The last century or so can be rightly termed as an age of revolutions. The human mind entered into an accelerated mode giving rise to revolutionary changes in the field of Science, Industry, Politics and other fields of knowledge. It is as if there has been a casting of new ideas in the human mind leading to radical shifts in human understanding as perhaps never before. But behind these revolutions that are tangible and visible to the eye of man there is a silent revolution going on within man whose far-reaching consequences are yet to be understood. It is a revolution in consciousness, a silent spiritual revolution with its eventual consequences of the evolution of mankind from the mental to the spiritual person. It is time for evolution next, the spiritual evolution of the human race.
In 1917 Sri Aurobindo wrote: “The changes we see in the world today are intellectual, moral, physical in their ideal and intention: the spiritual revolution waits for its hour and throws up meanwhile its waves here and there. Until it comes the sense of the others cannot be understood and till then all interpretations of present happening and forecast of man’s future are vain things. For its nature, power, event are that which will determine the next cycle of our humanity.” [Thoughts and Glimpses, CWSA 13:211]
We may say that the blueprint of this silent spiritual revolution was given to Sri Aurobindo with his coming to Pondicherry on the 4th April, 1910. With the coming of the Mother on the 29th March, 1914, Sri Aurobindo began sharing something of this blueprint with the world at large through the Arya. The Mother’s final coming on the 24th April 1920 marked yet another stage in the Divine Project. Being the manifesting Power of the Divine, now incarnated as the Shakti of Sri Aurobindo, she started organising the materials and calling some of those who may become part of the project. Yet the formal go-ahead waited for 6 long years. It was to see the readiness of matter, of the earthly soil to bear the Divine descent. The final sanction was needed by the Divine incarnated as Sri Krishna to the Divine incarnated as Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo’s own personal sadhana and the consequent yoga Siddhi was needed before his individual Yoga could enlarge its scope and significance and become a collective yoga, the Yoga of world transformation. For the Divine Life cannot be created by few isolated individuals. At least a certain number of representative human beings were needed to see how far can the spiritual revolution aimed at a collective transformation of mankind go.
We may say that the 24th November is the day when the inner sanction, the sign and the final seal came. Sri Krishna’s descent into the physical along with all the fullness of the Overmental Consciousness was a clear indication that the human body and earth nature can bear the impact of the Supermind which indeed is much more powerful and complete and perfect. Thereby began a huge unprecedented venture or the Divine Adventure of a New Creation upon earth. What was happening in the consciousness of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother was now laid open to the world, to participate and collaborate in various ways. We may say that Sri Aurobindo and The Mother laid the foundation stone for the bridge towards the future and the Mother took charge of not only arranging and organising but actually building the New Creation, starting with a representative sample of humanity and ending with a universal township and now extending into the whole world.
It took nearly another 30 years to build the bridge from the old to the New Creation. The foundation stone for the bridge was laid jointly by Sri Aurobindo and Sri Krishna. The complete charge for the construction through the human consciousness to the divine superhumanity was given entirely to the Mother on this day, the 24th of November 1926. With this there came into existence the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, the Integral Yoga, the Collective Yoga for the transformation of earthly life into the Life Divine.
Alok Pandey
Pondicherry, November 23, 2024
