(Sri Aurobindo at the Surat Congress in 1907. The photo shows Sri Aurobindo seated at the centre of the table with Lala Lajpat Rai to his right and Bal Gangadhar Tilak to his left, addressing the gathering. Source: www.wikipedia.org)
The pre-pondicherry years
(Sri Aurobindo at the Surat Congress in 1907. The photo shows Sri Aurobindo seated at the centre of the table with Lala Lajpat Rai to his right and Bal Gangadhar Tilak to his left, addressing the gathering. Source: www.wikipedia.org)
A century since the arrival of Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry
It will be a century since Sri Aurobindo stepped on the soil of Pondicherry and retreated into his ‘cave of Tapasya, not of an ascetic kind, but of a brand of my own invention.’
And nothing happens in the cosmic play
But at its time and in its foreseen place
The auspicious time was 4 pm on April 4 1910, the foreseen place- Pondicherry. He arrived with Bijoy Nag with two trunks and was received by three friends Moni, Srinivasachari and Bharati at the port. In a poem which is autobiographical, ‘The Infinite Adventure’, Sri Aurobindo writes:
On the waters of the nameless Infinite
My skiff is launched, I have left the human shore.
All fades behind me and I see before
The unknown abyss and one pale pointing light.
An unseen Hand controls my rudder……
As one tries to picture this magnificent scene, Sri Aurobindo, The Sailor on the flow of Time, stepping on the soil of Pondicherry, leaving behind the last lands, crossing ‘ the ultimate seas ‘ and turning to eternal things his symbol quest, to his ‘cave of Tapasya’, one pictures this youthful Rishi, concentrated, immobile and vast..
As if a weapon of the living Light,
Erect and lofty like a spear of God.
His look was a wide daybreak of the gods,
His head was a youthful Rishi’s touched by light…
A public reception was planned but it was thought to be unwise as he was coming in secrecy. His three friends received him. There was no loud beat of trumpets or fanfare, one can hear the voice of The Mother’s …. ‘The greatest victories are the least noisy’. This port which remains intact after a century will witness the grand celebrations being planned by Pondicherry to mark this momentous event on April 4th.2010
Why did the master choose to go to Pondicherry?
“While the prosecution was pending I went away secretly to Chandernagore and there some friends were thinking of sending me to France. I was thinking what to do next. Then I got the Adesh- command- to go to Pondicherry.
I came away because I did not want anything to interfere with my Yoga and because I got a very distinct Adesh in the matter. I have cut connection entirely from politics, but before I did so I knew from within that the work I had begun there was destined to be carried forward, on lines I had foreseen, by others, and that the ultimate triumph of the movement I had initiated was sure without my personal action or presence. There was not the least motive of despair or sense of futility behind my withdrawal.”
The events that led to his arrival to Pondicherry has been narrated in ‘The Life of Sri Aurobindo’ by A.B. Purani. After Sri Aurobindo received the Adesh or higher command to proceed to Pondicherry, he conveyed the intention of departing from Chandernagore to a few friends who made the necessary arrangements.
It is said that as he was about to board the streamer, there were some anxious moments and restlessness among his friends but Sri Aurobindo was ‘unmoved, quiet, without the least anxiety, like a statue, as if in meditation.’
“The steamer left Calcutta in the early hours of the morning, April 1, 1910. Moni arrived in Pondicherry on the 31st of March. He met Srinivasachari and informed him of Sri Aurobindo’s expected arrival on the 4th of April. But Srinivasachari and others did not trust his word. They thought it was improbable that Sri Aurobindo should elect to come to Pondicherry, so far in the South instead of other places nearer to Bengal. Moni pressed upon them the need of having a house. But they were not keen on it. At last on the day of arrival Moni asked them to arrange for a house in advance. They said they would manage to put him up, when he came. All along, they suspected Moni to be a spy. But in the case that Sri Aurobindo actually came they said they would give him a public reception. Moni argued with them and prevailed upon them to drop such an idea as Sri Aurobindo was coming secretly and wanted to remain in seclusion. Moni, Srinivasachari and Bharati went to the port to receive Sri Aurobindo; they found Sri Aurobindo and Bijoy Nag with two trunks. The steamer arrived in Pondicherry at 4 0’clock on the 4th of April 1910. After tea, Sri Aurobindo was taken to the house of Shanker Chetty in Comty Chetty Street. Sri Aurobindo remained there till October as the guest of Shanker Chetty.”
We observe this significant Centenary of his arrival on April 4th 2010. It will be a special day full of the Presence of the Divine Master. The Buddha is said to have told ‘What I know is the entire Bodhi tree, what is given to you is one tiny leaf’. Similarly, one can never know the entire mystery of the Work of The Divine Master and Sri Aurobindo as it has not been on the surface for us to see. In the words of Sri Aurobindo,
‘Neither you nor anyone else knows anything at all of my life; it has not been on the surface for men to see’
As Sri Ramakrishna once said, ‘It is not necessary to know of the majesty of the River Ganga in its entirety from its source in Gangotri to the point it merges in the Ocean, but just a drop of it is enough to purify and sanctify our being’. Similarly, a drop of their Grace is enough to shed their grandiose ray on human life. In whatever manner those of us ‘touched by this tenant from the heights’ choose to observe this significant day either collectively or in one’s own unique way, may it be with gratitude for the light, knowledge and force which he has imparted to ‘our struggling world ‘, sowing in our minds immortal thoughts, and teaching us the great ‘Truth to which man’s race must rise… opening the gates of freedom’.
One souled to all and free from narrowing bonds,
Large like a continent of warm sunshine
In wide equality’s impartial joy,
These sages breathed for God’s delight in things.
Assisting the slow entries of the gods,
Sowing in young minds immortal thoughts they lived,
Taught the great Truth to which man’s race must rise
Or opened the gates of freedom to a few,
Imparting to our struggling world the Light
They breathed like spirits from Time’s dull yoke released,
Comrades and vessels of cosmic force
Using a natural mastery like the sun’s;
Their speech, their silence was a help to earth.
(‘Savitri’, Book 4, Canto 4)
- Sudha
References
1) A..B. Purani, ‘The Life of Sri Aurobindo (1872-1926)’, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1964.
2) Sri Aurobindo, ‘Collected Poems, Volume 5’, Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1972.
3) Sri Aurobindo, ‘Savitri’, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry-1954.
And nothing happens in the cosmic play
But at its time and in its foreseen place
The auspicious time was 4 pm on April 4 1910, the foreseen place- Pondicherry. He arrived with Bijoy Nag with two trunks and was received by three friends Moni, Srinivasachari and Bharati at the port. In a poem which is autobiographical, ‘The Infinite Adventure’, Sri Aurobindo writes:
On the waters of the nameless Infinite
My skiff is launched, I have left the human shore.
All fades behind me and I see before
The unknown abyss and one pale pointing light.
An unseen Hand controls my rudder……
As one tries to picture this magnificent scene, Sri Aurobindo, The Sailor on the flow of Time, stepping on the soil of Pondicherry, leaving behind the last lands, crossing ‘ the ultimate seas ‘ and turning to eternal things his symbol quest, to his ‘cave of Tapasya’, one pictures this youthful Rishi, concentrated, immobile and vast..
As if a weapon of the living Light,
Erect and lofty like a spear of God.
His look was a wide daybreak of the gods,
His head was a youthful Rishi’s touched by light…
A public reception was planned but it was thought to be unwise as he was coming in secrecy. His three friends received him. There was no loud beat of trumpets or fanfare, one can hear the voice of The Mother’s …. ‘The greatest victories are the least noisy’. This port which remains intact after a century will witness the grand celebrations being planned by Pondicherry to mark this momentous event on April 4th.2010
Why did the master choose to go to Pondicherry?
“While the prosecution was pending I went away secretly to Chandernagore and there some friends were thinking of sending me to France. I was thinking what to do next. Then I got the Adesh- command- to go to Pondicherry.
I came away because I did not want anything to interfere with my Yoga and because I got a very distinct Adesh in the matter. I have cut connection entirely from politics, but before I did so I knew from within that the work I had begun there was destined to be carried forward, on lines I had foreseen, by others, and that the ultimate triumph of the movement I had initiated was sure without my personal action or presence. There was not the least motive of despair or sense of futility behind my withdrawal.”
The events that led to his arrival to Pondicherry has been narrated in ‘The Life of Sri Aurobindo’ by A.B. Purani. After Sri Aurobindo received the Adesh or higher command to proceed to Pondicherry, he conveyed the intention of departing from Chandernagore to a few friends who made the necessary arrangements.
It is said that as he was about to board the streamer, there were some anxious moments and restlessness among his friends but Sri Aurobindo was ‘unmoved, quiet, without the least anxiety, like a statue, as if in meditation.’
“The steamer left Calcutta in the early hours of the morning, April 1, 1910. Moni arrived in Pondicherry on the 31st of March. He met Srinivasachari and informed him of Sri Aurobindo’s expected arrival on the 4th of April. But Srinivasachari and others did not trust his word. They thought it was improbable that Sri Aurobindo should elect to come to Pondicherry, so far in the South instead of other places nearer to Bengal. Moni pressed upon them the need of having a house. But they were not keen on it. At last on the day of arrival Moni asked them to arrange for a house in advance. They said they would manage to put him up, when he came. All along, they suspected Moni to be a spy. But in the case that Sri Aurobindo actually came they said they would give him a public reception. Moni argued with them and prevailed upon them to drop such an idea as Sri Aurobindo was coming secretly and wanted to remain in seclusion. Moni, Srinivasachari and Bharati went to the port to receive Sri Aurobindo; they found Sri Aurobindo and Bijoy Nag with two trunks. The steamer arrived in Pondicherry at 4 0’clock on the 4th of April 1910. After tea, Sri Aurobindo was taken to the house of Shanker Chetty in Comty Chetty Street. Sri Aurobindo remained there till October as the guest of Shanker Chetty.”
We observe this significant Centenary of his arrival on April 4th 2010. It will be a special day full of the Presence of the Divine Master. The Buddha is said to have told ‘What I know is the entire Bodhi tree, what is given to you is one tiny leaf’. Similarly, one can never know the entire mystery of the Work of The Divine Master and Sri Aurobindo as it has not been on the surface for us to see. In the words of Sri Aurobindo,
‘Neither you nor anyone else knows anything at all of my life; it has not been on the surface for men to see’
As Sri Ramakrishna once said, ‘It is not necessary to know of the majesty of the River Ganga in its entirety from its source in Gangotri to the point it merges in the Ocean, but just a drop of it is enough to purify and sanctify our being’. Similarly, a drop of their Grace is enough to shed their grandiose ray on human life. In whatever manner those of us ‘touched by this tenant from the heights’ choose to observe this significant day either collectively or in one’s own unique way, may it be with gratitude for the light, knowledge and force which he has imparted to ‘our struggling world ‘, sowing in our minds immortal thoughts, and teaching us the great ‘Truth to which man’s race must rise… opening the gates of freedom’.
One souled to all and free from narrowing bonds,
Large like a continent of warm sunshine
In wide equality’s impartial joy,
These sages breathed for God’s delight in things.
Assisting the slow entries of the gods,
Sowing in young minds immortal thoughts they lived,
Taught the great Truth to which man’s race must rise
Or opened the gates of freedom to a few,
Imparting to our struggling world the Light
They breathed like spirits from Time’s dull yoke released,
Comrades and vessels of cosmic force
Using a natural mastery like the sun’s;
Their speech, their silence was a help to earth.
(‘Savitri’, Book 4, Canto 4)
- Sudha
References
1) A..B. Purani, ‘The Life of Sri Aurobindo (1872-1926)’, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1964.
2) Sri Aurobindo, ‘Collected Poems, Volume 5’, Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1972.
3) Sri Aurobindo, ‘Savitri’, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry-1954.
A century since the arrival of Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry
It will be a century since Sri Aurobindo stepped on the soil of Pondicherry and retreated into his ‘cave of Tapasya, not of an ascetic kind, but of a brand of my own invention.’
And nothing happens in the cosmic play
But at its time and in its foreseen place
The auspicious time was 4 pm on April 4 1910, the foreseen place- Pondicherry. He arrived with Bijoy Nag with two trunks and was received by three friends Moni, Srinivasachari and Bharati at the port. In a poem which is autobiographical, ‘The Infinite Adventure’, Sri Aurobindo writes:
On the waters of the nameless Infinite
My skiff is launched, I have left the human shore.
All fades behind me and I see before
The unknown abyss and one pale pointing light.
An unseen Hand controls my rudder……
As one tries to picture this magnificent scene, Sri Aurobindo, The Sailor on the flow of Time, stepping on the soil of Pondicherry, leaving behind the last lands, crossing ‘ the ultimate seas ‘ and turning to eternal things his symbol quest, to his ‘cave of Tapasya’, one pictures this youthful Rishi, concentrated, immobile and vast..
As if a weapon of the living Light,
Erect and lofty like a spear of God.
His look was a wide daybreak of the gods,
His head was a youthful Rishi’s touched by light…
A public reception was planned but it was thought to be unwise as he was coming in secrecy. His three friends received him. There was no loud beat of trumpets or fanfare, one can hear the voice of The Mother’s …. ‘The greatest victories are the least noisy’. This port which remains intact after a century will witness the grand celebrations being planned by Pondicherry to mark this momentous event on April 4th.2010
Why did the master choose to go to Pondicherry?
“While the prosecution was pending I went away secretly to Chandernagore and there some friends were thinking of sending me to France. I was thinking what to do next. Then I got the Adesh- command- to go to Pondicherry.
I came away because I did not want anything to interfere with my Yoga and because I got a very distinct Adesh in the matter. I have cut connection entirely from politics, but before I did so I knew from within that the work I had begun there was destined to be carried forward, on lines I had foreseen, by others, and that the ultimate triumph of the movement I had initiated was sure without my personal action or presence. There was not the least motive of despair or sense of futility behind my withdrawal.”
The events that led to his arrival to Pondicherry has been narrated in ‘The Life of Sri Aurobindo’ by A.B. Purani. After Sri Aurobindo received the Adesh or higher command to proceed to Pondicherry, he conveyed the intention of departing from Chandernagore to a few friends who made the necessary arrangements.
It is said that as he was about to board the streamer, there were some anxious moments and restlessness among his friends but Sri Aurobindo was ‘unmoved, quiet, without the least anxiety, like a statue, as if in meditation.’
“The steamer left Calcutta in the early hours of the morning, April 1, 1910. Moni arrived in Pondicherry on the 31st of March. He met Srinivasachari and informed him of Sri Aurobindo’s expected arrival on the 4th of April. But Srinivasachari and others did not trust his word. They thought it was improbable that Sri Aurobindo should elect to come to Pondicherry, so far in the South instead of other places nearer to Bengal. Moni pressed upon them the need of having a house. But they were not keen on it. At last on the day of arrival Moni asked them to arrange for a house in advance. They said they would manage to put him up, when he came. All along, they suspected Moni to be a spy. But in the case that Sri Aurobindo actually came they said they would give him a public reception. Moni argued with them and prevailed upon them to drop such an idea as Sri Aurobindo was coming secretly and wanted to remain in seclusion. Moni, Srinivasachari and Bharati went to the port to receive Sri Aurobindo; they found Sri Aurobindo and Bijoy Nag with two trunks. The steamer arrived in Pondicherry at 4 0’clock on the 4th of April 1910. After tea, Sri Aurobindo was taken to the house of Shanker Chetty in Comty Chetty Street. Sri Aurobindo remained there till October as the guest of Shanker Chetty.”
We observe this significant Centenary of his arrival on April 4th 2010. It will be a special day full of the Presence of the Divine Master. The Buddha is said to have told ‘What I know is the entire Bodhi tree, what is given to you is one tiny leaf’. Similarly, one can never know the entire mystery of the Work of The Divine Master and Sri Aurobindo as it has not been on the surface for us to see. In the words of Sri Aurobindo,
‘Neither you nor anyone else knows anything at all of my life; it has not been on the surface for men to see’
As Sri Ramakrishna once said, ‘It is not necessary to know of the majesty of the River Ganga in its entirety from its source in Gangotri to the point it merges in the Ocean, but just a drop of it is enough to purify and sanctify our being’. Similarly, a drop of their Grace is enough to shed their grandiose ray on human life. In whatever manner those of us ‘touched by this tenant from the heights’ choose to observe this significant day either collectively or in one’s own unique way, may it be with gratitude for the light, knowledge and force which he has imparted to ‘our struggling world ‘, sowing in our minds immortal thoughts, and teaching us the great ‘Truth to which man’s race must rise… opening the gates of freedom’.
One souled to all and free from narrowing bonds,
Large like a continent of warm sunshine
In wide equality’s impartial joy,
These sages breathed for God’s delight in things.
Assisting the slow entries of the gods,
Sowing in young minds immortal thoughts they lived,
Taught the great Truth to which man’s race must rise
Or opened the gates of freedom to a few,
Imparting to our struggling world the Light
They breathed like spirits from Time’s dull yoke released,
Comrades and vessels of cosmic force
Using a natural mastery like the sun’s;
Their speech, their silence was a help to earth.
(‘Savitri’, Book 4, Canto 4)
- Sudha
References
1) A..B. Purani, ‘The Life of Sri Aurobindo (1872-1926)’, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1964.
2) Sri Aurobindo, ‘Collected Poems, Volume 5’, Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1972.
3) Sri Aurobindo, ‘Savitri’, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry-1954.
And nothing happens in the cosmic play
But at its time and in its foreseen place
The auspicious time was 4 pm on April 4 1910, the foreseen place- Pondicherry. He arrived with Bijoy Nag with two trunks and was received by three friends Moni, Srinivasachari and Bharati at the port. In a poem which is autobiographical, ‘The Infinite Adventure’, Sri Aurobindo writes:
On the waters of the nameless Infinite
My skiff is launched, I have left the human shore.
All fades behind me and I see before
The unknown abyss and one pale pointing light.
An unseen Hand controls my rudder……
As one tries to picture this magnificent scene, Sri Aurobindo, The Sailor on the flow of Time, stepping on the soil of Pondicherry, leaving behind the last lands, crossing ‘ the ultimate seas ‘ and turning to eternal things his symbol quest, to his ‘cave of Tapasya’, one pictures this youthful Rishi, concentrated, immobile and vast..
As if a weapon of the living Light,
Erect and lofty like a spear of God.
His look was a wide daybreak of the gods,
His head was a youthful Rishi’s touched by light…
A public reception was planned but it was thought to be unwise as he was coming in secrecy. His three friends received him. There was no loud beat of trumpets or fanfare, one can hear the voice of The Mother’s …. ‘The greatest victories are the least noisy’. This port which remains intact after a century will witness the grand celebrations being planned by Pondicherry to mark this momentous event on April 4th.2010
Why did the master choose to go to Pondicherry?
“While the prosecution was pending I went away secretly to Chandernagore and there some friends were thinking of sending me to France. I was thinking what to do next. Then I got the Adesh- command- to go to Pondicherry.
I came away because I did not want anything to interfere with my Yoga and because I got a very distinct Adesh in the matter. I have cut connection entirely from politics, but before I did so I knew from within that the work I had begun there was destined to be carried forward, on lines I had foreseen, by others, and that the ultimate triumph of the movement I had initiated was sure without my personal action or presence. There was not the least motive of despair or sense of futility behind my withdrawal.”
The events that led to his arrival to Pondicherry has been narrated in ‘The Life of Sri Aurobindo’ by A.B. Purani. After Sri Aurobindo received the Adesh or higher command to proceed to Pondicherry, he conveyed the intention of departing from Chandernagore to a few friends who made the necessary arrangements.
It is said that as he was about to board the streamer, there were some anxious moments and restlessness among his friends but Sri Aurobindo was ‘unmoved, quiet, without the least anxiety, like a statue, as if in meditation.’
“The steamer left Calcutta in the early hours of the morning, April 1, 1910. Moni arrived in Pondicherry on the 31st of March. He met Srinivasachari and informed him of Sri Aurobindo’s expected arrival on the 4th of April. But Srinivasachari and others did not trust his word. They thought it was improbable that Sri Aurobindo should elect to come to Pondicherry, so far in the South instead of other places nearer to Bengal. Moni pressed upon them the need of having a house. But they were not keen on it. At last on the day of arrival Moni asked them to arrange for a house in advance. They said they would manage to put him up, when he came. All along, they suspected Moni to be a spy. But in the case that Sri Aurobindo actually came they said they would give him a public reception. Moni argued with them and prevailed upon them to drop such an idea as Sri Aurobindo was coming secretly and wanted to remain in seclusion. Moni, Srinivasachari and Bharati went to the port to receive Sri Aurobindo; they found Sri Aurobindo and Bijoy Nag with two trunks. The steamer arrived in Pondicherry at 4 0’clock on the 4th of April 1910. After tea, Sri Aurobindo was taken to the house of Shanker Chetty in Comty Chetty Street. Sri Aurobindo remained there till October as the guest of Shanker Chetty.”
We observe this significant Centenary of his arrival on April 4th 2010. It will be a special day full of the Presence of the Divine Master. The Buddha is said to have told ‘What I know is the entire Bodhi tree, what is given to you is one tiny leaf’. Similarly, one can never know the entire mystery of the Work of The Divine Master and Sri Aurobindo as it has not been on the surface for us to see. In the words of Sri Aurobindo,
‘Neither you nor anyone else knows anything at all of my life; it has not been on the surface for men to see’
As Sri Ramakrishna once said, ‘It is not necessary to know of the majesty of the River Ganga in its entirety from its source in Gangotri to the point it merges in the Ocean, but just a drop of it is enough to purify and sanctify our being’. Similarly, a drop of their Grace is enough to shed their grandiose ray on human life. In whatever manner those of us ‘touched by this tenant from the heights’ choose to observe this significant day either collectively or in one’s own unique way, may it be with gratitude for the light, knowledge and force which he has imparted to ‘our struggling world ‘, sowing in our minds immortal thoughts, and teaching us the great ‘Truth to which man’s race must rise… opening the gates of freedom’.
One souled to all and free from narrowing bonds,
Large like a continent of warm sunshine
In wide equality’s impartial joy,
These sages breathed for God’s delight in things.
Assisting the slow entries of the gods,
Sowing in young minds immortal thoughts they lived,
Taught the great Truth to which man’s race must rise
Or opened the gates of freedom to a few,
Imparting to our struggling world the Light
They breathed like spirits from Time’s dull yoke released,
Comrades and vessels of cosmic force
Using a natural mastery like the sun’s;
Their speech, their silence was a help to earth.
(‘Savitri’, Book 4, Canto 4)
- Sudha
References
1) A..B. Purani, ‘The Life of Sri Aurobindo (1872-1926)’, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1964.
2) Sri Aurobindo, ‘Collected Poems, Volume 5’, Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1972.
3) Sri Aurobindo, ‘Savitri’, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry-1954.
Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo
I cannot but dwell, at least for a while, in a reminiscent vein on that glorious past as I look again at this correspondence. Most men live in their past; we here live in our future, but the past contributes to the high consummation of that future, and such a past recorded through the correspondence is like a brilliant page of one’s ever-present life. The picture of the past floats again before my eyes: I look at his chamber from the corner of my eyes: I look at his chamber from the corner of my room and imagine that he must now be busy at our letters. Then passing through the corridors of dream, I wake up to wait at the threshold of the morning hours for the divine post. There it comes carrying the heavenly breath and bearing the Spirit- touch. I pore on it and seem for a moment to touch the very hands that struck those harmonious chords.
Moments pass, but I still taste the “strange-ecstasied fruit”. The aroma of His unbodied Presence recreates the “Darshan” before my vision- calm and serene, golden and majestic, eyes reflecting the Unfathomed, smile and gravity on the lips in succession as known and unknown pass by. Are these the hands that have culled from the vineyards of his luminous mind the luscious fruits of knowledge and filled our mortal jars with its sparkling wine? Those the eyes that have passed sleepless nights over our daily tales of joy and woe, our babbles and stupid reasonings? Is this the mouth that has uttered, through an eloquent pen, volumes of speech just to assure one single person of his spiritual destiny, or to promise all help and succour in the battlefield of Yoga?
Many other vivid associations renew the contact of the soul with the veiled summit-source. Who can exhaust these iridescent memories, who can extinguish their flames? Worship and prayer, work and an intense desire for the fulfillment of his mission-the things with which he has inspired our souls, and the path that he has hewn through the virgin forest of our life, are a tale whose beginning only is disclosed, but whose end waits to be revealed by the future development of events. Above all, how much of his inner consciousness he has transfused into our blood through the medium of this correspondence, no one will ever know; indeed, very few will be able even to appraise it correctly. Only those who have been the recipients of that rejuvenating energy of the Divine Consciousness will understand its action, slowly, in the gradual process of self-unfolding. Our heart repeats the marvel of his name and waits his arrival through the very pathway that he has built with so much labor of love and compassion.
(‘Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo’, Nirodbaran, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1969)
Moments pass, but I still taste the “strange-ecstasied fruit”. The aroma of His unbodied Presence recreates the “Darshan” before my vision- calm and serene, golden and majestic, eyes reflecting the Unfathomed, smile and gravity on the lips in succession as known and unknown pass by. Are these the hands that have culled from the vineyards of his luminous mind the luscious fruits of knowledge and filled our mortal jars with its sparkling wine? Those the eyes that have passed sleepless nights over our daily tales of joy and woe, our babbles and stupid reasonings? Is this the mouth that has uttered, through an eloquent pen, volumes of speech just to assure one single person of his spiritual destiny, or to promise all help and succour in the battlefield of Yoga?
Many other vivid associations renew the contact of the soul with the veiled summit-source. Who can exhaust these iridescent memories, who can extinguish their flames? Worship and prayer, work and an intense desire for the fulfillment of his mission-the things with which he has inspired our souls, and the path that he has hewn through the virgin forest of our life, are a tale whose beginning only is disclosed, but whose end waits to be revealed by the future development of events. Above all, how much of his inner consciousness he has transfused into our blood through the medium of this correspondence, no one will ever know; indeed, very few will be able even to appraise it correctly. Only those who have been the recipients of that rejuvenating energy of the Divine Consciousness will understand its action, slowly, in the gradual process of self-unfolding. Our heart repeats the marvel of his name and waits his arrival through the very pathway that he has built with so much labor of love and compassion.
(‘Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo’, Nirodbaran, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1969)
Question of the Month
Q: Why did you choose Pondicherry as the place for your sadhana?
A: Sri Aurobindo: Because it was by an Adesh- higher command- I was asked to come here.
(‘The Life of Sri Aurobindo (1872-1926)’, A.B.Purani, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 1964)
A: Sri Aurobindo: Because it was by an Adesh- higher command- I was asked to come here.
(‘The Life of Sri Aurobindo (1872-1926)’, A.B.Purani, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 1964)
From Savitri
Beyond life’s arc in spirit’s immensities,
Apart he lived in his mind’s solitude,
A demigod shaping the lives of men:
One soul’s ambition lifted up the race;
A Power worked, but none knew whence it came.
The universal strengths were linked with his:
Feeling earth’s smallness with their boundless breadths,
He drew the energies that transmute an age.
(Savitri, Book 1, Canto 3)
**********
So he appeared against the forest verge
Inset twixt green relief and golden ray.
As if a weapon of the living Light,
Erect and lofty like a spear of God
His figure led the splendour of the morn.
Noble and clear as the broad peaceful heavens
A tablet of young wisdom was his brow,
Freedom’s imperious beauty curbed his limbs,
The joy of life was on his open face.
His look was a wide daybreak of the gods,
His head was a youthful Rishi’s touched with light,
His body was a lover’s and a king’s.
In the magnificent dawning of his force
Built like a moving statue of delight
He illumined the border of the forest page.
(Savitri, Book 5, Canto 2)
Apart he lived in his mind’s solitude,
A demigod shaping the lives of men:
One soul’s ambition lifted up the race;
A Power worked, but none knew whence it came.
The universal strengths were linked with his:
Feeling earth’s smallness with their boundless breadths,
He drew the energies that transmute an age.
(Savitri, Book 1, Canto 3)
**********
So he appeared against the forest verge
Inset twixt green relief and golden ray.
As if a weapon of the living Light,
Erect and lofty like a spear of God
His figure led the splendour of the morn.
Noble and clear as the broad peaceful heavens
A tablet of young wisdom was his brow,
Freedom’s imperious beauty curbed his limbs,
The joy of life was on his open face.
His look was a wide daybreak of the gods,
His head was a youthful Rishi’s touched with light,
His body was a lover’s and a king’s.
In the magnificent dawning of his force
Built like a moving statue of delight
He illumined the border of the forest page.
(Savitri, Book 5, Canto 2)
Editorial
This April issue of our Newsletter seeks to be a tribute to Sri Aurobindo as centres world over, led by Sri Aurobindo Society, Pondicherry, celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Sri Aurobindo's arrival in Pondicherry, on the 4th of April 1910.
An occasion such as this provides an occasion to celebrate a past significant event that spells much in the hearts of many, a celebration in recognition of the revolutionary change that would have taken over one's life and of humanity as a whole. It is also a celebration of the promise that the future would hold for one, a consolidation of all of our anticipations, aspirations and a renewal of faith into a more concrete knowledge and certainty of a future manifesting something of the grandeur that was promised. A momentous occasion like this that invites an outer as well as a deep-rooted inner involvement of the being calls for nothing less than a consecration, of our work, our effort, thought, aspiration, a consecration of our mind, life, body – of everything that one does and is – to this Entity that has taken control of our lives, moulding it more and more into the shape of perfection. It, in all likelihood, has to be a consecration that spells a readiness to receive what the Divine has to offer without distortion.
Back at Pondicherry (or Puducherry as it is now known), as I made my way to the third floor of Society's Beach Office, an expectancy filled the air. A sense of urgency was there too to see the completion a building called The Annexe in time for a grand consecration. Having its beginnings in the term 'the annexe to Sea Side Guest House', The Annexe, is a three-storied building of sixteen rooms and is an extension of Sea-Side Guest House adjoining the Society Beach Office.
Standing on the wide balcony of the beach office that fronts the mighty Bay of Bengal, the Chairperson of the Society, Pradeep da, his eyes twinkling and then taking on a soft gaze, as he focuses far ahead, sums up the significance of the 4th of April in one phrase, "It is a celebration from within". A little smile lights up his face, as he recounts, half in words and half silently, the trials and tribulations, the personal struggles and victories that came with the erection of The Annexe. Right from its inception some two years ago, The Annexe marked a work of sadhana and a labour of love. Each element, each stone, each fabric that will adorn The Annexe looks poised to reverberate with Sri Aurobindo's name, and as Sushila behn, secretary of the Society puts it, simply because the building was conceived of and attempted, "taking His name".
Just as The Annexe takes its regal form and approaches its completion in order to be consecrated to Him on the 4th of April 2010, this occasion too gives individuals tied up with Sri Aurobindo and The Mother in magical ways to prepare for an inner consecration, simple and absolute, of all we do and are to Him. Thus may be fulfilled in time, long or short, the quest arising from within, for the Divine to fill our lives. Just like The Annexe, many shapes and forms, moods and sensations, ups and downs, mental formations of all kinds, wants and desires, our opinions and insistences, our highest aspirations, our works of love and beauty, all of these await in our own being to be consecrated unto the open arms of the Divine.
It seems no co-incidence now that this editorial was conceived while gazing out at The Bay of Bengal, at the remains of the jetty on which Sri Aurobindo set foot 100 years ago and changed the face of Pondicherry or Puducherry, forever, and our lives as well and the course of evolution for the whole of humanity, forever.
There is cause to celebrate. May we seize the moment to rise to the occasion, from within.
An occasion such as this provides an occasion to celebrate a past significant event that spells much in the hearts of many, a celebration in recognition of the revolutionary change that would have taken over one's life and of humanity as a whole. It is also a celebration of the promise that the future would hold for one, a consolidation of all of our anticipations, aspirations and a renewal of faith into a more concrete knowledge and certainty of a future manifesting something of the grandeur that was promised. A momentous occasion like this that invites an outer as well as a deep-rooted inner involvement of the being calls for nothing less than a consecration, of our work, our effort, thought, aspiration, a consecration of our mind, life, body – of everything that one does and is – to this Entity that has taken control of our lives, moulding it more and more into the shape of perfection. It, in all likelihood, has to be a consecration that spells a readiness to receive what the Divine has to offer without distortion.
Back at Pondicherry (or Puducherry as it is now known), as I made my way to the third floor of Society's Beach Office, an expectancy filled the air. A sense of urgency was there too to see the completion a building called The Annexe in time for a grand consecration. Having its beginnings in the term 'the annexe to Sea Side Guest House', The Annexe, is a three-storied building of sixteen rooms and is an extension of Sea-Side Guest House adjoining the Society Beach Office.
Standing on the wide balcony of the beach office that fronts the mighty Bay of Bengal, the Chairperson of the Society, Pradeep da, his eyes twinkling and then taking on a soft gaze, as he focuses far ahead, sums up the significance of the 4th of April in one phrase, "It is a celebration from within". A little smile lights up his face, as he recounts, half in words and half silently, the trials and tribulations, the personal struggles and victories that came with the erection of The Annexe. Right from its inception some two years ago, The Annexe marked a work of sadhana and a labour of love. Each element, each stone, each fabric that will adorn The Annexe looks poised to reverberate with Sri Aurobindo's name, and as Sushila behn, secretary of the Society puts it, simply because the building was conceived of and attempted, "taking His name".
Just as The Annexe takes its regal form and approaches its completion in order to be consecrated to Him on the 4th of April 2010, this occasion too gives individuals tied up with Sri Aurobindo and The Mother in magical ways to prepare for an inner consecration, simple and absolute, of all we do and are to Him. Thus may be fulfilled in time, long or short, the quest arising from within, for the Divine to fill our lives. Just like The Annexe, many shapes and forms, moods and sensations, ups and downs, mental formations of all kinds, wants and desires, our opinions and insistences, our highest aspirations, our works of love and beauty, all of these await in our own being to be consecrated unto the open arms of the Divine.
It seems no co-incidence now that this editorial was conceived while gazing out at The Bay of Bengal, at the remains of the jetty on which Sri Aurobindo set foot 100 years ago and changed the face of Pondicherry or Puducherry, forever, and our lives as well and the course of evolution for the whole of humanity, forever.
There is cause to celebrate. May we seize the moment to rise to the occasion, from within.
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