Guiding Light of The Month

O Lord, how ardently do I call and implore Thy love! Grant that my aspiration may be intense enough to awaken the same aspiration everywhere: oh, may good- ness, justice and peace reign as supreme masters, may ignorant egoism be overcome, darkness be suddenly illu- minated by Thy pure Light; may the blind see, the deaf hear, may Thy law be proclaimed in every place and, in a constantly progressive union, in an ever more perfect harmony, may all, like one single being, stretch out their arms towards Thee to identify themselves with Thee and manifest Thee upon earth. - The Mother

Song of Autumn


The hours went by with slow contended tread:
A wide and tranquil air remembered peace,
Earth was the comrade of a happy sun.
A calmness neared as of the approach of God,
A light of musing trance lit soil and sky.
And an identity and ecstasy
Filled meditation's solitary heart.
Autumn led in the glory of her moons
And dreamed in the splendour of her lotus pools

-          Savitri, Sri Aurobindo.

***
A reflection: It was a long hard day, so many things have happened at work and at home. I decide to take a calm evening walk in the nearby garden. There is a soft bed of wet green grass and it puts me in a state of repose. I choose to lie down on the grass-earth and gaze at the blue sky. Smooth creamy clouds are passing by, one after the other, the setting sun playing hide and seek about them. The sky is painted with interspersed pink and blue hues and it appears as though the lovely colors are embracing each other.

The sense of autumn season is so much closer to a calm evening, I feel. Nature has gone through her long journey through musical spring, blazing summer and thunderous monsoon. Now it is time to slow down and prepare for the waning year with cool winter just around the corner. Autumn, a season of transition, is an invitation to reflect and relax. A shower of crimson leaves falling slowly from swaying trees forms a pool on the ground. And the rustle of the dried leaves as they sweep the ground carries a profound music. One can feel the richness of various events that have happened through the year and experience the silence they have created inside.

-          Sandhya
***
Autumn (or Fall as it is known in North America) marks the transition from summer into winter. In a sense it is like evening, when the soft sunshine, harsh noon have given way to a space which is neither day nor night. It is indeed one of those auspicious and sacred moments which leaves one in a contemplative mood. Indeed this is why dawn and twilight are special as it is a transition time of day or night.
The Mother begins one of her Prayers written on May 31, 1914 with these moving words – “When the sun set in the indrawn contemplation of the calm twilight, all my being prostrated itself before Thee, O Lord, in mute adoration and complete self-giving...”
Just like evening or twilight, autumn is a magical season. The heat of the summer has passed, winter has not come yet, it is neither hot nor cold...There is a coolness in the air, days are shorter, nights are cooler. These changes in the weather make the leaves turn colour from the green of the summer to vibrant hues of the sunset orange, deep red, yellow... The fall colours are spectacular in the NE corner of America, a country blessed with abundance of Nature. Just as viewing of the cherry blossoms is a sacred obsession of the Japanese, in this part of the country viewing of Fall colours is a favourite activity. People would drive miles and miles to view the "fall colours”, especially in New England, the beautiful states of Vermont, Maine offer the best views of fall colours. Since each tree's leaves turned colour at a slightly different time, the overall scenery would be so magical with the spectacular sunset colours and Nature at her most colourful offering…
Just as the Mother wrote about the cherry blossoms in the Prayer of April 1, 1917, on seeing the colours of the leaves one would exclaim... oh! What magical power hast thou put in these leaves... "They seem to speak of Thy sole Presence" they bring with them the radiance of the Divine.

-          Sudha

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