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

July - August Sunday Activities at the Center - A glimpse

July 17th - Hymns of the Mystic Fire:

Our reverence to the Lord Agni (the Fire) starts from the dawn with lighting up of the lamps at the altar of the gods. Agni inside and outside our existence tells us amply how HE is the imperative “FORCE”.
For HIM, the first mandala of Rig Veda opens with 10 hymns of the seer Madhuchchhandas, son of Vishwamitra.

MADHUCHCHHANDAS VAISHWAMITRA
SUKTA 1
1.  I adore the Flame, the vicar, the divine Ritwik of the Sacrifice, the summoner who most founds the ecstasy.
2.  The Flame adorable by the ancient sages is adorable too by the new. He brings here the Gods.
3.  By the Flame one enjoys a treasure that verily increases day by day, glorious, most full of hero-power.
4.  O Flame! the pilgrim-sacrifice on every side of which thou art with the environing being, that truly goes among the Gods.
5.  The Flame, the summoner, the Seer-Will, true and most full of richly varied listenings, may he come a God with the Gods.
6. O Flame! the happy good which thou shalt create for the giver is that Truth and verily Thine, O Angiras!
7. To thee, O Flame! we day by day, in the night and in the light, come, carrying by our thought the obeisance.
8. To thee, who reignest over our pilgrim-sacrifices, luminous guardian of the Truth, increasing in thy own home.
9. Therefore, be easy of access to us as a father unto his son, cling to us for our happy state.

July 24th - Savitri- An Unending Journey:

We continued our journey of Savitri, meditating on the pictures 12 to 18 from Secret Knowledge, Canto 4, Book 1.

Summary of the pictures as follows:

There are great Gods emanating from the Supreme Divine, who are beyond Time, Space and Death and not subject to the currents of life movement but watch the Light of Consciousness at work to change the course of world movement. Time - Purusha with his mighty ride brings about the changes for the progress, breaking the resistance to cosmic movement and returns even before the mortals realise!

Light from the flame of the Divine Agni brings the matter closer to Spirit which is now divorced from it. Man will no more be subject to the impulsion of ignorant desire but a radiation of the divine Power.

July 31st - Secret of Veda:

An introduction to Mandala 1 Suktas 1 to 9 of Rig Veda and the importance of God Agni was emphasized by Jared.  Chanting of all the Suktas were also done. Detailed explanations of each Sukta will be taken up in subsequent sessions.

August 7th - Reading from AIM Magazine:

We read some passages from the AIM Magazine March 2016, Pathways to the Future.
The passage we read about was “What is True attitude”
True attitude is being transparent, receptive to the new force.

To wriggle out from our material consciousness from its depth of hard rock ignorance built by sufferings and struggles, we have to have endurance, patience and wipe out pessimism. We have to perfect ourselves first instead of getting disturbed and agitated by others imperfection.

Clinging to our old ways of knowing, feeling, loving and judging is like getting glued with monster glue to our ignorance without the thirst for Truth and transformation.


August 14th - Q&A from The Mother’s Complete works Volume 8

“Inadequate too is the very frequent attempt at a mis-alliance between the vital and the spiritual, a mystic experience within with an aestheticised intellectual and sensuous Paganism or exalted hedonism outside leaning upon it and satisfying itself in the glow of a spiritual sanction.” The Synthesis of Yoga (page... 128)

Question - What does Sri Aurobindo mean by an “aesthecised Paganism”?

Mother’s answer: What Sri Aurobindo means is different pantheons of different countries like Greece or India evolved from giving aesthetic and intellectual transformation to every aspect of Nature. It is a symbolic and artistic and literary and poetic way of dealing with all the universal forces and realities.

It is a kind of approach to Truth or a reality!


August 15th - Sri Aurobindo’s 144th Birth Anniversary- A special Programme.

The evening programme started with Meditation music.

The floral arrangement done by Marty and family brought a luminous joy to the atmosphere.

After the reading of the prayers, the  Darshan Day message was read by Ramachandran.

“He has come to bid the earth to prepare for its luminous future.”  - The Mother.

Our Chairman Kashyapji gave a very interesting account of birth and growth of the Sri Aurobindo Centre in Singapore and the activities that are conducted followed by Invocation music by Anand Venkat which filled the atmosphere with devotional calm. He also read the poem Krishna by Sri Aurobindo.

Then the story of Sri Aurobindo Society in Singapore began with the visual treat of pictures taken from 1972 to 1993.

It was a great experience reliving the days and listening to the valuable contributions of Mr Devan Nair, Dr Nadkarni, Ms Sonia Dyne, Konkana and many others, towards spiritual enriching of the members with Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy.

A video of the beautiful Matrimandir and its surrounding was shown followed by Sri Aurobindo’s Mantra “Om Anandamayi Chaitanyamayi”. Our Ananda continued with delicious Mahaprasad organised by Mr Popatbhai Patel.

-        Jayalakshmi

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