The New Horizon

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 29th 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

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 29th 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 29th 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.

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 readers are invited to join the new Social Network.

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

Indeed, the 21st, 28thand 29th days of February bring along with them the Force and Light and Joy ofa New Consciousness that vibrates in the air ? one may feel it also, if onetries to remain quiet and receptive and open.

That is the Force thatis there on earth, in order to bring a Big Change here, from the mental andvital world to the Supramental Manifestation. 

To try to commune withThe Mother, with the Divine — that will be and is the best way of celebrationof these days.

Let us sincerely try to have a constant communion with Her.

Barin

21-02-2008

Today is The Mother's Birthday.

The Mother has told : "Keep yourself always open towards me". And that is theWay. In fact, that is the Sadhana, the highest range of human sadhana, that isthe Way towards the New World,towards the Integral Transformation, towards supermanhood. When we keepourselves open to Her,the Supramental Light tries to touch us. If we are conscious enough to receiveIt, we are truly successful.

Let usremember The Motheras much as possible. Let us try to have a contact and communion with Her, as much possible andas sincerely and perfectly as possible. Let us renew our surrender to Her,to Her Work,to Her Cause,the Manifestation of the Supramental Consciousness, as much as possible.

The Question that hasbeen asked [in ?In Search of The Mother? in Orkut] is about Meditation. Inmeditation, one may sit quietly at a place, but that is not sufficient. One hasto bring in quietude in the Mind, trying to stop the ever-busy movements of themental ideas, opinions, habits and constructions, and also the recurrence ofthe impressions of vital activities, desires, cravings, sensations, lust,greed, jealousy, pride, envy, hostility, selfishness and egoistic tendencies.Also one has to try to conquer the darkness of the physical nature, thestupidity, doubt, disbelief and obscurity of the physical nature.

But how?By aspiring for the Light, for the Truth, for the Higher Consciousness,by trying to replace the lower nature by the Higher Nature.Again the question comes: how? By remembering The Mother.

When onemeditates for some time everyday and calls The Mother,calls the Higher Consciousnessfor some days, Peace descends, Bliss descends, Light descends, and one feelselevated in Consciousness. The Consciousness widens and widens and all barriersand limitations seem to break down and collapse.

M P Panditsays: "It is not enough that one sits with closed eyes once the higher anddeeper Consciousness. It is necessary to be vigilant and keep oneself in thecurrent of the Force, without MEANDERING of the MIND." [The emphasis is givenby me.]

To sit fora while in a silent and quiet way and then to get up and forget it and mix uponeself in the half-blind whirlpools of life ? that is not meditation. Thatbrings failure to the sitting in quietude for a while.

Meditationcan be done and has always to be done, as far as possible, during the Worksalso.

Remember The Mother,concentrate on Her,commune with Her,refer everything to Her,surrender everything to Her.

That isthe best expression of our Love for Her.

On Her Birthday,let us take one step further towards The New World,The New Horizon.

Barin

21-02-2008

The New Way

A study of the Agenda

Barindranath Chaki
21st July 2007

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 Agendawould 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 , Zaadz and Sulekha.

Sri Aurobindo spoke of The Hour of God.

Not all moments are the Hour of God. There have been the Ages of Darkness on earth, on several places on earth. Men have been left to their ignorance and egoism, to their lack of knowledge and wisdom, to their imperfection and incompleteness, to their mortality.

But some Hours on earth are those of the Divine.

There are moments when the Spirit moves among men and the breath of the Lord is abroad upon the waters of our being; there are others when it retires and men are left to act in the strength or the weakness of their own egoism. The first are the periods when even a little effort produces great results and changes destiny; the second are spaces of time when much labour goes to the making of a little result. 

[ The Hour of God ]

This earth is a field of Evolution : Evolution of the Spirit involved in Matter. All living beings and all humans are the outcome of this Evolution. But Man is not in the final stage of Evolution. He is in the initial stage of the Manifestation of Consciousness. He is in a rudimentary stage. So imperfect, so incomplete he is !

As Sri Aurobindo said, the time has come when evolution must surpass man. Man is not the perfect being, not the complete being. But he aspires and dreams for becoming perfect, for becoming complete. Ultimately, the task of Evolution is to manifest the  Divine, the Source of this Manifestation, the Supreme Existence-Consciousness-Bliss (in Sanskrit and other Indian languages called Sat-Chit-Ananda or Sachchidananda). The Superman is to emerge and manifest out of Man. Man has to prepare and transform himself for the coming of the Superman. He should grow and become the Superman. That is the purpose of Man's appearance ? the Advent of the Superman, of the Supramental Consciousness ? and the purpose must now be fulfilled, through man's surpassing himself will do that. If Man fails to collaborate with the new phase of evolution, the evolutionary forces will surpass him, push him aside, go beyond him and find out its own means.

During the periods when the Divine is not actively interfering with the Manifestation, and is in distance, Man may call the Divine and the ?smoke of sacrifice? that he offers through his work and aspiration and prayer reaches the Divine. The Hour of God is the answer of the Divine, and His Grace! 

It is true that the latter [ordinary moments] may prepare the former [the Divine moments], may be the little smoke of sacrifice going up to heaven which calls down the rain of God?s bounty. [ The Hour of God ]

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. The Divine comes and 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. We love Darkness and Ignorance and thus we ignore Light and Truth and Wisdom. We are never really prepared.

This is the Time when the field is ready for the human being to grow and become the supramental being. The Hour of God that has descended on earth with the coming of Sri Aurobindo still continues and will continue till the Work is accomplished, till the Supramental Beings emerge on earth.

If the Hour of God recedes back, the Supernature then will definitely have a different Plan, which will never be a welcome situation for Man. Humanity will then have to face warfares and destructions and irrecoverable losses. 

Unhappy is the man or the nation which, when the divine moment arrives, is found sleeping or unprepared to use it, because the lamp has not been kept trimmed for the welcome and the ears are sealed to the call. But thrice woe to them who are strong and ready, yet waste the force or misuse the moment; for them is irreparable loss or a great destruction.

[The Hour of God]

Sri Aurobindo calls us for being prepared, for becoming ready, and never to waste the force or misuse the moment. He calls us to become pure, cleansing all self-deceipt and hypocrisy and vanity, in this Hour of God. Any insincerity will bring in ?the blow? caused by the wrath of God.

In the hour of God cleanse thy soul of all self-deceit and hypocrisy and vain self-flattering that thou mayst look straight into thy spirit and hear that which summons it. All insincerity of nature, once thy defence against the eye of the Master and the light of the ideal, becomes now a gap in thy armour and invites the blow. Even if thou conquer for the moment, it is the worse for thee, for the blow shall come afterwards and cast thee down in the midst of thy triumph.

 [The Hour of God]

Sri Aurobindo has said thus elsewhere on sincerity :

To walk through life armoured against all fear, peril and disaster, only two things are needed, two that go always together - the Grace of the Divine Mother and on your side an inner state made up of faith, sincerity and surrender.

[The Mother]

On sincerity, the Mother [Mira Alfassa] has said :

One must have an absolutely transparent sincerity. Lack of sincerity is the cause of the difficulties we meet at present. Insincerity is in all men. Insincerity is in all men. There are perhaps a hundred men on earth who are totally sincere. Man?s very nature makes him insincere ? it is very complicated, he is constantly deceiving himself, hiding the truth himself, making excuses for himself. Yoga is the way to become sincere in all parts of the being.

It is difficult to be sincere, but at least one can be mentally sincere? The force is there, present as never before; men?s insincerity prevents it from descending, from being felt. The world lives in falsehood, all relations between men until now have been based on falsehood and deceit. Diplomatic nations between nations are based on falsehood. They claim to want peace, and meanwhile they are arming themselves. Only a transparent sincerity in man and among nations can usher in a transformed world.

[February 1968 : Words of the Mother] 

Insincerity is thus ingrained in human beings. For a transformed world, they will have to become sincere and pure. Let us stand up in the truth of our purpose : a supramental manifestation on earth and a transformed world.

But being pure cast aside all fear; for the hour is often terrible, a fire and a whirlwind and a tempest, a treading of the winepress of the wrath of God; but he who can stand up in it on the truth of his purpose is he who shall stand; even though he fall, he shall rise again; even though he seem to pass on the wings of the wind, he shall return.

Nor let worldly prudence whisper too closely in thy ear; for it is the hour of the unexpected, the incalculable, the immeasurable. Mete not the power of the Breath by thy petty instruments, but trust and go forward. But most keep thy soul clear, even if for a while, of the clamour of the ego. Then shall a fire march before thee in the night and the storm be thy helper and thy flag shall wave on the highest height of the greatness that was to be conquered.

[The Hour of God]

Thus, we must keep our soul clear and stop listening to the clamour of the ego. We may have fall and failure, but if we stand up with our purpose, we shall rise again, we shall return.

Now, in this Hour of God, even a little effort on our part in this direction will produce great results and change the human destiny. 

In the Hour of God, let us be sincere, to ourselves, to the humanity, to the Divine.

The Mother has said:

Be honest towards yourself ? (no self-deception).

Be sincere towards the Divine ? (no bargaining in the surrender).

Be straightforward with humanity ? (no pretence and show).

The Mother has further said in this connection:

Before the Eternal Consciousness a drop of sincerity has more value than an ocean of pretension and hypocrisy.

If we, the mankind as a whole and individually, really aspire for progress, for real progress, instead being and remaining stationed with all darkness, division, difficulties, ignorance, incompleteness and imperfection, then the only way is to be sincere.

If we really aspire to march towards the New Horizon, towards the New World, the first principle that is to be adopted by us should be sincerity.

The Mother has again said :

All division in the being is an insincerity.

The greatest insincerity is to dig an abyss between your body and the truth of your being.

When as abyss separates the true being from the physical being, Nature fills it up immediately with all kinds of adverse suggestions, the most formidable of which is fear, and the most pernicious, doubt.

Allow nothing anywhere to deny the truth of your being — this is sincerity. 

Barindranath Chaki

2-11-2006

I  cannot easily forget the self-designed passing away of my friend Patrice Marot on June 29, 2006.

Patrice hailed from France. We have worked together for nine years, though we have not seen each other ever. But we had talked over phone for long periods; we had correspondence through letters and also through e-mails. Above all, we were very close in our thoughts and planning. He was the Managing Director of Mira Aditi Centre at Mysore. And I was chosen by him to work as the Bengali translator of the Books published in English by Mira Aditi. Mira Aditi Centre is an international publisher of books, mainly written and edited by Satprem, including thirteen volumes of Mother's Agenda. Satprem is a Frenchman, who was a disciple and the confidante of the Mother, when he was in Sri Aurobindo Ashram (till Her passing away in 1973).

Till 2004, I have translated into Bengali various books published by Mira Aditi, and my translations were also published by Mira Aditi. Books translated by me include Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness , written by Satprem, India's Rebirth, a collection from the writings of  Sri Aurobindo , and India the Mother, a collection from the writings of  the Mother,  and a few other books written by  Satprem.  

Patrice was asked to quit Mira Aditi in 2004. Prior to that and also after that some other functioaries also had to quit, including well-known Michel Danino, who has translated almost all the books of Satprem from French to English, and who is now the founder of IFIH. The reason is perhaps some disturbances created in Mira Aditi. I had to quit, also.

Before departure Patrice did not inform me anything. I came to know evrything from other people working in Mira Aditi and some others involved with Mira Aditi. I have kept contact with Michel Danino after his leaving Mira Aditi. He is now the founder of IFIH, of which I am also a member.

But I could not find Patrice. He was so close to my heart and mind, but I could not trace him out.

I was informed by some of my friends that Patrice has suddenly passed away on 29th June 2006. It is a bolt from the blue. A tremendous shock.

On 23rd October 2006, I received the message that Patrice is no more. On knowing about the sudden, tragic and undesirable demise of such a capable and worthy person like Patrice Marot, I am heavily shocked. Still I do not understand why this end of his life. I know the circumstances of his leaving Mira Aditi. But thereafter, I could not keep much of information about him.

I am really highly shocked! I could have never dreamed such an incident in any nightmare!  I do not know what happened to Rose!

Whatever may be the situation, suicide is never the solution and it is a failure of the Soul. It is an insult to the Soul and to the Divine. Perhaps, some part in his being was not fully open to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo, open to the Divine.

It was and is a sad and big defeat !

Let us all learn to face life and never accept any defeat, even in dreams and nightmares!

Let us all live for the Victory, and for the Victory alone.

Life always keeps some doors open - we have to find it out.

May Patrice remain in Peace, wherever he is now !

May the Mother and the Lord be ever with him!
I will always remember him!

Barin

27-10-2006

Vande Mataram
Swapan Dasgupta has written an article titled 'Freedom Song' on 'Vande Mataram' with profound historical information and ideological depth. I appreciate the article. But there are certain points, which I want to refer to.
To begin with, let me quote Swapan Dasgupta, from his article:
The voluble Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid pronounced Vande Mataram to be against "Islamic beliefs". Echoing his opposition, S Q R Ilyas, the spokesman of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board — a body that has positioned itself as the arbiter of Musliminterests in India — ruled that "Muslims can't sing the song". His reason: "we love the country but don't worship (it). The song talks about worshipping, as in idol worship, which is against the fundamental ethos of Islam. It is a very sensitive issue for Muslims, so they can't be asked to do this even for a single day."
Vande Mataram does not mean any idol worship, as said by SQR Ilyas. Sri Aurobindo translates it as "Mother, I salute to thee !" To regard the country as a Mother is not to make any idol. The country as such is a Mother. As I do not think that the Muslims do not salute anybody, that too, the mother. Is not Quoornish a salute? And that was in practice among the Muslims for more than a thousand year. Saluting the Mother has nothing to do with an idol worship. So, to say that the utterance of Vande Mataram is an Idol worship is a false allegation and a false interpretation. And therefore that cannot be a reason for the fanatics not to utter the words or sing the song. It is sheer fanaticism.
Secondly, Michel Danino has rightly pointed out about the muslims joining in the 1905 agitations in Bengal against the partition. Muslims at that time demonstrated along with Hindus, "singing Vande Mataram together in the streets." It is later that the fanatics spoiled the entire atmosphere. And Jinnah added his venom in the process of later developments.
What Arjun Singh has done in this regard speaks of the courage and character of the present day politicians in India. The present controversy over Vande Mataram is caused by the down-gradation of our national political character. The present-day political leaders have grown morally and ideally much poorer and spineless and to a great extent unpatriotic, having lost all historical sense.
I feel it necessary to quote below the translation of Vande Mataram by Sri Aurobindo, the Person who gave life and force to this Song, creating an unforgettable chapter in the history of the Indian freedom movement, distinct and different from that of Gandhi and Nehru.

 

Mother, I salute to thee!
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
bright with orchard gleams,
Cool with thy winds of delight,
Green fields waving Mother of might,
Mother free.

Glory of moonlight dreams,
Over thy branches and lordly streams,
Clad in thy blossoming trees,
Mother, giver of ease
Laughing low and sweet!
Mother I kiss thy feet,
Speaker sweet and low!
Mother, to thee I bow.

Who hath said thou art weak in thy lands
When swords flash out in seventy million hands
And seventy million voices roar
Thy dreadful name from shore to shore?
With many strengths who art mighty and stored,
To thee I call Mother and Lord!
Thou who saves, arise and save!
To her I cry who ever her foe drove
Back from plain and sea
And shook herself free.

Thou art wisdom, thou art law,
Thou art heart, our soul, our breath
Though art love divine, the awe
In our hearts that conquers death.
Thine the strength that nerves the arm,
Thine the beauty, thine the charm.
Every image made divine
In our temples is but thine.

Thou art Durga, Lady and Queen,
With her hands that strike and her
swords of sheen,
Thou art Lakshmi lotus-throned,
And the Muse a hundred-toned,
Pure and perfect without peer,
Mother lend thine ear,
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
Bright with thy orchard gleems,
Dark of hue O candid-fair

In thy soul, with jewelled hair
And thy glorious smile divine,
Loveliest of all earthly lands,
Showering wealth from well-stored hands!
Mother, mother mine!
Mother sweet, I bow to thee,
Mother great and free!

translated by Sri Aurobindo

————

** Swapan Dasgupta could have mentioned that in the 1905 agitations in Bengal against the partition, Muslims did demonstrate along with Hindus, singing Vande Mataram together in the streets. It is later on that fanatics in their community started raising objections.Michel [ifih]

Barindranath Chaki

22-09-2006

[A few days back, I read in Aurora Mirabilis, a blog published by Tusar N Mohapatra, some quotations from some authors like Makarand Paranjape, Peter Heeh, and Mukul Kesavan. As I was traveling in various parts of West Bengal, I could not immediately find time and scope to write down the reply thereof. But I felt that I should reply at once. I had to wait till my return to Bhubaneswar.]

As stated by Tusar N Mohapatra, irreverence to great men is seen as a short route to glory. He is justified. But I find that the situation attracts another truth, which is inherent in the story of the elephant and the dogs.
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother were and are great human beings. No doubt. But they are the most unique and the most incomparable ones among the hundreds and thousands of great men and women. They are the tallest monuments. They are indeed much more than great human beings. They seem to me to be like the sky. If one spits at the Sky, it is well known what happens.
The Past and the Present of the humankind may fail to recognize Them, may only accept Them as great people, great saints and remain pleased and satisfied, but to the Seer, to the Visionary, They are the Leaders of the next future.

Let us begin with Paranjape. He has written: "In time, a whole set of beliefs and rituals began to be built up around Sri Aurobindo and more so, around The Mother."

This is sheer ignorance! There were no rituals around Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Never. The Mother has rather broken all rituals. There was / is no puja, no worship, no ritual, no self-deceit. And regarding beliefs, it can be said that people from all over the world gathered around Them, not due to any set of beliefs, but they were attracted towards Them due to Their Presence and Their Personality, due to the Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and the spiritual experimentations done by both of Them. And among the people around Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, we find Nalini Kanta Gupta, K D Sethna, Dr. Nirodbaran, Indra Sen, Haridas Chowdhury, TV Kapali Shastry, M P Pandit, K M Mushi, R R Diwakar, A B Purani, K R Srinivasa Iyenger, Huta, Navajata, Udar, Karan Singh, Dr. Malcolm Adiseshia and many others. And among the people from outside India, we find Satprem, Datta, Judith Tyberg, Morwenna Donnelly, Roger Anger, Sir Robert Bristow, Frederic Spielberg and many others. I have no time and no space to introduce each of them to Paranjape. Each of them was personalities of worth, with sufficient philosophical and intellectual depth. To know each of them, Paranjape should have read them. He would have then known they were not the people who would have been swayed by wrong beliefs and meaningless rituals. How and why they were convinced of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother can be known by a person, if he or she is sincere enough in his or her quest. Millions of people are there on earth today who understand and know the contents in Their Teaching and are inspired by the same.
I am quoting Professor Jean Herbert, previously of the University of Geneva, who has written:
"Even those most allergic to anything that smells of mysticism ...must acknowledge Sri Aurobindo as one of the greatest men, not only of our age, but of all ages. His all-embracing, crystal clear and profound philosophy is assuredly a contribution to human thought, vision and progress which ranks that of Plato, Kant, Bergson or Goethe ...the findings of Sri Aurobindo which we have no means of verifying at our level of experience actually supply all the consistency which strikes us in the explanation given by Sri Aurobindo for facts which we do know, an all-embracing consistency, the equivalent of which does not seem to have attain even by any other known thinker.
"Now thousands who had Sri Aurobindo's darsan could not help believing that they were face to face with a great saint and sage. His look very clearly had in it something superhuman, which might be said to put it as far above the human look as the latter is above the look of a dog or a cat." [Pioneer of the Supramental Age]

Also I wish to quote Prof Frederic Spigelberg, previously of the Stanford University, California, USA :
"I have never known a philosopher so embracing in his metaphysical structure as Sri Aurobindo, none before him had the same vision.
"I can foresee the day when the teachings which are already making headway of the greatest spiritual voice in India, Sri Aurobindo, will be known all over America and be a vast power of illumination."

I may go on quoting, but to make the presentation short and limited and to the point, I must say that following Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is not any blind faith or belief, as Paranjape has imagined because of his ignorance and lack of depth in the matter.

Paranjape has further said : ?The death of each of them caused dismay and disappointment among large sections of the faithful.?

Sorry, again ignorance and unintelligent imagination and belief on the part of Paranjape. There was never any dismay or disappointment,, though there was sadness and sorrow and grief, which is but natural. Had there been any dismay and disappointment, now the following Sri Aurobindo and The Mother would have come to insignificance, which is not the case. Still, the following is growing larger and larger.
In this connection let me quote Dara [Aga Syed Ibrahim], a disciple :
I found myself in Sri Aurobindo's own room by the side of his cot. He seemed so peaceful and happy, and the flesh shone with a new luster which I had failed to seat the darsan time on 24th November. Why could I not see it before?... I could not take my eyes off his face and arms. It seemed to me he was alive. It was certain that he was in a condition of deep and upward soaring trance just then. [My Last Darshan of Sri Aurobindo]

Sri Aurobindo's life was an experiment. What he taught was not a matter of "belief " about which Paranjape is speaking, a sort of belief which is built up of distrust and disbelief, which is fragile and which is of no value, as it is likely to be broken at the slightest excuse. The children of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother throughout the world do not have such belief, furthermore because Their Teaching is based on a Science, a Science of Existence, a Philosophy about which the greatest scholars, thinkers and even scientists of worldwide fame have spoken. He has been accepted as the greatest of Philosophers and Teachers, by many great men, not by a bunch of believers whose belief is no belief, as imagined and spoken of by Paranjape. Paranjape has referred to the Ashram community. Sri Aurobindo and The Mother are not and never limited to the Ashram. They are followed by millions throughout the world. And does Paranjape know about the ashramites? About the Ashram? It is not an Ashram of the inactive recluses. It is one of the most visited Ashram in the world. On the 6th December 1950, more than 60000 persons visited Sri Aurobindo. Is it possible that 60000 people were befooled on the Day, when the Master passed away?

The passing away of the Master and of the Mother cannot be understood by the persons who live in a surface depthless mentality and believe in fragile beliefs. And to explain these phenomena, I do not have the space here, I may repeat again. But later on soon, I will write about Their departure surely, at least for casting away the darkness brought about by the disrespect and calumny and blasphemy by someone who has no knowledge of Them or Their Teaching.

Paranjape again says: "Besides, a whole theology began to be developed, especially because of the extensive records of what Sri Aurobindo and The Mother had said... This theology not only asserts the Avatarhood or Divine Incarnation of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, but builds around them a special cult of worship and devotion."
There is no theology about Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. There is a clear-cut philosophy, about which Herbert said : "...the findings of Sri Aurobindo which we have no means of verifying at our level of experience actually supply all the consistency which strikes us in the explanation given by Sri Aurobindo for facts which we do know, an all-embracing consistency, the equivalent of which does not seem to have attain even by any other known thinker." I am repeating this quotation, only to emphasize the point. Herbert states that Sri Aurobindo was / is the most consistent thinker.
I am repeating Spigelberg, who has said :
"I have never known a philosopher so embracing in his metaphysical structure as Sri Aurobindo, none before him had the same vision."
And there is no cult of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, no religion. According to the Mother, the Integral Yogi who seeks supramental transformation has no religion, no cult. Let us see what the Mother said in this matter.

I am placing below what the Mother [Mira Alfassa] wrote on the subject :

Auroville and the Religions

We want the Truth.
For most men, it is what they want that they label as truth.
The Aurovillians must want the Truth whatever it may be.
Auroville is for those who want to live a life essentially divine but who renounce all religions whether they be ancient, modern, new or future.
It is only in experience that there can be knowledge of the Truth.
No one ought to speak of the Divine unless he has had experience of the Divine.
Get experience of the Divine, then alone will you have the right to speak of it.
The objective study of religions will be a part of the historical study of the development of human consciousness.
Religions make up part of the history of mankind and it is in this guise that they will be studied at Auroville - not as beliefs to which one ought or ought not to adhere, but as part of a process in the development of human consciousness which should lead man towards his superior realization.

PROGRAMME

Research through experience of the
Supreme Truth
A life divine
but
NO RELIGIONS
Our research will not be a search effected by mystic means. It is in life itself that we wish to find the Divine. And it is through this discovery that life can really be transformed.

2 May 1970


So where do you find the theology and cult and fragile baseless so-called belief of which Paranjape has the nightmare?

Again Paranjape says:
"It needs to be acknowledged that though both Sri Aurobindo and The Mother repeatedly warned against the creation of a cult around them, they themselves encouraged it in several ways. Sri Aurobindo himself deified The Mother and vice versa."

What a blasphemy! Can Paranjape prove by quoting any sayings or writings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother that they encouraged creation of a cult? Can he prove that They encouraged it? This is a challenge to him.

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother told the Truth about each other. They had to open others' eyes. They told the Truth. Should they have spoken otherwise or suppressed Truth to please the people like Paranjape? Can Paranjape deify himself or any other person?

Falsehood cannot convince millions for decades after decades.



Barin

03-09-2006

[This is also published by me as The Mother and Sri Aurobindo in my blog The New Vision , and by Tusar N Mohapatra asThey are the Leaders of the Next Future in his blog Savitri Era Learning Forum. I convey my thanks to him.]

Sri Aurobindo has said : All life is Yoga.

According to him, "In the right view both of life and Yoga all life is either consciously and subconsciously a Yoga." [The Synthesis of Yoga]

He has said that all lfe is "a vast Yoga of Nature", whereby She endeavours to attain more and more of perfection in Her expression and creativity and in the Manifestation of what is already involved in Her by the Will of the Supreme. In fact, the Supreme, the Divine, the One Existence-Consciousness-Bliss has involved Himself in the Nature ~ who is indeed the Face of the Supernature, The Supreme Creative Force.

According to Sri Aurobindo, Yoga can very well be considered and thought of as "the means of compressing one's evolution into a single life or a few years or even a few months of bodily existence."

The aim of this Blog is presenting the Way of this compressing of one's evolution towards the Goal: Perfection.

We will see what is the Way and the Goal, what is the Choice.

Barin
01-09-2006