The Mother said that she had already covered the Ascending Path much before 1910. This included the occult knowledge she had received when she was with Théon and Alma in Algeria. She also spoke in 1911 itself about of the Light of the Supreme, Surya Savitri, that should pervade us all. By this time Sri Aurobindo not only had his traditional major spiritual realizations; he knew that the key to this creation’s mystery is with the Supermind, that which he had by now attained.

The Path of Ascent was already traversed by them both before they met. The meeting took place on 29 March 1914, in the afternoon on that day at 4. This is the moment that marks the beginning of the Journey on the Path of Descent. It was possible individually for them to take the first path, but for the second their coming together was absolutely necessary. Such is also the significance of their meeting.

It is most unfortunate that there is total misrepresentation if not falsification of these spiritual realizations in the absurd Lives of Sri Aurobindo published last year by the Columbia University Press. One should be on one’s guard from such travesties glorified by the so-called academic-rational approach. Those whose concern solely is the spiritual seeking will of course adhere to the Path of Ascent before they can even speak of the Path of Descent. Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga begins where the other Yogas end.

~ RYD

Dr. Deshpande
What was the Mantra taht she was talking about. was that the Mantra of the Mother? I don't think so.
intheir love
Jagg

In this particular conversation the Mother is essentially speaking about the necessity of the Mantra, and that is in the entire context of the cellular transformation. Here she is not saying which specific one. That could mean that that was her Mantra—my mantra found by myself—which could have been different perhaps in the case of Sri Aurobindo had he gone along these lines. Let us read again what the Mother says: “I have also come to realize that for this sadhana of the body, the mantra is essential. Sri Aurobindo gave none; he said that one should be able to do all the work without having to resort to external means. Had he reached the point where we are now, he would have seen that the purely psychological method is inadequate and that a japa is necessary, because only japa has a direct action on the body. So I had to find the method all alone, to find my mantra by myself. But now that things are ready, I have done ten years of work in a few months. ...”

~ RYD

from the Agenda Oct 11 1960

So the first sound of my mantra is the call to that, the evocation. With the second sound, the body's cells make their' surrender,' they give themselves. And with the third sound comes the identification of this [the body] with That, which produces the divine life. These are my three sounds.

And in the beginning, during the first months that I was doing the japa, I felt them ... I had an almost detailed awareness of these myriads of cells opening to this vibration; the vibration of the first sound is an absolutely special vibration (you see, above, there is the light and all that, but beyond this light there is the original vibration), and this vibration was entering into all the cells and was reproduced in them. It went on for months in this way.

The talk dated Sept 16 1958 are also of interest.

I have a whole stock of mantras; they have all come spontaneously, never from the head. They sprang forth spontaneously, as the Veda is said to have sprung forth.....

“I have a whole stock of mantras; they have all come spontaneously, never from the head. They sprang forth spontaneously, as the Veda is said to have sprung forth.....” This is from the Mother’s talk dated 16 September 1958. The opening part of the talk is as follows.


I have a whole stock of mantras; they have all come spontaneously, never from the head. They sprang forth spontaneously, as the Veda is said to have sprung forth.

I don't know when it began—a very long time ago, before I came here, although some of them came while I was here. But in my case, they were always very short. For example, when Sri Aurobindo was here in his body, at any moment, in any difficulty, for anything, it always came like this: 'My Lord!'—simply and spontaneously—'My Lord!' And instantly, the contact was established. But since He left, it has stopped. I can no longer say it, for it would be like saying 'My Lord, My Lord!' to myself.

I had a mantra in French before coming to Pondicherry. It was Dieu de bonté et de miséricorde ... [God of kindness and mercy], but what it means is usually not understood—it is an entire program, a universal program. I have been repeating this mantra since the beginning of the century; it was the mantra of ascension, of realization. At present, it no longer comes in the same way, it comes rather as a memory. But it was deliberate, you see; I always said Dieu de bonté et de miséricorde, because even then I understood that everything is the Divine and the Divine is in all things and that it is only we who make a distinction between what is or what is not the Divine.

My experience is that, individually, we are in relationship with that aspect of the Divine which is not necessarily the most in conformity with our natures, but which is the most essential for our development or the most necessary for our action. For me, it was always a question of action because, personally, individually, each aspiration for personal development had its own form, its own spontaneous expression, so I did not use any formula. But as soon as there was the least little difficulty in action, it sprang forth. Only long afterwards did I notice that it was formulated in a certain way—I would utter it without even knowing what the words were. But it came like this: Dieu de bonté et de miséricorde. It was as if I wanted to eliminate from action all aspects that were not this one. And it lasted for ... I don't know, more than twenty or twenty-five years of my life. It came spontaneously.

Just recently one day, the contact became entirely physical, the whole body was in great exaltation, and I noticed that other lines were spontaneously being added to this Dieu de bonte et de misericorde, and I noted them down. It was a springing forth of states of consciousness—not words.

Seigneur, Dieu de bonte et de misericorde

Seigneur, Dieu d'unite souveraine

Seigneur, Dieu de beaute et d'harmonie

Seigneur, Dieu de puissance et de realisation

Seigneur, Dieu d'amour et de compassion

Seigneur, Dieu du silence et de la contemplation

Seigneur, Dieu de lumiere et de connaissance

Seigneur, Dieu de vie et d'immortalite

Seigneur, Dieu de jeunesse et de progres

Seigneur, Dieu d'abondance et de plenitude

Seigneur, Dieu de force et de sante.



Lord, God of kindness and mercy

Lord, God of sovereign oneness

Lord, God of beauty and harmony

Lord, God of power and realization

Lord, God of love and compassion

Lord, God of silence and contemplation

Lord, God of light and knowledge

Lord, God of life and immortality

Lord, God of youth and progress

Lord, God of abundance and plenitude

Lord, God of strength and health.



The words came afterwards, as if they had been superimposed upon the states of consciousness, grafted onto them. Some of the associations seem unexpected, but they were the exact expression of the states of consciousness in their order of unfolding. They came one after another, as if the contact was trying to become more complete. And the last was like a triumph. As soon as I finished writing (in writing, all this becomes rather flat), the impetus within was still alive and it gave me the sense of an all-conquering Truth. And the last mantra sprang forth:



Seigneur, Dieu de la Verite victorieuse!



Lord, God of victorious Truth!


Like a triumph. But I didn't write that one down because I did not want to spoil my impression.
Of course, these things should not be published. We can file them in this Agenda of the Supramental Manifestation for later on. Later on, when the Victory is won, we shall say, 'If you want to see the curve ... '

It is most unfortunate that there is total misrepresentation if not falsification of these spiritual realizations in the absurd Lives of Sri Aurobindo published last year by the Columbia University Press. One should be on one’s guard from such travesties glorified by the so-called academic-rational approach. Those whose concern solely is the spiritual seeking will of course adhere to the Path of Ascent before they can even speak of the Path of Descent. Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga begins where the other Yogas end.

The author of Lives of Sri Aurobindo is quite anal-retentive in interpreting Sri Aurobindo. The book says Sri Aurobindo was engaged in (and FAILED in) "supramentalizing the overmind" for 25 years but omits to say that it was the terrestrial, not individual. Perhaps he doesn't understand or doesn't know how to explain. Why he can't rely on the Mother's explanations is also a mystery. Perhaps he shares his mentor Michael Murphy's opinion that there was no supramental descent after all.

It is like a non-physicist writing a book on physics. The non-physicist would be tentative in his conclusions, verbatim in quoting his sources and verbose in his explanations.

The consciousness is like a ladder: at each great epoch there has been one great being capable of adding one more step to the ladder and reaching a place where the ordinary consciousness had never been. It is possible to attain a high level and get completely out of the material consciousness; but then one does not retain the ladder, whereas the great achievement of the great epochs of the universe has been the capacity to add one more step to the ladder without losing contact with the material, the capacity to reach the Highest and at the same time connect the top with the bottom instead of letting a kind of emptiness cut off all connection between the different planes. To go up and down and join the top to the bottom is the whole secret of realisation, and that is the work of the Avatar. Each time he adds one more step to the ladder there is a new creation upon earth.... The step which is being added now Sri Aurobindo has called the Supramental; as a result of it, the consciousness will be able to enter the supramental world and yet retain its personal form, its individualisation and then come down to establish here a new creation. Certainly this is not the last, for there are farther ranges of being; but now we are at work to bring down the supramental, to effect a reorganisation of the world, to bring the world back to the true divine order. It is essentially a creation of order, a putting of everything in its true place; and the chief spirit or force, the Shakti active at present is Mahasaraswati, the Goddess of perfect organisation.

The work of achieving a continuity which permits one to go up and down and bring into the material what is above, is done inside the consciousness. He who is meant to do it, the Avatar, even if he were shut up in a prison and saw nobody and never moved out, still would he do the work, because it is a work in the consciousness, a work of connection between the Supermind and the material being. He does not need to be recognised, he need have no outward power in order to be able to establish this conscious connection. Once, however, the connection is made, it must have its effect in the outward world in the form of a new creation, beginning with a model town and ending with a perfect world.

Question and Answers Vol 3

>>The book says Sri Aurobindo was engaged in (and FAILED in) "supramentalizing the overmind" for 25 years...>>

May I request you to give the page number where this, or effectively this statement, appears? Thanks.

~ RYD

page 351: This supramentalizing of the overmind would be the keynote of Sri Aurobindo's sadhana after 1927

and page 364, page 383

page 414: In November 1926 he had an experience that he called the descent of the overmind, the highest of the powers of consciousness between the ordinary mind and the divine power that he called the supermind. All that remained was to "supramentalise the overmind." This process was still in progress twenty-one years later, when he spoke of it in the last known reference to the state of his sadhana. He never announced that the process was complete.

As the Mother explains elsewhere, the action although in the physical was necessarily terrestrial in effect.

Sri Aurobindo and I had discussed the matter in 1914 (quite a long time ago), for we had seen two possibilities: what we are now doing, or to withdraw into solitude and isolation until we had not only attained the Supermind, but begun the material transformation as well. And Sri Aurobindo rightfully said that we could not isolate ourselves, for as you progress, you become more and more universalized, and consequently ... you take the burden upon yourself in any case. (Agenda, Sep 20, 1960)

If the action were individual, it would necessarily be extremely poor and limited; even if the individual is very vast and his consciousness is as vast as the earth, the experience is limited. It's still one aggregate of cells, which can only have a limited sum of experiences (maybe not in the course of time, but undeniably in space). But the minute the identification with the rest takes place, the consequences take place, too: the difficulties of the rest come and have to be absorbed, they have to be transformed. So it amounts to the same thing. It's exactly what's going on now: I don't go out, I have limited my activities as much as possible (I see plenty of people, but still infinitely less than before - before, I used to see them by the thousand), but this reduction is largely made up for by the widening of the physical, material consciousness, to such a point that I constantly, constantly have sensations that seem like individual sensations, but immediately I can see that they are other individuals' sensations, which come because the consciousness is spread out and receives all that in its movement: a movement as if one gathered everything together, then gave it to the Lord. (Agenda, November 28, 1964)

What has happened now I call a manifestation and not a descent, because it is not an individual event: the Supermind has burst forth into universal play. It has become a principle at constant work upon all earth—a possibility of a general order, as when the mind was first diffused over the earth. (Sethna's book)

("He never announced that the process was complete.")
This confirms what I have been thinking all along - that Sri Aurobindo did not have trikaldristi because if he did, he would seen and left behind more detailed documentation to satisfy the historian who would come to the Archives to investigate, among other things, why he got married to this particular woman and not some other (page 55: "Aurobindo clearly was not looking for intellectual companionship when he chose her...What then was he looking for?" ...HINT..HINT).

Apparently, the obvious motive (that he needed a life-partner) never crossed the mind of the historian.

Mother has here very clearly summarised the whole issue of ascent and descent.

But I need further clarifications:

1." It is possible to attain a high level and get completely out of the material consciousness; but then one does not retain the ladder.........instead of letting a kind of emptiness cut off all connection between the different planes. " This ascent without a material base and ladder is what is achieved in trance condition where a rapt silent matter supports a higher consciousness without itself being aware of the higher consciousness or of the intermediate ladder?

2. " whereas the great achievement of the great epochs of the universe has been the capacity to add one more step to the ladder without losing contact with the material, the capacity to reach the Highest and at the same time connect the top with the bottom instead of letting a kind of emptiness cut off all connection between the different planes." Significantly the Yoga of Aswapaty progresses like cosmic steps on the consciousness stair.Here the difference from stairless ascent would be that material participates with a rapt aspiration developed and perfected by the intermediate planes which supports the Highest?

3. This would also imply that the ascent to the next stair is possible only after the material manifestation by the previous stair? Which then raises the question about the epoch in which overmental manifestation on earth happened and the Avtar who effected it?

4. "Certainly this is not the last, for there are farther ranges of being" What I cant understand here is that where consciousness in the Supramental possesses the Truth and creates on that basis then would there still be difficulty in ascent beyond to higher ranges and their manifestation? Should not that be kind of spontaneous?

1." It is possible to attain a high level and get completely out of the material consciousness; but then one does not retain the ladder.........instead of letting a kind of emptiness cut off all connection between the different planes. " This ascent without a material base and ladder is what is achieved in trance condition where a rapt silent matter supports a higher consciousness without itself being aware of the higher consciousness or of the intermediate ladder?

This is probably explained by the example of the another Avatar Ramakrishna Paramahansa. The Divine Mother asked him to remain in bhavamukha (i.e. retain the ladder) for the benefit of mankind. This state is the boundary between the Immanent and the Transcendent Divine.

The Brahman-Sakti asked Ramakrishna to remain in bhavamukha, on the threshold of absolute consciousness. He gently oscillated and bridged the gulf between the Personal and the Impersonal, the immanent and the transcendent aspects of Reality. [52]
http://oaks.nvg.org/lg5ra3.html

These other questions can only be answered by an Avatar! So with diffidence and a tinge of humour...

2. " whereas the great achievement of the great epochs of the universe has been the capacity to add one more step to the ladder without losing contact with the material, the capacity to reach the Highest and at the same time connect the top with the bottom instead of letting a kind of emptiness cut off all connection between the different planes." Significantly the Yoga of Aswapaty progresses like cosmic steps on the consciousness stair.Here the difference from stairless ascent would be that material participates with a rapt aspiration developed and perfected by the intermediate planes which supports the Highest?

I believe here the Mother is referring to the fact that once one ascends to the Supermind, one finds that the Supermind is above as well as below - hidden in the Inconscient. (the capacity to reach the Highest and at the same time connect the top with the bottom)

This is Evening Talks page 297

One feels as if "digging the earth", as the Veda says. It is literally digging from Supermind above to Supermind below. The being has become conscious and there is constant movement up and down. The Veda calls it "the two ends" – the head and the tail of the dragon completing and compassing the con¬sciousness. I find that so long as Matter is not Supra-mentalised the mental and the vital also cannot be fully Supramentalised. The physical is therefore to be accepted and transformed. It is this birth after birth on every plane that makes the process complex. I am trying to bring the highest layer of the Supermind into the physical consciousness.

3. This would also imply that the ascent to the next stair is possible only after the material manifestation by the previous stair? Which then raises the question about the epoch in which overmental manifestation on earth happened and the Avtar who effected it?

Perhaps Krishna?

4. "Certainly this is not the last, for there are farther ranges of being" What I cant understand here is that where consciousness in the Supramental possesses the Truth and creates on that basis then would there still be difficulty in ascent beyond to higher ranges and their manifestation? Should not that be kind of spontaneous?

Agreed. Once you get there, it shouldn't be more difficult than putting on a pair of pants.
http://www.wikihow.com/Put-On-a-Pair-of-Pants

From what I read here, it seems that Heehs is specifically talking about supramentalizing the overmind. And Mother appears to be talking about the manifestation of the supermind in the physical, material world. Are they not talking of different things?

From what I read here, it seems that Heehs is specifically talking about supramentalizing the overmind. And Mother appears to be talking about the manifestation of the supermind in the physical, material world. Are they not talking of different things?

The phrase "supramentalizing the overmind" means "supramentalizing the overmind consciousness which descended into Sri Aurobindo's being/body". In a roundabout sort of way, the book is trying to say the same thing as the Mother but it is not easy to draw this inference. The Mother states it with a lot of clarity and simplicity while Heehs, who lacks spiritual development, takes complicated statements made by Sri Aurobindo and plonks them into his book verbatim.

We should give an impromptu written exam to all those academics who read this book and claim to have understood this gobbledygook :-)

Some of these people working in the Archives tend to put too much stress on chronology (i.e. he revised this chapter later therefore it must be more important than those other chapters, etc, etc) and scriptural literalism (he said this on this date so we must copy the same phrase into the book). In that aspect, they are similar to fundamentalists like us ...!!

Interesting and amusing...what you say. One more clarification - is Heehs accurate about SA not "supramentalizing the overmind" on any level - individual or terrestrial? Did/does supramentalizing the overmind in the invidual automatically lead to its manifestation in the physical world? If the supramentalizing actually occurred in Mother after SA left, was it in her or in the physical world or both simultanously? I am afraid, my phraseology is an index of my own poor development. :)

I am afraid, my phraseology is an index of my own poor development. :)

Thats ok as long as you don't sit in the Archives, publish damaging insinuations against the Master and call yourself a "expert on Sri Aurobindo" !

One more clarification - is Heehs accurate about SA not "supramentalizing the overmind" on any level - individual or terrestrial?

On page 363, Heehs briefly mentions the terrestrial effect in passing but no, he is not accurate. He should have mentioned the Mind of Light.

Sri Aurobindo had attained the descent into his body (Mind of Light) but it couldn't get fixed in him. He couldn't go further because he was unable to quiesce the cellular mind. If you read the Agenda, you will find Sri Aurobindo telling the Mother that her body was better therefore she had the capacity to continue the work. Her body had more endurance. She could work 18 hours a day without fatigue.

I heard (yesterday, I think, or the day before) a letter of Sri Aurobindo's in which he said that for the Supermind to be fixed here (he had noticed that the Supermind came into him and withdrew, came back and withdrew -- it wasn't stable), so he said: to become stable, it has to enter and settle in the physical mind.[[Actually, Mother means the bodily mind. ]] And that's just the work being done in me for months now: the mind has been removed, and the physical mind is taking its place. (Agenda, Dec 22 1971)

Did/does supramentalizing the overmind in the invidual automatically lead to its manifestation in the physical world?

Yes, if a few people (the pioneers) attain the descent , then it turns into an active principle in the Earth Consciousness. It is available on tap after that. If those who come later can ascend to the Supermind, then they will also be able to access it.

If the Supramental is brought to the physical then it might tend to endure, because Matter, though limited, is the one thing certain on this plane. If a number of men can reach this condition, then in course of time it may become a permanent force in mankind. It would certainly bring new forces into play in the universe and change the present balance of universal forces.
There may be many things beyond the Supermind but they cannot operate in this manifestation except through the Supermind. Therefore it must be made a permanent part of humanity.

Purani Evening Talks

If the supramentalizing actually occurred in Mother after SA left, was it in her or in the physical world or both simultanously?

In the world as well as in her body. What she was doing after 1956 was the descent of the surhomme (overman) - 1969 and then the transmutation into the new body. I haven't yet understood that part completely yet. Read Georges van Vrekhem's book.

===================

My personal opinion is that the biography should not dwell too much on issues like the Supramental Descent which are hard to prove to the common man. Just leave the question open. Keep it a mystery like Satprem did in his book. The purpose of writing the biography should be to bring new people who are ready into the fold. This obsession with historical accuracy in the sense of physical outer facts conflicts with the spiritual goal. The book must end on a positive note instead of ambivalence.