The Ashram in Brief
“That is exactly what Sri Aurobindo wanted and attempted; he used to say, “If I can find a hundred people, it will be enough for my purpose.”
The Mother
The Mother's Agenda 16.09.1964
"If there is an opposition between the spiritual life and that of the world, it is that gulf which he (a Sadhaka of integral Yoga) is here to bridge, that opposition which he is here to change into a harmony. If the world is ruled by the flesh and the devil, all the more reason that the children of Immortality should be here to conquer it for God and the Spirit. If life is an insanity, then there are so many million souls to whom there must be brought the light of divine reason; if a dream, yet is it real within itself to so many dreamers who must be brought either to dream nobler dreams or to awaken; or if a lie, then the truth has to be given to the deluded."
Sri Aurobindo
CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-327-328,
Sri Aurobindo’s requirement of one hundred perfect instruments, are they who live in cosmic Consciousness by whose pressure all objective life will become part of the subjective existence and they realise, perceive, feel, see and hear only the Divine in every way, in all forms and all happenings of the world are taking place within their vast universal Self. Their outer surface Nature is a concentration and radiation of silence, calm, stillness and peace. ‘To grow in the spirit is the greatest help one can give to others, for then something flows out naturally to those around that helps them.’¹²⁵ The ‘special work’¹²⁶ of integral Yoga is ‘of bringing down the higher consciousness with all its effect for the earth’¹²⁶ without ‘too eager to help others,’¹²⁵ without ‘accepting the nature of man and the world as it is’¹²⁶ and by standing ‘apart from the rest of the world.’¹²⁶
Integral Yoga proposes that Universalised Consciousness is the outcome of a long movement of Consciousness between Psychic and Spiritual planes replacing the earlier slow evolution of consciousness between three modes of Nature, Gunas and in this vast Consciousness (1) equality becomes perfect and consecration becomes complete and absolute, or this surrender of whole being ‘has to be accomplished slowly and with difficulty by the being itself before the supramental transformation can become at all possible;’¹⁴⁸ ‘A perfect equality not only of the self, but in the nature’¹⁴⁷ is also the sign of universalized consciousness; (2) exclusive concentration of Mind is replaced with the faculty of Multiple-concentrations; thus one can pursue triple Yoga of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti simultaneously and ceaselessly, (3) transformation of human Nature into Divine Nature is practicable, as in this Consciousness the World is inseparable from the individual; with the activation of cosmic Self, Savitri had this experience, 'all changed within her and without.'¹⁵⁰ (4) His time and space experience is completely different from ordinary man subjected to three gunas, the latter lives in the present succession of moments oblivious of his past and future and his little habitation of space is separated from the world and the former lives in the triple time of past, present and future and the whole world lives within his cosmic Self; his universalised Spirit can move backward towards the past of this birth and past births and illumine the obscure corners of his Subconscient and Inconscient sheaths and his Spirit can travel forward in time to call down all future possiblities to present moment; (5) outer wandering and movement reduces and is replaced by the more and more inner wandering of Soul which shows interest only in eternal things and 'In every shrine it cries for the clasp of God'¹⁴⁹; (6) in this Cosmic Consciousness, Matter is real to Spirit, Spirit is real to Matter and Matter is reconciled with Spirit in order to resolve all world problem; (7) in addition to his own individual suffering, he is ready to bear a part of earth's heavy burden and suffering; and (8) a fitness has arrived for ascension into still higher Supramental Consciousness.
The immediate preoccupation of these few instruments of Truth who are concerned with Integral Yoga will be the increase and accumulation of Soul Force through the fourfold Divine union that of Jivatma’s union with Paramatma, Jivatma’s union with Para-prakriti, Paramatma’s union with Para-prakriti and Para-prakriti’s union Apara- prakriti. Their action on the world will be largely inner subjective action dictated by the power of triple-time of the Spirit and they will accumulate Spiritual energy to such extent that the Transcendent Divine forces of oceanic proportion¹⁴⁵ will invade the earth’s dark Inconscient rock from above, within and below.
The danger of the Inconscient Sheath swallowing the whole earth to its dark breast perpetually stands as an evolutionary threat and barrier. Earth is to be saved from life’s immense desire and destructive Forces from their ‘bleeding roots’¹²⁸ through the invasion of strong affirmative Spiritual forces from below the feet, within and above the head, and to keep this action active and its growing intensity is the responsibility of few fit channels of human instruments.
A Spiritual fence of protection is to be built which at present is confined to a few privileged Souls, who will admit ‘through its gates only such activities as consent to undergo the law of the spiritual transformation.’¹³⁸ This protective Spiritual wall will extend itself to cover the whole of humanity. Or a ‘golden tower’⁶⁵ of protection is built in the subtle world with the help of ‘flame child’⁶⁵ who are prepared Souls, ready to become channels of vast inflow of Supreme Ananda. Integral Yoga aims at a comprehensive solution or all-time panacea of all the problems of existence through complete immunisation of disease, decay, sorrow, dissidence and strife and the process of inoculation begins at an individual and collective level depending on the degree of restoration of harmony and opening towards a comprehensive Concentration. A safe passage in the subtle world is to be made in order to help living and dead Souls⁹⁸ so that they can easily travel different planes of Consciousness for their Soul’s training and arrive at the Psychic plane and cosmic Self for their accumulation of Spiritual energy and rebirth respectively. At the same time, the Yoga Shakti must drive out all tamasic forces to eliminate poverty, illiteracy, and malnutrition of the body from the whole of the race and drive out all rajasic forces to eliminate all discordant human action of violence, destructive aggression, tyranny of beast wrath, hatred, injurious brutality, corruption, bottomless ingratitude that disfigure earth nature and enjoyments of temporal nature.
Those destined Souls for the Divine work will protect and guard the earth in three stages. First, they will have a ‘vision and knowledge of the triple time’¹²² or partial/complete foreknowledge of immediate future doom and holocaust of individual, state, national and universal proportion ‘by going back from the surface physical mind to the psychic and spiritual consciousness;’¹²² secondly, they keep the concentration alive to reduce and minimise the quantum of such catastrophe through the intervention of the overhead Divine Grace or vibration of Harmony of which they are conscious channel; thirdly, they will maintain the effort to completely annul the root of all such destruction and vibration of disorder through intervention and invasion of Supreme Harmony and Light to the yet untouched dark province of Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths.
A conscious movement of Consciousness between Psychic and Spiritual planes can liberate¹⁴⁴ distant unknown Souls from the subjugation of their untransformed Nature and, thus, the purpose of invisible self-expansion through self-concentration or the liberated Souls liberating others is accomplished. The steps through which they will immediately control the world event through the evolution of preliminary Psychic and Spiritual faculties are: -
1) The perception, thoughts, feelings and happenings of world events which are entirely guided by forces of Ignorance, are gathered directly through vision without the aid of any external means of communication like telephone, newspaper and internet, etc, or ‘of establishing a direct communication between mind and mind without the aid of the physical organs and the limitations they impose on our consciousness.’¹²³ ‘The psychical consciousness, as it develops, makes us aware of the great mass of thoughts, feelings, suggestions, will impacts, and influences of all kinds that we are receiving from others or sending to others or imbibing from and throwing into the general mind atmosphere around us.’¹²⁴ The outer aid is useful only to verify the degree of accuracy of the direct inner vision.
2) Harmonised vibrations of thoughts and feelings or Spiritual idea force formulating itself in the world are communicated to them (individual and group) by secret unspoken words, transmission of will-power, and Spiritual Influence which are already tuned with the Divine-Will. Or as the Psychic being ‘evolves in power, precision and clearness, we are able to trace these to their source or feel immediately their origin and transit to us and direct consciously and with an intelligent will our own messages.’¹²⁴ Or the ‘spiritual inner consciousness has then to deal with these (dark and obscure) influences in such a way that, as soon as they approach or enter (the Spiritual realm), they become either obliterated and without result or transformed by their very entry into its own mode and substance.’¹²⁹
3) Silent compulsion on them to act according to these communicated ideas, power of the heart and dynamic life forces. ‘There is necessarily a commerce here between disparate influences: the inner spiritual influence is met by quite opposite influences strong in their control of the present world-order; the new spiritual consciousness has to bear the shock of the dominant and established unspiritualised powers of the Ignorance.’¹²⁹ As a result, the single and multiple results are experienced through the power of the Self and the development of essential and multiple Concentrations. The Nature of living of a Spiritual man will be ‘an accomplished inner existence whose light and power will take perfect body in the outer life.’¹³⁰
4) They will be egoless transparent instruments to determine the events, actions and results of action of objective life throughout the world by the pure intervention of their subjective subtle-physical existence and silent Will-Power of multiple Concentrations. Their ‘environmental being must be so steeped in the spiritual light and spiritual substance that nothing (no world influence) can enter into it without undergoing this transformation…’¹²⁹ So, through frequent/constant increase of invasion of vibration of Order and permeation of a superior Harmony into the Inconscient, Subconscient and material life, the world would move towards the process of transformation. ‘Supreme Love eliminates all problems, even the problem of creation...But the world is not ready yet, it may take a few thousand years.’⁹⁵
If a Sadhak attains Cosmic Consciousness, then he must pursue sadhana in secrecy and silence. His presence will be intolerable for the common man because of this particular nature, ‘Universal he is all,--transcendent, none.’¹⁴¹ When he lives in universal Self, he becomes very intimate with all; when he lives in transcendent Consciousness, he goes beyond all these relations. This is unbearable to man’s righteousness. His outward appearance will be marked with Truth-Power or the ‘sound of infinity’¹⁴² in his voice and his eyes will shine with the ‘light of things beyond.’¹⁴²
Thus, Sri Aurobindo’s vision of creating ‘a new world, a new humanity, a new society expressing and embodying the new consciousness’⁹⁴ is in the process of realisation by reconciliation of Spirit with Matter and by harmonisation of the body with the Soul. This is a task offered to the most conscious individual through realisation of the Soul as the centre of the World, an extension of his cosmic existence and its objective manifestation in the form of a Divine Centre or the emergence of a formative and affirmative Ashram living.
OM TAT SAT
References are available in the Manuscript ‘The Divine Bliss’ (page 452).
SUBCONSCIENT TRANSFORMATION
“This (descent of Divine Force) has repeatedly been my experience lately, with a vision and a conviction, the conviction of an experience: the two vibrations (Truth vibration of Spirit and falsehood vibration of Matter) are like this (concomitant gesture indicating a superimposition and infiltration), all the time – all the time, all the time…May be the sense of wonder comes when the quantity that has infiltrated is large enough to be perceptible. But I have an impression – a very acute impression – that this phenomenon is going on all the time, all the time, everywhere, in a minuscule, infinitesimal way (gesture of a twinkling infiltration), and that in certain circumstances or conditions that are visible (visible to this vision: it's a sort of luminous swelling (of brain)– I can't explain), then, the mass of infiltration is sufficient to give the impression of a miracle. But otherwise, it's something going on all the time, all the time, all the time, continuously, ("A mystic slow transfiguration works.” Savitri-632, or "Its faint infiltration drilled the blind deaf mass;" Savitri-601) in the world (same twinkling gesture), like an infinitesimal amount of Falsehood replaced by Light ... Falsehood replaced by Light ... constantly…And this Vibration (which I feel and see) gives the feeling of a fire. ("Threatened (falsehood) with this faint beam of wandering Truth" Savitri-585) That's probably what the Vedic Rishis translated as the "Flame" – in the human consciousness, in man, in Matter. They always spoke of a "Flame." It is indeed a vibration with the intensity of a higher fire… The body even felt several times, when the Work was very concentrated or condensed, that it is the equivalent of a fever.”
The Mother
The Mother’s Agenda-25th March-1964
The Mother’s Consciousness is that which rests on the One and acts in the All, transcends All and denies none, sees all but lives for its transcendent task, becomes All and yet transcends the mystic whole, All-ruler and is ruled by none, transcends the Light and the Darkness and yet one with the Absolute, Eternal and All-knowing it suffers mortal birth and death and in Subconscient waits Her large unfinished task.
The Mother's above Subconscient transformation experience is identified as the Supreme Word, Mahavakya, of The Mother's Agenda and to be a participant in this universal Yoga is identified as an exceptional privilege. The whole of humanity is now going through this Subconscient transformation unconsciously and few prepared vessels are going through this slow constant permeation consciously.
When they (Savitri and Satyavan) enter Spiritual union in the Inconscient Self and Subconscient Self, the Supramental Divine Force emerges from below the feet and rushes towards the physical, vital and mental sheaths. As feet is the farthest domain from the complexity of mind, whose centre is the head, and the head obstructs the free flow of higher Divine forces, so this passage is recognised as a more important means of transformation action and this hidden light is ‘a sea of the secret Superconscience.’⁶⁵ Thus “The bliss which sleeps in things”³⁹ shall strive to wake and ‘A soul shall wake in the Inconscient’s house.’⁶⁶ Thus awakening of Supramentalised Inconscient Self is identified as the ‘last transcendent power’⁸² and a field of ‘last and mightiest transformation’⁸³ and thus a ‘grand solution’⁸⁴ is uncovered where ‘the heights of mortal effort end.’⁸⁴
The Mother recounts, “for the first time the Supramental light entered directly into my body, without passing through the inner beings. It entered through the feet and it climbed up and up. And as it climbed, the fever also climbed because the body was not accustomed to this intensity. As all this light neared the head, I thought I would burst and that the experience would have to be stopped…”⁹⁵
Thus, one no longer depends on intervention from above for transformation action of surface mind, life and body but it will also take place more vigorously from within the Psychic heart centre and most vigorously from below the feet by the opening of Subconscient and Inconscient Selves.
The Divine tells Savitri that most human beings live like brutes and do not discover the infinite Light above the head and immense Light below the feet or man, in general, is ‘A swimmer lost between two leaping seas.’⁶⁹ Or ‘like an infant spirit unaware…. of two consenting worlds.’⁷² And those who realise Psychic Being in the heart, they feel in Savitri's language, ‘Our life is entrenched between two rivers of Light.’⁷⁰ If a Sadhak realises the universalisation of Psychic and Spiritual Beings, then ‘His gates to the world were swept with seas of light’⁷¹ from both ends. Through knowledge and awareness of the Wheel of Works, he will be able to reconcile Matter with Spirit.
OM TAT SAT
References are available in the Manuscript ‘The Divine Bliss’ (page 291, 34-35).
"The power to do nothing, which is quite different from indolence, incapacity or aversion to action and attachment to inaction, is a great power and a great mastery; the power to rest absolutely from action is as necessary for the Jnanayogin as the power to cease absolutely from thought, as the power to remain indefinitely in sheer solitude and silence and as the power of immovable calm. Whoever is not willing to embrace these states is not yet fit for the path that leads towards the highest knowledge; whoever is unable to draw towards them, is as yet unfit for its acquisition."
Sri Aurobindo
CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-347
"To open oneself to the supracosmic Divine is an essential condition of this integral perfection; to unite oneself with the universal Divine is another essential condition. Here the Yoga of self-perfection coincides with the Yogas of knowledge, works and devotion; for it is impossible to change the human nature into the divine or to make it an instrument of the divine knowledge, will and joy of existence, unless there is a union with the supreme Being, Consciousness and Bliss and a unity with its universal Self in all things and beings. A wholly separative possession of the divine nature by the human individual, as distinct from a self-withdrawn absorption in it, is not possible."
Sri Aurobindo
CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-622
“A perfect self-expression of the spirit is the object of our terrestrial existence. This cannot be achieved if we have not grown conscious of the supreme Reality; for it is only by the touch of the Absolute that we can arrive at our own absolute. But neither can it be done to the exclusion of the cosmic Reality: we must become universal, for without an opening into universality the individual remains incomplete.”
Sri Aurobindo
CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-706
If an individual is having direct contact with the Divine and if he utilises this Dynamic Divine union initially for individual transformation of Nature and finally for world transformation, then a Divine Centre or Ashram is born. Integral Yoga foresees a hierarchy of a collective body with one liberated Soul at its centre, known as the ‘Divine Centre,’ or collective group with more than one liberated Gnostic Soul or ‘spread beyond the individual’ known as the ‘Gnostic Centre’ or a Centre without Soul Centre/Central Representative, known as ‘priestless shrine’ where all are liberated souls, identified as ‘virgin bridals of the dawn’ symbolising the purity of collective living or ‘citizens of that mother State’ symbolising selfless Spiritual fosterers or ‘nude god-children’ who ‘steeped existence in their youth of soul.’ The action of the Divine Mother in a rare ‘priestless shrine’ beyond the Divine Centre will be the pursuit of the Divine in isolation, alone, without the aid of collectivity, without the law of collective living, without the help of fixed Shastra and the flow of the Transcendent and Universal Divine Love will be further reinforced through realisation of ‘seven-fold Personal Divine Love.’ (Ref: The Synthesis of Yoga-58, 90, Savitri-368, 401, 262, 126, 127)
Before meeting Paramatma Satyavan, Paraprakriti Savitri came across twelve types of liberated Souls, who were having Divine realisations in twelve specialised fields. They were satisfied with their partial Spiritual achievements and were considered unfit to hold Savitri’s comprehensive Divine Love, and hence Virgins’ Fortress could not be dreamed with these liberated Souls. These Master Souls were fit to build Ascetics’ Fortress, Divine Centre and Gnostic Centre. To hold Savitri’s comprehensive Divine Love or ‘hold God’s birth,’ a Soul is ‘made ready through a thousand years.’ Before discovering a Virgins’ Fortress without, one has to discover a Virgins’ fortress within, of meeting ground of Paramatma and Paraprakriti in the heart centre or ‘The incarnate dual Power shall open God’s door, Eternal supermind touch earthly Time.' The Soul's Fortress can be invaded and conquered by the Supreme Lord from above who is symbolised here as 'unexpected king.' In a Virgins' Fortress, a Sadhak or Savitri within will live alone, unclaimed, untouched, king of itself within and possessed and invaded by the flood of Divine Force from above the head and below the feet or 'A captive Life wedded her conqueror.' (Refer Savitri-382, 398, 705, 87, 125)
If an individual has a thorough knowledge of the movement of ascending and descending Consciousness, then 'even if he were shut up in a prison and saw nobody and never moved out, still would he do the work,' of bridging the gulf between this material world and future Supramental world. 'He does not need to be recognised, he need have no outward power in order to be able to establish this conscious connection.' His action can begin from his heart centre which is universalised as the Divine Centre of the world and can culminate with the perfection of the human race. This is a task offered to the last Avatar to accomplish. The task of successive Instruments and Emanations is to illumine partly the Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths. (Refer: TMCW-3/Questions and Answers-1929 to 1931/p-179)
"So people who want to lead a special life or have a special organization to have (Spiritual) experiences, that's quite silly – the greatest possible diversity of experiences is at your disposal every minute, every minute. Only you must learn not to have a mental ambition for "great" things." "...whatever the circumstances may be, even apparently the worst, if you are in the true attitude and have the true consciousness, it doesn’t matter in the least for your inner progress,..." (Ref: The Mother’s Agenda/20.11.1963, The Mother's Agenda/10.12.1969)