SAS August 2017 Newsletter

August 2017 SRI AUROBINDO SOCIETY VOL 31.08 Singapore Permit No. MCI (P) 071/01/2017 NEWSLETTER A Seer was born, a shining Guest of Time His was a spirit that stooped from larger spheres Into our province of ephemeral sight, A colonist from immortality. The universal strengths were linked with his; Filling earth’s smallness with their boundless breadths, He drew the energies that transmute an age. Immeasurable by the common look, Savitri, Sri Aurobindo He made great dreams a mould for coming things And cast his deeds like bronze to front the years. -

Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. August 2017. Guiding Light of the Month“O LORD, Thou art my refuge and my blessing, my strength, my health, my hope, and my courage. Thou art supreme Peace, unalloyed Joy, perfect Serenity. Mywhole being prostrates before Thee in a gratitude beyond measure and a ceaselessworship; and that worship goes up from my heart and my mind towards Thee like the pure smoke of incense of the perfumes of India.” The Mother, ‘Prayers and Meditations’ February 8, 1913 From the Editor’s Desk On our onward journey with Savitri as theme, we and microcosmic state of affairs prevailing in him and around him, makes an attempt to realise thetake a glimpse at Ashwapathy in this month’s issueof the Newsletter. This choice is also in line with Sublime and Supreme in the mundane. He plungesthe much awaited month of August that observes into himself to seek himself out and work out athe 145th birth anniversary of Sri Aurobindo. transformation in himself, seeking a greater good in himself and the whole of humanity.Even as Sri Aurobindo penned the epic poem, he His journey brings him into the occult regions of hispoured his whole consciousness into it; his inner self. This results in his own psychological andautobiography in part, Savitri is an intimate aid for spiritual transformation. He is carried into anotherSpiritual growth. For through King Ashwapathy, dimension of space and time. He plunges into thethe human father of Savitri, Sri Aurobindo dark world of Night and meets the Mother of Evilconveys his lifelong sadhana in integral yoga and and her Sons of Darkness. He journeys then throughthe entire gamut of his experiences. Through the planes of the physical, vital, mental and theAshwapathy, Sri Aurobindo hews a path across a psychic and spiritual planes of existence. As avirgin forest for the travellers of the future climatic treat for all lovers of Savitri, Ashwapathyadvancing towards the grand discovery of the comes face to face with the Supreme Divine Mother.Divine plan. It is notable that Ashwapathy’s yoga, His ardent aspiration for the transformation of therecounted in Books 1 to 3, in 10,000 lines, holds a Earth results in The Mother granting him the booncentral place in the epic and covers almost half of of “One who shall descend and break the iron law”.its length, alongside Savitri’s yoga. The Mother Thus was the “One”, Savitri, gifted to the world forasserts that what Sri Aurobindo conveys through its transformation through King Ashwapathy’sthe lines on Ashwapthy and his journey are Yoga. In his own words, Sri Aurobindo describes“experiences lived by him, realities, supracosmic King Ashwapathy as, “the Yogi who seeks thetruths…He experienced all these as one means to deliver the world out of Ignorance,”experiences joy or sorrow, physically. He walked reflecting the turn Sri Aurobindo’s own life took onin the darkness of inconscience, even in the earth for the purpose of realising the Supramentalneighbourhood of death, endured the sufferings of Truth and manifesting it upon the earth plane, givingperdition, and emerged from the mud, the world- an influence and a grand uplift to all the workings ofmisery to breathe the sovereign plenitude and Nature. Ashwapathy:enter the supreme Ananda.”Turning to Ashwapathy, he is Ashwapathy the Immeasurable by the common look,King of Madra and the one whose yearning for a He made great dreams a mould for coming thingsgreater good for humanity brought about the birth And cast his deeds like bronze to front the years.of Savitri, the great World Mother into the human Let us contemplate on these laden lines as weworld. Ashwapathy, dissatisfied with the cosmic approach the special day this August, not forgetting to reflect on our purpose here, in the wide and divine scheme of things.www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 2

Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. August 2017. Savitri, a journey of Love and Light One who has shaped this world is ever its lord: Our errors are his steps upon the way; He works through the fierce vicissitudes of our lives, He works through the hard breath of battle and toil, He works through our sins and sorrows and our tears, His knowledge overrules our nescience; Whatever the appearance we must bear, Whatever our strong ills and present fate, When nothing we can see but drift and bale, A mighty Guidance leads us still through all. This transfiguration is earth’s due to heaven: A mutual debt binds man to the Supreme: His nature we must put on as he put ours; We are sons of God and must be even as he: His human portion, we must grow divine. Our life is a paradox with God for key. (Book One, Canto Four) A note on Aswapathy’s yogaFrom the legend we know that Savitri was born to the queen of Aswapathy as the result of a boon by theGoddess Savitri. Here the poet introduces Aswapathy and while explaining the cause of Savitri's birthasserts that her birth was compelled by \"a world's desire\". Savitri had to take mortal birth in order tomeet the intense desire of a whole world. The subsequent portion of the poem up to the end of the thirdbook deals with the vast background which compelled her birth.Aswapathy's character as a seeker of the Divine and as an adept of the great spiritual and mysticrealisation of the past gives us a wonderful picture of man's growth from mental consciousness throughvarious intermediate stages to the Supreme Divine Mother Consciousness.\"The Yoga of the Soul's Release\" is the subject of this Canto. Here for the first time it becomes clearthat this great epic deals with the spiritual odyssey of the soul. The poet here openly discloses himselfas the poet of divine life by beginning in this Canto the song of the soul's liberation. The whole poembecomes the song par excellence of man's growth on earth from the inconscient through the vital and themental stages to the realms of the Spirit, the realms of the Divine. It is the epic of man's ascent fromlevel to level of consciousness rising from world to world, from peaks of mind to the peaks of the spirittill he reaches the supreme Divine and by his unfailing aspiration invokes the Divine to descend intohimself so as to create divine life on earth. But this cannot be so long as human soul is tied like an animalwith the triple cord of mental, vital and physical ignorance to the sacrificial post in the vast cosmicsacrifice to be offered as a victim. As long as human consciousness lives in the ego, lives subject todesire, conflict, dualities, suffering and pain, so long he cannot fulfil' the deepest longing and the highestaspiration of his being. He must liberate himself from the bondage of ignorance. The first release comesto man when he can go beyond his animal propensities, when he can free himself from the reign of desireand wake up to some ideals in his life. Therefore, we see Aswapathy,—who symbolises man as the Lordof Life,—waking to the higher potentialities of his nature: he is \"a thinker and toiler in the ideal's air\". Itis in his conception and pursuit of higher intellectual, moral and spiritual ideals that man begins to fee!that he is not merely an animal driven by the goad of hunger and thirst and a slave of desires, but that hehas come to this earth from some higher spiritual plane,—at least, that there is something in him whichis free from the inertia, inconscience, grossness and coarseness of earth nature and is akin to the pureSpirit. Aswapathy felt that he was \"a colonist from immortality\", and as such he tended to grow towards,www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 3

Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. August 2017.or into, the likeness of his spiritual Self. In this intense aspiration to grow into the likeness of spiritualbeing \"his mind was like a fire assailing heaven\".Aswapathy's spiritual growth began by his realising that the external being of man is not the whole ofhimself. There are hidden \"celestial powers\" in man, immense spiritual potentialities lie dormant in thehuman being. There is an immortal ineffable Spirit in man that creates here the forms for his ownmanifestation. It is that spirit that \"in the worm foresees the coming god\". It sees the finite that is actualand knows the infinite that is potential and even' certain. It is when man accepts his higher possibilitiesof spiritual life that he is able to outgrow his present state of ignorance, leave behind him the limitedplanes of his mental, vital and physical consciousness and rise beyond them. Then, like Aswapathy, he\"Arrive on the frontiers of eternity\". He who has heard this call of the Beyond is unable to remainsatisfied with the ordinary life of ignorance. His heart seems to be smitten by \"a beam of the Eternal\",and his mind wants to expand into Infinity. When he succeeds in realising his aspiration then the Divinebegins to work overtly in him.Then a different government of his nature begins for the individual. The divine power that descends inhim begins to “turn this frail mud-engine to heaven-use\". The insignificant human being is utilised bythe divine for a divine purpose. Aswapathy found then that the whole movement of cosmic evolutionwhich appears on the surface like a purposeless activity of the inconscient is in reality controlled by asecret Craftsman who works from behind the veil of ignorance to realise here \"his dreamed magnificenceof things to be\". He saw that \"a. mystery of married Earth and Heaven\" was a part of the divine dream.He saw the vision of the divine life on earth and henceforth he became a seer, and he knew that he washere as \"a shining Guest of Time\" from Eternity. After the vision of the Truth to be realised hereAswapathy's limited mind became boundless, his little ego-self completely disappeared, \"The island egojoined its continent\". He was liberated from the yoke of the laws of Nature's ignorance, from thelimitations of the intellect. Before him \"there gleamed the dawn of a spiritual day”.After this spiritual awakening \"Humanity framed his movements less and less\". It was no longer possiblefor him to allow the human elements in him to govern his life, and to accept as final the limitations ofhuman nature. He awoke in himself latent powers, faculties that lay dormant in him—powers of pureperception, intimate vision, and also of spiritual experience. He could know the motives, ideas andwishes in other men and he felt also world thought-streams running into his own mind. He could hearsecret voices and the \"Word that knows\". He came in contact with planes of consciousness other thanthe consciousness of the earth and contacted beings on occult planes. In fact, his consciousness ceasedto be limited in the individual nature, and began to widen out into the cosmic. He voyaged from planeto plane till he came to the end of the world of symbols and signs.From there he crossed beyond into the world of the Formless where there is no object cognizable eitherby the sense or by the thought. There he found that the whole world became a single Being which felteverything as its own Self. There \"The Supreme's gaze looked out through human eyes And saw all things and creatures as itself\".There \"...oneness is the soul of multitude\". It was a realm of knowledge in which eternal calm prevails.It is a realm where one experiences boundlessness; \"While there, one can be wider than the world; While there, one is one's own infinity”.With this experience Aswapathy entered a still Consciousness that sustains all, and a peace that passesall understanding. There he found all contradictions of life resolved, sorrow, pain and conflict ceased,because there the Truth was living its own real life. He, thus, realised the origin of the spirit andestablished his being in the Infinite and his life upon the Eternal. When he looked at the world from hisnew spiritual poise he saw that the world was only \"A small result of a stupendous force\". But theordinary instruments of human nature are incapable of supporting these higher states of being. Theyhanker after their normal littleness, they want to go back to their petty activities. The gravitational pullof the lower consciousness brings down the consciousness from its height and, at times, man sinks evenwww.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 4

Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. August 2017.lower than the normal consciousness during such periods of downward movement. But even theseperiods of spiritual set-backs are utilised by the Divine within for his own work and are made tocontribute to man's growth. The lower ignorant nature of man also has got to receive the divine in orderto undergo a change, otherwise soul alone would reach its perfection and nature remain imperfect andearth unfulfilled. He found that, at times, the higher consciousness came down like rain from above,sometimes a flood of illumination descended and he could retain the Light for longer periods. Duringthese periods of ascent and descent, his being was integrated in the process and attained completeequality, tranquil purity, serene strength and lasting peace. He also saw that this tranquillity, was notmerely a static condition, but a dynamic power which helped the toiling world by its silent working. Hesaw from the height of his spiritual consciousness a new self-creation \"A transfiguration in the mystic depths, A happier cosmic working could begin And fashion the world-shape in him anew, God found in Nature, Nature fulfilled in God.”The light of this higher consciousness penetrated his lower consciousness, or the lower parts of hisnature. And knowledge used to come to bun by an act of intuition.Inspiration also came down into him often in silence. The closed Beyond was opened with \"A stab offlame\". When the light of intuition came, the mind overlapped itself and his spirit pursued knowledgelike a hound. The sparks of intuition and lightnings of inspiration led him to and gave the knowledge ofthe various realms of the Infinite, and though he saw the play of ignorance and chance in the world, hesaw also, through the veil, and comprehended, the world-design behind its outer appearance. He saw thelogic of the infinite Intelligence working in. the finite ignorance. In fact, he saw the origin of the worldas it is in the spirit— the Divine builder in sleep behind the world. Beyond his plane of inspiration, hecould glimpse the Overmind.When inspiration came down into him, it was like a divine messenger coming with its own rhythm.Sometimes like a bliss pouring down, or a wordless thought, an all-seeing ray, or at times the closedBeyond was opend with \"a stab of flame\". At other times it became an eye that awakes in trance, or hefelt as if inspiration was plundering the vast estate of the Superconscient for him. It became a \"gleanerof grains\" or worked like a \"sheaf-binder\" gathering up parts of knowledge and making them into awhole. At times it worked as a reporter, or like a hound pursuing knowledge. It opened the vision of theTruth or brought the word of the Supreme. Its action made Aswapathy comprehend the world-designand behind the apparent working of chance he saw the unfolding of a world-idea.In the light of his spiritual experience he saw the tree of cosmos supported by the Spirit. He knew theoriginal divine Desire that gave rise to this creation. He could then understand the wisdom that permitsthis long game of evolution and even feel the Love that sanctions these workings. From his height hesaw that the energies of the lower nature had many occult and spiritual powers hidden under theirignorant workings which, if awakened, would be a very precious acquisition for man. He felt a divinepresence and greatness everywhere. This universe became\"...a living movement of the body of God.\"The world was a conception and a birth of Spirit in matter from where rose \"The divine Dwarf towered unconquered worlds\".His spirit was the witness-spirit and \"Existence a divine experiment And cosmos the soul's opportunity.\"All the suppressed powers of the subconscient and the ignorant instruments of Nature began to blossominto manifestation in him.Thus, was he released from ignorance. Knowledge of the Divine poured upon him from above and world-knowledge welled out from within \"Lonely his days and splendid like the sun's.\"All his actions sprang out of Light and all his thoughts referred to the True and the One. He saw otherworlds, other forms, other gods, other beings and he deafly experienced that his life had emerged fromthe Divine. Now, his only work in life was to help mankind by raising it to this higher level and \"Feelingwww.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 5

Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. August 2017.earth's smallness with their boundless breadths,\" and for this \"He drew the energies that transmute anage.\"(Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri, An approach and a study, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Puducherry) A universal light was in his eyes A universal light was in his eyes, A golden influx flowed through heart and brain; A force came down into his mortal limbs, A current from eternal seas of Bliss; He felt the invasion and the nameless joy. - Sri Aurobindo, Savitri(Huta’s face portrait of Aswapathy, Havyavahana Trust, Puducherry)www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 6

Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. August 2017. Agni in Rig-Veda and Aswapathy in Savitri !\"# तव &वो वयो म*ह ,ाज/0 !चय2 ो *वभावसो । ब7ह8ानो :वसा वाजम<; =य> दधा*स दा:ष; # कC ॥१॥O Fire, thy inspiration and thy growth and thy lights blaze in their greatness, O thou who shinest outwith thy lustres; O great luminousness, O seer, thou foundest by thy strength for the giver a plenitude ofutterance. (Hymns to the Mystic fire) A Seer was born, a shining Guest of Time. For him mind’s limiting firmament ceased above, In the griffin forefront of the Night and Day A gap was rent in the all-concealing vault; The conscious ends of being went rolling back: The landmarks of the little person fell, The island ego joined its continent: Overpassed was this world of rigid limiting forms: Life’s barriers opened into the Unknown. (Savitri)Sri Aurobindo's comments go:\"Night and Dawn are the two unlike mothers who jointly give birth to Agni, Night, the avyakta,unmanifest state of knowledge and being, the power of Avidya, Dawn, the vyakta, manifest state ofknowledge and being, the power of Vidya.They are the two Dawns, the two agencies which prepare the manifestation of God in us, Night fosteringAgni in secret on the activities of Avidya, the activities of unillumined mind, life and body by which thegod in us grows out of matter towards spirit, out of earth up to heaven, Dawn manifesting him again,more and more, until he is ready here for his continuous, pure and perfect activity. When this point ofour journey towards perfection is reached he is born, śveta vāji ['white horse'] in the van of the days. Wehave here one of those great Vedic figures with a double sense in which the Rishis at once revealed andconcealed their high knowledge, revealed it to the Aryan mind, concealed it from the un-Aryan. Agni isthe white horse which appears galloping in front of the days, - the same image is used with a similarVedantic sense in the opening verse of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad; but the horse here is not, as inthe Upanishad, aśva, the horse of vital and material being in the state of life-force, but vāji, the horse ofBeing generally, Being manifested in substance whether of mind, life, body or idea or the three higherstreams proper to our spiritual being.Agni therefore manifests as the fullness, the infinity, the brhat of all this sevenfold substantial being thatis the world we are, but white, the colour of illumined purity.He manifests therefore at this stage primarily as that mighty wideness, purity and illumination of ourbeing which is the true basis of the complete and unassailable siddhi in the yoga, the only basis on whichright knowledge, right thinking, right living, right enjoyment can be firmly, vastly and perpetuallyseated. He appears therefore in the van of the days, a great increasing state of illumined force and being,- for that is the image of ahan, - which are the eternal future of the mortal when he has attainedimmortality...”We have here the picture of a divine Presence that establishes itself in the human consciousness, turningthat consciousness into a figure of divinity. We have pointers to the light of a Seer-Guest being \"bornwww.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 7

Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. August 2017.victorious\" in one who was so far a mental creature. As a result, \"fullness\", \"infinity\", the vastness (brhat)of the spiritual existence are realised.And by the help of this light the realised \"freedoms, powers, illuminations and widenesses\" are guarded.Also, the light comes from both Night and Day and moves \"in front of the days\" in the symbolic shapeof a supernatural animal - a White Horse of illumined power - by whom or in whom our Night and Dayare transcended and a greater lustre of knowledge revealed beyond them.(An excerpt from “On Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri” by Amal Kiran, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust,Puducherry) Delightful SavitriWhen Sri Aurobindo was still young, the ancient tale of Savitri in Mahabharatha had attracted hisheart. He felt drawn to it foreseeing a great work to be done with it in the future. There are texts thatillustrate his efforts to write Savitri at Baroda and other places of his stay.The love he had for the tale made him use the same as the spinal cord around which he spawned acreative poem expressing the philosophy of yoga and life he had given birth to. Victory through theTruth of Love was his noble aim and he found Savitri resounding the same.Having found his true call in serving India and realizing her freedom, he left his life in England andcame to India on a wonderful mission. As he was going through his political journey, a revealingevent made him decide India can attain true freedom only through spiritual service. He proclaimedthat India is to become the spiritual leader of the world and her people have to work towards that.His life at Pondicherry was one of a spiritual mission and creation of a new world.As he was working towards his noble aim, he got reminded of Savitri, the delightful tale his youngheart had got attracted to. He called all life as yoga and made all our lives an enjoyable yoga throughhis work in Savitri.Savitri has come as a literary symbol for Sri Aurobindo’s yoga. The work lives as a vibrantexpression towards universal love, truth and delight in The Mother. Sri Aurobindo has sung his ownself search in Aswapathy’s journey, has given rhythmical notes for The Mother in the book of DivineMother and has set into music the birth and growth of a beautiful soul in the forthcoming chapters.The song of Savitri’s life marks the onset of a life divine on earth.Princess Savitri enters as the heaven gods shower a rain of flowers. She grows as the flame golddaughter of King Aswapathy. She grows up doing art and science, she grows up as the Mother ofthe world. Her destined work calls her as she chooses the person she has to blossom along with. Theforeknowledge that Satyavan is going to die does not let her fall into a grief, rather, she withdrawsinto the depths of her soul and grows into the beauty of Truth. A debate she has with lord yama, adebate that expresses the Truth she has grown into, when he appears to take Satyavan’s life. Herwisdom and love conquers death and she wins Satyavan back into her midst. A divine life begins onearth.The English of Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri has Sanskrit in it. It is modern Veda alighting the world tomove towards a new age, the next future. - Sandhyawww.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 8

Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. August 2017. Sri Aurobindo’s symbol 15th August 2017, 145th Birth Anniversay of Sri Aurobindo(Painting of the symbol by Sandhya, Quote from sriaurobindoashram.net)www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 9

Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. August 2017. June - July Sunday Activities at the Centre - A glimpseJune 25th - Savitri, an Unending Journey12 of us continued our exploration of Book 2, Canto 5 “The Godheads of the little life” pictures 11 to16. We attempted to see through the telepathy of Ashwapahy, the grand purpose behind this seeminglychaotic and chance driven life journey through time. Picture 11 reveals the secret and the fundamentaloperation of the Universe – The Absolute or in other words ‘The One who is All’ or as described in thispassage, ‘The unknown self above’ is our goal; This One becomes the Many and guides our progress asthe unfelt involved-self within. Mother’s powers in innumerable forms is the doer of all works in thisunending journey of love creating beauty, harmony and dynamic delight for the Divine.We can accelerate our progress through purification (Shuddi), liberation (Mukti), enjoyment (Bukti) andperfection (Siddhi) of our physical, vital and mental nature. Then through consecration and surrender,we can invoke the powers of the cosmic and transcendent; these infinite boons can help us to shed ourmortal state and realize the union of the three Supramental existences – ‘The Transcendent One who isAll’, ‘The Cosmic All who is the One’ and ‘The Transcendent and Cosmic All who are in theinvolved One’;“Sarvam, Anantam, Jnanam, Anandam iti Brahma” – Sapta Chatushtya, Quartet 7.Picture 16 reveals the true nature of our view of our mortal life with inconscience, falsehood, evil,ignorance, hatred, suffering, death, incapacity, conflicts and contradictions. However, there is light atthe end of the tunnel; we can and should accelerate our journey towards God – towards consciousness,Truth, Goodwill, Knowledge, Love, Enjoyment, Immortality and Power. With the right (conscious)perspective, contradictions and conflicts can become complementarities.July 9th – Savitri with Huta’s visuals14 of us watched the Book 2, Canto 6, ‘The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Greater Life’ video of Huta’sPaintings with The Mother’s voice and Sunil’s music. We followed it with discussion on the overalltheme of this canto. We read MP Pandit’s summary; we also discussed the impact of ignorance: Thissubtle plane of life represents the stage of involution; though ignorant due to exclusive concentration, itis not yet corrupted; each part represents partial Truth - these parts when properly assembled willrepresent the whole Truth. The wisdom to correctly assemble is what is missing in this plane.We discussed in detail Pictures 1 and 2. Picture 1 represents the missing wisdom trying to come downas illuminations and intuitions but tormented by wings of doubtful haze. Picture 2 highlights in a nutshellthis whole canto:“A spirit was there that sought for its own deep self,Yet was content with fragments pushed in frontAnd parts of living that belied the WholeBut, pieced together, might one day be true”July 16th - Presentation by Mr. Joss Brooks on “Greening of Auroville”We had a houseful response with close to 35 in attendance to this mesmerizing slide show and talk byMr. Joss. We were pleasantly surprised to hear about the origin of Mr. Joss – Mancheter, where ourbeloved Master Sri Aurobindo, as a young boy, lived and studied. Joss narrated his journey to Tasmania,Africa and India.He finally discovered his deep connection to Auroville and Mother - thus embarking on a never endingdelightful journey to unearth the hidden beauty and harmony out of chaos.www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 10

Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. August 2017.We were captivated and inspired by the stunning images of the transformations of Auroville site,medicinal plant conservation park at Pichandikulam, Adyar Poonga and Nadukuppam EnvironmentalEducation Centre – and the list continues including learning collaborations with IAS officers.Deep love for Divine beauty coupled with Mother’s powers of aspiration, perseverance, gratitude,humility, sincerity, peace, equality, generosity, goodness, courage, focus on progress and receptivity arebehind these unbelievable magical feats. His team, through silent will (without any fanfare), has becomerole models and influencers across the globe.There were number of questions such as • How Joss is so deeply committed to this journey and accomplishing seemingly impossible • Can the experience be transferred to other regions including Singapore • Can the seeds and the techniques be used to promote other nurseries • How to sustain the Adyar park beauty from deterioratingJoss's answers were eye openers as he emphasized inclusive growth, participation at all levels and thekey role played by his team as silent influencers transforming contradictions/conflicts to complimentsthrough global view and consciousness promotion.Thus, there is a lot to learn for us from his journey. Another key takeaway is the positive perspective ofseeing the hidden beauty beneath the chaos; in fact, chaos is opportunity in waiting - as Sri Aurobindosays, “Manage your Attitude, opportunities will surround you”. We can translate his knowledge andexperience to self-discover and create our own beauty and delight out of our deep love in our own waysand fields. - Ramadoss PROGRAMME FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST 2017DATE TIME DETAILS6th August 2017 8:00 AM Monthly Morning walk . * Sunday6th August 2017 Sunday 6:00 PM Reading from AIM Magazine13th August 2017 9:30 AM to 1:00 PM Centre Cleaning** Sunday13th August 2017 Sunday 6:00 PM Q&A on Synthesis of Yoga15th August 2017 7:00 PM Special programme on the occasion of Tuesday 145th Birth Anniversary of Sri Aurobindo**20th August 2017 6:00 PM Meditations on Savitri with Huta’s visuals Sunday27th August 2017 Sunday 6:00 PM Secret of the Vedas* Please see below for details.**Please see announcements section for detailswww.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 11

Date: Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. August 2017.Time: August 2017 Morning Walk – NO. 384Walk Venue:Meeting Point: Sunday, 6th August 2017Contact No:Directions to 8:00 A.M. sharp for warm up exercise. We shall proceed with the walk by 8.20 AMthe walk venue without waiting for anyone. Those who would like to join late for the walk may proceed directly to the walk venueHosts: Macritchie Reservoir Macritchie car park entrance Mr S.Ramanathan (9138 5130) MRT: Caldecott MRT Station (CC17) Bus : Nearest Bus Stop 51071 (Bus numbers 52,74, 93,157, 130, 132, 156, 157, 162, 165, 166, 167, 852,855,980) Mr. & Mrs. K.V.Rao, 45, Mandalay Road, # 17-01, Mandalay Heights, Singapore 308225. Telephone: 62434563, Mobile: 97846435, 96815466 (RSVP Email ID: [email protected])Directions to Driving:the Hosts’Residence If coming via Balestier Road (from Moulmein Road End) left turn opposite to Shaw Plaza into Mandalay Road Bus: 21,130,131,145, 186 to alight near HMI Balestier Hospital on Balestier Road.Note: All are encouraged to attend the Walk. Those, however, who are not able to join the Walk, thehosts would be very happy that they directly come and join in the brunch by 10:15 AM. Prayers andmeditation will commence sharp at 10.30 A.M. All are requested to be punctual. PREVIEW OF FORTHCOMING SUNDAY MORNING WALKSWALK NO DATE PLACE HOST Mr K.V. Rao and Family384 06/08/2017 Macritchie Reservoir385 03/09/2017 Bedok Reservoir Park Mr. Arjun Madan386 01/10/2017 Gardens by the Bay Mr Shashi Lal Kashyap an Family387 05/11/2017 Woodlands Waterfront Mr Kiranchandra Vasant Sule and Family Park388 03/12/2017 Coney Island Mr Ritesh Thakkar and Family Along the Way… July 2017 Walk Review (walk no 383)The morning walk in July, even though at a known place, it was a different experience. Sanjay had arrangedthe walk at Tampines Eco garden. We all gathered up at Sanjay’s block, looking forward to the new placewhere we would be enjoying the walk. It was a bright sunny day and we, as usual with a beaming face, fullwww.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 12

Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. August 2017. of energy and expecting to meet our colleagues along with Mr Ramanathan who is always our inspiration, set off for the walk. The Morning walk on the first Sunday of the month does give a splendid experience every time that can best be experienced rather than putting in words. The walk was on different trails---diversified trail, forest trail and marshy trail. We started the walk, getting soaked in the Sunlight. Sanjay was leading us and he was quite keen to get our attention at the various boards that displayed the information on the flora and fauna that we could look forward to in those trails.As we had just started off, we saw a big water monitor lizard in the middle of the path basking in the Sun. A bit dazzled by a group of people approaching her, that is we all, the poor animal decided to move out of our way and loitered around the marshy area. That moment, the beautiful verse from Savitri came to my mind. This is the very last verse of Canto V of Book 1 before Ashwapathy embarks on his journey to the various worlds. A Voyager upon uncharted routes Fronting the viewless danger of the Unknown Adventuring across enormous realms, He broke into another Space and Time. We continued our walk, getting soaked in the bright Sun and playing hide and seek with the shadow till we reached a place that looked quite like out of the way of the path. It was a raised portion with nice greenery and surrounded by tall trees. Sanjay asked us to have a look at the place. It was wonderful. That place looked as if very few people had entered. As we entered, we could hear the musical chirping of the birds. A place, where we see the nature calling us and asking us to rob the Divine beauty. As we stood there a while, that place looked perfect for meditation. Another piece of verse from Savitri I remembered and that was the ending verse of the first Canto of Book 1. All sprang to their unvarying daily acts The thousand peoples of the soil and the tree Obeyed the unforeseeing instant’s urge And, leader here with his uncertain mind Alone who stares at the future’s covered face, Man lifted up the burden of his fate. As we walked around the trails, we all did not know how the time passed, till we arrived at Sanjay’s house. We all were received with a very warm welcome by Sanjay and his family. After quenching our thirst with some cold drinks, especially water with mint leaves, we all gathered and started with the meditation. A beautiful heavenly music was played along with Mother’s inspiring words. Later on everybody enjoyed as the Birthday Boys’ and Girls’ birthdays were read out along with the Anniversaries. The brunch was no less than a lunch and was splendid with a variety of Guajarati dishes. The cake and the sweets were fabulous. With all the sweet memories, we left one by one, looking forward to the walk of the next month and also to the wonderful activities of the centre in the coming weeks. - Kiranchandra Vasant Sule ANNOUNCEMENTS Centre CleaningIn conjunction with Sri Aurobindo’s birth anniversary celebrations on August 15th, we will be cleaning ourcenter on 13th August 2016 (Sunday), 9:30 AM to1:00 PM. All are welcome to come along to take part in this special work.www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 13

Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore. August 2017.Sri Aurobindo’s 145th Birth Anniversary Celebrations 15th AUGUST 2017 Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore 2A Starlight Road, #01-07 Singapore Morning, Silent Meditation 9.00 am Evening Programme 7.00 pm (Centre premises) Meditation Readings from ‘Prayers and Meditations’ Darshan Message from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Puducherry Welcome address by Chairman A musical offering by Sifas Guru Nabendu Bhattacharya Memories from past walks – from the personal collection of Shashi Bhai Closing Meditation Mahaprasad Printed and Published by The Sri Aurobindo Society of Singapore 2A Starlight Road 01-07, Singapore 217755.Saurab: 86559940 or [email protected]; Sanjay: 98750767 or [email protected]; Email: [email protected] Visit our website at: www.sriaurobindosociety.org.sgwww.sriaurobindosociety.org.sg 14