The superman shall wake in mortal man
And manifest the hidden demi-god
Or grow into the God-light and God-force
Revealing the secret deity in the cave.
Yes, without doubt that will happen.
... more »
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Saturday, February 28
The Mother Answers Shyam Sunder Jhunjhunwala
by
RY Deshpande
on Sat 28 Feb 2009 04:04 AM IST
In the context of what had happened on the 1st January [1969] the following lines from Savitri become more significant:
Yes, without doubt that will happen. ... more » Friday, February 27
The Last Dawn in the Life of Satyavan—by Amal Kiran
by
RY Deshpande
on Fri 27 Feb 2009 03:36 AM IST
Savitri begins with a picture of darkness passing into day. This transitional hour has a particular appeal for Sri Aurobindo: several of his poems, short as well as long, are a-quiver with auroral suggestions… A hieratic poetry, demanding a keen sense of the occult and spiritual to compass both its subjective and objective values, is in this audacious and multi-dimensional picture of a highly yogic state of embodied being. Not all might respond to it and Sri Aurobindo knew that such moments in Savitri would have to wait long for general appreciation. But he could not be loyal to his mission without giving wide scope to the occult and spiritual and seeking to poetise them as much as possible with the vision and rhythm proper to the summits of reality.
… more » Thursday, February 26
Savitri steps out of Sri Aurobindo’s Room
by
RY Deshpande
on Thu 26 Feb 2009 06:10 AM IST
Savitri stepped out of Sri Aurobindo’s room for the first time on 25 October 1936. A few lines—16—by way of an example of spiritual-mystic poetry were sent to Amal Kiran at his persistent request. The sequel leading to this favour from Sri Aurobindo is described by him in Sri Aurobindo—the Poet. These lines as they stood in 1936 are as follows:
It was the hour before the Gods awake. ... more » Wednesday, February 25
Savitri from Collected Works of the Mother D
by
RY Deshpande
on Wed 25 Feb 2009 03:48 AM IST
None can reach heaven who has not passed through hell.
But still, Mother, doesn’t the soul chosen by the Divine go through hell in a different way than others? The quotation means that in order to reach the divine regions one must, while on earth, pass through the vital, which in some of its parts is a veritable hell. But those who have surrendered to the Divine and been adopted by Him are surrounded by the divine protection and for them the passage is not difficult. more » Tuesday, February 24
Savitri from Collected Works of the Mother C
by
RY Deshpande
on Tue 24 Feb 2009 04:02 AM IST
Last night, we (you and I and a few others) were together for quite a long time in Sri Aurobindo’s permanent dwelling-place in the subtle physical (what Sri Aurobindo called the true physical). Everything that took place there (far too long and complicated to relate) was organised, so to say, to express concretely the rapidity of the present movement of transformation. And with a smile, Sri Aurobindo told you something like this: “Do you believe now?” It was as if he were evoking the three lines from Savitri:
God shall grow up while the wise men talk and sleep; … more » Monday, February 23
Savitri from Collected Works of the Mother B
by
RY Deshpande
on Mon 23 Feb 2009 03:35 AM IST
One reads Savitri to develop one’s intelligence and to understand deeper things.
One concentrates at the Samadhi to grow in devotion and to put oneself in contact with Sri Aurobindo in order to receive his help. If these things have any value for you, you must do them regularly. ... more » Sunday, February 22
Savitri from Collected Works of the Mother A
by
RY Deshpande
on Sun 22 Feb 2009 09:27 AM IST
With what attitude should I read Savitri?
Read a little at a time, read again and again until you have understood.—the Mother … more » Saturday, February 21
21 February 2009 Darshan Blessings
by
RY Deshpande
on Sat 21 Feb 2009 10:03 AM IST
 Live always as if you were under the very eye of the Supreme and of the Divine Mother. Do nothing, try to think and feel nothing that would be unworthy of the Divine Presence. Sri Aurobindo more »
A Shrine for the God of Love
by
RY Deshpande
on Sat 21 Feb 2009 03:12 AM IST
Immortal rhythms swayed in her time-born steps;
Her look, her smile awoke celestial sense Even in earth-stuff, and their intense delight Poured a supernal beauty on men's lives, A wide self-giving was her native act: A magnanimity as of sea or sky Enveloped with its greatness all that came And gave a sense as of a greatened world: Her kindly care was a sweet temperate sun, Her high passion a blue heaven's equipoise. … more » Friday, February 20
Savitri from Collected Works of the Mother: 24 May 1967
by
RY Deshpande
on Fri 20 Feb 2009 03:36 AM IST
Yesterday someone wrote to me asking: “After all, what is the Divine?” I answered. I told him that I was giving a reply to help him, but there could be a hundred which would all be good, one as good as another.
“The Divine is lived, but cannot be defined.” And then I added: but as you put to me the question, I answer: “The Divine is the absolute of perfection, eternal source of all that exists, of whom we become conscious progressively, all the while being Himself from all eternity.” Once someone told me also that it was for him something simply unthinkable. So I answered him: “No! That does not help you. You have only to think that the Divine is all (at the maximum, yes), all that we want to become in our highest, most luminous aspiration. All that we want to become, that is the Divine.” He was so happy, he told me: “Oh! That way it becomes easy!” … more » Thursday, February 19
Savitri from Collected Works of the Mother: 7 September 1963
by
RY Deshpande
on Thu 19 Feb 2009 03:45 AM IST
It is much easier to reply to materialists who are uncompromising, convinced, sincere (that is to say, sincere within the limits of their consciousness) than to people having a religion—much easier!
But naturally, from the intellectual point of view, all human convictions have an explanation and a place. There is nothing men have thought which is not the deformation of a truth. The difficulty is not there, but rather in the fact that for religious people there are things which it is their duty to believe and it is a sin to let the mind discuss them—and so they shut themselves up, naturally, and they can never make any progress. Whereas the materialists, on the contrary, are supposed to know everything, explain everything: they explain everything rationally. And thus by the very fact that they explain everything, they can be led to wherever one wants to go. … If they have been clinging to a religion, it is because that religion has helped them in one way or another, it has helped in them precisely something which wanted to have a certitude, not to have to search but to be able to rest on something solid without being responsible for the solidity—somebody else is responsible and it goes on like that. It is a lack of compassion to want to pull them out of that—it is better to leave them where they are. … more » Wednesday, February 18
Savitri from Collected Works of the Mother: 15 May 1963
by
RY Deshpande
on Wed 18 Feb 2009 03:23 AM IST
88–This world was built by Death that he might live. Wilt thou abolish death? Then life too will perish. Thou canst not abolish death, but thou mayst transform it into a greater living.
89–This world was built by Cruelty that she might love. Wilt thou abolish cruelty? Then love too will perish. Thou canst not abolish cruelty, but thou mayst transfigure it into its opposite, into a fierce Love and Delightfulness. 90–This world was built by Ignorance and Error that they might know. Wilt thou abolish ignorance and error? Then knowledge too will perish. Thou canst not abolish ignorance and error, but thou mayst transmute them into the utter and effulgent exceeding of reason. 91–If Life alone were and not death, there could be no immortality; if love were alone and not cruelty, joy would be only a tepid and ephemeral rapture; if reason were alone and not ignorance, our highest attainment would not exceed a limited rationality and worldly wisdom. 92–Death transformed becomes Life that is Immortality; Cruelty transfigured becomes Love that is intolerable ecstasy; Ignorance transmuted becomes Light that leaps beyond wisdom and knowledge. more » Tuesday, February 17
Savitri from Collected Works of the Mother: 6 March 1963
by
RY Deshpande
on Tue 17 Feb 2009 03:56 AM IST
I can’t see what a true miracle can be because, after all, what is a miracle? A true miracle... Only the mind has the notion of miracles; because the mind decides, by its own logic, that given this and that, another thing can or cannot be. But this represents all the limitations of the mind. Because, from the point of view of the Lord, how can there be a miracle? Everything is Himself which He objectifies.
So here we come to the great problem of the way which is being followed, the eternal way, as Sri Aurobindo explains it in Savitri. Of course, one can conceive that what was objectified first was something which had an inclination for objectivisation. The first thing to recognise, which seems consistent with the principle of evolution, is that the objectivisation is progressive, it is not total for all eternity … (Silence) It is very difficult to tell, because we cannot get out of our habit of conceiving that there is a definite quantity unfolding indefinitely and that there can only be a beginning if there is a definite quantity. We always have, at least in our way of speaking, the idea of a moment (laughing) when the Lord decides to objectify Himself. Like this, the explanation becomes easy: He objectifies Himself gradually, progressively, and this results in a progressive evolution. But that is only a manner of speaking; because there is no beginning, there is no end, and yet there is a progression. The sense of succession, the sense of evolution, the sense of progress only exists with the manifestation. It is only when one speaks of the earth that one can give an explanation that is both very rational and in accord with the facts, because the earth has a beginning, not in its soul but in its material reality... more » Monday, February 16
Savitri from Collected Works of the Mother: 9 December 1953
by
RY Deshpande
on Mon 16 Feb 2009 05:40 AM IST
Mother, suffering comes from ignorance and pain, but what is the nature of the suffering and pain the Divine Mother feels for her children—the Divine Mother in Savitri?
It is because she participates in their nature. She has descended upon earth to participate in their nature. Because if she did not participate in their nature, she could not lead them farther. If she remained in her supreme consciousness where there is no suffering, in her supreme knowledge and consciousness, she could not have any contact with human beings. And it is for this that she is obliged to take on the human consciousness and form, it is to be able to enter into contact with them. Only, she does not forget: she has adopted their consciousness but she remains in relation with her own real, supreme consciousness. And thus, by joining the two, she can make those who are in that other consciousness progress. But if she did not adopt their consciousness, if she did not suffer with their sorrow, she could not help them. Hers is not a suffering of ignorance: it is a suffering through identity. It is because she has accepted to have the same vibrations as they, in order to be able to enter into contact with them and pull them out of the state they are in. If she did not enter into contact with them, she would not be felt at all or no one could bear her radiance.... This has been said in all kinds of forms, in all kinds of religions, and they have spoken very often of the divine Sacrifice, but from a certain point of view it is true. It is a voluntary sacrifice, but it is true: giving up a state of perfect consciousness, perfect bliss, perfect power in order to accept the state of ignorance of the outer world so as to pull it out of that ignorance. If this state were not accepted, there would be no contact with it. No relation would be possible. And this is the reason of the incarnations. Otherwise, there would be no necessity. If the divine consciousness and divine force could work directly from the place or state of their perfection, if they could work directly on matter and transform it, there would be no need to take a body like man’s. It would have been enough to act from the world of Truth with the perfect consciousness and upon consciousness. In fact that acts perhaps but so slowly that when there is this effort to make the world progress, make it go forward more rapidly, well, it is necessary to take on human nature. By taking the human body, one is obliged to take on human nature, partially. Only, instead of losing one’s consciousness and losing contact with the Truth, one keeps this consciousness and this Truth, and it is by joining the two that one can create exactly this kind of alchemy of transformation. But if one did not touch matter, one could do nothing for it. ... more » Sunday, February 15
En Passant on Savitri—the Mother: 1970-1972
by
RY Deshpande
on Sun 15 Feb 2009 05:50 AM IST
Every time you read it again, it's new.
In the course of her conversations with a disciple, the Mother on several occasions made comments about Sri Aurobindo’s transformative epic Savitri. We are reproducing these here, with our deep and sincere thanks to Narad
who has done this excellent piece of work. The series will cover these comments yearwise. The expectation is that we will grow in the richness of the insights and revelations given to us by the Mother.But that's a very interesting phenomenon. Every time I read Savitri, I feel as if I am reading it for the first time, really. It's not that I understand differently, it's that its completely new: I never read it before! It's odd. Its at least the fourth time I read it. And truly there's everything in it. All the things I've discovered lately were there. And I hadn't seen it. It's odd. The first time I read it was a revelation; it hung together perfectly well from beginning to end, and I felt I had understood (I did understand something). The second time I read it, I said to myself, "But this isn't the same thing as what I read! ..." It hung together, it made up a whole - and I understood something else. Then, recently when I read, at every passage I said to myself, "How new this is! And how the things I have found since are there!" Today again, that's how it is, as if I read it for the first time! And it puts me into contact with the things I have just discovered. It's a miraculous book! (Mother laughs) We'll continue in the same way. ... Saturday, February 14
En Passant on Savitri—the Mother: 1969
by
RY Deshpande
on Sat 14 Feb 2009 06:03 AM IST
At one place he says:
In the course of her conversations with a disciple, the Mother on several occasions made comments about Sri Aurobindo’s transformative epic Savitri. We are reproducing these here, with our deep and sincere thanks to Narad
who has done this excellent piece of work. The series will cover these comments yearwise. The expectation is that we will grow in the richness of the insights and revelations given to us by the Mother.He shore the cord of mind that ties the earth-heart You see, he says the heartbeats stop … When life had stopped its beats, death broke not in ... That's it! And he says that the mind also stops. He dared to live when breath and thought were still. That's it. Thus could he step into that magic place When I read it, I didn't know he had spoken of that experience of the abolition of the mind—he did speak of it, and he says the heartbeats have stopped, but that one isn't dead. That's it. I don't know, when I read it, I suddenly felt he was describing the transition from ordinary life to a supramental life. I don't know why, but I very strongly said to myself that I absolutely had to show you this. I don't know if the translation is very great, but it's the best I could do. (I am slowly translating the whole of Savitri—it'll take ten years!) You remember, we had translated a good deal of it, but it was the end of Savitri; this is the beginning. But the abolition of the mind, isn't it the same as the complete tranquillity of the mind? No. I think what's necessary is this absolute tranquillity so That may go through without being distorted. The abolition [in Mother] was done because the body wanted to attempt the process of transformation of the cells, and it was already quite old, you see, so things had to go fast. It was for the movement to be swift. But of course, I can see it's risky ... The body is learning very, very small details, very small things, all the time, all the time, night and day. But it's strangely fragile at the same time, that's the curious thing. There's a sense of having gone out of all ordinary laws, and ... it's hanging in suspense, like that. Something which is seeking to be established. ... Friday, February 13
En Passant on Savitri—the Mother: 1968
by
RY Deshpande
on Fri 13 Feb 2009 05:31 AM IST
The day before yesterday, at 5 in the morning, I read a letter from T.F. which I hadn't had the time to read. I was all alone, concentrated, and two sentences came in answer to her letter, which I wanted to write down. I started writing, and I found myself writing with a tiny handwriting! I tried to make it bigger—impossible. Then I drew within, I looked, and I saw it was Sri Aurobindo who was writing! So naturally, I let him write.
In the course of her conversations with a disciple, the Mother on several occasions made comments about Sri Aurobindo’s transformative epic Savitri. We are reproducing these here, with our deep and sincere thanks to Narad
who has done this excellent piece of work. The series will cover these comments yearwise. The expectation is that we will grow in the richness of the insights and revelations given to us by the Mother.It's not his handwriting, but not mine either! It's a sort of combination of both ... I had the same experience years ago, very soon after that "illness," when I began translating Savitri here. One day, while writing, it was he who wrote; it was his handwriting, that is, nearly illegible! So (laughing) I said, "No, I don't want it!" (Because it was illegible—if it had been clearer than mine, I'd have been happy!) And I stopped. But it came the day before yesterday, and it was ... I forget where I put that paper (Mother looks for it) . T. F. said in her letter her impression of who I am, and at the end she wrote, "If it is truly so, if I am not mistaken ..." So in answer to that, Sri Aurobindo came and said ... (Mother tries in vain to remember) . I don't remember the words. It's strange, I can't remember. (Here is the text, found later) "Divine life in the process of evolution, the divine Consciousness at work in Matter—here is, so to speak, what this existence represents." And at the same time, there was the clear vision, the very clear consciousness of the whole thing from the point of view of the earth's evolution: what's being worked out in the earth's evolution. Thursday, February 12
En Passant on Savitri—the Mother: 1967
by
RY Deshpande
on Thu 12 Feb 2009 05:56 AM IST
“Love leads us from the suffering of division into the bliss of perfect union, but without losing that joy of the act of union which is the soul's greatest discovery and for which the life of the cosmos is a long preparation. Therefore to approach God by love is to prepare oneself for the greatest possible spiritual fulfillment.” (The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 523)
In the course of her conversations with a disciple, the Mother on several occasions made comments about Sri Aurobindo’s transformative epic Savitri. We are reproducing these here, with our deep and sincere thanks to Narad
who has done this excellent piece of work. The series will cover these comments yearwise. The expectation is that we will grow in the richness of the insights and revelations given to us by the Mother.It's about the last sentence; someone has asked me, "What is God?" So I've replied (taking the word "God"): "It is the name man has given to all that exceeds and dominates him, all that he cannot know but is subject to." Instead of saying "to all that exceeds him," we could say, "to THAT WHICH exceeds him," because from the intellectual standpoint, "all that" is debatable. I mean there is a "something"—an indefinable and inexplicable something—and man has always felt dominated by that something. It is beyond all possible understanding and dominates him. And then, religions gave it a name; man has called it "God"; the French call it Dieu, the English, God, in another language it's called differently, but anyway it's the same. I am intentionally not giving any definition. Because my lifelong feeling has been that it's a mere word, and a word behind which people put a lot of very undesirable things.... It's that idea of a god who claims to be "the one and only," as they say: "God is the one and only." But they feel it and say it in the way Anatole France put it (I think it was in The Revolt of Angels): that God who wants to be the one and only and ALL ALONE. That was what had made me a complete atheist, if I may say so, when I was a child; I refused to accept a being, WHOEVER HE WAS, who proclaimed himself to be the one and only and almighty. Even if he were indeed the one and only and almighty (laughing), he should have no right to proclaim it! That's how it was in my mind. I could make an hour-long speech on this, to show how in every religion they tackled the problem. At any rate, I have given what I find is the most objective definition. And as in the other day's "What is the Divine?", I have tried to give a feeling of the Thing; here I wanted to fight against the use of the word which, to me, is hollow, but dangerously so. Wednesday, February 11
En Passant on Savitri—the Mother: 1966 B
by
RY Deshpande
on Wed 11 Feb 2009 05:59 AM IST
The other day I had an extraordinary experience, in which all the pessimistic arguments, all the negations and denials came from all sides, represented by everybody. And then, those who believed in the presence of a God or something—something more powerful than they and ruling the world—were in a fury, a dreadful revolt: "But I want none of him! But he spoils all our life, he ..." It was a dreadful revolt, from every side, a truckload of abuse for the Divine with such force of asuric reaction from every side. So I sat there (as if Mother sat in the middle of the mêlée), watching: "What can be done?..." You know, it was impossible to answer, impossible, there wasn't one argument, not one idea, not one theory, not one belief, nothing, nothing whatsoever that could answer it. For the space of a second, the impression was: it's hopeless. Then, all of a sudden ... all of a sudden ... It's indescribable (gesture of absolute abandon). There was that violence of revolt against things as they are, and, mixed with it, there was: "Let this world disappear, let nothing remain, let it not exist!" All that, which at bottom is a revolt, all that nihilist revolt: let nothing remain, let everything cease to exist. It reached a height of tension, and just at the height of tension, when you felt there was no solution, suddenly ... surrender. But something stronger than surrender—it wasn't abdication, it wasn't self-giving, it wasn't acceptance, it was ... something much more radical, and at the same time much sweeter. I can't say what it was. It had the joy and flavor of giving, but with such a sense of plenitude! ... Like a dazzling flash, you know, suddenly like that: the very essence of surrender, the True Thing.
In the course of her conversations with a disciple, the Mother on several occasions made comments about Sri Aurobindo’s transformative epic Savitri. We are reproducing these here, with our deep and sincere thanks to Narad
who has done this excellent piece of work. The series will cover these comments yearwise. The expectation is that we will grow in the richness of the insights and revelations given to us by the Mother.It was ... it was so powerful and marvellous, such sublime joy that the body started quivering for a second. Afterwards it was gone. And after that, after that experience, all of it, all the revolt, all the negation, all of it was as if swept away. Tuesday, February 10
En Passant on Savitri—the Mother: 1966 A
by
RY Deshpande
on Tue 10 Feb 2009 04:55 AM IST
I had this whole experience a few days ago. It was so amusing!
In the course of her conversations with a disciple, the Mother on several occasions made comments about Sri Aurobindo’s transformative epic Savitri. We are reproducing these here, with our deep and sincere thanks to Narad
who has done this excellent piece of work. The series will cover these comments yearwise. The expectation is that we will grow in the richness of the insights and revelations given to us by the Mother.In vain his heart lifts up its yearning prayer, Peopling with brilliant Gods the formless Void. Why? Were you in the formless Void? I saw that, it was so amusing! I saw it all. Oh, it was an extraordinary experience. All of a sudden I was outside and, I can't say "above" (but it was above), but outside the whole human creation, outside everything, everything man has created in all the worlds, even in the most ethereal worlds. And seen from there, it was … I saw that play of all the possible conceptions men have had of God and of the way to approach God (what they call "God"), and also of the invisible worlds and the gods, all that: one thing came upon another, one upon another, it all went by (as it's written in Savitri), one thing upon another went by (gesture as if on a screen), one upon another … with its artificiality, its inadequacy to express the Truth. And with such precision! A precision so accurate that you felt in anguish, because the impression was of being in a world of nothing but imagination, of imaginative creation, but in nothing real, there wasn't a feeling of … of touching the Thing. To such a point that it became … yes, a terrible anguish: "But then, what? What? What's truly TRUE and outside all that we can conceive?" And it came. It was like this: (gesture of self-abandon) the total, complete self-annulment, annulment of that which can know, of that which tries to know—even "surrender" isn't an adequate word: a sort of annulment. And suddenly it ended with a slight movement as a child could have who doesn't know anything, doesn't try to know anything, doesn't understand anything, doesn't try to understand—but who abandons himself. A slight movement of such simplicity, such ingenuousness, such extraordinary sweetness (words can't express it): nothing, just this (gesture of self-abandon), and instantaneously, THE Certitude (not expressed, lived), the lived Certitude. I wasn't able to keep it very long. But "it" is wonderful. But the anguish had reached its peak: the sense of the futility of human efforts to understand—to embrace and understand—what isn't human, what's beyond. And I am talking about humanity in its supreme realizations, of course, when man feels himself to be a god … That was still down below. The experience lasted, oh, I don't know, perhaps a few minutes, but it was ... something. Only, with a certainty that as soon as you come back, as soon as you just try to speak one word (or even if you don't speak), as soon as you try to formulate in one way or another: finished. Yet there OBSTINATELY remains a certitude that the creation is NOT a transitory way to recapture the true Consciousness: it's something that has its own reality and that will have its own existence IN THE TRUTH. That's the next step. That's why that realization [the Void] isn't the goal, that's exactly why. A conviction that it isn't the goal. It's an absolute necessity, but not the goal. The goal is something ... the capacity to keep That here. When will that come? I don't know. But when it comes, everything will be changed. Until then, let's prepare ourselves. There is only one thing I have noted (that I am forced to note): there is a power of action on others which infinitely exceeds what it was before. Oh, it makes waves everywhere, everywhere, even in those people who were the most settled in their lives and basically fairly satisfied, as much as one can be—even those are touched. We'll see, we'll see. Anyhow, things are moving along. |
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