Friday, October 31, 2008

Remembering Satprem

The world is continuing with death. The humanity is still a continuing sacrifice to death.

However, for Mira Alfassa, The Mother, one of the most important aspect of the Work to be done was the conquest of death.

She said :
"Death is the problem given me to resolve."
"I am on my way to discovering the illusion that must be destroyed so that physical life can be uninterrupted.... Death is the result of a distortion of consciousness."

To the unseeing humanity The Mother has passed away, though a few have known Her in a New Body. And one of those bright few is Satprem.

He, too, believed in the Task of fighting away death. And that was his Work. He has fought with death till the last of his physical body. Before his departure, he told that the Work is done.


OOOOO


TODAY, the 30th day of 2008, is the birthday anniversary of Satprem. He dedicated his life and existence for the Future of the mankind, for the mankind of the Future, having followed the steps of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo, on the Way towards Supermanhood from the present state of the mankind, on the Way for transforming the mankind into the New Race, the race of the Supermen, the race of the Supramental Beings. After the passing away of The Mother, he left Sri Aurobindo Ashram and published the thirteen volumes of Mother’s Agenda. Further, he also wrote a number of books of everlasting value, that give us Light and directions on the New Way, which he received from The Mother during his conversation with Her.

He was born in Paris in 1923. When he was twenty years old, he was arrested by Gestapo (of Germany during Hitler’s regime) and spent about a year and a half in some concentration camps. When he came out, he was a sad, shocked and disturbed person. However, a higher spiritual destiny led him to Egypt and from there to Pondicherry in India. In Pondichery, he knew Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Soon, he left for Guiana, Brazil, Africa etc. But again, he finally returned to India in 1953.

On 3rd March 1957, The Mother named him Satprem. His original name was Bernard. Satprem became a close disciple and a confidante of The Mother. He stayed in Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Soon after the Mother’s Departure on 17th November 1973, Satprem left the Ashram.

In 1982, having followed The Mother’s footsteps, Satprem withdrew completely to set out on a new venture, on a new adventure, uncertain and dangerous, of finding out the great passage into the next evolution beyond Man, which also means a conquest of death. And he undertook the work of exploring the cause of death and the ways and means of conquering death — Life has evolved since billions of years, but it has been conquered by death — and it still has continued to be an enigma for Mind also. Evolution beyond Mind has to be an Evolution beyond death also.

Sri Aurobindo made a prophecy in Savitri:
Even there shall come as a high crown of all
The end of Death, the death of Ignorance.
In order to find out the secret of going beyond mankind, beyond death and ignorance, The Mother says, one has to plunge into the cells of the Body. The cells are the roots. The secret of the Transformation lies there.
During the 1960s and 1970s, The Mother stated that the cells of Her body were becoming more and more conscious. She said that the transformation of the cells, of the "mind of the cells", is the secret means for the physical transformation, which is of crucial importance and significance. She also said that the cells of Her body were progressively organizing themselves to a have a kind of mind of their own.

She regarded death as a state of mind of the cells which the cells accepted. If they could change their perspective, if they did not accept death as something inevitable, this would help the cells maintain themselves without any deterioration and linger their longevity.
She said that one of the secrets for physical transformation was/is to overcome the effect of the "physical mind" and the subconscient. This part of the nature is filled with inertia and has the habit of being resigned to defeat, of being negative and pessimistic in attitude and tendencies, and of grumbling. As a result, it reinforces illnesses and is a great obstruction to the physical transformation. According to Her, this was a great obstacle to the emergence of the new species. The Mother strived hard to bring in the higher consciousness into the physical and sub-conscient aspect of Her being.

The Mother said :
There is a consciousness in the cells: it is what we call the ‘body consciousness’ and it is wholly bound up with the body. This consciousness has much difficulty in changing, because it is under the influence of the collective suggestion which absolutely opposed to the transformation. So one has to struggle with this collective suggestion, not only with the collective suggestion of the present, but with the collective suggestion of the earth consciousness as a whole, the terrestrial human consciousness which goes back to the earliest formation of man. That has to be overcome before the cells can be spontaneously aware of the Truth, of Eternity of matter.

What is more essential in an Integral Transformation is to transform the consciousness of the cells. Transformation of the mind and the vital being has been achieved through yogic discipline — there has been transformation of consciousness. As The Mother has said, at least quite a few persons have been aware of the Divine Presence or the Truth of their being. But they have not attained the Total Transformation, the Integral Transformation. Even the global consciousness of the physical has been transformed — but that is not enough for going beyond human state of darkness and disease and death. There has to be a transformation of the consciousness of the cells.

The Mother has said:
Finally, there is the physical consciousness itself, the material consciousness, the body consciousness, and that is the one which has so far never been entirely transformed. The global, overall consciousness of the body has been transformed, that is, one can throw off the bondage of thoughts, of habits that one no longer considers inevitable. That can change, it has been changed. But what remains to be changed is the consciousness of the cells.




OOOOO


Satprem concentrated and worked on bringing this change in the consciousness of the cells in the physical body.

That is the Way for integrally transforming the human being towards Supermanhood. That work is Satprem’s contribution to the mankind, in which he is indeed unique and it is not yet known if any one else has walked on this Way.

Satprem says:
And then you begin to wonder if it is not the body that holds the true secret — if it is not these first cells or that microorganism from a few billion years ago that hold what we have been seeking in vain with all our scientific or intellectual artifices, if it is not this first spasm of “life” enclosed in a bubble that knows or recognizes its Nectar, its air from beyond the graves, its life denser than all our lives, its breathing more powerful than all our oxygens — and that, finally, not only the way out of this grave, but the way to let another air in here which will bring our walls down.
A new Life.
A new Earth.
A new Evolution — Evolution II.
[Satprem : Evolution II]

Satprem lived and worked for this progressive journey beyond death and beyond Ignorance. He has definitely made a great deal of progressive exploration and advancement on the Way.

And the Work must go on till the goal is achieved. That is the greatest and the most important for the mankind — to go beyond mankind. The Work has to continue and will definitely continue, as that is the Will of Divine in Evolution.


OOOOO


Some persons have recently equated Satprem and Peter Heeh. This is sheer ignorance and ingratitude. Heeh cannot simply be compared to, or raised to the height of, Satprem. Satprem has NEVER done or written anything to belittle or understate Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. He was one of the closest disciples of The Mother. And his book Sri Aurobindo or The Adventure of Consciousness is definitely one of the books on Sri Aurobindo. He is definitely a source of inspiration for the followers of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother.

That is why Satprem, the brilliant pioneer, is remembered.

Barindranath Chaki

Written on 30-10-2008,
Published on 31-10-2008

Posted simultaneously also in ASPIRATION and Sulekha.

Tags : Sri Aurobindo Mira Alfassa The Mother Satprem A new Evolution Evolution II Integral Transformation Consciousness of the Cells

Monday, April 07, 2008

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

Wednesday, April 02, 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

Saturday, March 29, 2008

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

Thursday, March 20, 2008

The New Way 2


The New Way 2

Barindranath Chaki
20-03-2008


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.

As the birth of the first man was a very important turning point in the evolutionary history of the earth, so also, the coming of the Light from  Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, is another and a greater turning point in the earthly evolution.

Barindranath Chaki
20-03-2008


Thursday, February 21, 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

Wednesday, February 20, 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



Saturday, November 24, 2007

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

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

The Hope

One hundred thirty-five years ago, on this day, the fifteenth of August, the Supreme answered the human call for several millennia:

Asato maa sad gamaya
Tamaso maa jyotirgamaya
MÅ—tyormaamÅ—tam gamaya.


From the unreal, lead me to the real;
from darkness, lead me to light;
from death, lead me to deathlessness.

The Answer is Sri Aurobindo.
And Sri Aurobindo’s answer to this prayer is: tathaastu.

One hundred thirty-five years ago, there was the beginning of a very Big Change on earth, in our World, the beginning of the Next Evolution, from Man to a new species, beyond this ignorant imperfect death-bound human beings, living with and in Darkness, within and without.
That was the beginning of a Fundamental Change on earth. The seed was sown on that day.
Sri Aurobindo’s birth on earth is the most positive Answer from the Supreme to the humanity that gropes in darkness. He is the Divine Will personified — for an Evolution from Man to Superman and beyond, towards the advent of the supramental beings.

OOOO

The Mother [Mira Alfassa] met Sri Aurobindo on 29th March 1914 for the first time.
She wrote on the next day :

It matters little that there are thousands of beings plunged in the densest ignorance, He whom we saw yesterday is on earth ; his presence is enough to prove that a day will come when darkness shall be transformed into light, and Thy reign shall be indeed established upon earth.

OOOO

The Mother gave us the following message, in 1972:
“Sri Aurobindo came upon earth to announce the manifestation of the supramental world and not merely did he announce this manifestation but embodied also in part the supramental force and showed by example what one must do to prepare oneself for manifesting it. The best thing we can do is to study all that he has told us and endeavour to follow his example and prepare ourselves for the new manifestation…”

The Mother also told us:
“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.”

On 15 August 1972, the Message given by The Mother.
“Sri Aurobindo’s message is an immortal Sunlight radiating over the future.”
And yet another: “Man is the creation of yesterday.”
“Sri Aurobindo came to announce the creation of tomorrow: the coming of the supramental being.”

OOOO

Sri Aurobindo is The Leader of the next evolution.
He was the first Person to know and declare that the humanity must go beyond itself, that Man has to evolve beyond himself towards supermanhood, and then towards becoming a supramental being. That is the Will of the Supreme, that is the design of Nature, rightly speaking, of Supernature.
While Matter is apparently Inconscient, evolution from Matter to Man is through Ignorance. Though Man has been evolved with more consciousness and knowledge in him in comparison with the Ape and other living beings, still 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, 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.

OOOO

This earth is a field of Evolution, and 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. 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. The humanity has to evolve into a race of supramental beings, or else he will be replaced by a race of higher beings, in order to give effect to the evolutionary progress: this is the necessity of Evolution. This is what the Mother [Mira Alfassa] has said :
Men, countries, continents!
The choice is imperative:
Truth or the abyss.
A beautiful, joyous, harmonious and luminous Future of divine perfection is waiting for Man as his evolutionary possibility and goal. This is our evolutionary Future. Man cannot continue for ever as he is and has been till now. He has to proceed ahead from the present situation, taking the opportunity given by The New Consciousness and Force that has descended. 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, integrally.

OOOO

The most important and unique Work of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother is leading the humanity and the earth the Next Evolution. They have told of a New and Higher Consciousness, the Supramental Consciousness, and of the Advent of this Higher Consciousness. The Supramental Consciousness 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 evolved with more consciousness and knowledge in him in comparison with the Ape and other living beings. Yet he is only partially conscious, partially fulfilled, with incomplete, insufficient and inconclusive knowledge, with more or less ineffective and superficial knowledge. Man has 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 have led us to believe that transcendence of the present state is possible. Our endeavor for self-discovery and world-discovery is also only fulfilled in a partial and inconclusive and insufficient manner. Our previous spiritual Leaders have led some, but the mass of the humankind is still groping in darkness. And the followers are busy with clashes, feuds and wars, and have made the situation regressive and backward towards the primitive state of mind, though ornamented with modern superficialities. Man lives with Ignorance in all walks of his life and existence, with an incomplete and imperfect mental consciousness that Nature has bestowed on him. He is ignorant and in dark about the results of his actions or about the certainty of his thoughts, of his future achievements, about his own survival, about his purpose on earth or even about his destiny. The human history is made of stories of our repeated bloodsheds in wars, battles and massacres. And we have divided and sub-divided and further subdivided our earth into smaller and smaller regions and fought against each other. Hatred is our way, and not Love. We are moving backwards to a regression. We are not conscious that there is a higher aim and meaning for our life and existence. We live with our narrow egoistic choices and selfish activities. We fail to know beyond our nose and most often, we shut up our eyes, outer and inner.

OOOO

On this birthday of Sri Aurobindo, let us remember Him and The Mother and also let us remember about our possible participation in the great Work of Transformation, so that the Next Future ushers in. Let us have faith in the Promise and march forward:
To eternal light and knowledge meant to rise,
Up from man’s bare beginning is our climb ;
Out of earth’s heavy smallness we must break,
We must search our nature with spiritual fire :
An insect crawl precludes our glorious flight;
Our human state cradles the future god,
Our mortal frailty an immortal force.
[Savitri]

Sri Aurobindo has also told us that man has to and will transcend himself progressively and march forward towards the advent of a ‘mightier race’ — the race of the supermen, and then of the supramental beings.

This Hope, this Dream inspired within us by Sri Aurobindo, may become as the very Inspiration of our life.

Let us remember what Sri Aurobindo has said:


A mightier race shall inhabit the mortal man’s world.
On Nature’s luminous tops, on the Spirit’s ground,
The superman shall reign king of life,
Make earth almost the mate and peer of heaven
And lead toward God and truth man’s ignorant earth
And lift towards godhead his mortality.
[Savitri]

o0OOOOO0o


Barindranath Chaki

15-08-2007

Posted simultaneously in The New Vision , Zaadz and Sulekha.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

The New Way

The New Way 1

Barindranath Chaki
11th August 2007


A question has arisen whether the Way shown to us by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother is the New Way or an old one. 

Indeed, all members of the human species belong to the old world, even the devotees and the followers of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Simply by reading some of the books written by Them or about Them, or even by writing some books about Them, one does not come over to the New World. Similarly, under the same circumstances, The Mother’s Way does not become an old Way to anyone, unless he or she is a part of the New World. It is a misnomer to say that the Way becomes old for those, who know The Mother and Sri Aurobindo or have read from or about Them or even have written about Them. We have a long Way to go, from the state of the human species to the New Species, there has to be the habitation of the New Species on earth.

The Mother has spoken of the New Light, the New World. On 23rd September 1914, She has written in Prayers and Meditation :

The Lord hast willed, and Thou dost execute;
A new Light shall break upon the earth.
A new world shall be born.
And the things that were promised shall be fulfilled.

The Mother has rewritten the same as follows in 1956, after a lapse of 42 years:

29th February — 29th March
Lord, Thou hast willed, and I execute:
A new light breaks upon the earth,
A new world is born.
The things that were promised are fulfilled.

The Mother has spoken of the New World, the New Light, obviously with reference to the Supramental World that began its manifestation through the Supramental Descent on 29-02-1956.

Again in 1962, after a lapse of six years, The Mother says:
May the New Light illumine your thoughts and your lives, govern your hearts and guide your action.
Blessings.

Again, after 7 years, in 1969, The Mother says:
Hail the new light.
That it may grow in all hearts.
Blessings.
Thus, it may be seen that even after a period of fifty-five years, The Mother referred to the New Light as the New Light, and it did not become old to Her!!!

In an article on the Mother published in BookRags.com, we find reference to the words ‘the new race’ and ‘the new species’:
“From 1960 till her passing in 1973 the Mother had a number of near weekly meetings with one of her closest disciples, Satprem. There she discussed her progress in her physical transformation, world events and her effect on world events, the new workings of the supramental consciousness in the world, her earlier life's experiences including her spiritual experiences, the changes and spiritualisation in the functioning of her physical body, her visions of the new race, and many other topics. These conversations were kept and were published in French and English in the 13-volume set known as The Agenda.”

♣♣♣

“She professed that one of the keys to physical transformation was overcoming the effect of the "physical mind" and the subconscious (subconscient). She said that this part of the nature is defeatist, grumbling, filled with inertia, where illness gets reinforced, and perhaps the great physical barrier to the physical transformation. Claiming that this was one of the great impediments to the emergence of the new species, she tried to bring in the higher consciousness into this part of her being.”

OOOO

What happened on earth on 29th February 1956 is an event of the greatest importance for the earth. The Mother describes it as follows:

FIRST SUPRAMENTAL MANIFESTATION
(During the common meditation on Wednesday
The 29th February 1956)
This evening the Divine Presence, concrete and material, was there present amongst you. I had the form of a living gold, bigger than the universe, and I was facing a huge and massive golden door, which separated the world from the Divine.As I looked at the door, I knew and willed, in a single movement of consciousness, that ‘the time has come', and lifting with both hands a mighty golden hammer I struck one blow on the door and the door was shattered to pieces.Then the supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow.

The Mother has further said in this regard:

“The Manifestation of the Supramental upon earth is no more a promise but a living fact, a reality. It is at work here, and one day will come when the most blind, the most unconscious, even the most unwilling shall be obliged to recognise it.”

Let us see the following messages from The Mother, issued thereafter :
To all those who aspire
Open yourself to the New Force. Let it do in you its work of Transformation.
April 1956

Open yourself to the New Light that has dawned upon earth and a luminous path will spread in front of you.
28 May 1956

Let the New Light be spread upon earth and spread the conditions of human life.
6 January 1957

A new world is born — all those who want to have a place in it must sincerely prepare themselves for it.
15 August 1957

Heralding the birth of a new world, we invite all those who want to have a place in it to prepare themselves sincerely for it.
15 August 1957

To celebrate the birth of a transitory body can satisfy some faithful feelings.
To celebrate the manifestation of the eternal Consciousness can be done at every moment of the universal history.
But to celebrate the birth of a new world, the supramental world, is a marvelous and exceptional privilege.

OOOO

The Mother was asked a question on 29 November 1969:
In 1919 Sri Aurobindo wrote that the chaos and the calamities were perhaps the pangs of the birth of a new creation. How long is this going to continue? In the Ashram, in India and eventually in the world?

The Mother answered:
It will continue until the world is ready and willing to receive the new creation; the consciousness if the new creation is already at work upon earth since the beginning of this year. If instead of resisting, people were collaborating, it would be quicker.
But stupidity and ignorance are very obstinate.


Another question The Mother was asked in 1970:
Mother, “The world is preparing for a bid change, will you help?” what is the great change of which you speak? And how are we to be of help to it?

The Mother answered:
This great change is the appearance upon earth of a new race which will be for man what man is for the animal. The consciousness of this new race is already at work upon earth to enlighten all who are able to receive it and heed it.

The Mother was asked another question:
You have asked us to help you. How can I help you? What am I to do?

The Mother replied:
To concentrate and open to receive the progressive new consciousness, to receive the new things which are coming down.
3 March 1970

The Mother has said —
The new world: the result of transformation.

Let us find what the Mother has said about the New Creation:

Realisation of the new creation: it is for this that we must prepare ourselves.

Matter prepares itself to receive the supramental: matter tries to liberate itself from old habits to prepare for the new creation.

Ideal of the new creation: the ideal must be progressive in order to realize itself in the future.

Usefulness of the new creation: a creation which aims at teaching men to surpass themselves.

Charm of the new creation: the new creation is attractive for all those who want to progress.

Beauty of the new creation: the new creation better to manifest the Divine.


The new way is the path that leads us to the new creation. Have we all, or some of us, already reached the New Creation, of which The Mother has spoken? Are we already in the Future, in The New World of which The Mother has spoken? Have we all, who have read or written some books by or about Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, have already made the required progress and surpassed ourselves? Have we manifested the Divine in our lives and in the world?  To claim that The Mother and Sri Aurobindo and Their Way have become old for us will really be an error. The Way will remain ever new for the imperfect humans. Only those who surpass manhood can claim the Way to be old.
The answer can only be, emphatically: no.
And therefore, we can never say or claim that the new way has become old for us. To claim so would mean that we have not understood the true meaning and the purport of the words ‘the new way’ and that we are yet to understand The Mother and Sri Aurobindo.

OOOO

Sri Aurobindo’s Teaching leads us to the Event of the 5th December 1950. And what happened on the 29th February 1956 is the consequence thereof, caused by the Tapasya of The Mother. And then was the New Way gradually opened by The Mother. They do already form a linked whole. They are already one whole : there was no suggestion by me that The Agenda will be separately treated, apart from the Works of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo.

OOOO

Let me quote from the Agenda Her words on the 18th September 1971:
The body feels it no longer belongs to the old way of being, but it knows that it isn’t in the new way yet; it is still.... It is no longer mortal and not yet immortal. It's quite strange. Quite strange. And sometimes you go from the most dreadful discomfort to ... the marvel — it's strange. An inexpressible bliss. Things are no longer what they were, and they aren’t what they are supposed to be. There it is. Strange.

Further, The Mother has expressed the words even earlier in 1963 [9th January 1963]:
But it's very difficult for the body to change, because it lives only out of its habit. So every time something of the new way of living slips in, free of thought, free of reasoning, free of anything resembling an idea, almost free of sensation — almost automatically —the newness of it throws the cells into a panic. So, everything has to be changed, you see. It's no longer that the heart must pump the blood or receive the Force; it’s no longer the stomach that must digest the food, no longer all that — it must function in another way. The base of it all must be changed, the functioning completely modified — while every single one of all these cells tries to make sure that everything should work as usual!
Terrible. A strange difficulty.

We can also find that The Mother has expressed Herself through these words as early in 1962 [13th February 1962]:
Take the change of the functioning of the organs, for example. What is the procedure? And both ways are already starting to exist side by side.... What is required for one to disappear and the other to stay all by itself, changed? Changed, because as it is now, it wouldn't be sufficient to make the body function; there are all those functions the body must still perform which it couldn’t perform. It would stay in a blissful state, would enjoy its condition, but not for long – for all its needs would still be there! That's the difficulty. Those who come later, in a hundred years, two hundred years; won’t have these difficulties. They will just have to choose: no longer to belong to the old system, or to belong to the new. But at present.... A stomach must digest, you see! There has to be a new way of adapting to the forces of Nature, a new functioning.


We may also note what the Mother stated on 4th April 1970:
When the new way comes in pure, unmixed, the body, the consciousness of the body, still has that reaction of ... (Mother makes a movement of surprise) wonder at something that still seems impossible.

Thus, we find that the phrase the new way has been used to express what is stated by The Mother. Satprem and his translators, while rendering into English what The Mother stated, have used the words. I have not been influenced by any other writer in this regard.

Zaadster Lori has referred to Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet and her book “The New Way: A Study in the Rise and Establishment of a Gnostic Society” and her blog 'The New Way - The Vision and Application of the Supramental Truth-Consciousness.' I have known Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet from the pages of Mother India, edited by K D Sethna, since 1970’s, for her fascinating and interesting writings on spirituality and vedic astrology.
[Continued]

Barindranath Chaki
11-08-2007



Posted on 11-08-2007. Posted simultaneously in The New Vision , Zaadz and Sulekha

Monday, July 30, 2007

The New Way



Barindranath Chaki
21st July 2007


The Beginning

To eternal light and knowledge meant to rise,
Up from man's bare beginning is our climb;
Out of earth's heavy smallness we must break,
We must search our nature with spiritual fire:
An insect crawl precludes our glorious flight;
Our human state cradles the future god,
Our mortal frailty an immortal force.

OOO

A mightier race shall inhabit the mortal man's world.
On Nature's luminous tops, on the Spirit's ground,
The superman shall reign king of life,
Make earth almost the mate and peer of heaven
And lead toward God and truth man's ignorant earth
And lift towards godhead his mortality.

[Sri Aurobindo: Savitri]



The Mother, Mira Alfassa, the spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, has Her Agenda for all of us, the humankind, and for this earth, the abode of ours — the Advent of the supramental consciousness, of the supramental beings on Earth. That is the Work to be done here on Earth — the Work of the greatest importance — furthering the earthly Evolution beyond the humankind, beyond the human imperfection and ignorance and sufferings, bringing in a total transformation of the human beings into the gnostic beings, the supramental beings.

The Earth is a field of Evolution. The Earth has seen an Evolution from the cell, that was the first manifestation of life, to the human beings, the Homo Sapiens; and it is now becoming the field of an Evolution from the human beings to the supramental beings. About this, however, the human beings in general may not be as yet aware or conscious. Evolution, at first, was the manifestation of Life in Matter, and then it manifested Homo Neanderthals and the Homo Sapiens — the human beings, as Mind descended into Life and Matter, into the earth-atmosphere. Time has come now for going beyond Mind.

Man is conscious, but to a very small extent. Of course, in Man, the dreamer and the seeker is there; the further possibility is there in him. There have been a few Leaders among us and they are regarded as the Manifestations of the Divine among us: They have spoken of Nirvana, Moksha, Liberation and the Kingdom of God. They have also accepted death and decay and sufferings like all of us, out of Their Love for us. The Way They found for us was the way of escape from this worldly manifestation. A few individual’s nirvana or moksha or journey to the Kingdom of God could not solve the problems of the remaining billions of human beings that remained on earth. As a whole, the humanity has remained far away from Light and Joy and Peace and deathlessness, from Perfection and Consciousness that can give Victory and Conquest.

Man is not the last thing in Evolution on earth. He has to surpass himself and grow and become a higher being. This is the message of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother.

Sri Aurobindo has said:
Man is a transitional being; he is not final….The Step from man to superman is the next approaching achievement in earth’s evolution. It is inevitable because it is at once the intention of the inner Spirit and the logic of Nature’s process. [The Hour of God, page 7]

So far, the earth has been a vale of tears, a vale of owes and sorrows and sufferings, and also a vale of bloodshed and cruelty, of destructions and devastations and Death, of falls and failures and frustrations, of fights and feuds, of fears and foes. We are all sitting upon a heap of bombs — atomic or non-atomic, real or virtual. Human beings have become absolutely selfish and egoistic. Religions have turned into the reasons for battles, group-wars and terrorism. Political institutions and activities are grossly infected by crimes and corruptions. Love is lost. Truth is lost and hidden. Light is engulfed in Darkness.

This cannot be the Earth that the Divine, the Supreme, has designed and dreamed to manifest. The earth can be and has to be transformed into Abode of God. Man has to change himself and the earth atmosphere. Man has to change this world, in all aspects, in totality, integrally.

Sri Aurobindo has said:
Man in himself a little more than an ambitious nothing. He is a littleness that reaches to a wideness and grandeur that are beyond him, a dwarf enamoured of the heights. His mind is a dark ray in the splendours of the Universal Mind. His life is a striving, exulting, suffering, an eager passion-tossed and sorrow-stricken or a blindly and dumbly longing petty moment of the universal Life. His body is labouring perishable speck in the material universe. This cannot be the mysterious upward surge of Nature.[The Hour of God, page 8]

The base of this worldly manifestation, as we know, is Matter, which appears to us to be inconscient, gross, inert, without Life or Mind. However, Matter, as Sri Aurobindo has stated, is the self-willed involution of the Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, the Superconscient Spirit, the Supreme. The Divine has Himself become Matter, as the ultimate process of an Involution. Evolution is the urge, ‘the upward surge’ of the involved Divinity in Nature — to express and manifest Itself in this and as this evolving world.

Sri Aurobindo has further said:
In every particle, atom, molecule, cell of Matter there lives hidden and works unknown all the Omniscience of the Eternal and all the Omnipotence of the Infinite.[The Hour of God, page 14]

He has also said:
Involution of a Superconscient Spirit in inconscient Matter is the secret of this visible and apparent world and the evolution of this Superconscient out of inconscient Nature is the key-world of the earth’s riddle. Earth-life is the self-chosen habitation of a great divinity and his aeonic will is to change it from a blind prison into his splendid mansion and high heaven-reaching temple.[The Hour of God, page 17]

Thus, it is an inevitable conclusion that the earth-nature and the circumstances on earth must change. Evolution cannot stop and be finalized after creating a being, the human being, whose nature is quite insufficient and insignificant and contrary to what is involved: the Superconscient. So, Man has to grow as an expression of the Divine. Man has to grow into something that is beyond his present state : half-conscious, ignorant, mortal and enslaved to the lower nature.

Sri Aurobindo has again said :
There is something beyond, something that mankind shall be; it is seen now only in broken glimpses through rifts in the broken walls of limitations that deny its possibility and existence. An immortal soul is there somewhere within him and upholds the soul-continuity if his nature. But this greater Spirit is obstructed from descent by the hard lid of his constructed personality; and that inner luminous soul is wrapped, stifled, oppressed in dense outer coatings.[The Hour of God, page 8]

Sri Aurobindo has further said:
The earth-law has to be changed and a new atmosphere has to be created.
[Evenings talks with Sri Aurobindo by A B Purani, page 148]

Body has been seen, almost always, as a barrier for spiritual sadhana and progress. Sri Aurobindo has spoken of this as follows:
In the past, the body was regarded by the spiritual seekers rather as an obstacle, as something to be overcome as discarded, than as an instrument of spiritual perfection and a field of spiritual change. It has been condemned as a grossness of Matter, as an insuperable impediment, and the limitations of the body as something unchangeable, making transformation impossible.[The Supramental Manifestation, page 7]
But now, in the New Way of the Supramental Transformation, the role of the body is essential and of high importance. The secret of the Change lies here, in the body. Man has to surpass all his imperfections and shortcomings and become the supramental being. The earth shall grow into an abode of the supramental consciousness. That way only, the humankind can conquer all his sufferings, fears and shortcomings, all his imperfections, inconscience and ignorance, and even Death. That is the Task ahead. That is the Work to be done. Conquest of Death — that is the Aim. “Even the body shall remember God,” said Sri Aurobindo [in Savitri], and thus shall body conquer Death and Darkness and Ignorance.

OOOO

The term ‘the Agenda’ definitely means The Mother’s Agenda. The reference is to the thirteen volumes of Mother’s Agenda, and it also includes in it scope the very central Idea of that has been the Aim and Goal and Purpose of all the endeavours of The Mother: the terrestrial transformation and the Advent of the supramental beings — the Supramental Transformation. It was destined that the 13 volumes of the Agenda would be published, the main contents of which put forth the Message of the Mother to the humanity, to the world, through Her words and sayings and conversations. Some persons perhaps did not desire that these Words should not se the daylight, but the Divine Will prevailed. Satprem came out to the world with these Words. In fulfillment of the Divine Will, Satprem was The Mother’s instrument.

The Mother’s Words in these volumes of the Agenda are essentially important, as they form the New Truth, create the New Vision that will lead and guide the humanity, the world, to The New Horizon, The New World, of the supramental manifestation. These words show us The New Way.

Should we continue for ever to be as imperfect and ignorant and mortal as we are now? Should we ever remain enslaved to Tamas and Darkness and Inconscience, to Death, to division and disorder and chaos? Should our existence for ever be meaningless, purposeless? Should our cycles of birth and death be aimless, meaningless? Should our existence remain for ever subject to sorrow and sufferings? Should always there be the continuance of the problems of warfare and battle, terrorism and bloodshed, of the innocent killings of the religious intolerance and atrocities, of the false and narrow and ignorant social rules, regulations, thoughts and ideologies on earth?

Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have answered with an emphatic no. There shall come a change — as certain as the sunrise. And there is a Way — as true as the sunlight. And there is a Hope — as sure as the Dawn — for all of us who are willing to collaborate and cooperate with the Divine, with Truth.

As we know, Sri Aurobindo departed after effecting the Descent of the supramental consciousness and force on and in His Person. The Mother took up the thread by bringing down the supramental consciousness on earth. She continued with after the Descent on earth for a progressive realization of the supramentalized manhood — supermanhood — by Man.

I hope the fellow seekers will be delighted to walk on The New Way.
[Continued]

Barindranath Chaki
21-07-2007

Friday, May 11, 2007

A Comment on Savitri

[I read the following in one of the blogs of Tusar N Mohapatra — Savitri Era Open Forum. I am sending this comment thereon.

Marko Says: May 10th, 2007 at 1:15 pm Hi anon, I can appreciate what you are saying and agree with most of it. But I was coming from a different perspective, that of literature and poetry, while you seem to be coming from that of teaching, transformation and transmission.
The perspective of literature was actually started by Tusar by his remark “For his poem Savitri, he ranks along with Dante, Milton, and Goethe.” Those three did not write from the perspective of a teaching that they wanted to put into the world like Aurobindo, although obviously Dante and Goethe were spiritual developed. So when Tusar says Savriti ranks along with Dante, Milton and Goethe he is coming from the perspective of literature.
And I don’t think that you can maintain Savriti is on the same level as the Divine Comedy here. And this is not a subjective experience thing. Specialists in the field of literature and poetry are the ones would have the last say in this. Well, those specialists have written libraries full of praise for the Divine Comedy and they did not and will not do so for Savriti. And again this is not because I don’t like Aurobindo, because I do, but I also want to keep things in perspective and stay realistic. In my view, Tusar’s comment was not realistic. Open Integral ]

A Comment on Savitri :

I think my friend Tusar N. Mohapatra was too modest and not really unrealistic, when he said : “For his poem Savitri, he ranks along with Dante, Milton, and Goethe.” What one finds what the Future Poetry will be and when one reads through the poems and even the prose of Sri Aurobindo, I find them to be far above even the best normal poems on earth, including even The Divine Comedy. Savitri cannot be compared to any other poem, when we think of the New Vision that Sri Aurobindo has given us.

In the Future, of which Sri Aurobindo and The Mother had the dream, and for bringing upon which They worked so much, the present ‘realistic’ standards of valuation of literature will change. And the Future seems not to be too far. There will be difference between poems with some Inner Vision and poems with high imagination and even visions from layers NOT too high. From the highest literary appreciation of the present day literary critics, The Divine Comedy may be one of the best. But I have not heard or read anywhere that The Divine Comedy has been sought after as The Light by anyone, as millions today have accepted and are accepting Savitri. As a thing of Beauty, The Divine Comedy has been a Joy for ever, no doubt. But it has never really been the equal to Savitri in bringing us to Light and Truth and the eternal Beauty.

We are advancing on earth. And as we are marching ahead, our standards are also growing and changing. As we are on the Way to live more and more in and with an integral consciousness, our standards of evaluation will also change. Arts for arts sake will be there, pure literature will also be there, but the true evaluation will only be from the integral viewpoint.

One — who is sincerely trying to understand Sri Aurobindo, what Consciousness He represents — will never compare Him with Goethe, Milton or Dante, though they were very great. And His creations, which really belong to the Future and Truth, cannot be compared to any creation of imagination, even of the highest poetic value as per the present day or past valuation. Dante and Goethe were no doubt spiritually developed. But was Sri Aurobindo simply spiritually developed? HE is the Light and the Leader of the Next Evolution.

The Mother has said in 1972 :
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.

The mother met Sri Aurobindo on 29th March 1914.
The next day, on 30th March, She wrote :
Gradually the horizon becomes distinct, the path grows clear, and we move towards a greater and greater certiude.
It matters little that there are thousands of beings plunged in the densest ignorance, He whom we saw yesterday is on earth ; his presence is enough to prove that a day will come when darkness shall be transformed into light, and Thy reign shall be indeed established upon earth.
O Lord, Divine Builder of this marvel, my heart overwhelms with joy and gratitude when I think of it, and my hope has no bounds.
My adoration is beyond all words, and my reverence is silent.

In 1972, in the birth centenary of Sri Aurobindo, The Mother gave us the following Message:
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.


Again, She said:
Man is the creation of yesterday.
Sri Aurobindo came to announce the creation of tomorrow: the coming of the supramental being.


And yet another, written on 1 January 1972:
Sri Aurobindo does not belong to a country but to the whole earth. His teaching leads us towards a better future.

In the Words of Sri Aurobindo, Savitri is the Divine Word. And it is the most realistic Truth.

Barin Chaki
11-05-2007