17th Nov 1973 is regarded as the Mother’s Mahasamadhi day. This day and event has become the subject of much speculation. The sceptics wonder about the fate of
Integral Yoga without a spiritual successor, especially since they think that the task of physical transformation undertaken by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother has been left incomplete. Some use the term postponed, others say it has been temporarily abandoned. The faithful however continue to repose their trust in the Mother and accept everything as part of Her Divine Lila even if they do not comprehend it.
This article (running in ten parts) is an effort to take a look at some of these issues with regard to the Integral Yoga and its many-sided fulfillment.
Part 4. The Promise and the Victory
It is however important to remember that the Mother and Sri Aurobindo had never promised that they would create a supramental body for themselves for all to see. They had promised that the New Consciousness shall manifest and a New Light shall break upon the Earth and that promise was indeed fulfilled on the 29th Feb 1956 itself. In a certain sense the Divine Promise was fulfilled. Her Work being over, the Mother could have easily withdrawn and let the Supermind work out the next phase of evolution. For this is certain that with the New Consciousness upon Earth, the world and humanity was bound to change even if it did not wish to do so.
This is a part of Her conversation with a disciple about the New Race.
Sweet Mother, you have said: The Supramental has descended upon earth. What does that mean exactly? You have also said: “The things that were promised are fulfilled.” What are these things?
Ah, that’s ignorance indeed! This was promised a very long time ago, this was said very long ago—not only here—since the beginning of the earth. There have been all kinds of predictions, by all kinds of prophets; it has been said, “There will be a new heaven and a new earth, a new race will be born, the world will be transformed….” Prophets have spoken about this in all the traditions.
You have said, “They are fulfilled.”
Yes. And so?
Where is the new race?
The new race? Wait for something like… a few thousand years, and you will see it! When the mind descended upon earth, between the time the mind manifested in the earth-atmosphere and the time the first man appeared, nearly a million years elapsed. Now it will go faster because man expects it, he has a vague idea; he is expecting in some sense the advent of the superman, while, certainly, the apes did not expect the birth of man, they had never thought of it—for the good reason that they probably don’t think much.
But man has thought of it and awaits it, so it will go faster. But faster means still thousands of years probably. We shall speak about it again after a few thousand years! (Silence)
People who are inwardly ready, who are open and in contact with higher forces, people who have had a more or less direct personal contact with the supramental Light and Consciousness are able to feel the difference in the earth-atmosphere. But for that… Only the like can know the like, only the supramental Consciousness in an individual can perceive this Supermind acting in the earth-atmosphere. Those who, for some reason or other, have developed this perception, can see it. But those who are not even conscious of an inner being—just slightly within—and who would be quite at a loss to say what their soul is like, these certainly are not ready to perceive the difference in the earth-atmosphere. They still have a long way to go for that. Because, for those whose consciousness is more or less exclusively centred in the outer being—mental, vital and physical—things need to take on an absurd and unexpected appearance for them to be able to recognise them. Then they call them miracles.
But the constant miracle of the intervention of forces which changes circumstances and characters and has a very widespread result, this they do not call a miracle, for only the mere appearance is seen and this seems quite natural. But, truly speaking, if you were to reflect upon the least little thing that happens, you would be obliged to acknowledge that it is miraculous. It is simply because you don’t reflect upon it that you take things as they are, for what they are, without questioning; otherwise every day you would have any number of occasions to tell yourself, “Really, but this is quite astonishing! How did it happen?” Quite simply, it is a habit of seeing things in a purely superficial way…..
Her prayer of 25th Sep 1914 contains the following promise:
O DIVINE and adorable Mother, with Thy help what is there that is impossible? The hour of realisations is near and Thou hast assured us of Thy aid that we may perform integrally the supreme Will.
Thou hast accepted us as fit intermediaries between the unthinkable realities and the relativities of the physical world, and Thy constant presence in our midst is a token of Thy active collaboration.
“The Lord has 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.”
And in the Bulletin of April 1956 The Mother announced the Supramental Manifestation of February 29 in two following messages, first of which refers to the Prayer of 25th September 1914 above:
“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.”(29 February—29 March 1956)
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.(24th April 1956)
[CWM 8: 125 – 127]
