On The Mother

On The Mother I

The 21st day of February 2007, was the birthday anniversary of The Mother, Mira Alfassa, the spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo.

The Mother was born in Paris on 21 February 1878. She was named Mirra, and she grew up in Paris where she spent the first part of her life. Her parents 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. At this age she began her spiritual discipline, her sadhana.
She came in contact with Max Theon and Madame Theon around 1905-6. She met Sri Aurobindo at 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.

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Sri Aurobindo, whom millions throughout the world have already regarded as an Incarnation of the Divine Consciousness, had specifically pointed out that ' the One whom we adore as The Mother,' also descended and became manifest before us on earth. He referred to Mira Alfassa, and millions on earth adore Her. Who is this Mother? What is this Principle of the Mother? How is this Principle related to the Supreme? The Ultimate Reality is the Infinite and One Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, whom we have termed as the Brahman, the Divine, God etc. He is the Supreme Divine, the One, Indivisible, Infinite and Pure, 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. The Supreme Divine is the Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, as I have already told. He is. 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. I am not speaking of any religious narration of creation, like that of creation in six days etc. As the Supreme, who is both Impersonal and Personal, He is the Source of all that is, of the this Universe, or rather the Universes. He has no form, no shape, and simultaneously, He is the Source and Creator of all forms and shapes. He ha 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. The entire Manifestation is He, and it is His Leela, Play. He is both beyond it, and within it, and 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 Force, the Mahashakti, whom we call the Divine Mother. They are One and Indivisible, and yet They are Two in Manifestation and even above Manifestation.” [The Psychic Being in The New Horizon]
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Almost all the followers of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother know the following that Sri Aurobindo has said on 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 evn for the quickest mind and for the freest and most vast intelligence.”

Sri Aurobindo has further 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.”

That is why She is so valuable for the mankind and for the earth. “She is the golden bridge …,” says Sri Aurobindo in Savitri. She is the Force that enables Man and the earth to leap beyond and pass over the gulf of difference between Mind and the Supramental Consciousness, between Darkness and Ignorance and Falsehood on the one hand and on the other hand Light and Wisdom and Truth.

She is the golden bridge, the wonderful fire.The luminous heart of the Unknown is she,A power of silence in the depths of God;She is the Force, the inevitable Word,.....To heal with her feet the aching throb of lifeAnd break the seals on the dim soul of manAnd kindle her fire in the closed heart of things.
[Savitri : Sri Aurobindo]

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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 of the Child in us, in all of us :

“You have to aspire, you have to reject; but the best is if you can keep me in your heart, if you love me, then you will have to do nothing. I shall do all for you.”

That is the best Way.
And let us remember always what She has told us to march ahead towards the Goal, towards the New Horizon :

“Let us advance always, without stopping, towards an always more complete manifestation, an always more complete and higher consciousness.”

Barin
23-2-2007
[Written on 21-02-2007]

The Next Evolution

The Next Evolution 4

When we look at the question of survival, as viewed by Darwin, we find that the fittest only survives. The principle of the survival of the fittest is the Way of Evolution. It is also observed by some, that the survival of animals is enhanced by the formation of groups. In human society also, it is seen that survival is enhanced by the formation of groups. It is found that all groups have a ‘core’ leader, and following such a leader means subservience both on the physical plane and the mental and philosophical plane also. It is further observed that subservience mentally and philosophically is a vital instinct for the survival and the mind does not work there. Ants have survived, as they are always in a group. These are scientific observations and they are true — but true within certain limitations.

Science has seen the past only and it does not look much into the future, and even it does, it is in a very limited way, limited within the senses and sense-bound limitation.

On the onward march in Evolution, especially in the Next Evolution beyond Man, such limits are passed. Whatever Darwin has told is true of a certain level — in Sri Aurobindo’s language, of the vital plane. That may also be true of the crude humanity in the rudimentary stage of the Homo Neanderthal, or even of the early stages of the Homo Sapiens.

But Man is on the Way towards a higher Evolution. Evolution has not reached is culmination with the human beings. It is going, and it will go farther.

From the scientific viewpoint, now man is at the apex of Evolution. But as we know, Man is not perfect. He lives with ignorance, incapacity, imbalance, disharmony, chaos, disorder, aimlessness, unhappiness, sufferings, diseases and death. We live only in moments, having inherited a ‘brief animal' mind. We do not know our past, our future, or our destiny.

But civilized man, in spite of all his imperfections and incompleteness, has already passed and left behind the herd mentality, the group mentality, to a very great extent. And the Idealist in him is dreaming and aspiring for a larger life, more conscious and perfect and divine a life.

Sri Aurobindo and His spiritual collaborator The Mother [Mira Alfassa] speaks of the Next Evolution.Sri Aurobindo and His spiritual collaborator The Mother [Mira Alfassa] speaks of the Next Evolution. They have told of a New and Higher Consciousness, the Supramental Consciousness, and of the Advent of this Higher Consciousness. The Mother has also declared that the said Supramental Conscious is the Next plane of Consciousness that has to be evolved, for that is the Aim of Evolution. Evolution is the Manifestation of All that is ‘involved’ in Matter. And what is involved is nothing less than the Highest Principle of Existence, Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, or in simple language, the Divine.

Matter is apparently Inconscient, and evolution from Matter to till the appearance of Man is through Ignorance. Man has been evolved with more consciousness and knowledge in him in comparison with the Ape and other living beings. Yet he is half-conscious, half-fulfilled, with incomplete, insufficient and inconclusive knowledge, with more or less ineffective and superficial knowledge. Man has been evolved with Mind, and is still being evolved with Mind, but what he carries with him as the Mind, is only a very small and miniature fragment the real principle of Mind. The humanity as a whole has not yet evolved or used or even become conscious of the higher and deeper ranges of Mind, which are touched and partly used only by a few. However, these few persons let us believe that transcendence of the present state is possible. Our endeavor for self-discovery and world-discovery is also only half-fulfilled, partial and inconclusive and insufficient. Our previous Leaders have led some, but the mass still gropes in darkness, and the followers have begun clashes, feuds and wars, and have the journey regressive and backward towards the primitive state of mind, though dressed and decorated with ornaments of modern superficialities.Blessed with an incomplete and imperfect mental consciousness that Nature has bestowed on him, Man lives with Ignorance in all walks of his life and existence. He is uncertain about the results of his actions or about the certainty of his thoughts, of his future achievements and even about his own survival or his purpose on earth or his destiny. Our history is filled with stories of our repeated bloodsheds, battles and massacres, including two World Wars. And instead of loving our earth, we have divided and sub-divided and further subdivided it into smaller and smaller regions and fought against each other. We live thus backwards towards a regression.We are not conscious that there is some higher aim and meaning for our life and existence. We live with our narrow egoistic choices and more or less selfish activities. We do not want to know beyond our nose and most of the time shut up our eyes, outer and inner.

However, that is only an aspect of the Truth. Inborn with him is a longing for happiness, joy, for light and knowledge. And always with him there is Hope. Without hope, he cannot be. Hope is an eternal companion of man.

A beautiful, joyous, harmonious and luminous Future of divine perfection is waiting for Man as his evolutionary possibility and goal. This is his evolutionary Future. He cannot continue for ever as he is and has been now. He has to proceed ahead from the present square. Or else, the evolutionary forces of Nature - Supernature -will surpass him and choose some other means for fulfilment of the goal : ever-progressive manifestation of Consciousness.

That is our Future, preordained. We shall have to ascend. Despite all Darkness and Ignorance around us, we have relentlessly endeavored to conquer the situation we are born in on this earth. The results are civilization, science, medicine, philosophy, arts, education, social activities, spirituality and yoga. We are not sure whether our present ignorant activities would lead us to extinction, like that of the Dinosaurs that existed during the Mesozoic Era.

However, though we are imperfect in all our attempts, we have not given up. And to all our endeavors for more than last fifty millennia, the inner askesis and inner necessity and aspiration of the humankind has been answered by the Supreme with the New Possibility, with the New Hope, that Sri Aurobindo has brought for us.

The Mother has said that the Supramental Consciousness has already descended on earth on the 29th February 1956. And that will lead the Evolution towards the Manifestation of the Supramental on earth, towards the New Creation, towards the Coming of the New Race, the Race of the Supramental Beings.

Supermind is term given by Sri Aurobindo for the Divine Truth Consciousness, the Logos, the Manifest Godhead, Existene-Consciousness-Bliss or Sachchidananda in manifestation. The Aim of Integral Yoga, the Integral System of Yoga given to us by Sri Aurobindo, is to bring down the Supermind into the terrestrial existence, which will put an end to the present imperfection of physical life and existence, and begin and establish the Divine Life on Earth, through an Evolution of harmony and perfection, an Evolution of Light and Truth towards a greater Light and a greater Truth. It will fulfil the Vedic prayer : Lead me from Falsehood to Truth, lead me from Darkness to Light, lead me from death to immortality [Asato ma sadgamaya, tamaso ma jyotirgamaya, mrtyormamrtam gamaya.]

The Advent of the Supramental Race is thus the goal and the aim and the inevitable result of the Next Stage of the Evolution. However, The Mother and Sri Aurobindo said that there will be a New Man, an intermediary being, the superman, before the coming of the pure Supramental Race.

The Mother has said : ‘He [the Superman] will still belong to the human species of animal origin by most exterior form, but who will transform his consciousness in a sufficient manner to belong, in his realization and activity, to a new race, a race of supermen.’

Obviously, the race of the supermen will not be the race of the supramental beings. With the supramental beings, the question of survival will no more be there. For, they will have the supramental body, which will be immortal. Its cells will be capable of renewing themselves and the body will be flexible and will master itself, so that the old age will never come in. The race of the supermen will definitely be able to master the body and will be able to live long enough so that they can finally transform and supramentalize their body.

The group-mentality or the herd-mentality and the question of thoughtlessly and blindly following the ‘core’ leader will no more be there.

Barindranath Chaki
06-02-2007