From the Editor’s Desk (Dec 2014)

We observe the anniversary of Sri Aurobindo’s Mahasamadhi on the 5th of December.

Following Sri Aurobindo’s passing, The Mother sent out three significant messages to devotees. These messages seemed to offer to devotees a certain way of looking at death, especially of one such as Sri Aurobindo’s. The Mother wrote out a series of messages consecutively, from the 7th to the 9th of December 1950, following Sri Aurobindo’s passing. The one written on the 9th of December 1950 found its place on the Samadhi, situated in the courtyard of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry.

It is pertinent to recall at this point in time this message of gratitude, aspiration, reminder and resolution all rolled into one. Meditating on this message brings one in touch with feelings of gratitude and aspiration that transcends the small self and keeps one in a state of alignment with a larger aim and purpose of life. Here is this special message, available to the hundreds of people who pay their respects or surrender at the  Samadhi:

“To Thee who hast been the material envelope of our Master, to Thee our infinite gratitude. Before Thee who hast done so much for us, who hast worked, struggled, suffered, hoped, endured so much, before Thee who hast willed all, attempted all, prepared, achieved all for us, before Thee we bow down and implore that we may never forget, even for a moment, all we owe to Thee.”  - The Mother.

The theme for this December issue is Spiritual Education, Part 2. The Mother makes a clear distinction between Spiritual education and Psychic education by examining the kinds of lives that both these forms of education would characterise. This distinction creates clarity to one and all, still on the path to discovering both the Psychic and the Spiritual. In the words of The Mother, “psychic life is the life immortal, endless time, limitless space, ever-progressive change, unbroken continuity in the world of forms.” On the other hand, spiritual life is characterised by a life that lives “the infinite and eternal, to throw oneself outside all creation, beyond time and space.” According to The Mother, what is demanded for the establishment of a psychic life is the abolition of selfishness. However, to establish a  Spiritual life, the demand is selflessness. It calls for the identification of the being with Something All-encompassing, beyond the Universe, beyond name and form. The Mother explains, “Beyond the frontiers of form, a new force can be evoked, a power of consciousness which has not yet manifested and which, by its emergence, will be able to change the course of things and bring to birth a new world.”

While this seems a tall order to beings entrenched in the daily tumult and toil of life, there may be no other alternative that may provide a fundamental change in the nature of humanity. It is such a transformation, though a long term process it may be, that is needed for the ascent of the being from Manhood into Supermanhood, according to Integral Yoga. In Spiritual education is seen the hope of bringing about this change in humanity.