We start the new year, 2013, with an 18-paged issue of our Newsletter. Having explored the physical, vital, mental as well as the psychic aspects of our being, we move on to explore regions above the mind, here the torch which can lead our way forward through an enlightened reason. However reason has to give way to aspects of the being above and beyond reason if one were to climb further up the ladder of consciousness. The theme that we touch upon in this issue, through the writings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother is “Higher Mind”.
In the hierarchy of the various planes of the being, the higher mind appears situated above the mind and itself is succeeded by the illumined mind, the intuitive mind and the overmind. Above the overmind blazes the sun of the Supermind or the Supramental, a region inhabited by the Supreme, pervaded by Satchidananda, whose intensity, it is constantly stated, this mind, in its present state, cannot even imagine. From the higher mind onwards, one enters the realm of the higher worlds as opposed to the lower worlds represented by the triple worlds of mind, vital, physical and the subconscient and the inconscient.
A good portion of the Newsletter has been devoted to reports on our landmark trip to Pondicherry as a society with 25 people from Singapore to mark the Society’s 40th Anniversary. The trip was also timed to coincide with our Sunday Walk, the 328th, which became a special walk in Auroville. This walk gets a good airing in this edition of our Newsletter together with the walk in Singapore which nevertheless continued, to cater to all those who could not make it for the trip for some reason or other. Many more activities, some planned, some unplanned, miraculous came our way in Pondicherry/Auroville. The beach experience was one such. The strong waves piled on us one after the other and even a casual sitting posture on the beach sand some distance away from the water mark was altered considerably as waves hit us and threw us gently upon the sand. We received the waves with glee and some amount of reticence but standing there, with co-travellers, holding one another’s hands and experiencing the moments brought us closer. This must stand true with everyone on that journey to the seat of a sadhana we have all been drawn to, the place where the presence of those we have accepted as our Guides remains strong.
These few days must have touched a chord in all of us. First, we were united as a group, moving about space together, experiencing together, questioning and learning together. This trip also marks another milestone for the Society. What is in store for us next, as a group embracing the principles of integral yoga and somewhat attempting to practice it in our own ways, in our own places, both individually and collectively?
We left Pondicherry with renewed aspiration to build in our midst opportunities and the environment that will enable us to progress together in the yoga, individually and collectively, internally and externally. There is a sense of the renewal of energies that are to be directed towards making for ourselves a progressive setting and a brighter future that brings us from stage to stage of the ladder of consciousness that Sri Aurobindo has mapped out for us.
In the hierarchy of the various planes of the being, the higher mind appears situated above the mind and itself is succeeded by the illumined mind, the intuitive mind and the overmind. Above the overmind blazes the sun of the Supermind or the Supramental, a region inhabited by the Supreme, pervaded by Satchidananda, whose intensity, it is constantly stated, this mind, in its present state, cannot even imagine. From the higher mind onwards, one enters the realm of the higher worlds as opposed to the lower worlds represented by the triple worlds of mind, vital, physical and the subconscient and the inconscient.
A good portion of the Newsletter has been devoted to reports on our landmark trip to Pondicherry as a society with 25 people from Singapore to mark the Society’s 40th Anniversary. The trip was also timed to coincide with our Sunday Walk, the 328th, which became a special walk in Auroville. This walk gets a good airing in this edition of our Newsletter together with the walk in Singapore which nevertheless continued, to cater to all those who could not make it for the trip for some reason or other. Many more activities, some planned, some unplanned, miraculous came our way in Pondicherry/Auroville. The beach experience was one such. The strong waves piled on us one after the other and even a casual sitting posture on the beach sand some distance away from the water mark was altered considerably as waves hit us and threw us gently upon the sand. We received the waves with glee and some amount of reticence but standing there, with co-travellers, holding one another’s hands and experiencing the moments brought us closer. This must stand true with everyone on that journey to the seat of a sadhana we have all been drawn to, the place where the presence of those we have accepted as our Guides remains strong.
These few days must have touched a chord in all of us. First, we were united as a group, moving about space together, experiencing together, questioning and learning together. This trip also marks another milestone for the Society. What is in store for us next, as a group embracing the principles of integral yoga and somewhat attempting to practice it in our own ways, in our own places, both individually and collectively?
We left Pondicherry with renewed aspiration to build in our midst opportunities and the environment that will enable us to progress together in the yoga, individually and collectively, internally and externally. There is a sense of the renewal of energies that are to be directed towards making for ourselves a progressive setting and a brighter future that brings us from stage to stage of the ladder of consciousness that Sri Aurobindo has mapped out for us.
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