SCIY.Org Archives

We would like to thank The Mother's Service Society whose book The Life and Teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is the basis of most of the content of this article.

Sri Aurobindo

Sri Aurobindo is the author and sage who, along with his partner The Mother, dedicated their lives to bringing about the next stage of evolution of life on earth. Throughout his life Sri Aurobindo worked outwardly on his massive body of writings, and inwardly to connect to the divine consciousness, to bring down its properties into the world. The Mother followed a similar path, focusing on the transformation of her own physical body in order to become the forerunner of a new type of human being, what Sri Aurobindo calls the supramental being. The Mother also served as a conduit, an intermediary between the new evolutionary spiritual force that Sri Aurobindo had spent his life uncovering and their followers who were trying to open themselves to this new consciousness.

Sri Aurobindo's vision begins with the assertion that humans may not be the final rung on the evolutionary scale. That we might witness the emergence of a new species, one that is above and beyond the present human race as we know it. Or, perhaps we could say that it is perhaps the same human species, but that is evolving to a new level that appears very different in functioning, inwardly and outwardly, from the current humanity. Different, emotionally, mentally, spiritually -- even one day physically!   

Sri Aurobindo gave us a vision of what a future society could be like if we transcended the limited thinking of the old religions, the old superstitions, of both East and the West; if we saw beyond our physical/material view of the world; if we went beyond an analysis of existence based solely only on a scientific method that did not include the realm of consciousness and spirit. Sri Aurobindo invites us to walk through the doors that he has opened, and journey into a new frontier of understanding and experience; into a new future of infinite, never before thought of possibilities.

Sri Aurobindo believed that there is a future before us so utterly different than what we might expect, that there are forces and possibilities so staggering, that we must reevaluate our entire belief system, dismantle much of our intellectual underpinnings, and relearn a new vocabulary of life so we can understand this new future. 

HIS LIFE

Early Years
Born in Calcutta in 1872 and educated in England, Sri Aurobindo came back to India with only one aim: liberating India from the foreign yoke of England. His father was a doctor who never wanted his three sons to inherit anything of the Indian culture, including their mother tongue Bengali. He admitted all his sons into an English school in Darjeeling. Darjeeling and its British atmosphere were not a source of pride for Sri Aurobindo. While there he had a vision of a dark force entering him, which remained until he returned to India about 20 years later. 

From Darjeeling they were taken to England and put in St. Paul's and later Cambridge. He then returned to India. Back in India he was supposed to enter the Indian Civil Service, but his anti-British feeling did not allow him to serve the British masters. By making himself absent from the compulsory horse-riding test, Sri Aurobindo disqualified himself from the ICS.

Thereafter the Maharaja of Baroda was looking for an administrator for his state and spotted in Sri Aurobindo a suitable candidate. And so Sri Aurobindo landed in Baroda, served the state, taught in the college, and returned to Bengal. 

India was at the time of great ferment. To that end Sri Aurobindo organised the youth under the Congress party, and voiced radical ideas from the several journals he contributed to. Their nationalist activities led to a journal Vandemataram, the founding of a National College, the worshipping of the god Kali, and experimenting with several ideas, including the procuring of chemicals with which bombs were made. Still Sri Aurobindo did not believe in terrorism, even though he was a radical to the core. The British police arrested him and clapped him in Alipore jail, implicating him in a bomb throwing case.

When his brother came down with a severe fever, Sri Aurobindo watched as a Sanyasi chanted a mantra, crossed a cup of water with a knife, and gave it to his brother. The fever suddenly vanished. Suddenly Sri Aurobindo became interested in acquiring such a power to liberate India from the British domination. In pursuit of this goal, he approached several yogis for help. What he got in return was silence in his mind, the realization of oneness, and the vision of the Cosmic divine.

He sought the help of Vishnu Lele, a yogi. The yogi accepted Sri Aurobindo and offered to initiate him into silence. "Sit down, close your eyes. You will see thoughts entering your mind from outside. Refuse them entry," he said to Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo did so and found Lele's words to be true. He could, after considerable effort, reject the thoughts. In three days Sri Aurobindo succeeded in establishing silence in his mind. To Lele this was unbelievable, since success in such an experiment would normally be achieved only after a number of years. However since Sri Aurobindo was an avatar [a being who has come to enable a new stage in human evolution], such a great yogic realization came to him in a few days. 

In addition later Sri Aurobindo attained the state of Nirvana, the hallmark of a great avatar. 

While in Alipore Jail, Sri Aurobindo used to be visited by the renowned Swami Vivekananda in his meditation. The swami guided Sri Aurobindo's yoga [the discipline to attain union with the Divine] and helped him to scale great heights. It was there Sri Aurobindo saw the convicts, jailers, policemen, the prison bars, the trees, the judge, the lawyer etc., in the experience and realization of Narayana. Sri Aurobindo was even able to see compassion, honesty and charity in the hearts of murderers.

During the trial Sri Aurobindo was prompted to help the lawyer with facts, opinions, etc., but his inner voice advised him to desist from giving advice to the lawyer. "The case is in my hands, do not interfere, keep quiet" was the dictum that was whispering from inside. 

After Sri Aurobindo was found innocent in the trial, his inner voice instructed him to go to Chandranagore, a French territory. His heart was burning with one passion, the freedom movement and the release of Mother India. The Divine made contact with him and instructed him that Indian freedom was assured and accomplished in the subtle plane. The Divine had another work in store for Sri Aurobindo. To accomplish that work on earth, Sri Aurobindo was told by that same inner voice to go to Pondicherry located in the South Indian state of Tamilnadu.

Sri Aurobindo arrived in Pondicherry in 1910. Following his arrival a few of his associates also arrived. Sri Aurobindo was examining his Divine mission and was contemplating the best possible course to follow. With the Inner Guide leading silently, Sri Aurobindo mapped out his yogic course and fixed its landmarks.

Bringing Down the Truth Consciousness
Sri Aurobindo had earlier had the experience of spiritual liberation (moksha) but he did not accept that as his final course or goal. The Divine's intention for him lie elsewhere. It intended Sri Aurobindo to become a pure instrument that would hasten the descent of the Divine consciousness into earthly life to enable a divine life on earth. 

The yoga of Sri Aurobindo can be summed up as follows:

When the spiritual experience of liberation (moksha) is accepted as the goal, the yogi normally would go within to find the divine spirit, and remain there, no longer relating to or participating in troubles of the world. However if one wants to bring the Divine attributes, its powers and consciousness into one's daily life or to the community or humanity, the yoga cannot be a partial one of just liberation where one retreats through meditation or other technique into the spiritual realm. It has to be an integral realization. In order for it to be integral, the yogi cannot exclude life, or even the body, from his yogic purification and perfection. In other words, it is not the Divine intention for the embodied soul to seek release from the cycle of birth and death; instead the embodied soul should seek total release from falsehood and ego in all parts of its being; and, rising into the higher realms of Spirit, bring down the spiritual force and truth to life on earth, so that death, suffering and disease can be abolished forever. It is the difference between liberation into the spirit, and ascent to the spirit to bring down its properties to enable the transformation of the being and life around one.

In the context of Indian yogic tradition this is quite a departure, quite a different approach. So in order to make his yoga more understandable and bring out its unique qualities, Sri Aurobindo developed new terminology to explain the tenets of his yoga, which he called the Integral Yoga. All of this acquired a special and full significance when The Mother [Mira Alfassa, his future spiritual partner] arrived in the 1920s. She was keen on a plan of action and had her own original ideas for redeeming the earth from falsehood, suffering, and pain. Sri Aurobindo and Mother shared their approaches and finally arrived at the future course of action.

Let's then consider their view of the Divine and the creation. If creation as a whole is considered, the lower part consists body, life, and mind, while the higher part consists of Spirit. In the lower part life begins as matter, evolves to life, and further evolves to mind. Mind itself can rise to spiritual mind, and upward to overmind, the highest state of this lower hemisphere. 

Between the lower hemisphere's highest reach, overmind, and the spiritual worlds of the Absolute lies a zone which was known to the ancient rishis (Sanskrit for "seers of truth"), and which Sri Aurobindo calls "Truth Consciousness," or to use his own phraseology, the plane of "Supermind." 

The Mother was of the opinion that the power of the overmental world would serve the aim of their yoga, namely the abolition of death, falsehood and suffering in the world. Sri Aurobindo explained to her that in the overmental world Truth was not self-existent. Overmind could build a partial world of truth uniting all available truths and excluding ignorance. Should the power of this world descend on earth, a great transformation would occur, but it would still leave a base of ignorance; which means the body would be left untouched. In the Supermind, Truth is self-existent. The Truth of Supermind can penetrate ignorance and reach its basis of truth (nothing on earth can exist without a seed of Truth) and unite all such truths and build upon them. 

They saw that the body and its inconscient base would not yield to the overmental force, but could not resist the onslaught of the supramental truth. The Mother saw the profundity of Sri Aurobindo's experience and gave up her preference. 

In 1926 the overmental force descended into the mind, vital and very physical depths of Sri Aurobindo. After that momentous victory, he retired to make further gains in this yogic adventure; to rise and bring down the supramental consciousness into the earthly realm. 

From 1926 to 1950 Sri Aurobindo lived in complete retirement and total silence, constantly raising himself to the level of the Truth Consciousness, i.e. Supermind. Even his experience while in Alipore jail, of Narayana in the hearts of everyone, was a supramental experience according to The Mother. 

As his yoga is one of ascent and descent, he had to raise himself first to the level of the higher mind and wait for the force of that level to descend into him and reach down to the very physical body, after saturating his nerves and mind. 

According to Sri Aurobindo, each level of the ascent is followed by the descent of forces of that level, which integrates the experience of the sadhak i.e., fully illumines all parts of his being, viz. mind, vital (nerves) and physical. 

Beyond higher mind lies the realm experienced by the rishi where one is endowed with vision and experiences knowledge as a descent of light, which Sri Aurobindo's describes as illumined mind. The yogi can even go beyond this state and receive the divine intuition directly without the aid of vision, where knowledge just appears in mind complete. The world of the gods is beyond that, a level where the Absolute, the Omnipresent reality divides into its unique aspects so that the creation below can each uniquely experience the spirit of the Divine. Sri Aurobindo calls this world the overmind. 

These levels of the physical, the vital, the body, mind, higher mind, illumined mind, and intuitive mind, together with the overmind make up the lower hemisphere; it is essentially what exists in creation. The Truth Consciousness is the bridge and ordering mechanism between this lower hemisphere and the higher hemisphere where lies the Absolute, the Transcendent, the unmanifested Divine, which is beyond creation.

After 1926 Sri Aurobindo was engaged in the yogic adventure of raising his being to the supramental world, and bringing the power of that world into the earth through the instrumentation of his own body. He accomplished this feat fully before 1950. His yoga was realized. The highest aspect and realization of the Divine had been reached. Now the Truth Consciousness, the Supramental Force was ready to move from its origin, descend on earth, abolish death and suffering, transform life on earth, and enable a new divine life on earth.

Sri Aurobindo saw at this point that the transformation of the earth presupposed one other condition. When he left the blue light of the overmind, he envisioned the Golden Light of the supramental world. If the Golden Light were to remain on earth forever after the descent, he saw that it would require about ten followers to fully have the Supramental Consciousness. In other words even if power of Supermind descended through the accomplishment of Sri Aurobindo, that light could not remain on earth without other's collaboration. Unfortunately no one was able to help him in his attempt to bring down the Truth consciousness further. 

He thus spoke to The Mother and said one of them had to leave the earth and continue the yoga from the subtle plane [the non-material plane] to expedite the Advent of the Supramental Consciousness and Force on earth. The Mother offered to go; i.e. to leave her body. However Sri Aurobindo showed her that the unique constitution of her body could enable her to accomplish the supramental transformation at the physical level. Thereafter he decided to withdraw, and continue his work from the subtle plane.

In 1950, he had offered his own body to the descending supramental light as a fit receptacle. At the time he left his body, the Golden Light invaded it and remained there for three full days. All the other yogic powers he had gathered within, he deposited in The Mother before he withdrew from his body. In six years, Sri Aurobindo's work prepared the Earth Consciousness as a whole to receive the supramental force, power and light. 

In 1956, Sri Aurobindo's work from the subtle plane bore fruit. During the meditation in the playground on February 29, 1956, The Mother saw Her subtle body enlarging to the size of the universe and becoming golden. Before her appeared a massive golden door and beside her was an equally massive golden hammer. With one blow The Mother smashed the door, the curtain between earth and the golden supramental realms. Floods of living light of golden color poured down onto earth. Earth had thus realized the Supermind, the Supramental Truth Consciousness.

Instantaneously, the inertia of the earth rose up in equally great floods and swallowed up the descending Force and Grace. 

Following this great event, Divine Love descended on earth in 1962. The Supramental Force advanced further in 1967 by manifesting itself in the earth consciousness. At that point The Mother saw that the consciousness was now available to any of the governments of the world. Again on January 1st, 1969 the Force further evolved and became an individualized Superman consciousness and appeared before The Mother. 

The Mother says that since its advent in 1956, the force is effectively determining the course of earthly events. The diffusion of the Cuban crisis and simultaneous inexplicable withdrawal of the Chinese from the Indian border when invasion was immanent occurred because of the presence of this Force. She also says children born after 1962 have greater receptivity to this Force.  

After he attained samadhi in 1950 (i.e. he left his body), his body was laid on his bed. It was kept thus for over four days, almost five days. Over 100,000 people had Darshan of the Master. The Golden Light slowly entered his body and stayed there for three full days, then gradually withdrew. On those days, The Mother said she 'saw' him sitting on his bed; though of course the body was lying flat on the bed, fully supramental and golden.

His Writings
Several Nobel laureates have commented on Sri Aurobindo's magnum opus The Life Divine. Some critics have said he was the foremost thinker on earth. The London Times Literary Supplement said that Sri Aurobindo wrote as if he was "planted amid the stars."

His major works are (1) The Life Divine, a philosophical exposition of the nature of creation, his yoga, and his ideal; (2) The Synthesis of Yoga, where he explains his yoga from the point of view of knowledge, works, love and self-perfection; (3) The Ideal of Human Unity, a treatise on the course of the world's historic currents; (4) The Human Cycle, his thoughts on human social evolution; (5) Savitri, an epic poem of 12 books, 20000+ lines containing the story of Satyavan and Savitri, where they poetically move amongst the spiritual realms, overcome death and bring about a new life on earth; (6) The Future Poetry, his explanation of the makeup, formulation, and expression of a new intuitive and spiritual influenced poetry; (7) The Foundations of Indian Culture; and other compositions running into 23 more volumes.

A French writer commented that Sri Aurobindo was the only writer in the history of world literature who had started writing all of his five major works simultaneously and finished them within five years.

His writings embraced a staggering breadth of subjects, from the composition of the atom down to the most mundane subject of cruelty to animals. 

The Mother said that in his writings she saw intuition pouring down from above into his mind and saturating his thoughts and language.

In his major work The Life Divine Sri Aurobindo describes: how the universe was created out of the Absolute, the Omnipresent reality; how life evolved in the cosmos that was created; what the cause of suffering and falsehood and ignorance is; what the way out of these problems is; what the nature of spirit is, and how it gives us access to infinite potential in life; and, finally, what is the purpose of life, including what is the ultimate destiny of the individual and the human race.

In the book Sri Aurobindo describes how from out of an Omnipresent Reality the universe was created, as inconscient, ignorant, divided forms. He says that the reason that the manifestation emerged from the Absolute is for the purpose of delight. In order to achieve that goal of creation, we as humans must evolve beyond our lower nature rediscover our higher nature, including the hidden spirit in life. In that process of discovering our higher and spirit, we experience the delight of existence, fulfilling the very purpose that the Absolute manifest the universe we dwell in. 

Sri Aurobindo calls the process that led to the creation of the universe the "involution." It is an involution because the spirit is hidden in the creation, i.e. it is "involved" as potential in the forms that were created. Once the universe manifests, the "evolution" begins. Whereas the involution is the process by which the Divine manifest a world of divided and ignorant forms; the evolution is the gradual movement of these forms from division and duality to oneness, spirit, and delight of being. Sri Aurobindo describes how the purpose and destiny of the evolution of the universe is to overcome the inherent division and duality that emerged in creation, and to rediscover through our individual, social, and universal growth, development, evolution, and transformation the hidden Spirit that was lost in the creation. This rediscovery of spirit fulfills the very purpose that the Creator, the Absolute manifest our universe -- for the Delight of existence. In fact it is we, who in our own ascent toward our higher nature and spirit, discover and experience that Delight. In that way, we, as humans, fulfill the very purpose of the creation, the very reason that the Divine manifest the universe -- Delight.

After revealing in The Life Divine the nature of the Divine, God, the Absolute, and how the universe was created, unfolded from out of the Absolute, including us, Sri Aurobindo describes something that is unique in the history of consciousness. He describes in essence a new aspect and quality of God; an extension to the Absolute which he called the "Supramental" or "Truth Consciousness." This force or power of the Divine is in fact the ordering mechanism, the spring that enabled the cosmos to manifest from out of the Absolute; that enabled the Many to emerge out of the One. Thus the Supramental (Truth) consciousness is the cause of creation; the instrument that enabled the cosmos, the universe to take form.

Sri Aurobindo believed that if we could make the ascent to overcome our limiting nature, if we could further rediscover the hidden spirit in life, if we could come in contact and open ourselves to this Truth Consciousness (the very same consciousness that was instrumental in the creation of the universe), then we can change life as we know it; change our own lives, change the lives of the community, the society, and life on earth. 

If we learn how to open to this Force, we can begin to live in an astounding new way, a way that has no precedence in human history; where every conceivable problem could be solved; where all our life activities and circumstances play out in perfect harmony, in perfect execution; where all of life cooperates; and where we gain access to infinite possibilities for creation, accomplishment, success, and joy. 

Things that we perceived as limited in scope -- whether a business transaction, scientific research, a research project, or a great work of art -- are now seen and understood to have infinite scope. Past limitations turn into great multiples and infinities. Our perceptions of quantity and quality change, our perceptions of space and time become different, the nature of cause and effect is altered. 

In addition, we experience the spiritual attributers of the Supramental consciousness in our lives -- its Truth, Peace, Knowledge, Oneness, Force, Love, Beauty, Joy -- moving us from our current lives to a divine life on earth. 

Integral Yoga for Followers
Sri Aurobindo describes a method of evolution for individuals which he describes in his Integral Yoga. The object of the yoga is to bring down the supramental consciousness and fix it on earth; to create a new race of individuals governed inwardly and outwardly by the supramental consciousness. These individuals would form a nucleus of a supramental race, living a divine life on earth. 

By bringing in the supramental consciousness, individuals would have the decisive mechanism and power to complete their transformation. They could use the force in all aspects of life to change one's nature, to effect events and circumstances around one, to enable one to be in greater harmony with the world around one including others, and to be the effecting power that ultimately leads to a universal transformation for the earth. 

In the spiritual paths of the past the goal was to connect to the Divine above or within oneself, or to find a release in a Nirvana, or to experience the unreality of the outer world compared to the spiritual world. In Sri Aurobindo's yoga that goal is just the starting point. Once one has made the connection to the Divine, one brings in that consciousness into one's being and into the world so that the individual and the world can be transformed into a higher nature, from out of its inconscience, ignorance, and falsehood to consciousness, knowledge, truth, and joy. It aspires to create a permanent change in human and universal nature.

It is called integral yoga because it includes and integrates much of the spiritual traditions and knowledge of the past, yet seeks to create something new that transcends all of these. It seeks to apply yoga to all aspects of life. It seeks to understand and integrate all parts of the being, all dimensions of life aided by the discovery of a new plane of consciousness, the Truth Consciousness, to enable the transformation for the individual, the society, the world, and the universe itself. 

For those who undertake the path of personal transformation (i.e. yoga), Sri Aurobindo describes three successive phases of this transformation -- the psychic, the spiritual, and the supramental. In the first phase of the Triple Transformation one moves from the outer surface consciousness to the inner consciousness; the inner mind, the subliminal within, until one reaches the personal soul, i.e. inner psychic consciousness. At the psychic one has withdrawn from the ego consciousness, one is able to understand and control the limitations of one's physical, vital, and mental being, and one is put in touch with the cosmic, universal forces and truths. This is the Psychic transformation. At a further phase one rises higher in one's being toward higher planes of mind, including Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, and Intuitive Mind. It is an opening to the presence above, an elevation of one's lower consciousness to the higher, and the descent of the higher into the lower. This is the Spiritual transformation, beyond the Psychic transformation. Beyond that still is the Supramental transformation, where one rises to the level of Supermind, for a radical transformation of the being out of the ignorance that is the foundation of our nature, and into a new functioning that transcends beyond the mental, vital, and physical. One can become the Supramental being. The Triple Transformation are these three types that would happen in succession.
 

The Ashram
When The Mother joined Sri Aurobindo in the 1920s, there were about a dozen or more people around him. Six years later in 1926, around the time he withdrew completely, she founded the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in his name. From the beginning of the century it was The Mother's dream that there should be a place on earth where humanity could devote all his energies to seek the Divine without having to work for food and shelter. In founding the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, she was trying to create such a place. 

The Mother

The Mother and Sri Aurobindo have said that they had been on earth since the beginning of creation, and at every critical juncture of the earth's evolution they have intervened and played a crucial role in the earth's development. Addressing the children of the Ashram school, The Mother once said that everyone in the ashram had been with her in previous lives, and in those past lives they had prayed to her that they could be with her at the time of Divine fulfillment of the earth. That was why they were there in the Ashram. 

Sri Aurobindo said that this is the "Hour of God" when the awakened soul can accomplish in a short time what would normally take centuries in other periods. 

The Ashram was founded in an atmosphere of such beliefs. The Mother also said that if anything new should take place on earth, it should first happen in the ashram. 

In short, The Mother conceived of the ashram as a micro-unit of the world. It is her philosophy that earth is a micro unit of the universe. By extension, the Ashram is a representative pioneer of the future world.

If the Ashram represents the future achievements of the earth as a pioneer and as a microcosm, it also represents and embodies all the present difficulties of the universe. If those knots were to be loosened in the Ashram, humanity would be freed in those corresponding aspects.

In the later days after Sri Aurobindo's passing away, and particularly after her own retirement from the public, she did not encourage people to join the ashram. In fact, after 1970, she advised a foreigner to do her yoga from where she was and not join the ashram. She also explained that joining the ashram at that stage might help the inner difficulties surface in an unmanageable way.

There is spiritual peace in the ashram. It is not only there, but every article coming from the ashram carries that peace, be it a book or even a brick. For example, a business executive came to a rest house on one of the ashram farms and was struck by the peace that prevailed there. He could appreciate the peace in the rest house and exclaimed that if peace, which he had not found in the hundreds of temples he had visited, was there in the rest house, how much more pronounced would it be at the main ashram. 

The atmosphere of the ashram is very pronounced; it cannot be missed or mistaken. Even walking on the roads adjoining it, one can feel it. Although it is full of peace, in truth the atmosphere also carries silence, joy and delight. One feels a sudden elevation in the atmosphere of the ashram. Someone once said, "Blindfold me and take me to several places in Pondicherry. I shall tell you when I come to the precincts of the ashram."
 

The Matramandir in Auroville

Auroville
In 1968 The Mother founded Auroville, the international community of peace and spiritual growth. It's purpose is to be an experimental community where individuals can make the effort to evolve beyond their present limitations. Auroville has been established as an experiment in Human Unity where each individual is freed from bondage to moral and social conventions and the necessity of working for material possessions. There is no religion practiced there, nor is there ownership of property. The emphasis is on each person discovering his/her own inner center behind the social, moral, cultural and racial heredity and appearances, and actively living from that center, expressing it in outer work for the community. Auroville is a UN sponsored endeavor that attracts people worldwide because of its openness, new age lifestyle, and dedication to a vision of a new humanity.

One main reason The Mother had in mind in founding Auroville was that the city must be a symbol of human unity and thus prevent the next world war by its very presence on earth. She even declared that as long as Auroville existed, no war would break out.

Human tendencies of pugnacity, competition, spite, jealousy, and rivalry are bound to surface in such a cosmopolitan place where hundreds of men and women gather and live. Their daily lives offer thousands of occasions for human interactions. The Mother wanted those innumerable occasions to become the anvil on which human nature would consent to be beaten into a divine shape. If in Auroville individuals shape themselves anew in the image of the Divine and endeavor to transform their own human nature into Divine nature, life on earth would gently turn to the Divine. This was The Mother’s intention. She even said that Auroville was a field of experimentation, not an exhibition of already accomplished perfection.  

---

FURTHER READING

• To read an article that describes Sri Aurobindo's essential vision for the world, click here.

• To go to a site containing our interpretation of the key ideas of Sri Aurobindo, click here.

• To go to our main site New Insights into the Life and Teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, click here.

• To read an overview of the life of The Mother, click here.

---

Additional Thoughts

His Peace
Though the force Sri Aurobindo used was from the Supermind, because his being was in direct contact with the transcendent whose intention he was trying to realise in the universe and the earth, peace descended into him from the transcendent unmanifest levels of the Divine. His integral yoga opened all parts of his being down to the physical to the incoming force. The peace that descended from the transcendent heights seeped down into the very depths of his being in the physical body. Hence its intensity as found in him was of the greatest dimension.

One day when a cyclone was raging, Mother went to his room to shut the windows so that rain water would not come in and spoil the room. To her utter astonishment she found neither the raging wind nor the rain had found entry into the Master's room. What ruled there was his solid supramental peace. To her greater surprise, she found him sitting at his table next to a window lost in writing and unaware of the storm outside.

Their Influence on World Events
Sri Aurobindo and The Mother had their own unique experiences with world events throughout their lives. For example, when the British were in retreat at Dunkirk, trying to avoid the German bombardment, Sri Aurobindo through a power of consciousness is said to have helped put the famous fog over the water, hiding the retreating boats from the Germans. Also in the early 194os when the Nazis raced across Europe, The Mother made a visit to Hitler himself. He regularly saw a bright illumined being in front of him who directed his actions in the war. It was in fact the god that he had worshiped and followed. One time Mother came in the being's place, though looking the same, telling Hitler to move some of his army to a second front in Russia. Hitler obliged. It was this decision that was to prove to be perhaps the main course of his downfall in the war.

Churchill, England's Courage Saved the World; Using the Force
When all Europe capitulated to Hitler, he expected England to hasten to surrender. What happened was the opposite. Churchill declared, “We shall fight, fight to the end. We shall fight the enemy on the land, let us fight him on the high seas. Let us give fight in the air. We shall fight him in the streets, we shall fight, fight and die fighting.” It inspired every man in the factory, every woman in the kitchen. England won, NOT Hitler. England won FREEDOM. England saved democracy. England saved the world. That is the courage of the collective. Churchill received the SPIRITUAL FORCE from Sri Aurobindo and exhibited spiritual courage, which spread all over England and all over the world. It is true not only in the subtle plane but in the warfront too. (Karmayogi)

Rabindranath Tagore came to see Sri Aurobindo. During his 24 year silence, Sri Aurobindo had broken the rule a few times to meet visitors. Tagore was one of them. He came and saw Sri Aurobindo resplendent with the supramental energy. Tagore wanted Europe to know of Sri Aurobindo's yoga and his work. Before he left he pronounced, "The word is with you."

Birth Date
Sri Aurobindo was born on the same day as Indian Independence day, August 15th. (Few would consider this a coincidence.)

His Previous Incarnations
Sri Aurobindo was known in his Ashram as the rebirth of Napoleon. Napoleon's birthday was also August 15th (the date of India won her independence). In his previous births, it was believed he was Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Krishna and many other persons too. Someone asked Sri Aurobindo whether he had been Shakespeare as well, but could not elicit an answer.

All His Wishes Ultimately Fulfilled
Sri Aurobindo said that the world forces had always fulfilled his will, sooner or later.

The Mother As Conduit to The Force
Sri Aurobindo also had the disciples open to the Mother, who was to be the intermediary, the conduit between the disciples and the Supramental Truth Consciousness and Force.
 

Feb. 29th, 1956 - The Day of the Lord

While Sri Aurobindo was in jail, Swami Vivekananda appeared before Him, gave Him the Gita and showed Him the Supermind [the truth consciousness]. He did not tell Him how to reach the Supermind. It took Sri Aurobindo ten years to discover it. Like Buddha and Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo refused to accept moksha [liberation] for himself while all the other souls languished in the darkness of the earth. One should reach Supermind and bring it down so that it would transform the earth - abolish Ignorance, suffering, evil and death. Sri Aurobindo said that if twelve or a hundred yogis reached the Supermind, it would descend on earth. He could not find anyone, other than the Mother. So, He decided to leave the body and work from the subtle plane.

In 1956 on February 29th, while Mother was in meditation at the playground with all the sadhaks [spiritual aspirants, followers], She saw a golden door and a golden hammer. She broke that door with the hammer. A Golden Light, the Supramental Light, flooded the earth. Up rose the earth’s tamas [resistance, inertia] and swallowed the descending Force. Mother said, ‘‘Henceforth, February 29th will be the Day of the Lord.’’ It is known as Supramental day and celebrated once in four years. Auroville was founded a day prior to that day. The Mother was watching that Force organise Itself on earth. She began to meet Sri Aurobindo in the subtle plane from 1959 and converse with Him. He told Her that the governments would come under the influence of that Force from 1967. The date 4-5-67 was thus chosen to be celebrated. She saw the Force organising itself as a person, the Consciousness of a Person, on the New Year day of 1969. Until 1973, She was speaking to a sadhak [spiritual aspirants, followers] about that Force organising Itself for action. When strange events were brought to Her notice, She commented how the Force expressed Itself through those events. Sri Aurobindo was always golden in the subtle plane, but after the descent, many sadhaks had visions of the Golden Purusha. Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have not left us. They are very much there in the subtle plane. Devotees with subtle vision see them in their dreams or dhyana. One thing all those who have lived before the descent know is, any prayer now is more quickly answered, and more fully too. Mother was sorry that no one was aware of the descent. Even now, every four years we celebrate the descent. It is a pity we are so dense and unconscious. We do not see the Force. Of course, many feel it in the atmosphere as a powerful Presence. (Karmayogi, with slight additions)

 

God Seeks Man Since 1956
Since 1956 when the Force descended on earth, God seeking Man more than Man seeking God has become a greater reality. We see no God, we see only how prosperous we are. Prosperity is the God for the householder. The Force came down on earth in 1956 but began to act through the governments in 1967. From then onwards its action is more and more pronounced. Just now Man is surrounded by a plethora of social opportunities. Psychologically it is greater. (Karmayogi)

 

He Guides The Mother's Yoga
Mother was continually in touch with Sri Aurobindo after his passing. He continually spoke with her from the subtle plains giving her instructions and guiding her own development as she attempted to live a supramental life, including physically do the transformation to a supramental being. Mother discusses these interactions between the two throughout discussions with her disciple Satprem in The Agenda.

Sri Aurobindo's Yoga of Self-Perfection
Sri Aurobindo calls His yoga the Yoga of Self-Perfection.  His attempt at Perfection at the level of the Self is His yoga.

Life Response and Sri Aurobindo
Life Response is a concept that brings Sri Aurobindo's Philosophy home to the commonest of perceptions. Life Response will introduce Sri Aurobindo to the life of the world. (MSS)

Additional Articles About His Life and Vision
-The Age of Sri Aurobindo – Mother's Yoga (MSS) - Word format, July 15, 2002

The Mothers Service Society is an organization dedicated to further extending the ideas of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, and applying them in the areas of personal growth, business development, social development, economics, education, literature, and science. Over the last few decades the Society has been actively engaged in world economic and social forums, presenting breakthrough ideas in various areas of social development, and has worked in tandem with the  highest governmental officials throughout the world in applying their ideas to real world economic and social problems. 

Many of the ideas of the society have been used throughout Growth Online site, including topics related to the individual, business, society, science, education, the universe, spirituality, and others.

Attachment: