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Out of lemon flowers
Loosed
on the moonlight, love's
lashed and insatiable
essences,
sodden with fragrance,
the lemon tree's yellow
emerges,
the lemons
move down
from the tree's planetarium
Delicate merchandise!

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By itself ‘Lori Ham' seems a rather rhythmic expression. When you learn what it means it acquires a curious edge. It has a harmony about it, connected as it is with the poetry of pottery. Lori means village and Ham stands for pottery, except it's not the regular earthenware made by potters across the country. Lori Ham specifically applies to the black pottery made at Nungbi village in the northern parts of Ukhrul district, Manipur. Almost all villages of Manipur make their trademark pottery, each determined by its colours and designs.

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Don't imagine that being orderly, regular, punctual, must prevent you from being happy and smiling. It is not necessary to pull a long face when carrying out a task exactly. And to prove it to you, we shall end this lesson on order with a little laughter. Listen to this example of punctuality, which should not be copied. An Arab lady had a servant. She sent him to a neighbour's house to fetch some embers to light her fire. The servant met a caravan going towards Egypt. He began talking with the men and decided to go with them. And he stayed away a whole year. On his return, he went into the neighbour's house to fetch the embers. But as he was carrying them, he tripped and fell. The burning coals dropped and went out. Then he cried: “What a nuisance to be in a hurry!”

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Imagination is the body of God

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William Blake saw the eternal body
Made not of dream but of imagination.
The sweet-scented orchards, the dark nightingales…
They are a sound of suggestions, a rustle...

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The action of the new Consciousness is pitiless. In it the whole mental construction in the organisation of the body is false. It seems to impose itself with an extraordinary force. The body was saying all the time: “These are dreams. It was frightful!” And all that is gone. The body itself feels the divine Presence. It has already undergone a change. It is a past that has passed. The truth is the physical is capable of receiving the higher Light, the Truth, the true Consciousness and of manifesting it. It took a little more than a year for this Consciousness to win this victory. And still, naturally, it is not visible except to those who have the inner vision, but it is done. It was this, the work that Sri Aurobindo had given me. That had been the battle; but something happened, and the body answered with its attitude: “It is as Thou willest, Lord, as Thou willest.” Like a flash everything disappeared! And this also: how far, how far will the body be able to go? This also, it is perfectly peaceful and happy: it is “What Thou willest.” This is the realisation, altogether concrete and absolute, when coming out of Matter: it is sure and certain one will have it even here. How much he has worked since he left! Oh! ... all the while, all the while. It seems to be a miracle in the body.

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As a young particle physicist or indeed as a scientist, I am all too conscious of the complete dearth of eminent role models to have emerged from Pakistan or the Muslim world at large and as such, I for one will wholeheartedly endorse the recognition and status bestowed on Dr Abdus Salam by the rest of the world; an honour he rightfully deserved, especially in the country to which he showed such zealous commitment.

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Most of our problems revolve around the questions: What is our life? What am I? What must I do? Why am I here? Where I will be going? Some of us at some time or other in our lives reach the point where we feel: “I am living a useless life. What is all this for? I feel so insignificant—like a dry leaf which is wafted in the wind.” Then there arises inevitable despair and frustration. The response to this human despondency is the teaching contained in this scripture. The text itself clarifies for what kind of readers this work is meant. It tells us that he is the proper person to study this work who has become aware of his bondage and longs to be free; he who is no longer in utter ignorance, but has not yet attained wisdom. It means the philosophy of this work is meant for those on whom reflective consciousness has dawned and who are convinced that life, as it is lived, is characterized by bondage, evil and suffering. The author has depicted such a person’s psychology in the mentality of Rama, the pupil of Vasishtha.

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Here the anthem doth commence:
Love and constancy is dead;
Phoenix and the turtle fled
In a mutual flame from hence. …
Whereupon it made this threne
To the phoenix and the dove,
Co-supreme and stars of love;
As chorus to their tragic scene.

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Perceptively concluding that our failure has something to do with governance, we tried both dictatorship and democracy, but neither worked. This calls for an urgent analysis of why what works for swans does not work for us, and developing our own walk. Sociologists say that political systems derive from social structures. Democracy works best in societies with atomistic families where sub-national identities between national and family levels, e.g., based on community and religion, are weak or do not affect people’s political choices, which are based on policies. … The grass-root approach adopted by Congress, particularly Gandhi—going to villages to raise awareness—also helped in establishing democracy on a stronger footing than in Pakistan where the Muslim League co-opted feudal elements. Even though most of India was not ready for democracy in 1947, enough of it allowed an urban educated leadership to become the largest single group and gain control in parliament. This was not true of Pakistan. That is why land reforms were easy in India and difficult in Pakistan. Nehru’s longevity also helped.

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I was not quite 19 when I left shores of my native India for the promise of America, an only child of accomplished parents whose ambitions for their son did not necessarily embrace the possibility of his going away from home forever. But that's what happened. It wasn't as though I never returned to India—but those were occasional visits.

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A black bird settles on a confounding bough,—
But under the shade sleeps the carnivore…
A poet is but a drunken melody of the night,—
And eyes shed no tears but tinctures of joy;
She is a woman with stars in her dyed hair,—
Therefore mistakenly is she named Ignorance.

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Everything has been decided. And everything has its reason for existence which our limited vision cannot grasp. The body has difficult moments in its transference of authority. It is the remnant of Falsehood which is seen as the cause of that diffulcty. The only solution is: “What Thou willest”. That makes the body very quiet, very quiet. It has had this experience of dying without dying, and the experience enabled the it to say: “Good, it is well and good.” The body is aware that it is only because of its resistance to Truth that it can suffer. At the time when there is the universal vision, the problems acquire for the personal sensitivity a very sharp acuteness. Now the body gains a sensitivity that is terrifying. But it is an occasion for making the final progress. In essence, that which still has the illusion of being something separate must dissolve. That must tell itself: “It does not concern me, I do not exist.” This is the best attitude that one can take. Then it is taken up in the Great Universal Rhythm.

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The Jewelled Splendour of Majesty

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In the age of Jahangir and Shah Jahan, Mughal magnificence was the envy of Europe. In terms of excess of riches no other monarch could even approach them. The British Ambassador, present at the birthday celebrations of Jahangir in 1617, was stunned at the Emperor's appearance, ‘laden with diamonds, rubies, pearls… so great, so glorious', equally his sword and throne. His head, neck, breast, arms were covered in gems, and two or three rings adorned each finger studded with ‘Dyamonds, Rubies as great as Walnuts (some greater) and Pearles such as mine eyes were amazed at.' And here is William Hawkins trying to assess the value of Jahangir's treasury—30 kg of diamonds, huge stores of other gems and semi-precious stones, a thousand gem-studded saddles, and jewelled swords and daggers in numbers that boggled the mind, quite apart from items of personal adornment.

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“He who possesses the perfect knowledge of the birth and death of all beings and who is freed from all ties, he is a Blessed One, an Awakened One, him I consider to be a Brahmin. He whose future state is unknown to the gods, the demigods and mortals, who is without desire and without impurity, who has become an adept, him I consider to be a Brahmin. He who no longer possesses anything, neither past nor present nor future, who owns nothing, who no longer clings to anything, that one I consider to be a Brahmin. The Noble, the Excellent, the Hero, the great Sage, the Victor, the Impassive, the Pure, the Enlightened, him I consider to be a Brahmin. One who knows his previous lives, one who perceives the heavens and the hells, who has come to the end of births, who has attained perfect vision, the Sage accomplished in all accomplishments, him in truth I consider to be a Brahmin.”

There is one thing which is not spoken of here, in the Dhammapada: a supreme disinterestedness and a supreme liberation is to follow the discipline of self-perfection, the march of progress, not with a precise end in view as described here, the liberation of Nirvana, but because this march of progress is the profound law and the purpose of earthly life, the truth of universal existence and because you put yourself in harmony with it, spontaneously, whatever the result may be. There is a deep trust in the divine Grace, a total surrender to the divine Will, an integral adhesion to the divine Plan which makes one do the thing to be done without concern for the result. That is the perfect liberation. That is truly the abolition of suffering. The consciousness is filled with an unchanging delight and each step you take reveals a marvel of splendour.

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Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,"—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

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In a letter dated 26 November 2003 you wrote: “I have personally witnessed Mother’s strong reaction to any mention of her personal life when I used to go with Andre-da to Her in the evenings for print-orders for Ashram publications.” And now here is a whole book presenting to the large wide and wise ignorant world things about the personal life of the Mother and the Master, a book for which you have given the copyright permission.

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Notions of speech as sacred sound are revealed mainly in the Vedic texts, the Brahmanas, the Upanishads, Aranyakas, and the Vedangas. The Rig Veda is said to be impregnated with sacred speech and has extended insight into the origins of language. The Sphota Theory was originally developed by grammarians Patanjali and Bhartrhari who wrote the Mahabhasya and Vakyapadiya, respectively. Wider concepts concerning the philosophy of grammar in India draw mostly from Patanjali and Bhartrhari. Sphota is the transcendent ground in which the spoken syllable and the conveyed meaning find themselves unified.

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A horn of mystery upbears the sky,
A look of blindness guards the gates of heaven.
Not night but stars are the primal cause of this fall.

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Now the whole being—the body has understood it quite well—knows that everything comes to make you go forward as quickly as possible, everything. It is quite evident that all objections come merely from a superficial mind. That is exactly what the body is being made to learn. The work has become very acute, very persistent. There are even amusing things. This Consciousness which is at work, it is as though “teasing” the body all the time. It asks: do you really know what is there behind it? And then the body tells itself: “It is true, I know nothing.” But its answer is always the same, it says: “I do not claim that I know, let the Lord do whatever He wills”. And it is a modest growth. It is so to such a degree that the attitude towards certain vibrations brings you complete ease! The consciousness here takes a certain attitude and then it is all delight and harmony. There is only one thing that has importance, the attitude of the consciousness. It is the presence of the ego, and all is complicated, as if you were called upon to choose between death and immortality. And for that, I see the body must go through a serious and very thorough preparation in order to be able to bear the impact of the experience without... without any vibration of anxiety or recoil or... it must be able to maintain its peace and its constant smile.

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The dwindling tiger population in the Ranthambore reserves is a wake up call for the preservation of the species. But is experimentation with the gene pool the wisest choice? The tigers that live in the Sunderbans are tailor-made to survive their environment.

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