These days, I don't know whether it has come to the last battle, but it has descended very deep into the cells' worst-lit realm: what still belongs most to the world of Unconsciousness and Inertia and is most foreign to the divine Presence. It is, so to say, the primal substance that was first used by Life, and it has a sort of inability to feel, to experience a reason for that life.

In fact, it's something I had never experienced [that absence of meaning]; even in my earliest childhood, when there was no development, I always had a perception (not a mentalized but a vibrant perception) of a Power behind all things which is the raison d'être of all things—a Power, a Force, a kind of warmth.

It isn't the experience of THIS body's cells: it's an identification with the world in general, with the Earth as a whole. It's an absolutely frightful and hopeless condition: something meaningless, aimless, without raison d'être, without any joy in itself or ... and worse than disagreeable—meaningless, insensate. Something that has no raison d'être and yet is. It was ... it is a frightful situation.

I have an impression of being quite close to the bottom of the pit.

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The screen came to life with a bearded middle-aged man named Lalmohan Sheikh aboard a boat pointing to the horizon and saying: “There used to a church over there during my childhood but the hungry river gobbled it up.”

This was the opening scene of a documentary film produced by a non-governmental organisation that was premiered here in 24 Parganas district recently.

Launched in the presence of Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the documentary, “Mean Sea Level”, depicts the threat of erosion the island faces in the wake of rising water levels and the perilous effects of the phenomenon on the island-dwellers.

The island, located in the Sundarban delta near the mouth of the Hooghly, has lost half its landmass over the past 25 years to the river, leaving about 7,000 people displaced. It is gradually facing the same fate as the neighbouring Lohachara island that got eroded completely as the water level rose.

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The Atman/Self being eternal is formless and invariant. That is why It is called Nirguņa Parabrahma, the attributeless Supreme Being. It is the same in all beings, space and time. That is why It is all-pervading. Since It is perceived and recognized only on liberation from all attachments, It does not need liberation. It is not just Knowledge of a thing, as all other knowledge is. It is a Consciousness born out of realization of the Supreme Knowledge—the Knowledge of the Self.

This Awareness and consequent Bliss is embodied in the eternal Yogi, Shiva—Shivoham!

We have concluded this short but very intense and utmost spiritual journey through Dakshinamūrti Stotram, Ślokas on the Atman, and Nirvāna Şadgam.

May the Supreme bless us with this understanding of the Self.

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I am starting on the Stotras on the Atman, which again was composed by Aadi Shankara. The theme of this basically follows the Sri Dakshinamūrti Stotram in a very simple, direct illustration of the attributeless individual Atman.

“The word aham, usually translated as I, is truly the Atman, the one without a second—attributeless. Truth, indestructible even when the whole creation is dissolved, and of the nature of supreme Bliss and Purity. It cannot be referred to as the subtle elements like earth, water, fire, air or sky. Nor can It be referred to as combination or modification of these—the gross body and the senses. The Atman is experiences as persistent consciousness even in deep sleep when the gross body and senses are not recognized.”

This śloka defines that I, philosophically and in truth is the Atman—the eternal Being. What we normally perceive of ourselves as the physical body and senses is not the reality, since they keep changing all the time. The Atman, as an Observer, is awake in us even when we are in deep sleep. That is why on waking up, we are able to recognize ourselves and relate to previous happenings.

This Atman is the same in all of us and is the One we salute on greeting each other with namaste.

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Sri Dakshinamūrti Stotram, also known as Dashashloki, was one of the final compositions of Adi Shankara. In just the first nine ślokas, Shankara beautifully and in his typical lyrical fashion, brings out the essence of Vedantic philosophy. Shankara not only had the gift of brevity but also great insight into abstract and seminal philosophical thoughts. The Stotra symbolises the Eternal Brahman in the form of Guru—the living guide for our spiritual upliftment. Shankara uses simile to great effect in explaining the complex and abstract concepts in Sri Dakshinamūrti Stotram.

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... In this connection let me briefly narrate an interesting research a friend of mine carried out recently. She was conducting a class in Cambridge when she wanted to find out the kind of responses she would get from students when different styles of prose writings were given to them for study. As a part of the exercise she picked up a number of passages from a particular author and gave these to them, of course without disclosing his identity; nor did she reveal the names of the books from where these passages were selected.

The answer from the students was astonishing. They all said: “This author must have been from Cambridge.” They justified it in terms of the sweep and dignity of the style, the depth of thought, the powerful rhythm in which the prose moved,—the hallmark of a Cambridge educated was unmistakable in those passages, they maintained.

The author selected by my friend was Sri Aurobindo!

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Beyond the trembling veil of sight he disappeared
When with purple dusk the wind surged towards the sea.
In slow advancing night the dim boat sailed
To an island crowded by shadow-birds of Time:
The shouts of broken wings, of waves, beings
Falling not with their weight but with deathfulness
Of thickening gravity—they soon led him leeward.
His name drifted under the flood…

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Prof Mangesh V Nadkarni: Thanks to Sucheta for sending this picture of her father giving a lecture on Savitri. On 6 March 2009 Mangesh V Nadkarni would have been 76, but destiny hastened to take him on another path of progress unknown to us. Here is a short tribute to him from his fond admirer Ranjan Naik. Nadkarni had his first Darshan of the Mother in 1956. At that time the Mother was very active and he must have seen her in the Playground and the Tennis Ground on the sea-beach. After marriage, he and his wife Mira came first to the Ashram in 1961 when they had the Terrace Darshan. In 1966 they together went to the Mother and had received Blessings directly from her. Their younger daughter Sucheta was educated in the Ashram school in New Delhi. MVN came back from Singapore in 1992 and lived in Secundrabad. He used to visit Pondicherry very often for extended stay and later got settled down here. It is here that his Savitri-sessions started becoming famous, wide-ranging as his presentations always were. My own personal contact with the Nadkarnis was since 1992. My wife and Mrs Nadkarni are great friends.

~ RYD

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Many things to say, but... it is better to come to the end. It is a curve. Better to reach the end. It is too early to speak. The movements of the body almost in their totality are habitual movements. Behind, there is the consciousness of the physical mind (what I call the “cellular mind”), which is itself constantly conscious of the divine Presence and is keen on accepting nothing but That; so a whole work is going on for changing, shifting the origin of the movements. I mean to say that instead of it just being automatically the habit, it should be automatically the divine Presence and Consciousness that causes the movement (Mother makes a gesture of pushing the Consciousness into the body). But it is quite, quite inexpressible; that is to say, as soon as you try to express it, it is mentalised, it is no longer itself. That is why it is very difficult to express it. I cannot speak of it.

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The events that sway the world are often the results of trivial circumstances. When immense changes and irresistible movements are in progress, it is astonishing how a single event, often a chance event, will lead to a train of circumstances that alter the face of a country or the world. At such times a slight turn this way or that produces results out of all proportion to the cause. It is on such occasions that we feel most vividly the reality of a Power which disposes of events and defeats the calculations of men. The end of many things is brought about by the sudden act of a single individual. A world vanishes, another is created almost at a touch. Certainty disappears and we begin to realise what the pralaya of the Hindus, the passage from one' age to another, really means and how true is the idea that it is by rapid transitions long-prepared changes are induced. Such a change now impends all over the world, and in almost all countries events are happening, the final results of which the actors do not foresee.

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Disciple: There are two ways of foretelling the future: the astrological calculations which are based upon the general lines of character and happenings indicated by the stars, another is that of clairvoyance in which the image of the future event, correct even to the minutest detail, is brought before the vision. How does this happen?

Sri Aurobindo: These clairvoyants are awake on the physical plane and because they are passive these images which are already there in the subtle impose themselves upon their vision; of course, you .must have this vision in order to know the future.

Disciple: Can the events, thus foreseen, be averted? Generally, there is something always missing in the vision which does not allow men to escape it, e.g., the, place or the time of the event is not indicated etc. But there are some instances in which the foreknowledge of the event has allowed the man to change the result foreseen.

Sri Aurobindo: There is a vital image which is a possibility and it can be prevented; secondly there is the image of the event on the subtle physical plane which, if it is fixed, can't be avoided.

Disciple: Are there events absolutely fixed which cannot be changed?

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, there are. If you want to change then you have to go to a plane which is higher than the one where these things are decided and that is not always easy.

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When and how did I become conscious of a mission which I was to fulfill on earth? And when and how I met Sri Aurobindo?

These two questions you have asked me and I promised a short reply.

For the knowledge of the mission, it is difficult to say when it came to me. It is as though I were born with it, and following the growth of the mind and brain, the precision and completeness of this consciousness grew also.

Between 11 and 13 a series of psychic and spiritual experiences revealed to me not only the existence of God but man's possibility of uniting with Him, of realising Him integrally in consciousness and action, of manifesting Him upon earth in a life divine. This, along with a practical discipline for its fulfilment, was given to me during my body's sleep by several teachers, some of whom I met afterwards on the physical plane.

Later on, as the interior and exterior development proceeded, the spiritual and psychic relation with one of these beings became more and more clear and frequent; and although I knew little of the Indian philosophies and religions at that time I was led to call him Krishna, and henceforth I was aware that it was with him (whom I knew I should meet on earth one day) that the divine work was to be done.

In the year 1910 my husband came alone to Pondicherry where, under very interesting and peculiar circumstances, he made the acquaintance of Sri Aurobindo. Since then we both strongly wished to return to India—the country which I had always cherished as my true mother-country. And in 1914 this joy was granted to us.

As soon as I saw Sri Aurobindo I recognised in him the well-known being whom I used to call Krishna… And this is enough to explain why I am fully convinced that my place and my work are near him, in India.

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I was on a huge boat which was a symbolic representation of the place where this work is going on. This boat, as large as a city, is fully organised, and it had certainly already been functioning for some time, for its organisation was complete. It is the place where people who are destined for the supramental life are trained. These people—or at least a part of their being —had already undergone a supramental transformation, for the boat itself and everything on board was neither material nor subtle-physical nor vital nor mental—it was a supramental substance. This substance was of the most material supramental, the supramental substance which is closest to the physical world, the first to manifest. The light was a mixture of gold and red, forming a uniform substance of a luminous orange. Everything was like that—the light was like that, the people were like that—everything had that colour, although with various shades which made it possible to distinguish things from each other. The general impression was of a world without shadows; there were shades but no shadows. The atmosphere was full of joy, calm, order; everything went on regularly and in silence. And at the same time one could see all the details of an education, a training in all fields, by which the people on board were being prepared.

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This article is an attempt to demonstrate how Sri Aurobindo’s spiritual realizations could be presented through a non-devotional approach by developing a proper metaphysical background. For the sake of brevity, this article will not repeat the definitions of concepts which are already well-known within the Integral Yoga community. It will only cover the Sri Aurobindo’s yogic life until the departure to Pondicherry. Lastly, it should be viewed as a skeleton or template to be expanded rather than a complete description of that period of his life.
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