We must remember the
galvanising words of the Master: “Materially you are nothing, spiritually you
are everything. It is only the Indian who can believe everything, dare
everything, sacrifice everything. First therefore become Indians. Recover the
patrimony of your forefather. Recover the Aryan thought, the Aryan discipline,
the Aryan character, the Aryan life. Recover the Vedanta, the Gita, the Yoga.
Recover them not only in intellect or sentiment but in your lives. Live them
and you will be great and strong, mighty, invincible and fearless. Neither life
nor death will have any terrors for you. Difficulty and impossibility will
vanish from your vocabularies.”
And this is what the
Mother says: “The world will be made better only in proportion as we make
ourselves better. The Vedantic truth that the world is only a projection—a
function—of our consciousness is as pragmatically true as it is spiritually
true. The ills that humanity suffers from—collectively and individually—stem
from the errors that lie at the root of our ignorant nature. We must be cleaned
of these evils—individually first of all—if we ever hope to see a clean world
outside. A yoga of self-purification is the condition precedent to a yoga of
perfection.” (16
August 1967) It is of course wrong to expect that every individual of the
country will rise to this prospect of the “yoga of perfection”, but not to be
aware of it is a sad commentary on our state of affairs.
A seven point oath
In this
context let us quickly recall the speech given by the President of India on the
eve of India’s
sixtieth Independence Day. He pays respects to the freedom fighters and assures
that the nation will always cherish and be inspired by their contributions
towards making India
independent. While speaking about the national development scene, he lists
economic development towards Vision 2020, role models for educationists,
teachers, doctors and nurses, information and communication technology, and
rural development. Putting his faith in the strength of the country’s youth and
the civilizational heritage, he pledges them to take a Seven Point Oath:
·I realize, I have to set a goal in
my life. To achieve the goal, I will acquire the knowledge, I will work hard,
and when the problem occurs, I have to defeat the problem and succeed.
·As a youth of my nation, I will
work and work with courage to achieve success in all my tasks and enjoy the
success of others.
·I shall always keep myself, my
home, my surroundings, neighbourhood and environment clean and tidy.
·I realize righteousness in the
heart leads to beauty in the character, beauty in the character brings harmony
in the home, harmony in the home leads to order in the nation and order in the
nation leads to peace in the world.
·I will lead an honest life free
from all corruption and will set an example for others to adopt a righteous way
of life.
·I will light the lamp of knowledge
in the nation and ensure that it remains lit for ever.
·I realize, whatever work I do if I
do the best, I am contributing towards realizing the vision of developed India
2020.
The
mantra that must be chanted
This is
perfectly fine, a well-meant exhortation and advice. But does a living nation
wait for such an advice to come from the
head of a state? It is the society which must recognise values and build
up the national character around them. It is the concern not of the State but
of the Society. The mantra that must be chanted by every soul of the country is
here:
Mother Durga! Rider on the lion,
giver of all strength, Mother, beloved of Siva! We, born from thy parts of
Power, we the youth of India,
are seated here in thy temple. Listen, O Mother, descend upon earth, make
thyself manifest in this land
of India. Mother Durga!
From age to age, in life after life, we come down into the human body, do thy
work and return to the Home of Delight. Now too we are born, dedicated to thy
work. Listen, O Mother, descend upon earth, come to our help… Mother Durga! India lies low
in selfishness and fearfulness and littleness. Make us great, make our efforts
great, our hearts vast, make us true to our resolve. May we no longer desire
the small, void of energy, given to laziness, stricken with fear. Mother Durga!
Extend wide the power of Yoga. We are thy Aryan children, develop in us again
the lost teaching, character, strength of intelligence, faith and devotion,
force of austerity, power of chastity and true knowledge, bestow all that upon
the world. To help mankind, appear, O Mother of the world, dispel all ills…
Mother Durga! Enter our bodies in thy Yogic strength. We shall become thy
instruments, thy sword slaying all evil, thy lamp dispelling all ignorance.
Fulfil this yearning of thy young children, O Mother. Be the master and drive
thy instrument, wield thy sword and slay the evil, hold up the lamp and spread
the light of knowledge. Make thyself manifest…
It is in this mantra that the power
of the country lives and it is in it that we must live. It is not a mantra that
belongs to any particular religion—it is the Mantra of the Power of the Eternal.
It is the aspiration of the soul to become capable of serving the cause of
nobility, of slaying the evil residing in the hearts of men, of removing
darkness with the lamp of the light that never dims. It is the mantra for man’s
manhood to grow in the precious values of truth and light and love and joy and
strength and harmony and perfection. It is not the mantra that was given by the
head of a state, by the patriarch of a society, by the president of a
parliament of religion. It had its birth in the fire of a yogi one in
consciousness of the Divine and, when it repeats itself in rhythmic strains,
“thought, vision, feeling, sense, the body’s self are seized unalterably,” and
occurs in us an immortal change. We experience the rush of wisdom and knowledge
and power in our entire being and, possibly, we even get ready to work in its
rewarding luminous dynamism. It is to that sense of greatness that India must
arise.
The independence day message
In this context let us read relevant
part of the message Sri Aurobindo had given on the occasion of the independence
of India,
on 15 August 1947:
India today is free but she has not
achieved unity… the old communal division into Hindus and Muslims seems now to
have hardened into a permanent political division of the country. It is to be
hoped that this settled fact will not be accepted as settled for ever or as
anything more than a temporary expedient. For if it lasts, India may be
seriously weakened, even crippled: civil strife may remain always possible,
possible even a new invasion and foreign conquest. India's internal development and
prosperity may be impeded, her position among the nations weakened, her destiny
impaired or even frustrated. This must not be; the partition must go. Let us
hope that that may come about naturally, by an increasing recognition of the
necessity not only of peace and concord but of common action, by the practice
of common action and the creation of means for that purpose. In this way unity
may finally come about under whatever form—the exact form may have a pragmatic
but not a fundamental importance. But by whatever means, in whatever way, the
division must go; unity must and will be achieved, for it is necessary for the
greatness of India's
future.
Potent and mighty powers at play
Sri Aurobindo never visualised an India
partitioned on the basis of communal concerns and ideologies, on the basis of
sectarian, creedal, dogmatic factors, factors that breed intolerance. Not only
will the entry of such religious considerations in social and political life
prove disastrous; there is the danger of the soul of the country sinking into
the night of mediaeval sleep. We might trace some of the events that led to
this preposterous situation, even while Sri Aurobindo warned of the dangers
involved in it. He was alert to the issues, not only in the Indian context but
also in the world context, in the context of the nobler social and spiritual
destiny of mankind which he saw ahead of time. Potent and mighty powers were at
play and their occult implications could have far reaching consequences in
determining the evolutionary march of the race.
In this respect some of
Sri Aurobindo’s conversations with his disciples are extremely revealing. The
first thing that we perhaps notice in them is the extent to which he, though
confined to his remote Cave of Tapasya, was observant of the happenings in the
world. Not only did he follow the significant developments during the Second
World War, but he also applied his yogic force in definitively reorienting
their course. His public announcement recommending the acceptance of the
Cripps Proposals in 1942, vis-à-vis the independence of India, bears
ample testimony of his active interest in it. It is a pity that it was rejected
by the country’s wise men of those epochal days. Sharply reacting to it, the
Mother said: “Now calamity will befall India.” Sri Aurobindo, however,
never ceased to be up-to-date. Apropos of those momentous historical events,
Nirodbaran writes: “We shared with Sri Aurobindo his hopes and fears, his
anticipations, prognostications and prophecies. He allowed us some glimpses
into his action and gave a calm assurance of the victory for the Divine cause.”
During the early phase
of the War, Hitler was marching triumphantly with his panzer divisions and in
no time destroyed Paris.
“Having won the Battle of France decisively,” reports Nirodbaran, “Hitler now
turned his attention to winning the Battle of Britain. He fixed 15 August 1940
as the day on which he would complete his conquest of Western Europe and
broadcast from BuckinghamPalace. When Sri
Aurobindo heard of this he remarked ‘that is the sign that he is the enemy of
our work…’ But 15 August turned out to be a turning point for Britain. On
that day 180 German planes were shot down in British skies… A month later, on
the same date, 15 September 1940, Sri Aurobindo said smiling: ‘England has
destroyed 175 German planes, a very big number. Now invasion will be difficult.
Hitler lost his chance after the fall of France. He has really missed the
bus!’ ” Another force was set up against him. It was the Mother’s War and Sri
Aurobindo took full charge of the situation. Behind Hitler’s success he saw the
working of a powerful Asura in the task of “enslavement of mankind to the
tyranny of evil.” This would have been disastrous, with a long setback for the
course of spiritual evolution for which Sri Aurobindo was working. None knew
about it.
Not only did he apply
his yogic force when such catastrophic events were taking place; he and the
Mother also made a monetary contribution to the War fund. In their letter to
the Governor of Madras dated 19 September 1940 they declared: “We feel that not
only is this a battle waged in just self-defence and in defence of the nations
threatened with the world-domination of Germany and the Nazi system of life,
but that it is a defence of civilisation and its highest attained social,
cultural and spiritual values and of the whole future of humanity. To this
cause our support and sympathy will be unswerving whatever may happen; we look
forward to the victory of Britain
and, as the eventual result, an era of peace and union among the nations and a
better and more secure world-order.” Who in this land of ours had the idea of
the disaster that was waiting for mankind in the victory of the Nazi way of
life, of Hitler’s running over nations and countries? None, and how sad! It
seems that we had lost our heads and our souls. If at all, there was the
charismatic appeal to the gullible to side with the devil in his vast gloomy doings.
Here was Mahatma Gandhi with the ethico-religious mind recommending submission
to the Falsehood that was at the basis of this dark creation. His Times
letter in July 1940, addressed to the British, runs as follows: “I want you to
fight Nazism without arms, or, if I am to retain the military terminology, with
non-violent arms. I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being
useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor
Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions.
Let them take possession of your beautiful island, with your many beautiful
buildings. You will give all these but neither your souls nor your minds. If
these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do
not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves man, woman and child,
to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them.” Putting such
an ultra-Christian doctrine on the highest pedestal of ethical excellence,
making it an eminent principle of administration in the daily mode of life of
the individual as well as of a whole society is not only to dwarf them; in
fact, in its cruellest sense it is to turn all towards anti-humanity.
Exceptionally important
issues
These are exceptionally
important issues, even as they have bearings on the fate of India’s
freedom. India’s
willing participation in the War effort was necessary and the British Prime
Minister of the time, Winston Churchill, had made a proposal through Sir
Stafford Cripps to the Indian leaders with the possibility of Dominion Status
to the country after the War. Sri Aurobindo saw in it India becoming free
and remaining united and extended his explicit and precise support to it. In a
telegram dated 31 March 1942 he writes to Cripps: “I have heard your broadcast.
As one who was a nationalist leader and worker for India’s independence, though now my
activity is no longer in the political but in the spiritual field, I wish to
express my appreciation of all you have done to bring about this offer. I
welcome it as an opportunity given to India to determine for herself, and
organise in all liberty of choice, her freedom and unity, and take an effective
place among the world’s free nations. I hope that it will be accepted, and
right use made of it, putting aside all discords and divisions. I hope too that
friendly relations between Britain
and India
replacing the past struggles will be a step towards a greater world union in
which, as a free nation, her spiritual force will contribute to build for
mankind a better and happier life. In this light, I offer my public adhesion,
in case it can be of any help in your work.” Sir Stafford Cripps replied: “I am
most touched and gratified by your kind message allowing me to inform India
that you who occupy a unique position in the imagination of Indian youth, are
convinced that the declaration of His Majesty’s Government substantially
confers that freedom for which Indian Nationalism has so long struggled.”
Behind the Cripps Mission, the British thinking was to
secure Indian cooperation and support for the War efforts, and not so much the
concern for India’s
freedom. On this issue the usual unseeing Congress was divided, with Mahatma
Gandhi opposing the Indian involvement in the War, something unethical he would
not like to enter into. Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru,
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, however, supported the effort.
The Cripps proposals
The proposals made by
Cripps had essentially the following points: The Dominion Status to India after
the War envisaged a common allegiance to the Crown but in no respect subordinate to it; India would be free to frame her
own constitution; the task of organising the military, moral and
material resources would be the responsibility of the Government of India in
cooperation with the peoples of India. In the event of non-acceptance of the
proposals “the responsibility for the failure,” warns Cripps in no uncertain
terms, “must rest with them.” Sri Aurobindo knew the British psychology of
doing things in stages and explained it so to his disciples, that the proposals
effectively amounted to freedom which also assured unity. Not only that. He
sent Doraiswamy Iyer, his disciple and the famous Madras
lawyer, as an envoy to Delhi
with a brief advocating to the leaders to accept the proposals. The Mahatma
proclaimed that the Cripps proposals were a post-dated cheque drawn on a bank
that was crashing. He also retorted that, as Sri Aurobindo had retired from
politics, he had no business to interfere in these matters. In the rejection of
the proposals in spite of Sri Aurobindo’s advocacy, the Mother saw a greater
calamity befalling India,
reports Nirodbaran. We know the bloodbath that followed in the wake of India’s
partitioned freedom. We are still reaping its consequences.
Apropos of the Cripps Proposal reference
may also be made to the following posts:
The Heehs imbroglio has exposed how precarious it is to find the “righteous way.” India’s Spiritual Destiny will have to wait until we are politically literate, at the least. [TNM]
Let me read along with you the preface for The Lives of Sri Aurobindo and you will see that the tone is fixed right at the start. Our young author, who also did at that time taxi-driving in the US, once chanced to visit a Yoga centre where on the wall were three pictures. He narrates that one of them was the standard portrait of Aurobindo. “I was struck by the peaceful expanse of his brow, his trouble-free face, and fathomless eyes. It would be years before I learned that all of these features owed their distinctiveness to the retoucher’s art.”
Later on, in the same preface, there is a long discussion about this “heavily retouched” photo which has been published millions of times, a photo which is a “botched piece of work”. The author concludes: “It is the task of the retoucher to make the photograph accord with the reality that people want to see.” This also means that, it is the task of a meticulous historian and researcher to expose all that is made up, and debunk what is easily accepted by the gullible. That looks pretty noble, and righteous indeed. And, obviously, the Mother should be faulted for allowing these millions of botched up photos to be distributed, photos with sparkling eyes painted.
So the peaceful expanse of the brow, the trouble-free face, and the fathomless eyes were after all the artifacts, the work of art, and not the realities of the subject portrayed, not the authentic things, the details which are not there intrinsically but which emanated from the retoucher's imagination and skill. It’s a pity our author was fooled by it and, not long before, arrived at the Ashram. But let it be as it is. One thing however is patent enough: in one single stroke of aggressive falsehood he dismisses all that is spiritual and yogic in Sri Aurobindo.
Is that imbroglio or distortion and falsification?
If we are at it again, here's a burst on this donnybrook ...
I don't know if attention has been drawn to another sarcastic remark by Peter on Page 396:
He who had written in the Record thirty years earlier that he was able to keep his teeth clean without "artificial means of preservation or cleansing (brush, powder, etc)" now submitted to having them brushed with Neem toothpaste and freshened with Vadecum mouthwash.
This spiritually ignorant man (did I hear objective?) delights in taking such subtle digs at Sri Aurobindo. If he had bothered to ask around before publishing the book, we could have explained this situation to him.
Circa 1910, Sri Aurobindo was witnessing the physical transformation that comes with the free movement of Kundalini all through the body - and hence he made the pertinent observation that he didn't seem to require any "artificial means to keep his teeth clean".
Circa 1940, Sri Aurobindo's consciousness had transcended his physical body and assumed terrestrial proportions. In this new situation, he had no inclination to exert his Yogic power on minor details like teeth-cleaning. Relevant here is also the Mother's observation about the state of her consciousness wherein her teeth deteriorated due to contact with people.
http://mother-agenda.narod.ru/Agenda_11/1970-07-11.htm This (gesture from the throat to the mouth) is the connection with people, and that's EXTREMELY unpleasant, really extremely unpleasant (I can't say), and materially it results in the deterioration of teeth and ... Very unpleasant.
I suppose such sublime explanations rarely present themselves to this "acclaimed" biographer.
And what is the point behind all this criticism?
Post-modernist pedants sidetrack the problem by lecturing us on how "we must not overreact and be detached and capable of withstanding criticism of our Master". This ignores the fact that this worthless and frequently unjustified criticism puts out wrong vibrations which could affect the subconscient of lay readers and potentially turn them away from Sri Aurobindo & The Mother.
If you haven't reached the point where you still harbour doubts or disbelief, maybe you should first clear those doubts internally before writing a book. There is no need to submit your ignorance to the auspices of a book.
Two quick observations:
A: Circa 1940, Sri Aurobindo's consciousness had transcended his physical body…
RYD: His consciousness had transcended the physical long decades before 1940. What was happening after 1938 is something altogether different than that. His physical was responding directly to the supramental light and force. This he has described in his sonnet The Golden Light dated 8 August 1938. The Mother told the same thing to Amal in 1954.
A: This (gesture from the throat to the mouth) is the connection with people, and that's EXTREMELY unpleasant, really extremely unpleasant (I can't say), and materially it results in the deterioration of teeth and ... Very unpleasant.
RYD: The Mother speaks of the unpleasant effects due to connection with people; it is particularly so when the body is undergoing the supramental transformation. Dyuman-bhai told me on one occasion what the Mother had instructed him once. He had to do some work in Sri Aurobindo’s room—I think it was replacing a fused electric bulb. He had to carry a ladder also to reach the ceiling. She told him categorically not to look at all at Sri Aurobindo, but just do the work as quickly as possible and come out. His body had become extremely sensitive to all kinds of vibrations and precaution was necessary. In it also lies the greatness of the attendants who served him in his room, particularly after the accident on 24 November 1938.
Apropos of Sri Aurobindo's body it is to be noted that after He left His body, an early disciple of Sri Aurobindo used the phrase "the mortal remains of Sri Aurobindo" in writing about His passing away. The Mother emphatically stated to the disciple " There was nothing mortal about Sri Aurobindo".
Yes, it was Amal. After Sri Aurobindo’s passing away Amal kind of got frozen. He was evidently unable to fathom the mystery of this drastic step the Master-Yogi had taken. He prayed to the Mother and slowly the light started appearing in his soul. He then wrote that long “strategic” article entitled the Significance of the Passing away of Sri Aurobindo. He showed the draft to the Mother, the draft in which he had written about “mortal remains” put in the Samadhi. The Mother at once struck out the phrase and told Amal that there was nothing “mortal” in him. She ordered the printing of 5000 copies of the booklet. We do not have anything of the sort in the Lives of Sri Aurobindo. Instead, we have the following in it: “Like all icons, he is misrepresented by his admirers as well as his detractors, praised or reviled for things he never said or did… The value of Sri Aurobindo’s achievements can only be gauged by examining the historical and literary evidence and assessing the nature and effects of his thought and action.” Assertions of the yogic or supramental aspects have no place in that scrutiny!
Oh crikey! another false conclusion by Mr. Objective on Page 34
Four decades after that, he wrote that his father died "uttering his [Aurobindo's] name in lamentation." 110. This anecdote, which Aurobindo must have heard on his return from England, is almost certainly fictitious. No member of the family was present in Khulna. De, who left the only eyewitness account, does not mention any last words.
But it is interesting that Aurobindo accepted the story and recounted it as fact a half-century later.
The dear fellow ignores the significance of the trikaldristi that the Master had acquired. Sri Aurobindo could have easily observed his father's condition at the time of death. The Master wasn't some aging thoughtless fool dying of kidney failure.
Here is Vivekananda’s powerful portrait with eyes penetrating into the very soul of God.
Or is it again the case of retoucher attending to his task of making the photograph accord with the reality that people want to see? This is what we will be told, I surmise.
Well, even if this photo was touched up, actually I would consider that to be a valid mode of expression in its own right ... it is a subtle seeing that one is trying to convey through a touched-up photograph. Ditto with the medium of hagiography or mythopoesis. They are valid modes of expression in their own right ... not necessarily inferior to academic biographies or accurate historiography (though of course there is a place for the latter as well).
Let me quote in the following from the Mother’s Agenda 5 November 1961:
As a matter of fact, the books he [Paul Richard] wrote (especially the first one, The Living Ether) were based on my knowledge; he put my knowledge into French—and beautiful French, I must say! I would tell him my experiences and he would write them down. Later he wrote The Gods (it was incomplete, one-sided). Then he became a lawyer and entered politics (he was a first-class orator and fired his audiences with enthusiasm) and was sent to Pondicherry to help a certain candidate who couldn't manage his election campaign single-handed. And since Richard was interested in occultism and spirituality, he took this opportunity to seek a 'Master,' a yogi. When he arrived, instead of involving himself in politics, the first thing he did was announce, 'I am seeking a yogi.' Someone said to him, 'You're incredibly lucky! The yogi has just arrived.' It was Sri Aurobindo, who was told, 'There's a Frenchman asking to see you....' Sri Aurobindo wasn't particularly pleased but he found the coincidence rather interesting and received him. This was in 1910.
When Richard had finished his work, he returned to France with a poor photograph of Sri Aurobindo and a completely superficial impression of him, yet with the feeling that Sri Aurobindo KNEW (he hadn't at all understood the man that Sri Aurobindo was, he hadn't felt the presence of an Avatar, but he had sensed that he had knowledge). Moreover, I think he always held this opinion, because he used to say that Sri Aurobindo was a unique intellectual giant ... without many spiritual realizations! (The same type of stupidity as Romain Rolland's.)
In The Lives of Sri Aurobindo we have once again the same stupidity.
