October - November Sunday Activities at the Centre- A glimpse

October 16^th – Reading from AIM:

Read 3 passages from pages 5 to 7 from – All India Magazine, October 2015 - Tantra (The Worship of Shaki).

The passages give us the knowledge of the “The Philosophy and Principle behind Tantra”.   Tantra differentiates itself from Vedic methods. Veda deals with Knowledge, whereas Tantra worships Prakrithi, the Will in Power.   Tantra has two paths- Vama Marga (Left -hand path) and Dakshina Marga,(Right-hand path). It is distinction between the way of Ananda and the way of Knowledge. Tantric Yoga lost its principle in machinery and became a thing of formulae and occult mechanism, still powerful when rightly used but fallen from the clarity of their original intention.

October 23^rd – Talk by Anju di (Dr Anju Khanna) from Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Delhi Branch:

Dr Anju talked about her role as the care taker of Madhuban Ramgarh - the ashram’s mountain centre.

October 30^th – Savitri, An Unending Journey:

We continued our journey of Savitri, meditating on the pictures 1to10, from Book One, Canto Five.   The Yoga of the King: The Yoga of the Spirit’s Freedom and Greatness.

Knowledge is of different kinds on this Earth. No one can have the full knowledge of different kinds. It is only partial.  The knowledge that Aswapathy received, however, was of a different kind: it was a whole knowledge of the origin, the process and the purpose of this world-movement which, till then, no mortal had known. Aswapathy was admitted into the arcana of the manifestation of the Infinite in the Finite, of the Eternal in Time.

Aswapathy had crossed the barrier of thought process to reach any knowledge. All thought obscures the object of which knowledge is sought. Even the most brilliant action of the thought-mind acts as a veil and bars the direct, entire vision of the object as it is. This curtain of outer mental thought has to be parted to gain access to the inner seat of revelation. Aswapathy crossed that barrier.   All movement in the Cosmos is a transaction between Nature and Soul, Prakriti and Purusha.  Aswapathy could read this obscure scroll, which is completely illegible to the human eye, because he was in a state of illumination. The light of the Spirit-memory which shone around him lit up not only the contents of the main page but also the helpful hints that had been recorded alongside to help decipher the writing.  What he saw inspired Aswapathy with great hope; a Will took possession of him to try and actualise on earth the higher realities glimpsed in the region of Light. And in order to study that pattern at a closer range he concentrated his consciousness and directed his inner sight to those spiritual altitudes beyond the normal physical grasp. The hopes and disappointments that are common to the normal life on earth could not touch Aswapathy. He neither participated in those joys nor suffered those pains. He was stationed in the poise of the witness self that regards everything but is involved in nothing, His thoughts were no more confined to earthly interests; they ranged immensely wider and higher, purer and more concentrated in their aspirations for the summits of the Spirit.  There was also an uplifting augmentation of power. A force, hitherto unknown to his human body, flowed into him. It did not spend itself out leaving him exhausted; streaming in it was a delight that was unceasing. Aswapathy felt overpowered by this downpour of an ineffable joy.

Source: Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo.

           

November 6^th – Reading from AIM Magazine:

Read from October 2016 - Meditations on Love, Passages Divine Love and Petals of Love.

The Mother has given the pomegranate flower the spiritual significance - Divine Love. Of all the powers that have into creation, the most powerful is Love. It is a powerful lever that moves things. It is beyond existence and non-existence, personal and impersonal.  A story goes that in Arabia long, long ago a wounded divine being wounded by the persecutors took refuge under a pomegranate bush. The drops of blood soaked in the soil, fertilised the tree and brought out marvellous scarlet red flowers crowded with petals.  Hence it got its significance Divine Love. Mother used to distribute this flower of “Divine Love” on Kali puja day to devotees, Kali being the most loving aspect of all the aspects of Mahashakthi.

November 13^th - Reading from Questions and Answers 1956, The Mother:

We read the passages, Birth: entry of the soul into the body and Formation of the supramental world.   Mother says “You are brought here by force, the environment is imposed on you by force, the laws of atavism of the milieu by force.....”  As a result of this the soul has no choice but to incarnate in the physical parents and go through the rigours to find the true path and discover it fully!   Whether parents can ask for the soul they want?  Though it is rare, it is possible, with special concentration, and meditation and aspiration. In some old countries and even now the woman who is going to give birth to a child is placed in special conditions of beauty, harmony, peace and well-being to get a soul, exceptional in being  to incarnate in her womb. In the second passage, Formation of the supramental world, Mother quotes from the Book on Vedas, “The supramental world has to be formed or created in us by the Divine will as the result of a constant expansion and self-perfecting.”  Right now our consciousness is cluttered with junks of ordinary thoughts and acts, so with constant aspiration for something better, for a vaster consciousness, a truer truth and a more universal goodness will trickle in us the supramental consciousness with the Divine will!      

- Jayalakshmi

Along the Way… November 2016 Walk Review

By 8.00am the host for the walk Sri Ganesh Swaminathan and our walk leader Sri Ramanathan with Jayanthi were waiting at the meeting point promptly for the walk enthusiasts to arrive. Since the directions for members who were driving and for those taking public transport were given very clearly by Sri Ramanathan, we started to move without much delay, with 12 members who could make it.

There were so many information boards about the Park’s history at every turning point that it was like walking behind time to Singapore’s past!

Imagine a place in Singapore where Malay royalty once ruled in medieval times and where the British decided to surrender to the invading Japanese during the Second World War.

This unlikely combination of events has taken place at the hilltop of Fort Canning Park, one of the country’s historical landmarks.

The park was originally known as Bukit Larangan, or 'Forbidden Hill' in Malay. Today, the 18-hectare space is chock-full of attractions – from ancient artefacts for history buffs to outdoor lawns for concerts, and of course, greenery for nature lovers. The charming boutique Hotel Fort Canning also lies here.

In between the trees, there were many art work made of wood which were simply exemplary!

Since our dear Balasundari has brought the Divine beauty of Nature in all Her aspects in the last Newsletter, I feel at a loss to add more to the beauty of the magnificent trees in this park.  I can only say I did “Manasika” circumambulation of them with the following prayer, where for me every tree looked like the Peepal tree known in Sanskrit as Ashwattha, the King of the Trees:

“Moolatho Brahma roopaya,

madhyatho Vishnu roopine,

Agratha shiva roopaya

Vruksha rajaya they nama”

Salutations to the king of trees,

Whose roots are Lord Brahma,

Whose stem is Lord Vishnu,

And whose crown is Lord Shiva.

How can we be more blessed than to assemble at our Sri Aurobindo Centre for the meditation and prayers before the delicious South Indian brunch hosted by our dear member Sri Ganesh Swaminathan!

Our Sincere gratitude to you and your family, Ganesh Swaminathan for your enthusiastic participation in our Centre’s activity even though you are now based in Bangalore!

-          Jayalakshmi

Vital well-being

Nature of the vital realm – Perpetuating the drama of life

Stability in the Vital – One of the important results of conversion.

Botanical Name: Bauhinia purpurea

Common Name: Butterfly Tree

Spiritual Significance: Stability in the Vital

This bright perfection of her inner state
Poured overflowing into her outward scene,
Made beautiful dull common natural things
And action wonderful and time divine.

-         Savitri, Sri Aurobindo

From the Editor’s Desk (Nov 2016)

In this November issue, we continue with our exploration of the vital realm with a little focus on the quality of the vital in perpetuating the drama of life. The word ‘Drama’ has two connotations. One is that it is associated with a play for theatre or any media of communication and entertainment. By this definition, a drama is something that is not real- life acting itself out in the present but one that is imaginary or representative of what happens in life, revolving around specific characters and events. It is usually of high entertainment value because the audience as such is able to associate with the story, as it is always an expression or a showcase of one’s own life experiences. The second connotation of the word ‘Drama’ is that it is an “exciting, emotional, or unexpected event or circumstance”. 

One can build associations with the two connotations in some ways. What happens in life is often perceived as drama, as a play when one, in a state of detachment, steps back and surveys the unfolding events of life, watches them but does not get involved in them. That life is a play is a point of philosophical interest that can be put to the mind for contemplation. On the other hand, the events of life are often quite dramatic since the vital being in us is one of, “desires, impulses, force-pushes, emotions, sensations, seekings after life-fulfillment, possession and enjoyment … it is even capable of luxuriating in tears and suffering as part of the drama of life.” These aspects of the vital are given an airing in this newsletter and ways sought, of stabilizing the vital and giving it its true direction, given all its power and energy, and purpose, in order to place life on the path of   progress and elevate existence into heights of Light and Sublime expression.

In the realm of life, the forces of desire give the impetus for life to move or run on a certain track. All unfolds in our ordinary life because of the push of the forces of desire that seek to actualize one thing or the other that one desires for oneself. Such a pursuit, we may find, brings us on journeys of highs and lows, as a boat rides on turbulent waters. These highs and lows are part of the drama of life and there is a tendency to perpetuate this drama, as if this is the one purpose of the vital and nothing else.

However, if one is able to step back and watch the movements of life, one may be able to pose oneself a question, at one point, in time or space, or both, about the need for these movements, the purpose behind the recurring experiences in life, pleasant or unpleasant, lasting or not. One may then be moved to ask about the purpose of one’s existence here, on this earth at this point in time. These contemplations may lead one to take a different view of the power that is the vital and this immense power may be used for some sublime purpose than for the energies to be dissipated in dramatic episodes that we ourselves author and direct. It is said that once the vital is mastered, there is nothing that cannot be done. But it has to be submitted to the highest authority in order to achieve the highest. For this, it has to know its power and how to submit itself to a higher power or authority. In its normal movements, it often “complicates things and robs them of their “simplicity, their purity, often their beauty and their effectiveness.” The Mother says, “It should come to understand that this energy and power… cannot become useful unless it enters into perfect harmony with the divine plan of realization on earth.” May we begin at least the contemplation to offer the vital up for purification.

Savitri

A lump of Matter, a house of closed sight,
A mind compelled to think out ignorance,
A life-force pressed into a camp of works
And the material world her limiting field.

(Book seven, Canto three)

All is a hundred-toned murmur and babble and stir,
There is a tireless running to and fro,
A haste of movement and a ceaseless cry,
The hurried servant senses answer apace
To every knock upon the outer doors,
Bring in life’s visitors, report each call,
Admit the thousand queries and the calls
And the messages of communicating minds
And the heavy business of unnumbered lives
And all the thousand fold commerce of the world.

(Book seven, Canto two)

Questions and Answers (Nov 2016)

Q: Sweet Mother, how can we empty the consciousness of its mixed contents?

The Mother: By aspiration, the rejection of the lower movements, a call to a higher force. If you do not accept certain movements, then naturally, when they find that they can’t manifest, gradually they diminish in force and stop occurring. If you refuse to express everything that is of a lower kind, little by little the very thing disappears, and the consciousness is emptied of lower things. It is by refusing to give expression—I mean not only in action but also in thought, in feeling. When impulses, thoughts, emotion come, if you refuse to express them, if you push them aside and remain in a state of inner aspiration and calm, then gradually they lose their force and stop coming. So the consciousness is emptied of its lower movements.

But for instance, when undesirable thoughts come, if you look at them, observe them, if you take pleasure in following them in their movements, they will never stop coming. It is the same thing when you have undesirable feelings or sensation: if you pay attention to them, concentrate on them or even look at them with a certain indulgence, they will never stop. But if you absolutely refuse to receive and express them, after some time they stop. You must be patient and very persistent.

In a great aspiration, if you can put yourself into contact with something higher, some influence of your psychic being or some light from above, and if you can manage to put this in touch with these lower movements, naturally they stop more quickly. But before even being able to draw these things by aspiration, you can already stop those movements from finding expression in you by a very persistent and patient refusal. When thoughts which you do not like come, if you just brush them away and do not pay them any attention at all, after some time they won’t come any longer. But you must do this very persistently and regularly.

(CWM, Volume 6, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Puducherry)

Seeking the Light in the Lower Vital

Does more work, makes less fuss.

The lower vital aspires by offering all its small movements in the fire of purification, by calling for the light and power to descend into it and rid it of its little greed, jealousies, resistances and revolts over small matters, angers, vanities, sexualities etc. to be replaced by the right movements governed by selflessness, purity, obedience to the urge of the Divine Force in all things.

***

It is evident that the lower vital has received the Divine Consciousness when even in the small movements of life there is an aspiration to the Divine, a reference as it were to the Divine Light for guidance or some feeling of offering to the Divine or guidance by the Divine. The lower vital commands the little details of emotion, impulse, sensation, action—it is these that, when converted, it offers to the Divine control for transformation.

***

Happiness in the ordinary sense is a sunlit state of the vital with or without cause. Contentment is less than happiness—joy of peace or being free from difficulty is rather a state of joyful śānti. Happiness ought not to be a state of self-satisfaction or inertia, and need not be, for one can combine happiness and aspiration. Of course there can be a state of happy inertia, but most people don’t remain satisfied with that long, they begin to want something else. There are Yogins who are satisfied with a happy calm immobility, but that is because the happiness is a form of Ananda and in the immobility they feel the Self and its eternal calm and want nothing more.

-          Sri Aurobindo

 (CWSA, Volume 31, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Puducherry)