Let us run beside a particular crystalline stream, and
we see that it courses through the lives of long centuries in their utter
wonderment, assuring us that the ripe human soul has the prospects of lending
itself to the growing self-perfection that can participate in the new creation.
This is one individual line, distinct and noteworthy, of births wherein enter
several elements shaped by the secret hand, even as it offers itself to the
higher Will when it moves under the truest sunlight, in the Divine’s Grace.
Moses
“Along with God, it is the figure of Moses (Moshe) who dominates the Torah.
Acting at God's behest, it is he who leads the Jews out of slavery, unleashes
the Ten Plagues against Egypt, guides the freed slaves for forty years in the
wilderness, carries down the law from Mount Sinai, and prepares the Jews to
enter the land of Canaan.”
Floating down the river
Not too long afterwards, Moses received the Commandments. But he found that,
his people had become indulgent and were worshiping a Golden Calf. When
threatened, he raged but turned not away from them. These are the Commands he
received:
• I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the
• You shall have no other gods before Me.
• Do not make an image or any likeness of what is in the
heavens above.
• Do not swear falsely by the name of the Lord.
• Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
• Honour your father and your mother.
• Do not murder. Do not commit adultery.
• Do not steal.
• Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.
• Do not covet your neighbor's house.
Moses finished advising the people and was preparing to leave, conferring
blessings upon them. “He went up
Pythagoras
Pythagoras was the Rishi-Philosopher-Mathematician of the ancient
It is said of him that “he spoke the truth no less than did the Pythian;
Iamblichus tells the story that the Pythia prophesied that his pregnant mother
would give birth to a man supremely beautiful, wise, and of benefit to
humankind.” He was advised to go to
In his secret school founded in Croton, Pythagoras formulated strict rules of
virtue to be followed without any deviation. The school was open to both male
and female students, something unusual in those days. The Pythagoreans used the
lyre to cure illness of the soul or body; poetry recitations occurred before
and after sleep to aid the memory.
“The Pythagoreans observed a rule of silence called echemythia, the breaking of
which was punishable by death. This was because the Pythagoreans believed that
a man's words were usually careless and misrepresented him and that when
someone was in doubt as to what he should say, he should always remain silent.
Another rule that they had was to help a man in raising a burden, but do not
assist him in laying it down, for it is a great sin to encourage indolence, and
they said departing from your house, turn not back, for the furies will be your
attendants; this axiom reminded them that it was better to learn none of the
truth about mathematics, God, and the universe at all than to learn a little
without learning all. The Pythagorean society is associated with prohibitions
such as not to step over a cross-bar, and not to eat beans. The Pythagoreans
are known for their theory of the transmigration of souls, and also for their
theory that numbers constitute the true nature of things.”
That some of these ideas of Pythagoras should have influenced the thinking of Plato
is quite understandable. The sound rational element in him provided a secure
basis for thought and knowledge and that was very acceptable to Plato.
Michael Angelo
The dome of the St Peter’s Basilica is the crowning
glory of Michael Angelo, even as he said: “My soul can find no staircase to
Heaven unless it be through Earth’s loveliness.” Born in
Michael Angelo was a painter, Michael Angelo was a sculptor, Michael Angelo was
an architect, Michael Angelo was a diplomat. But perhaps Michael Angelo was
none of these. Michael Angelo was simply a genius, some wonderful soul who had
come to express himself in things of beauty, give to the psychic the
preeminence that never it had earlier in man’s expression of the ungraspable.
To depict the Biblical scenes with over 3,000 figures, for four years the
artist painted lying on his back, just a few inches from the ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel, is itself an extraordinary feat. Genius he was, but he had the
immense capacity also to do hard work.
Michael Angelo sculpted Pieta; he gave us the magnificent statue of David,
justifying that he saw in the block of the
Was Michael Angelo the Renaissance man or it is he who brought renaissance? Did
he create time, or he was a product of unstoppable time? In any case, things
were not the same afterwards. Another giant leap was taken by the evolutionary
soul of man, a leap towards greater perfection which had in it the sweetness
and flaming intensity of the psychic being.
Michael Angelo, “who was often arrogant with others and constantly dissatisfied
with himself, saw art as originating from inner inspiration and from culture.”
Perhaps the inspiration came from its primary source, and that is why it
endures across the ages.
There is an anecdote connected with the Moses, San Pietro in Vincoli. It is
said that Michael Angelo violently hit the knee of the statue with a hammer,
shouting, "Why don't you speak to me?" And then speak it did.
It is said that in his private life Michael Angelo was a self-denying person,
self-disciplined, moderate, kind of an ascetic, “indifferent to food and drink,
eating”. He told his disciple: “However rich I may have been, I have always
lived like a poor man.”
Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo (26 February 1802-22 May 1885) was a poet,
novelist, playwright, essayist, visual artist, human rights campaigner, and
perhaps the most influential exponent of the Romantic movement in
In his verse drama Cromwell, which
was never staged because of its unwieldy length, Hugo urged his fellow artists
to free themselves from the restrictions imposed by the French classical style
of theatre, and thus sparked a fierce debate between French Classicism and
Romanticism that would rage for many years.
However, the play that Hugo produced the following year—Hernani—would prove to be one of the most successful and
groundbreaking events of nineteenth-century French theatre, the opening night
of which became known as the “the Battle of Hernani”. What a storm it raged
when he used the word “mouchoir” in his alexandrines, that word being
considered inelegant, not having the dignity of the language of literature!
“Hugo began planning a major novel about social misery and injustice as early
as the 1830s, but it would take a full 17 years for his most enduringly popular
work, Les Misérables, to be realized
and finally published in 1862. The author was acutely aware of the quality of
the novel and publication of the work went to the highest bidder. The Belgian
publishing house Lacroix and Verboeckhoven undertook a marketing campaign
unusual for the time, issuing press releases about the work a full six months
before the launch... Response ranged from wild enthusiasm to intense
condemnation, but the issues highlighted in Les Misérables were soon on the
agenda of the French National Assembly. Today the novel remains popular
worldwide, adapted for cinema, television and musical stage to an extent
equaled by few other works of literature.”
Caricature by Honoré Daumier, at the
Victor Hugo's death, at the age of 83, generated “intense national mourning. He
was not only revered as a towering figure in French literature, but also
internationally acknowledged as a statesman who had helped preserve and shape
the
Amrita
He reminisces: I came to
The truth must manifest itself in the heart; the manifested truth must grow up
step by step. How was I to have Sri Aurobindo’s Darshan? In the core of my
heart burnt a living faith.
One day all of a sudden a thought arose in me; I told Ramasawami, “I would very
much like to dine with you once.” I hoped that if I dined with him, Sri
Aurobindo also would be there. He was bewildered and thought for a moment and
questioned me: “But it is no vegetarian meal in Sri Aurobindo’s house; how do
you propose to dine there?” I retorted: “What if there is no vegetarian meal? I
am ready to dine with you all.” He told me to come next day straight from the
school at 12 noon and join him. I was beside myself with joy… But…
I started now frequenting Sri Aurobindo’s house. My family members knew nothing
of it. The duty of posting letters of Sri Aurobindo’s house luckily fell on me.
Bhakti is a divine acquisition, a thing of wonder; it cannot have its birth
without divine grace. When the heart is aroused from sleep by the all-ruling
grace, one sees that greatness. It is so delightful to the sight; then only
one’s life, possessed of the knowledge of the Lord’s universal state and His
transcendent state, will know how to live at once in all the three states.
Everyday I talked with Sri Aurobindo from five-thirty to six-thirty and
returned home. It became easy for me to speak English. One day I asked Sri
Aurobindo if I could stay with him. It was probably during November or December
1914. Instead of giving a direct answer he simply said me to pass the
matriculation examination.
To pay the examination fees, I was short of Rs 9/- That was in 1915. But, when
I went to him, I broached the subject. He handed over to me the required sum.
In the year 1914 I had the Darshan of the Mother.
Once as I was reading the Arya, Sri
Aurobindo came, stood in front of the table and kept listening to my reading.
When I lifted my head, I saw Sri Aurobindo standing there. I told him the
reading was delightful but nothing could be grasped. He replied: “It is not
necessary to understand it all at once. Go on reading. If you find a joy in
reading, you must not stop it.”
That first sublime article in the Arya
begins with the Rik from the Rig Veda. Hear:
She follows to the goal of those that are passing on
beyond, she is the first in the eternal succession of the dawns that are
coming,—Usha widens bringing out that which lives, awakening someone who was
dead.... What is her scope when she harmonises with the dawns that shone out
before and those that now must shine? She desires the ancient mornings and
fulfils their light; projecting forwards her illumination she enters into
communion with the rest that are to come.
Moses—Pythagoras—Michael Angelo—Victor Hugo—Amrita and in between Brihaspati
and Hermes and Rudra entering into the birth doing the Yoga of
Self-Perfection—that is the wonderful march in the Adhyatmayoga! That is the
soul preparing itself to get into the new creation. That is the stream of
crystalline births readying itsef to receive the rush of the oceanic flood, the
flood of light and life and love, the sachchidanandaic possibilities of
manifestation. This human potential is of another kind and needs centuries of
preparation under the day-bright Abundance of the Divine Benevolence.