Sunday wild & divine flowers

This is a photograph taken by getolina-as she is known in Flickr photographic site. The photo was taken on June 8, 2008 by Canon PowerShot A630. Who is getolina? She is as she informed me in the following words: "Well, to begin with, I'm European, Eastern European, Romanian... so my mother tongue is Romanian and my name is Georgeta... shortly Geta getolina is a name I received from a friend of mine and I like it, so I took it as my name in Flickr." getolina is a friend of mine. She is kind, generous and a very friendly woman. She is also an extraordinary photographer. While visiting her photo stream I found this photo. Later I asked her-"Can such beautiful and soft flowers be wild? I have never seen this flower. But it's very beautiful. I only want to know whether it has sweet fragrance or not. If yes-then call it divine flower instead of wild. And you have made a wonderful shot." In response she informed -"Thank you so much for your interest in my photo. Yes, they are wild flowers, they bloom in Europe, in forests, at the beginning of June. They are the flowers of the elder bush, which can be seen almost everywhere in beech forests. They smell also very well... It's a kind of sweet and stringent smell... but powerful if you collect more flowers... And more... if you pic them, mix them with lemon, sugar and water, you obtain a very refreshing drink. And if you dry them, you can also make tea. I know, but I've never try yet that the black berries they have in August are very good also for making home jam. So, I think you are right... They are divine flowers... Thank you again so much!!" I fell in love with this flowers and so asked her permission in respect of publishing her photograph and her comments (in response to my query). She has soon permitted me to publish all this.

Judgement of The Mother

Many years ago I came to know from newspapers when I was in Asansol that there was litigation between the Aurovillians and the Sri Aurobindo Society in respect of control over Auroville. It’s not my business here to go into the details on that matter. One of my friends who was very against whatever was associated with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother-taking a cue from that news told bad things against all of them and asked my opinion –why such things could happen with those who were the children of the so called Divine Mother! I was already depressed myself –rather confused and shocked, floundered for a speech in defense of the children. It was –as if an ordeal to me to save somehow the great names that were linked with the litigation as in some quarters there arose questions against the wisdom of such dream for a habitat of future man named after Sri Aurobindo by the Mother as-Auroville. Even it was criticized as a Utopia when the existing habitat of the Indians was in a shabby condition. However in my desperation as a self appointed advocate in defense of the Mother and the Aurovillians I retorted to my friend “ Do you think that Auroville will grow without troubles and problems-internal and external to fulfill the dream of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo-in the midst of hellish mud and mire of human consciousness? Being a devotee of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo-I was delighted to know the event of the foundation of Auroville. I personally cherish and live on the prospect of human evolution as prophesized by Sri Aurobindo. But I can not think that it will come without paying a cost or without being tormented at the struggle between the truth and ignorance within me. Auroville is an infant and is growing as pushed by its own soul from inside it. But it is growing from within us also-though we are not Aurovillians. Like a child it will falter and even fall and even move in a wrong way. But these facts of life can not deter it from attaining its adulthood as visualized by the Mother. And for us-who want to see Auroville to grow in a great exemplary way-must collaborate from outside. Did not the Mother want it from us? We should never forget that for a single fault or fall of a single Aurovillian –the responsibility lies equally with us also being a part of humanity. Aurovillians come also from the same species. Do not try to take the advantage of another’s shoulder for keeping your gun to shoot your target.” But after about forty years, while I myself have felt breaking down under the widespread news from both the print and electronic media that things are far from good with those whom I love as the most exemplary communities for our hope for the future –I prayed to the Mother in the same desperation I remembered her to my friend. After touching the birthday blessing of the Mother on my forehead I woke up in the morning and felt happy on the first day of my individual New Year. But after some hours while surfing the Internet I chanced to see several sites which were full of such information which could not be expected by the devotees of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. My eyes were filled with tears and I asked my Mother why such things happened. Could not be those people be otherwise? All the true answers come from within. None in this world can offer a true answer. We are never denied answers of our sincere and serious questions by the Mother. So after praying to the Mother I tried to become peaceful and calm. After an hour or two I just opened a book casually without knowing the name of the book and its author. I opened the book in the middle of its pages. I saw a heading-JUDGING OTHERS. The Mother says under it: “Unless your vision is constantly the vision of the Divine in all things, you have not only no right but no capacity to judge the state which others are in. And to pronounce a judgment on someone without having this vision spontaneously, effortlessly, is precisely an example of the mental presumptuousness of which Sri Aurobindo always spoke….And it so happens that one who has the vision, the consciousness, who is capable of seeing the truth in all things, never feels the need to judge anything whatever. For he understands everything and knows everything. Therefore, once and for all, you must tell yourselves that the moment you begin to judge things, people, circumstances, you are in the most total human ignorance. In short, one could put it like this: when one understands, one no longer judges and when one judges, it means that one does not know”. The name of the book: The Sunlit Path-page 153

THE ULTIMATE CROSSOVER

I believe that man has not the capability to know the future-in the real sense of the term. It’s because man himself is growing into a future. He has the light of his intelligence helped by his inquisitiveness to create conveniences for a comfortable life. But this is not creating a future. Actually man does not have any belief in his own future. And in that sense, the word future has no meaning to him. Future is not a changed ‘present’. It’s newness. But the present and the past are not extinct in this newness-they become transfigured bases for the new. Sri Aurobindo told that man did not evolve from the ape. He supported the spirit of Darwinian Theory of evolution. With reference to Darwin Sri Aurobindo was not satisfied as there is nothing as an aim or direction involved in the progression of evolution of nature as expounded by Darwin. Sri Aurobindo could not accept that it is only with a blind urge for existence that pushes evolution. But whatever it is Sri Aurobindo founded his teaching on progressive evolution. He gave a face to the Evolution. But Sri Aurobindo’s vision of creation and of appearance of life on Earth was different than what scientists want us to believe. Science is yet to find the missing link between the animal and the animal-man. The bridge that helped the animal to cross over to land on manhood (Homo sapiens) is still covered with thick mist. The thread is not vividly continuous. There have been many conjectures but none has come out as full-proof. We –the devotees of Sri Aurobindo believe that there was an intervention, a descent to help the crossover. Let us see what Sri Aurobindo wrote in March 1914 while depicting in detail the process of the whole creation: “…..Man already exists but as a god or demigod in Bhuvarloka or Bhu, not as a man upon earth. There he is Deva, Asura, Rakshasa, Pramatha, Pisacha, Pasu or as Deva he is either Gandharva, Yaksha, Vidyadhara or any of the Kamadevas. For Man is son of the Manu and is assigned his place in Div & Pradiv, in Heaven & in the Swargabhumis. Thence he descends to earth and thither from earth he returns. …When the human body is ready, then he descends upon earth and occupies it. He is not a native of earth, nor does he evolve out of the animal. His manifestation in animal form is always a partial incarnation….. “How does he appear? Prajapati manifests as Vishnu Upendra incarnate in the animal or Pashu in whom the four Manus have already manifested themselves, and the first human creature who appears is, in this Kalpa, the Vanara, not the animal ape, but man with the Ape nature….. “These are man’s beginnings. He rises by the descent of ever higher types of Manu from the Bhuvarloka,-first as he is Pashu, then Pisacha, then Pramatha, then Rakshasa, then Asura, then Deva, then Siddha. So he ascends the ladder of his own being towards the Sat Purusha”. For the requirement of material vessel the proper man required an animal base for a descent. Sri Aurobindo thus called it partial incarnation. The whole matter is so complicated that it is beyond our understanding. Sri Aurobindo had a vision of this creative process in 1914 which he recorded in his diary. The diary has only been published in 2001. I have cited this matter for our other inquisitiveness which has been visiting us since the time of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. The transition of man to superman. They also discussed it threadbare. The Mother had long discussions with Satprem in this matter of transition from man to superman. Sri Aurobindo wrote it in his Life Divine. From all their deliberations we know that an intermediary group of supramentalised persons would evolve. They will not be Supramental beings but forerunners. They will help creating the condition in themselves –so that a descent is possible. So here also lies the point of crossover. It’s too difficult and too early to have any idea. But for this one thing we may understand why Sri Aurobindo will be required to appear as the first Supramental Being. But we must not be confused to draw a parallel situation in the appearance of man with the coming of superman. The situations are qualitatively different. The advent of man was governed by the gods and their creations. Now after the descent of supramental consciousness –the situation lies entirely on the supramental governance. The Suprametal Body exists behind now. Man is left with no speculation anymore.

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Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the Ashramites

Sri Aurobindo was and even now is the most misunderstood spiritual person in India. And for that matter people outside Sri Aurobindo ashram do not have the right idea about the Ashram and the devotees of the Ashram. Sri Aurobindo was not a traditional spiritualist in the sense as conceived in the psyche of Indian people. India, from time immemorial, is the only land which regards the spiritual seekers in the highest esteem amongst the people of other pursuits. According to some spiritual persons India is God’s own home. In all ages and times thousands of people have abandoned the ordinary life and embraced the difficult path of spiritual disciplines. There were innumerable sages, yogis, fakirs and sadhus in the recorded history of India. But there were hundred times more of them who remain unknown for obvious reasons. Perhaps in every Hindu family in India has a sanyasin in its past.

So we are aware of the common characteristics of the God-seekers of whom we know by the words of mouth or by reading history. They all were visibly passionate in their seeking and were almost mad after God. We know this from the lives of Sri Chaitanya , Sri Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Ramana Maharshi, Swami Trailanga and many others. Sri Aurobindo showed no such passion –never in his life. He was an accomplished westerner, and so, many people are inclined to consider it an attribute of western character. Yes –Sri Aurobindo was an accomplished westerner but the life of his mission had no relation of his being grown up or being educated in western atmosphere.

Sri Aurobindo was never interested in spiritual matters exclusively for his self development. He never had any ambition of being a yogi. In his early period when he felt interested in spirituality –it was only because he wanted to acquire spiritual power that might help him to his fight for independence of his motherland. But this did not hold to his mind for long. He was soon involved in his sadhana for the whole of humanity. As per him this was also not from his own choice. He was chosen by his God for a difficult mission hitherto un-attempted –to change the fulcrum of creating consciousness in the world. Man has to move to exceed him. But this appeared queer to most people in India (I do not like to drag the whole world here). He was alone in his work. Nobody before him uttered such a possibility and treaded a path that could lead him to his destination before him. From his formidable loneliness –he wrote:

…We may find when all the rest has failed

He accepted this world as real as Brahma. But easier said in philosophy than done in life and guiding people to that end. So Sri Aurobindo took upon himself first the heat of that transforming consciousness so that it might act through the conscious sadhana of his disciples. The Mother appeared on the stage to help transmuting the new consciousness in the Ashram devotees. The Mother was the personified consciousness-shakti Sri Aurobindo sought to bring down. So the Mother established a group of people in a community for her work. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother never had any intention of establishing an ashram in the traditional necessity of the term. They did not try to make the ashram people as good, religious human beings. Even they did not need God-loving persons as their devotees. They needed people who had inner call to do his yoga. That was the only criterion. They want to transform the evil and the ignorant base into the Divine Consciousness-the Supramental Consciousness as per Sri Aurobindo’s terminology. He knew the root of this unhappy and ignorant world and said time and again that and if we do not change from within we can not change the outside. Death is according to him a required necessity of ignorant and imperfect life.

Once the Mother, in response to a question, told, that her work would not be done with enlightened and elite persons like Vivekananda. They required the representative human moulds containing the inner aspiration to exceed humanity. Sri Aurobindo told that one must go through the hell in order to reach heaven. We must discover the evils within us so that we could transform it. To Sri Aurobindo-‘goodness’ was not the required element in a devotee.

An individual is not complete in itself. The collective is contained in the individual. So the ashram people are variously representative of the collectivity. And the Ashram is nothing but a kind of laboratory. The Mother said “You no longer do yoga for yourself alone; you do it for everybody, unintentionally, automatically.” Sri Aurobindo reminded us “Accepting life, he (the seeker of the integral Yoga) has to bear not only his own burden, but a great part of the world’s burden too along with it, as a continuation of his own sufficiently heavy load. Therefore his Yoga has much more of the nature of a battle than others’; but this is not only an individual battle, it is a collective war waged over a considerable country. He has not only to conquer in himself the forces of egoistic falsehood and disorder, but to conquer them as representatives of the same adverse and inexhaustible forces in the world…” It’s a tremendous work and a devotee in the ashram feels constantly a tremendous pressure that is constantly at work from within and above even when the Mother and Sri Aurobindo are not physically present in their Ashram. Sometimes one could not bear the pressure and left the ashram. Sometime a few persons have become deranged or gone low.

One should, before criticizing the ashram people as not ideal from their customary impression, properly know for what the people are there. There are many good people in this world and many of them are even extraordinary in spiritual matters than we find in the Ashram. The distinctiveness of Sri Aurobindo Ashram is perceptible from its externality. There is no temple and none, as some inside such buildings, to worship. There is no such activity like bhajan or kirtan (devotional songs sung inside a temple). There is no guru or master for physical guidance in sadhana. There is a general discipline as is required if one lives a community life. One has to work in any of the various departments of the Ashram. For spiritual sadhana –there are guidelines as stated by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother in various places. Nobody is asked to follow the spiritual discipline in all sincerity as there is no such outside authority. It’s one’s own inner guidance that matters. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother did not believe in external imposition. One must grow from within. One may have all the facilities to pursue his or her creative activities. So far as sports and swimming are concerned –a devotee is afforded with the most modern facilities. The Mother insisted on sports and physical exercises as in integral Yoga the fitness of the physical body is essential. So except the samadhi-area one does not find any evidence from which it can be immediately perceived that Sri Aurobindo Ashram is a place for spiritual activity.

One must know what for Sri Aurobindo came to this world and should try to understand the tremendous suffering he had to undergo before trying to get any impression of the devotees of Sri Aurobindo Ashram. If we have any expectation from others (as per our ideal), we should realize that one should not fire keeping his gun on other’s shoulder. If I can make a progress it may definitely help others even the ashramites to progress and vice versa.

It is not easy to simply live in the Ashram in its apparent easy life. There is the tremendous pressure of the Mother’s consciousness here.