September 2021 Newsletter - edited

September 2021 SRI AUROBINDO SOCIETY VOL 35.09 Singapore NEWSLETTER Journeying Within Aids Along the Way: Introduction Intimacy with the Divine Complete surrender to the Divine and total receptivity to His influence are the conditions for this intimacy. Lagerstroemia indica Crape myrtle, Crepe flower Medium-sized mildly fragrant flower, in a variety of colours, with delicate deeply crinkled petals and a conspicuous central tuft of yellow anthers; borne in dense terminal panicles. A floriferous shrub or small tree. There are relations, personal, intimate as life itself, sweet as love, encompassing like the sky, deep like deep waters. A friend walks at our side; a Lover is with us in our heart's secrecy; a Master of the Work and the Ordeal points our way; a Creator of things uses us as his instrument; we are in the arms of the eternal Mother. SRI AUROBINDO The more you give yourself to the Divine, the more He is with you totally, constantly, at every minute, in all your thoughts, all your needs, and there is not an aspiration which does not receive an immediate answer, and you have the sense of a complete and constant intimacy, of a total nearness. It is as though you carried ... as though the Divine were with you all the time; you walk and He walks with you, you sleep and He sleeps with you, you eat and He eats with you, you think and He thinks with you, you love and He is the love you have. But for this you must give yourself entirely, totally, exclusively. THE MOTHER

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2021 Guiding Light of the Month Our Divine Mother is with us and has promised us identification with the supreme and total consciousness — from the unfathomable depths to the most external world of the senses. And in all these domains Agni assures us of the help of his purifying flame, destroying all obstacles, kindling the energies, stimulating the will, so that the realisation may be hastened. September 30, 1914 Prayers and Meditations, The Mother From the Editor’s Desk We have been contemplating on Sri Aurobindo’s Sri Aurobindo refers to the inner as a space embracing the psychic and spiritual. It is a region of peace, joy, symbol from the beginning of the year and concluded light and love. This realm of the inner is there in all of this in August with Sri Aurobindo’s 149th birth us but now hidden, veiled, diminished, awaiting its anniversary and the beginning of the celebration of the hour to step forward and wield its power and influence momentous 150th birth anniversary in 2022. We over the entire being. This space within us can also be venture into another area this month. In this September found or re-discovered rather, and lived. issue of our Newsletter, we begin a series on Journeying Within and making a discovery so central Knowing the outer and inner worlds in us opens the in integral yoga. Here, for a start, we explore the inner doorway to self-mastery through transformation of the and the outer worlds. recalcitrant and errant parts which deny the harmonious working of all forces according to the It would be pertinent to know, even if mentally, the Divine’s will and plan. It is worth contemplating on nature of the outer and the inner before embarking on the parts of our being only to recognize two distinct this journey. Let us begin with what Sri Aurobindo has layers of consciousness in us and be more and more to say: “There is always a double nature in human aligned to that which is deeper, truer and all-powerful. beings, the inner (psychic and spiritual) which is in A focused self-observation is one of the important touch with the Divine; the outer, mental, vital and ways open to the ordinary lot of us lost in our outer physical, which has been brought up in the Ignorance personality with its innumerable outer contacts which and is full of defects, imperfections and impurities.” we assume to be our world and life. Now, when once we embark on this self-observation process, we shall There are two types of consciousness, one of it extends then have taken one baby-step towards an eventual out and lives in the outer mind, vital and physical. This consciously spiritual life, it so appears. It is also then, is something we can identify with if we take a step back upon embarkation, that we realise all the obstacles that and reside in our witness self. This self watches from the limitations of our surface, outer life poses to even behind and becomes a witness of our mind as a market that first step of self-observation. The capacity for place, open to all sorts of forces flying about, teeming unwavering concentration even if for a while, is one with thoughts swooping past in all directions. Rarely area that calls for attention. A silenced mind aids an we find that part of our being at peace and when the ‘I’ unwavering concentration and so too vice-versa. identifies with this as itself, then it too becomes a peaceless consciousness. Similarly too the outer vital is Happily, it is also with the first step then that we realise a place given to all kinds of desires, self-pity, regrets, what sadhana is all about and in all likelihood, opt for jealousy, violent passions, greed and lust. One who is such a life, no matter how difficult, devoted to some posited in this is forever thrown about as on a turbulent kind of sadhana for self-improvement towards an inner sea, unable to hold on to his rudder, at the mercy of the living. The subsequent editions will take up themes sea of external forces. Similarly a consciousness related to journeying within and the aids at our identified with the physical being lives in the body and disposal. is bound by its limitations, sloth, laziness, and habits. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 2 Journeying Within

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2021 Savitri The Formless and the Formed were joined in her: Immensity was exceeded by a look, A Face revealed the crowded Infinite. Incarnating inexpressibly in her limbs The boundless joy the blind world-forces seek, Her body of beauty mooned the seas of bliss. At the head she stands of birth and toil and fate, In their slow round the cycles turn to her call; Alone her hands can change Time’s dragon base. Hers is the mystery the Night conceals; The spirit’s alchemist energy is hers; She is the golden bridge, the wonderful fire. The luminous heart of the Unknown is she, A power of silence in the depths of God; She is the Force, the inevitable Word, The magnet of our difficult ascent, The Sun from which we kindle all our suns, The Light that leans from the unrealised Vasts, The joy that beckons from the impossible, The Might of all that never yet came down. All Nature dumbly calls to her alone To heal with her feet the aching throb of life And break the seals on the dim soul of man And kindle her fire in the closed heart of things. All here shall be one day her sweetness’ home, All contraries prepare her harmony; Towards her our knowledge climbs, our passion gropes; In her miraculous rapture we shall dwell, Her clasp shall turn to ecstasy our pain. Our self shall be one self with all through her. Sri Aurobindo www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 3 Journeying Within

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2021 Questions & Answers \"To keep the psychic awake and in front\": what does \"in front\" mean? That is to say, in the forefront of the consciousness, instead of being pushed behind, in a background which is only very rarely seen; to keep it right in front of the consciousness, in the active consciousness. (The Mother) How can one know whether the psychic being is in front or not? ... It is not felt, no? You don't feel it? I am not speaking of a small child, for it has no means of control and observation, it lacks the capacity of observation. But then, when one is no longer a baby, doesn't one feel it? It doesn't make a difference?. .. (The child nods in assent.) Ah!... There is not one of you who will dare to tell me that it makes no difference when the psychic is there, when one feels better within oneself, when one is full of light, hope, goodwill, generosity, compassion for the world, and sees life as a field of action, progress, realisation. Doesn't it make a difference from the days when one is bored, grumbling, when everything seems ugly, unpleasant, wicked, when one loves nobody, wants to break everything, gets angry, feels ill at ease, without strength, without energy, without any joy? That makes a difference, doesn't it? (The Mother) How can one know that the psychic being is in front? My child, when it happens, one understands. It is exactly so long as one doesn't understand that it means that it hasn't come. This is like people asking you, \"How can I know whether I am in contact with the Divine?\" That itself is enough to prove that they are not. For if they are they can no longer ask the question. It is something understood. For the psychic it is the same thing. When the psychic is in front one knows it, and there is no possibility of any doubt. Consequently one no longer asks the question. [The signs of the psychic's coming forward:] A central love, bhakti, surrender, giving everything, a sight within that sees always clearly what is spiritually right or wrong and automatically rejects the latter a movement of entire consecration and dedication of all in one to the Mother. (Sri Aurobindo) By what signs can one tell that the psychic being has come to the surface? One feels peaceful and happy, full of trust, full of a deep and true benevolence, and very close to the divine presence. (The Mother) www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 4 Journeying Within

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2021 Sri Aurobindo’s Sadhana: The Inner Self The teaching of Sri Aurobindo starts from that of the ancient sages of India that behind the appearances of the universe there is the Reality of a Being and Consciousness, a Self of all things, one and eternal. All beings are united in that One Self and Spirit but divided by a certain separativity of consciousness, an ignorance of their true Self and Reality in the mind, life and body. It is possible by a certain psychological discipline to remove this veil of separative consciousness and become aware of the true Self, the Divinity within us and all. Sri Aurobindo's teaching states that this One Being and Consciousness is involved here in Matter. Evolution is the method by which it liberates itself; consciousness appears in what seems to be inconscient, and once having appeared is self-impelled to grow higher and higher and at the same time to enlarge and develop towards a greater and greater perfection. Life is the first step of this release of consciousness; mind is the second; but the evolution does not finish with mind, it awaits a release into something greater, a consciousness which is spiritual and supramental. The next step of the evolution must be towards the development of Supermind and Spirit as the dominant power in the conscious being. For only then will the involved Divinity in things release itself entirely and it become possible for life to manifest perfection. But while the former steps in evolution were taken by Nature without a conscious will in the plant and animal life, in man Nature becomes able to evolve by a conscious will in the instrument. It is not, however, by the mental will in man that this can be wholly done, for the mind goes only to a certain point and after that can only move in a circle. A conversion has to be made, a turning of the consciousness by which mind has to change into the higher principle. This method is to be found through the ancient psychological discipline and practice of Yoga. In the past, it has been attempted by a drawing away from the world and a disappearance into the height of the Self or Spirit. Sri Aurobindo teaches that a descent of the higher principle is possible which will not merely release the spiritual Self out of the world, but release it in the world, replace the mind's ignorance or its very limited knowledge by a supramental Truth-Consciousness which will be a sufficient instrument of the inner Self and make it possible for the human being to find himself dynamically as well as inwardly and grow out of his still animal humanity into a diviner race. The psychological discipline of Yoga can be used to that end by opening all the parts of the being to a conversion or transformation through the descent and working of the higher still concealed supramental principle. This, however, cannot be done at once or in a short time or by any rapid or miraculous transformation. Many steps have to be taken by the seeker before the supramental descent is possible. Man lives mostly in his surface mind, life and body, but there is an inner being within him with greater possibilities to which he has to awake - for it is only a very restricted influence from it that he receives now and that pushes him to a constant pursuit of a greater beauty, harmony, power and knowledge. The first process of Yoga is therefore to open the ranges of this inner being and to live from there outward, governing his outward life by an inner light and force. In doing so he discovers in himself his true soul which is not this outer mixture of mental, vital and physical elements but something of the Reality behind them, a spark from the one Divine Fire. He has to learn to live in his soul and purify and orientate by its drive towards the Truth the rest of the nature. There can follow afterwards an opening upward and descent of a higher principle of the Being. But even then it is not at once the full supramental Light and Force. For there are several ranges of consciousness between the ordinary human mind and the supramental Truth-Consciousness. These intervening ranges have to be opened up and their power brought down into the mind, life and body. Only afterwards can the full power of the Truth-Consciousness work in the nature. The process of this self- discipline or Sadhana is therefore long and difficult, but even a little of it is so much gained because it makes the ultimate release and perfection more possible. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 5 Journeying Within

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2021 There are many things belonging to older systems that are necessary on the way - an opening of the mind to a greater wideness and to the sense of the Self and the Infinite, an emergence into what has been called the cosmic consciousness, mastery over the desires and passions; an outward asceticism is not essential, but the conquest of desire and attachment and a control over the body and its needs, greeds and instincts are indispensable. There is a combination of the principles of the old systems, the way of knowledge through the mind's discernment between Reality and the appearance, the heart's way of devotion, love and surrender and the way of works turning the will away from motives of self-interest to the Truth and the service of a greater Reality than the ego. For the whole being has to be trained so that it can respond and be transformed when it is possible for that greater Light and Force to work in the nature. In this discipline, the inspiration of the Master, and in the difficult stages his control and his presence are indispensable - for it would be impossible otherwise to go through it without much stumbling and error which would prevent all chance of success. The Master is one who has risen to a higher consciousness and being and he is often regarded as its manifestation or representative. He not only helps by his teaching and still more by his influence and example but by a power to communicate his own experience to others. This is Sri Aurobindo's teaching and method of practice. It is not his object to develop any one religion or to amalgamate the older religions or to found any new religion - for any of these things would lead away from his central purpose. The one aim of his Yoga is an inner self-development by which each one who follows it can in time discover the One Self in all and evolve a higher consciousness than the mental, a spiritual and supramental consciousness which will transform and divinise human nature. ( hhttps://auroville.org/contents/575 ) The Outer Being and the Inner Being There are always two different consciousnesses in the human being, one outward in which he ordinarily lives, the other in ward and concealed of which he knows nothing. When one does sadhana, the inner consciousness begins to open and one is able to go inside and have all kinds of experiences there. As the sadhana progresses, one begins to live more and more in this inner being and the outer becomes more and more superficial. At first the inner consciousness seems to be the dream and the outer the waking reality. Afterwards the inner consciousness becomes the reality and the outer is felt by many as a dream or delusion, or else as something superficial and external. The inner consciousness begins to be a place of deep peace, light, happiness, love, closeness to the Divine or the presence of the Divine, the Mother. One is then aware of two consciousnesses, this inner one and the outer which has to be changed into its counterpart and instrument —that also must become full of peace, light, union with the Divine. At present you are moving between the two and in this period all the feelings you have are quite natural. You need not be at all anxious about that, but wait for the full development of the inner consciousness in which you will be able to live. There is always a double nature in human beings, the inner (psychic and spiritual) which is in touch with the Divine; the outer, mental, vital and physical, which has been brought up in the Ignorance and is full of defects, imperfections and impurities. It is for this reason that in sadhana things cannot be changed in a moment. The inner experience grows and extends and fills more and more of the nature, but till all is filled, the imperfections remain somewhere. It is a usual experience —to live within in one consciousness while the external being (mind, life, body) goes on of itself under the impulsion of the cosmic Force, doing quietly whatever is necessary to do. This is part of the Yogic consciousness and to have it means a very real and considerable advance on the path of Yoga. You have been accustomed to feel your outer consciousness as if it were yourself and so, when you are in your inner realisation, you feel as if you were not in this old accustomed self. As you grow in the www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 6 Journeying Within

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2021 sadhana, you must learn to live in this inner being and to feel the outer as something a little outside and this inner being as your real self. The inner parts in everybody remain vulgar or become high according as they are turned to the outward forces of the Ignorance or towards the higher forces from above and the inner impulsion of the psychic. All forces can play there. It is the outer being that is fixed in a certain character, certain tendencies, certain movements. The outer consciousness is shut up in the body limitation and in the little bit of personal mind and sense dependent on the body —it sees only the outward, sees only things. But the inner consciousness can see behind the thing, it is aware of the play of forces, personal or universal —for it is in conscious touch with the universal action. The outer consciousness is that which usually expresses itself in ordinary life. It is the external mental, vital, physical. It is not connected very much with the inner being except in a few —until one connects them together in the course of the sadhana. The exterior being is the physical which is connected in an ignorant way with the physical universe. It is this physical being which has developed an external mind and vital. The inner mind and vital are on the contrary in direct contact with the universal mental and vital and their forces; the inner subtle physical can also be in direct touch with the cosmic forces of the physical universe. But the exterior being is not in direct touch with the universal or cosmic —only through the outer mind and senses. It is the outer nature that is obscure and when it is at ease, feels no necessity of remembering the Mother —when the difficulty comes, then it feels the necessity and remembers. But the inner being is not like that. The inner being is not usually unquiet but it can be quiet or unquiet like the outer. The Inner, the Outer and the Process of Yoga It is only by virtue of the inner consciousness that the outer can awaken to the Divine Influence at all — it receives the inner urge even when it is not aware whence it comes. They [the inner mind and vital] exercise an influence and send out their powers or suggestions which the outer sometimes carries out as best it can, sometimes does not follow. How much they work on the outer depends on how far the individual has an inner life. E.g. the poet, musician, artist, thinker, live much from within —men of genius and those who try to live according to an ideal also. But there are plenty of people who have very little inner life and are governed entirely by the forces of Nature. As one gathers experience from life to life, mental or vital, the inner mind and vital also develop according to the use made of our experiences and the extent to which they are utilised for the growth of the being. You are mistaken in thinking that your external being alone is like that. Hardly anybody has the external being of a Yogi —it is the inner being that has the Yogic turn —the external has to be converted and transformed. If the inner being does not manifest or act, the outer being will never get transformed. If the inner being is safe, then there is no longer any struggle or overpowering [of the outer being] by inertia or depression or other fundamental difficulties. The rest can be done progressively and quietly, www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 7 Journeying Within

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2021 including the coming down of the Force. The outer being becomes merely a machinery or an instrumentation to be set right. It is not so easy to be entirely mukta in the inner being. When the inner being once thoroughly establishes its separateness, even oceans of inertia cannot prevent it from keeping it. It is the first thing to be done in order to have a secure basis in the Yoga, to establish thoroughly this separateness. It comes most usually when the peace is thoroughly fixed in all inner parts, that the separateness also becomes fixed and permanent. The Inner Being The inner being is the inner mind, inner vital, inner physical with the psychic behind them. The [term] higher being is used to denote the conscious self on planes higher than the ordinary human consciousness. Do you not know that the inner being means the inner mind, inner vital, inner physical with the psychic behind as the inmost? How can there be one centre for all that? The inner being cannot be \"located\" above, it can only join with the above, penetrate it and be penetrated by it. If it were located above, then there would be no inner being. The inner being has its own time which is sometimes slower, sometimes faster than the physical. The Inner Being, the Antaratma and the Atman The word Antaratma is very vaguely used like the word soul in English —so used, it covers all the inner being, inner mind, inner vital, inner physical even, as well as the inmost being, the psychic. Our inner being is in touch with the universal mind, life, matter, a part of all that, but by that very fact it cannot be in possession of liberation and peace. You are thinking probably of the Atman and confusing it with the inner being. The Inner Being and the Psychic Being I did not mean by the inner being the psychic or inmost being. It is the psychic being that feels love, bhakti and union with the Mother. I was speaking of the inner mental, inner vital, inner physical; in order to reach the hidden seat of the psychic one has first to pass through these things. When one leaves the outer consciousness and goes inside, it is here that one enters —some or most entering into the inner vital first, others into the inner mental or inner physical; the emotional vital is the most direct road, for the seat of the psychic is just behind the emotional in the heart centre. It is absolutely necessary for our purpose that one should become conscious in these inner regions, for if they are not awake, then the psychic being has no proper and sufficient instrumentation for its activities; it has then only the outer mind, outer vital and body for its means and these are too small and narrow and obscure. You as yet have been able only to enter the outskirts of the inner vital and are still insufficiently conscious there. By becoming more conscious there and going deeper one can reach the psychic —the safe refuge, nirapad stanza, of which you speak, and you will not be disturbed by the confused visions and experiences of the inner vital outskirts. The psychic stands behind the inner mind, inner vital and inner physical and supports them all —they are the inner, this the inmost being. I do not know what you mean by its [the inner being's] being \"around\" the psychic. It is obviously nearer to the psychic than the outer mind, vital or physical, but that does not ensure its being open to the psychic only and not to other universal forces. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 8 Journeying Within

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2021 The psychic can have peace behind it —but the inner mind, vital and physical are not necessarily silent —they are full of movements. It is the higher consciousness that has a basis of peace. The psychic being is described in the Upanishads as no bigger than the size of one's thumb! That of course is a symbolic image. For usually when one sees anybody's psychic being in a form, it is bigger than that. As for the inner being, one feels it big because the true mental or the true vital or even the true physical being is much wider in consciousness than the external consciousness which is limited by the body. If the external parts seem to occupy the whole consciousness, it is when one comes down into the physical and feels all the activities of Nature playing in it —even the mental and vital movements are then felt through the physical and not as things of a separate plane. But when one lives in the inner being then one is aware of a consciousness which begins to spread into the universal and the external is only a surface movement thrown up by the universal forces. The Outer Being and Consciousness The outer being is a means of expression only, not one's self. One must not identify with it, for what it expresses is a personality formed by the old ignorant Nature. If not identified, one can change it so as to express the true inner personality of the Light. They [the outer mind, vital and body] are small, but not unimportant in spite of their apparent insignificance —because they are a necessary passage of transmission between the soul and the outer world. You take the outer waking consciousness as if it were the real person or being and conclude that if it is not this but something else that has the realisation or abides in the realisation, then no one has it —for there is no one here except this waking consciousness. That is the very error by which the ignorance lasts and cannot be got rid of. The very first step in getting out of the ignorance is to accept the fact that this outer consciousness is not one's soul, not oneself, not the real person, but only a temporary formation on the surface for the purposes of the surface play. The soul, the person is within, not on the surface —the outer personality is the person only in the first sense of the Latin word persona which meant originally a mask. (Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo, www.collectedworksofsriaurobindo.com/index.php/readbook/12- The-Concentric-System-Outer-to-Inner-Vol-28-letters-on-yoga-i) Struggling with the resistance of the various parts of the outer being is a thankless task when attempted by using the powers of the outer being itself to effect changes. Overcoming the force of habit, cravings, desires, physical resistance, laziness, illness, and the limited and one-sided, extreme views taken by the outer mind is not something that can be accomplished while fully enmeshed in the action of these forces. Sri Aurobindo points out: “An indispensable step towards overcoming this difficulty is the opening up of the inner being and its centres of action; for there the task that the surface mind could not achieve begins to be more possible. The inner mind, the inner life-consciousness and life-mind, the subtle-physical consciousness and its subtle-physical mentality, once liberated into action, create a larger, finer, greater mediating awareness able to communicate with the universal and with what is above them, able also to bring to bear their power on the whole range of the being, on the submental, on the subconscient mind, on the subconscient life, even on the subconscience of the body: they can, though not wholly enlighten, yet to some extent open, penetrate, work upon the fundamental Inconscience. The spiritual Light, Power, Knowledge, Delight from above can then descend beyond the mind and heart, which are always the easiest to reach and illumine; occupying the whole nature from top to bottom, they can pervade more fully the life and the body and by a still profounder impact shake the foundations of the Inconscience.” www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 9 Journeying Within

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2021 While this action does not have the complete transformative power, it is a major step towards bringing the outer being to its required readiness for the greater power of the supramental force acting directly on the nature to complete the transformation. It should be noted that during the process of yogic development, these inner forces can become active. Many paths of yoga discuss the “opening of the chakras”. While they make this out to be something sensationalistic, in reality the “opening of the chakras” is creating the capacity to receive, hold, and utilise the higher forces that become active at each level of the being. Each of the chakras corresponds to a nexus or focus of energy in the inner being related to the respective powers that act on the physical, vital, emotional, and mental levels. As the chakras open in the lower strata, the force can penetrate and act upon these lower levels, normally subject to the subconscient or the inconscient, to begin their change. (Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Book 2, Part 2, Chapter 26, “The Ascent Towards Supermind”) July 2021 Sunday Activities at the Centre - A glimpse 1 August 2021: Savitri Reading Circle The session continued with reading of passages from Savitri - The Soul’s Choice and the Supreme Consummation - Book 11- Canto One from page 706 to 711. Sri Aurobindo’s vision of the future humanity makes us yearn to connect to the circuit of Supermind to guide our thoughts and lead us to God and Truth. The following passages picked up from “Savitri Study” by MP Pandit give a very clear explanation. “The soul now which is trapped in the Inconscient will awake and the mind shall be the living abode of God vision, the body an unsullied instrument of intuition and life a ready channel for the manifest power of God. A divine force shall course through every tissue and cell and govern the breath, speech and act; all the thoughts shall be luminous with the radiance of knowledge and every feeling shall throb with a celestial thrill. Thus, shall the earth open to divine Nature and common natures begin to feel the all-embracing. to illumine common acts with the ray of the Spirit and to meet the divine being in common things. Then shall Nature live to manifest the Godhead hidden in her, the Spirit take charge of the human play and this earthly life become the life divine. The rhythm of that subtle music ceases. Like a star, the soul of Savitri sinks down hurriedly in a forced plunge through unseen worlds and bottomless spaces. There is a laughter, as it were, of unearthly lyres and amidst it she hears around her a triumphal cry of nameless voices, a multitudinous sound. A choir of happy, laughing winds comes to meet her Savitri bears the pressure of infinity and feels the stir of the ethereal space around her. As she falls, she is pursued by a young, beautiful face — a symbol of all the beauty that is not perceived by the eye — the PURUSHA It is crowned as though with peacock feathers of magnificent hue with an inset of sapphire; its smile is heart-disturbing in its insatiable attraction to delight; it passions in the embrace of her soul. The face gradually changes its form — though the rapture of it continues and it grows into the face of a woman. — Nature, — dark and beautiful, imperious in will and oppressive in love, like a moonlit night with sailing star-studded clouds, a night of a dark glory and a stormy depth.” Just reading the passages we feel our nearness to our Spirit within which is now concealed by our multiple armoured door of ego to break open to bring the Light of Truth course through every cell in our body. www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 10 Journeying Within

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2021 8 August 2021: Reading on The Mother by Sri Aurobindo We read the section on Mahalakshmi. Sri Aurobindo says that there is “… no aspect of the Divine Shakti more attractive to the heart of embodied beings than Mahalakshmi. For she throws the spell of the intoxicating sweetness of the Divine: to be close to her is a profound happiness and to feel her within the heart is to make existence a rapture and a marvel; grace and charm and tenderness flow out from her like light from the sun and wherever she fixes her wonderful gaze or lets fall the loveliness of her smile, the soul is seized and made captive and plunged into the depths of an unfathomable bliss. Magnetic is the touch of her hands and their occult and delicate influence refines mind and life and body and where she presses her feet course miraculous streams of an entrancing Ananda. Harmony and beauty of the mind and soul, harmony and beauty of the thoughts and feelings, harmony and beauty in every outward act and movement, harmony and beauty of the life and surroundings, this is the demand of Mahalakshmi. Where there is affinity to the rhythms of the secret world-bliss and response to the call of the All-Beautiful and concord and unity and the glad flow of many lives turned towards the Divine, in that atmosphere she consents to abide. But all that is ugly and mean and base, all that is poor and sordid and squalid, all that is brutal and coarse repels her advent. Where love and beauty are not or are reluctant to be born, she does not come; If she finds herself in men’s hearts surrounded with selfishness and hatred and jealousy and malignance and envy and strife, if treachery and greed and ingratitude are mixed in the sacred chalice, if grossness of passion and unrefined desire degrade devotion, in such hearts the gracious and beautiful Goddess will not linger. A divine disgust seizes upon her and she withdraws, for she is not one who insists or strives; or, veiling her face, she waits for this bitter and poisonous devil’s stuff to be rejected and disappear before she will found anew her happy influence. Ascetic bareness and harshness are not pleasing to her nor the suppression of the heart’s deeper emotions and the rigid repression of the soul’s and the life’s parts of beauty.” 15 August 2021: Sri Aurobindo’s 149th Birth Anniversary This was a momentous occasion at our centre. The darshan message was as usual something to contemplate upon and keep in the deepest recesses of our being with an aspiration for it to be actualised. The message is inserted here for your reference. The main theme was Sri Aurobindo’s Poetry. Children recited many of his poems. Our youths presented their understanding of their contact with their psychic beings with an aspiration to get closer. Another part of the offering was a musical offering of devotional bhajans by Guru Shibani of the Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society. Two songs were on Sri Aurobindo, including a Bengali song. Four songs were selected based on four of Sri Aurobindo’s poems, namely, Krishna, Shiva, The Stone Goddess and The One Self. The bhajans were Meera bhajan, Shiva bhajan, Ma Durga bhajan and a Kabir bhajan respectively. The poems were recited prior to each invocation and created a beautiful atmosphere in the hall. All in all, it was a beautiful and soulful evening spent in the centre during the two hours we all were there. 22 and 29 August 2021: The Inner Journey: Readings and Reflections on The Mother’s and Sri Aurobindo’s Writings www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 11 Journeying Within

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2021 Two Sundays were devoted to this exploration. On the 22nd, following a revisit to what was done earlier, two passages were read and made clear via articulation of our understanding. These led us to a contemplation over our own contact with our psychic beings and what efforts we could possibly make towards that end. Here are the two passages that were read out, in turn, by those present. \"Before the untiring persistence of your effort, an inner door will suddenly open and you will emerge into a dazzling splendour that will bring you the certitude of immortality, the concrete experience that you have always lived and always shall live, that external forms alone perish and that these forms are, in relation to what you are in reality, like clothes that are thrown away when worn out. Then you will stand erect, freed from all chains, and instead of advancing laboriously under the weight of circumstances imposed upon you by Nature, which you had to endure and bear if you did not want to be crushed by them, you will be able to walk on, straight and firm, conscious of your destiny, master of your life.\" “In the depths of your consciousness is the psychic being, the temple of the Divine within you. This is the centre round which should come about the unification of all these divergent parts, all these contradictory movements of your being. Once you have got the consciousness of the psychic being and its aspiration, these doubts and difficulties can be destroyed. It takes more or less time, but you will surely succeed in the end. Once you have turned to the Divine, saying, “I want to be yours”, and the Divine has said, “Yes”, the whole world cannot keep you from it. When the central being has made its surrender, the chief difficulty has disappeared. The outer being is like a crust. In ordinary people the crust is so hard and thick that they are not conscious of the Divine within them. If once, even for a moment only, the inner being has said, “I am here and I am yours”, then it is as though a bridge has been built and little by little the crust becomes thinner and thinner until the two parts are wholly joined and the inner and the outer become one.” There was another few lines of The Mother read before conclusion. The way towards the psychic could also be through a discipline in beauty: Let beauty be your constant ideal. The beauty of the soul The beauty of sentiments The beauty of thoughts The beauty of the action The beauty in the work so that nothing comes out of your hands which is not an expression of pure and harmonious beauty. And the Divine Help shall always be with you. On the 29th of August, we looked at aids that could make this inner journey possible. As a first step we looked closely at Aspiration, Rejection and Surrender as the three pillars of making one’s way into a purer, more enlightened inner space. The readings from Chapter 2 of The Mother by Sri Aurobindo came in handy as apt readings on this occasion. Here they are: The personal effort required is a triple labour of aspiration, rejection and surrender: • an aspiration vigilant, constant, unceasing — the mind’s will, the heart’s seeking, the assent of the vital being, the will to open and make plastic the physical consciousness and nature; • rejection of the movements of the lower nature — rejection of the mind’s ideas, opinions, preferences, habits, constructions, so that the true knowledge may find free room in a silent mind, — rejection of the vital nature’s desires, demands, cravings, sensations, passions, selfishness, pride, arrogance, lust, greed, jealousy, envy, hostility to the Truth, so that the true www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 12 Journeying Within

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2021 power and joy may pour from above into a calm, large, strong and consecrated vital being, — rejection of the physical nature’s stupidity, doubt, disbelief, obscurity, obstinacy, pettiness, laziness, unwillingness to change, tamas, so that the true stability of Light, Power, Ananda may establish itself in a body growing always more divine; • surrender of oneself and all one is and has and every plane of the consciousness and every movement to the Divine and the Shakti. We concluded that these would make for a life-times sadhana. The prayer was that we should Let us make haste and get into making that effort. - Jayalakshmi, Ram, Jayanthy PROGRAMME FOR THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER 2021 !! DATE TIME DETAILS 8 AM Monthly Morning Walk * 5 Sep 2021 6 PM Savitri Circle by Venkatesh Rao Sunday 7 PM Youth Programme 12 Sep 2021 6 PM Readings from The Mother by Ram Sunday 5 PM Secret of the Veda by Krishnamurthy and Jared 6 PM 19 Sep 2021 Mother’s Questions and Answers by Shailaja Sunday 7 PM Youth Programme 26 Sep 2021 6 PM Readings and Reflections: The Inner Journey by Jayanthy Sunday *Details can be found in the SAS Whatsapp Group www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 13 Journeying Within

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. September 2021 Printed and Published by The Sri Aurobindo Society of Singapore 2A Starlight Road 01-07, Singapore 217755. Anand Venkat: 86126067 or [email protected]; Anand Patel:[email protected]; Email: [email protected] Visit our website at: www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 14 Journeying Within