Daily Notes and Reflections by Alokda

The Sri Aurobindo Ashram is the Mother’s creation. Sri Aurobindo stands behind it as the backbone and support. The Mother stands in the front as the leader and the executive Power that is ever engaged in a labour of Divine Love to transform all who enter and work here.

Of course not all are conscious of Her Working but take it on faith. Others resist trying to judge and understand things by the mind. Still others simply open to Her Grace and Love that surround this space from the most physical to the subtlest dimension.

The Ashram is not just an extension in physical space, but like the great pillar of creation itself, it extends below into the subconscient realms and above in subtler domains accepting in its complex organization and occult design the titans and the gods as well as us humans.

It is His Idea-Force that moves the steps of the Divine Shakti that works in the Ashram, now putting a pressure here, now releasing it from there. It is Her Love that embraces all, moves all, transforms all depending upon the degree of our receptivity and resistances.

That is why it is impossible to understand the Ashram with the help of the intellect alone. It is only by entering into the touch of oneness with Her through love, devotion and faith that one can get a glimpse into this mystery-space and wonder and marvel and rejoice at this divine creation.

Our real life runs parallel and concealed below the surfaces. It is the true life, the life of the soul. There all is seen and welcomed as the Lord’s play to bring us closer to Him and share His delight.

But there is a veil of Ignorance that prevents us from knowing and living our true life. Our being is trapped in a prison of ego-self engaged in a game of reward and punishment, joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, success and failure.

Blows also belong to that domain. The Divine does not give any blow to anyone since to HIM there is no ‘other’. He is simply drawing everything towards Himself which is a state of pure felicity, but the mind gets attached to small comfort zones and feels even Grace as a blow.

The only way to get out of this vicious cycle is to press deeper and deeper towards our soul, to open more and more to the Grace, and live and breathe in Her Light and Love and Peace and Harmony and Bliss.

The law of karma is not so much about reward and punishment but about learning and growth, through action and consequences. In one word it is an evolutionary mechanism rather than a tribunal of Justice which is a human mistranslation of a divine Law.

The Divine does not punish or reward but simply leads us forward by putting a pressure from within and Above, a silent pressure of His Will. If we align with the Will we go faster, if not we slow down, if we actively resist we are pushed strongly as if through blows.

The soul accepts all circumstances with joy and progresses through everything, including what we call as sorrow and misfortune and vice versa, often more through pain than through pleasure. Outer events are not the real issue though the ego takes so much more interest in it.

The real game goes on within and there we discover not the stern hand of a Judge but the loving embrace of the Divine Mother who carries us despite everything. This Love and Grace are the deeper truths that override and even cancel the law of karma, thereby shortening the Path. This is the secret that Sri Aurobindo reveals to us.

The question is if this is all, the last limit of material evolution? Or the human body can develop either through the normal slow evolution of an accelerated spiritual revolution new possibilities of thought, new kind of thought, new kind of subjective self-experience and world experience, new ways and processes to receive vital energy and of a higher and superior kind, and as a result of this progressive evolution a new being with a new body which would be naturally tuned to new and higher states of consciousness, develop new faculties and powers, new ways of knowing and feeling and acting. Both common sense and the logic of evolution would say yes. Spiritual experience would also point us in the same direction.

It was given to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother to actually attempt and work out this possibility with their vast spiritual knowledge, power and experience. They were missioned for it so to say and their Tapasya was directed towards opening the doors of the Supramental Consciousness on one side while on the other, offering their physical body as the first pioneer towards this high divine possibility. However, they did not want to achieve the Supramental Transformation for themselves in an isolated way leaving aside the rest of humanity. It would then create a near unbridgeable gulf between the Supramental Transformation and the present mental man. Besides the Supramental Manifestation by its very nature had to be a collective one since it would imply a change in the law that presently govern earth nature and mental man. The Supramental being is not meant to be a freak with no real connection with mankind of today. This could only be done by tying them to the sample of humanity that had begun to gather around them. Sri Aurobindo became the spearhead forging towards the future with the rest linked to him. The result was that those connected with him could resist and delay his advance on which the advance of the rest depended. Or they could collaborate by reducing the burden that they had to carry. This was the reason of the delay and the eventual plunge into the Inconscient which is the seat of all resistance. Death is simply a symbol of this stark resistance in earth nature to any forward march and Godward evolution and change. It is the ultimate inertia, the Night that refuses the advent of Light, dims the aspiration throwing doubt and despair, steals hope and faith.

Sri Aurobindo’s plunge into the Inconscient was the cause of the phenomenon of what we call as his death or departure. This was not in helpless obedience to the earthly law to which we are ordinarily subject. Rather it was in defiance of it, to challenge the Night in its own home or den. Trailing him there descended the Supramental Light from above to which his body was the link and the bridge between the Divine Supermind and mental man. This descent became the symbol of a promise, an achievement that could have only gone thus far unless one left the rest of humanity behind. His plunge cleared the passage for the subsequent Supramental Manifestation on the 29th February 1956 which took place as the Mother continued the work here while Sri Aurobindo took his station in the subtle physical and worked upon the world forces from behind.

There is a deeper view of Death. Going deep within through the inner subjective spaces we can discover within us the flaming soul made of an immortal substance that can neither be buried nor burnt, neither cleaved by weapons or blown away by the winds. It can neither be drowned by the waters nor absorbed by the elements. The immortal soul in man is a most wonderful discovery, a discovery that completely liberates us from the fear of death. The soul knows that it always was, is and will be through a thousand changing masks we call as the body.

Climbing beyond the higher mind towards a vaster spiritual vision one sees that the body is meant to be an instrument of the Spirit. It is a means for the Divine Manifestation intended upon earth. It is towards this end that Nature has been labouring through a long complex process. It has evolved the living cell out of matter by building means for it to draw the vital energy that animates the creation. In human beings the means to draw this vital energy is primarily through breath and subordinately food though there are other direct means as well for the universal energy to enter the system. But the breath remains the primary means of drawing the vital energy locked within the oxygen molecule. Once released into the blood the vital energy or prana is carried through other transport systems and delivered to the rest of the body where it is further taken up by the cellular mechanisms and used for various purposes.

Therefore when the breath and heartbeat stops we say that the person has died. But the person, the true person is the soul that can never die. It is the body that dies or rather its mechanisms through which it draws the vital energy is snapped. Just as an electrical machine would stop working if its wires have been cut. The difference however between the body and the other machines is that if the supply of the vital energy is not restored soon the machine itself becomes subject to the degenerative forces through smaller life forms and other vital forms that begin to feed upon it. The energy therefore gets transferred from the body to the material and vital world around it. It was to dissolve these vital formations that are attracted towards ‘dead’ and disintegrating once living body that the fire and other rituals have been used so that the atmosphere around the places where the dead bodies are disposed are cleansed of these forces.
This of course does not apply to realised Yogis who withdraw consciously and have the occult knowledge to protect the body and even maintain some kind of contact with it to act upon the world.

But the cell is not just a hub of vital energy. The human cell has also evolved to the point of receiving the imprints of thoughts and suggestions that circulate in the world. The brain and the nervous system receive impacts from the external world through the senses of directly. These impacts get stored as imprints in some subconscious memory. The brain mechanism transcribes them into thoughts just as the computer software transcribes the impact of fingers on the keys into words and sentences depending upon the programming.
In other words the human body has evolved certain mechanism and processes through which it receives and transmits vital energy that is required for our normal and ordinary human operations. Our brain and nervous system too receive and transcribe impacts of certain vibrations from different sources into thoughts and feelings and impulses and all the rest of our cognate experiences that build the subjective life of an individual behind his physical frame.

Q: Sweet Mother, How should one spend the Darshan days, December fifth and ninth, and one’s birthday?

The Mother: In search of a knowledge truer than ordinary knowledge.
The fifth and ninth in understanding what death is.
The birthday in finding out the purpose of life.
Blessings.’ [CWM 16:415]

These words of the Mother are a clear reminder, a luminous guideline given to us as to the way we should approach these special days.

True knowledge is the knowledge that transcends the knowledge gained by the senses and the surface mind. This surface knowledge gained through outer means has its own place in our everyday life as we navigate through the physical world. It tells us something about the appearance of things which the physical mind organises, classifies and categorises for ease of understanding and dealing with life and its different scenes through which we pass. But this knowledge, for all its immediate practical utility is not enough to tell us about the meaning and purpose of our existence. It is unable to tell us about the origin of creation and the goal, if any, towards which it moves. In fact it is not even enough to tell us about the thing in itself in all its aspects and qualities, powers and possibilities, the forces that weave the form giving shape to a formless energy to which the mind attaches a value and a name. That is why this surface knowledge of the appearances of things is called as the lower knowledge from the higher spiritual standpoint so to say. On the other hand the higher knowledge reveals to us the Divine Reality that stands behind the appearances. A still higher Supramental Knowledge reveals to us not only the Divine Reality behind appearances but Its relation with the temporal, phenomenal appearance. It gives us a complete and comprehensive, an Integral Knowledge so to say.

The Darshan days should be spent in contemplating upon this truer knowledge that takes us deeper into the heart of creation and its mystery. This truer knowledge not only gives us a better understanding of the goal of life which otherwise seems a meaningless struggle for existence but empowers us to respond to events and circumstances in a better way, keeping in mind the goal of our human journey but also, at its highest, a comprehensive understanding of the thing in itself, the true law of each in itself as well as in relation to the whole.

When we try to understand death from this standpoint then we can see it in the form of an ascending hierarchy of truths until all of these reconciled in the All-comprehending Supramental Vision and Knowledge. To the material senses and the surface physical mind of man, death is not only real but almost like the sole reality that lets life emerge from beneath its giant paws and flourish awhile under its shadow. The little plot of mortal life and the brief play ended, life is absorbed back into the jaws of death.

But there is another way of looking at Death. Climbing beyond the first surface view, recovering from the shock of the senses, our thought stretches its wings to climb towards eternity. Using the transient body as a pedestal our mind seeks the Wisdom, the Light of a Truth that does not fade away with Time. In-between life living under its shadow and chased by death does some remarkable things as if to defy and even challenge it. While the man passes away he or she may leave behind an immortal work, thoughts that inspire generations to come, deeds that outlast the hurrying feet of Time. It is as if Death has acted as a spur to goad the human soul to stamp its immortality on the pages of passing Time. It is as if, paradoxically so to say, Death has acted like a whip to hasten man to the discovery of his deathless state.

Legends speak of the three strides of Vishnu. The first two strides cover the sky and the earth. Yet, these two outer conquests remain incomplete without the third stride. It is the stride of God that conquers man. Or shall we say, fulfils God in man.

The last three decades have seen man’s growing conquest over material nature and the biophysical forces that move him. His gaze has extended far and wide into outer space. He can determine the lifespan of a star. Yet what eludes him still is his own destiny. What escapes his grasp are the unseen forces that possess and move him. What remains for him to explore are the inner spaces of his soul.

We have learnt the power of the spoken word. But the unspoken word still eludes us. The mystery of the silence behind life lies hidden by the clamour and noise of our surface mind.

We have learnt the science of defining things but not the art of experiencing them. We have amassed information but missed the wisdom that truly knows. We have craftily manipulated the surface of man but his depths remain unfathomed. We have been taught about the maladies that afflict his body but know little about the fevers that rage in his mind and ravish his soul.

Our textbooks are satisfied with defining health and normalcy but who will give us the experience of health? There is an abundant description of the normal and the abnormal. The supernormal is still a fantasy and a myth, because it is not common. Just as an ape would not have recognized himself in the forthcoming man so too, in man the superman lurks unseen. The greatness of man is not in his superiority over other animals. It is in his capacity to surpass himself.

It must be remembered that this yoga is a long journey, sometimes smooth and at other times a battle against seen and unseen forces that rise up in revolt to obstruct and block the path and deter and discourage the aspirant. Revolt, doubt and depression increase the hold of these forces, whereas faith and surrender, sincerity of aspiration and self-giving to the Mother clears the passage. All impatience, especially born of a spiritual ambition to be a yogi or a guru, all hankering after other-worldly experiences can be very dangerous and lead us straight into the hands of the adversary. The only experience worthwhile to have in the beginning and as a base is the contact and identification with the psychic being within us. All else grows spontaneously as a flower blooms under the sun. This is the straight and sunlit path as shown by Them, and it is enough to turn towards Her as a child ever new born in the flame of one’s aspiration.

As Sri Aurobindo warns us,
One may practise Yoga and get illuminations in the mind and the reason; one may conquer power and luxuriate in all kinds of experiences in the vital; one may establish even surprising physical siddhis; but if the true soul-power behind does not manifest, if the psychic nature does not come into the front, nothing genuine has been done. In this Yoga, the psychic being is that which opens the rest of the nature to the true supramental light and finally to the supreme Ananda. Mind can open by itself to its own higher reaches; it can still itself and widen into the Impersonal; it may too spiritualise itself in some kind of static liberation or Nirvana; but the supramental cannot find a sufficient base in spiritualised mind alone. If the inmost soul is awakened, if there is a new birth out of the mere mental, vital and physical into the psychic consciousness, then this Yoga can be done; otherwise (by the sole power of the mind or any other part) it is impossible. If there is a refusal of the psychic new birth, a refusal to become the child new born from the Mother, owing to attachment to intellectual knowledge or mental ideas or to some vital desire, then there will be a failure in the sadhana.
[Letters on Yoga CWSA 30: 337-338]

Prayer, worship can be and are very much a part of this yoga, but their method is different from the traditional processes. Traditional practices rely too much on outer rituals such as beads and fasting, outer withdrawal and such. But the communion in the Integral Yoga takes place in an inner ground of consciousness. The prayer is not a repetitive mechanical prayer remembered from a prayer book but one that rises spontaneously from the heart. Worship is not an external ritual but an inner state of adoration and humility before the Divine. Needless to say that things like fasting and other extreme forms of religious and ascetic practices have no place here. Balance, moderation, an invocation and aspiration to create a solid foundation of calm, peace and equanimity are the ways forward. This can be greatly helped by living in a place that has a touch of infinity upon it, but this or any other practice is not indispensable. The only indispensable thing in this yoga is to keep oneself open and turned towards the Mother. Sometimes the company of other sadhakas endowed with devotion towards Her, or those in whom the flame of aspiration rises high and wide, acts like a living fire to light up or increase a low-burning flame. The same purpose is served through study circles or a satsang, a coming together of sadhakas in a common uplifting aspiration. Conferences, seminars and discussions that are mostly mental activities do not help much if any at all.