On Satprem

Satprem: Life without Death

From Sandra ►

Sandra says :

I'm a bit stunned as I write this. I'm not an obituary writer, but here I am, for the third time in the past month-and-a-bit, writing about someone who died recently. I was just looking online for a link to Satprem 's book The Mind of the Cells for a girlfriend of mine who I chatted with today in the sunny garden here in Bonn. Another friend overheard us, and told us about his experience of being with Satprem in 1973, just after the death of Mirra Alfassa, The Mother.

And now, a few hours later, I read that Satprem died on the 9th of April this year.
I know virtually nothing about Satprem, other than he wrote The Mind of the Cells and other books ( e.g. Life Without Death, on my 'to read' list…) and that he was one of the few people who understood what The Mother was doing. What he shared in The Mind of the Cells lives in my own cells…. in my heart and mind and soul and body, always there, reminding me of so something rare and often forgotten – unseen or unknown even – & not only forgotten in my own consciousness, but in the thoughts and consciousness and life of so many of those around me.

OOOO

The Mind of the Cells is about The Mother's extraordinary 'experiments' in transformation and evolution through the body. What Satprem and the Mother explored has stayed with me like a light in the darkest tunnels of my own journey. I believe I 'left' my body (as much as was possible without actually going insane or dying) when I was seven, - and that my life from that point onwards has been a path of reconnecting to this body. I deeply sense and experience that this reconnection is not simply a 'getting back in'- it's wider than that, part of my own evolution – and because I'm in the middle of this journey ( or somewhere along a spectrum that may not be vertical), I can't quite express what is actually happening.I've always felt that I am here in a 'body' for a reason, that the wild and often extremely uncomfortable physical ride this body is on is not a 'mistake' or a problem. I believe that the evolution of consciousness, of being human - of becoming - is through this body; I believe that 'enlightenment' is not a process of disconnecting from the physical into some 'higher' more ethereal realm, rather it is a fully physical and felt experience (I have to say that this is more than a belief, it's a kind of knowing that is not about being 'right'). Reading The Mind of the Cells washed over me like a wave of warm ocean, curling me into its heart, saying Yes, what you experience is absolutely precise and on track.

OOOO

Thank you Satprem, thank you Mother Mirra.
I had the same thoughts about Satprem that I had about U.G. Krishnamurti - I hoped that 'one day' I would meet him. Both lived quite reclusively, out of the public eye, and I'm sad that I did not make a greater effort to sit with them in this life. I'm reminded to never take for granted what is here, and to reach out to all who have touched me, supported me, encouraged me, and tell them how grateful I am.

And, I loved what Barindranath Chaki wrote on his Satprem blog: “Satprem cannot die…He will be there, till the Work he has undertaken is done”. Perhaps this is why I'm writing this - so that the flame of Sri Aurobindo, The Mother and Satprem can be passed along - to anyone who is touched by anything I've written, to anyone who feels that the physical experience is absolutely integral to consciousness, then please, read these extraordinary people's books, share the flame. Let's live in the fire of life, exploring all its corridors and pathways, let us – hand-in-hand – walk where there are no roads, no maps, on and into this great adventure of the unknown.

OOOO

Added later:

“It happened in the deserted canyons near Pondicherry. I was sitting there quietly, when out of a hollow came three men. Instantly I knew: “They're coming to kill me.” I stayed where I was, without moving. And strangely without any effort or concentration, I suddenly felt as if emptied of myself, without any reaction, without fear, without anything, like a stone, but a conscious stone looking unconcerned at some kind of show, just as one can be both witness and actor in a dream. Except for its neutrality, the feeling was not really that of a rock, but rather that of a body, my body, as something utterly transparent and null, and a little indistinct. Nothing moved, there was not a quiver or a throb - and I had nothing to do with it, there was no “self-control” involved, no effort. Something had taken hold of me in a transparent immobility The three men were there: two in front, one behind. I didn't move. they talked amongst themselves. Then a kind of voice in me said, “Get up.” I rose, with my back to the canyon. One of them took off my watch, no doubt to simulate a robbery. The man behind came in front of me. I saw the killer raise his arm to push me into the canyon. I followed the movement of that arm, my eyes met the gold-coloured eyed of the killer. he lowered his arm, hesitated a moment as if he was not sure what to do , or exactly why he was there. It seemed that he too now watched the scene as if it did not make any sense, or as if he had forgotten what he had come for. He turned around, the others turned, around, and they left. Then they started to run as if panic stricken. And my heart suddenly remembered that it should have been frightened, that they had wanted to kill me.. and it started pounding like mad.The only thing I know is that had there been the slightest effort on my part, the slightest contraction or reaction to push those men back, even an inner refusal, a mere “no” inside, they would have killed me instantly: the opposition thus raised would have met and challenged their vibration and the reaction would have touched off the whole process. But there was nothing, not even a breath of reaction; I was like thin air, as it wore: the others vibration passed through me like a breeze, unobstructed. Can you kill a breeze? Some kind of contact is necessary in order to kill, you have to have a handle - here, there was no handle, for the was nothing, and since there was nothing, there was nothing!”

[ From Satprem: The mind of the cells ]

Sandra Jensen

[http://sandrajensen.zaadz.com/]

[As a comment on my blog Satprem, simultaneously published in Zaadz, Sandra says :
Thank you so much for this, dear Barindranath. I was just writing my own Satprem blog, only having discovered today that he died, and while I was researching him I found you here, what a gift.
Love,
Sandra]
~Barin Chaki~

A comment on 'Satprem'

From Juliette ►

juliette said...

Dear Mr Chaki

I don't know why since some days I was trying to remember the title of Satprem's book : the Sannyasin I have read more than thirty years ago on the land of India when I stayed for a visit in Auroville. This book was kind of a bible for me at that time, when I was opening it at any page I found a relevent answer to my quest to find truth in this life. This book was the seed to show me the way. Then after a while I gave that book to some one but still keeping strong inside the impact of it. Then as a sign, suddenly, some days ago, I remembered the atmosphere of this book but forgoten the title and wondering if Satprem was still alive. So I searched in Internet and found out from your article that he died ten days ago. What a coïncidence although I've rarely thought of him during those past years. I share with you the sadness of his lost as he is a human being of our time who brought light on the way of many people's life and I am very grateful to him. For all the best to you and to those who loved him.

Juliette
4:06 AM

Satprem

Satprem
[30-10-1923 — 09-04-2007]

This cannot be an obituary. I will not say that Satprem is no more! I cannot say that he has passed away! I will not write about his works and achievements and then forget him.

Definitely, he was an author. He wrote several beautiful books, the likes of which nobody has written. He has edited and organized Mother’s Agenda, which contain the seed of the Next Future, the Next Evolution. And not only that, he is a part and parcel of Mother’s Agenda.

The possibility that there will be many more authors like him is rare. His writings are what he is! And he is unique, only one.

But Satprem is not only an author, he is an adventurer, following the footprints of The Adventure, and of The Creatrix. He wanted to break the habit of the body, the habit of death. He wanted to break into the realm of the supermen's world, the New World.

Man has to pass into the becoming of the Superman. Man has to transform himself, individually and socially, so that the New Race will come into being on earth. The Supramental World cannot come on earth, unless there is some real endeavour for it. And that has to come as soon as possible. That is the only Solution before the humankind.

And that is what Satprem has been doing. Satprem, along with Sujata, concentrated exclusively to the transformation of the cellular consciousness of the body and to the realisation of the next evolution, from Mind to the Supermind. They were / are in search of the great journey from manhood to supermanhood. And all this is the Work of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo.

Satprem described Sri Aurobindo as The Adventure of Consciousness. He wrote :

“The age of adventures is over. Even if we reach the seventh galaxy, we will go there helmeted and mechanized, and it will not change a thing for us; we will find ourselves exactly as we are now: helpless children in the face of death, living beings who are not too sure how they live, why they are alive, or where they are going. On the earth, as we know, the times of Cortez and Pizarro are over; one and the same pervasive Mechanism stifles us: the trap is closing inexorably. But, as always, it turns out that our bleakest adversities are also our most promising opportunities, and that the dark passage is only a passage leading to a greater light. Hence, with our backs against the wall, we are facing the last territory left for us to explore, the ultimate adventure: ourselves.”
He further wrote :
“There is no more room on the teeming beaches, no more room on the crowded roads, no more room in the ever-expanding anthills of our cities. We have to find a way out elsewhere. But there are many kinds of "elsewheres." Those of drugs are uncertain and fraught with danger, and above all they depend upon an outer agent; an experience ought to be possible at will, anywhere, at the grocery store as well as in the solitude of one's room--otherwise it is not an experience but an anomaly or an enslavement. Those of psychoanalysis are limited, for the moment, to the dimly lit caves of the "unconscious," and most importantly, they lack the agency of consciousness, through which a person can be in full control, instead of being an impotent witness or a sickly patient.
Those of religion may be more enlightened, but they too depend upon a god or a dogma; for the most part they confine us in one type of experience, for it is just as possible to be a prisoner of other worlds as it is of this one--in fact, even more so. Finally, the value of an experience is measured by its capacity to transform life; otherwise, it is simply an empty dream or a hallucination. Sri Aurobindo leads us to a twofold discovery, which we so urgently need if we want to find an intelligible meaning to the suffocating chaos we live in, as well as a key for transforming our world. By following him step by step in his prodigious exploration, we are led to the most important discovery of all times, to the threshold of the Great Secret that is to change the face of this world, namely, that consciousness is power.”
Following the footprints of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, Satprem himself became an adventurer. His existence is a dedication to the Cause of passing on to the Next Evolution, for creating the New World, where there will no more of any death or decay, any old age, any disease, any defeat for man. He endeavoured for translating this dream onto the reality. He was preparing himself for the great leap beyond ordinary humanity.

Satprem cannot die. I feel his presence, without any vacant feeling. He will be there, till the Work he has undertaken is done! If he dies, along with him dies the human hope and the human dream. He is a hope for all of us — the dreamers. He is a hope for all of us — the rebels. He is the hope for all of us — the adventurers towards The New Horizon, The New World.

He is the Spirit that can never die. The spirit will conquer death and let others conquer death, in the Way led by The Light and The Force.

His name will shine for ever at the Feet of The Master and The Mother. He will be present in the New World, among the New Race!

{Also published in Barin Chaki, Barin's Blog and barin chaki's blog simultaneously.)

Barindranath Chaki