The First Step

Hill after hill was climbed and now,
Behold, the last tremendous brow
And the great rock that none has trod:
A step, and all is sky and God.

[One Day : Sri Aurobindo]


The Evolution from the Ape to Man was over many a millennium back. The Homo Neanderthal and then the Homo Sapiens came into being. But Man was groping in utter Darkness : he did not find his Way, and even if it was shown to him or even if he discovered it, he lost it. He lost his Way, though his existence was and is the Search of the Way from Darkness to Light.

“Hill after hill was climbed…” — several realizations were there before Man — the Divine came to us in one form or another and led the Way. Avatars were there who climbed the hills.

And the last great rock was still there untouched, unclimbed — the rock “that none has trod” : the rock of the Supramental Consciousness. The Supramental Realization was the Step that was to be taken.

And it was Sri Aurobindo who took the Step— the first Step. That was the Task before Him, before Sri Aurobindo The Avatar.

OOOOO

On 4th April, 1910, at 4PM, Sri Aurobindo arrived at and took His first Step on Pondicherry. He had left Calcutta and, thereby, British India on 1st April 1910, and proceeded towards Colombo in a steamer named SS Duplex. As revealed from the records, He traveled in the steamer as one Jyotindra Mitter and the ticket was up to Colombo, so that His movements remain utterly misleading to the Police of British India. Bijoy Nag, Sri Aurobindo’s companion in the journey, was named Bankim Chandra Basak. On the way to Colombo, they dropped in Pondicherry.

That was the First Step by the One who brought the Greatest Revolution in the spiritual endeavours taken by Mankind. That was the end of the revolutionary chapter in the life of Sri Aurobindo — and then began His journey towards to the New World, the Supramental World, the New Creation — His true Work —the New Vision and the New Way before mankind.

OOOOO
In 1906, Sri Aurobindo left Baroda and came to Calcutta, as the first Principal of the newly formed Bengal National College. However, He soon resigned that post, being more and more actively involved in the Nationalist Movement. We should know and remember that Sri Aurobindo was the first of the Nationalist leaders who thought about a completel independence for India as the goal of the Movement, and for several years he was practically involved in this struggle. Consequently, He was arrested in the well-known Alipore Bomb Case. He was kept in solitary confinement for about a year as an 'under-trial' prisoner in Alipore jail. During this period, He had a great spiritual experience, the second of the major spiritual experiences of his life.
After He was acquitted and released, the British authorities continued to pursue him, due to the continued activities of the Revolutionaries. An inner Voice asked him to go, at first to Chandernagore, and then to Pondicherry. He secretly left British India, as He was being persecuted as a politically dangerous person, for having dreamt of the Independence of India, and then took refuge in Pondicherry.

OOOOO

In Pondicherry, He concentrated intensively and extensively to the exploration of the new spiritual possibilities. When The Mother [Mira Alfassa] joined Him and when, later, the Ashram was formed, with Her collaboration and using His newfound spiritual and Supramental discoveries and experiences and wisdom, He continued His Work: the Adventure of Consciousness, through the Supramental Discovery and Its Ascent, Descent, and through the Supramental Transformation, which He found to be the only solution for all the human problems, continuing for millennia.

What happened in Pondicherry on the 4th of April 1910, was the beginning of a unique Spiritual History. As it happened, it seemed that everything was set by the unseen Hands, ready from beforehand, and unfolded by The Divine Dreamer’s Will, through previously thought and shaped events, like the unfoldment of the Divine Lotus! And in ourse of Time, we find that as a consequence of this First Step, now the Whole earth and the the mankind are on the threshold of a Great Change.

Sr Aurobindo, along with The Mother, had the New Vision, the Golden Vision. He has foreseen the enlightned and golden Future on our earth, and hasthen endeavoured to transform the earth, to make His Vision true and real.

I saw the Omnipotent's flaming pioneers
Over the heavenly verge which turns towards life
Come crowding down the amber stairs of birth;
Forerunners of a divine multitude,
Out of the paths of the morning star they came
the little room of mortal life.
I saw them cross the twilight of an age,
The sun-eyed children of a marvellous dawn,
The great creators with wide brows of calm,
The massive barrier-breakers of the world
And wrestlers with destiny in her lists of will,
The labourers in the quarries of the gods,
The messengers of the Incommunicable,
architects of immortality.

OOO
Their tread one day shall change the suffering earth
And justify the light on Nature's face.

OOO
All shall be done for which our pain was borne.
Even as of old man came behind the beast
This high divine successor surely shall come
Behind man's inefficient mortal pace,
Behind his vain labour, sweat and blood and tears:

OOO
He shall take on him the burden of the gods;
All heavenly light shall visit the earth's thoughts,
The might of heaven shall fortify earthly hearts;
Earth's deeds shall touch the superhuman's height,
Earth's seeing widen into the infinite.

[Savitri, Book III, Canto IV: Sri Aurobindo]

Barin Chaki
Written on 04-04-2008,
Published on 07-04-2008

On 'The Divine Moment'

Comments on 'The Divine Moment'

[The Divine Moment was simultaneously published in Sulekha. The following are the comments made on The Divine Moment in Sulekha.]

♥ komlet posted in Sulekha 3 days ago
Barin Chaki.....the whole write up is so well versed and aims to strike the heart of a seeker
......read and get in touch of something special...........perhaps i can not define it right now,
thanks for your wonderful notes.

♥ krishnabaalu posted in Sulekha 3 days ago :
Wonderful; The Mother and Sri Aurobindo would have changed the world if we Indian's had realized the power of Sri Aurobindo. The true spiritual power and yogi of Modern World.

Krishna Baalu

♥ barin chaki posted in Sulekha 24 hrs ago
Thank you, komlet.
Thank you, krishnabaalu

Both of you are really special, as The Divine Moment has touched both of you.

When komlet said that there is something special, she was right, as the said Divine Moment is still alive and active, more alive and active than the otherwise dull and fleeing moments!!

krishnabaalu rightly said that the world would now have already been changed, if Indians would have accepted Sri Aurobindo wholeheartedly. But the majority of the Indians tried to follow half-truth and was diverted by other aims. That is a sad story many people know, who at least think and feel like krishnabaalu.

But let it be so!
Truth will manifest, surely, without waiting for any immature instruments!!
The lethargy and slow and tedious lives of the unchanging Apes and monkeys could not stop the coming of the Humans!!!

Barin Chaki
01-04-2008

Posted by me in
The New Vision
on 02-04-2008
Barin Chaki

The Divine Moment

Ninety-four years back, a French lady, not much known at that time to the outer world, had a meeting with Someone who secretly left British India, being persecuted as a politically dangerous person, for having dreamt of the Independence of India, and then too refuge in a corner in French India, in Pondicherry. Few people knew or anticipated the result and the outcome of the meeting.

The Mother met Sri Aurobindo on the 29th March 1914.

The consequence was the ongoing Transformation of the human world towards the Supramental Manifestation on earth. That meeting was definitely one of the most important turning point in the human history, the turning point when Man has begin his journey for transcending his imperfections and his living in ignorance and darkness, for growing towards Supermanhood, leaving his checkered human existence.

It was a Divine Moment, chosen by the Divine.

The Mother saw Him for the first time, at 3:30 PM on that particular day, in His house in Rue Francois Martin in Pondicherry. “At the very first sight, recognition came like a flash of lightning: Sri Aurobindo was verily the ‘Krishna’ she had met so often in her dreams. There was no need for speech, she sat at Sri Aurobindo’s feet and closed her eyes, only her mind was open to him. A great silence now encompassed her and flooded her soul. There was a breaking of past intellectual moulds, a dissolution of arduous mental constructions, followed by a new crystallization in the image of total identification with the incarnate Divine.” [Sri Aurobindo by K R Srinivasa Iyengar]


Of this Moment, The Mother later wrote 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, and Thy reign shall be indeed established on earth.
[Prayers and Meditations]

OOOOO

The densest darkness is still around — darkness and dark activities therein. Millions and million human beings are still immersed in that darkness — the so-called human beings who are more inhuman, and even subhuman, than human, and they are grossly involved in activities and habits that are leading the Race to disintegration and destruction and still more darkness. It seems that a significant portion of the Race has forgotten any impression of a higher Aspiration, that has been leading mankind always.

We find the instances of mass killings, for several reasons, for fulfilling dark political and religious ambitions, for satisfying insatiable animal passion and greed and deformed lust. We find disturbances everywhere, in smaller and bigger scales. We find clash and hatred and genocide at many places —in Tibet, in Afghanistan, in India and Pakistan. Killers are firing free everywhere.

But also we find that the Hope is there, the non-flickering Ray of Hope. And it has been there, since Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have kindled the Hope. Their Action together began on this day the 29th March 1914.

The greatest consequence of Their Collaboration was, and is, the Descent of the Supramental Consciousness on earth on the 29th February 1956, preceded by the Descent of the Supramental in the Person and in the Body of Sri Aurobindo on the occasion of His Physical Departure and even earlier.

The Supramental Descent was the Hope and then it turned to become the New Reality. That is the Key to the Next Future — the New Future, the New Creation.

OOOOO
Like the squirrel helping in the Setubandha in Ramayana, we also have a role in the formation of the New Future, the Supramental Future — to Work for IT within our capacity and scope, and the minimum of IT is not to have a regression, never to go back, to the World of Darkness and dense and gross animality and never to put off the fire of Aspiration..


Barin Chaki
29-03-2008

The New Way 2

The New Way 2A

When we look around, we find ourselves, the human beings, generally satisfied with our ignorance and doubts and darkness, our passions and weaknesses, our narrowness and selfishness, our divisions and limitations, our diseases and death. We are proud that we are human beings, because we are somewhat better in our existence and in our situations, in comparison with other forms and expressions of life on earth, the animals and insects and plants. Life is and was an expression of a Force of vitality and strength, of joy and happiness in the inertia and Inconscience that Matter is. But this expression is limited. There is movement in life, but limited by inertia and laziness and indolence. There is force in life, but limited by weaknesses, illnesses and diseases, by sleep and death. There is joy and happiness in life, limited by sorrows and sufferings and pain. There is freedom in life, but limited by all incapacities, falls and failures, by inertia and indolence, by endless bondages and hindrances, and ultimately by death. There is consciousness in life, but it is limited and overwhelmed by ignorance and Inconscience, by the sheer absence of Light and Wisdom and Knowledge.

But if we look back, before the Advent of Man on Earth, we find that it was a movement of a Consciousness-Force towards manifestation of Light in darkness, of Consciousness in Inconscience, of Wisdom and Knowledge in Ignorance, of Joy and Creativity in barren inertness.

When Man evolved out of the Ape, it was the first expression of the principle of Mind, the principle that seeks Truth, searches Truth through layers of Darkness, and aspires to bring Light into Darkness, Consciousness into Inconscience, Life into diseases and Death. Manifestation of Life on earth would have been meaningless, had not the human race come into being.

In the evolutionary history of the earth, ‘the birth of the first man among the hostile hordes of a great, delirious Paleozoic’* signifies a very important Moment. [*Satprem: Mother’s Agenda, 1951-1960, P11]

Let us note that Satprem states of birth of the first man amid the hostile hordes! This is remarkable, as the birth of the new race was the result of an evolutionary urge of Nature, and the majority of the horde was unable to be fit and worthy of the Progress. All apes have never turned into the human beings.

Satprem has further said: A first man is the contradiction of a certain simian logic, a threat to the established order that so genteelly ran about amid the high indefeasible ferns — and to begin with, it does not even know that it is man.

A certain simian fellow turned into a man, as chosen by Nature, representing the Supreme Consciousness-Force, but it did not know that he is a New Being, a Man. And his coming into existence was beyond all understanding and logic of the “hostile horde” of the Apes.

And began the March towards the manifestation of Truth, Goodness and Beauty, the March of human civilization and logic and philosophy and arts and Science. But was our March satisfactory? Have we reached anywhere near the Goal — the goal of fulfilment and creativity, of Light and Joy and Immortality?

As we have seen, we are still hovering in Darkness, aided and empowered by all logic and Science and Philosophy. We are still limping in our march and are baffled on our Way, as we are in constant perplexion and the searches have become never-ending: which way to go? We are still living in sadness, with sorrows and sufferings and pain, though we are in search of happiness for centuries and millennia. Mind has become a vicious circle and we are continuously groping in uncertainties.

However, there is the Way, the New Way, the New Vision — as visioned by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, as expressed in Their numerous writings and sayings, including the Sayings of The Mother — Mother’s Agenda, as recorded and given to the humanity by Satprem and named by him as ‘this fabulous document’.

As the birth of the first man was a very important turning point in the evolutionary history of the earth, so also, the coming into existence of this fabulous document, Mother’s Agenda, is another and a greater turning point in the earthly evolution.

[Continued]

Barindranath Chaki
20-03-2008

February

Indeed, the 21st, 28th and 29th days of February bring along with them the Force and Light and Joy of a New Consciousness that vibrates in the air — one may feel it also, if one tries to remain quiet and receptive and open.
That is the Force that is there on earth, in order to bring a Big Change here, from the mental and vital world to the Supramental Manifestation.
To try to commune with The Mother, with the Divine — that will be and is the best way of celebration of these days.
Let us sincerely try to have a constant communion with Her.

Barin
21-02-2008

Remember Her Always

Today is The Mother’s Birthday.

The Mother has told : "Keep yourself always open towards me". And that is the Way. In fact, that is the Sadhana, the highest range of human sadhana, that is the Way towards the New World, towards the Integral Transformation, towards supermanhood. When we keep ourselves open to Her, the Supramental Light tries to touch us. If we are conscious enough to receive It, we are truly successful.

Let us remember The Mother as much as possible. Let us try to have a contact and communion with Her, as much possible and as sincerely and perfectly as possible. Let us renew our surrender to Her, to Her Work, to Her Cause, the Manifestation of the Supramental Consciousness, as much as possible.

The Question that has been asked [in ‘In Search of The Mother’ in Orkut] is about Meditation. In meditation, one may sit quietly at a place, but that is not sufficient. One has to bring in quietude in the Mind, trying to stop the ever-busy movements of the mental ideas, opinions, habits and constructions, and also the recurrence of the impressions of vital activities, desires, cravings, sensations, lust, greed, jealousy, pride, envy, hostility, selfishness and egoistic tendencies. Also one has to try to conquer the darkness of the physical nature, the stupidity, doubt, disbelief and obscurity of the physical nature.

But how? By aspiring for the Light, for the Truth, for the Higher Consciousness, by trying to replace the lower nature by the Higher Nature. Again the question comes: how? By remembering The Mother.

When one meditates for some time everyday and calls The Mother, calls the Higher Consciousness for some days, Peace descends, Bliss descends, Light descends, and one feels elevated in Consciousness. The Consciousness widens and widens and all barriers and limitations seem to break down and collapse.

M P Pandit says: “…it is not enough that one sits with closed eyes once the higher and deeper Consciousness. It is necessary to be vigilant and keep oneself in the current of the Force, without MEANDERING of the MIND.” [The emphasis is given by me.]

To sit for a while in a silent and quiet way and then to get up and forget it and mix up oneself in the half-blind whirlpools of life — that is not meditation. That brings failure to the sitting in quietude for a while.

Meditation can be done and has always to be done, as far as possible, during the Works also.

Remember The Mother, concentrate on Her, commune with Her, refer everything to Her, surrender everything to Her.

That is the best expression of our Love for Her.
On Her Birthday, let us take one step further towards The New World, The New Horizon.

Barin
21-02-2008

The Transition

The Transition — The Seventeenth November

Thirty-three years back, on the Seventeenth Day of November, 1973, Mira Alfassa, The Mother in Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga, left Her physical body and walked and entered into the then newly formed Supramental Body. The World knew and told that She has passed away.

She wanted to walk into Her new supramental body along with Her old body. But that did not and could not happen. The cooperation that She deserved from the fellow human beings was not received. Someone who was close to Her on that day, did not render the needed assistance and She had to lie on Her bed, as She was medically ill. Her instructions were ignored and unheard. Her entreaties were not listened to or cared for. Someone failed to become a true representative of the aspiring mankind.

OOOOO

Medically, The Mother was ill. It was told that She was sick. Though, according to The Mother and Her followers Satprem and Sujata, She was really at the concluding stage of preparing and entering into a New Body, the Supramental Body. Many others heard of it — some believed it. Some could not believe it — some did not believe it.

The Mother had told Sujata of the New Body on 24-03-1972 :

For the first time, early this morning, I saw myself: my body. I don't know whether it's the supramental body or ... (what shall I say?) a transitional body, but I had a completely new body, in the sense that it was sexless: it was neither woman nor man.
It was very white. But that could be because I have white skin, I don't know.
It was very slender (gesture). Really lovely, a truly harmonious form.
That's the first time.
I hadn't the least idea, the faintest notion what it would look like, nothing, and I saw - I WAS like that, I had become like that. I thought Satprem should know, so he can note it down.
I don't know if I'll remember, that's why I am telling you. Because today is Friday and I won't see him till tomorrow. This way, I am sure I won't forget. You'll tell him, won't you?

Sujata: Yes, Mother.

The next day, the 25th March 1972, Satprem had asked The Mother about the New Body:
Sujata told me about the experience you had the other day, that vision you had of your body, the transitional body.

The Mother replied:
Yes, I WAS like that. It was me; I didn't look at myself in a mirror, I saw myself like this (Mother bends her head to look at her body), I was ... I just was like that.
That's the first time. It was around four in the morning, I think. And perfectly natural - I mean, I didn't look in a mirror, it felt perfectly natural……

The Mother revealed Her Agenda and Her Work before Satprem and Sujata, and they were told by Her of Her programme of creation and preparation of the New Body as a very important step in the Supramental Manifestation.

OOOOO

K D Sethna has said:

We are aware that the Supramental Body was already with Her, waiting to fuse with the human form She had worn for our sake. We are aware also that the lengthy struggle she recently went through was only the Yogic endeavour of the human form to open completely to the Supramental Body. Perhaps this form did enough and its exalted agony was needed no more to enable the Supramental Body to manifest. Perhaps that Body having assimilated the achievement of the other and thereby gained sufficient density for its subtle-physical substance, can now materialize itself on its own in a not too distant future.

OOOOO

What M P Pandit said is highly relevant :

A new body was under formation, the supramental body, in which She was to take Her embodiment as the end-result of the transformation of this body. The body was being prepared. She gave in “Notes on the Way” descriptions of this body, described how it looked. And about a year ago, She told someone, “I am trying to fuse this material body into that body but I have not been able to get the clue.” She said, “Nobody on earth has tried this, the secret is not given to me. On that point, She said, there was no help from above. She was searching.

Thereafter ……… one day it flashed to me that as soon as that luminous body was ready, the Mother would just walk into it without dying, “without dying” means not necessarily keeping the body, but without the gap in consciousness; keeping up the continuity of the personality, She would just cross in to that luminous body. It just flashed, and the way it came I thought it was more than just an idea: I noted it down in my diary. I looked up it the other day, it was dated the 24th of July 1973. I did not think it wise to speak of it to people except in my closest circle, which I did… …

Then on the morning of 17th November at about nine o’clock, a particular friend of mine — he has a certain grounding in occult experience, occult knowledge, and normally when we meet we exchange notes — told me, “I have seen the Mother’s body of light.” I got interested. “The new body is full of light but it is not dense enough to function is earth conditions. It is there, and as I was looking at it I got the feeling that the Mother would enter this body the moment it became dense enough to stand and function in the earth atmosphere, seen or unseen. But there is no question of revival of the material body.” And he added, “Those who are capable of seeing the Mother’s halo, aura, they will be able to see that luminous body.” It confirmed what I had perceived some four month’s earlier; I told him as much.

That evening at 7-25 p.m., as you all know, the Mother withdrew from her body. They say the cause was heart failure, but let me tell you the heart failure was not the cause, the heart failure was the result of her withdrawal. She had decided, the moment things were ready she walked into that body.

She has not passed away, She has just changed her body. Not changed in the manner of the Gita — soul changing bodies — consciously ; keeping the full personality she has gone into that body. And, as it was revealed to me.…, she will function in that body, work through those instruments who are open to her, expedite the remaining work — the working out of the consequences — but her activity will not be confined to the Ashram or to Auroville; for her the whole world is her Ashram….

OOOOO

A divine possibility failed due to the non-co-operation and disobedience of Man. The negative force and will prevailed for the time being and the Destiny of Mankind and the Evolution had to have a different Course. When the Old Form could not walk into the Supramental Body, a New Course was taken by divine possibility — the New Body must not have failed and must have assimilated the essence of the Old Form.


The Mother, in Her subtle body, walked into the New Body. That was the triumph of which the mankind did not know. She is continuing Her work of the Supramental Manifestation and Transformation through those instruments who are open to Her and to Her Action or Her Will, throughout the world, and it is not limited to the Ashram or to Auroville. Her work is now for the entire world and for the entire humanity

Barin Chaki
25-11-2007

Written on 17-11-2007,
Revised from 18-11-2007
To 20-11-2007

Pubished on 25-11-2007