Daily Offerings from Alokda Archives

Songs of the Soul: November 24, 2024

Mother Divine all our being is before Thee as a single flame of gratitude.

Gratitude for this Day of Victory when You consented to take up the burden of all of us ignorant humanity. It is the day when Sri Aurobindo entered deeper into the Supreme Mystery to bring down the supramental consciousness for the earth and men. Even as he withdrew within, the Lord brought You to the forefront as our Master and Guide, Mother and Father, Friend and Beloved. This is the day when You laid the inner foundation of this magical wonder that the world knows as the Sri Aurobindo Ashram where each brick and stone speaks of Thy Love and radiates the invisible Light of Thy tapasya. Yet this invisible Light and Force is awakening the blind to a new sight, raising the dead to a new life, opening the passage to a new leap. This is the day when the old was resurrected, reborn to a new possibility. This is the day when Earth crossed a threshold and entered a cusp of the new creation. This is the day when the cycle of Time started preparing for a new chapter and man’s consciousness began getting ready for the leap from the Overmind gods to the Supermind. This is the day when Sri Aurobindo and Sri Krishna together laid the foundation stone of the bridge towards the future and You took the charge of its construction. This is the day when the cycle of Time entered the cusp from the Age of the gods to the Hour of God Himself.

None of this would be even conceivable, imagined or dreamed off by mankind leaving us little to choose between an earthly life doomed to imperfection and limitations of all kinds and a selfish individual salvation into the Beyond.

But Thou hast opened a new door and all our being is a flame of gratitude singing a hymn of adoration and of new hope.

Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa

2024-11-24

How do we call the Mother to establish Her constant presence in our Heart?

Q: Considering that man is in perpetual action, it appears to be difficult to keep repeating any verbal formula. Or is just the attitude of doing everything for Her sake? And how is one to do the act of calling Mother if we want to establish Her presence in our Heart?

ALOKDA: Remembering and offering all to the Mother means:
– 1. Shifting the motive of action from selfish personal gains and satisfaction of desires, ego and ambitions to work becoming a means to serve the Mother and fulfill Her Will. Initially this Will is not known so one simply dedicates the action inwardly to Her with an aspiration for light and beauty and perfection in the action which is a means to serve Her now. It also means non-attachment to the results even though one has put in one’s best efforts.
– 2. A few moments of inner concentration before starting anything from morning waking up onwards to dedicate the activity to Her praying for Her to use you as Her instrument. Similar thing after the action with gratitude.
– 3. Forming the habit (this comes with practice and perseverance) of calling Her inwardly by simply repeating Her Name in your heart while doing the work outside. It will Initially lead to a frequent forgetting. Later a division is created between an inner consciousness that remembers Her and an outer that is engaged in work.

As a result of persistence a time comes when the inner state is full of Her and it is Her Presence that begins to flow in all one does.

2024-11-24

A Silent Spiritual Revolution (on significance of the Siddhi Day)

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.

“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
November 23, 2024
Pondicherry

2024-11-24

A Silent Spiritual Revolution (an offering for the Nov. 24 Darshan Day)

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]

Alok Pandey
Pondicherry, November 23, 2024

2024-11-23

The Darshan Messages were our lifeline – what is the benefit of stopping them?

Q: I was upset about the Ashrams decision to stop the messages. For all of us who haven’t been around before 1973, there is no reason to be deprived of this instrument for staying connected to The Mother. As we evolve each word of theirs exudes different meaning to all of us, and these Darshan Messages are our lifeline – what is the benefit of stopping them?

ALOKDA: Dear G., there are many devotees around the globe who feel the same way. These darshan messages were like the subtle binding cord that linked the inner core of the Ashram with the world that has grown around Sri Aurobindo and the Mother as the centre. They were like rays of the central sun reaching out far and wide to the larger Ashram linking it together in links of golden thread.

However just as the tree turns inwards during Autumn and the sun seems to be distant so too institutions go through phases of expansion and contraction. Right now, from the year 2019 the earth and humanity and nations and many of its institutions are going through this phase of contraction. It gives an opportunity to turn within and reinvent itself to adapt to the changing world. At the same time many groups are actually reinventing themselves and coming up with fresh possibilities through a creative surge within.

I suppose it is one such phase of contraction that the Ashram is going through. It will however make humanity across the world less dependent upon the Ashram administration and authorities and more in direct contact with the Mother and Sri Aurobindo whose Presence vibrates at the Samadhi releasing forces of transformation. That is the great lesson we are here to learn that She is in us and in all creatures and our task is to become more and more conscious of Her living Presence.

2024-11-23

Sri Aurobindo’s Thought and Humanity

Sri Aurobindo’s thought is drawing humanity more and more towards itself. This is only bound to increase as mankind evolves and seeks to find complete answers to the cosmic riddle of which man is a part. Among this humanity, that is turning towards Sri Aurobindo, there is a section that seeks to engage primarily with his thought and the new ideas that Sri Aurobindo has seeded into the earth atmosphere. Many of them engage with these ideas in an academic way and it goes as far as it could, which is not very far. One soon encounters the first difficulty, since these ideas are so new that all our previous understanding of yoga and man and life’s goal stands in the way. The more we compare Sri Aurobindo to various other similar or dissimilar thoughts, the more we get confused. We perhaps enter into a cocoon constructed by our ignorant receiving of the profound truths, that have descended from the plane of Truth into the realms of our mortal ignorance and its small, cramped up understanding of life. One plays with the ideas, churns them in the mind, tries even to digest them mentally or understand intellectually, seeks to discover the truths concealed within the words. But that cannot be done by the mind alone since these ideas were never born from the Mind. What Sri Aurobindo has brought to this earth in terms of Idea-forces has been born through the fire of yoga. It is the gift of his intense and arduous tapasya, the kind of which one hardly had even in far back times. The true understanding can therefore only come as one engages with the yoga itself. The mental lights are not sufficient, it is the fire of yoga that can illumine our understanding and reveal to us what is hidden behind the written word. Still to an extent this difficulty begins to be overpassed if one persists. The words themselves then kindle the fire in one who is now prepared through the readings, and he begins to see what was unclear before.

2024-11-23

Songs of the Soul: November 23, 2024

Supreme Mother, Mother Divine, how much we may ever stretch our thought and imagination, how much we may ever purify our feelings and intelligence, we can never understand Thee. Even our noblest and highest flight of thought cannot conceive of Thee. Our utmost intensity of aspiration is like a little fire burning before Thy Supreme Splendour that lights up the suns. Yet You lean and accept our humblest of offerings lifting the little flame of our aspiration to make it one with Thy Sun.

Thou art the flame and the offering. Thou art the Sun that receives the offering and the Light that leans down to illumine and impel in our journey through the Night.

Thou art the Night and the Day, now concealing, now revealing Thy Beauty and Light. Yet even when we see Thee not, Thou art there hidden in the folds of darkness.

There is in fact nothing that does not speak of Thee and yet there is nothing that can truly express Thee.

Thou art the All and beyond the All, Truth and Beauty and Love Supreme.

Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa

2024-11-23

Are there special experiences on this Path and what they indicate?

Dear A., there are two main types of experiences that a sadhak has in the course of his spiritual journey.

The first and more common are subjective in nature and include states of consciousness such as feeling peace, wideness, joy, growth of aspiration, surge of devotion and faith, urge for progress, to surrender oneself to the Divine. Further along this line one can have flashes of intuition, inspiration, revelatory insight, feeling of oneness, bliss, infinity, cosmic consciousness leading to an enlargement of our being into others and taking of others into oneself, the sense of the Divine Presence within and in all. These eventually lead us to a growing identification with the Divine, knowing oneself as the psychic being, a change of consciousness leading to the growth of divine qualities and divine nature. As you can see this is what spiritual life is largely about with the change and reversal of consciousness being the main thing since it leads to the progressive transmutation of the human nature into the Divine. As a result of this one can develop certain powers spontaneously such as of intuitive knowledge, power of expression of higher truths, healing powers, and various other such possibilities depending upon our constitution and spiritual destiny.

There are other experiences that can be considered as objective since they are as if projected outside the limits of our being. They include visions and voices, subtle taste, touches, subtle hearing, subtle smells, conscious entry into other planes, seeing of lights and colours, going out of the body consciously, seeing the Divine everywhere, knowing the thoughts of others etc. There are a number of occult powers that one can encounter here too.

What is important is to understand that having visions, hearing voices, development of occult powers are not necessarily the sign of spiritual progress and they can often mislead the sadhak. The true signs of spiritual progress are threefold:

Psychic experiences leading to a growth of bhakti, love, faith, the urge to serve the Divine, to give oneself to the Divine, feeling oneself as the child of the Divine Mother or a portion, a part and parcel of the Divine, an inner certitude of immortality.

Spiritual experiences such a feeling of wideness and oneness, experience of the Divine Presence within, of oneness with all beings, knowing the One Self, the descent of Peace, Joy, Knowledge, opening to inspiration and intuition, feeling the Divine Presence in all and all in the Divine, all as the Divine.
Supramental experiences leading to a complete shift and transformation of nature within and without, becoming conscious of infinity and eternity, absolute certitude of a total all-comprehensive knowledge free from any possibilities of error, a Love that is all-powerful and all-inclusive in itself, a bliss and peace that are unvarying and undiminished, a state of continuous identification with the Divine in oneself and in all. Eventually a radical transformation of our mind, heart, life and body itself in its entire functioning.

The coming and going of experiences does not indicate that we are doing good or bad things. These are human notions. They depend upon a certain opening and receptivity of the consciousness to the Divine. This receptivity and opening are prepared through aspiration, sincerity, concentration, faith, surrender. These things take time to develop. One has to walk with a lot of patience and perseverance. However, yoga is not done for having experiences but for a change of consciousness from the human to the Divine. The change comes readily as the ego-centricity is diminished, the restless cry and clamour of desires stilled, and the consciousness is turned towards the Mother in a state of bhakti and surrender, concentrated more and more upon Her than upon oneself.

Affectionately,
Alok da

2024-11-22

Theism, Atheism and the Living Experience

Atheism is a phase through which the soul must pass in its search towards the Reality that it seeks. Trapped by belief systems and crushed under the weight of dead rituals it breaks free so as to discover a greater and wider Truth. It is this faith inbuilt within the soul that compels it to thus advance.

When belief ends then faith begins, and when we have denied all possible conceptions of God then the ground is cleared for the living experience of That which cannot be captured by any formula or shut in a scripture.

Theist is often satisfied with the image and the shadow. The Atheist is satisfied with his negation of the image. Both miss the greater truth that images, ideas and conceptions are at best scaffoldings and half-way inns towards the soul’s ascension out of a state of Ignorance towards Light and Truth and Freedom and Immortality.

But the atheist is unable to comprehend or find a way to experience That which is beyond Form and yet uses all forms for His Self-expression. If the Theist limits himself to the form, the Atheist limits himself to his temporary incapacity to go beyond the form and come in contact with the Consciousness that inhabits it.

The fact is that the limit of our sight is not the limit of Light, and Truth is wider than all our conceptions and forms.

2024-11-22