July - August Sunday Activities at the Centre – A glimpse

July 26^th – Savitri Reading Circle:

Read from Book Ten, Canto 4 (page- 641 to 646) - The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real:

The lines in these pages describe the scenes Savitri is taken through by the God of Death. After the marvel of the Ideal world, the God of Death takes Savitri through Earthly Real.

“There comes a slope slipping away from the realm of the ideal downwards to lower levels. Thought and sense grow heavy. Savitri sees the mountains, streams, cities and harbours below with multitudes in travail. In an air of uncertainty all seem to wait for death to end their labour. Before her eyes pass all systems, philosophies, laws, creeds- now persisting, now perishing again reappearing. All looks a meaningless dream. Ascetics call, anchorites meditate-but to no purpose. The cycles roll and come back again.” [Quote from “A Summary of Savitri by M.P. Pandit”]

God of Death reinforces to Savitri his stance – “Do not hope to plant the living Truth on earth, do not try to make Matter’s world the home of God. There is no God or he exists only in name. And if there is a Self it is bodiless and is never born” Quote from Savitri, The Golden Bridge, The wonderful Fire by Mangesh V. Nadkarni.

Our gratitude to M.P.Pandit and Mangesh V.Nadkarni whose explanations of Savitri paves a sun lit path to our understanding of the great epic SAVITRI.

August 2^nd – Readings from AIM Magazine February 2015:

This compilation mainly consists of a few extracts from Prayers of the Mother as recorded in “Prayers and Meditations”. Both Mother and Sri Aurobindo spent their whole life in bringing a transformation to our Earth and the Humanity. The titles we read are Union with the Divine, and the necessity and utility of work.

I am sure daily reading of these Prayers will bring us closer to our Inner Self and the Peace will reside in us to make us stronger to grow spiritually.

August 15^th – Sri Aurobindo’s 143^rd Birth Anniversary Celebration:

It was indeed a very joyous celebration with a packed room of devotees.

Thanks to our dear Marty who had decorated the altar with flowers of every hue and colour nicely arranged.  While soaking in the brilliant beauty of the flowers I remembered the words of the Mother that “Flowers speak to us when we know how to listen to them. It is a subtle and fragrant language. Flowers seem to speak lovingly about The Mother! After the meditation music, Devotional music on Guru by students of SIFAS widely opened our devotional path way to our Guru Sri Aurobindo.

Kashyapji gave a very precise summary of Sri Aurobindo’s mission on this earth and our Centre’s birth and growth in the past 30 years to the new comers. He also warmly talked about the members and volunteers who took part in bringing about the beautiful atmosphere in the Centre.

KV Rao gave a good introduction to Shri S.S.Lahari. Shri S.S. Lahiri’s talk on “Five Dreams of Sri Aurobindo” was a real eye opener to our understanding of Sri Aurobindo’s “Poorna Avatar” to bring about India’s freedom from British, Human unity by Yoga Sadhana and ultimately Supramental Transformation.

Shri Lahiri very humorously said that these Dreams never allowed Sri Aurobindo to sleep!

Even as early as 18^th November 1922 Sri Aurobindo has expressed to Chittaranjan Das that “I see more and more manifestly that man can never get out of the futile circle the race is always treading UNTIL he has raised himself on to the new foundation. I believe also that it is the mission of India to make this great victory for the world.”

After the vote of thanks by KV Rao, meditation music was played.

Mahaprasad was greatly enjoyed by everyone!

Thanks to Popatbhai, THE ANNADATHA!

August 16^th – Meditation on Savitri with Huta’s visuals:

Book Eleven, The Book of the Everlasting Day-Canto 1 The Eternal Day: The Soul’s Choice and The Supreme Consummation - Picture 1 to Picture 9

The scene pictured is a heavenly one. At last Savitri brings the Everlasting Divine on the Earth.

She sees marvellous sun looking down from ecstasy’s sky. Heaven and Earth are merged with scenes of luminous joy in everything around. Time and Eternity live as one.

Just reading these wonderful passages makes our small self-rise like a rocket to attain that Eternal Day!

What a great Poet our Guru Sri Aurobindo is, who has experienced that state to bring them down to us.

-         Jayalakshmi

Along the Way… August 2015 Morning Walk – A Review

A rejuvenating walk at the Botanical Gardens

Lately we have had fine weather in Singapore. On 2^nd August 2015, it was a beautiful morning speckled with sunshine and clouds. We reached the assigned meeting point as scheduled and waited with Mrs and Mr Krishnamurthy for the other participants to join us at the entrance of the Botanical Gardens. After waiting long enough, we decided to proceed with the walk. The lush greenery and verdant hues beckoned us and the birds and crickets sang their merry songs excitedly.

Exercise is good for the body and mind. However, a brisk morning walk in cool and fresh environment amidst trees, flowers and birds is the best. The sights and sounds of nature invigorate the senses and provide manna for the soul.

It was motivating to see walkers of all ages and sizes, Tai-chi groups practising their moves – some with swords and fans, dogs with their owners bustle by on the walking tracks. I noticed one little dog dressed in a ’T-shirt and shorts’ to accompany his master on his morning run. This sight was hilarious! We walked around the Swan Lake admiring the swans, fish and turtles in the water. We saw gurgling water fountains, waterfalls, fragrant flowers and lilies in bloom.

The highlight of our walk was a stroll through the National Orchid Gardens which allowed free admission to celebrate the 50^th birthday of Singapore. This garden is located on the highest hill in the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Three hectares of carefully landscaped slopes provide a setting for over 1,000 species and 2,000 hybrids, with about 600 species and hybrids on display. We visited the Burkill Hall, Tan Hoon Siang Mist house, VIP Orchid Garden and Cool House, admiring the design concept which presents the display of plants in four separate colour zones over most of its areas.

Once the walk was over, Mrs Shailaja and Mr K.V Rao together with Anuvrat and Auropriya welcomed all the Society members at their residence with enthusiasm. In the warm ambience of their home, the meditation session was serene and peaceful. A very sumptuous home-cooked brunch was especially pleasing to the palate and was enjoyed by one and all.

We convey our gratitude to the hosts for their whole-hearted hospitality. May the Mother continue to shower her blessings on the SAS family for times to come!

-          Anju Aditya

ASPIRATION

Botanical Name: Nyctanthes arbor-tristis

Common Name: Night jasmine

Spiritual Significance: Aspiration

Innumerable, obstinate, repeating itself tirelessly – The Mother

This taste for supreme adventure is aspiration - an aspiration that takes hold of you completely and flings you, without calculation and without reserve and without any possibility of withdrawal, into the great adventure of the divine discovery, the great adventure of the divine meeting, the yet greater adventure of divine realization…

-       The Mother

From the Editor's Desk (Aug 2015)

Aspiration is the theme for this month’s scrutiny.  Mother refers to Aspiration as one of the cornerstones of integral yoga or an important aid. She refers to it as the “taste for supreme adventure.” The aspire to aspire is something probably everyone of us, almost without fail can attempt, to a smaller or greater degree of perfection. How is aspiration different from a desire? Sri Aurobindo has described it as “an inner soul’s need, and quiet settled will to turn towards the Divine and seek the Divine”. A quiet examination of our tendencies of wants and needs and aspirations using such a parameter may help. For very often when we feel desirous of something, there is an excitement and a vehemence within, unsettling the quietness therein. However, an aspiration, on the contrary, is simple, sincere and “not mixed with any interested and egoistic calculation.”

In reality, when one looks at aspiration, one realizes that it shuns anything mediocre, mundane, ordinary and limited. It leaps towards the higher and sublime possibilities from within, hoping to transcend the earthbound lower nature. Sri Aurobindo symbolizes aspiration, it appears in these line of the poem, A Tree:
A tree beside the sandy river-beach
    Holds up its topmost boughs
Like fingers towards the skies they cannot reach,
    Earth-bound, heaven amorous.

Man could be one special being as he, perhaps, more than all other creatures of this earth, is the only one on earth, who can recognize his limitations and aspire! Sri Aurobindo writes, “Man has seen that there can be a higher status of consciousness than his own; the evolutionary oestrus is there in his parts of mind and life, the aspiration to exceed himself is delivered and articulate within him…”

The Mother says that it is aspiration, sincere, strong and unflinching, that can attract towards it favourable conditions which would ultimately lead to the realization of the aspiration. And here is evident why in this yoga, a clear, sincere aspiration is one of the most important aids in sadhana. In this state, “Everything comes, everything as though there were a perfect and absolute consciousness organizing around you all things…”

The month of August is special as we anticipate Sri Aurobindo’s 143rd birth Anniversary and the 68th Independence Day of India. To bring to mind a little the life that Sri Aurobindo lived, the sadhana that he accomplished while in his body on this earth, kindles a deep reverence for this son of Bharatam. That he would share the same date with the Independence of India has been noted to be of an occult significance.

May all our challenging moments kindle the mystic Fire from our depths and initiate the certain march towards the golden dawns that Sri Aurobindo promised:

Then kindling the gold tongue of sacrifice,
Calling the powers of a bright hemisphere,
We shall shed the discredit of our mortal state,
Make the abysm a road for Heaven's descent,
Acquaint our depths with the supernal Ray
And cleave the darkness with the mystic Fire.

Savitri

Life was a marvellous journey of the spirit,

Feeling a wave from the universal Bliss.

In the kingdom of the Spirit's power and light,

As if one who arrived out of infinity's womb

He came new-born, infant and limitless

And grew in the wisdom of the timeless Child:

He was a vast that soon became a Sun.

A great luminous silence whispered to his heart;

His knowledge an inview caught unfathomable,

An outview by no brief horizons cut:

He thought and felt in all, his gaze had power.

(Book two, Canto fifteen)

The soul must soar sovereign above the form

And climb to summits beyond mind's half-sleep;

Our hearts we must inform with heavenly strength,

Surprise the animal with the occult god.

Then kindling the gold tongue of sacrifice,

Calling the powers of a bright hemisphere,

We shall shed the discredit of our mortal state,

Make the abysm a road for Heaven's descent,

Acquaint our depths with the supernal Ray

And cleave the darkness with the mystic Fire.

(Book two, Canto five)

His speech carries a light of inner truth,

And a large-eyed communion with the Power

In common things has made veilless his mind,

A seer in earth-shapes of garbless deity.

His sweetness and his joy attract all hearts

To live with his own in a glad tenancy,

His strength is like a tower built to reach heaven,

A godhead quarried from the stones of life.

(Book six, Canto one)

Again the might yearning raised its flame

That asks a perfect life on earth for men

And prays for certainty in the uncertain mind

And shadowless bliss for suffering human hearts

And truth embodied in an ignorant world

And godhead divinising mortal forms.

(Book four, Canto three)

Question of the Month (Aug 2015)

Q: Sweet Mother, it is said that if one sees a shooting star and at that moment one aspires for something, that aspiration is fulfilled within the year. Is this true?

A: Mother: Do you know what that means? ― The aspiration must be formulated during the time the star is visible; and that doesn’t last long, does it? Well, if an aspiration can be formulated while the star is visible, this means that it is all the time there, present, in the forefront of the consciousness―this does not apply to ordinary things, it has nothing to do with that, it concerns a spiritual aspiration. But the point is that if you are able to articulate your spiritual aspiration just at that moment, it means that it is right in front of your consciousness, that it dominates your consciousness. And, necessarily, what dominates your consciousness can be realised very swiftly.

I had the opportunity to make this experiment. Exactly this. The moment the star was sing, at that very moment there sprang up from the consciousness: “To realise the divine union, for my body.”

That very moment.

And before the end of the year, it was done.

But it was not because of the star! It was because that dominated my whole consciousness and I was thinking of nothing but that, I wanted only that, thought only of that, acted only for that. So, this thing which generally takes a whole lifetime ― it is said the minimum time is thirty-five years! ― before twelve months had, it was done.

But that was because I thought only of that.

And it was because I was thinking only of that, that just when the star flashed by I could formulate it―not merely a vague impression―formulate it in precise words like this: “To realise union with the Divine”, the inner Divine, the thing we speak of, the very thing we speak of.

Therefore, what is important is not the star but the aspiration. The star is only like an outer demonstration, nothing else. But it is not necessary to have a shooting star in order to realise swiftly! What is necessary is that the whole will of the being should be concentrated on one point.

(CWM, Volume 8, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Puducherry)

Q: What is exactly meant by a sincere aspiration?

A: Mother: An aspiration which is not mixed with any interested and egoistic calculation.

(CWM, Volume 14, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Puducherry)

The Mother Says:

All is mute in the being, but in the bosom of the silence burns the lamp that can never be extinguished, the fire of an ardent aspiration to know and to live integrally the Divine.

Aspiration

(Flame of Aspiration - A flame that illuminates but does not burns)

Aspiration is like an arrow.... So you aspire, you want very earnestly to understand, to know, to enter into the Truth. Yes? And then with that aspiration you do this (gesture upwards). Your aspiration rises, rises, rises, rises straight up, very strong and then it strikes against a kind of— how to put it? — a lid which is there, hard like iron and extremely thick, and it does not pass through. And then you say, "See, what's the use of aspiring? It brings nothing at all. I meet with something hard and cannot pass!" But you know about the drop of water which falls on the rock, it ends up by making a chasm: it cuts the rock from top to bottom. Your aspiration is a drop of water which, instead of falling, rises . . . and when it makes the hole suddenly it springs up out of this lid and enters an immensity of light.

(Aspiration in the Physical – Manifold, simple and joyous)

When I speak of aspiration in the physical I mean that the very consciousness in you which hankers after material comfort and well-being should of itself without being compelled by the higher parts of your nature, ask exclusively for the Divine’s Love. Usually you have to show it the Light by means of your higher parts; surely this has to be done persistently, otherwise the physical would never learn and it would take Nature’s common round of ages before it learns by itself. Indeed the round of Nature is intended to show it all possible sorts of satisfactions and by exhausting them convince it that none of them can really satisfy it and that what it is at bottom seeking is a divine satisfaction. In Yoga we hasten this slow process of Nature and insist on the physical consciousness seeing the truth and learning and to recognise and want it.

(Excerpts from ‘Flowers and their Messages’, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry)