you respond with an indignant snarl, arrogantly proclaiming my words to be “dishonest concoctions, spiritual distortions and contagious curios.” What unbelievable hypocrisy. You have not read the first word of any of Thea’s books yet you dismiss her as an irrelevant interloper. This is beyond arrogance, it is simply dishonest.
Everything you have written here about philosophy and ontology is an old mental view based on BEING and its correspondences. By this approach you attempt to FREEZE Sri and the Mother as the eternal symbols of Purusha and Prakriti, with no movement or continuity but this is NOT Sri Aurobindo’s message. He wrote:
"The significance of our existence here determines our destiny... If there is a Being that is becoming, a Reality of existence that is unrolling itself in Time, what that being, that reality secretly is what we have to become, and so to become is our life's significance." The Life Divine, Chapter 28. - Sri Aurobindo
In order to move beyond this frozen duality of BEING into a dynamic reality of existence and Destiny, a THIRD principle is required to add synthesis and Becoming. This is a fundamental principal of Vedic knowledge. It may be called “the Law of Three” for it expresses an irreducible truth that at the heart of the creation lies a tripartite harmony of energy or “seed” from which the entire cosmos evolves. The three principle gods of India, the “Trimurti” of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are representative of this essential truth and reflect its supreme importance. The ancient tradition of Ayurveda honors this essential harmony of Three as the “Tridoshas” (the three energies), the primary factors of the human body that govern our health. In the Bhagavad Gita this occult knowledge is described as the “Three Gunas” and is extolled by Krishna as the basis of an Ultimate Wisdom. In Christianity this eternal formula is simply known as the “Trinity of God.” In more modern times this sublime principle was appropriated by the philosopher Hegel to describe his dialectical process of Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis.
The ‘Law of Three’ permeates myth, legend and religious forms because it is an irreducible archetype. For this reason, among many others, I find it stunningly naive that you and many of the followers of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have glibly dismissed Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet (Thea) and her prodigious body of Supramental knowledge as irrelevant to their epochal yoga. Was it not Sri Aurobindo himself who wrote?
“While the Divine is One, it is also manifold... It is at once Transcendental, Cosmic and Individual. By knowing the eternal unity of these three powers of the eternal manifestation, God, the Cosmos and the Individual self, and their intimate necessity to each other, we come to understand existence itself.…” Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga
Until this error is corrected, we will continue the religious worship of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother with no real understanding of their message and this work will languish for another forty years.
Perhaps you will remember Tusar, that the Mother herself said that the leadership of this work would be based upon REALIZATION, and KNOWLEDGE. And how is this leadership to arise if people who have been given the sacred responsibility of broadcasting Sri Aurobindo’s message to the world use it to indulge their own intellectual hypocrisy? The Hour of God is upon us now as never before,
“…woe to them whose ears are sealed to the call… and thrice woe to them who are strong and ready yet waste the force and misuse the moment, for them is irreparable loss or great destruction.”
Perhaps you should take this to heart.
In the service of Truth, Robert
OOOOO
On perusal of the message of Robert to Tusar, I find that there has been attack on Tusar that he arrogantly proclaimed the words of Robert to be “dishonest concoctions, spiritual distortions and contagious curios.” Robert declares that Tusar’s words are an indignant snarl and arrogant proclamation. So, Robert has tried to bat in the same fashion that he thinks to be the fashion of Tusar’s batting. If Tusar’s presentation does not seem to him to be Supramental, Robert’s claims are also not Supramental. The Supramental does not at all have the necessity of similar actions and reactions, of trying to prove Itself before others that It is present. When the Sun rises, darkness recedes. One does not search out the Sun by lighting a torch or a lamp.
Robert has rightly quoted the following :
"The significance of our existence here determines our destiny... If there is a Being that is becoming, a Reality of existence that is unrolling itself in Time, what that being, that reality secretly is what we have to become, and so to become is our life's significance." [Life Divine : Sri Aurobindo]
If there is a Being, there is a becoming. This is known by all who are in touch with the Truth Sri Aurobindo represents. This Becoming is an Involution and Evolution of the Being, from the Being.
There is a reference to a frozen duality of BEING : obviously, that is a reference to the dual godhead of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Are They frozen, without a third principle? To say that would really be too much of indignation and disdain. If The Mother and Sri Aurobindo are frozen, who else can be there to lead the onward becoming towards the New World? Has anyone the audacity to say that someone else is there to liberate Them from the frozenness?
The Mother and Sri Aurobindo have never said anywhere that there would come a third Avatar, after Them, to complete Them. Of course, there will be others who will carry onward and complete The Work which They began. They will be Their instruments. Even there may be some Vibhutis, as described in the book The Mother.
To bring in and add the Idea of Trinity and Trimurty and the references to Triguna and Tridosha in order to activate the Frozen Force of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, does not simply fit in the Philosophy and Teaching of Sri Aurobindo. His Teaching is complete and the most synthetic — it excludes nothing. Nothing is left there so that someone else will fill up the gap.
The Idea of Trinity etc was not new or unknown to Sri Aurobindo. According to Him, the Trinity is the Transcendental, the Cosmic and the Individual Divine.
If one still presses the idea of Trinity, I would say that The Mother has already answered the question. She said to Huta:
Love. love and love as much as you can … the Lord, Sri Aurobindo and me. None of this love is wasted.
And one may still argue that The Mother referred to Sri Aurobindo by saying the words ‘the Lord’. But it is not so. There was a question asked to The Mother :
Mother, what is the difference between the Lord and Sri Aurobindo?
The Mother says:
There is no essential difference, but the Lord is All and Sri Aurobindo is a part but Conscious of the Supreme Lord of whom He is an emanation.
Thus, those were the Ideas of Trinity Sri Aurobindo and The Mother had.
Conclusively, I say that I have a great regard for Thea [PNB] as a great spiritual person and have read some of her writings, and all her followers and students have every right to regard her in the way as they think best, for she is a Guru for them. However, I do not regard her to be an Avatar.
And I have no intention to question the faith and conviction of Roberts, who is on his Way.
Barindranath Chaki
03-05-2008
