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

October - November Sunday Activities at the Centre - A glimpse


October 28th- Savitri Circle, Book Three Canto Two- The Adoration of the Divine Mother

Earlier, through our deep voyage into the unknowable

We meditated on the following lines
From “At the head she stands of birth and toil and fate”..........to  “ His base was gathered in one pointing spire.”

These lines are really meditative.
I remember Dr Mangesh Nadkarni using these lines as invocation to the Divine Mother before his wonderful talks. In the words of Dr Prema Nandakumar, the prayer in these lines are the same as Devi Mahatmyam. For the new generation alien to traditional chanting, these passages are revelatory. The following lines taken from Completed Works of Sri Aurobindo. She, the Divine Mother, stands at the head of Time, She is the luminous heart of the Unknowable. All Nature calls to her alone. She is the Way and She is the Goal. Her rapture fills the limbs of Aswapathy; all his seekings are fulfilled in Her. He realises, however, that his single freedom cannot satisfy him. He asks for Her light and bliss for all earth and men. He is aware that his own strength is inadequate for this purpose and he surrenders all of himself to Her so that Her vast Power can act and fill the finite with the Infinite, bring Her healing touch of Love, Truth and Joy into the suffering world. He gives his freed soul to her and her alone. Standing above She controls the cycles of birth, labour and fate and also alone can alter the mighty foundations of inexorable TIME. Being the Silent power in depths and also luminous core and force She effectuates the joy, adventure and the light on the life on earth. We are yet to get the full Might of Her on the earth. Nature Herself being the Divine Mother’s another form dumbly calls to her to break the seals that keep the soul of man in obscurity. One day all here shall be the home of her felicity. All the present contraries are really preparing in their clash the advent of her harmony. Our knowledge climbs up to her, our passion gropes towards her; what is pain now shall be transmuted by her clasp into ecstasy and in that miraculous rapture we shall dwell. When our life becomes one with her it gets transformed into her superlife and gets established in her; then is it fulfilled and then it discovers the still vasts of bliss above and the wondrous clasp of the Divine everywhere on earth here below. This Knowledge flashes to Aswapathy and the rapture of the immortal invades his being. His senses are overcome by bliss and lie amazed. His spirit is seized by the conquering flame of the Divine Mother. Once he has seen her, his heart acknowledges her alone as its sovereign. Only the devouring hunger of the boundless bliss remains; all his previous aims merge in her and then find themselves in her. His whole foundation gathers into a single high pointing cone.


November 4th- Read a few passages from All India Magazine-July 2018 issue- All Life is Yoga by Sri Aurobindo

Prayer and relations with the Divine

Our prayer becomes a more meaningful one when the essence of this passage assimilated in our being. Though our prayers start with asking the Divine for some material things, over the time it takes a much higher step where we enjoy the prayer with motiveless devotion. Then the devotion paves the path to relation with the Divine as our Father, Mother, Friend or Guru.
The following sloka gives the gist of this passage.

Tvameva Mata: You are my Mother, the Supreme One Without a Second, Who nourishes me with Divine Love and graces my life with Self-Respect (the perception of my self as the Soul-Self, and not just as a body, mind, intellect, or ego).

Cha Pita Tvameva: And you are my Father, the Supreme Being Who protects me by raising my consciousness and transforming my mind into a receptacle of the divine; Who instills in me the sterling qualities of Divine Consciousness.

Tvameva Bandu cha Sakha Tvameva: You are my True Relative with Whom I am eternally related as Atman (Soul-self) with Paramatman (the Supreme Self), and You are my Best Friend, my Eternal Companion and Dearest Confident Who will never leave me.

Tvameva Vidya: You are the Divine Wisdom, the Essence of everything I know, everything I am learning, and everything I do not know but seek to understand and realize (actualize).

Dravinam Tvameva: You are the Highest Wealth (Laxmi) and the Bestower of all the best things in this life and the next. You are the Source of everything good and the Bestower of all Resources we require for our physical sustenance and spiritual enlightenment.  You are the Wealth of Wisdom and the Gift of Liberation (Moksha).

Tvameva Sarvam Mama Deva Deva:  You are All-in-All; You are Everything to me, You are the core of my being, the Heart of my heart, the Source of my Self, the Soul of my soul, the Ultimate Reality devoid of duality and partiality; Indivisible, Immutable, Immaculate, the Ultimate Knower and the Absolute Perfect Incomparable Supreme Being.

OM TAT SAT

Renunciation

Sri Aurobindo gives a very clear picture of What is real renunciation. He gives a very beautiful analogy of how we are stuck in a web of “I ness” and “myness” like a spider which hates to be transplanted in another web though it gives a fresh view points and formations! He says that if our seeking for Divine works and divine delight is sincere, we should cut asunder the snare of mind and the senses, any intellectual thought system and even the religious dogmas. With lot of Self Will with Sri Aurobindo and The Mother’s grace, we should be able climb a few steps in this ladder of freedom which renunciation gives.

November 11th and 18th, Read passages from The Human Cycle by Sri Aurobindo

The Necessity of the Spiritual Transformation
Thanks to Mr Jared for introducing us to this eye opening truth about ourselves. The first 4 passages we read shows how we are struck with automated mechanism of running our life. Right now the individual and social life is run by two complementary powers. First the inherent will in us takes over the functions of physical and vital beings fulfilling its needs to persistence, growth, expansion and enjoyment etc......  The partner of this instinctive will is the will of mind in man to give constant orientation and personal identity. Now the “Buddhi” that is the intellect power in the will of mind should seek the answer to what is our business on this earth. Is it only enjoying and suffering and dying? Or can it find a better purpose finding the seed of divinity concealed behind the coating of our lower nature?   Sri Aurobindo says that when this secret seed of divinity is discovered and delivered, luminous above the mind, the wide ground upon which a divine life of human being can be with security founded! Right now the idea of superman is abnormal or supernormal to our present nature. The human mind in us very much at ease and happy with mechanical cycle of this life and is not ready to be pulled out to receive a more perfect life and become half god. Abnormality in nature is not to be deplored since it paves way for immense vista of self-development like from animal to man and man to superman. Though it seems like a arduous labour of growth, splendid crown of victory is at the end! Reading these passages is like chanting mantras to elevate ourselves to a higher level to reach the goal, what Sri Aurobindo and The Mother has prescribed for the present human kind.


- Jayalakshmi

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