Gaia Community: Barin's Blog

29th March

http://barin.gaia.com — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 17:52:25 GMT

Ninety-five years back, on the 29^th day of March, 1914, Mirra Alfassa, later known as The Mother, met Sri Aurobindo. She wrote in Prayers and Meditations on 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; 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 overflows with joy and gratitude when I think of it, and my hope has no bounds.
My adoration is beyond all words, my reverence is silent.

If we see from a truly historical viewpoint, unbiased and liberated from the ordinary way of thinking and understanding, we will realize that this has been a day of the greatest possible significance and importance for the mankind and its future, for the earth and its future.

They are the two Persons who realized the Supermind and caused the Descent of the Supramental Consciousness. Prior to Them, none else endeavored for reaching or bringing down the Supramental Consciousness. The words the Supramental Consciousness or Supermind were first used and defined by Sri Aurobindo. He also used the words Gnosis and Truth-Consciousness mean Supermind. But the Idea or the conception was not quite new. According to Sri Aurobindo, the Vedas contain the gospels of the divine and immortal Supermind in a concealed way.

In Taittiriya Upanishad, it has been said: Annam brahma — the Matter is Brahman. [Annam brahmeti vyājanat — he knew the Matter to be the Eternal Absolute] Likewise, it is also said there: prāno [Life] brahma, mano [Mind] brahma, vijnānam brahma and ānandam [Bliss] brahma. Vijnana is Supermind. Supermind is also termed rtachit or Truth-Consciousness.

In this regard, M Alan Kazlev says: "Vijnana loka" is the Supermind proper - in Sri Aurobindo's reading of the Taittiriya Upanishad, vijnana is not intuitive or inner mind as it is in the conventional vedantic (especially advaitin) interpretation in terms of koshas, but the Supramental purusha which is still to be actualized, and will be as part of the process of Supramentalization. [Kheper Website ~www.kheper.net]

It may be emphasized that not much of efforts were made, earlier to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, to reach Supermind or to cause its Descent on earth. It was said that on reaching and realizing the height of Vijnana, the Supramental Consciousness, one’s body would not last more than forty days.

Possibly, the human body was not yet then ready for the Adventure. But now things have changed, after the Supramental Descent on earth, caused by The Mother on the 29^th day of February 1956.

It was an adventurous action on the part of Sri Aurobindo that He reached, realized and received the Supramental Consciousness that descended on the 5^th day of December 1950. And He did so at the cost of His physical Existence.

*****

Sri Aurobindo states that Supermind is the creator of the universe, and not any Overmental God or Force.

Sri Aurobindo has also described the nature of Supermind to be an ultimate knowledge and knowing power. According to Him, Mind is a lesser power of Supermind and is derived from the latter. However, Mind is a plane necessary in the Evolution, as designed by the Supreme Consciousness. He also says that the human beings are capable of experiencing and realizing the ultimate cognitive and creative capacity that Supermind is.

He also states that through Evolution of consciousness, Man can rise from Mind to a higher, spiritualized Mind [namely, the Higher Mind, the Illumined Mind, the Intuitive Mind and Overmind] and even further, until he reaches and realizes the Supramental.

In the onward journey of Ascension, before reaching the Supramental Consciousness, generally, one has to realize and surpass the various planes of Mind, as described above, — from the Higher Mind to Overmind. According to Sri Aurobindo, Overmind is the plane of Gods and Goddesses. This is the highest consciousness within the mental system. As Man progresses higher and higher in Consciousness, he has the scope of experiencing and surpassing these planes of Mind, until he reaches Overmind. And thereafter, there comes the possibility of the Supramental Realization and Descent and Transformation. If we rise in consciousness, we can grow and develop the supramental capacity of knowledge. Moreover, as a consequence of acquiring the capacity for integral knowledge, we will have the infinite capacity to create in life, just as Supermind itself is able to do as the Creator.

*****

Sri Aurobindo’s departure was a Sacrifice for the noblest cause of letting the Supramental Consciousness and Force descend on earth for the Supramentalization of the earth-consciousness and for evolutionary progress beyond Man, so that the earth changes from a vale of tears to an abode of Joy and Light and creativity. That was the beginning.

In the words of K D Sethna, the physical departure of Sri Aurobindo “reveals itself as an extreme measure freely adopted, for reasons of his own, in significant yet never dominant mortal detail by one who, after having ascended in consciousness to a new and hitherto unmanifested power of the Divine Reality, sought to effect a descent of it for earth's complete perfection, including a transformation of the very body of man. The spiritual perfectionist found at a critical turn of his battle with entrenched powers of darkness in earth's being that to take his own semi-transformed body through the process of a death at once normal and supernormal was a paradoxical short-cut towards the revolutionary evolution of humanity into divinity that was his aim.” [Emphasis is mine.]

The Departure of Sri Aurobindo effected a realization of a New Consciousness and Force in the very Person of The Mother: the Mind of Light got realized in Her. And that caused to open the doors of the greatest Hope for Mankind: the Hope for the Supramentalization.

The Mother says:

"As soon as Sri Aurobindo withdrew from his body, what he has called the Mind of Light got realised in me."

"The Supermind had descended long ago - very long ago - into the mind and even into the vital: it was working in the physical also but indirectly through those intermediaries. The question was about the direct action of the Supermind in the physical. Sri Aurobindo said it could be possible only if the physical mind received the supramental light: the physical mind was the instrument for direct action upon the most material. This physical mind receiving the supramental light Sri Aurobindo called the Mind of Light."

[Emphasis is mine.]

And what has seemed to us to be The Mother’s Departure is but a transition — The Mother left Her human frame and walked into the newly formed Supramental Body, which is but an individual manifestation of the Supramental Consciousness and Force into a New Body, still invisible to the ordinary human eye.

Prior to the coming of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother on earth, these were all unheard and unattempted Ideas and Truths. The sole aim of all spiritual endeavors till then was to go back to the Origin, to have Nirvana or Moksha or to go back to the Heaven.

Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have changed the Aim, the Goal, changed the approach, and changed the Way. The Aim is a New World, where imperfections will be no more there, no more will be Darkness and inconscience and ignorance and inertia, Death and diseases and sufferings, limitations and divisions. The Goal is the New World — the Supramental World, after a total and integral transformation of the old earth and the old humanity. The approach is new, as the seeker no more thinks of any return to the Origin, of any Nirvana or Moksha, of any withdrawal from and non-participation in the Cosmic Manifestation. As we have seen, a desertion of the Society and the World, a so-called “renunciation” and relinquishment, is no more the approach and the Goal. Going back to the origin, beyond the Manifestation, renouncing the World for an individual Moksha or Nirvana is no more the Goal, the Task. And the Way is evolutionary, integral, and all-aspected. As is well-known, Sri Aurobindo has said: “All life is Yoga.”

Integral Yoga, as given to us by The Master and The Mother, is not limited to, and only begins with the individual realization.

In this connection, The Mother says: “For this transformation to succeed, all human beings — even all living beings as well as their material environment — must be transformed…. Not only an individual or a group of individuals, or even all individuals, but life…has to be transformed. Without such a transformation we shall continue having the same misery, the same calamities and the same atrocities in the world. A few individuals will escape from it by their psychic development, but the general mass will remain in the same state of misery.”

*****

The Master has said: “Man is a transitional being.” This is because Man is an evolutionary being is a part of an Evolution. The Cosmic or Universal Manifestation is an evolution of what is involved. And what is involved is the principle of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, Sat-chit-ānanda [Sachchidānanda], the Divine, the Brahman, the Supreme. The Existence-Consciousness-Bliss willed to become Many — “Eko<ham, bahu syāma.” The Many are now manifested, through and after a long process of Evolution, as the human beings.

And Man is yet to manifest in him the perfection of the Sachchidānanda, the Divine. And that is the purpose and the Aim of the New Way of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother.

And it should be borne in mind that long before The Mother walked into the New Body, She has caused the Descent of the Supramental Consciousness on earth on the 29^th day of February 1956, as mentioned earlier. Let me quote the oft-quoted message of the Mother from Mother's Agenda Vol.1:

First Supramental Manifestation

(During the common meditation on Wednesday

The 29^th February 1956)

This evening the Divine Presence, concrete and material, was 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.

And then the supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow.

Things are now ready or the Mankind to attain the willed pogress and transformaion. The Mankind has to arise to the occasion. The Truth of the possibility of the coming of the New Race of “Supermen” has to be accepted and lived. This is not the question of any blind faith. This is an evolutionary Truth, a scientific Truth which is also a spiritual Truth, a Truth of the Science of Consciousness.

Individually, we shall have to will for the transmutation, for the transformation of our mind, life and body — with the specific stress on the transformation of the body. For my will is the First step of the Divine’s Will, as the Master has said.

*****

The meeting of The Master and The Mother on the 29^th March 1914 has resulted with and created a Hope, the greatest possible Hope, for us — the Mankind : the Hope for a New World. That is the purpose of Their coming on earth among us, the Mankind, and that is the purpose of Their meeting.

The incarnate dual Power shall open God's door,
Eternal supermind touch earthly Time.
The superman shall wake in mortal man
And manifest the hidden demigod
Or grow into the God-Light and God-Force
Revealing the secret deity in the cave.

[Savitri, Bk XI Co I]

Barindranath Chaki

29-03-2009

[Simultaneously published on 4^th April 2009 in All Choice, Aspiration, Sulekha and Gaia.]

Tags: Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, Mira Alfassa, supermind, supramental manifestation, 29th March

The Eternal Mother

http://barin.gaia.com — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:02:26 GMT

It is said that The Mother — Mirambika, who was born as Mira Alfassa — withdrew Herself on the 17^th day of November in 1973. However, we will see that in reality, in the highest meaning and sense of the term ‘reality’, The Mother continues eternally — in a new body.

The spiritual journey of Man has a revolutionary and evolutionary turning since Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. They have given Spirituality a completely new turn and definition, a completely new purpose and value.

Sri Aurobindo and The Mother came to earth in order to lead the earthly Evolution beyond Man, beyond all the imperfections and incompleteness of Man, beyond all the sorrows and miseries of Man, beyond Death : and They have, jointly, advanced and almost completed Their Task to a very great extent. Only what They have done has to be finished — this is the Task that has to be taken up by some of the followers of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, and it will surely be further taken up and advanced by some. What They have done in Their individual lives has to be extended to the collective life.

Sri Aurobindo has said :

A divine life in a divine body is the formula of the ideal that we envisage. But what will be the divine body? What will be the nature of this body, its structure, the principle of its activity, the perfection that distinguishes it from the limited and imperfect physicality within which we are now bound? … … …

The process of the evolution upon earth has been slow and tardy– what principle must intervene if there is to be a transformation, a progressive or sudden change?

It is indeed as a result of our evolution that we arrive at the possibility of this transformation. As Nature has evolved beyond Matter and manifested Life, beyond Life and manifested Mind, so she must evolve beyond Mind and manifest a consciousness and power of our existence, free from the imperfection and limitation of our mental existence, a supramental or truth-consciousness and able to develop the power and perfection of the spirit … … …

Into that truth [supramental] we shall be freed and it will transform mind and life and body. Light and bliss and beauty and a perfection of the spontaneous right action of all the being are there as native powers of the supramental truth-consciousness and these will in their very nature transform mind and life and body even here upon earth into a manifestation of the truth-conscious spirit… … … [Supramental Manifestation]

The most essential aspect of the Work of the Supramental Descent and Transformation has been realized and advanced by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother.

Sri Aurobindo and The Mother aimed at and worked for a Descent, on earth, of the Supramental Consciousness, what He otherwise named as Truth Consciousness. They declared that Their main aim and objective was to manifest on earth the principle of Truth-Consciousness, of the Supramental Consciousness on earth, and set it on earth as a basic principle that will operate and function here and transform the human life into a divine life, progressively and step by step. And the divine life is defined by Them as a life where the main principle in function and operation is the principle of Supermind, while at present the main principle is Mind. They pointed out that no other power can bring the transformation except the Supramental Consciousness and Force. For more than fifty thousand years man has endeavoured to make perfect and flawless himself, his life and existence and his environment, but he has failed for the reason that all his endeavours came from an inferior power, the power of Mind. Mind is not a power of Truth — it is an indirect derivation from Truth, covered by pulls of flesh and upheavals from the vital forces and the smokes of the inconscience.

In the course of earthly evolution of Man, there were previous manifestations from the Supreme consciousness in order to cause from the Highest heights the Descent of the highest power suitable for the mankind at those times, and establish them on earth. Sri Rama came with the ideal of the enlightened mind, and Sri Krishna manifested the Overmind consciousness and revealed for us the aspect of Ananda of the Supreme. Thereafter, we find the Buddha who taught us the Way of Nirvana to transcend beyond the mental consciousness. And then, the next step required was / is the descent and manifestation of the Supramental Consciousness and Force. Sri Aurobindo took the Leadership, and along with The Mother, He did all that He had to do. With the Sacrifice of His body, He caused to get manifested the Mind of Light in The Mother, which the first effect of the Descent of the Supermind. This has to be done not for a course of an individual realization and perfection, but the whole earth and, at least, especially for a community open to the Supreme Consciousness. And Sri Aurobindo and The Mother wanted us to make efforts to progress towards the Supramentalization.

OOOOO

Sri Aurobindo told The Mother that She had to stay and complete the Work. Indeed, the entire responsibility of the Supramental Manifestation and of the Work for having a Divine Body came upon The Mother, when Sri Aurobindo passed away and the Mind of Light manifested in Her.

As we know, due to The Mother’s unique, intense and unparalleled Endeavours, the Supramental Consciousness finally descended on earth on 29^th February 1956. I am again quoting below the oft-quoted declaration by The Mother :

First Supramental Manifestation

(During the common meditation on Wednesday

The 29^th February 1956)

And then the supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow.

In Notes on the Way, The Mother spoke of the New Body. It was around 1972. The New Supramental Body was already there. Only, The Mother was trying unveil the Way for entering that Body. She expressed that She will walk into That Body and merge the gross physical body into That Body. She said: I am trying to fuse this material body into that body but I have not been able to get the clue. … Nobody on earth has tried this, the secret is not given to me.

But Events were different, and Her entire Being had to leave the physical body. And then She has entered the New Body, which is eternal and immortal. Sri Aurobindo has a supramental Body, but that cannot function at present on earth in a direct manner, whereas The Mother’s Body is nearer to the earth.

OOOOO

Let us find what M P Pandit has written in this regard in a unique manner:

*Then on the morning of 17th November at about nine o'clock, a particular friend of mine — he has 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. He said, “The new body is full of light but it is not yet dense enough to function in the 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 months 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 — but consciously; keeping the full personality she has gone into that body. And, as it was revealed to me on that day, 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. As I was led to put it on radio the next day, "The sea of Love that is the Mother swells into an ocean": not a perception, not an idea, not an image, but an experience.*

OOOOO

The Eternal Mother shows Her example before all of us — the human race — and given us the Task and the Aim : the Supramental Transformation.

Out of Man, the Superman is to manifest. And Man is the basis for the advent of the Superman. He shall have to become the Superman. The purpose of the appearance of man must now be fulfilled. Man must surpass himself for that. Man has to collaborate with the Eternal Mother and the Master for the new Evolution, or the evolutionary forces will ignore him and go beyond him and find out its own means.

Sri Aurobindo has said :

A new humanity means for us the appearance, the development of a type or race of mental beings whose principle of mentality would be no longer a mind in the Ignorance seeking for knowledge but even in its knowledge bound to the ignorance, a seeker after Light but not its natural possessor, open to the Light but not an inhabitant of the Light, not yet a perfected instrument, truth-conscious and delivered out of the Ignorance. Instead, it would be possessed already of what could be called a mind of Light, a mind capable of living in the truth, capable of being truth-conscious and manifesting in its life a direct in place of an indirect knowledge. Its mentality would be an instrument of the Light and no longer of the Ignorance. At its highest it would be capable of passing into the supermind and from the new race would be recruited the race of supramental beings who would appear as the leaders of the evolution in earth-nature. … … …

The first gleamings of the new Light would carry in themselves the seed of its highest flamings; even in the first beginnings, the certainty of their topmost powers would be there; for this is the constant story of each evolutionary emergence: the principle of its highest perfection lies concealed in the involution which precedes and necessitates the evolution of the secret principle.

The Mother is waiting for us. In order to complete the Task of the Supramental Change and bring in the Supramental Race, there should be, at first, a “new humanity” — in the Words of Sri Aurobindo. That is the Aim now, before all of us.

Barindranath Chaki

17-11-2008

[Written on 17-11-2008 and published on 20-11-2008, simultaneously in ASPIRATION, All Choice, Sulekha and Gaia.]

Tags: Mira Alfassa, The Mother, Sri Aurobindo, Supramental Manifestaion, Supermind, The New Body, Mind of Light, Supramental Transformation

In the Light of Sri Aurobindo

http://barin.gaia.com — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:47:49 GMT

This is a great opportunity today, on the birthday anniversary of Sri Aurobindo, on the august day of the fifteenth August, to remember Him and to renew our Aspiration and our Hope for the New Way, for the New Consciousness and Being, for the Progress and Transformation towards the New Man, the New Race.

Sri Aurobindo is the Person, who has given the most hopeful meaning of the human existence, of the Creation. He has given us the greatest Hope, the greatest Dream, of Joy and Bliss and the Widest Consciousness and of an eternal, immortal existence. He was not satisfied with Moksha or Nirvana, nor did He ask us to be so satisfied. We will be transformed into an immortal Race, a new Race, who will not live in Darkness or in Ignorance or in Transience and Death.

He, the Avatar of the Supreme, granted with His signature of Tathastu [So be it] to the Vedic prayer of a few millennia:

Asato maa sadgamaya
Tamaso maa jyotirgamaya
Mŗtyormaa<mŗtamgamaya.

Lead me from non-existence to Existence,
Lead me from Darkness to Light,
Lead me from Death to Immortality.

Sri Aurobindo said : So be it, and it is becoming So. He showed us the Way, the New Way, transcending and surpassing Moksha and Nirvaana. You need not leave the World, the Manifestation — for everything is He, the All-Existence. The Creation, the Manifestation, is His Will — can anyone go beyond His Will? For, in everyone, He is manifest and He is hidden.

Sri Aurobindo and The Mother [Mira Alfassa] have assured us of Their help on the Way. Has not He told us so in the following words?

And yet I know my footprints' track shall be
A pathway towards Immortality.

[The Pilgrim of the Night]

He has asked us to go within and find the Inner Being, the Inner Divine, the Psychic Being. He has told us to find also the deep-routed falsehood hiding in us and solve the riddle of existence.

I saw that a falsehood was planted deep
At the very root of things
Where the grey Sphinx guards God’s riddle sleep
On the Dragon’s outspread wings.

[God’s Labour: Sri Aurobindo]

In order to conquer all Darkness for the progress and evolution of a New Race, Sri Aurobindo, in His unique Sadhana, had entered the worlds of Darkness and unconsciousness to bring the required Transformation.

I MADE an assignation with the Night;
In the abyss was fixed our rendezvous :
In my breast carrying God's deathless light
I came her dark and dangerous heart to woo.

[The Pilgrim of the Night]

He has asked us to find the secrets within and proceed towards the New Becoming. To show us the Way, Sri Aurobindo had to find out the Way himself, for it was an untrodden way, a New Way. He had to work hard, undertaking an untried spiritual research.

He who would bring the heavens here
Must descend himself into clay
And the burden of earthly nature bear
And tread the dolorous way.

[God’s Labour: Sri Aurobindo]

And what did He tell us to do?

A voice cried, "Go where none have gone!
Dig deeper, deeper yet
Till thou reach the grim foundation stone
And knock at the keyless gate."

[God’s Labour: Sri Aurobindo]

Sri Aurobindo was Himself an Adventure of Consciousness, as Satprem called Him. In the language of His own epic poem Savitri, He was a ‘Voyager upon uncharted routes, fronting the danger of the Unknown and adventuring across enormous realms.’

A big change will come on earth — I strongly believe, it has already started coming, since the 29^th February 1956, when the Supramental Consciousness descended on earth, as declared by The Mother.

Sri Aurobindo has said :

Often a lustrous inner dawn shall come
Lighting the chambers of the slumbering mind;
A sudden bliss shall run through every limb
And Nature with a mightier Presence fill.
Thus shall the earth open to divinity
And common natures feel the wide uplift,
Illumine common acts with the Spirit's ray
And meet the deity in common things.
Nature shall live to manifest secret God,
The Spirit shall take up the human play,
This earthly life become the life divine.

Of the Mission for which Sri Aurobindo and The Mother descended on earth, one can have a clear Idea from what Savitri has stated :

My soul and his indissolubly linked
In the one task for which our lives were born
To raise the world to God in deathless Light.
To bring God down to the world on earth
We came to change the earthly life to life divine.

Thus, They came to change the earthly life.

And with the Divine words that came from Sri Aurobindo, an attempt has been made for remembering and adoring Him on His birthday, the birthday of the Hope of Mankind, also for remembering and adoring The Mother.

Barin Chaki
15-08-2008

[ This article is simulaneosly published in Aspiration, All choice and in my Blog in Sulekha.]

Tags: Sri Aurobinso, The Mother, Mira Alfassa, the new race, Spramental Consciousness, Hope

ASPIRATION

http://barin.gaia.com — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 09:36:12 GMT

Sri Aurobindo has said: Man is a transitional being.

Man is an evolutionary being, who has emerged as the Neanderthal man from the Ape, and now, he is on the Way to the Higher Evolution.

This earth is a field of Evolution — Evolution of the Spirit that has become Matter and is involved in Matter. All living beings including the humans have emerged out of this Evolution. But Man is not the final result of Evolution. He is in the initial stage of the Manifestation of Consciousness — in a rudimentary stage. He is an imperfect and incomplete being.

As we all know, everyone of us wants to have a life that must be happy and joyous, creative and prosperous, and it should be as long as possible. We all think that we should have all knowledge and wisdom. We all want enough force and strength and power. We always hope and dream of success and victory. We always hope of Light and Joy and Consciousness and Power. That is our Hope, our Dream.

But that has not been the reality we live in. In short, our existence as human beings is quite miserable and full of sorrows and frustration, full of falls and failure, full of ignorance and inconscience, and also captive of darkness, defeat, division, disease and death!

But should we stop there? Can we put an end to our invincible hope, our golden and happy dreams, our joyous expectations?

Should we not be more progressive, more adventurous and warrior-like, more struggling, more hopeful and endeavouring? Should we not kindle the Fire of our Aspiration to dispel all darkness around us?

OOOOO

As Sri Aurobindo said, the time has already reached when evolution has to surpass man. As we have already seen, Man is not the perfect being, not the complete being. But he has the aspiration and the hope and the dream for becoming perfect, for becoming complete, for conquering darkness and division and death. The aim of Evolution is to manifest the Divine, the Source of this Manifestation, the Supreme Existence-Consciousness-Bliss (in Sanskrit, Sat-Chit-Ananda or Sachchidananda).

The Superman shall emerge and manifest out of Man. Man should prepare and transform himself for the Advent of the Superman. He has to grow and become the Superman. That is the only purpose of Man's appearance - the coming of the Superman, the Manifestation of the Supramental Consciousness - and the purpose has now to be fulfilled. Man shall do that by surpassing himself. If Man fails to collaborate with this new task of evolution, the evolutionary forces will surpass him, go beyond him, push him aside, and find out a new and different means to manifest the New Man, the Superman.

Has not The Mother warned us in the message that follows? —

Men, countries, continents!

The choice is imperative: Truth or the abyss.

The Divine Consciousness descends and becomes ready to answer the Call and the Aspiration of the human being, to lift him up to Light and Force and Joy and Love, but Man fails, though he has given the Call. The Divine gives us Light, shows us the Way, but we cover the Light with the Shades of Darkness and create hurdles on the Way by creating walls and barricades of Ignorance and Egoism. Often, we love Darkness and Ignorance and thus we ignore Light and Truth and Wisdom. We are not yet really prepared, as it seems.

As The Mother has declared, the Supramental Consciousness has descended on earth on the 29^th day of February 1956. It is actively present here and now on earth.

I am quoting the oft-quoted message of the Mother from Mother’s Agenda Vol.1:

First Supramental Manifestation

(During the common meditation on Wednesday

The 29^th February 1956)

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.

And then the supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow.

OOOOO

The Time now is ready for the human being to grow into the supramental being. The Hour of God that descended on earth with the coming of Sri Aurobindo still continues and will continue till the Work is done and the Supramental Beings emerge on earth.

Now, the most needed power in us is Aspiration, a fixed and unfailing Aspiration.

Barindranath Chaki

01-08-2008

[This article has been published in the newly formed Social Network ASPIRATION ( http://newreflexions.ning.com ). Interested friends and readers are invited to join the new Social Network.

This has also been published in the blog All Choice and in Sulekha.]

Tags: sri aurobindo, the mother, neanderthal man, man, evolution, superman, supramental being, aspiration

On Thoughts and Aphorisms 3

http://barin.gaia.com — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:35:17 GMT

3. When I speak, the reason says, "This will I say"; but God takes the word out of my mouth
and the lips say something else at which reason trembles.
[Thoughts and Aphorisms, Sri Aurobindo]

Obviously, here Sri Aurobindo is speaking about himself. People, who are in limited consciousness, whose consciousness is mixed with “lower impulses, unreasonable emotions and the vital reactions,” cannot say that this will be applicable to them, as The Mother says.

Ordinarily, sometimes we use our reason calmly, in peace and quietude and some concentration, and reach a decision to say something. But when we start speaking, we are influenced by our lower impulses, irrational emotions and vital reactions, and we utter something that should not be said.

But what Sri Aurobindo says here, is just the opposite. In case of an ordinary person, lower impulses, excitement and passion take hold of the mouth which speaks something different and lower and contrary to what reason decided. But with regard to the phenomenon, of which Sri Aurobindo is speaking, an Inspiration comes from above, with a light and a knowledge, greater than the light and knowledge attained through reason. And it makes one speak something which is beyond reason, beyond what is known and decided by reason, something that is beyond the capacity of “the most enlightened reason”.

Sri Aurobindo says that “reason trembles.” Reason trembles, because the higher Truth that comes from a higher region is beyond its comprehension and expectation and acceptance.

The inspirations and revelations which come from above are always more advanced than whatever is understood and accepted by reason.

What man finds today to be reasonable may not have been accepted by reason in the past, as The Mother says. All revelations and inspirations, that come today to the Consciousness, higher and open, may seem today mysterious.

It may seem paradoxical, unexpected and revolutionary. And reason may tremble today. But in the Future, it will become a reasonable knowledge.

Truth is something which is ever progressive, moving, always being transformed and changed. Truth always leads us forward and reveals us to the relativity of all the manifestations in the world. The world is always progressing towards a higher Truth, a greater Truth.

The Supramental Manifestation is now the highest Truth, but still now this is not understood by the humanity. The ordinary human reason trembles before this highest Truth. But time will come and is sure to come when the majority of the human race shall understand accept It.

As Sri Aurobindo and The Mother say, the Unmanifest will manifest tomorrow.

(Previously published in All choice and barin chaki's blog in Sulekha.)

Barin Chaki
25-04-2008

Tags: Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, Thoughts and Aphorisms, The Supramental Manifestation, Truth, Reason

Sri Aurobindo 6

http://barin.gaia.com — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 08:15:09 GMT

Confusions and Explanations I

During a discussion on Sri Aurobindo, a friend of mine stated that in order to solve the present evolutionary problems faced by the mankind, one should go back to Nature. Going back to Nature is the solution, instead of trying to transcend and transform the mental-vital-physical being of Man.

She quoted me from Sri Aurobindo : What Sri Aurobindo represents II and then said:

The present evolutionary crisis is the result of an inequality between the limited faculties of man - physical, vital, mental and spiritual - and the technical and economical means at his disposal. Without a total and all-comprehensive inner change man can no longer manage and control the gigantic development of the outer life. The overwhelming importance of the collectivity, of the State is only a substitution of the collective ego in place of the individual ego. Humankind can survive only by a radical transformation of human nature.

[ Sri Aurobindo : What Sri Aurobindo represents II ]

"I think an aspect of this is that humanity can best survive by returning to our true human nature, namely a pre-separation from GOD identity. It lies within each man and woman to do this, even right now, without further evolution or transformation, should the will simply become engaged and decide to release to the Wild Divine."

My friend had thus raised a deep-rooted and fundamental question of utmost importance. She thought that by going back to our "true" nature, bereft of the conception of God and stopping further evolution and transformation, humanity can best survive, and this can be attempted by individuals even now.

Should we then go back to the caves! Let us then withdraw ourselves from all our scientific, medical, intellectual, aesthetic, cultural and spiritual advancements and turn to our "true" aboriginal nature, as some people may still be doing in Andaman Nicobars, or in Taiwan or somewhere in South Africa, or even South America! Or, if nobody is found now-a-days, let us go back to the era of the Neanderthals! Let us forget God! Let us forget evolution and transformation!

Let us then go back to our cave, where we might be dwelling some fifty thousand years back, or even earlier. Let us then live a wild life, along with our wild animal neighbors, dressed in leaves and eating raw fruits etc only!

Would we be saved then? Would I no more require any education, any philosophy, any music, any art, any search for beauty, for truth, for goodness? Or should we no more need any medicine, any books, any food or dress which civilization or culture taught us to use? Would we not then contact anyone else anywhere through internet , or anyone over telephone, or even through post and telegraph, or be informed of the world news or the news of my country?

Let us forget everything for a while. But what shall we do with our inner Fire, our inner Urge, our inner Intensity to surpass all my limitations, all our animal wildness that makes us slaves, our unquenched eagerness to surpass all darkness and ignorance, and our askesis to receive the Help of any higher Power in our difficulties, in our sufferings and in the matters of death and diseases?

Can any human - who is nothing if he is separated from the Infinite Consciousness, who is an insect if he or she is pre-separated from God, the Eternal and Supreme Consciousness - can any human being survive if he or she is reduced to an wild animal, or to a natural helpless insect, after his Journey towards Fulfillment and Victory for fifty millennia or more?

And if we become separated from the Divine, will the Divine separate ourselves from Him? Are we independent enough to do that? In our being and in our composition, is it possible? Is God our imagination or our creation, so that we can stop Him from being, or do away with Him from our life?

Can we stop Evolution? Can we choose to do away with the necessity of Transformation?

If we stop Evolution, Evolution will stop us, the human beings! If we stop Transformation, we will be discarded by the Force transforming us!

Can we forget the Mother,Mira Alfassa, who gave us the following message on the 1^st January 1967:

Men, countries, continents!

The choice is imperative: Truth or the abyss.

Let us always remember that the choice is imperative. And that is the Destiny of this Earth. We have to live for the Future, to reach this Goal. We cannot pre-separate God, for He is in us, and we are in Him. In our true identity, we are one with the Divine, parts of the Divine. We cannot stop Evolution, as we are evolved beings and we are being evolved always. We are never stationary. We have to be transformed or be surpassed and thrown away, like the gigantic dinosaurs!

And what is our true nature?

Is it the Wild Divine? The Wild Divine is the Truth for the wild animal world, it was a temporary phase of the manifestation of Truth in the evolutionary world for a period of time.

Our true nature is leading us from the semi-animal existence to the Divine Becoming. That is the Truth.

And for us: Truth or abyss!

We cannot go back to Nature.

We have to march towards the New Horizon, towards the New World !

I again say:

Humankind can survive only by a radical transformation of human nature.

OOOOO

Words may very often create confusions, mainly for the reason that a word may have various meanings and usages. During a discussion, a particular word may thus create confusion. However confusion cannot be the intention and aim of the discussion.

When there is a discussion on Sri Aurobindo and am interpreting His teaching, His philosophy and spirituality and yoga, it is always, without fail, without any deviation, that the words are used by me as per the definitions and meanings given by Him. If other meanings and definitions and senses are intended, obviously there will be confusion.

Therefore, the solution to avoid any confusion is to adhere to the meaning and definition given by Sri Aurobindo, when the discussion is about His Teaching. When there will be discussion on the Buddha, we should adhere faithfully to the meaning of the words intended by Him. When we discuss Jesus, we must adhere to His intentions. When we discuss Ken Wilber, we should mean by a particular word what he means. It is desirable to clarify this matter.

If during a discussion on Sri Aurobindo, I, or someone else, give another meaning or usage to a particular word, confusion may be created. When an attempt to clear the confusion is made, one should understand this and should NOT continue to hold the different meaning or usage as against the intention in the original discussion. Then only we will understand properly.

Sri Aurobindo has defined every word of importance, including Nature. He has also spoken of Supernature and Higher Nature. About the present state of Nature, which created Man from Matter and Life, let us see what Sri Aurobindo from the Life Divine :

"The transition to Supermind through Overmind is a passage from Nature, as we know it, into Supernature. It is by that very fact impossible for any effort of the mere Mind to achieve; our unaided personal aspiration and endeavour cannot reach it: our effort belongs to the inferior power of Nature; a power of the Ignorance cannot achieve by its own strength or characteristic or available methods what is beyond its own domain of Nature. All the previous ascensions have been effectuated by a secret Consciousness-Force operating first in Inconscience and then in the Ignorance: it has worked by an emergence of its involved powers to the surface, powers concealed behind the veil and superior to the past formulations of Nature, but even so there is needed a pressure of the same superior powers already formulated in their full natural force on their own planes; these superior planes create their own foundation in our subliminal parts and from there are able to influence the evolutionary process on the surface. Overmind and Supermind are also involved and occult in earth-Nature, but they have no formations on the accessible levels of our subliminal inner consciousness; there is as yet no Overmind being or organized Overmind nature, no supramental being or organized Supermind nature acting either on our surface or in our normal subliminal parts: for these greater powers of consciousness are superconscient to the level of our ignorance. In order that the involved principles of Overmind and Supermind should emerge from their veiled secrecy, the being and powers of the Superconscience must descend into us and uplift us and formulate themselves in our being and powers; this descent is a sine qua non of the transition and transformation.

It is conceivable indeed that, without the descent, by a secret pressure from above, by a long evolution, our terrestrial Nature might succeed in entering into a close contact with the higher now superconscient planes and a formation of subliminal Overmind might take place behind the veil; as a result a slow emergence of the consciousness proper to these higher planes might awake on our surface. It is conceivable that in this way there might appear a race of mental beings thinking and acting not by the intellect or reasoning and reflecting intelligence, or not mainly by it, but by an intuitive mentality which would be the first step of an ascending change; this might be followed by an overmentalisation which would carry us to the borders beyond which lies the Supermind or divine Gnosis. But this process would inevitably be a long and toilsome endeavour of Nature. There is a possibility too that what would be achieved might only be an imperfect superior metallization; the new higher elements might strongly dominate the consciousness, but they would be still subjected to a modification of their action by the principle of an inferior mentality: there would be a greater expanded and illuminating knowledge, a cognition of a higher order; but it would still undergo a mixture subjecting it to the law of the Ignorance, as Mind undergoes limitation by the law of Life and Matter.For a real transformation there must be a direct and unveiled intervention from above; there would be necessary too a total submission and surrender of the lower consciousness, a cessation of its insistence, a will in it for its separate law of action to be completely annulled by transformation and lose all rights over our being. If these two conditions can be achieved even now by a conscious call and will in the spirit and a participation of our whole manifested and inner being in its change and elevation, the evolution, the transformation can take place by a comparatively swift conscious change; the supramental Consciousness-Force from above and the evolving Consciousness-Force from behind the veil acting on the awakened awareness and will of the mental human being would accomplish by their united power the momentous transition. There would be no farther need of a slow evolution counting many millenniums for each step, the halting and difficult evolution operated by Nature in the past in the unconscious creatures of the Ignorance." [Sri Aurobindo : The Life Divine]

From a perusal of the above passages, it is clear if we go back to Nature, we will then go back to Ignorance : the further progress and evolution from Man to Superman will be halted and thwarted. It is seen that Sri Aurobindo views the evolution from Matter to Animals or Plants (i.e., various life-forms) and from Life to Mind and Man has been a "halting and difficult evolution operated by Nature in the past in the unconscious creatures of the Ignorance." And even now, our effort "belongs to the inferior power of Nature; a power of the Ignorance cannot achieve by its own strength or characteristic or available methods what is beyond its own domain of Nature"

I hope the role of Nature is now clearly understood. It cannot lead us ahead in a proper and swift manner, unless there are the Descents of the Higher Powers and Forces in Nature. And this is possible - but how?

Let us see what Sri Aurobindo has said in His book ‘The Mother' :

"There are two powers that alone can effect in their conjunction, the great and difficult thing that is the aim of our endeavour; a fixed and unfailing aspiration that calls from below and a supreme Grace that from above, that answers.

But the supreme Grace will act only in the conditions of the Light and the Truth; it will not act in conditions laid down upon it by the Falsehood and the Ignorance. For if it were to yield to the demands of the Falsehood, it would defeat its own purpose.

These are the conditions of the Light and the Truth, the sole conditions under which the very highest supramental Force descending from above and opening from below that can victoriously handle the physical Nature and annihilate its difficulties ...

There must be a total and sincere surrender; there must be an exclusive self-opening to the divine Power; there must be a constant and integral choice of the Truth that is descending; a constant and integral rejection of the falsehood of the mental, vital and physical Powers and Appearances that still rule the earth-Nature." [Sri Aurobindo: The Mother]

Here, too, we find that Sri Aurobindo has referred to the fact that the falsehood of the mental, vital and physical Powers and Appearances still rule the earth-Nature.

Can we then go back to the Nature, the earth-Nature, which still ruled by the falsehood of the mental, vital and physical Powers and Appearances?

OOOOO

Then, there is confusion regarding the words Reason and Intuition.

When Sri Aurobindo wrote the book The Life Divine, He had already reached the threshold of the Supramental Consciousness, far above the plane of the Intuitive Mind, far above Intuition. He interpreted rationally in His philosophical treatise The Life Divine all His Wisdom and Knowledge that He reached directly by Identification, not only by Intuition. He did not discard Reason. To discard Reason and accept Intuition would have been against His approach of Integration. Can we and should we discard Reason which had been a help to us for millennia for surpassing the surrounding darkness? Reason may not be the highest means of Knowledge. But till the coming of Intuition, it has to be there. Only, it has to be transformed and widened and illumined as far as possible. It is an instrument, and its proper use is in our hands.

And all that appears to us as Intuition is not intuition. There are many false signals also. And the old earth-Nature, in its animal kingdom, worked with instincts. And often the humans work with impulses. All these have to be searched and scrutinized, for they appear to many people as Intuitions. And there are the Anti-Divine Forces, who intimations and we may often think that they are Intuitions. The Mother has many times cautioned us against all these.

These clarifications are added here, in order to ensure that those who read about Sri Aurobindo in my Blog or anywhere else are not misled by the words for their various meanings and usages.

Barin

Written on 20-09-2007

Posted in Zaadz on 20-12-2007.

Tags: Sri Aurobindo, Mira Alfassa, The Mother, Supermind, The Supramental Manifestation, Evolution, Transformation

The Withdrawal 1

http://barin.gaia.com — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 12:33:50 GMT

The Withdrawal 1

My soul unhorizoned widens to measureless sight,

My body is God's happy living tool,

My spirit a vast Sun of deathless light.

[Sri Aurobindo]

They say that Sri Aurobindo passed away on 5th December 1950. Even, it is said that it was His withdrawal. Did He really pass away, away from us, from the Humanity and the World? Did He pass into ignominy and ignorance and Darkness, into Death? Did He really withdraw Himself from the Mankind, from His Work of the Supramental Manifestation and Transformation?

In 1956, one of my teachers, son of one who closely knew Sri Aurobindo and remained in the Ashram, asked me the question: why did He die? At that time, I could not explain the matter or meet the challenge thrown to me. But the question lived in me and forced me to find the answer in course of time.

Majority of the people, now and then, took it and believed and knew it as a great withdrawal of a great Person, of a great Divine Person, who endeavored to cause descent of the Supermind and Manifestation of the Supramental Consciousness and Force. Indeed, the very event was beyond human words. Sri Aurobindo's "Withdrawal" was a necessity for the Supramental Descent on earth.

Prior to that, Sri Aurobindo was ill. His illness continued and it caused a deep concern in the Ashram. Dr Nirodbaran and Dr Sanyal looked after his treatment. The illness prolonged. The Mother told Dr Sanyal: "He is fully conscious within, but he is losing concern in himself." Champaklal, however, asked Sri Aurobindo : "Are you not using your Force?" The Master replied : "No." Dr Nirodbaran asked then: "if you don't use you Force, how is the disease to be cured?" The reply was: "Can't explain, you won't understand."

The reply, if possible for us, to the human question about the Withdrawal would have also been-"You won't understand."

As K D Sethna puts it, Sri Aurobindo was both a Pilgrim of Day and also of Night. He went to the Highest height of Consciousness and, as well, he went to the lowest of the planes of Darkness and Inconscience, in order to kindle the Light there and accelerate the Transformation of the Earth and the mankind. He had to combat with Death, so that in due course, in the Next Evolution, Death comes to an end.

I made an assignation with the Night;

In the abyss was fixed our rendezvous:

In my breast carrying God's deathless light

I came her dark and dangerous heart to woo.

I left the glory of the illumined Mind

And the calm rapture of the divinised soul

And travelled through a vastness dim and blind

To the grey shore where her ignorant waters roll.

I walk by the chill wave through the dull slime

And still that weary journeying knows no end;

Lost is the lustrous godhead beyond Time,

There comes no voice of the celestial Friend,

And yet I know my footprints' track shall be

A pathway towards Immortality.

[A Pilgrim of Night : Sri Aurobindo]

The Mother wrote on 9th December, which is for the mankind the mantra of rejuvenation and of starting anew from the stupefaction that resulted from His "Withdrawal":

"To THEE who hast been the material envelope of our Master,
to THEE our infinite gratitude. Before THEE who hast done so much for us,
who hast worked, struggled, suffered, hoped, endured so much,
before THEE who hast willed all, attempted all, prepared, achieved all for us,
before THEE we bow down and implore that we may never forget,
even for a moment, all we owe to THEE."

As everybody knows, this has been inscribed on the Samadhi. This inscription has been addressed to "the material envelope" of Sri Aurobindo, but not to Sri Aurobindo himself.

Sri Aurobindo is a Being and a Consciousness and a Force that cannot die. His coming to earth was, and is, a Hope for the Earth and the Mankind, a Promise by the Supreme for the conquest of Ignorance and Darkness and Death on earth, a Dream to be fulfilled.

Sri Aurobindo did never leave us. His Presence is always with us here on earth. His "Withdrawal" was simply the act of leaving the body. The Mother wrote on 7^th December 1950:

"Lord, this morning Thou hast given me the assurance that Thou wouldst stay with us until Thy work is achieved, not only as a consciousness which guides and illumines but also as a dynamic Presence in action. In unmistaken terms Thou hast promised that all of Thyself would remain here and not leave the earth atmosphere until earth is transformed. Grant that we may be worthy of this Presence and henceforth everything in us be concentrated to the fulfilment of Thy sublime work."

The Mother has even said that "Sri Aurobindo has come to announce to the world the beauty of the future that will be realized. He has come to bring not a hope but the certainty of the splendour towards which the world is moving. The world is not an unfortunate accident: it is a miracle moving towards its expression."

Thus, Sri Aurobindo is not only a Hope, He stands for a certitude - the certainty that through further Evolution and Progress, there will come the conquest of Ignorance and Darkness and Death. He embraced Death, so that Death and Darkness and Ignorance shall be conquered on earth. The Dream which Sri Aurobindo has bought for us is positively a Future Reality.

He dies that the world may be new-born and live.

[Savitri]

He is a turning point in the Evolution, in the Next Evolution. With his Descent on earth, the New Evolution has begun. He came to earth and is here to change the Earth and bring in Joy and Life and Light and conquer Death. He made a supreme sacrifice and left His Body, so that the Way is open to conquer Ignorance and Darkness and Death on earth.

He who has found his identity with God

Pays with his body's death his soul's vast light.
His knowledge immortal triumphs by his death.

[Savitri]

Sri Aurobindo's sacrifice has been sufficiently and greatly fruitful, as The Mother continued His Work, which is also Her Work, and then there was the Supramental Descent on earth on the 29^th February 1956. And then began the Supramental Manifestation on earth. The Mother walked into the New Body on 17-11-1973. [Ref: The Transition- The Seventeenth November, by Barin Chaki]. There has been some progress, in the meantime, in the transition from Man to Superman.

The Mother has said on 15 April 1972 :

The transition from man to the supramental being is accomplished through the overman. There may be a few overman - there are - who will actually make that transition. [Mother's Agenda]

Barin Chaki

8-12-2007

Reference: The Withdrawal by Barin Chaki

Written on 5^th December 2007

and revised on 7^th and 8^th .

Tags: Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, The Withdrawal, the Mind of Light, Supermind, Supramental Manifestation

The Transition - The Seventeenth November

http://barin.gaia.com — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 03:08:27 GMT

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 25^th 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 24^th 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 17^th 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

17-11-2007

Written on 17-11-2007,

Revised from 18-11-2007

To 20-11-2007

Published on 25-11-2007

Tags: Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, Mira Alfassa, Satprem, The Seventeenth November, M P Pandit, Sujata, K D Sethna

Beyond Death

http://barin.gaia.com — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 18:12:31 GMT

Man is mortal¶, but for the time being. The Earth is a field of Evolution and, according to Sri Aurobindo, Man is a transitional being. Not always was there Life's manifestation on earth, nor was there always the display and Manifestation of Mind here on earth. However Life and Mind have manifested themselves on earth. These are the parts of the Divine Manifestation. Man has come into being here to manifest the Divine.

As has been said, Man is a ‘transitional being' and he is not a final form of existence in the evolutionary show of the Divine Manifestation. He is a mental living being - in him, in his material body, life and mind have expressed themselves, as needed by Evolution. But Evolution has to make long, very long journey, and whatever is a dream for Man today, even the fairy-tale of immortality, will become physically true in him tomorrow or the next time.

In Science and even in our commonsense, we have not seen beyond the mortal imperfect Man. Is then man the final word in Evolution, in the entire Manifestation? It cannot be so. How can something so incomplete, so imperfect, so ignorant and incapable, and so much enslaved to Death such as man be the last thing in the Divine Manifestation, in the Divine Creation?

In spite of his incompleteness and imperfection, in spite of all his sorrows and sufferings and in spite of the overshadowing Death, Man is a Dreamer and is inspired by his Hopes! They are the Divine's Blessings for him. But will the Dreams and Hopes of Mankind always fail? Will not his Dream of surpassing and conquering Death ever become true? He has to know himself, surpass himself and strive towards Perfection and towards conquering Death.

Out of man, the superman will emerge, as Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have said. That is the goal of this Manifestation. That is purpose and goal of the Supernature, or else men would not have evolved beyond the Homo Sapiens, nor would have been there any progress in human consciousness today on earth. Man will surpass the limits of mind and reason, scale newer and higher heights of Consciousness and ascend to Gnosis, the Supramental Consciousness, and bring in the supramental race on the earth scene. Man will conquer his mortality. This is the Truth Sri Aurobindo has brought for us. We live for this Goal, this Truth, according to Sri Aurobindo.

In Man and on earth, the Descent of the Supramental Consciousness is The New to come. Conquest of Death is the New Task and Goal before Man.

Let us find 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.
[Sri Aurobindo: Savitri]

Sri Aurobindo has further 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]

The Mother has said:

The deathless state is what can be envisaged for the human physical body in the future: it is constant rebirth. Instead of again tumbling backwards and falling apart due to a lack of plasticity and incapacity to adapt to the universal movement, the body is undone 'futurewards,' as it were.

There is one element that remains fixed: for each type of atom, the inner organization of the elements is different, which is what creates the difference in their substance. So perhaps similarly, each individual has a different, particular way of organizing the cells of his body, and it is this particular way that persists through all the outer changes. All the rest is undone and redone, but undone in a forward thrust towards the new instead of collapsing backwards into death, and redone in a constant aspiration to follow the progressive movement of the divine Truth. [25-11-1959]

Sri Aurobindo said:

Even there shall come as a high crown of all

The End of Death, the death of Ignorance.

[Savitri]

He has further said:

And yet I know my footprints' track shall be

A pathway to Immortality.

[Last Poems, Sri Aurobindo]

Thus, it is seen that the human mortality is NOT a final and absolute truth. The end of Death shall come on earth. And definitely, it will be possible only when the Supramental will descend on earth - and The Mother had declared that the Supramental descended on earth on the 29^th February 1956. And the Supramental is definitely a NEW CONSCIOUSNESS to descend and manifest on earth.

Barin Chaki

15-11-2007

¶ My friend in Orkut truth-struggler has written the following:

Man is mortal and the Divine is immortal. In the mortal human being, there is the Divine Immortal Spirit. In the field of the heart, there is a Kalpatharu (wish-fulfilling tree). The tree is surrounded by bushes and briars. When these are removed, the tree will become visible. This wish-fulfilling tree is within each person, but it is encompassed by the bad qualities in man. When these qualities are eliminated, the celestial tree will be rcognised. This is the Sadhana (spiritual exercise) that each of them has to perform. This is not the quest for something new. It is to experience what is yours. The entire cosmos is within you.

This message was sent by truth struggler. To see truth's profile click :

http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=4530517659795040812

Barin Chaki

15-11-2007

Tags: Consciousness, Man, Evolution, Deathlessness, Dreams and Hopes, Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, Supramental Consciousness

Satprem is remembered

http://barin.gaia.com — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 10:50:08 GMT

Satprem is remembered TODAY, the 30^th October 2007, on his birthday anniversary. He was a rare person, who dedicated his life and existence, for the Future, for the mankind, for the future mankind, following The Words of The Mother, on the Way towards Supermanhood from the present manhood, on the Way transforming the mankind into the New Race, the race of the Supermen, the race of the Supramental Beings. After departure of The Mother, he left Sri Aurobindo Ashram, published Mother's Agenda, and wrote a number of books of immortal value, which shed Light on the New Way.

For those who are less acquainted with Satprem, it may be said that he was born in Paris in 1923. In course of his life, 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. He came out therefrom as an extremely shocked, upset and sad person. A spiritual destiny led him to Egypt and thence to India, where he took up a job in the French colonial government in Pondicherry. And he then knew Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Soon, he resigned and left for Guiana, Brazil, Africa etc.

He finally returned to India in 1953. On 3^rd March 1957, The Mother named him Satprem. His previous name was Bernard. Satprem was a close disciple and also a confidante of The Mother, and he stayed in Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Sometime after the Mother's Departure on 17^th November 1973, Satprem left the Ashram.

In 1982, Satprem withdrew completely to set out on a new venture, on a new adventure, uncertain and dangerous, of finding out the great passage in the next evolution, the evolution beyond Man. And specially, he undertook the task of exploring the cause of "death" and the ways and means of conquering "death" - Life has evolved since billions of years, but it is conquered by "death" - and it continues to be an enigma for Mind also. Evolution beyond Mind shall have to be an Evolution beyond "death" too.

Sri Aurobindo made a prophecy:
Even there shall come as a high crown of all

The end of Death, the death of Ignorance.

[Savitri]

We find the same prophecy and promise again in Savitri, as if The Mother is declaring :

My soul and his indissolubly linked

In the one task for which our life's were born

To raise the world to God in deathless Light,

To bring down to the world on earth we came,

To change the earthly life to life divine.

[Savitri]

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 of crucial importance and significance for the physical transformation. 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 further said that one of the keys to physical transformation was to overcome the effect of the "physical mind" and the subconscient. This part of the nature has the habit of being resigned to defeat; it has negative and pessimistic attitude and tendencies; it grumbles and is filled with inertia. As a result, it reinforces illnesses, and it is a great obstruction to the transformation of the body. She declared that this was one of the great obstacles to the emergence of the new species, and She also tried to bring in the higher consciousness into the physical and sub-conscient aspect part 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 adequate 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.

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 trodden 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]

And 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 must continue and will continue.

That is why Satprem should be remembered, as a brilliant pioneer.

Barindranath Chaki

30-10-2007

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

On Thoughts and Aphorisms 2

http://barin.gaia.com — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 05:01:55 GMT

2. Inspiration is a slender river of brightness leaping from a vast and eternal knowledge; it exceeds reason more perfectly than reason exceeds the knowledge of the senses.

[Thoughts and Aphorisms : Sri Aurobindo]

Before going into the discussion, let us see what the Mother has told regarding words and their use and meaning, especially when used by Sri Aurobindo, and definitely by the Mother herself.

She says:
"There are dictionary definitions, which are the ordinary explanations of the words as they are commonly understood. These do not make you think. What Sri Aurobindo says, however, is said in order to break up the usual conception, to bring you in touch with a deeper truth." (The Mother)
Let us see what the dictionary meaning of the word Inspiration is.

(Free Dictionary):

inspiration
1.
a. Stimulation of the mind or emotions to a high level of feeling or activity.
b. The condition of being so stimulated.
2. An agency, such as a person or work of art, that moves the intellect or emotions or prompts action or invention.
3. Something, such as a sudden creative act or idea, that is inspired.
4. The quality of inspiring or exalting: a painting full of inspiration....
5. The act of drawing in, especially the inhalation of air into the lungs.

There are other dictionaries, which may be referred to. But more or less the same meanings are conveyed.

Let us see what Sri Aurobindo says here. According to Him, Inspiration is a slender river of brightness leaping from a vast and eternal knowledge.

Last week, we have discussed about Knowledge in Aphorism number 1. We have seen that Knowledge is not and different from and lesser than Wisdom. But that is one use of the word by Sri Aurobindo. Here, in the present aphorism the word Knowledge has a different meaning.

In the first aphorism, he was speaking of knowledge as sought by the ordinary human consciousness, through mental effort and development, through reason ; but here, in the present aphorism, He is speaking of "the essential Knowledge, the Supramental divine knowledge, Knowledge by identity." (The Mother)

The Supramental divine knowledge is vast and immense, beyond the reach of the ordinary human mind. Only the rare people have been able to touch It so far. What comes to us as Inspiration, as Sri Aurobindo says, is ‘a slender river of brightness' from this vast immense knowledge. It is a slender river, a tiny little stream. Or Inspiration may come to you as a few driops of light falling from the Supramental vastness, which gives you an impression that "you have reached infinite domains and risen very high above the ordinary human condition." (The Mother)

Inspiration comes to us generally through the psychic being, the psychic consciousness, the psychic opening. That is the minimum range of consciousness required. Later on, when we transcend the ordinary mental plane and reach the higher planes of the Higher Mind, the Intuitive Mind and Overmind, and then from Overmind to Supermind, we can then receive Inspirations directly.

The Mother says, "Reason is certainly at the apex of the human mental activity." But if we want the true Knowledge and Wisdom, we shall have to cross the borders of the ordinary mind, by unveiling the psychic being and ascending through the superconscient planes from the higher mind to Overmind and then to the Supramental Light and Consciousness. The only we can hope for reaching the real and true Aim and Purpose of the human life - the transformation of the human consciousness and being into the Supramental consciousness and being.

Thus, Man has to transform himself. Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have spoken of the Triple Transformation: psychic, spiritual, and then supramental.
In the first phase of this transformation, the psychic being has to come forward and take the lead of the whole being and its transformation. The psychic is the active aspect of the soul. The soul is generally inactive in the animals, and they do not have any psychic being. It is only the human being who has the psychic being, as Sri Aurobindo says.

For explaining the term "psychic being" Sri Aurobindo has stated as follows:

"The word soul is very vaguely used in English- as it often refers to the whole non-physical consciousness including even the vital with all its desires and passions. That is why the word psychic being has to be used so as to distinguish this divine portion from the instrumental parts of the nature."

For the unveiling of the psychic being and for turning towards the Divine Consciousness, Man has to follow integrally the three ways of knowledge, of the heart or of love, and of the will or of action, seeking Truth, Beauty and Goodness [in Sanskrit satyam, sundaram and shivam].
These three ways of Knowledge, Love and Action, followed concurrently and in a combined manner, have a most powerful effect.

To transform himself and to receive the Inspiration, the Mother has shown us the best Way :
"When one opens oneself to the supramental regions, one puts oneself in the right state for receiving constant inspirations. Until then the best method is to silence the mind as much as possible, to turn it upwards and to remain in a state of silent and attentive receptivity. The more one is able to establish a silent and pefect calm in the mind, the more one becomes capable of receiving inspirations." (The Mother)

Silence is therefore the golden Way.
In the second part of the Aphorism, it is said that reason is higher than the knowledge of the senses, but Inspiration is still higher. Inspiration belongs to realm of Light, the growing Light, whereas senses belong to Darkness and Ignorance, and reason seeks to go out of Darkness and Ignorance.

Barin Chaki
26-09-2007

[Written by me on 02-03-2007 and published earlier in my blogs All Choice and barinchaki's blog in Sulekha.]

Tags: Psychic Being, Supermind, Supramental Transformation, Thoughts and Aphorisms, The Mother, Sri Aurobindo

Passing Thoughts

http://barin.gaia.com — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 12:55:47 GMT

Seven Haiku

I thought it to be a rosy rose, but it was a thorny bush.

From a distance, I saw an oasis, but I entered a desert.

The dawn was joyous and rosy, but soon dark clouds covered the sky.

In this forest of concrete masonry, you can't go beyond the masks.

The world only worships a hero, hence win or be lost for ever.

If you want to create the Dreamland, be ruthless on the attackers.

Don't be enchanted of a shining darkness, for you will lose your way.

Barin Chaki

25-9-2007

Simultaneously published today in Zaadz, Sulekha and The New Platform

Tags: Passing Thoughts, Seven Haiku, Haiku, Barin Chaki, oasis, The Dreamland

On Thoughts and Aphorisms 1

http://barin.gaia.com — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 07:48:40 GMT

Discussions on Thoughts and Aphorisms

Around 1913, Sri Aurobindo wrote 552 aphorisms in a notebook. In 1915 - 1916 he published ten of them in the monthly review Arya. They form part of Thoughts and Glimpses. Of the 542 aphorisms, two are classed as additional aphorisms. The remaining 540 aphorisms form the book Thoughts and Aphorisms. The aphorisms were written in nine groups, three of them are headed as Jnana, three as Karma and three as Bhakti.

The Mother has written commentaries on Thoughts and Aphorisms. Hence any other attempt by any other person may seem unnecessary. Yet it appears a necessary step to bring these enlightened and enlightening thoughts to discussion, so that the Light may touch us.

Hence, we begin these discussions.

1. There are two allied powers in man; knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is so much of the truth seen in a distorted medium as the mind arrives at by groping, wisdom what the eye of divine vision sees in the spirit. (Sri Aurobindo)

Both Knowledge and Wisdom are allied powers in Man, and both are fighting Ignorance. However Knowledge belongs to Mind, and Wisdom belongs to Spirit, or the Divine Consciousness. Man and Mind is in ignorance, surrounded by Darkness and Ignorance. But the evolutionary spirit in Man, in Mind, questions the manifested existence around, wants to know the Reality, know Truth. But Mind gropes in darkness, advances through senses and the Reason. Mind wants to know and obtains knowledge through a great effort. But it is not complete, not final, and is rather distorted, due to the medium through which this knowledge is obtained.
The mental consciousness is the distorted medium, though it may be an essential medium for Man for raising himself from darkness and ignorance. We know that mind gropes through darkness, in order to know. We commit mistakes and by the method of trial and error and experiments come a workable knowledge.

The Mother says : "... this is not the true knowledge, but only a mental aspect of knowledge; whereas Wisdom does not at all belong to the mind, which is altogether incapable of obtaining it, because, in fact, it doesn't even know what it is."

Wisdom, thus, does not belong to the ordinary mental plane. It belongs to the Spirit. Wisdom comes with the spiritual consciousness.

When Man unveils his psychic being, and then advances through the different layers of the Superconscient planes - from the Higher Mind to the Overmind - and when Man touches and ascends the Supramental Plane, Wisdom grows in him, and guides him.
But we should always remember that Knowledge and Wisdom are allied powers, both necessary for him in his journey of life.

Barin Chaki
23-09-2007

[Written by me on 20-02-2007 and published earlier in my blogs All Choice and barinchaki's blog in Sulekha.]

Tags: Wisdom, Knowledge, Thoughts and Aphorisms, The Mother, Sri Aurobindo, Mind, Overmind, Supermind

The Hope

http://barin.gaia.com — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 17:07:05 GMT

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
Mŗtyormaamŗtam 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]

OOOOOOO

Barindranath Chaki

15-08-2007

Posted simultaneously in The New Vision , Zaadz and Sulekha

Tags: Evolution, The Mother and Sri Aurobindo, Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, The Hope

The New Way

http://barin.gaia.com — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 13:33:42 GMT

The New Way1

A study of the Agenda

Barindranath Chaki

11th August 2007

The Beginning

[From continuation]

A question has arisen whether the Way shown to us in Mother's Agenda is the New Way or an old one.

A friend has commented as follows:

"Your idea is both Old and New - old to those who have read them and new to those who are new to Sri Aurobindo and Mother's path. The Agenda is the record of the Mother's day to day work on her body, up to the point it served her. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother's other works are to be joined with it to make it a whole. A great hope indeed but it has to be activated and those will be benefitted who do it. The time has not been foretold."

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 23^rd 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:

29^th February - 29^th 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 29^th 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 change 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

The other works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are not left out or intended to be left out, when we study the Agenda. The Idea itself is impossible. Sri Aurobindo's Teaching leads us to the Event of the 5^th December 1950. And what happened on the 29^th 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.

The Agenda is, however, a distinct aspect of the Words that The Mother ever uttered for us, the humans.

M Alan Kazlev has said in this regard in his comment:

It's great that you've posted this, Barin! I feel the Agenda to be the single most important document ever written; because it so clearly holds the key to the divine transformation of the Earth.

OOOO

It has been stated that "The Agenda is the record of the Mother's day to day work on her body, up to the point it served her." However, that is but one aspect of The Agenda.

The Agenda, simultaneously, has several aspects. On the one hand it is a record or logbook of the Mother's own explorations and work at the transformation and supramentalisation of the physical body, through Her own body. And we also find Her discovery of a deep physical consciousness, which has the capability of restructuring the nature of the physical and the laws of nature in a very radical way.

It also provides, in another aspect, an intimate glimpse of the Mother's personality, of which there are no other records available.

In another aspect, it is a record of Satprem's own spiritual development, including his letters to the Mother.

On another aspect, the Agenda include the development of the Ideas of Spiritual evolution and of "the new species," of The New World, of The New Creation, The New Consciousness. The Agenda are not limited only to the spiritual progress of The Mother, in the supramental plane, or of Satprem, but the Aim here is also the Total Transformation of the humanity, from manhood to supermanhood, and further even to the Advent of the supramental beings. On the Future of mankind, the Agenda throw a promising Light also.

And inevitably, the Agenda is "a work of literary magic."

OOOO

This study of Mother's Agenda has been named as The New Way, following The Mother. None else has been followed. Let me quote from the Agenda Her words on the 18^th 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 [9^th 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 [13^th 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 4^th 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. I agree with many of her views in vedic astrology. I have heard and read this book of hers, which has been referred to, but due to lack of time and opportunity, I could not as yet read the book. But surely, I will read it.

[Continued]

Barindranath Chaki

11-08-2007

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

Tags: Auro, On the Way, The Mother, Sri Aurobindo, The Mother's Agenda, The New Way

The New Way

http://barin.gaia.com — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 19:34:27 GMT

A study of the Agenda

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.

The Agenda hold the clues of the Transformation of man into superman, of the manifestation of the supramental consciousness on earth.

The Agenda hold the secret.

OOOO

These notes are my humble endeavours in understanding and realizing what these volumes of the Agenda say.

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

[Continued]

Barindranath Chaki
21-07-2007

Posted on 31-07-2007.
Posted Simultaneously in The New Vision and Sulekha

Tags: Auro, On the Way, The Mother, Sri Aurobindo, The Mother's Agenda

SUJATA

http://barin.gaia.com — Thu, 10 May 2007 08:33:41 GMT

The beginning of a New Age

As Satprem completed his Work in his old human body and began his new journey in a new exitsence for manifestation of The New World of supramental consciousness, following The Mother and Sri Aurobindo, Sujata also followed him on 4th May 2007. She was 81 years old.

My friend Tusar N. Mohapatra informed me today as follows :

Sujata also left us
10 May 2007, 5:15 Uhrjj.vanhoutte

For information of the community, Sujata have also left us, more or less a month after Satprem, on May 4, 2007. She was 81 years old and lived since the age of 9 in the Ashram of Sri Aurobindo.

OOOO

Sujata cannot really leave us.

She spent a much long period of her life in collaboration with Satprem to transform the human existence, following the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.
How can she leave us who are the way-farers to the same goal?

We will always meet her and be inspired by her on the Way.

The Consciousness and the Spirit of Sujata can never die. The spirit will continue to work for conquering death and ignorance and help others in conquering death and ignorance, in the Way led by The Master and The Mother, in collaboration with Satprem. She will be present, along with Satprem, in the New World, among the New Race!

There has been now a beginning of a New Age - of a Rejuvenation of the march towards The New Horizon, The New World. Death can never win.

The Progress towards the Supramentalisation of the World will continue till the Work is finally done.

[ Simultaneously published by me in The New Vision.]

Barin Chaki
10-05-2007

Tags: Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, Sujata, Satprem, Peace, The New Horizon, The New World, supramental consciousness

Satprem

http://barin.gaia.com — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 11:30:13 GMT

Satprem

[30-10-1923 - 09-04-2007]

This cannot be an obituary. I will not say that Satprem is no more! I cannot say that he has passed away! I will not write about his works and achievements and then forget him.

Definitely, he was an author. He wrote several beautiful books, the likes of which nobody has written. He has edited and organized Mother's Agenda, which contain the seed of the Next Future, the Next Evolution. And not only that, he is a part and parcel of Mother's Agenda.

The possibility that there will be many more authors like him is rare. His writings are what he is! And he is unique, only one.

But Satprem is not only an author, he is an adventurer, following the footprints of The Adventure, and of The Creatrix. He wanted to break the habit of the body, the habit of death. He wanted to break into the realm of the supermen's world, the New World.

Man has to pass into the becoming of the Superman. Man has to transform himself, individually and socially, so that the New Race will come into being on earth. The Supramental World cannot come on earth, unless there is some real endeavour for it. And that has to come as soon as possible. That is the only Solution before the humankind.

And that is what Satprem has been doing. Satprem, along with Sujata, concentrated exclusively to the transformation of the cellular consciousness of the body and to the realisation of the next evolution, from Mind to the Supermind. They were / are in search of the great journey from manhood to supermanhood. And all this is the Work of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo.

Satprem described Sri Aurobindo as The Adventure of Consciousness. He wrote :

"The age of adventures is over. Even if we reach the seventh galaxy, we will go there helmeted and mechanized, and it will not change a thing for us; we will find ourselves exactly as we are now: helpless children in the face of death, living beings who are not too sure how they live, why they are alive, or where they are going. On the earth, as we know, the times of Cortez and Pizarro are over; one and the same pervasive Mechanism stifles us: the trap is closing inexorably. But, as always, it turns out that our bleakest adversities are also our most promising opportunities, and that the dark passage is only a passage leading to a greater light. Hence, with our backs against the wall, we are facing the last territory left for us to explore, the ultimate adventure: ourselves."

He further wrote :

"There is no more room on the teeming beaches, no more room on the crowded roads, no more room in the ever-expanding anthills of our cities. We have to find a way out elsewhere.

But there are many kinds of "elsewheres." Those of drugs are uncertain and fraught with danger, and above all they depend upon an outer agent; an experience ought to be possible at will, anywhere, at the grocery store as well as in the solitude of one's room--otherwise it is not an experience but an anomaly or an enslavement. Those of psychoanalysis are limited, for the moment, to the dimly lit caves of the "unconscious," and most importantly, they lack the agency of consciousness, through which a person can be in full control, instead of being an impotent witness or a sickly patient.

Those of religion may be more enlightened, but they too depend upon a god or a dogma; for the most part they confine us in one type of experience, for it is just as possible to be a prisoner of other worlds as it is of this one--in fact, even more so. Finally, the value of an experience is measured by its capacity to transform life; otherwise, it is simply an empty dream or a hallucination.

Sri Aurobindo leads us to a twofold discovery, which we so urgently need if we want to find an intelligible meaning to the suffocating chaos we live in, as well as a key for transforming our world. By following him step by step in his prodigious exploration, we are led to the most important discovery of all times, to the threshold of the Great Secret that is to change the face of this world, namely, that consciousness is power."

Following the footprints of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, Satprem himself became an adventurer. His existence is a dedication to the Cause of passing on to the Next Evolution, for creating the New World, where there will no more of any death or decay, any old age, any disease, any defeat for man. He endeavoured for translating this dream onto the reality. He was preparing himself for the great leap beyond ordinary humanity.

Satprem cannot die. I feel his presence, without any vacant feeling. He will be there, till the Work he has undertaken is done! If he dies, along with him dies the human hope and the human dream. He is a hope for all of us - the dreamers. He is a hope for all of us - the rebels. He is the hope for all of us - the adventurers towards The New Horizon, The New World.

He is the Spirit that can never die. The spirit will conquer death and let others conquer death, in the Way led by The Light and The Force.

His name will shine for ever at the Feet of The Master and The Mother. He will be present in the New World, among the New Race!

Barindranath Chaki

Tags: The Mother, Satprem, The Advnture, The Aventure of Consciousness, The New World, The New Horizon, Sri Aurobindo

The Next Evolution 5

http://barin.gaia.com — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 04:59:27 GMT

Some clarifications

To begin with, I am to say that, I am not a scientist, not a biologist, though my search and research is as a student of Philosophy, with a special emphasis in the Philosophy and Teaching of Philosophy. I am a humble seeker of Truth, and that is the reason why I have read some scientific literature, as much and as thorough as possible, as required in the search and research of Philosophy. It is aptly said, Philosophy begins when Science ends.

In The Next Evolution 4, I wrote :

"From the scientific viewpoint, now man is at the apex of Evolution."This statement was commented by someone as follows : "I have never heard any serious scientist make a ludicrous claim like that. Would you cite research publications that arrive at that conclusion. This is a popular myth that most scientists try to correct." The comment is quoted below.*

I am making some references below which will demonstrate that serious and real scientists are / were there on earth who holds / held the same view, as that of mine.
1. Theodosius Dobzhansky (1900-1975), a Russian geneticist, said in his famous 1973 essay Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution :
"A biologic species does not say to itself, "Let me try tomorrow (or a million years from now) to grow in a different soil, or use a different food, or subsist on a different body part of a different crab." Only a human being could make such conscious decisions. This is why the species Homo sapiens is the apex of evolution [Note by Evowiki : Dobzhansky is not suggesting humans are the purpose of evolution....]
2. Edward L. Crisp, Ph.D., Professor of Geology, West Virginia University at Parkersburg, writes in his essay ORGANIC EVOLUTION :

"Classification of Organisms: classifying organisms into groups based on their similarities. A formal classification of organisms into major groups was devised by the Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1798) during the late 1700s. The Linnaeus system of classification is a hierarchical scheme, as one proceeds up the classification ladder the categories become more inclusive. Obviously Linnaeus used similarities of shared characters to relate organisms into groups, however, he believed in the immutability of species and thought his classification reflected God's plan, from simple primitive organisms to complex organisms with man at the apex.

3. Constance Areson Clark writes in his essay "Evolution for John Doe** : Pictures, and the Scopes Trial Debate " in Journal of American History, 87 (March 2001), 1275-1301 that man is the culminating point in Evolution :
"Many of the diagrams designed by Osborn and his colleagues at the American Museum of Natural History resembled Darwin's diagram in their bushiness, especially those illustrating the concept Osborn named "adaptive radiation," the diversification of related organisms as they adapt to different environments. Darwin's branching concept of evolution was not, however, the primary image offered to the public in diagrams of the 1920s. A characteristic example is the tree (figure 4.) in Benjamin C. Gruenberg's The Story of Evolution, a highly stylized, conventionalized rendering, including no information about time or extinction, conveying the impression that there is a single "main line" of evolution, culminating in "man" (in a suit!).

Thus we find that some scientists of worth and fame accept and state that man or the Homo sapiens is the apex of evolution.

No more, then, is this statement that Man is at the apex of evolution is ludicrous, as scientists, are saying so !?

OOOO

The comment referred to Stephen Jay Gould :
"This centuries most noted evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould spent a large part of his career decimating what
he called the idea of the "Ladder of Progress" citing evolution as a progressive march from the worms , culminating in
Humans."

Thus, Stephen Jay Gould had the main objection with the idea of Ladder of progress. I have never used the idea of the Ladder of progress, for that was / is not the purpose of my essay.

Anyhow, there were / are several scientist who totally disagreed with Gould. Professor John Maynard Smith, (6 January 1920 - 19 April 2004), a British evolutionary biologist and geneticist, was one of them. About him, let me quote from Wikipedia :

"Maynard Smith thought that Gould trivialized the role of adaptation, and criticised Gould's periodic invocation of large scale mutations. In a review of Daniel Dennett's book Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Maynard Smith wrote that Gould "is giving non-biologists a largely false picture of the state of evolutionary theory.

"One reason for such criticism was that Gould appeared to be presenting his ideas as a revolutionary way of understanding evolution, which relegated natural selection to a much less important position. As a result, many non-specialists inferred from his early writings that Darwinian explanations had been proven to be unscientific (which Gould never wanted to imply). His works were sometimes used out of context as a "proof" that scientists no longer understood how organisms evolved, giving creationists ammunition in their battle against evolutionary theory. Gould himself corrected some of these misinterpretations and distortions of his writings in later works. "

Another such Scientist is Clinton Richard Dawkins (born March 26, 1941), who is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science writer who holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University.
Dawkins writes in his book Human Chauvinism :
"To evolution: is it progressive? Gould's definition of progress is a human-chauvinistic one which makes it all too easy to deny progress in evolution. I shall show that if we use a less anthropocentric, more biologically sensible, more ‘adaptationist' definition, evolution turns out to be clearly and importantly progressive in the short to medium term. In another sense it is probably progressive in the long term too...xxx xxx xxx xxx
"Gould is wrong to say that the appearance of progress in evolution is a statistical illusion. ... To be sure, complexity, braininess and other particular qualities dear to the human ego should not necessarily be expected to increase progressively in a majority of lineages - though it would be interesting if they did.... But if you define progress less chauvinistically - if you let the animals bring their own definition - you will find progress, in a genuinely interesting sense of the word, nearly everywhere.
Now it is important to stress that, on this adaptationist view (unlike the ‘evolution of evolvability' view to be discussed shortly), progressive evolution is to be expected only on the short to medium term. Coevolutionary arms races may last for millions of years but probably not hundreds of millions. Over the very long timescale, asteroids and other catastrophes bring evolution to a dead stop, major taxa and entire radiations go extinct. Ecological vacuums are created, to be filled by new adaptive radiations driven by new ranges of arms races. The several arms races between carnivorous dinosaurs and their prey were later mirrored by a succession of analogous arms races between carnivorous mammals and their prey. Each of these successive and separate arms races powered sequences of evolution which were progressive in my sense....
"Ironically for such an eloquent foe of progress, Gould flirts with the idea that evolution itself changes over the long haul, but he puts it in a topsy turvy way which has undoubtedly been widely misleading.... For Gould, evolution in the Cambrian was a different kind of process from evolution today. The Cambrian was a period of evolutionary ‘experiment', evolutionary ‘trial and error', evolutionary ‘false starts'. It was a period of ‘explosive' invention, before evolution stabilised into the humdrum process we see today. It was the fertile time when all the great ‘fundamental body plans' were invented. Nowadays, evolution just tinkers with old body plans. Back in the Cambrian, new phyla and new classes arose. Nowadays we only get new species!
"Gould expects us to be surprised. Why? The view that he is attacking - that evolution marches inexorably towards a pinnacle such as man - has not been believed for 50 years. But his quixotic strawmandering, his shameless windmill-tilting, seem almost designed to encourage misunderstanding (not for the first time: on a previous occasion he went so far as to write that the neo-Darwinian synthesis was ‘effectively dead'!). The following is typical of the publicity surrounding Wonderful Life (incidentally, I suspect that the lead sentence was added without the knowledge of the credited journalist): "The human race did not result from the ‘survival of the fittest', according to the eminent American professor, Stephen Jay Gould. It was a happy accident that created Mankind" (Daily Telegraph, 22nd January 1990). Such twaddle, of course, is nowhere to be found in Gould, but whether or not he seeks that kind of publicity he all too frequently attracts it. Readers regularly gain the impression that he is saying something far more radical and surprising than he actually is."
Quoting all these extracts is, no doubt, have nothing much to do with The Next Evolution, excepting that I have to take necessary steps in order to clear off the mist created in the atmosphere by the reference to Gould. We find above, in the quotations from Smith and Dawkins, that in Evolution, there may not be any Ladder, but there is Progress! Evolution is progressive.
OOOO

Besides Science, even in Philosophy and Mysticism, there are schools of thought which speak of the human being to be the apex of evolution. Let us see what Julio Savi has written in his book on Bahai faith - The Eternal Quest for God :

"When we study the phenomena of the world of creation, we will see how `... all phenomena of being attain to a summit and degree of consummation, after which a new order and condition is established'. This concept applies also to the world of creation as a whole: man is the apex of the evolutionary process of the world of creation, its `fruit', its `degree of consummation'. But since the evolutionary process must necessarily go forward, in man `a new order and condition' must appear, and such is that condition which Bahá'ís call spiritual, others metaphysical."

OOOO
What I wrote in The Next Evolution 4 is not "a re-iteration of the popular belief of what science is all about." That was / is the comment that has been made, an insignificant comment which itself is ludicrous, baseless and unfounded. My essay is not about what is Science, rather it is about something which is beyond Science, but not against or contrary to Science. Nor do I accept the popular belief about Science to be the real Scince. The difference is well known to me.
The person commenting said : Real science is...well...different.

This is not the definition of Science. Science is not mystic poetry, so that you can describe it as something which is indescribable. A real student of Science should be specific and definite, not vague, poetic, mystic.

Wikipedia describes Science as follows :

Science in the broadest sense refers to any system of objective knowledge. In a more restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on the scientific method, as well as to the organized body of knowledge humans have gained by such research. There are different points of view regarding the scientific method: Methodological naturalism maintains that scientific investigation must adhere to empirical study and independent verification as a process for properly developing and evaluating natural explanations for observable phenomena. Methodological naturalism typically, therefore, rejects supernatural explanations, arguments from authority and biased observational studies. Critical rationalism instead holds that unbiased observation is not possible and a demarcation between natural and supernatural explanations is arbitrary; it instead proposes falsifiability as the landmark of scientific theories and falsification as the universal scientific method. (This approach has been generalized to pancritical rationalism.) Instrumentalism rejects the concept of truth and emphasizes merely the utility of theories as instruments for explaining and predicting phenomena. Fields of science are commonly classified along two major lines:
Natural sciences, which study natural phenomena, and Social sciences, which study human behavior and societies.

OOOO

The purpose of this series of essays by me is neither to define or describe Science nor to state that Man is the culmination of Evolution. The aim is to speak of the Next Evolution, definitely after and beyond Man. I had to post these clarifications today on the face of the comment made, so that what I am to present as the Next Evolution is not misunderstood. As I have said, the Leaders of the Next Evolution are Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, and I am presenting things here inspired by Them and in Their light.

[* It was commented by protobion on The Next Evolution 4 in barinchaki.sulekha.com, as follows:

"From the scientific viewpoint, now man is at the apex of Evolution."

With all due respect, I have never heard any serious scientist make a ludicrous claim like that. Would you cite research publications that arrive at that conclusion. This is a popular myth that most scientists try to correct. This centuries most noted evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould spent a large part of his career decimating what he called the idea of the "Ladder of Progress" citing evolution as a progressive march from the worms , culminating in Humans. I do not blame you, not do I which criticize, but much of your post seems a re-iteration of the popular belief of what science is all about. Real science is...well...different.

Dare I say, that you are no scientist, or at the very least, certainly no biologist?]

[** The name John Doe is typically used as a placeholder name for a male party in a legal action or legal discussion whose true identity is unknown A female who is not known is often referred to as Jane Doe. A child or baby whose identity is unknown can be referred to as Baby Doe, or as Precious Doe. Additional people in the same family may be called James Doe, Judy Doe, etc. Commonly used in the United States of America, though rarely used now in developed countries.
The Doe names are often, though not always, used for anonymous or unknown defendants.]

[Simultaneously published in barinchaki.sulekha.com. and in The New Vision.]

Barindranath Chaki
27-03-2007

Tags: Sri Aurobindo Superman Supermind Evolution The Mot, Supermind, Evolution, The Mother, Mira Alfassa, Sri Aurobindo, The Next evolution

On the Mother I

http://barin.gaia.com — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 13:00:34 GMT

The 21st day of February 2007, was the birthday anniversary of The Mother, Mira Alfassa, the spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo.

The Mother was born in Paris on 21 February 1878. She was named Mirra, and she grew up in Paris where she spent the first part of her life. Her parents had settled down in France a year before her birth.
In her early years She was conscious of the special purpose of Her life, of Her mission on earth. From the age of five she became conscious that she was not of this world and did not have a human consciousness. At this age she began her spiritual discipline, her sadhana.
She came in contact with Max Theon and Madame Theon around 1905-6. She met Sri Aurobindo at Pondicherry on 29th March 1914. She left Pondicherry in February 1915 and proceeded to France and Japan. Later, on 24th April, 1920, She returned to Pondicherry for ever.

OOOO

Sri Aurobindo, whom millions throughout the world have already regarded as an Incarnation of the Divine Consciousness, had specifically pointed out that ' the One whom we adore as The Mother,' also descended and became manifest before us on earth. He referred to Mira Alfassa, and millions on earth adore Her.

Who is this Mother? What is this Principle of the Mother?
How is this Principle related to the Supreme?

The Ultimate Reality is the Infinite and One Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, whom we have termed as the Brahman, the Divine, God etc. He is the Supreme Divine, the One, Indivisible, Infinite and Pure, who has three aspects, the Transcendental, the Universal and the Individual. In the Transcendental mode, He is the Source of and is also above all manifestation, all the Universes, all the worlds. As the Supreme, He bears the eternal consciousness in Him, above all Time and Space. The Supreme Divine is the Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, as I have already told. He is. He is Existence, eternal existence, and can even become Non-Existence, beyond the apprehension of any manifested existence. In the Universal mode, he is one with the Universes, though He is above them and is their Creator.

I am not speaking of any religious narration of creation, like that of creation in six days etc. As the Supreme, who is both Impersonal and Personal, He is the Source of all that is, of the this Universe, or rather the Universes. He has no form, no shape, and simultaneously, He is the Source and Creator of all forms and shapes. He ha become all this Universe, or rather all these universes. He is the Manifestation and the One who manifests. It is His Will that manifests and is manifested. The entire Manifestation is He, and it is His Leela, Play. He is both beyond it, and within it, and in each atom, in each living being. And He is also the Individual, Personal God. All the Avatars are but His Individual Manifestations.

"The Supreme is with His Creative Force, the Mahashakti, whom we call the Divine Mother. They are One and Indivisible, and yet They are Two in Manifestation and even above Manifestation." [The Psychic Being in The New Horizon]

OOOO

Almost all the followers of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother know the following that Sri Aurobindo has said on the Mother :
"The One whom we adore as the Mother is the Divine Cobscious Force that dominates all existence, one and yet so many-sided that to follow her movement is impossible evn for the quickest mind and for the freest and most vast intelligence."

Sri Aurobindo has further said :
"Her embodiment is a chance for the earth-consciousness to receive the Supramental into it and to undergo first the transformation necessary for that to be possible."

That is why She is so valuable for the mankind and for the earth. "She is the golden bridge ...," says Sri Aurobindo in Savitri. She is the Force that enables Man and the earth to leap beyond and pass over the gulf of difference between Mind and the Supramental Consciousness, between Darkness and Ignorance and Falsehood on the one hand and on the other hand Light and Wisdom and Truth.

She is the golden bridge, the wonderful fire.
The luminous heart of the Unknown is she,
A power of silence in the depths of God;
She is the Force, the inevitable Word,.....
To heal with her feet the aching throb of life
And break the seals on the dim soul of man
And kindle her fire in the closed heart of things.
[Savitri : Sri Aurobindo]

OOOO

the Mother said :
"Throughout all this life, knowingly or unknowingly, I have been what the Lord wanted me to be, I have done what the Lord wanted me to do, I have done what the Lord wanted me to do. That alone matters."

She has also said :

"Since, the beginning of the earth, wherever and whenever there was the possibility of manifesting a ray of Consciousness, I was there."

And She has also shown us the Way, the most sublime Way of the Child in us, in all of us :

"You have to aspire, you have to reject; but the best is if you can keep me in your heart, if you love me, then you will have to do nothing. I shall do all for you."

That is the best Way.
And let us remember always what She has told us to march ahead towards the Goal, towards the New Horizon :

"Let us advance always, without stopping, towards an always more complete manifestation, an always more complete and higher consciousness."

Barin
23-2-2007
[Written on 21-02-2007]

Tags: Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, Mira Alfassa, Evolution, Supermind, Mind, The Way, The New Horizon