It seems, Ramakrishna had told his disciples that in his next birth he would be born in the West.

RYD

Quite interesting and significant to note this comment of Ramakrishna .
Incidentally in Savitri Sri Aurobindo has said in the end---
Wondering at her and her too luminous words
Westward they turned in the fast-gathering night ( P.724 )
Will you please explain, Sir , why the sages turned westwards to to see the
greater dawn ? Any significance to Ramakrisna's comment.

When Philippe Barbier Saint-Hilaire joined the ‘Ashram’,—this was before the Ashram was formed,—Sri Aurobindo gave him the name Pavitra. About him we shall see a few details in the course of time, but here I’m just reproducing what the Mother had said after his passing away on 16 May 1969, narrated on 25 May 1969:

It was very interesting, the experience I had that night. Nothing like it I ever had in my life. It was the night before the day he passed away. The time was nine o’clock. I felt he was withdrawing, withdrawing in an extraordinary manner. He was coming out of himself and gathering and pouring himself into me. He was coming out consciously and deliberately with the full force of a concentrated will. He continued to do so steadily, ceaselessly for hours. It ended at about one o’clock, I looked at the time. There was no slackness or interruption or stop at any moment. It was throughout the same steady continuous flow, without a break, without a diminution in the strength. Such a concentrated undiminishing stream it was. The process continued until he was wholly within me as though he was pumping and exhausting all he was in the body till the last drop. I say it was wonderful—I never experienced such a thing. The flow stopped when there was very little left in the body: I let the body remain as long as it was needed for the work to continue, till long, quite long after the doctors declared it dead.

As he was in life, he could not have done the thing, I did not expect it of him, it must have been some past life of his that was at work and did the thing. Not many Yogis, not even the greatest among them could do such a thing. There he is within here, quite wakeful, looking in a rather amused way at what you people are doing. He is merged in me wholly, that is dwelling within me, not dissolved: he has his personality intact. Amrita is different. He is there outside, one of you, one among you people moving about. At times, of course, when he wants to take rest and repose he comes and lodges here. A remarkable story. A great and very difficult thing Pavitra has done.

Pavitra was a scientist by training and was a seeker and a Yogi right from the beginning. It looks that the urge of the soul for this sound material basis in spiritual pursuit took him to the West, to benefit in terms of its possible spiritual gains, things positive it offers when seen in the totality of the perspective. A new dimension of spirituality was dawning, and we admire the early education of Sri Aurobindo in England; so too the Mother’s birth, education, training in Paris.

“A great and very difficult thing Pavitra has done,” says the Mother. This cannot be without the spiritual merit, the punya, gathered in the past life. How wonderful!

~ RYD

---

Pavitra was the oldest French disciple of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother; chemist and engineer of the École Polytechnique, he came to the Ashram in December 1925, after having pursued his quest all the way to the distant Mongolia's lamaseries.

From December 1925 to November 1926 Pavitra held regular conversations with Sri Aurobindo regarding matters pertaining to his spiritual progress. While these essentially centred on the practice of Yoga, along with a small group of disciples there were also informal talks on a variety of subjects which included science and occultism. We shall see some of these here in the course of time. ~ RYD

---

About Pavitra the Mother spoke the following on 28 May 1969. First X narrates his experience on the night of 5 February 1966. This is what he told him:

It is a night of fully conscious spiritual experience, a night of torture and glory.

I walked through large rooms in which beings without communication with outside were living. And other rooms where wretched beings were dragging out a wretched life. They took notice of my presence, which seemed to bring them a ray of light from outside. A few reacted well, with a smile; others fled. A few knocked against me. Then I went into other rooms. The same goal always seemed to justify my presence. For, as I went by, a few showed a sign of hope. But at the same time obstacles, sufferings, tortures of all kinds fell on me. They were not deliberately inflicted tortures, but sorts of reactions of ignorance and suffering.

This work progressively became more and more difficult for me. I moved about with difficulty, walked more and more slowly, as though overburdened, until it finally became difficult for me to find my way ... to escape.

These experiences seemed to last for a long time. When they ended, I found myself in my physical body, surprised that it bore no marks of all that I had just undergone.

But I slowly began to understand the meaning of all that had taken place. An immense gratitude rose from my heart towards the Supreme, as did an entire self-giving so that His Will may be accomplished everywhere.

I perceived the meaning of the great promise: “I shall deliver you from all evil, fear not.”

That promise of victory from the Divine embodied on the earth carried me away with joy.

I repeat that I was fully conscious for as long as those experiences lasted.

That is all I have to say.

---

The Mother: Is it after this that he fell ill?

X: It's about that time. That's when he started walking with two canes.

The Mother: (After a long silence) It would mean that he took upon himself quite a few people's burdens.... So that would explain what happened: on the day he left, a number of people were terribly attacked by things, as if those were coming back onto them; things that had been taken away from them and which were coming back onto them—especially women.

(long silence)

There was in him a being more conscious than he. That's obvious. It was that same being which absorbed [others' suffering].

---

~ RYD

---

Would you know what Vital Four means?
Kanai : Sukadeva—one of the Vital Four
Tirupati:One of the Vital Four
Purani:Trita, The Angel of Peace—One of the Vital Four
St Hilaire:Ramakrishna—(The Four)

There is Sukadeva Goswami, son and disciple of Sri Vyasadeva, and Trita, son of Prajapati Gautama, in the Srimad Bhagavatam. But Ramakrishna is a mystery.

Anilbaran:Vivekananda—The “Fearless”.
This can't be Swami Vivekananda. Perhaps it indicates that Anilbaran had this name in some past incarnation.

Details about Udar Pinto.
http://www.sriaurobindocenter-la.org/newsltr5/UDAR.htm
One day he went to the Mother in his costume. When She saw him She said "Udar, I know where I have seen you before, you were at one time a Roman emperor!"

And about Dara, we read in Pranab's book "I remember" Pg 79
Every one has probably heard of Dara. He came from an aristocratic Muslim family of Hyderabad. Sri Aurobindo has said about him that in his previous life he was the son of Emperor Shahjehan named Darashikoh and that is why he was named Dara.

The Vital Four--I can't really say anything about that, but thanks for your possible associations. Udar and Dara are well-known examples.

When Dara came first to the Ashram from Hyderabad and met Sri Aurobindo (this was before his 'retirement'), he said, "Dara, you have come." Dara replied, "No I'm not Dara; I'm Ibrahim." Sri Aurobindo just smiled.

RYD

The Mother on Pavitra 14 September 1971
The Mother: I see Pavitra very often, almost every night... Even last night I saw him: he was in Japan. When did they leave [Amrita and Pavitra]?

SN: Amritada left on 31 January 1969 and Pavitrada in May, May 16.

Mother: Oh, Pavitra left after.

You know, time and me....

Pavitra is here, he's very active, he stays near me, I see him very often. Amrita I don't see that much. Pavitra was absorbed into me and I put him back into a form little by little, and when he was completely formed, I brought him out and he stays very close here.

SN: What does he do?

Mother: He meets people, he does all sorts of things.

SN: What work does he do?

Mother: He meets people, talks, but he's here, he hasn't left the earth's atmosphere. Amrita left to rest; Pavitra is here, in the subtle physical—that's where Sri Aurobindo is and it's a physical that has a strong tendency to materialize.

We'll see....

Ref the Mother's Agenda for her revelations about Pavitra 17, 21 and 28 May 1969
But Pavitra's case, I really believe it's exceptional. It's the first time it has happened to me—with nobody, nobody else before. I told you, when Sri Aurobindo left, for hours he passed on to me the whole supramental force and consciousness he had concentrated in his body. It was immediately after he left. I felt he had called me; I stood there, near his bed, looking at him, and... I saw it, you understand: he passed on to me the force, the whole supramental force he had concentrated in his body, and I felt him everywhere enter like that, with a friction. It lasted for hours. But that's quite an exceptional case, as I told you. But what took place with Pavitra is really... it's really... It's not the same thing: he simply came out of his body deliberately (and not his psychic being: it was as material as he could), and I felt him, felt it enter and enter everywhere, all over my body... And now, if I look within, I can't say I see a form, but... it's not completely fused. And for certain things—certain things that have to do with people, or the School—there's a very clear personal reaction. And then, those photos... I think that's quite exceptional.


I felt something in the brain. You know that since Sri Aurobindo gave me mental silence, it has been absolutely still; it never started up again as before, and the consciousness has been there (gesture above Mother), working from there. But then after Pavitra came here, something (gesture to the forehead) impelled me to ask (I asked what's here, within), "Could I get the mathematical knowledge you had?" I asked him that. And his answer was, "Of course, it would be easy if you set this in motion again!" But that I don't want to do. Anyway...


Anyway, that's how it is, as if I were talking to someone within! How happy he was!...

This is an amazing description of how VAST the Mother had become, and how she absorbed other people's consciousness into her own.

There is a line in Satprem's Adventures of Consciousness which describes the action of great beings (Pg 119-120)

But, depending on the breadth of our consciousness, there are also many degrees in this experience, from a limited action that does not extend beyond the small circle of living or dead acquaintances, or the worlds familiar to us, to the universal action of a few great beings whose psychic has in a sense colonized vast stretches of consciousness, and who protect the world with their silent light.

This is a beautiful quotation from Satprem. That is the kind of presentation which makes the Adventures so appealing which the Lives lacks. Thanks

RYD

This is Interesting
“…when Sri Aurobindo left, for hours he passed on to me the whole supramental force and consciousness he had concentrated in his body. It was immediately after he left. I felt he had called me; I stood there, near his bed, looking at him, and... I saw it, you understand: he passed on to me the force, the whole supramental force he had concentrated in his body, and I felt him everywhere enter like that, with a friction. It lasted for hours.”

Silent Mind was the first gift the Mother had received from Sri Aurobindo after their first meeting on 29 March 1914. The ‘parting’ gift was the Mind of Light, on 5 December 1950, immediately after Sri Aurobindo’s passing away. The Mind of Light is the physical’s mind receiving the supramental Light and Force and Knowledge; this is what she is describing here. The Mind of Light became the basis for her subsequent work of the cellular transformation.

But it is interesting to note that the Silent Mind which was permanently there with her, kind of ‘prevented’ her getting the knowledge of mathematics she wanted to have from Pavitra. She would have had to set her mind in motion again!

~ RYD

Here is Pavitra from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavitra


Pavitra (1894-1969) (from the Sanskrit word for 'pure') was one of the very early disciples of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. The name was one of Srimati Radharani's 1000 names. He was born Philippe Barbier Saint-Hilaire in Paris. In 1914 he graduated from the Ècole Polytechnique with a degree in Engineering. He served in the army in World War I as an artillery officer, and after the war worked as a junior engineer in Paris, at the Ministry of transport and communication.

He was interested in occultism, and in 1920 departed for Japan to study Zen Buddhism. In 1924 he left Japan and spend time with tantric lamas in monasteries in North China and Mongolia.

In 1925 he came to India and met Sri Aurobindo and The Mother in Pondicherry, where he was accepted as a sadhak, and Sri Aurobindo gave him the name Pavitra ("Clearness"). In 1951 the Mother appointed him director of the just founded Sri Aurobindo International University Centre. He served in this position for eighteen years, as well as the general secretary of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, until his passing in 1969. The Mother reports in (Agenda May 1969 that Pavitra left his body in a totally yogic way and merged with her.

According to Satprem (see note to "On Pavitra and Pavitra's Death"), Pavitra left some very interesting memoirs of his conversations with Sri Aurobindo and Mother in 1925 and 1926, large parts of which were destroyed (almost a third of Pavitra's notebooks) by his closest collaborator, with the pretext that it would be "better left unsaid". What was left was published as Conversations avec Pavitra.

~ RYD