July-August Sunday Activities at Centre – A glimpse

28^thJuly 2013 –“Meditations on Savitri”

The last Sundays of every month is when we have the 'Savitri' Reading Circle at the Centre. We were to read selected lines of Book 4 Canto 3 – The Call to The Quest.  It was noted that a lot of lines which formed the essential connect in the book were given a miss in the lines chosen by The Mother, all for a reason. Huta’s pictures act as a powerful visual aid in filling in all the gaps and help us absorb bit by bit the gems of 'Savitri'.

After having watched the video, we formed a circle and read the selected lines a couple of times and shared our thoughts and ideas on the same. The “Quest” in this case is the part where Savitri has to search for someone/something in order to complete her mission and realize the true potential of her being. The “Call” to this quest is conveyed to her by Ashwapathy, upon which she leaves home in order to complete her quest.

4^th August 2013 - Readings of The Mother’s words on ‘becoming conscious’ and OM Choir

About six of us formed the circle for this day. As usual we started with two prayers from ‘Prayers and Meditations’ after having had a chance to collect ourselves to the tune of New Year’s music by Sunil-da. In this round on looking within, we continued with A.S.Dalal’s compilation of The Mother’s and Sri Aurobindo’s words, “Steps to Freedom and Mastery”, with a special focus on Becoming Conscious. On this day, we read two passages, “First Become Conscious of What Happens Within” and “Distinguishing Different Parts of One’s Being”. There was some time left for comments from members. There was one question raised, as to what purpose becoming conscious would serve. We ended the circle with the promise of the next passage in line for our 1^st Sunday reading, “We Can Master Only What We Are Conscious Of”. We proceeded with our OM choir and ended the session with some quietness within.

11^th August 2013 – Readings from Sri Aurobindo’s “Bases of Yoga”

Today was a special session as we started with another series of readings, this time, “The Bases of Yoga” by Sri Aurobindo. Venkatesh Rao facilitated the session. He gave a brief introduction to why we decided to take up “The Bases of Yoga”. This used to be one of the books that The Mother would refer to anyone who was beginning the Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. It contained valuable practical guidance to any sadhak and one that many kept with them for constant reference. We started by reading the back cover page which contained a beautiful quote of Sri Aurobindo’s on equality, one of the basic qualities that one needed to acquire to progress in the Yoga and which the “The Bases of Yoga” makes constant reference to: “There can be no firm foundation in sadhana without equality, samata. Whatever the unpleasantness of circumstances, however disagreeable the conduct of others, you must learn to receive them with a perfect calm without any disturbing reaction. These things are the test of equality. It is easy to be calm and equal when things go well and people and circumstances are pleasant; it is when they are the opposite that the completeness of the calm, peace, equality can be tested, reinforced, made perfect.” These lines would probably give a better taste of what we lived through this evening and the more to come, during our 2^nd and 3^rd Sundays, for the next many months.

18^th August 2013 – Readings from Sri Aurobindo’s “Bases of Yoga”

We took up the "Bases of Yoga" by Sri Aurobindo and continued from where we left off on page 3. We were on Calm-Peace-Equality. We read the passages on pages 3 to 7 several times before expressing our thoughts and feelings that these passages evoked.

In those passages, Sri Aurobindo spelt out the importance of attaining the qualities of Calm, Peace and Equality if one were to rise above the ordinary consciousness entrenched in the movements of the lower mind, vital and physical. "To be calm, steady, fixed in the spirit, dhira, sthira, this quietude of the mind, this separation of the inner Purusha from the outer Prakriti is very helpful, almost indispensable. So long as the being is subject to the whirl of thoughts or the turmoil of the vital movements, one cannot be thus calm and fixed in the spirit. To detach oneself, to stand back from them, to feel them separate from oneself is indispensable."

Everyone in the circle expressed their need for these qualities while acknowledging that it was not easy to attain or maintain any of these states, such as quietude, calm, peace and silence. But reading the passages in the "Bases of Yoga" did bring in some assurance that this could be attained, when one could "keep a strong and silent will... That will is the will of the Purusha behind the mind; when the mind is at peace, when it is silent one can become aware of the Purusha, silent also, separate from the action of the nature."

We concluded the session with meditation and brought along with us these messages for the day with the hope that they will stay with us, kept alive, work on us and nurture our growth.

- Jayanthy and Preethi