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SEQUENCE - 24: SRI AUROBINDO & THE MOTHER :1928-38
TOPIC 1:
Incident a)
From the beginning the Ashram grew up and “developed like the growth of a forest, and each service was created not by any artificial planning but by a
living and dynamic need.”
Incident b)
One of the first needs that got crystallised was the Darshan days. As Sri Aurobindo had completely withdrawn from 26 November 1926, he gave
darshan to his disciples on three days in a year — starting with The Mother’s birthday on 21.02.1927, then on 15 August, his own birthday and 24 November, the Siddhi Day. Occasionally, Sri Aurobindo broke the rule
of retirement in favour of visitors like Rabindranath Tagore and Sylvain Levi.
Incident c)
“Before 1926, one had to send one’s photo beforehand for an interview. Thereafter new visitors, if known to any Ashramite, were admitted to
Darshan. To the August and February Darshan newcomers were more freely admitted. To the November Darshan in particular, only those who had come before were allowed to come….
“In those early years … one and a half minutes were allotted to each person. The names of those permanently residing in the Ashram would come first in
the list … A copy of the list would be with the Master. From time to time he would look up the names of those coming in…
“Only one person at a time would be with the Master for Darshan … To avoid disturbing him, others would be stopped at the top of the staircase.
When he would finish his Darshan and come out, the next one would go in… to each the Master gave a penetrating and gracious look and then blessed him, putting his palm on his head. All were allowed to touch
his feet”… (GM II, 69)
From 1939 there was a change. The Darshan timings changed from 6.30 a.m. to 2.00 m. As the number of the inmates steadily increased, a queue was
formed and each sadhak filed past Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. The Darshan queues reached sometimes the footpath outside even after winding quite a lot in the Ashram courtyard itself.
Explaining the significance of the Darshan, The Mother said:
“In those days when Sri Aurobindo used to give Darshan, before he gave it there was always a concentration of certain forces or of a certain
realisation which he wanted to give people. And so each Darshan marked a stage forward; each time something was added. (GM II, 71)
After 1942, the privilege of the August Darshan was extended to the Ashram employees.
Incident d)
Between 1928 and 1938, The Mother’s daily programme used to be, more or less a regulated one:
“The Mother used to get up by 4 a.m. or earlier. By 6 a.m. she would be ready and go up to the terrace of her house… A sadhak would blow a conch
to announce The Mother’s coming to give her blessings. Then Pranam would start in the Meditation Hall on the first floor, lasting an hour or two.”(GM II, 52)
Incident e)
During the Pranam, “The Mother sat cross-legged on a low cushioned seat, her right foot partly left bare.” The Sadhaks offered pranams, one by one
placing their head on the bare part of her right foot and receiving blessings. “A dish of flowers remained at her right side, artistically arranged. After blessings she gave a flower to each.” (GM II, 53)
When Sri Aurobindo’s was asked the significance of the Pranam, he answered:
Incident f)
The Mother gave symbolic meaning to hundreds of flowers. “There is a mental projection when you give a precise meaning to a flower. It can
answer, vibrate to the contact of the projection, accept the meaning,” explained The Mother. “That is how I give a meaning to flowers and plants.”
And the significance of her giving flowers to sadhaks was thus explained by Her:
“When I give flowers it is always along with the capacity they represent. Each one receives according to his receptivity … When, therefore,
you offer flowers to me, their condition is almost always an index to yours… If your aspiration is strong your flower–offering will be fresh… When I give them, I give you states of consciousness…” (GM II, 54)
Incident g)
Significance of some flowers:
Transformation: You know the flower that I have named “Transformation” — it has four petals. Well, these four petals are arranged like a cross, one at the top is the Transcendent; two on the side that form the Universal, and one below which is the individual. The petal at the top is divided into two.
The Transcendent is one and two (or dual) at the same time. It is a flower almost perfect in form.”
Aspiration in the Physical for the Divine’s Love: By the ‘Physical’ I mean the physical consciousness, the most ordinary outward-going
consciousness… which sets such great store by comfort, good food, good clothes, happy relationships, etc…, instead of aspiring for the higher things. Aspiration in the physical for the Divine’s Love implies
that the physical asks for nothing else save that it should feel how the Divine loves it…”
Names of some flowers given by The Mother: Surrender, Protection, Purity, Devotion, Psychological perfection…
(Note: depending on the pictures of the flowers available one could more names.)
TOPIC 2:
Incident a)
After the morning Pranam, The Mother used to give personal interviews to the sadhaks and visitors till noon.
“Formerly, you see, we began with thirty five, thirty-six”; narrated The Mother, “but even till a hundred and fifty it was so like … they were as
though held in an egg-shell in my consciousness, so close, you know, that I could direct all movements, both inner and outer, all the time, everything was under complete control, at every moment night and day.
And naturally, I believe, in those days they made some progress. It was altogether true that I did the sadhana for them, all the time!” (GMII, 49)
Incident b)
After the interviews, The Mother would move to the dining room and gave each sadhak “a dish of food, herself putting bananas in it.”
Incident c)
‘In the afternoons she visited sadhaks in their rooms by turns on fixed dates.’ On her return she would enter Sri Aurobindo’s room and after a
time come … to the Prosperity Hall. Here she sat in meditation with a few sadhaks, each of whom had been given a seat in a certain fixed order.
Incident d)
From 1927 onwards the first of every month was the Prosperity Day. ‘On that day the sadhaks would receive from The Mother their month’s
requirement of clothes, sanitory and other basic necessities.
“On the first of every month The Mother used to go to the Library House to distribute to sadhaks their material needs for the month … she had to pass
through a long corridor where quite a number of people used to assemble . The Mother would have fun with the gathering. She would distribute toffees to each member; to some in their hands, to most others she
would throw the toffee very playfully so that they might not catch it easily …” (MII, 57)
Incident e)
After the meditation in the Prosperity Hall, “The Mother would sometimes read passages from the manuscript of Prayers and Meditation in French. This was followed by a ‘Flower Game’ in which the sentences made by the combinations of some flowers were to be intuited by the sadhaks exactly in the form which was in The Mother’s mind.
Incident f)
In the evening, there started “the Soup Distribution in an open space known as Champakla’s terrace. Later it was shifted to the Prosperity Room and
again it was shifted to the Divine Communion Room which is now being used as the Reception Room.
“When The Mother came down into the soup room a cauldron of hot soup would be put in front of her. She went into deep meditation and after a
while, although her eyes were still shut, her hands stretched out, palms downward over the pot as if blessing it…
“Then … sadhak after sadhak came up with his own cup and knelt down before her. She poured the soup into it, took it up to her lips, then
gave it to the sadhak.” (GM II 56)
Sri Aurobindo explained:
“The soup was instituted in order to establish a means by which the sadhak might receive something from The Mother by an interchange in material
consciousness.” (GM II, 57)
TOPIC 3:
Incident a)
“In 1930-32, sadhaks used to offer pranams to The Mother in the morning and she would come for a walk on the terrace in the evening. In the
hope of seeing The Mother some sadhaks started standing on the road in front of the Balcony in the morning…. Slowly the number began to increase. This was how the Balcony Darshan began … Her scheduled time of
balcony was 6.15 a.m.”
“An instant’s visitor the godhead shone:
On life’s thin border awhile the Vision stood
And bent over earth’s pondering forehead curve.” (Savitri)
About this daily Balcony Darshan, The Mother later said:
“Every morning, at the Balcony, after establishing a conscious contact with each of those who are present, I identify myself with the Supreme Lord
and merge myself completely in him. Then my body completely passive, is nothing but a channel through which the Lord passes freely his force and pours on all his light, his consciousness and his joy,
according to each one’s receptivity.” (GM II, 68)
TOPIC 4:
Incident a)
The year 1927 also saw the beginning of the New Year’s Celebration. On this eve of the New Year day, the sadhaks assembled in the Ashram
around midnight and as soon as the clock struck midnight The Mother welcomed the new year with music on her organ. This was followed by pranams in the stillness of the night and The Mother blessed
everyone. The last of the midnight pranams was on the 31 December 1937. “From the 1st January 1939 this pranam began to take place in the morning … The midnight silence was replaced by The Mother’s `Bonne Annee’ which was reciprocated.”
Incident b)
“From 1933, The Mother started distributing a message after her serene music By and by the cards came to be distributed even outside the Ashram; thus
those who could not participate in the midnight ceremony of [the New Year] were also able to receive The Mother’s benediction and guidance for the New Year.”
TOPIC 5:
Incident a)
After the publication of the last issue of the ‘Arya’ on Jan 15, 1921, other smaller books were published now and then. Isha upanishad and Kalidasa’s Seasons came out in 1921; The Century of Life came
out in 1924. But the most momentous publication after the ‘Arya’ was the publication of ‘The Mother’ in 1928 which described not only The Mother’s divine personalities and aspects and the purpose of her
avatarhood but also gave some of the essential prerequisites of Integral Yoga. About The Mother’s aspects Sri Aurobindo wrote:
“Four great aspects of The Mother, four of her leading powers and personalities have stood in front in her guidance of this universe and in her
dealings with the terrestrial play. One is her personality of calm wideness and comprehending wisdom and tranquil benignity and inexhaustible compassion and sovereign and surpassing majesty and all-ruling
greatness.
“Another embodies her power of splendid strength and irresistible passion, her warrior mood, her overwhelming will, her impetuous swiftness and
world-shaking force.
“A third is vivid and sweet and wonderful with her deep secret of beauty and harmony and fine rhythm, her intricate and subtle opulence, her compelling
attraction and captivating grace.
“The fourth is equipped with her close and profound capacity of intimate knowledge and careful flawless work and quiet and exact perfection in all
things…
“To the four we give the four great names, Maheswhari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, Maheshwari…” (SABCL 25, 25)
Incident b)
And much of the correspondence with the disciples that began after Sri Aurobindo’s retirement in 1926 assumed large proportions and it was published
between 1930-38 under several different headings: Letters on Yoga, Letters on The Mother, Letters on Poetry, Literature and Art, etc.
TOPIC 6:
Incident a)
Activities increased, works were added and the Ashram was beginning ‘to translate the earlier visions of the Arya period’. However, wrote Sri
Aurobindo:
“There has never been, at any time, a mental plan, a fixed programme or an organisation decided beforehand. The whole thing has taken birth,
grown and developed as a living being by a movement of consciousness (Chit-Tapas) constantly maintained, increased and fortified. As the conscious Force descends in matter and radiates, it seeks for fit
instruments to express and manifest it. It goes without saying that if the instrument is open, receptive and plastic, the better are the results.” (SABCL 25, 227)
Incident b)
Slowly, in response to the descent of the Force, there came some ‘instruments to express and manifest’. There came ‘cultivators, smiths, poets,
mechanics, musicians and writers, artists and accountants… and everyone, as an ideal republic, pursued his activities with joy”.
It was clear, from the beginning, that the work in the Ashram “was meant as a service to the Divine and as a field for the inner opening to the
Divine, surrender to the Divine alone, rejection of ego and all the ordinary vital movements and training in a psychic elevation, selflessness, obedience, renunciation of all mental, vital or other
self-assertion of the limited personality.” (SABCL, 23, 85O)
Incident c)
By 1930, there were about eighty five to hundred Ashramites and about sixty to sixty five paid labourers. The Mother’s letter to her son Andre,
dated 23 August 1930 gives us the details:
“The Ashram is becoming a more and more interesting institution. We have now acquired our twenty-first house … Five cars, twelve bicycles, four
sewing machines, a dozen typewriters, many garages, an automobile repair workshop, an electric service, a building service, sewing departments (European and Indian tailors, embroideresses, etc), a library and
reading-room containing several thousand volumes, a photographic service and general stores containing a wide variety of goodS, nearly all imported from France, large gardens for flowers, vegetables and fruits,
a dairy, a bakery, etc., etc. You can see that it is no small affair…”
Incident d)
The material growth and the experience of spiritual consciousness seem to have gone hand in hand, paving the way for a smooth running of the
Ashram. But, there were the subterranean dark forces which attacked. On 18 October 1931, The Mother fell seriously ill for a month and all the outer activities connected with her came to a temporary
halt. In November, Sri Aurobindo commented:
“The Mother’s illness was due to struggle with universal forces which far overpassed the scope of any individual or group of individuals.” (SABCL
25, 316)
Incident e)
The Mother’s Prayer on November 24, 1931 reads: “O my Lord, my sweet Master, for the accomplishment of Thy work I have sunk down into the
unfathomable depths of Matter. I have touched with my finger the horror of the falsehood and the inconscience, I have reached the seat of oblivion and a supreme obscurity…
“Lord, wilt Thou permit Thy enemies to prevail falsehood and ugliness and suffering to Triumph? Lord, give the command to conquer and victory will be
there..
“Thou didst appear and the thou saidst to me: ‘Lose not courage, be firm, be confident, I COME’.
Incident f)
After this illness of The Mother “caused by a terribly bad state of the Ashram atmosphere,” Sri Aurobindo insisted on The Mother’s `partial
retirement’ so as to minimise the most concrete part of the pressure on her.’ (SABCL 25, 317)
Incident g)
In the same month, November, there was ‘a catostrophic storm’, another fury of the universal forces. But, it could not touch Sri Aurobindo:
“I just opened the door” of Sri Aurobindo’s room, “and found him sitting quietly at his desk, writing,” narrated The Mother.” There was such a
solid peace in the room that nobody would have dreamed that a cyclone was raging outside. All the windows were open, not a drop of rain was coming inside.”
TOPIC 7:
Incident a)
After 1931, there was no harking back to The Mother’s spendthrift ways! The Ashrams’ rhythm of life went through a sudden and significant change.
“A new basis of action and relations” had to be built.
Incident b)
From 1932 daily reports of each department were sent up to The Mother in the evening. She used to note the work done and give instructions in her own
handwriting. For every department there was appointed a head who consulted The Mother in all important matters. It did not mean that the head is to be considered as a superior person or that the subordinates
should surrender themselves to this ego. “One has to get rid of his ego as far as possible and regard the work done under whatever conditions as an offering to The Mother,” advised Sri Aurobindo.
(SABCL 25, 243)
Incident c)
Prior to 1933, the Dining Room, Kitchen, Dispensary, Library, Workshop were all within the precincts of the main Ahsram building. As the members
had increased, the Aroume House or the present Dining Room was opened in January 1934. The Mother took particular care to organise the food arrangements. She gave wholesome food –– well cleaned, well cooked in
steam and well served. About the Dining Room food Sri Aurobindo said: “The food given from the Dining Room has The Mother’s force behind it. It contains everything that is necessary to keep you in good health
to do the sadhana. Keep that attitude and eat. Everything will go well.”
Incident d)
Once the Dining Room was opened to cater to the needs of the increasing number of sadhaks and visitors, it was but a corollary step to start a granary
where the grain could be properly cleaned and made ready for the daily supply.
Incident e)
In those days it was difficult to procure even three bags of rice of uniform quality. So, a paddy field was bought. It came to be was bought,
known as Cazanove. The next fields were ‘Riziere’ and ‘Highland’. Later in 1962 a 36 acres paddy land was added, and The Mother named it as ‘New Paddy Land’. Again, in the early 60s another paddy
land of about 100 acres was bought, and it was named, `Gloria Land’.
Incident f)
With the paddy problem solved, vegetables had to be grown in order to meet the growing demand. In the early days, The Mother used to see all the
vegetables that were brought to the Ashram for inspection. This came to be known as the ‘Vegetable Darshan’.
Incident g)
Obviously, the next important thing that needed attention was the increased quantity of milk that was required for the Dining Room. As usual, The
Mother gave the start by being present when the milkman brought his cow to an open space in the Ashram. In 1934, the milkman wanted to sell off his cow. The Mother bought her and even named her. That was
the beginning of the Dairy Farm.
In the early days, every Sunday the cows used to be brought under the Balcony at 3 p.m. and The Mother used to come out on the Balcony to inspect them.
Sri Aurobindo — took active interest in naming the cows and bulls . He named two bullocks ‘Tej’ and ‘Ojas’. And his special care was
evident in his instructions:
“It was seen by others that Tej received not one but eight or nine blows and there were the swelling and marks afterwards.”
“You will tell the man that if this happens again he will be dismissed.”
And about these bullocks, The Mother said: “…from the roof I concentrated the power on the bullocks ordering them to yield and obey and I found them
quite receptive. To use a quiet, steady, unwavering conscious will, that is the way, the only true way really effective and worthy of an aspirant for divine life.” (GMII, 141)
Incident h)
Also grew organically the different services – Domestic Service, Sanitary Service, Furniture Service, Electric Service. The motto of working in
these services or the Departments of the Ashram was :
“Remember yourself always it is Mother’s work you are doing and if you do it as well as you can remembering her, The Mother’s grace will be with
you.”
(SABCL 25, 213)
“Work for The Mother done with the right concentration on her is as much a sadhana as meditation and inner experiences.”
(SABCL 25, 199)
Incident i)
During the War there was a great influx of visitors, especially during the Darshan days. So, there was felt the need for a modern
guest-house. “In 1938, taking advantage of a handsome donation by the Govt. of the Nizam of Hyderabad, on the initiative of the Diwan, Sir Akbar Hydari, who was one of Sri Aurobindo’s ardent disciples,” The
Mother planned the construction of a guest house, naming it Golconde, after the famous Golconde fort at Hyderabad.
In 1945, Sri Aurobindo wrote about Golconde:
“First, Mother believes in beauty as a part of spirituality and divine living; secondly she believes that physical things have the Divine
consciousness underlying them as much as living things; and thirdly that they have an individuality of their own and ought to be properly treated, used in the rightway… It is one this basis that she planned the
Golconde.” (SABCL 25, 230-31)
Incident j)
Harpagaon workshop started as an ancillary to the Golconde project. Later, it became quite central to most of the technical works in the Ashram.
Incident k)
A simple gesture, done on 25 December 1929, later became a major celebration in the Ashram: the Christmas. In 1929, “after returning from the soup hall
and before going to her room The Mother distributed some small green leaves… Just before she began the distribution, she said, “These leaves are called new birth; not a new birth in the body but a birth in the new
consciousness.” This practice stopped in 1938 and was resumed only after children joined the Ashram. Although it is commonly called Christmas day celebration, it is actually the day of the rebirth of
Light that is celebrated in the Ashram.
TOPIC 8:
Incident a)
The spirit of work as worship prevailed in all works, and The Mother encouraged all types of self-expression.
To those who occupied themselves with music, The Mother said:
“Why not do sadhana through your music? Surely meditation is not the only way of doing sadhana. Through your music bhakti and aspiration can
grow and prepare the nature for realisation.”
(MCW 12, 239)
Incident b)
The Mother herself played on the organ. About her own music, The Mother said:
“My music resembles the inner movements of the sadhana. Sometimes a trouble, a chaos, a problem, a wrong movement which seemed conquered
returns with a greater force. But then, as an answer or as an aid, the growth, the unveiling of the consciousness – and then the final enlightenment.”
(MCW 12, 241-42)
“This music aims at awakening certain profound feelings. To hear it one should make oneself as silent and passive as possible...” (GMII, 236)
Incident c)
To those who wanted to express themselves through art, The Mother, herself being an accomplished artist, gave critical guidance. For example, to an
artist who had painted the “Golden Purusha”, The Mother said:
“It gave the impression of the power of the expressed consciousness coming out from the unexpressed (and therefore apparently dark) Supreme.”
Her encouragement to the artists led to an exhibition of paintings by Ashram artists at the Town Hall of Pondicherry on 25 December 1935. “The
exhibition seems to have been a great success,” commented The Mother.
Incident d)
To a young artist who had proposed to go to Paris for learning art, The Mother wrote:
“I have seen your paintings – they are almost perfect. But what they lack is not technique – it is consciousness. If you develop your
consciousness you will spontaneously discover how to express yourself. Nobody, and especially not official teachers, can teach you that.
“So to leave here and go anywhere else, to any of the “Art Academies”, would be to leave the light and step into a pit of obscurity and unconsciousness…
“Develop your inner being – find your soul, and at the same time you will find the artistic expression”. MCW 12, 237-8)
Incident e)
It was as though to bring down divine Harmony and Beauty upon earth that The Mother herself took up painting once again. She drew in pencil her
own portrait and that of Sri Aurobindo. She also did many pencil sketches of many Ashram inmates, catching them in different moods and poses.
TOPIC 9:
Incident a)
Thus, The Mother was ––
“A friend and yet too great wholly to know,
She walked in their front towards a greater light,
Their leader and queen over their hearts and souls
One close to their bosoms, yet divine and far.” (Savitri BIV, CII)
Incident b)
Yet, to each The Mother chose a specific work, moulding each one’s life towards a god-oriented existence. To each she gave the work that would be
best for his sadhana and at the same time ensure his or her rapid inner progress.
Incident c)
Since the beginning there was established in the Ashram a distinct atmosphere with a condensation of force. To a young sadhak who wanted to
pursue higher studies in England, The Mother wrote:
“No doubt from the exterior point of view, you will find in England all that you want for learning what human beings generally call knowledge, but
from the point of truth and consciousness, you can find nowhere the atmosphere in which you are living here…”
(Champaklal Speaks, 248)
Incident d)
To another disciple wanting to join University studies in the U.S.A., The Mother replied:
“It depends on what you expect from life. If it is to live an ordinary or even successful life according to the usual old type, go to America
and try your best.”
“If, on the contrary, you aspire at getting ready for the future and the new creation it prepares, remain here and prepare yourself for what
is to come…”
Incident e)
Thus the Ashram had become “the cradle of a new world, of the creation of tomorrow.” Sri Aurobindo himself had given indications of the ‘creation of
tomorrow’ in his letter of November 1933:
“No, the supramental has not yet descended into the body or into matter – it is only at the point where such a descent has become not only possible
but invitable; I am speaking.. of my experience.”
A year later, he wrote:
“The descent of the supramental means only that the power will be there in the earth-consciousness as a living force just as the thinking mental
and higher mental are already there… it will be at first for the few… only there will be a growing influence of it on the earth-life”. (KRS, 856-7)
TOPIC 10:
Incident a)
May be because of the pressure of the impending descent of the supramental, there seems to have been an upsurge of the Asuric forces at this
time. On the early morning of 24.11.1938, at about midnight. Sri Aurobindo had an accident. He was walking from his sitting-room to the bathroom, when he stumbled over a tiger-skin on the floor and fell,
his right knee striking against the tiger-head.
The doctors were summoned and the x-ray photographs revealed an “impacted fracture of the right femur above the knee, two fragments firmly locked
together.” They plastered Sri Aurobindo’s right leg and advised bed rest for several weeks. But The Mother knew that Sri Aurobindo alone could cure himself and that the doctors could do nothing about it.
Incident b)
It was no accident in the common sense of the word. It was an attack of the hostile forces:
“The hostile forces had tried many times to prevent things like the Darshan but I had succeeded in warding off all their attacks. At the time
the accident to my leg occurred, I was more occupied with guarding The Mother and I forget about myself, I didn’t think the hostiles would attack me,” explained Sri Aurobindo.
Incident c)
As a consequence of the accident, all pranams and personal interviews were suspended though for the Darshan of 24.11.1938 The Mother came and her power
of touch and her sunshine smiles wiped away the gloom over the sadhaks.
After this day of the accident, the rhythm of the Ashram life changed once again – and of course, the world itself was shaken into a new rhythm of life
with the beginning of the Second World War.
SEQUENCE – 25: THE SECOND WORLD WAR: 1939-1944
TOPIC 1:
Incident a)
April came and the sadhaks were eager to have Sri Aurobindo’s Darshan. They had seen him last in August 1938, and to wait for August 1939 was too
painfuly long to wait. So April 24th, The Mother’s second and final coming to Pondicherry, was decided as the fourth Darshan Day. But, from then onwards the previous long seven-hour
Darshan was cut down. His accident made the ceremonial darshan a thing of the past!
Incident b)
There was in early 1939 a resumption of the evening talks. These talks, as before, “covered a wide range of topics and Sri Aurobindo’s
interventions were anecdotal, serious, wilty, humorous, expository, reminiscential by turns, but always predictable." (KRS 669). These talks were regularly noted and later some disciples
published them.
TOPIC 2:
Incident a)
On 1 September, 1939, the Second War began but not for a whole year did Sri Aurobindo take it seriously hoping that both the French and the British
navy would be able to stall Hitler. But when Hitler’s plans seemed to succeed both Sri Aurobindo and The Mother came out in open suport of the Allies.
“We made it plain … that we did not consider the war a fight between nations and governments (still less between good people and bad people) but
between two forces, the Divine and the Asuric .. the victory of one side (the Allies) would keep the path open for the evolutionary forces: the victory of the otherside would drag back humanity, degrade it horribly
and might lead even, at the worst, to its eventual failure as a race, as others in the past evolution failed and perished.” (SABCL 26, 369)
Hitler’s victory would have meant not only an enslavement of Europe “but of Asia and in it India, an enslavement far more terrible than this country
had ever endured, and the undoing of all the work that had been done for her liberation”. (SABCL 26, 39)
Incident b)
Sri Aurobindo’s poem, ‘Children of Wotan,’ written in 1940, vividly describes the Hell that Nazi-dominion would have spread over humanity:
“We mock at God, we have silenced the mutter
of priests at his altar…
We have made the mind a cypher,
we have strangled Thought with a cord;
Dead now are pity and honour, strength only is
Nature’s lord…
We are born in humanity’s sunset, to the
Night is our pilgrimage…..
We march, lit by truth’s death-pyre, to the
world’s satanic age.”
Thus, Sri Aurobindo openly declared:
Incident c)
The Mother wrote in her diary, in 1941:
“The world is fighting for its spiritual life menanced by the rush of hostile
and undivine forces.
Lord, we aspire to be thy valiant warriors so that Thy glory may manifest upon earth.”
So Sri Aurobindo called it the ‘Mother’s War’ and both of them put their spiritual force behind the Allies and saw to the ultimate destruction of
Hitler, incarnate of the Lord of Falsehood who proclaimed himself as the Lord of the Nations’.
Incident d)
Significantly, as it had happened during the First World War when the Arya was launched, the revised edition of ‘The Life Divine’ was published in 1940, in the time of Second World War.
TOPIC 3:
Incident a)
In a similar manner, Sri Aurobindo supported openly the Cripps Proposall because “by its acceptance India and Britain could stand united against the
Asuric forces and the solution of Cripps could be used as a step towards independence.”
(SABCL 26, 39)
“I hope that it will be accepted, and right use made of it, putting aside all discords and divisions,” wrote Sri Aurobindo. “I hope too that
friendly relations between Britain and India replacing the past struggles, will be a step towards a greater world union….”
Incident b)
The Mother was reported to have said, regarding the Cripps Mission:
“Yet behind this offer there is the divine grace directly present. The grace is now at the door of India, ready to give its help… But
if it is rejected the grace will withdraw and the nation will suffer terribly, calamity will overtake it.” (Nirodbaran Twelve Years with Sri Aurobindo, 150)
Incident c)
But it was all to no purpose – the Proposal was rejected, for the Congress leaders in their human wisdom thought why to support Britain which was
fighting a losing battle? On coming to know its rejection, The Mother said out of deep sadness for India: “Now calamity will befall India”. (KRS – 426).
And, truly, India went through confusion, calamity, partition, blood-bath and the subsequent wars with Pakistan and China and has got itself entangled
in the perennial problem of Kashmir.
TOPIC 4:
Incident a)
The direct result of the war on the Ashram was the in rush of children whose parents were in the danger zone of the war. There was a financial strain
on the Ashram.
“But I do not regret,” said The Mother, “that they have been accepted. For I believe there is much more stuff for the future among children who
know nothing than among those grown-ups who believe they know everything.”
Incident b)
The children soon became the focus of the Ashram’s attention. There was a sea-change: “Children are most important personages. When
they are there everything turns around them. And the entire organisation of the Ashram has completely changed”, narrated The Mother. “The old rules of austerily had to be relaxed, their dormitories,
classrooms, playgrounds had to be organised. “You have to give them quite normally all that they need.”
Incident c)
Thus, on 2 December 1943, The Mother formally opened a school for about twenty children. She herself was one of the teachers. As she said later,
the whole idea of opening the school was:
“We are not here to do (only a little better) what the others do.”
“We are here to do what the others cannot do because they do not have the idea that it can be done.
“We are here to open the way of the future to children who belong to the future. Anything else is not worth the trouble and not worthy of Sri
Aurobindo’s help”
(MCW 12, P.113)
Incident d)
Even though apparently the school’s activities looked similar to activities in any other school, there was something extraordinary about the
Ashram School. As explained by The Mother:
“You are plunged in a sea of consciousness full of light, aspiration, true understanding, essential purity, and whether you want it or not it
enters.. there is an awakening in the consciousness, there is a kind of inner response and a feeling of blossming of inner freedom which is not found elsewhere.” (MCW, 5, p. 417)
Incident e)
To the students, one of the major advises given by The Mother is:
“The whole question is to know whether the students go to school to increase their knowledge and to learn what is needed to know how to live
well – or whether they go to school to pretend and to have good marks which they can boast about.”
“Before the Eternal consciousness, one drop of sincerity has more value than an ocean of pretence and hypocrisy.”
Incident f)
To the teachers The Mother said:
“… and to be worthy of teaching according to the supramental truth given us by Sri Aurobindo there should no longer be any ego.”
Incident g)
And, in order to explain the vision of the supramental truth and the vision of the future as envisioned by Sri Aurobindo, the journal –– Advent — was started on 21.02.1944.
SEQUENCE - 26 : EXPANSION OF ASHRAM’S ACTIVITIES: 1945-49
TOPIC 1:
Incident a)
In May, 1945 was founded the Department of Physical Education. The Mother laid a great stress on physical education, because, as she explained:
”It might be better to remind you that we are here for a special work, a work which is done nowhere else.”
“We want to come in contact with the supreme consciousness, the universal consciousness, we want to bring it down in ourselves and to manifest it.
But for that we must have a very solid base; our base is our physical being, our body. Therefore we have to build up a body solid, healthy, enduring, skilful, agile and strong, ready for everything. There is no
better way to prepare the body than physical exercise: sports, athletics, gymnastics, and all games are the best means to develop and strengthen the body.” (MCW 12, p.278)
Incident b)
Soon, the members of the physical education were brought together under the organisation called ‘Jeunesse Sportive de l’Ashram de Sri Aurobindo.’ They
acquired special group-uniforms and distinctive flag-colours with The Mother’s symbol in the centre. On 24th April 1949, the members of J.S.A.S.A. were given the privilege of a March Past in their group uniform before Sri Aurobindo and The Mother.
Incident c)
Later, J.S.A.S.A. adopted a championship Badge whose significance The Mother explained:
“This badge is in the form of a golden tortoise with a full circle of red in the centre from which radiate twelve white rays.”
The form and colour of the badge have an occult significance and may be interpreted as follows:
“The tortoise is the symbol of terrestrial immortality, that is, the immortality of the physical body on this earth. The red centre
symbolises the illumined physical and from this radiate the twelve white rays of the integral light of truth. The rays are curved to indicate that the light is dynamic in its nature and its action.
The
golden colour of the tortoise itself shows that it is the supramental which supports this terrestrial immortality and which alone can bring about the transformation” (MCW 12, p. 269)
Incident d)
As every other activity, physical education too developed under the sovereign aegis of The Mother. She became so occupied with the various
competitions, demonstrations, prize-distributions, march-past etc in the Playground that she would return to the Ashram only at about 8 or 9 p.m. The first thing she did was to offer the garland – put on her
by the Director of Physical Education – at the feet of Sri Aurobindo.
TOPIC 2:
Incident a)
The year 1946 saw the descent of one of the great personalities of the Divine Mother – the personality of Ananda which is indispensable for the
supramentall realisation. It is so because it is “Ananda that alone can heal the gulf between the highest heights of the supramental spirit and the lowest abysses of Matter.”
(The Mother, Chap-6)
“But for her to be able to settle and act down here, she needed to meet with at least a minimum of receptivity … Till now she has not obtained
what was necessary,” clarified The Mother in 1954.
Incident b)
Meanwhile, in these years were published some of the important books of Sri Aurobindo – books such as “Collected Poems and Plays.” “Hyms to the Mystic Fire.”
Incident c)
From August 1946, Savitri started to appear in print, Canto by Canto, in journals of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Although the first known draft is dated 1916, by the early 1930 Savitri had
assumed epic proportions and the status of a magnum opus. It was after his retirement in 1920 that Sri Aurobindo seems to have told The Mother, when he took up Savitri again:
“I am impelled to launch on a new adventure… I was hesitant at the beginning, but now I am decided. Still I do not know how far I shall succeed … I
have launched myself in a rudderless boat upon the vastness of the infinite.” (KRS, 632)
Incident d)
And when he completed this “new adventure”, Savitri came out to be Sri Aurobindo’s vision of the future and his boon to mankind. A magnum
opus of about 24,000 lines of blank verse, it is “poetic philosophy of the spirit and of life”, packed with cosmic beauty.
Incident e)
In the forties, Savitri became a major occupation with Sri Aurobindo, and he most often used to dictate the lines rather than write them. Once he dictated four to five hundred lines without a break.
“In truth”, revealed The Mother, “the entire Savitri has descended en massefrom the highest region and Sri Aurobindo with his genius only
arranged the lines – in a superb and magnificent style. Sometimes entire lines were revealed and he has left them intact; he worked hard, untiringly, so that the inspiration could come from the highest
possible summit. And what a work he has created! Yes, it is a true creation in itself…
“Savitri is his Yoga of transformation and this yoga appears now for the first time in the earth – consciousness…
“It is incomparable, it is truth in its plenitude, the truth of Sri Aurobindo brought down on the earth”.
Incident f)
To quote a few lines from a passage which Sri Aurobindo himself selected for its source in the “Overmind Intuition”:
“As in a mystic and dynamic dance
A priestess of immaculate
Inspired and ruled from Truth’s ecstasies revealing vault
Moves in some prophet cavern of the gods,
A heart of silence in the hands of joy
Inhabited with rich creative beats
A body like a parable of dawn
That seemed a veiled niche for veiled divinity
Or golden temple door to the things beyond.
Immortal rhythms in her time – born steps;
Her book, her smile awoke celestial sense
Even in earth-stuff and their intense delight
Poured a supernal beauty on men’s lives….
At once she was the stillness and the word,
A continent of self diffusing peace,
An ocean of untrembling virgin fire ….”
It is a description of Savitri, which could as well be that of The Mother!
TOPIC 3:
Incident a)
On the outer field, power-hungry political decisions were working out the partition of India. On 3 June 1947, The Mother issued a statement
regarding the Partition:
“Clearly, this is not a solution; it is a test, an ordeal which, if we live it out in all sincerity, will prove to us that it is not by cutting a
country into small bits that we shall bring about its unity and its greatness; it is not by opposing interests against each other that we can win for its prosperity; it is not by setting one dogma against
another that we can serve the spirit of Truth. In spite of all, India has a single soul and while we have to wait till we can speak of an India one and indivisible, our cry must be:
Let the soul of India live from ever!” (MCW 13,. 359)
Incident b)
So, Sri Aurobindo received on his 75th birthday, his ‘birthday present of a free India on August 15, but complicated by its being presented in two packets as two free Indias….”
In his message for the day, intended for broadcast from Trichirapalli station of the All India Radio, on 14.8.1947 Sri Aurobindo wrote:
“I take this coincidence, not as a fortuitous accident, but as the sanction and seal of the divine force that guides my steps on the work with
which I began my life, the beginning of its full fruition .”
“Recapitulating the aims and ideals conceived by him in his childhood and youth, Sri Aurobindo then spoke of his dreams:
a) a revolution which would bring about India’s freedom and unity;
b) the resurgence and liberation of Asia
c) the emergence of ‘one world’ in place of the many warring nationalisms;
d) the assumption of India of the spiritual leadership of the human race;
and, finally, a new step in evolution which, by
uplifting the consciousness to a higher level, would begin the solution of the many problems of existence which have perplexed and vexed humanity, since men began to think and to dream of individual perfection
and a perfect society.” (KPS, P. 452)
Incident c)
Regarding the creation of the two nations, India and Pakistan, Sri Aurobindo made a prophetic declaration:
“It is to be hoped that this settled fact will not be accepted for ever or as anything more than a temporary expedient. For if it lasts,
India may be seriously weakened, even crippled: civil strife may remain always possible, possible even a new invasion and foreign conquest. The partition of the country must go, - it is to be hoped
by a slackening of tension, by a progressive understanding of the need of peace and concord, by the constant necessity of common and concerted action, even of an instrument of union for that purpose. In
this way unity may come about under whatever form — the exact form may have a pragmatic but not a fundamental importance. But by whatever means, the division must and will go. For without it the
destiny of India might be seriously impaired and even frustrated. But that must not be.” (SABCL, 26, 402)
Incident d)
Also, on the morning of August 15, 1947, The Mother hoisted her flag – which was to be called the Spiritual Flag of India – blazoning forth India,
Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma and Ceylon all together, with her own symbol at the centre, over the main Ashram building … Presently The Mother appeared on the low terrace … The Bande Mataram was sung .. and The
Mother responded with “Jai Hind!”.
TOPIC 4:
Incident a)
Sri Aurobindo’s book The Synthesis of Yoga-Part-I was published in early 1948; it is the practical treatise to the spiritual philosophy of The Life Divine, which was first serialised in the Arya from 1914 to 1921.
Incident b)
In the same year, on 11 December, the National Prize for Humanities was awarded in absentia to Sri Aurobindo at the Annual Convocation of the
Andhra University. The Vice-Chancellor said of Sri Aurobindo:
“He is more than the hero of a nation. He is amongst the Saviours of humanity, who belong to all ages and all nations, the Sanatanas, who leaven
our existence with their eternal presence, whether we are aware of it or not…” (KRS. 690)
Incident c)
More activities were added to The Mother’s daily agenda and The Mother, though Divine in every act and word and thought, had donned a human body which
at times got exhausted. Once, it is recorded, she finished her day’s work in the early hours of the next morning, almost at four o’clock! “No time to go to bed”, she said, and then started the routine for the
next day! A day later she told Sri Aurobindo that she had been going on for hours from morning till night for four days running, finding ‘no time even for tennis’.
She had resumed in mid 1948 the passion of her youth – playing tennis! She continued to play until mid December 1958, that is, she played tennis until
she was almost eightone years!
Incident d)
One of the activities that used to take a lot of The Mother’s time was the Birthday celebration of the sadhaks and visitors. Individually, each inmate
was given an opportunity to see The Mother and to receive from her a special bouquet of flowers. Prior to 1938 every sadhak could sit with The Mother for a brief meditation and seek answers to his life’s
problems. The Mother gave such an importance to the individual’s birthday because, as she explained:
“Yes, it is truly a special day in one’s life. It is one of those days in the year when the Supreme desends into us – or when we are face to face
with the Eternal – one of those days when our soul comes in contact with the Eternal and, if we remain a little conscious, we can feet his presence within us. If we make a little effort on this day, we
accomplish the work of many lives as in a lightning flash…” (Mona Sarkar, Harmonies of Light, 16)
Incident e)
About seeing people in general, The Mother said: “You know when people come to see me, I don’t look at their outer appearance, but I see what they are
inside, their soul, the aspiration, the effort to make a progress, if they are conscious of their inner being, if they have an urge to progress, to perfect themselves... Naturally I see their soul, their capacity to
hold the consciousness.”
TOPIC 5:
Incident a)
With the establishment of the Ashram Press in 1945, publication of Sri Aurobindo’s and The Mother’s work became a regular feature. On 24 November 1945
came out `The Four Aids’ , “a highly valued chapter of ’The Synthesis of Yoga’; next yearHymns to the Mystic Fire was published. And 1949 was to see the publication of two journals, ‘Mother
India’, a cultural fortnightly – Sri Aurobindo looked upon it as ‘My Paper’ — and the quarterly, the ‘Bulletin of Physical Education’, later renamed as the ‘Bulletin of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of
Education’. The first issue of the Bulletin carried Message from Sri Aurobindo and the subsequent issues carried a series of seven articles, mostly focussing on the ‘divine body’ of the future. These articles
later came to be published on February 21, 1950 as “The Supramental Manifestaiton upon Earth”.
TOPIC 6:
On a drive north of Pondicherry in 1949, The Mother suddenly stopped somewhere close to the sea and identified the place as one where people from all
over the world would come and stay. And much later, almost twenty years later, the project of Auroville was begun at the spot identified by The Mother.
There is a legend in this area of Tamil Nadu which speaks of a yogi whose curse created a desert out of the rich land. And the curse would be
mitigated, it was said, when people from all over the world would settle there. So, by the founding of Auroville, the area has once again became a green and luxurious land.
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